Upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2014 (hopefully) and India's Principal Opposition Party

Off late, may be in the last 3 months, I have observed a noticeable change in what I believed to be a person who vowed for growth and governance: Mr. NaMo and his close aides seem to be making a conscious attempt to again play the age old religious card about building temples etc. Sir, we need schools and hospitals rather than temples.

I wish Mr. NaMo could continue his earlier agenda about growth and believe in it. In my opinion, it would be a win in itself to loose on that agenda rather than winning it the other way round. It is high time the people of our country get the kind of governance they need, the kind of healthcare they require and the kind of education deserve!

I wish the GliMPse I saw some time back in Bihar where a bandh was called (I don't support it in any form) on economic affairs and not the one like it was called today to protest against the blasts which happened in bodhgaya.

I Wish if the upcoming elections henceforth are contested on growth and governance 'n' not of religion and rhetorism.

#Jai Hind

P.S.: View expressed here are personal.

A mandatory wave of change in Indian IT Industry

All of us would agree to an observation that the way business is being carried out has evolved in the past decade. Be it the effect of usage of information technology in aspects such as automation, integration, e-commerce or the effect of social media in our lives, the entire ecosystem is evolving. As a customer we expect better services & products and this is at the heart of this change. For the next five minutes, I present my view and analysis of this change on Indian IT industry.

For Indian IT Industry, the decade of 1999 to 2000 was largely marked as evolving of offshore-onshore global delivery model (read-in as the capability to deliver & capacity to scale and reap benefits of cost arbitrage). The next decade (2000 – 2010) efforts of the Indian IT majors were aligned towards the managed services model. Undoubtedly the last two decades turned out to be very profitable both in terms of revenues as well as reputation. In my opinion, all this happened due to an opportunity that was identified, benefits which were marketed well and human resources which were groomed towards a goal and leadership which had vision for next decades.

But as someone rightly said, “you can’t survive on your past glory for a long time”. This is now applicable to tier-1 IT companies to spot new wave for the next decade, reinvent their DNA and move up the value chain. The success from the last two decades has enabled (rather insured to an extent) tier-1 companies for free cash flow which is always required for an organization’s survival. I am sure that their existing business is going to be a lifeline for considerable time or rather a cash-cow as it’s taught in B-schools. Without any iota of doubt, this has been well understood and being worked upon. However the bigger (yaksh) question is, “had we discovered the idea and corresponding strategy to mobilize the idea?” In my opinion, most of the tier-1 IT companies were in self denial mode about the idea until it become inevitable. Nevertheless the workings have started but some players seem to be getting it wrong in terms of execution.

Time, experience and analysis has reinforced my belief that how important is it to identify and empower a leader for a team. As I write this article, I see helplessly a strategy being identified but being implemented in a very bizarre way. I have always wondered why these people in top management deliberately engage some people which they themselves know aren’t fit for the very purpose they are putting in so much time and effort. Guess they are beyond business and logical reasons and might be I’ll never understand that. May be I don’t want to !

Life at a swirl – from Noida to KalaAmb via Jamshedpur

(next is what ?)

A lazy looking guy (presumably boring) with substantial mass J, one who thinks a lot, loves to sleep, hates to share his food ‘n’ wine, on the verge of tying knot embarked on a journey around a year ago a which doesn’t seem to end.

Those who were out of touch and who didn’t got till know that who this person is (errr…) , that’s me.

As I logged-out of CSC in search of a lot of things (not to forgot the night-out with my Juniors), it wasn’t all that easy and frankly speaking, to my discomfort it was hell difficult.

The first month at XL was insanely jam-packed. If my memory doesn’t ditches me, some of us were shown the door by a Prof (see I remmeber the name but not writing it deliberatly J) in the three day orientation program itself without actually being at fault. And my sleeping pattern started right from the orientation program from the seemingly never-ending Economics lecture.

Though I am kindaa reserve type of person but somehow I feel that I am able to think independently and figure out things in my own way. And I didn’t dissappoint myself in that and soon after term-I and I was able to figure out how to tackle the barmy acedemic schedule at XL. At this point, I could recollect feedback from one of my best buddies – RV, when he mentioned that “no course is his favouriate, he hates all courses equally”.

International immersion was amongst the most memorable part of this journey which gave me an opportunity to step into foreign soil.

After a few of missed chances, I landed up into a job which I possibily I had never thought off. Decent money, a nearby location but still I kinda feel that I could have done better and rather I feel that I deserved better. At present, I am at a nice place (what the heck; this place sucks.. mountains, fresh air and a long walk ‘n’ that’s all L ) though not sure for how long I would be here though.

As I am on the verge of loosing but “single” status, I feel anxious, stressed, sometimes excited and I hope the new innings would be a special one.

Wish me good luck and god bless everyone!!!

FDI in retail at this juncture -- complementary measures

The government's decision to allow foreign direct investment in the business of retail distribution of produce is welcome. Right now, it remains a token of the government's ability to make a rational choice defying Opposition clamour.

This is, indeed, valuable.

However, for the proposed liberalisation to have any impact on the ground, this needs to be seen.

Organised retail will precipitate a whole lot of manufacturing FDI by small labels, who can produce quality stuff but lack the financial muscle to build a distribution network on their own. These, too, will produce additional jobs, incomes and consumer choice. Some small shops will be displaced in the bigger towns, but new organised jobs will be created. The overall social gains far outweigh the costs.

The move is emphatically welcome.

Cheers !!!

And the journey called life continues…

Just when one feel that it can’t get better than this, at that very point god reminds us that he’s the supreme power with stamped authority and one needs to accept it rather than pondering over it.

Today I feel that I too learnt the similar lesson but then as one grows old [‘n’ hopefully wise :P too], I have the courage to accept it with a smile beneath which lies a big heart to reinforce
it.

Assimilate it, feel it ‘n’ move on is the name of the game in contemporary times.

And yeah its kindaa difficult but then when one’s mind decides to do something, half of the battle is already won & as I learnt from my father, its never too late to make a start and put in your best effort and I am up for it man.

Well if the above stuff is too much of an abstraction to you, I would say that I have deliberately kept it that way [without the background context] to keep certain feelings in check. If you didn’t understand every bit of it, let me affirm that the onus lied on me & not always “human beings” live up to expectations.

Keep exploring your potential.

Cheers !!!

Expecting the unexpected

"I started to scale the cliff,
Without my usual harness,
Using only my hands and feet,
I climbed up and into darkness.

Scrabbling for a crack,
Or a foothold to stop and rest,
I dug my nails into the rock,
Heart hammering in my chest.

It was as if the rock gave way,
Dismayed I found twas true,
For as my feet began falling,
The rest of my body did too.

Grabbing for the safety line,
I knew instinctively wasn't there,
I plummeted at a sickening rate,
Through the rushing air.

My head hit the ground,
With a resounding crack,
I found that I was lying dazed,
............................................. "


Cheers to the uncertainity of life !!!

Taking Right Decisions @ The Right Time… My Experiences

The only way to have a life is to commit to it like crazy!!!

Most of the times life moves at a brisk pace ‘n’ at the blink of the eye, each moment passes by. So it’s imperative for us to take some time out and look at the events in our lives that changed the course or have the potential of changing the course of our lives.

Since I am no exception of this phenomenon [yeps this is a deliberate choice of word], I too have taken decisions and have missed out on some or the others ‘n’ hence the aim of this write-up is to sum up those decisions and to keep a track that at which point the circle-of-life approximately is. [Again ‘approximately’ is a deliberate choice of word since if one knows the exact precision of the circle-of-life, the flavor of uncertainty from lives goes missingJ]

Always remember that life is full of choices but the important thing is to make the right choice at the right time.

Broadly I feel that we can classify decisions into two categories viz. conscious and un-conscious decisions

Decision not taken by myself...

Unconscious decisions -- Sadly not many of my decisions a conscious no and that’s how I learnt the harder way that whenever possible make the decisions even if the result is in future because a reviewed decision is always better than the one reached at the last moment.

When I look back at the last 10 years of my life, I reminisce the following checkpoints viz. trying for the SSB Interview at AFSB Dehradoon, joining engineering course, joining Satyam. The common pattern in all of these unconscious one’s were passion, lack of ground work / knowledge, lack of appropriate amount of openness to discuss things and to an extent lack of alternative choices.

An unsolicited suggestion to those “alike me” is that one need to be open to discuss things with peers, seniors ‘n’ even juniors and if you get this thing right, other will follow for sure.

These unconscious decisions also made me realize that raw talent can carry you forward to an extent or at max gets you one chance but beyond that it’s all about focus, determination and hard work.

Decision taken by myself...

Conscious decisions – By the end of 2008 for me [‘n’ others as well], I realized that “we always have a choice: to plow new ground or let the weeds grow.” This got reflected in some of my decisions viz. joining CSC, to renaissance my post graduation aspirations and a few personal decisions.

The common pattern [in java, we term it as ‘design pattern’ and a manager would want to term it as correlationJ] is that there were some sort of planning ‘n’ informed decisions which were missing earlier all the way.

This also made me realize that careful planning coupled with passion, hard work and quest for learning not only makes one realize their potential professionally life but enriches personal life as well.

Another good thing that I realized is the power of reading. I felt some kindaa change in myself while reading good quality stuff which contributed to understanding of one’s own strength ‘n’ keeps you focused ‘n’ motivated and working northwards towards the goal.


I think the time doesn’t permit me to write further so I will wrap-it-up by mentioning a few lines….

In masks outrageous and austere, The years go by in single file;
But none has merited my fear, And none has quite escaped my smile.

Cheers to life !!!