Why IT is performing...

I've always wondered what made the IT sector in India hold a larger proportion in the economy. Coincidentally, the Indian ITian Era is marked by the advent of Dot Com burst in the Silicon valley which obviously found a great potential in the cost-effective alternative for the highly paid local work force.

First of all, any human being needs money and it goes without saying that Food, Clothes and Shelter (now it's the TV, the Car and the Own house!) mantra has to be chanted everyday. Human being also craves for a social status - the power to have a say and deal with the issues of concern - and the freedom to choose one's own course. On the top of all, the "EASE" of doing all this. A IT job is a magic pill to earn money, gather assets, have a say on everything they do and freedom to decide what to do! If one has to become a teacher in a Government School or a Jawan in the army, one would need to face the competition with thousands of equally qualified individuals for a limited number of seats but an Engineering graduate from a non-NCERT certified Engineering College also can easily get into an IT company in the third year of graduation, if he/she just sits for a nominal test and answers a couple of (leaked) questions in the interview. If I have a son or a daughter, I would feel, he/she should get educated well and should be employed by a good company and should be paid well. Can you even imagine the situation when you graduate and you don't have a job and stay home thinking about what to do with life? After all, you have a wonderful life in the glass buildings with rotating chairs and dual monitors... pizzas, parties, hikes, coffees, hard & soft drinks, snacks, etc. One side of the coin.

Now the reality. The buying power of a small group is increasing exponentially thereby heavily influencing the pricing of goods and services. Those living in New York or London or Mumbai or Bangalore would exactly know what I'm talking about as they pay their house rent, taxi fares, buy groceries, clothes and dine in the restaurants. This situation is so much a contrast to a country in which agriculture has a major share of economy and the people are dreaded by population explosion, settlements in the low-lying areas, floods affecting the crops, global warming, air, water and land pollution, water problems, hunger and malnutrition that the IT explosion is viewed at as a capitalistic conspiracy by the government. The Satyam fiasco and the recession played a major role in leveling out the craving for scintillating IT jobs. This part of the century has to be labelled the IT Retrospection Period in India as it served as an eye-opener for the over-valuation of limited assets. The worst-affected in this transition being the emigrants.

While I jot down the thoughts just for the sake of summarizing the situation, I can't help thinking deeper and deeper about what can be done! Do you have any thoughts?

Just thinking ...

A question which is continuously pestering me these days, "When it comes to writing or even speaking, ideas are half as sparkling as the thoughts are...". I recently learnt "Qualia" is what they use to describe that exact feeling. What do you feel when you sit on the shore and look at the waves and see a couple of children playing while their mom tries to pull them off the waters? Or when you listen to a guzheng's or santoor's notes? I only can say it feels like a drizzle or I get reminded of a flower blooming but one knows how it is if one experiences it. May be that's why they say, you can only be shown the door, you have to open it yourself.

It is this that each of us yearn for! Every time we feel it, every time we ask for more and more of it! We are craving for it all the time. No?

The Hidden Rasika

As usual, I have completely ignored the major part of my life while talking about lot of less important things. Music, I think it's like a strong dose of medicine to a chronic illness. Need to keep taking it in continuously no matter what! Once you start liking it, I doubt if you can ever get over this fetish.

Whenever I sit for practicing my Janta-swarams, I remember the pitying look on a friend's face while asking me, "Do you really like Carnatic Music?" ( Which is more "Are there still people who like Carnatic music?") and follows it up with "Don't you want to learn playing some instrument instead?". And I answered "Sorry, buddy! I can't really help it!"

After trying my hand at Laya learning Daphli, Tabla, Octapad, etc for a brief period, I decided it's time to tune the 'Shruthi' in me. Here I am starting on a musical journey! Thanks to my Guru, who rightly said "Shruthirmata layah pita|"

Let's see what's in store.

PS: Can't help it! :-P

Hor(r)o(r)scopes

A prospective Hindu bride (groom) is bound to have faced this "Horror" term atleast when she's (he's) in India. God knows what's in store for the couple who might not know each other by face, but their birth stars are always there to decide their fate! Doesn't matter if you are getting married to a martian from neighbouring solar system, you should wriggle through the compatibility check on the computer first (Thinking... which moon sign would Martians consider? Does Mars in that solar system has single moon? What if no? ). Man, we are living in the 21st century for sure!

With bride's parents keen on getting the agreement signed off at competitive prices, grooms, like IT jobs out there are negotiating best deals and fixing prices for their lives. Under any case, there are the astrologers who derive pleasure in predicting scariest possible consequences and link it to our sun/moon signs (wonder what is wrong with poor Earth, which lets Sun or Moon focus on us at that gory hour) and of course with a ready plan of action (named Prayaschiththam - as if they stop the rotation and let the Sun or Moon focus on the 23 and 1/2 deg latitude crossing 82 and 1/2 degree longitude - allright, now. Stop sneering! - within a radius of 300 kms). Some go to such extremes that they say your life's documented already by a revered sage and they'll give you that if you pay X (a 2-3 digit number decided based on demand-supply curve) bucks!

With more than a billion plus residents, Match making business in India can be considered a promising area where if not for extensive research atleast a full time course in the top management institutes is definitely worth the investment. Just think about an MSA - Masters in Superstitious Astrology or a PGDM - Post Graduate Diploma in Marriage/Match - (thereby) Money - making from a premier university!

Here's a piece of advice: If you can't runaway and get married at Uncle Sam's, be prepared.

The controversy mantra

Am about to go to bed after watching an art piece by one of the most successful movie directors in India, Mani Ratnam. I only thought it's extremely important to put my opinion for debate out there if it has any weight. The much hyped directors of the desiwood(s) seem to take a pleasure in riding the controversy tides. Water, Sarkar, Guru, Iruvar, Ghajini, Rajneeti, Raavan, 3 Idiots... to name a few fall into this category. While the turn-over on the box remains unpredictable most of the times, what is driving this school of thought is a very interesting discussion, isn't it?

1. Movie audience is unimaginably huge. I can bet my life on 3/4th of population in India being directly or indirectly informed about the tinsel world be it through Radio, TV or Newspapers. With all those special columns on actors' complicated relationships, programs on imaginary success reviews and titillating posters everywhere, it just goes without saying. My movie buff friends must excuse me when I say, there needs to be something splashy and striking in the trash to stand out to make it to the rack-sack, which undoubtedly is the current scenario.
   
2. A top notch director is bound to appeal to the aesthetic lot (which unfortunately is tired looking for all crap and will be ok with the splashing trash). What more do you need than a most debated concept? Moreover, we can label the art realistic. There definitely are Nandi awards or some FMCG branded awards jury, who would have book-marked such movies to throw some confusing awards like Best Before-Interval Scene Ever or Best Post-Video Contrast editing.
   
3. Don't you be tricked into thinking that the basics are amiss! A multi-starrer would make sure the reels are booked well in advance and by the time the audience realize they are in the dump, they would be watching the movie. Questions? Why do you think I'm publishing this post?

As everybody knows, the rules are set already. Attention is proportional to marketing and hence to money. The creators have their share, so does the movie team.
Honestly, I would say, all fair!

Audience! I would rather be happy for them thinking they have imbibed socialism. Just think about how many families of skimpily clad girls(read women) they are supporting! Sorry I'll mention guys without shirts also!?

Here some tips/techniques, which directors can make use of in the future

1. During the shooting, an RSS, an MNS or a KV or any hired mob(good if they are famous, otherwise it's ok, depends on the budget actually) can attack and get some damage done.
2. Find a sensitive religious issue like Purdah system or Honour killings - or a religious Epic is not a bad idea at all.
3. Make a senior actor/director/producer/somebody(who is well-known) say "first of its kind in my life!" and keep it around for some time.
4. Let the author or another director file a law-suit on IP infringement - Needn't be something understandable and it's ok if it doesn't come for hearing soon, the media will make sure it does.
   

Dreams

I'm sure everybody has! So do I... what now?

Leaving the interpretations aside, I will start by saying it's good to dream and that's what keeps us look forward for the next day.

Btw, Do you believe that the thoughts which don't really become words and then actions are useless? That's not even a rhetoric, forget it!

Now, for all practical purposes, it's good to think about what one wants to be or with whom one likes to be or what one want's to have. That's why I wanted to post this. Enough of pulp!?

So I started practically dreaming about my future and the world

1. We should have ample soft water as much as I have now. The hardness levels (can't give you in ppm) should be in such a way that there won't be any layers on my buckets and taps.
2. The temperatures will be the same at various parts of the world. ( Bangalore should be as cool as it used to be in 2004 - That's when I stayed there for almost 2 months. Heavenly! )
3. Roads - even after widening - have trees on both the sides but don't fall onto the roads when it rains heavily.
4. That brings us to rain. There should be rain during the regular monsoons... even at Chennai (Reminder: There wouldn't be water clogging on Chennai roads in the dream). And there won't be rains during weekends and whenever we want to WFH - watch football from home.
5. There goes one more. Indian team qualifies for the FIFA world cup.
6. -------------- summit on environmental issues concludes that some countries have set (not met) a milestone for addressing environmental problems.
7. The CO2 we release into the atmosphere will be balanced by O2 released during Photosynthesis. (God knows that happens to the lead oxides and other gases. Never mind! What has happened since a century!?)
8. Earth's axis will only tilt by 2 X 10 ^-illion degrees or radians, which disproves 2012 theory. Not to mention, the earth's core also doesn't slip and hence doesn't change the magnetic field and the solar system is in equilibrium. There wouldn't be comets or asteroids - which when reported by an unknown scientist from an observatory far far away - ignored. (I know I should stop watching lot of hollywood movies. I have been trying.)
9. Innocent people will not be killed by politically backed terrorist groups. And anti-terrorist groups also, mind you!
10. All people in this world will get food, clothes and shelter.

Fingers crossed!

Hyper-pseudo-network

Netizens are undoubtedly bitten by the social networking bug. I have always been wondering what makes anybody cling to facebook or twitter at 12 midnight on a weekend. As part of their jobs, techies spend almost 80% of their day in front of their monitors. With ubiquitous social networking sites, it is not hard for the IT folks to stay up-to-date on a friend's marriage or a close relative's promotion or a neighbour's admission into a grad school.

I was looking at a cartoon strip which makes fun of a faked tweet on an earth quake at some corner in the world, which creates panic more than the actual incident. I should agree that the world's become smaller and we are going more and more global. We are in an age when dates over yahoo messenger are turning into marriages and talks over VOIPs causing terrorist attacks!

Where does all this lead us to is the question I asked myself.

Some facts
1) We look at our IM as just another action item and ignore most of the times. Half the times I ping someone, I'm not sure I'll get a response.
2) Our responsiveness on our social network is limited to an exciting update -Perhaps a stolen mobile or a nauseating dinner - from some X, whom we have almost forgotten.
3) Warm greets like "Hi, how do you do?" or "Howz life?" start sounding very boring and of course, we ignore them.
4) Greetings on a birthday or a festival look perfectly artificial with a greetings.com or some other site you don't even know of and with sign up links more than the greeting message.
5) We prefer spending time over these pages more than talking over phone or paying a visit.


Techies do live in a different world full of online conferences, meeting minutes, new friend requests, milestones, newly released block-busters, cafeterias, VPNs, reimbursements and most important of all craving desperately to get to the real world on social network.

Ok, what now? Why am I up against it?
One main reason is the commitment we show to our contacts. It's easier to say lot of things from far, unseen than be there and offer our shoulder. Being a frequent visitor to the networking sites myself, I can confidently say I don't ping a quarter of contacts on my friend's list. Most of my responses are limited to a thumbs up mark, which says "I like it!".

Are we escapists? Am I?

What should others do?

I believe our well-being lies in a simple fact. Getting the fundamentals right! The reason I thought about this is we always have loads of expectations from everybody starting from the corporators not doing their job well, parents not giving us enough gifts, neighbours not keeping their compound clean, colleagues not helping others or friends not ready to give away some things for us. Have we ever stopped for a moment and asked ourselves what would we have done in their place? If we are critical to ourselves as we are towards others, we can be a lot more "Social" beings.

The mob dynamics...

The human lot as a whole tends to a normalized level of mediocrity. Democracy seems to ascertain this tendency in every possible way. In Indian context atleast, it appears as if everything's in place. After watching Leader, a telugu movie, which though fantasises a revival in the system clearly depicts the condition of the state and the country.

If one is to take a lead and be responsible for a group, one needs to be as intelligent as the most ignorant. The harder I think about reservations on the basis of sects or sex or about the Bt brinjal issue or about the Godhra riots' case or the Headley's, the more I get confused understanding the outcome. May be I can't just tell myself anymore that we have always been so why do we care a damn now.

A day or two ago, there was a news headline, which talks about a case revoked by an IPS officer on the babri demolition. What justification would the case provide to the lost lives and ruins of the monument?

Here we are talking about IT recovery, real estate boom and the share market trading. Can't we do anything at all about this. I'm sure we can and no wonder we won't!

I say we need to "Vote" first before doing anything for the country!

2010's here!

From Kuduremukha Trek

Hmm... What's new in 2010? Before everything else, the trek to Kuduremukha, which according to my Bangalorean room-mates, is one of the highest peaks in western ghats!

With a new Cybershot in hand, it was no less exciting than my first ever trips to Nainital, Mussourie, Kodaikanal or Manali. It really was an accomplishment for my room-mates to stop me from going home and have me trek the steep rocky slopes of the peak.

We were ready with food, water, camera, salt (for leeches) and umbrellas for the majestic trek, the longest ever for me. Leeches - as usual - were our companions. With the entry of a couple of snakes (Amar's nightmare) it made a great day in the national forest reserve. 10:30 AM to 6:30 PM, it is an excellent escapade from the office cubicles and city traffic! The water spray under the beautiful waterfalls atop Hanumanagundi, the following day was unforgettable. A night's journey and a day's trek followed by a night's sleep and the visit to the waterfalls made a perfect start for the new year. And you know what the resolution for this year is, don't you? Work hard and party harder? I stole it from somewhere but that's definitely not my resolution not for this year.

There are plans to execute and challenges to face this year. Though I don't have a resolution, I have a plan of action. So, will you say with me? "Just do it!"

More on what's in store at Goa follows! Signing off this time... with a snap and a video.

From Kuduremukha Trek