In our day to day life we fail to notice these people who are risking their lives for us. Some of them have definitely caught my attention. I would like to emphasize the kind of risk they take in their day to day job in this blog.
1.The Building Masons: When the tall edifices are being built, it is the masons who risk their life during the construction work. I have seen masons who paint the walls or cementing the bricks in the top portion of a building just by hanging on the scaffoldings. When the roofing is done they have to expose themselves to the scorching sun for the whole day which is a daunting job for many of us.
2.Pizza Delivery boys: In Chennai I have witnessed the Pizza delivery boys who whizz along in their bikes though the busy roads to deliver the order on time. The only reason is people who want everything delivered at home. The Pizza outlets are greedy to make money and make offers like, If the pizza delivery is delayed, it would be delivered absolutely free of cost. For this the poor delivery boy suffers.
3.The Farmer: The farmers risk their life by venturing out to the field where the chance of bitten by a venomous snake is more. Records say that in India on an average 5000 farmers are bitten by poisonous snakes and die due to the venom.
4.Last but not the least the NSG Commandos who risk their lives while combating with terror. The recent 26/11 attacks on Mumbai has shown that they are the real martyrs of this country.
Point to ponder: Think of the wages all the above people are paid with. This happens only in India. If the readers feel other professions which are similar please share as your comments.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Friday, November 21, 2008
Luv Trivandrum
Things that make me feel I am back home
After moving out to Chennai, following things in Chennai makes me feel as if I am still in Trivandrum (My own back yard) and also causes Dejavu sometimes.
1. When I see a lot of KL-01 registration cars n bikes in Chennai Roads.
2. When I visit Kumarakom restaurant at least once in a month
3. When I see someone chatting in Malayalam
4. When it rains heavily in Chennai
5. While riding through Besant Avenue it makes me feel as if I am in Kowdiar Square in Trivandrum
6. When I go for a stroll in Thiruvanmiyur beach makes me feel as if I am in Shankhumugam beach.
7. The Chennai Ribbon building is like our Secretariat
8. AMM School at Kotturpuram resembles the Arya central school where I did my schooling. The uniform is the same. Steel Gray trousers and white shirt.
9. The CLRI housing colony at Adayar makes me feel as if I am in VSSC housing colony in Thumba.
10. The Aavin milk bar underneath the Adyar flyover makes me feel as if I am in Milma milk bar in Trivandrum Museum.
Still I do miss a lot at Trivandrum like
1. The Envestnet Gang (Chandru,Ram,Jegan,Sujith,JP….)
2. Puttu + Mutton from Buhari
3. Pazham pori(banana roast)
4. Fish Delicacies
5. Cool nights
6. My sweet home
7. Rain
8. Movie in Kripa theatre
9. Onam fest @ Kanaka kunnu palace
10. Weekend booze parties with Envestnet gang
11. Last but not least My Dad, my Mom and my Brother – luv them a lot.
I always see this when I am free at Office. Thanks to Google.
After all how can one forget the place where he lived more than 25 years? I am proud and lucky to live the most important part in my life at Trivandrum. I will soon spend the second important spell of my life in Trivandrum.
After moving out to Chennai, following things in Chennai makes me feel as if I am still in Trivandrum (My own back yard) and also causes Dejavu sometimes.
1. When I see a lot of KL-01 registration cars n bikes in Chennai Roads.
2. When I visit Kumarakom restaurant at least once in a month
3. When I see someone chatting in Malayalam
4. When it rains heavily in Chennai
5. While riding through Besant Avenue it makes me feel as if I am in Kowdiar Square in Trivandrum
6. When I go for a stroll in Thiruvanmiyur beach makes me feel as if I am in Shankhumugam beach.
7. The Chennai Ribbon building is like our Secretariat
8. AMM School at Kotturpuram resembles the Arya central school where I did my schooling. The uniform is the same. Steel Gray trousers and white shirt.
9. The CLRI housing colony at Adayar makes me feel as if I am in VSSC housing colony in Thumba.
10. The Aavin milk bar underneath the Adyar flyover makes me feel as if I am in Milma milk bar in Trivandrum Museum.
Still I do miss a lot at Trivandrum like
1. The Envestnet Gang (Chandru,Ram,Jegan,Sujith,JP….)
2. Puttu + Mutton from Buhari
3. Pazham pori(banana roast)
4. Fish Delicacies
5. Cool nights
6. My sweet home
7. Rain
8. Movie in Kripa theatre
9. Onam fest @ Kanaka kunnu palace
10. Weekend booze parties with Envestnet gang
11. Last but not least My Dad, my Mom and my Brother – luv them a lot.
I always see this when I am free at Office. Thanks to Google.
After all how can one forget the place where he lived more than 25 years? I am proud and lucky to live the most important part in my life at Trivandrum. I will soon spend the second important spell of my life in Trivandrum.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
A memorable trip
This blog is about the trip we recently had to a place called Singarayakonda in A.P district in South India. It was basically a 1 day trip. The plan was to attend a wedding of our friend and return back to Chennai the next day morning. We started our journey in a gleeful way. We boarded the train (Pinakini Express) which heads up to the place we wanted to be. It was basically a 4 hour journey. We booked our tickets in an AC Chair car compartment and got ourselves settled in our seats. The compartment was comfier than other chair cars which I have traveled. See some snaps below.
Me and Bose
Aravind and Gnanakumar
Bose upset since I took his snack
We all reached the Singarayakonda station by 6:30 PM. We had a cab waiting for us in the railway station. The cab took us to a place where we could go and refresh ourselves. We all got dressed up and were ready to go to the wedding hall. The same cab took us to the wedding reception. The place of the wedding reception was a typical countryside and it was very crowded. Most of the people seemed to be very rustic. There was music and dance choir who were singing some Telugu (South Indian Language) songs blatantly. One of the member in the choir announced that the next song would be from Chiru’s (Andhra Superstar) movie. But a group of people opposed it. The reason was simple and obvious, the actor belongs to a different caste. I was very much astonished to witness the caste system in India. We could also see that the dinner was being served. I was bit hesitant to have it because it was served by a group of slobs. But somehow I managed to have a quick little grub which would cease my hunger.
Cheering the choir
Found a place to sit atlast
Now the climax of the story begins. We were told that the wedding would start only by 12:45 AM. Yes only in this part of the world weddings are conducted in early mornings. We had to catch our train back to Chennai by 5:30 AM. We thought that we will go back to the room where we could have a good nap. To reach the room the only option was to use the cab which dropped us here. We tried to spot the cab driver and looks like he absconded from the venue. The place was very remote god forsaken land and we did not even find a vehicle which would take us to the room. We thought we could stroll to the room. But the place was very dark and we were not able to see the road clearly. The road was very lonesome and we were afraid if some thugs could nab us for money. So we decided to head back to the place of wedding reception. By gods grace the groom of the wedding made a way for us to get hold of another cab which would drop us only at the railway station but not the room. Luckily we had our bags in our hands and we agreed for the deal and reached the railway station. By that time it was 1 AM morning. Most of us were dozy by hat time and we managed to find a platform in the railway station where we could doze. It was damn cold and the wind was blowing heavily which ripped through our body. To add more salt to the wound we were carked by the freaky mosquitoes. Some of the guys like Aravind and Gnanakumar were very much prepared for the trip. They had all the necessary bed spreads to protect them from mosquitoes and cold wind.
See the images below.
Aravinda
Not dossers. This is Aravinda and Bose.
The mosquitoes and rattling noise made by other trains made us fretting the whole night. This also made us to have only an intermittent sleep. Time passed by and we woke up before the dawn and we were frantic to hear that the train to Chennai was delayed by 1 hr. Finally time passed and we got the train and reached home by 10 AM.
After this incident any wedding invite to remote places like this makes me think twice :).. It was worth a trip to enjoy and remember througout my life.
We all reached the Singarayakonda station by 6:30 PM. We had a cab waiting for us in the railway station. The cab took us to a place where we could go and refresh ourselves. We all got dressed up and were ready to go to the wedding hall. The same cab took us to the wedding reception. The place of the wedding reception was a typical countryside and it was very crowded. Most of the people seemed to be very rustic. There was music and dance choir who were singing some Telugu (South Indian Language) songs blatantly. One of the member in the choir announced that the next song would be from Chiru’s (Andhra Superstar) movie. But a group of people opposed it. The reason was simple and obvious, the actor belongs to a different caste. I was very much astonished to witness the caste system in India. We could also see that the dinner was being served. I was bit hesitant to have it because it was served by a group of slobs. But somehow I managed to have a quick little grub which would cease my hunger.
Now the climax of the story begins. We were told that the wedding would start only by 12:45 AM. Yes only in this part of the world weddings are conducted in early mornings. We had to catch our train back to Chennai by 5:30 AM. We thought that we will go back to the room where we could have a good nap. To reach the room the only option was to use the cab which dropped us here. We tried to spot the cab driver and looks like he absconded from the venue. The place was very remote god forsaken land and we did not even find a vehicle which would take us to the room. We thought we could stroll to the room. But the place was very dark and we were not able to see the road clearly. The road was very lonesome and we were afraid if some thugs could nab us for money. So we decided to head back to the place of wedding reception. By gods grace the groom of the wedding made a way for us to get hold of another cab which would drop us only at the railway station but not the room. Luckily we had our bags in our hands and we agreed for the deal and reached the railway station. By that time it was 1 AM morning. Most of us were dozy by hat time and we managed to find a platform in the railway station where we could doze. It was damn cold and the wind was blowing heavily which ripped through our body. To add more salt to the wound we were carked by the freaky mosquitoes. Some of the guys like Aravind and Gnanakumar were very much prepared for the trip. They had all the necessary bed spreads to protect them from mosquitoes and cold wind.
See the images below.
The mosquitoes and rattling noise made by other trains made us fretting the whole night. This also made us to have only an intermittent sleep. Time passed by and we woke up before the dawn and we were frantic to hear that the train to Chennai was delayed by 1 hr. Finally time passed and we got the train and reached home by 10 AM.
After this incident any wedding invite to remote places like this makes me think twice :).. It was worth a trip to enjoy and remember througout my life.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
How dress code matters for a Developer
Most of the IT companies in India have stringent policies for dress code. I have been asking many people in the IT community especially HR’s about the relevance of dress code in an organization. Most of the answers were prevaricating. Some responded that it may not look nice when people are in the casual attire during the client visits. I have seen HR’s who float circulars in the form of emails to all the employees to be in Formal dress (sometimes with a Tie) during client visits. I really do not understand what reward the attire is going to give to a developer during client visit. What really matters is how you primp yourself with good and neat clothing. I agree that for the Senior managers who closely interact with the customers it is important to be in proper attire. This is one woeful side of the story at offshore. On the other piteous side the developers who travel to Onsite (countries like US, UK) are given strict instructions to wear a business suit. I have seen guys who spend a whopping sum to purchase business suits. I myself had made this mistake by wearing a business suit on the very first day when I reported to work at the client’s office in US. I was surprised to see all the clients in the casual wear and I was told by the client not to be uncomfortable in work by wearing business suits. I only have following questions that pops out of my mind
1. The top IT product development companies in the word like Microsoft, Google. Do they have any dress code – No.? I once attended an interview with Thoughtworks, I was surprised to see that the HR specifically told me to wear something which is comfortable for me. Again they are one of the renowned companies in world. The successes of these companies were not due to the dress code.
2. Does what you wear change your logical thinking which is very much required for a developer.
If the company can relax on the dress codes I am sure that the employees will consider it at one of the things which improves the morale of a developer.
1. The top IT product development companies in the word like Microsoft, Google. Do they have any dress code – No.? I once attended an interview with Thoughtworks, I was surprised to see that the HR specifically told me to wear something which is comfortable for me. Again they are one of the renowned companies in world. The successes of these companies were not due to the dress code.
2. Does what you wear change your logical thinking which is very much required for a developer.
If the company can relax on the dress codes I am sure that the employees will consider it at one of the things which improves the morale of a developer.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Pretending as an IT Expert
In India, in the field of Information Technology people pretend to be an expert or act as a geek. I am sorry but we have to swallow this untold or rather unrealized truth that this is the only profession where anyone who can communicate with little bit of common sense can win laurels and reach greater heights. The ontogenesis of the technical professionals lies on how they intelligently copy, paste and tweak the code snippets from various blogs and forums. I have seen this in many companies in India, the person who completes the task real fast by copying the source code is treated to be a guru and he will be rated as a top performer. There are people who pretend to be an egghead with a bunch of technical jargons. In conference calls with the onsite peers we pretend to be more wise and intelligent by asking some stupid questions. Most of the time we do not take the pain in understanding a code, requirement but bombard the client with irrelevant queries .In most of the outsourced projects to India the technical driver or an architect would not be an Indian brain. We pretend to follow lot of processes by maintaining documents, code reviews, and test cases. All these are done only to spoof the customer. I many times have had tiffs with my superiors when I had to pretend as if my team maintains good amount of documentation. Most of the IT companies who flaunt to be the CMM certified companies cook up the documents only during the auditing period. The CMM certification could win them million dollar assignments but this is not going to last forever.
We act many times as if we have understood everything in a subject. How often do we answer “I don’t know” to your boss or a colleague? Instead we simply blither. I have seen people who will give you answers for any technical queries you ask them. A typical Indian IT professional’s resume/CV would be like a five star hotel menu. It would have all kinds of technologies in it which can gratify an employer. It all depends on the market value tagged for each technology. If a Java programmer gets 10 Rs more than a C# programmer per hour, no wonder that the Java skill gets added to you CV. People are too greedy in the Indian IT industry. There are people who want to be a lead with 2 years of experience, a project manager with 5 years of experience, an architect with 4-6 years of experience. The growth of an IT professional in India is measured only by his designation not by his ability or consistency.
I guess all the above reasons vouch that we are not getting any job satisfaction in our daily chores. There are professionals like a doctor, teacher, scientist, truck driver, soldier, food vendor and many more who gets a job satisfaction at the end of each day. I am trying to quit from this Industry and move on to something else which I can do better with most satisfaction. I am a good cook thoughJ which makes me proud. Let me see if I can open a restaurant which can rejuvenate the taste buds of gourmets.
I promise that I will delete this post from by blog if an Indian Bill Gates is born.
We act many times as if we have understood everything in a subject. How often do we answer “I don’t know” to your boss or a colleague? Instead we simply blither. I have seen people who will give you answers for any technical queries you ask them. A typical Indian IT professional’s resume/CV would be like a five star hotel menu. It would have all kinds of technologies in it which can gratify an employer. It all depends on the market value tagged for each technology. If a Java programmer gets 10 Rs more than a C# programmer per hour, no wonder that the Java skill gets added to you CV. People are too greedy in the Indian IT industry. There are people who want to be a lead with 2 years of experience, a project manager with 5 years of experience, an architect with 4-6 years of experience. The growth of an IT professional in India is measured only by his designation not by his ability or consistency.
I guess all the above reasons vouch that we are not getting any job satisfaction in our daily chores. There are professionals like a doctor, teacher, scientist, truck driver, soldier, food vendor and many more who gets a job satisfaction at the end of each day. I am trying to quit from this Industry and move on to something else which I can do better with most satisfaction. I am a good cook thoughJ which makes me proud. Let me see if I can open a restaurant which can rejuvenate the taste buds of gourmets.
I promise that I will delete this post from by blog if an Indian Bill Gates is born.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Fast food interviews
Hiring a right kind of resource is always crucial in the IT industry. This blog is intended to slam the technical interview boards in the Indian IT industry. I have so far attended umpteen no of interviews and was not able to find many of them to be really valuable. I have also got a chance to attend interviews directly from some US and UK based software companies and I could really make out the difference in the standards at which the interviews are conducted in India and other countries like US and UK. I would like to highlight some of the points which make the Indian interviews hapless.
1. Most of the technical interview boards in India are totally incognizant about the actual requirement for which the candidate is recruited. They are not trained properly to pick the right resource. The interview panel starts with the most irritating question “Tell me something about you”, trust me this question will be repeated from technical to the HR round. What I really do not understand is after scanning through our resume why they ask this question. As a matter of fact only a few people in the technical interview panel take the pain to scan your resume. Before a candidate is being interviewed it is really important to scan his resume to identify his Core expertise, projects he has undertaken and his roles and responsibilities in each of them. It is really important to jot down an interview plan for each resource being interviewed.
2. I have often seen interviewers asking some text book questions. For instance I was once asked the funniest technical question on earth. “What are the new features of .NET 3.0 when compared to 2.0.”? There are umpteen no of questions like this which could be easily googled and found out in no time. This could be advantageous for most of the book worms who imbibes the text book answers and narrate them eloquently. In one of the interviews I was asked, what is the difference between Varchar and Varchar2 data types in Oracle? Remember such question will only help you to pick a bunch of coconuts for your team.
3. Most of the time the real coding skills are not tested. Coding is something one should never forget as long as he or she is the technical career path. In India the interviewers treat most experienced technical resources as someone equivalent to immortals. Let me quote this with an example, in certain companies they recruit coders after conducting written technical tests. My present company also does that and when I came for the interview I was not asked to take the written test. The test had a bunch of good technical questions pretty close to Brain bench standards. I asked the recruitment team why I can’t take the test. One of the recruiter said that it is because I was a more experienced guy and a test is not necessary for me. I was keen to take the test and clear it. According to me a written test where your coding are technical skills can be tested are really mandatory to hire the best technical resources. It is a good idea to make the candidate write some programs and also ask him to write the unit test cases for that.
4. I have seen people getting rejected just because of not knowing a particular skill within a language. I have seen some companies rejecting candidates who do not know Web services or Remoting. In such cases we tend to loose the real maverick candidates. A guy who knows the text book answers about the aforesaid technologies will sneak in to the company. Trust me such people are not going to shine in the organization. In IT industry technology is something that keeps changing every year. Hence it his highly important to choose candidates who have the aptitude to learn or master any technology. Any skill set a person brings to a company will be obsolete in couple of years.
5. HR managers also play an important role in recruiting candidates. The initial screening of resumes are done by the HR managers who are really not techies and find the profiles which will insatiate your requirement. Ideally it should be the Technical lead or an Architect who needs to scan and pick the candidates who can get the job done
These are some of the silly mistakes which every interviewer makes and finally finds the resource he hired to be delinquent. The eeriest thing which could happen is the candidate might join and report to the interviewer who hired him.
1. Most of the technical interview boards in India are totally incognizant about the actual requirement for which the candidate is recruited. They are not trained properly to pick the right resource. The interview panel starts with the most irritating question “Tell me something about you”, trust me this question will be repeated from technical to the HR round. What I really do not understand is after scanning through our resume why they ask this question. As a matter of fact only a few people in the technical interview panel take the pain to scan your resume. Before a candidate is being interviewed it is really important to scan his resume to identify his Core expertise, projects he has undertaken and his roles and responsibilities in each of them. It is really important to jot down an interview plan for each resource being interviewed.
2. I have often seen interviewers asking some text book questions. For instance I was once asked the funniest technical question on earth. “What are the new features of .NET 3.0 when compared to 2.0.”? There are umpteen no of questions like this which could be easily googled and found out in no time. This could be advantageous for most of the book worms who imbibes the text book answers and narrate them eloquently. In one of the interviews I was asked, what is the difference between Varchar and Varchar2 data types in Oracle? Remember such question will only help you to pick a bunch of coconuts for your team.
3. Most of the time the real coding skills are not tested. Coding is something one should never forget as long as he or she is the technical career path. In India the interviewers treat most experienced technical resources as someone equivalent to immortals. Let me quote this with an example, in certain companies they recruit coders after conducting written technical tests. My present company also does that and when I came for the interview I was not asked to take the written test. The test had a bunch of good technical questions pretty close to Brain bench standards. I asked the recruitment team why I can’t take the test. One of the recruiter said that it is because I was a more experienced guy and a test is not necessary for me. I was keen to take the test and clear it. According to me a written test where your coding are technical skills can be tested are really mandatory to hire the best technical resources. It is a good idea to make the candidate write some programs and also ask him to write the unit test cases for that.
4. I have seen people getting rejected just because of not knowing a particular skill within a language. I have seen some companies rejecting candidates who do not know Web services or Remoting. In such cases we tend to loose the real maverick candidates. A guy who knows the text book answers about the aforesaid technologies will sneak in to the company. Trust me such people are not going to shine in the organization. In IT industry technology is something that keeps changing every year. Hence it his highly important to choose candidates who have the aptitude to learn or master any technology. Any skill set a person brings to a company will be obsolete in couple of years.
5. HR managers also play an important role in recruiting candidates. The initial screening of resumes are done by the HR managers who are really not techies and find the profiles which will insatiate your requirement. Ideally it should be the Technical lead or an Architect who needs to scan and pick the candidates who can get the job done
These are some of the silly mistakes which every interviewer makes and finally finds the resource he hired to be delinquent. The eeriest thing which could happen is the candidate might join and report to the interviewer who hired him.
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