It was a usual day, usual office but unusually I decided to use the public transportation. It was not a bad idea, but due to the fact that I was forced to use it since my ‘high command’ took the car, I was rather infuriated. I was in office formals with a backpack. The images of jam packed chennai MTC buses, ‘open to sky’ bus stops, rusted seats traumatized me. The ‘Baby Nagar’ bus stop was just 10 mts walk from my apartment and the bus stop was, in reel sense, an excellent handwork of the state ‘Public works department’.
The MTC has introduced several AC VOLVO buses in major routes and I’m habituated to count the passengers inside these buses whenever I happen to see them. I saw a Volvo bus (Route 570 towards CMBT) approaching and I thanked my stars for saving me from an otherwise horrifying experience.
I got into the bus and to my surprise it was full, barely a seat or two left unoccupied. All the passengers had a quick look at me, not sure whether they do this profile screening on all boarding the bus. The conductor came to my seat (In Chennai, these people stick to their designated work place, usually near the exit gate & the passengers have the responsibility to collect the tickets) & addressed me ‘Sir’. Awe struck by his politeness, I physically controlled myself from falling off the seat. The window pane was huge and chennai looked really sexy through the lens of these Volvos. They played some nice melodies, sans those honking noise the journey was pleasant and refreshing!
Most of the Volvo patrons are youngsters who either lost themselves in ‘Iphone/Ipod ‘ or seen baffled with their gal friends. MTC should have done aggressive marketing of their AC services as an alternative for personal vehicles. They should fully utilize their ‘Global positioning system’ by providing the timetable through SMS or internet. Making them as Gen Y’s style symbol would have made these services a huge hit. The profits earned from these services can then be used to subsidize the ‘white board’ (normal) services.
I had to get down near ‘Race course’ junction since the bus took a detour from the ‘five furlong road’. The reality struck me immediately and I was completely drenched in sweat within minutes, thanks to the hot & humid climate. I trekked on the pavements. The air was filled with odor from the overflowing sewage, people were seen jumping, rowing on the stagnated pool. The ‘Kai Endhi Bavans’ (Road side food shops) were busy selling their ‘mid day Thali’ in the same vicinity. An auto driver was seen negotiating the rates from his prospective customer in his own style. One drunken man was crossing the road, swinging, cuddling his co-drunker. A group of middle aged people were coming out of ‘Guindy railway station’ most likely returning home after their shift.
This is India and this is Chennai. Behind the huge shopping malls and commercial skyscrapers there lies my society. This bus ride helped me to reconnect with my society. I travelled by foot thinking about what did I ever give back to my society. The reduction of carbon footprint on that day was the smallest contribution though!
Yours,
Hari
Monday, August 16, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Ten Teething reasons why I should quit?
On a serious note, this has to be read with a ligheter vein
Interviews have become difficult to crack, I mean exit interviews. Thanks to acute talent crunch and ever increasing hiring and attrition costs, Indian companies are coming with divine ways to control attrition. Some of them give hefty salaries & provide stereotype targets with psychopath bosses. Some give moderate salary and provide the luxury of sitting on bench. (Few may not allow this option to perish) Some make a balance between Salary and work.
I decided to quit my company which falls under the last category. I decided not to face any humiliation from my boss, super boss and HR manager. Hence, I listed down issues which I believe none of the HR manager can retaliate. Some of them are given below:
1. My office websense (firewall) blocks Facebook and Naukri site thereby depriving my fundamental right.
2. My mobile phone with 10MP camera & 4GB memory is not allowed inside the ODC (Overseas development centre) due to security reasons. I was dismayed to note the double standard policy of my company which allowed the security team to install the CCTV!
3. There is no gender diversity in my process which has only male employees. I was embarrassed to face questions on 'oomph quotient' from my clients.
4. My office laptop does not recognize Blue ray/movie DVDs. The system even crashed once when I tried to copy Rajnikanth’s Sivaji from my pen drive.
5. My office bulletin board has no information on new releases.
6. My office has a 1000 seater cafeteria which does not serve liquors/cocktails. There are training halls but there are no party halls. The party animal within me has already gone on a “LTA”.
7. My office is just 5 km away from airport but 50 km away from the city. I need to commute in a non air-conditioned taxi daily. Since our nativity to the place where the office is located is questionable why don’t they provide the guesthouse accommodation within the same campus?
8. I could not doze off properly even during a good 'full meals day'. My office system has an admin controlled screen saver which says 'Work, Don’t stare' if my mouse is untouched for a minute. Worse, the screen saver scrolls in bold yellow 'DO NOT DISTURB. PRINCE HARI IS SLEEPING' if the mouse is untouched for 2 minutes.
9. My company follows US timing, US holiday, bill the customer in Dollors but pay us in Indian Rupees. Damn!
10. My office is situated in a Tropical place (Chennai). But the dress code is so strict that the tropical wear is not allowed inside the premises.
Im sure the reasons mentioned above can be appreciated by every Independent young Indian of the New India. The president of United states, Mr. Obama once spoke of shipment of jobs from Bangalore to Buffalo. Mr. President, ask the Indian IT companies when will they start treating their employees like holy cows !!!
Hilariously yours,
Hari
Friday, July 2, 2010
Tamil Culture & women- Are we talking about Male Chauvinism here?
- Hari
My office colleges were unusually giggling that Friday. It stimulated my curiosity but I hibernated it till lunch break. On the lunch table, I began the conversation and it soon killed my curiosity.
Ms. Sanghamitra who works in our bay has come in western attire was the news.
'What’s so special in that?' I asked my colleagues; After all she is wearing a shirt & trouser.
'We all thought Sanny (That’s how the client address her) is a perfect disciplined Tamil women. Am heartbroken since I always dreamt of a well cultured Tamil girl as my gal friend’
‘Who said that wearing a shirt & trouser is against Tamil culture & what’s wrong in that?’ I asked
‘Hari, come on. Gals during Tholkappium times were not wearing Kurtis & shirt. Don’t tell me. These people spoil our culture’- said Krishen.
Krishen alias Venkatakrishnan’s statement shocked me. Krishen is a Brahmin Iyengar who does Santhiyavandhanam three times a day despite his UK work timings. I was under the impression that the travel he undertook to UK for the transition work would have transitioned his ideologies since his thirunamam was missing from his forehead ever since he returned.
‘As per Hindu religion you should not travel abroad since travel across sea is forbidden. Why did you take that’, I was quick to ask this.
‘Are you seeing Sanny, coz this question is of least relevance here’ he smiled at his own joke.
‘It is. If you are not following your religion, you can’t expect them from others’.
‘Off course I follow. I perform Santhiyavandanam thrice a day & the transition travel was simply unavoidable. Anyways, religion & culture are both different. Im talking about her culture not about her religion’- Krishen looked serious.
I was in no mood to preach anyone but my mind was comparing religion & culture and the reason we guys, are concerned about culture especially when it concerns the opposite sex.
In IT industry parlance, Culture is nothing but the SOP (‘standard operating procedures’) for human life. It defines, what to do and what not to do. In a way, it is a subset to religion since religion too talks about individual discipline.
The culture has evolved over the years depending upon the civilization of the mankind and it should keep evolving as change is inevitable. So what holds good in a particular period may not hold good forever. In India, Khadi is (was!) a traditional wear which are handspun/hand-woven clothes suited for this climatic condition. Ever since we had an overdose of westernization we even started wearing blazers which are killer clothes for Indian climate. We (Men) had the exposure to westernization first. We also felt driving a two wheeler, travelling in a crowded bus is easier with trousers than with a ‘dhoti’ or ‘lungi’. Trousers soon replaced our traditional wear. After breaking the religious and cultural barriers we are seeing the present day women challenging us in every sphere of life. Some are bold and confident to shift to western attrire & some are reluctant to the change, may be on the fear of losing their cultural virginity and societal blackmails.
A 60 year grandpa wearing short & T-shirt jogs in a park and no one complains. His wife who usually jogs with a sari & canvas (!), attracted more eyeballs when she came in a ‘chudidhar’ on that blue moon day.
I browsed a Tamil daily which showed a group of gals wearing Jeans, shorts & trousers hoping near a shopping mall. The male journalist who must be a custodian of Tamil culture was bashing at these gals for spoiling the ‘Tamil’ culture. Few pages later, I saw photos of few actresses in a compromising posture. The daily carried the title 'மனம் திறக்கும் நடிகை XYZ'
In our office, as part of anniversary celebration, the employees were asked to come in traditional wear (I dunno who invented this weird idea!) They also gave list of wears which were allowed. We had a choice of Pyjama Kurtha and sharwani! It’s obvious, women were left with no other choice except Sari. The next day we had a haughty laugh at those gals struggling with their Sari.
I hate being called as MCP but is there a gender bias here? Are we using the culture as an excuse? We have grown seeing our mom & sister as ideal women. Our present day super women who love economic independence & socio-economic status have given the moms of housewife era a decent & silent burial. They are matured to choose their life, job, Partner. Do we need to preach them how to dress & about the 2000 years old cultural values? Let us give them a break!
My office colleges were unusually giggling that Friday. It stimulated my curiosity but I hibernated it till lunch break. On the lunch table, I began the conversation and it soon killed my curiosity.
Ms. Sanghamitra who works in our bay has come in western attire was the news.
'What’s so special in that?' I asked my colleagues; After all she is wearing a shirt & trouser.
'We all thought Sanny (That’s how the client address her) is a perfect disciplined Tamil women. Am heartbroken since I always dreamt of a well cultured Tamil girl as my gal friend’
‘Who said that wearing a shirt & trouser is against Tamil culture & what’s wrong in that?’ I asked
‘Hari, come on. Gals during Tholkappium times were not wearing Kurtis & shirt. Don’t tell me. These people spoil our culture’- said Krishen.
Krishen alias Venkatakrishnan’s statement shocked me. Krishen is a Brahmin Iyengar who does Santhiyavandhanam three times a day despite his UK work timings. I was under the impression that the travel he undertook to UK for the transition work would have transitioned his ideologies since his thirunamam was missing from his forehead ever since he returned.
‘As per Hindu religion you should not travel abroad since travel across sea is forbidden. Why did you take that’, I was quick to ask this.
‘Are you seeing Sanny, coz this question is of least relevance here’ he smiled at his own joke.
‘It is. If you are not following your religion, you can’t expect them from others’.
‘Off course I follow. I perform Santhiyavandanam thrice a day & the transition travel was simply unavoidable. Anyways, religion & culture are both different. Im talking about her culture not about her religion’- Krishen looked serious.
I was in no mood to preach anyone but my mind was comparing religion & culture and the reason we guys, are concerned about culture especially when it concerns the opposite sex.
In IT industry parlance, Culture is nothing but the SOP (‘standard operating procedures’) for human life. It defines, what to do and what not to do. In a way, it is a subset to religion since religion too talks about individual discipline.
The culture has evolved over the years depending upon the civilization of the mankind and it should keep evolving as change is inevitable. So what holds good in a particular period may not hold good forever. In India, Khadi is (was!) a traditional wear which are handspun/hand-woven clothes suited for this climatic condition. Ever since we had an overdose of westernization we even started wearing blazers which are killer clothes for Indian climate. We (Men) had the exposure to westernization first. We also felt driving a two wheeler, travelling in a crowded bus is easier with trousers than with a ‘dhoti’ or ‘lungi’. Trousers soon replaced our traditional wear. After breaking the religious and cultural barriers we are seeing the present day women challenging us in every sphere of life. Some are bold and confident to shift to western attrire & some are reluctant to the change, may be on the fear of losing their cultural virginity and societal blackmails.
A 60 year grandpa wearing short & T-shirt jogs in a park and no one complains. His wife who usually jogs with a sari & canvas (!), attracted more eyeballs when she came in a ‘chudidhar’ on that blue moon day.
I browsed a Tamil daily which showed a group of gals wearing Jeans, shorts & trousers hoping near a shopping mall. The male journalist who must be a custodian of Tamil culture was bashing at these gals for spoiling the ‘Tamil’ culture. Few pages later, I saw photos of few actresses in a compromising posture. The daily carried the title 'மனம் திறக்கும் நடிகை XYZ'
In our office, as part of anniversary celebration, the employees were asked to come in traditional wear (I dunno who invented this weird idea!) They also gave list of wears which were allowed. We had a choice of Pyjama Kurtha and sharwani! It’s obvious, women were left with no other choice except Sari. The next day we had a haughty laugh at those gals struggling with their Sari.
I hate being called as MCP but is there a gender bias here? Are we using the culture as an excuse? We have grown seeing our mom & sister as ideal women. Our present day super women who love economic independence & socio-economic status have given the moms of housewife era a decent & silent burial. They are matured to choose their life, job, Partner. Do we need to preach them how to dress & about the 2000 years old cultural values? Let us give them a break!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Indian demo’CRAZY’
- Hari
August fifteen: The very mention of this date immediately brings the joy of (a) Public holiday (b) Television special programs (c) Discounts on our favorite outlets. Give us 2 more minutes, and we will realize that its Independence day within the stipulated time. We celebrate this day because our country became democratic after centuries of colonial rule. More than six decades since independence, I use to think, whether we are enjoying the fruits of democracy in the right way?
India became the largest democratic country, as the definition goes the government of the people, for the people and BY the people. Nehru travelled across country educating people that they had to choose their own leader. Dr Ambedkar drafted the constitution, which best suited the country at that time. The constitution allowed even the illiterates to contest elections since the majority of the country's population was uneducated. This yielded the desired result since most of our current politicians/leaders are uneducated while the majority of the country's population is educated, atleast in terms of average literacy level.
Our leaders post independence had a vision on how to make the country progressive when the majority of the population was clueless. Today, the reverse has happened.
Democracy allowed every citizen the right to follow his own religion, faith, language. Today we have innumerable religions, caste, sub-caste thus requiring the need for caste based census after six decades of independence (!). The growth of number of castes, linguistic politics might have surpassed the growth of the GDP of this country itself.
Dr Ambedkar spent several thousand hours in drafting the constitution of this country. Today, we have several laws, which if indexed can run more than the constitution of this country. Yet none of the law is implementable in its true spirit since abiding a law defeats the very purpose of democracy.
Six decades of self ruling, we still have problems of illiteracy, social inequality, poverty, unemployment. Though the change is happening, this transition process is very slow.
Some of the reasons that are plaguing India which I could think of:
Politicians & political system:
Indian politicians are known for corruption and unethical practices. Politicians shift parties, loot public money, encourages short sighted policies, woo voters with freebies and most importantly fool the people. Our politicians are always in corruption spree & famous in spreading corruption in all the fields without any discrimination. Some of the famous scams are Coffin box scam, cattle feed scam, Bofors Scam, Spectrum scam & the list goes on.
The political system does not allow the common man to take public cause easily. One has to join a public party & by the time one gets elevated as minister or nominated for ministership, he/she gets soaked in the old age surpassing the retirement age. Running the political party is as costly as running the country itself & naturally the first job is to reap returns from the investments already made. The complete lack of accountability from the politicians is something which irks the fellow citizens more than the corruption. Nobody takes responsibility for any manmade disasters like terrorism.
There is company law which regulate companies, there is SEBI which regulates the market. Why don't we have an independent governing body to regulate the political system & politicians?
We should lay down professional ethics to be followed by the politicians while in power. In this way, those who throw mikes can be thrown out of power for the indiscipline act. There should be a training academy which trains & certifies the aspiring politicians. A person can contest election only after being certified in this academy. Minimum education qualification like arts or science degree should be stipulated. One should possess adequate knowledge for planning & to convert plan to action.
Babus:
The Hindi speaking clerk who has little knowledge in english is known as Babus. In Indian context, we refer Government employees as Babus. When British was ruling India, the creamy layer of the population who were given education in English medium was offered Government jobs, which ensured high pay package (comparatively)! The British framed several rules which were bureaucratic and used it to suppress Indians. The same bureaucratic rules are even now used by our Babus & they continue to suppress our fellow people. Many countries in the world has reformed the way government works but India sadly remain in the stone-age era. Several foreign investors have been highlighting the 'Red Tapism' issue but any attempt of reformation leads to flash strike in the name of democracy jeopardizing the entire government.
A visit to any government office & one can see half or full bald clerk, sitting on a teakwood table, with loads & loads of file completely engulfed in the dust coming out from those decade old files. Their punctuality & productivity were duly rewarded by promotions, which are based on seniority. The periodic Dearness allowances is given for their 'Dearless' behavior.
There are several people friendly policies which has gone haywire, credits to our babus. The present government's flagship program 'National rural employment Guarantee' (NREG) scheme was declared success since the wastage in this scheme was only between 20 to 40% (On the estimated $8b spending on rural schemes, 20% would mean Rs. 7200 crores. Wow!) The total wastage in PDS scheme (Public distribution scheme) was astounding 73%, which must be an unofficial Guiness book of world records.
It's tempting to write so many ideas, well, nothing is going to happen in our democratic country.
Judicial system:
Over 3 million cases are pending in India's 21 high courts, and an astounding 26.3 million cases are pending in subordinate courts across the country. At the same time, there are almost a 250,000 under-trials languishing in jails across the country. Of these, some 2,069 have been in jail for more than five years, even as their guilt or innocence is yet to be ascertained. This has been revealed by home ministry's department of justice, under a Right to Information Act. While this is the scenario, our Lords and My Lords goes for a summer vacation. (Wow!) These cases were pending not because of shortage of lawyers. More the duration of cases, the more the money they make.
Justice delayed is Justice denied. The judgment for the Bhopal Gas disaster which killed around 25000 people was delivered in June 2010, nearly 25 years after the tragedy at the ratio of 3 deaths per day. By delivering judgment imprisoning the culprits for 2 years, the court has done the unjust.
Why don't the governments insist deadlines for closure of cases & give ceiling on number of adjournments? The judgments can be fed into the computer and most of the regular cases can be disposed by using artificial intelligence. Why not e-judgment?
India has strong moral values and was once considered as the land of 'dharma'. The justice is not a synonym of dharma since the justice is based on a particular law. In most of the cases, the justice is a mere pronouncement of the underlying law & if the law itself is unjustifiable, the judgment does not deliver the 'dharma'. Most of our laws are obsolete and needs to be rewritten based on changing times. Recently, the criminal law on 'Rape' was suitably amended in order to remove the gender bias. But this has to be done more proactively.
People:
All the politicians, Babus, are not made. They are from the people. Our tolerance & carelessness is also responsible for their actions. Evading tax, Vote for Money, offering bribe are some of the serious blunders while disposing the garbage on the streets/roads, disseminating religious information in public places, causing pollution, driving recklessly or drunken driving, damaging public properties, encouraging child labor in domestic help etc are some of the common mistake which we never realize as mistakes.
Democracy is the government by the people. It is THE PEOPLE who is responsible for the success of democracy. It should not go the saying in Tamil 'Kurangu Kayil Poo Malai' If we act as a responsible citizen considering the national interest it WILL make the difference. Won't they?
- Hariraam
August fifteen: The very mention of this date immediately brings the joy of (a) Public holiday (b) Television special programs (c) Discounts on our favorite outlets. Give us 2 more minutes, and we will realize that its Independence day within the stipulated time. We celebrate this day because our country became democratic after centuries of colonial rule. More than six decades since independence, I use to think, whether we are enjoying the fruits of democracy in the right way?
India became the largest democratic country, as the definition goes the government of the people, for the people and BY the people. Nehru travelled across country educating people that they had to choose their own leader. Dr Ambedkar drafted the constitution, which best suited the country at that time. The constitution allowed even the illiterates to contest elections since the majority of the country's population was uneducated. This yielded the desired result since most of our current politicians/leaders are uneducated while the majority of the country's population is educated, atleast in terms of average literacy level.
Our leaders post independence had a vision on how to make the country progressive when the majority of the population was clueless. Today, the reverse has happened.
Democracy allowed every citizen the right to follow his own religion, faith, language. Today we have innumerable religions, caste, sub-caste thus requiring the need for caste based census after six decades of independence (!). The growth of number of castes, linguistic politics might have surpassed the growth of the GDP of this country itself.
Dr Ambedkar spent several thousand hours in drafting the constitution of this country. Today, we have several laws, which if indexed can run more than the constitution of this country. Yet none of the law is implementable in its true spirit since abiding a law defeats the very purpose of democracy.
Six decades of self ruling, we still have problems of illiteracy, social inequality, poverty, unemployment. Though the change is happening, this transition process is very slow.
Some of the reasons that are plaguing India which I could think of:
Politicians & political system:
Indian politicians are known for corruption and unethical practices. Politicians shift parties, loot public money, encourages short sighted policies, woo voters with freebies and most importantly fool the people. Our politicians are always in corruption spree & famous in spreading corruption in all the fields without any discrimination. Some of the famous scams are Coffin box scam, cattle feed scam, Bofors Scam, Spectrum scam & the list goes on.
The political system does not allow the common man to take public cause easily. One has to join a public party & by the time one gets elevated as minister or nominated for ministership, he/she gets soaked in the old age surpassing the retirement age. Running the political party is as costly as running the country itself & naturally the first job is to reap returns from the investments already made. The complete lack of accountability from the politicians is something which irks the fellow citizens more than the corruption. Nobody takes responsibility for any manmade disasters like terrorism.
There is company law which regulate companies, there is SEBI which regulates the market. Why don't we have an independent governing body to regulate the political system & politicians?
We should lay down professional ethics to be followed by the politicians while in power. In this way, those who throw mikes can be thrown out of power for the indiscipline act. There should be a training academy which trains & certifies the aspiring politicians. A person can contest election only after being certified in this academy. Minimum education qualification like arts or science degree should be stipulated. One should possess adequate knowledge for planning & to convert plan to action.
Babus:
The Hindi speaking clerk who has little knowledge in english is known as Babus. In Indian context, we refer Government employees as Babus. When British was ruling India, the creamy layer of the population who were given education in English medium was offered Government jobs, which ensured high pay package (comparatively)! The British framed several rules which were bureaucratic and used it to suppress Indians. The same bureaucratic rules are even now used by our Babus & they continue to suppress our fellow people. Many countries in the world has reformed the way government works but India sadly remain in the stone-age era. Several foreign investors have been highlighting the 'Red Tapism' issue but any attempt of reformation leads to flash strike in the name of democracy jeopardizing the entire government.
A visit to any government office & one can see half or full bald clerk, sitting on a teakwood table, with loads & loads of file completely engulfed in the dust coming out from those decade old files. Their punctuality & productivity were duly rewarded by promotions, which are based on seniority. The periodic Dearness allowances is given for their 'Dearless' behavior.
There are several people friendly policies which has gone haywire, credits to our babus. The present government's flagship program 'National rural employment Guarantee' (NREG) scheme was declared success since the wastage in this scheme was only between 20 to 40% (On the estimated $8b spending on rural schemes, 20% would mean Rs. 7200 crores. Wow!) The total wastage in PDS scheme (Public distribution scheme) was astounding 73%, which must be an unofficial Guiness book of world records.
It's tempting to write so many ideas, well, nothing is going to happen in our democratic country.
Judicial system:
Over 3 million cases are pending in India's 21 high courts, and an astounding 26.3 million cases are pending in subordinate courts across the country. At the same time, there are almost a 250,000 under-trials languishing in jails across the country. Of these, some 2,069 have been in jail for more than five years, even as their guilt or innocence is yet to be ascertained. This has been revealed by home ministry's department of justice, under a Right to Information Act. While this is the scenario, our Lords and My Lords goes for a summer vacation. (Wow!) These cases were pending not because of shortage of lawyers. More the duration of cases, the more the money they make.
Justice delayed is Justice denied. The judgment for the Bhopal Gas disaster which killed around 25000 people was delivered in June 2010, nearly 25 years after the tragedy at the ratio of 3 deaths per day. By delivering judgment imprisoning the culprits for 2 years, the court has done the unjust.
Why don't the governments insist deadlines for closure of cases & give ceiling on number of adjournments? The judgments can be fed into the computer and most of the regular cases can be disposed by using artificial intelligence. Why not e-judgment?
India has strong moral values and was once considered as the land of 'dharma'. The justice is not a synonym of dharma since the justice is based on a particular law. In most of the cases, the justice is a mere pronouncement of the underlying law & if the law itself is unjustifiable, the judgment does not deliver the 'dharma'. Most of our laws are obsolete and needs to be rewritten based on changing times. Recently, the criminal law on 'Rape' was suitably amended in order to remove the gender bias. But this has to be done more proactively.
People:
All the politicians, Babus, are not made. They are from the people. Our tolerance & carelessness is also responsible for their actions. Evading tax, Vote for Money, offering bribe are some of the serious blunders while disposing the garbage on the streets/roads, disseminating religious information in public places, causing pollution, driving recklessly or drunken driving, damaging public properties, encouraging child labor in domestic help etc are some of the common mistake which we never realize as mistakes.
Democracy is the government by the people. It is THE PEOPLE who is responsible for the success of democracy. It should not go the saying in Tamil 'Kurangu Kayil Poo Malai' If we act as a responsible citizen considering the national interest it WILL make the difference. Won't they?
- Hariraam
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The Road ‘NOT’ to be taken
- Hari
In the hustle & bustle of urban Indian life, one has to always negotiate with narrow lanes, haphazard parking, over speeding vehicles & the worst traffic sense of our nuisance, sorry, citizens. If this has to be done during peak hours, where the offices are located elsewhere in the planet, it cost us dearly in terms of health bills. It happened during such peak time when I was returning from my parent’s house located near Choolaimedu (Chennai) driving straight to office. The lane heading to the main road was just 15 feet wide with pedestrians, two/four wheelers, heavy commercial vehicles, cyclist all sharing the same road space, was in a complete mess.
I accelerated at every possible moment, almost hitting the pedestrian who suddenly poked from a corner so mercilessly. An auto was heading straight towards me, took a sudden turn which if not done in a ‘nano second’ would have hit my bonnet. A middle aged, bald headed helmet less gentleman, was turning his head some 30 to 45 degrees signaling a right turn. I think he always forget to use his indicators. But having spent more than ‘one third’ of my estimated lifetime in India, i'm somehow used to all these forms of driving.
I noticed a two wheeler rider thro my car’s ‘rear view mirror’, a near replica of Chris Pfizer, driving fast so dangerously. The Indian ego of not letting the fellow Indians to overtake you hit my senses and I speeded up my car. In the first 2 sharp blind curves, I succeeded. Then I encountered a huge speed breaker where I had to reduce the speed. This guy came near me & was about to begin the conversation. I did not want to let him speak out & wanted to yell at him first, as he was over-speeding. (Without realizing that I was equally bad) His body language was calm, subtle & he politely told me to close my car door properly! I realized I was driving the car without locking the door & who knows, I would have been thrown out of the vehicle on the previous sharp curves!
I felt ashamed at my own act. Why did I drive so recklessly? What makes me so impatient & why such a preconceived notion on that biker? We talk about business etiquette, why don’t we have the road etiquette? We don’t follow road rules & if someone does, we laugh at it. We honk without realizing it as a ‘indiscipline’ act. Everybody has some urgency & in the mad rush to come first, we have completely lost our tolerance. Unfortunately we are ruled by short sighted, corrupt politicians. Unfortunately, all our laws are never implemented in true spirits. After all, our responsible act makes a difference! Don’t they?
- Hariraam
In the hustle & bustle of urban Indian life, one has to always negotiate with narrow lanes, haphazard parking, over speeding vehicles & the worst traffic sense of our nuisance, sorry, citizens. If this has to be done during peak hours, where the offices are located elsewhere in the planet, it cost us dearly in terms of health bills. It happened during such peak time when I was returning from my parent’s house located near Choolaimedu (Chennai) driving straight to office. The lane heading to the main road was just 15 feet wide with pedestrians, two/four wheelers, heavy commercial vehicles, cyclist all sharing the same road space, was in a complete mess.
I accelerated at every possible moment, almost hitting the pedestrian who suddenly poked from a corner so mercilessly. An auto was heading straight towards me, took a sudden turn which if not done in a ‘nano second’ would have hit my bonnet. A middle aged, bald headed helmet less gentleman, was turning his head some 30 to 45 degrees signaling a right turn. I think he always forget to use his indicators. But having spent more than ‘one third’ of my estimated lifetime in India, i'm somehow used to all these forms of driving.
I noticed a two wheeler rider thro my car’s ‘rear view mirror’, a near replica of Chris Pfizer, driving fast so dangerously. The Indian ego of not letting the fellow Indians to overtake you hit my senses and I speeded up my car. In the first 2 sharp blind curves, I succeeded. Then I encountered a huge speed breaker where I had to reduce the speed. This guy came near me & was about to begin the conversation. I did not want to let him speak out & wanted to yell at him first, as he was over-speeding. (Without realizing that I was equally bad) His body language was calm, subtle & he politely told me to close my car door properly! I realized I was driving the car without locking the door & who knows, I would have been thrown out of the vehicle on the previous sharp curves!
I felt ashamed at my own act. Why did I drive so recklessly? What makes me so impatient & why such a preconceived notion on that biker? We talk about business etiquette, why don’t we have the road etiquette? We don’t follow road rules & if someone does, we laugh at it. We honk without realizing it as a ‘indiscipline’ act. Everybody has some urgency & in the mad rush to come first, we have completely lost our tolerance. Unfortunately we are ruled by short sighted, corrupt politicians. Unfortunately, all our laws are never implemented in true spirits. After all, our responsible act makes a difference! Don’t they?
- Hariraam
Monday, May 10, 2010
The MUSA story
- Hari
It was in February 2006, when self, Vinaya and Deepa travelled to Goa for an audit assignment. We met a foreigner (Think a Russian) in the general compartment. He was fair complexioned, pale and was looking very funny with his short kurta & trousers. Infact his saffron colored kurta had some Sanskrit words & it was giving him a complete ‘third world’ look.
The audit assignment was planned for a month and we were so thrilled about the fact that the entire stay had been arranged in the Taj Exotica hotel, one of the finest luxury hotels in Asia. We kept chatting about our previous audit assignments but this man was so bored that he kept looking at us. At times, when our eyes met he smiled. In India, we are very hesitant to communicate with the strangers and when the other person does we become suspicious.
We were very hungry & waited for Arakkonam junction the first stop after Chennai central. As soon as the train stopped I rushed to a nearby shop and got 2 flavors of Lays chips. Vinaya was too good to offer her portion to this guy, but he refused. I tried convincing this guy to take some piece explaining that it was a product of Pepsi co and India has these so called hi-fi processed foods.
In a couple of minutes, we finished our portions. Deepa gestured she was still hungry. Noting this, he took his trolley bag and to our surprise he was keeping loads & loads of bananas. I made a quick count and it was more than 2 dozens. This time it is his turn to convince us to take some bananas! The funny thing was, we had to hear about goodness of bananas from a Russian national. He infact advised us to avoid these packed foods which has processed fat that increases blood cholesterol.
The next day, we reached our hotel. We were completely exhausted and thought of ordering thro room service. The waiter on the line gave some options on the milkshakes. Vinaya ordered three banana milkshakes and smiled at me!
- Hariraam
It was in February 2006, when self, Vinaya and Deepa travelled to Goa for an audit assignment. We met a foreigner (Think a Russian) in the general compartment. He was fair complexioned, pale and was looking very funny with his short kurta & trousers. Infact his saffron colored kurta had some Sanskrit words & it was giving him a complete ‘third world’ look.
The audit assignment was planned for a month and we were so thrilled about the fact that the entire stay had been arranged in the Taj Exotica hotel, one of the finest luxury hotels in Asia. We kept chatting about our previous audit assignments but this man was so bored that he kept looking at us. At times, when our eyes met he smiled. In India, we are very hesitant to communicate with the strangers and when the other person does we become suspicious.
We were very hungry & waited for Arakkonam junction the first stop after Chennai central. As soon as the train stopped I rushed to a nearby shop and got 2 flavors of Lays chips. Vinaya was too good to offer her portion to this guy, but he refused. I tried convincing this guy to take some piece explaining that it was a product of Pepsi co and India has these so called hi-fi processed foods.
In a couple of minutes, we finished our portions. Deepa gestured she was still hungry. Noting this, he took his trolley bag and to our surprise he was keeping loads & loads of bananas. I made a quick count and it was more than 2 dozens. This time it is his turn to convince us to take some bananas! The funny thing was, we had to hear about goodness of bananas from a Russian national. He infact advised us to avoid these packed foods which has processed fat that increases blood cholesterol.
The next day, we reached our hotel. We were completely exhausted and thought of ordering thro room service. The waiter on the line gave some options on the milkshakes. Vinaya ordered three banana milkshakes and smiled at me!
- Hariraam
Monday, March 29, 2010
Industrialization in Tamilnadu & emphasis on value creation
- Hari
The past several years has been good for Chennai & Tamilnadu, thanks to the efforts taken by the state government in attracting major automobile MNC and several IT/ITES companies. Its gives immense pride for a true chennaite like me on the very thought that my city is second only to Bangalore in IT/ITES space and one of the major automobile cluster of India.
But what I feel that the government has failed rather should have done is ‘branding the city’. The city scores high with a ‘low cost destination’ tag & when it comes to perception, Chennai looses to Delhi/Gurgaon, Bangalore & even Hyderabad. The reason is, we are NOT moving up the value chain.
In rupee terms, we have attracted more than 20000 crores of investment in the last 4 years alone. But on a close look, these investments have been spent on the ‘machines’ and other intangible things such as ‘land’ & not on the main factor of production ‘labour’. These MNC come here for the cost advantage & in any manufacturing companies the main factor of production is ‘Materials’ and ‘Machines’& perhaps the last emphasis is the ‘Men/Labour’ as most of the production is automated. In a way, the government is providing the employment opportunities but not really moving them in the value chain. Our employees still work under poor work condition, get the minimum wages or little more than what they could have got in the tier 2 or tier 3 towns. This is also evident in the frequently increasing labour unrest & formation of several labour unions. The management layer of these MNC are occupied by the expats (foreign nationals) and hence the profit from running these operations are either galloped by them or repatriated to foreign countries.
The sudden increase in industrialization has lead to migration of youth from smaller towns & smaller cities to Chennai. Those who are not willing to settle down for these low paying jobs end up in migrating to near-by cities like Bangalore or Mumbai or to gulf countries.
While it is good to have manufacturing industries since it helps in equivalent growth across the section of society (from helper to floor supervisor to production manager) the government should have given much more focus to service industries. For instance, in an IT company, more than 50% of the cost is spent on direct salaries & investment for any service company is nothing but their people alone. From recruiting employees, paying for their retention, staff welfare the cost of most of the service companies such as Banking, IT/ITES goes to employees. It’s just not service industries any labour oriented activites such as Consulting, R&D emphasis higher investments on labour. The service industries also create indirect employment like cabs & transportation, real estate, tourism & entertainment etc. We may be second in IT exports but again the product offerings are nothing but BPO/KPO, testing & maintenance activities which requires miniscule talent & thus they are low paying jobs.
Companies like Hyndai, Motorola, Nokia, Dell have their production facility in Chennai whereas their R&D centres or corporate office is either located in Bangalore or Hyderabad.
What we can do:
A state like Maharashtra has several global cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and government is keen on developing new world class Greenfield cities with all modern amenities. Gujarat does not have one metropolis but still is a leader in industrialization & several new cities are coming up on the Delhi- Mumbai industrial corridor. We should focus on developing multiple manufacturing clusters in Tamilnad & all manufacturing industries, IT/ITES which involve BPO, testing, maintenance activities can be shifted to those tier-2 cities. Those involve design, R&D, consulting, Application development should be located in big cities like Chennai or Coimbatore.
Tamilnadu still depends on the local talent. Though we have 250+ engineering colleges and several arts colleges, we do not have the quality of resources locally to attract industries across all sectors & all activities. The long term solution is to create a strong fundamentals like good primary & secondary education. But the short tem solution is to attract the talent across the country to Tamilnadu. Setting up world class technical institutions, business schools, foreign institutions (like the Virginia university near Puducherry) will allow influx of several students from different part of the country who can turn as potential workforce.
The state & Chennai in particular should turn to be ‘youngster friendly’ city allowing cross sectional society, multi cultered people.
A city like chennai if it has to be truly global city, should have more ‘knowledge parks’. These knowledge parks will have Finance, IT & R&D SEZ. More emphasis should be given to have their corporate office in these knowledge parks that’s where the creamy layer of the company will be situated. These knowledge parks should not be coming in the already congested city but on a new Greenfield city outside Chennai (Similar to Noida & greater Noida)
A higher emphasis should be given in creating a truly world class infrastructure. Instead of proposing elevated or BRTS corridor inside the city leading to land acquisition hassles & there by multiple court cases, we can instead have a new city with all these modern infrastructure, designated commercial & residential areas, place for the international school/college campuses, outside the city limits.
Chennai should host several high end business & investor summit, international sports event. The government should encourage more industries to have their product launch from here. For instance, the automobile show, auto racing shows, can be hosted in Chennai instead of Delhi since the city has the highest automobile production capacity. More fashion shows since Tamilnadu has a biggest textile cluster too (Tirupur & Coimbatore) Activities like this & much more will put Chennai on global map and helps in creating the brand for Tamilnadu. In a long run there is going to be a perception change.
More public- private participation should be encouraged. The government can have a ‘real estate’ specific policy so that more & more real estate players will come forward for infrastructure creation. Creation of private cities like ‘Lavasa’ near Pune, requires more private public participation. The promotion of these projects by these real estate player will automatically create the much needed publicity.
- Hariraam
The past several years has been good for Chennai & Tamilnadu, thanks to the efforts taken by the state government in attracting major automobile MNC and several IT/ITES companies. Its gives immense pride for a true chennaite like me on the very thought that my city is second only to Bangalore in IT/ITES space and one of the major automobile cluster of India.
But what I feel that the government has failed rather should have done is ‘branding the city’. The city scores high with a ‘low cost destination’ tag & when it comes to perception, Chennai looses to Delhi/Gurgaon, Bangalore & even Hyderabad. The reason is, we are NOT moving up the value chain.
In rupee terms, we have attracted more than 20000 crores of investment in the last 4 years alone. But on a close look, these investments have been spent on the ‘machines’ and other intangible things such as ‘land’ & not on the main factor of production ‘labour’. These MNC come here for the cost advantage & in any manufacturing companies the main factor of production is ‘Materials’ and ‘Machines’& perhaps the last emphasis is the ‘Men/Labour’ as most of the production is automated. In a way, the government is providing the employment opportunities but not really moving them in the value chain. Our employees still work under poor work condition, get the minimum wages or little more than what they could have got in the tier 2 or tier 3 towns. This is also evident in the frequently increasing labour unrest & formation of several labour unions. The management layer of these MNC are occupied by the expats (foreign nationals) and hence the profit from running these operations are either galloped by them or repatriated to foreign countries.
The sudden increase in industrialization has lead to migration of youth from smaller towns & smaller cities to Chennai. Those who are not willing to settle down for these low paying jobs end up in migrating to near-by cities like Bangalore or Mumbai or to gulf countries.
While it is good to have manufacturing industries since it helps in equivalent growth across the section of society (from helper to floor supervisor to production manager) the government should have given much more focus to service industries. For instance, in an IT company, more than 50% of the cost is spent on direct salaries & investment for any service company is nothing but their people alone. From recruiting employees, paying for their retention, staff welfare the cost of most of the service companies such as Banking, IT/ITES goes to employees. It’s just not service industries any labour oriented activites such as Consulting, R&D emphasis higher investments on labour. The service industries also create indirect employment like cabs & transportation, real estate, tourism & entertainment etc. We may be second in IT exports but again the product offerings are nothing but BPO/KPO, testing & maintenance activities which requires miniscule talent & thus they are low paying jobs.
Companies like Hyndai, Motorola, Nokia, Dell have their production facility in Chennai whereas their R&D centres or corporate office is either located in Bangalore or Hyderabad.
What we can do:
A state like Maharashtra has several global cities like Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and government is keen on developing new world class Greenfield cities with all modern amenities. Gujarat does not have one metropolis but still is a leader in industrialization & several new cities are coming up on the Delhi- Mumbai industrial corridor. We should focus on developing multiple manufacturing clusters in Tamilnad & all manufacturing industries, IT/ITES which involve BPO, testing, maintenance activities can be shifted to those tier-2 cities. Those involve design, R&D, consulting, Application development should be located in big cities like Chennai or Coimbatore.
Tamilnadu still depends on the local talent. Though we have 250+ engineering colleges and several arts colleges, we do not have the quality of resources locally to attract industries across all sectors & all activities. The long term solution is to create a strong fundamentals like good primary & secondary education. But the short tem solution is to attract the talent across the country to Tamilnadu. Setting up world class technical institutions, business schools, foreign institutions (like the Virginia university near Puducherry) will allow influx of several students from different part of the country who can turn as potential workforce.
The state & Chennai in particular should turn to be ‘youngster friendly’ city allowing cross sectional society, multi cultered people.
A city like chennai if it has to be truly global city, should have more ‘knowledge parks’. These knowledge parks will have Finance, IT & R&D SEZ. More emphasis should be given to have their corporate office in these knowledge parks that’s where the creamy layer of the company will be situated. These knowledge parks should not be coming in the already congested city but on a new Greenfield city outside Chennai (Similar to Noida & greater Noida)
A higher emphasis should be given in creating a truly world class infrastructure. Instead of proposing elevated or BRTS corridor inside the city leading to land acquisition hassles & there by multiple court cases, we can instead have a new city with all these modern infrastructure, designated commercial & residential areas, place for the international school/college campuses, outside the city limits.
Chennai should host several high end business & investor summit, international sports event. The government should encourage more industries to have their product launch from here. For instance, the automobile show, auto racing shows, can be hosted in Chennai instead of Delhi since the city has the highest automobile production capacity. More fashion shows since Tamilnadu has a biggest textile cluster too (Tirupur & Coimbatore) Activities like this & much more will put Chennai on global map and helps in creating the brand for Tamilnadu. In a long run there is going to be a perception change.
More public- private participation should be encouraged. The government can have a ‘real estate’ specific policy so that more & more real estate players will come forward for infrastructure creation. Creation of private cities like ‘Lavasa’ near Pune, requires more private public participation. The promotion of these projects by these real estate player will automatically create the much needed publicity.
- Hariraam
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)