Vacation Time..

Wokay peoples of the world (the grammer is intentional),

I am off to the You Yes of Yey (40° 2' N/88° 17' W to be more precise)on vacation for the next 2 weeks. Finally get the chance to wind off and have some real good fun with cousins and friends whom I havent met in ages. More updates after Im back.

-G

Road to the finals

I was struggling to keep myself awake last evening and had half a mind to doze off. (blame it on the booze..5 bottles of beer). Luckily I managed to keep me eyelids open and was treated to some excellent football by the Czechs.

I thought Nedved and Baros were absolutely scintillating. (Jan Koller dosnt get any credit here cos he is mainly in the team to use his big frame to head all those corner kicks into the net. For the connoisseur or the arm chair footballer like me, Kollers technical skills can be quite...grotesque)


Baros - Reaching for the Sky

I hope poor ol' Nedved doesn't get another yellow the next game. He was in tears the last time around when he got a yellow in the Champions League semis in 2002. (Juve went on to lose the final against AC Milan.)

Anyways me thinks that the Czechs are looking good for the trophy. A Czech - Holland final would be a huge treat for anyone. Pity, I cant watch. (I'll be however splurging my money in Vegas hoping to strike it big)

Project Management for All of You!

During the afternoon I found myself rummaging though a couple of sites and came across a picture that made real sense to me. Thought I's share it with all of you. Well, its really about Project Management and I find this picture to be highly descriptive of how project management/managers works/work in real life! (Yours truly included)


Project Management For You!

Enjayyyyy..

End of the Bluefilm!

Excusz me peoples. For all those expecting to find some kind of porno stuff here, please brace yourselves for immense disappointment. No the title has more to do with one of the projects that I was put incharge of. (See my post on Bluewin).

The good news is out!!! The Bluewin project is finally going into production and no one in this planet is more happy that my collegue Jagadish and yours truly. Looks like the folks in Switzerland will launch next Monday (28th June 0800 Zulu).

I plan to open the champagne when I am in Seattle next month and hopefully Jagadish is present then. Meanwhile, my creativity seems to be lost amidst the joy that this news has created.

I have drawn inspiration from my own post the otherday (on being a good manager) and have prompty dumped all post production QA issues to one of my poor collegues in the Munich office. God bless him!

And regarding the final name for this project, I think I will let it stay as Bluefilm for now.

On an ending note......:

The Bluefilm Project - Cast and (S)crew

Chief Confusionist, Primary Mental Agonist on the Product Side: Kai
Storyboard Mayhem, QA, Project Coordination and Confusion: Nebulous Maximus
Code Curry, Bug Fixing and Creation Officers: Jagadish "Jags" Kurma and Mahalaxmi Ramasamy
Server Side Dis-integration Manager: Ravikumar "Bodhai Mannan" Yellasiri
Primary Mental Agonist on the Technical Side: Krishanu
The Dementors: Ahmed "Synch" Guettouche, Patrick "Always on Holiday" Brühwiler, Christine "Dunno a Shit" Hostettler

Last but Not the Least: The man responsible for bringing this upon our heads: Karel "The Boss" Dörner.

NOTE: For security/privacy reasons the names of the lead actors and actresses will not be revealed to the public.

-G

About the Tahr

Ok people, things seem to be bordering close to insanity. The main culprit here is work or the lack of it. So here I am trying to explain how I got such a wierd name for the Blog. (Not the Calabi Yau space part).

[Start Nostalgia]Im one of these typical "hilly billy" kind of guys who is in love with anything that resembles a hill. This is mainly attributed to being brought up for 20 splendid years in the Nilgiri Hills.[/End Nostalgia]

So fo all those wondering what the Nilgiri Tahr is, the picture below should throw some light:


The Nilgiri Tahr

The Nilgiri tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius)is a stocky goat in which both sexes have a short, coarse pelage and a bristly mane a few centimeters long, in contrast to the male Himalayan tahr which has a long, shaggy mane on the shoulders, throat and chest. The pelage of sub adults, females, and young males is dusky brown to grey-brown in colour except for a whitish abdomen and a dark brown band that runs down the length of the back.

Nilgiri tahr are found only along the Western Ghats in South India, and even within this small area they are mostly confined to the crest of the range, usually at altitudes of over 1,200 m. It is thought that tahr once ranged through most of the Western Ghat (Davidar, 1978), but current populations are distributed between the Nilgiri Hills in the north, and the Tiruvannamalai Peaks in the south. The largest population of the Nilgiri Tahr is however found in the Eravikulam National Park.

Highly Effective Habits for Wannabe Managers

Stephen Covey must excuse me for having the gumption to try and come up something akin to his best selling novel.

So here I am sitting at my desk, looking out of the window, staring at the sky wondering where the European summer was this year. The reply came within a few minutes in the form of a thunderstorm. Well so much for the summer.

Well let me get back to the purpose of this piece. I've been employed (gainfully, if I may add) for about 4 years now and although I am by no means a veteran career wise, I've got a fairly good insight into how organizations really work.

So here I am trying to educate all those poor souls who haven't (Thank your stars!)started their careers yet, on a very important topic (which they for sure teach at your business school): How to be an effective manager:

Err; before I start I would like to make it clear that the author doesn’t not hold himself responsible for any of the consequences that could arise for those who follow the prescribed methods below. On the other hand the author would be more than happy to take credit in all cases that turn out to be successful (grin)

So let's get down to business:

What makes a good manager?

Well I just happened to be pondering over this when I came across an outrageous quotation. Just listen to this:

"A manager is an assistant to his men."

What the &+%*!!! Excuse me????????????? Gulp and double gulp. This is just too hard for me to swallow. Well let me not deviate. (For all you folks wondering who on earth came up with this definition, it is a gentleman by the name Thomas J Watson. Poor old' Watson. If only he were to work in a 21st century, IT corporation).

Lookup www.wikipedia.org for the term Management and here is what you get: "Management" (from old French, "management"="the art of conducting, directing", from Latin "manum agere"="lead by the hand") characterizes the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business one, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible).

Well when you put this definition down in your examination paper, be assured that you prof walks up to you and kisses your hand and gives you an A or A plus.

Scenario 2: Try telling the same thing (if you can mug up this definition the night before) to your boss the first day at work, if you were asked about your views on management. Result? You'll probably hear folks rolling on the floor laughing (after you have left the bosses room or cubicle.). So much for management you think.

So if you want to dump all the jargon, get down to business and prove yourself to be a good manager. Here are the golden rules: (Please follow the prescribed prescription (now that’s a good phrase eh?) every day for faster results):

The habit prescribed below are results form painstaking research (undertaken by yours truly) that was conducted for almost 4 years spread over 3 continents (Asia, Europe and North America). Now for all you statistics freaks that’s a lot of input and as varied as the population can get. (I admit that the population size was however limited. But then hey all researches have their drawbacks don't they?). I'd also like to make a note that the prescribed habits are peculiar to (a very large extent ) IT companies. However should you go through them carefully, you can always find ways to alter or re-engineer these habits to fit the industry in which you work.

Habit 1: Keep your desk as untidy as possible. The dirtier the better. Always give the boss the impression that you're working damn hard on anything and everything. You may want to spice up the desk by including half bitten apples, orange skins that are atleast 20 days old, pits and pieces of your last burger, one or two stains of that tomato ketchup from McDonalds or Burger King.

Result: The boss walks up to your desk when your gone and says " Gee, if only all the other bums in the office can get working like this dude". Two weeks later, you get that long awaited bonus and maybe even a short vacation some place. But please don’t expect your company to pay for this.

Habit 2: : Always pretend that you have work to do: Now when you are in an IT company this can sometimes be an extremely difficult habit to master (especially for all those blokes lying in the "bench". Not a beach/park bench stupid, but bench as in the IT bench...err..you get what I mean don't you?). For all those novices (novices trying to be managers), the best would perhaps be to take help of MSN or Yahoo Messenger. Always make sure that you set your status to "Busy" after approximately 35 mins of starting your workday. The first 35 mins is of course to see your emails, chat with colleagues and most importantly fill up your thermos with kaapi. I personally find the most effective way to be to open Outlook/Outlook Express or whatever mail client you use and keep staring away at some long e-mail (Doesn’t matter if its from your grandma from Pudukottai). As soon as your boss appears in the horizon all you do is to hit the reply button, change the Subject name and type away something like:

"Thanks for the e-mail. We are currently trying to analyze the situation and see that on your servers, the IIS has not been configured correctly. This could be due to problems with your firewall settings..blah blah.." (I’m sure you get the drift)

Result:: Boss always sees you busy (if he used the messenger which I’m sure he does since he is chatting away with his wife or getting instructions on the shopping to do this weekend)and wants to see what you are upto:

Boss: What up buster?
You: Just replying to an urgent mail from Customer X saar. Seems to be a problem with their firewall configuration
Boss: (Often doesn’t click a jack of what you just said if he’s a non techie)Sounds good to me.(walks away in a hurry)

Habit 3: Catch those subordinates when they are fresh: If there is a single recipe for corporate success, then it is this one. Grab every opportunity you get to interact with all those freshers in your team. Make 'em feel at home and let em know that they have joined the best team in the company. Take em out for those last night and weekend parties and generally let them get the feeling that you are the best boss one can have. While you are at all this, (WARNING: Such activities may cause a drain on your financial resources in the short term but trust me, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank in the not too distant future) pick out a few innocent dues who really have this "josh" to make an impression on you. Also beware of new guys in your team who have already hopped jobs. These sharks can be dangerous and may beat you at your own game. When the work pressure builds up (basically read when your ass is on the line), make these frequent rounds to see what’s happening with the young ones. Look a little sad or gloomy when talking..

Result: They: What’s wrong Mr X or X?
You: Nothing much man. Got this sudden deadline from the boss. I hate that guy. Always does this to me. (Look very angry and peeved off)
They: (Thinking to themselves "Poor chap man he’s been so nice to us and look at what shit he lands up with") What’s the issue here.
You: Guys we need to get this job done in 3 days or else our butts are on the line. I’m sorry guys but looks like you’ll have to work this weekend. I got a meeting coming up on Friday and will not be in office. I want you guys to make sure that this is done.
They: Sure. We'll do our best (poor chaps always end up slogging and giving it a 110%). Don't you worry
You: Thanks a lot guys. I know that if there is anyone who can pull this off, its you guys (Welcome to the party suckers!!!!!!!)

In most cases you will be cursed at and given all kinds of names. But hey you get the weekend off and moreover get the job done too. Not too bad a price to pay eh?

Habit 4:The phone is your best friend: If you want to be a manager, you gotta be a big-time phone addict. The phone is the gateway to "corporate nirvana". Make sure that a phone is the first thing that you get into your cabin or cubicle. (Even the laptop and other accessories can wait). It is highly recommended that you spend atleast 3 to 4 hours a day over the phone (the list of people you call is of course entirely upto you and can contain anyone from your great grand aunt to Uncle Apparaos brother in law, if you knew him. When the boss comes ups make sure that you engage is purely technical talk or some other kind of corporate lingo talk (trying to pep up some body or giving someone advice). Once perfected this art could be your most potent weapon in: a) Your promotion b) Offloading jobs to others c) Convincing the boss that you have everything under control.

Result: Its 3 PM in the afternoon and the boss is wandering about in the office when he sees you gesticulating from your cabin. Wondering what the matter could be he walks up to your cabin:

You: Busy chatting with Rita about yesterdays dinner date, suddenly realizing that your boss is around. Change the topic. "Sara (short form for poor Saravanan whomever he may be.), have you followed up with the security team about the Trojan horse invasion that Abbas has detected yesterday? As I see it, we probably will get a complaint from the customer regarding the fatal errors that they see. Have you set the primary logging levels on out Admin servers to level 3?
Boss: (Totally bowled over. Hears something about Trojan and probably thought you were discussing about how Brad Pitt looked in the latest summer blockbuster.) Err...Err.. Is everything OK? (He cant seem to get more out of his lips)
You: (Hey Sara listen, Ill give you a call again. Keep the phone down and heave a huge sigh of relief.) Yes boss, I’m just taking the precaution of informing the network team to follow up on yesterday’s Trojan attack that seems to compromise Windows machines. (Now this is a fool proof technique of fooling your boss, given the fact that there are 1000's of these worms all over the place on the Internet)
Boss: Great job man. Keep it going. (Walks back wiping the sweat from his forehead). Saying to himself. " I guess I should give some of this high funda stuff to my boss the next time he catches me talking with my wife)

3 or 4 such incidents a month are enough to give you a sal hike for the quarter or if you are really good at bull shitting even a promotion!! (No guarantees please!)

Habit 5:Always keep the boss on Bcc on those e-mails: If there's a way to the bosses heart, this is probably right up there. Whatever the occasion always keep the boss on Bcc (Note the emphasis on Bcc). This becomes mighty easy when you try to deletegate work to all the subordinates who are already mighty pissed off with you by now. Poor chaps don’t have a clue that the boss is being copied on all the mails that are sent to them. Boss on the other hand is mighty pleased with your approach of having him "in the loop" . This reminds me: I deviate a little but here are useful situations in which you can impress colleagues and subordinates and the bosses with jargon:

To the subordinate: Keep me in the loop on this thing
To the Boss: Ok boss, I have everyone in the loop
At the team meeting: Guys we need to get everyone in the loop on this thing
Project gone wrong: Sorry boss, the planning and protocol was just not in the loop
Trying to analyze someone’s code: I see that the FOR NEXT loop is not in loop with the object model (Programmer thinks: What the ...)
To the HR Executive: Look, I want all candidates to be screened and then left in the loop (don’t ask me what it means)
At the Canteen: Yaar, looks like the menu always seems to be in the same loop
To your wife: Honey where is my belt? I can't seem to get my pant in the loop..

Result You've got so used to keeping the boss on Bcc that you set it as a default on your mail client. One day boss (who is in most cases slightly bald, in his mid or late 30's and married for 8 years) comes up and says: "Thanks for keeping me on cc on that mail. Ill be glad to join."
You: Don’t realize what email he is talking about. Hurriedly checks your "Sent Items" list. The last e-mail reads something like:

"Guys, Alok has arranged for the bachelors party at 8 tomorrow at Hotel Leelavati. heard he’s planning to bring two deadly Iranian chicks. Looks like its going to be fun. I suggest we hook up near Pizza Hut at 8. See ya then"

Double whammy! You just realized that you Bcc'ed your boss on this one too.

To the Boss: Errr...mmmmm..Su Sure thing boss...gl...glad you can join.

The next day: Your friends have disowned you. But hey look on the bright side, the boss had a whale of a time and this is just the time to talk about that long pending promotion.


Well folks I guess I’m turning this one into a novel. I have decided to make this a kind of mini series. Will keep adding to these habits as and when I get jobless again.

-G

From one hole to another

A good six days after hovering around the Bluewin Event Horizon, things seem to have settled down finally. (A final hurrah on this matter will be posted a later date.)

The testing has concluded and I get the feeling that the launch date isnt too far either.

So here I was congratulating myself for a job well done, when a small envelope icon appears at the bottom right corner of my computer screen. The enxt step was the fatal mistake of double clicking on the icon.










If you're wondering why so much empty space inbetween, it was simply because I had realized that I was being sucked into another event horizon. The boss has decided to put me into coordinating a new internal project. There goes my peace, happiness, sanity and whatever is correlated to any of the described feelings.

So heres what I think about Organizational Behavior in todays world (froma dude who can only preach but somehow fails to practise it everytime he really needs to..)

20th Century Saying: "Assumption is the mother of all screw ups."

21st Century Saying in an IT environment: Initiatvce and eagerness to please is the mother of all f%"k ups.

For all those aspiring managers, the go getters and MBA's etc, heres another tip: If you wanna make it big within the company ..."Delegate"

Please read as:
a.) Find yourself an eager and enthu guy (prefarably a desi)
b.) Make him beleive that he is the only indispensable creature in the whole organization (make sure he feels the same way even when he receuives his pension cheques from the company
c.) Pamper him once in a while by telling him what an asset he is to the company. (almost the same as point b.) eh)
d.) Dump all "YOUR" worries and deadlines to the poor ol' soul and pretend (now this is an art you really need to work on if you arent born with it) you care about everything that happens around the company.

NOTE: (For those of you who don't know what an Event Horizon is, look up http://www.rdrop.com/users/green/school/horizon.htm for a brief description. Those of you who don't bother, just use this as a "fundoo" term next time to give your boss/friend/girl friend/boy friend/pan wala the impression that you are THE most happening guy around)

Bluewin - The Empire Strikes Back

11th July 19:00 Hrs Zulu:

Disgusted, annoyed, pissed off..%&@*(")" and more. I've heard the wise saying: "Shit Happens".

Seems to be happening to me everyday since this project started. (If only I told the boss not to sign the contract on a Tuesday)

Lights camera....flashback....

10th July @ the apartment watching another lousy Hindi movie: After a relaxing Thrusday break at the Ammersee (a beautiful lake about 30 mins from Munich) and a couple of maßes of beer, life could'nt be more fun..

11th July 09:00 Zulu: Made the biggest mistake by writing to Bluewin asking them how the test was running..

11 July 09:15 Zulu: The heavens come crashing as I read the e-mail. Only one word seems to occuply my mind.."BUGS". The profound happiness and joy of the 10th seemed so far away..

11 July 10:00 Zulu: The dreaded phone rings. ring ring...

Me: Hello Aventeon this is Ganesh
Boss: Cut the crap, just read the email from Bluewin. Whats happening
Me: Errrrrrr.. (for 5 secs)... Err (another 5 secs)
Boss: Well?
Me: Still trying to figure out the problem saar..
Boss: Lemme know how it goes..slam!

Same day 10:30 Zulu: Another e-mail from the client. Darn! Where the F%&* did those bugs come from? Helplessness, confusion, irritation..on the verge of insanity..

Meanwhile in Seattle...

Its 11th July 0100 hrs PST: At an apartment in Bellevue:
Snore...snore...snore...our man Jagadish is deep in slumber, his REM causing those delightful little dreams...

Action back in Munich: Me thinking .... Machan Jagadish onakku irukku vetu inikki...

11:00 Zulu: The gods must be crazy me thinks..the connection to the PAB is not working..meaning I cannot test..Yippeeeeeeeee...me starts to think abt the weekend plan once again..

11:30 Zulu: Ring...Ring..

Me: Hello?
Boss: It's me again. And????
Me: Trying to test on their servers Saar..no connection Sir, their PAB is timing out...
Boss: (Thinking to himself...if only I could give such excuses to the customers...) Errr send out an email quick and get the stuff moving. I want to have a conference call at 16:00 Zulu today.
Me: (Thinking NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...please send me to Abu Ghurayb prison even Guantanamo Bay..but not another phone conf with the folks at Bluewin...I have a theory that 94% Swiss German combined with a dose of 3 % German German and 3% of Indian english can cause levels of mental devastation that can only be dreamt of by the folks in the CIA or the Mossad).Ok saar..

11:45 Zulu: Probably a world record for work efficiency in a large Swiss telecom company....the PAB conenction is up and running..and I get to hear the news...

12:00 to 13:30 Zulu: My face contorted into a 1000 different poses, trying to figure out how one of the bugs escaped my testing..good news at this time is that 1 of the reported ones is not a major issue and the boss has been told how he can handle this one. Issue 2 cannot be re-produced..I act over enthu and decide to download MS office 2002 again to see if the bug is reproduceable..(the downloads is still running...thank heavens for small mercies..)..the only culprit left seems to be a tricky one..

13:30 Zulu: Grab something to eat courtesy Prashanti, my collegue..

14:00: Kai tells me how to re-produce the error and Im totally drained out for the day..

14:30 CET: ring ring again

Me: Hello? (Is the lowest of spirits hoping to gain some sympathy from the boss)
Boss: Whats the status..is the PAB running, are we able to reproduce the bugs, have u got more feedback
Me:(123rd Cebrebral Battalion down, need reinforcements...)...Trying sir, the first 2 are not reproduceable...working on the thirs, will send you a detailed email..(Thinking this was a really smart answer to avoid more phone calls)
Boss: Ok. keep me posted and I want you to spend the weekend testing and making sure we fix any other bugs..this is our last chance..
Me:(Alpha calling command headqauarters, come in..being pounded by heavy artillery, and miscellaneous fire..pls help)..Wo...Wo...Wokay saar...surely saar will do my best saar...(damn damn damn..another weekend bites the dust)
Boss: Thanks..slam!

Begin to wonder about my previous karma, my current karma..vague thoughts bordering nowhere..

15:30 to 17:30 Zulu: Browsing the net, deviod of any thought process..drifting into zombie land..

17:40 Zulu: Alert on the Messager: Jagadish K has just signed in..

Meanwhile in Seattle: Jagadish to himself as he opens his computer. Another lousy day..should I log-on? I've had enough of crap from this dude (obviously referring to me)..think i should work on a COM D-COM MINUS COM add ANOTHER COM plug in into MSN to block this dude forever...

Immediately the dreaded popup.." Hi mams"

Jagadish: Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!! Begins to wonder about his previous karma, current karma..vague thoughts bordering nowhere..finally... "Hi da"

Next 10 mins: I narrate the events of the day... Jagadish has nothing to say and at the end of it neither do I...

20:30 Zulu: Numbed,mentally mutilated, physically exhaused, spiritually crushed..

20:31 CET @ Bluewin: Gentlemen, the empire has struck back!!!!!!!

At the time of publishing this blog, I am parallely trying to put all my creative energies into finding a new name for the project....

Meanwhile the download of Outlook XP is almost over.....so much for small mercies..

Tainted ministers issue rocks RS again

Tainted ministers issue rocks RS again

Now we know where the honest tax payers money goes. Into the bellies of worthless folks who claim to be servants of, for and by the people. And this doesn't mean that I am supporting the inclusion of folks like Laloo Prasad Yadav in the cabinet. The parliment can do so much more than just haggle and cry foul about what the government does. What the parliment needs or politicians need is another avatar of John Wright and his team in order to instill the spirit of team play in our politicians.

Meanwhile god save us and the fiscal deficit!

Bluewin Blues

After 7 months 16 days and 28 minutes, a nightmare of a project seems to be coming to an end. (Thats what I hope. More will be known on the fate of the project next week). The project at Bluewin seems to be drawing to a close (Im not opening the champagne yet..acceptance testing is due tomorrow and runs through till Friday..gulp) finally and I cant wait to get of it.

The project was first called Sync.ONE (Actually this is our product name. Interested?? Look up www.aventeon.com)and here are the various metamorphical changes that the name underwent:

First week into the project: Sync.ONE for Bluewin (now that nice and everyone seemed happy atleast at Aventeon!)
Second Week and things look complicating (was it becos I was creating the specs??): Bluewin SynchTool (Cant the Swiss spell correctly? Arrrrrrghhhhhhhhh)
3 Months into the Project (Bugs start to pour in!): Stephan and I call it the Bluebug!
4 Months into the project and I hope we never had undertaken it. My collegue Jagadish seemed to share the feeling. Poor chap was doing the coding: Bluefilm (This name was ofcourse used only between Jagadish and me)
6 months into the project: Bluefilm seems to stick but we rack our brains to see if we can call it something else. Bluemonster, Bluemutant, seemed to be candidates but somehow the name seems to stick on.
3 days back: Bluehole??? (Like a blackhole from which we never can escape)
Final say: Wait till the project gets into production.

A Loss-Making Venture : OutLookIndia.com

I can't help but agree on the point that the current government seems to be making with regard to the dis-investment of profit making PSU's. It somehow puzzles me that stock markets and other watchers of the Indian economy react as though the entire house has come falling down when an announcement on dis-investment has been made.

I am no economist and perhaps I am naive about the subject. But common sense tells me that the need for profit making companies to be sold in order to "reduce the burden to the central exchequer" is complete nonsense.

Rather than selling these organizations and pro-liberal folks will be quick to jump on the fact that although these companies make profits, they suffer from so many problems ranging from internal power struggles, bloated work forces etc.

Strategies could be easily be put in place in order to trim down the work force (VRS schemes are surely a way out for such companies that have pretty strong cash reserves) and induce new efficiencies (adotping newer technology etc). I agree that there is a need for dis-investment in most PSU's.

Dis-investement alone isnt going to reduce the fiscal deficit or bring about more fiscal disciple. It is going to take something more than that in order to get out of the current state of mess as far as government finances are concerned. A more efficient tax policy (on the lines of the Kelkar committee recommendations - But hey dont tax NRI's- cos I happen to be one..grin) that allows the government to significantly boraden the tax payer base (both corporate and individuals), coupled with a comprehensive VAT based tax structure (as Mr. PC put it) could be a step in the right direction.

( Although totally unrelated to this topic...I cant help but laugh at the concept of free power to farmers. Here we are struggling to met our ever growing power needs, and how does the Congress get power in AP? By giving free power to farmers of course! (Do some of the ministers or babus in our governments know how power is even generated? Or how much power a normal water pump consumes?). Bottom line: Help the needy but dont make them over dependent on subsidies. More rants and raves on this sometime later)

'India Needs China Growth Rate' : OutLookIndia.com

'India Needs China Growth Rate' : OutLookIndia.com

It's the same rant everyone from New York to New Delhi seems to be giving. Quite frankly I don't see the Indian economy clocking 8% p.a growth on a consistant basis. We have have this sudden spurt once or twice in a 5 or 6 years. Personally, I see this attributable to the fact that we have somehow leap frogged a very critical phase of economic development i.e strengthening our manufacturing base.

We seem to have literally jumped from "ape to man". Although the of the service sector as the biggest contributor to the GDP is to be appreciated, I dont think this sector alone can carry the burden of pushing economic growth.

I dont know the figures but look at China's (or for that matter many of the Asian economies) exports. It being pushed purely by their manufacturing base. Everything for torch bulbs to sophisticated DVD players are now manufactured in China. Zoom back home and you see that the only thing the news and media talk about these days are the craze with BPO and IT Services. And what do we have here? Projections of the BPO becoming a $25 billion industry by 2012 or whatever.

Here is what could get things moving:

1.) Encourage private investment in manufacturing. India can be as competitive (if not more) than China in terms of labor cost (Yeah I know, the wages paid for Chinese labor would make an Indian labor of the same category feel like a million bucks.). The way to do this would be to identify areas where Indian manufacturing has real strenght. Automobile manufacturing and auto ancillaries is such an industry and states like Tamil Nadu or Karnataka could become the world car makers if investment in such areas is given a push.
2.) We need more infrastructure, more roads, more ports, more power, better airports. Everyone seems to be unanimous in their decsions as far as investments in infrastructure is concerned. Nothing seems to be happening. Automatic FDI approval for infrastructure projects has been mulled for so many years but I have no clue here as to if this is now official.
3.) Face the facts: The great rurla urbal migration has begun and I see no way that this process can stop or turn around. Folks in the rural areas are thronging cities by the thousands ins earch of better work and lives and if our decision makers could only apply the basic tenents of Keynesian economics, things could look better. Huge infrastructure projects will have just the right kind of multiplier effect that the economy needs to boost production and demand on a consistant basis over the medium term ('Cos in the long run we are all dead).

I could fill up stuff for hours but rite now I gotta work or else..the boss kicks my lazy butt. More eco fundas to follow...

Venus Transit 2004 - Live Image from Oslo - 08-06-2004 12:10 CET. 

CNN.com - Venus puts on a rare show - Jun 8, 2004

CNN.com - Venus puts on a rare show - Jun 8, 2004

Had the chance of a lifetime, observing the transit in Munich at approx 09:40 hrs CET. Weather in Munich: Bright and sunny, clear blue skies.

Fortunately a collegue of mine had bought some special glasses to see the phenomenon. Thanks to Patricia!

The show was not all that impressive but nevertheless, I can look back at this day years from now and say " I was there the last time it happened"

THE WAY OF LIFE!

He rode from the plains so far away,
A man with a heart as big as as one could fathom,
Chasing his dreams to make it big in life
Knowing that the time and opportunity was rife

He had an offer from a place called AIMS,
A degree that would later fill him with shame,
2 years had passed with the speed of light,
The thought of the future had him in a fright..

I found myself in the same situation..
Clearly for me...a time of trepidation..
Here we were together bonded by friendship..
Staring down at a future full of hardship..

Education suddenly had lost its meaning,
The loss of money..giving us that sinking feeling..
Was this the will of the lord..he asked in wonder..
Or did he in a haste commit his biggest blunder..

The hunt for a job had begun..
He suddenly found himself on the run..
Campus Placement became a thing of the past..
Time as usual was running fast..

He thought he was sinking into the abyss..
Was Ignorance really what they call bliss?
He picked up the morning’s newsmagazine,
And looked at images of the stars on the silver screen..

The feeling of being thrown into reality..
Had hit him hard with brutality....
He was determined to give it a fight..
A start to his career was just about right...

He found himself in life’s second stage..
Realizing that maturity comes with age....
Here’s a new start to life he thought..
A few weeks passed..and the feeling began to rot..

Work was filled with stress and pain..
His new found enthusiasm began to wane..
Thoughts of fate and luck crept up his mind..
Answers to life were becoming hard to find..

A couple of job hops did transpire...
Driven by boundless hope and desire..
He still wonders about what life has in store..
If MAN HAD THE ANSWER..LIFE WOULD CERTAINLY BE A BORE!!

Composed. April 2002.

This one was actually dedicated to my dear friend Shovan Barik, who seemed to be undergoing "early career blues" back then and I remember jotting down this poem then in his "honour". King this one's for you!

Of Life's Twists and Turns

Born into this world free from worry
A bundle of joy full of merry
The tryst with life had just begun
And the coming years were spent with fun

The joy of life knew no bounds
Everyday had something knew to be found
Troubles and worries had no meaning
Oh! the joy of childhood is such a good feeling

But the seeds of change had been laid
as the joys of childhood began to fade
the adoloscent world for me had begun
Felt like change from which you couldnt run

But deep within, the child remained
A forgotten part in lifes domain
Competition and preassure began to take toll
As the clock of life went on a roll

The tests of life began to appear
Out of the blue as I feared
grades and marks were not the denominations
to pass lifes tests u needed guts and determination

The first few failures had me in a tear
hopes were gone and so were those dreams so dear
The house of hope was in shatters
Here I was, left with a heart in tatters

Just when I felt that lifes not fair,
Faith is god told me not to dispair,
As the tides of misfortune slowly turned,
The thoughts of failure had now been burnt

Courage and Determination was here to stay,
A binding force that could not sway
The lessons of life are hard to learn
As I ponder about it on lifes each turn

Ups and downs are a part of you,
Faith in self and god is needed to pass through,
FOr Seldom do we see life in its true perspective
Greed and wealth have made our lives so restrictive

The quest for truth is lifes true mission
A guiding force for men of vision
Its time we see life through our hearts
And a time for our petty cravings to depart

Lets us not take our lives for granted,
Let our minds pursue the things we really wanted,
Happiness and Joy are found in giving
Lets all try to learn lifes true meaning!

This was perhaps the very first time I tried my hand at poetry and to my surprise, I found that a couple of folks around me did appreciate it. I had written this at a time when things were looking pretty confused during the start of my career.

The Blogometer

The Ganesh Blogometer:

1 post a day on a consistant basis: Im a blog addict!
3 posts or more a day the first few days: You said it. Im totally jobless! Add some bloggin enthusiasm to it.
1 post every 2 or 3 days: Some important event prompting me to pen down my thoughts.
1 post a week: Probably a project at work that driving me nuts.
1 post every 2 weeks: Drowning at work.
1 post a month: My ehthusiam has waned or I'm in a state of suspended amnesia.
Less than the above: Drifting into the unknown regions of Calabi Yau space.

-G