Life at time of corona

As saying goes - hard time teaches the most valuable lessons and brings us together. This pandemic and resulting lockdown brought entirely new perspective on community living, family, colleagues, friends. While nothing really changed from deliverable's/work perspective as if world is still the same but how we communicate with each other did changed. On side note, received a quote from whatsapp university which says - "If you would like to know how it feels to be a IT Employee during the Novel coronavirus pandemic… Remember when the Titanic was sinking and the band continued to play? - We’re the band". Interestingly, similar kind of customised quotes were being forwarded for bank,  healthcare, hospitality, police, retailer employee's, etc. Which made me think probably all of us were part of band and no one was taking care of ship which led to sinking of the ship. Few might have watched Titanic followed by these forwards, if they have not watched in past. Some extra revenue for streaming portals. ;-)

On professional front, each touch-points with colleagues/team/client typically started with small talk on - how everyone is doing and whether all was OK at their end unlike pre-lockdown phase where meetings mostly started with set agenda. On personal front, realisation of fact that movement is blocked intracity itself, forget about intercity/state/country was worrying with parents away. Those familial concerns became prominent which I didn’t observed before came in forefront. Similar worries of friends/office colleagues for their siblings/parents were noticeable too.

Me and my wife being at home at same time during day meant weekend for my preschooler kid, there was constant nudge during initial days from his end to go out to his cousin's house as per the usual routine for each weekend. It was a challenge to make him understand that it's a regular work day and we can't go out anywhere because there are no transport means. Obviously, incessant calls/meetings for both my wife and mine made it easy and helped him to understand the fact that it is working day and parents are not going out as something wrong outside. He too gradually found new ways to engage himself and thankfully with daily traffic game (queued toys) which he played, I don't think I have missed Bangalore traffic at all.

Once adjusted to new normal, predictability returned in day and had some free time to listen to son's chatter and reasoning’s that why I should be playing with him more or even write something on blog page which was crying for some posts since past many years. I have become more appreciative of efforts which my wife put at work/home (well, it was mutual and will probably help in future) and made an attempt to distribute house chores among ourselves to avoid anyone burning out. Now we are truly 'maid' for each other. Took some master class on blockchain, enterprise architecture and Heroku when had opportunity to take them. Last but not the least, rearranged the bookshelf and placed books at key locations to get ample cues to pick and read those half read books which certainly helped.

To end, taking multiple perspectives into consideration’s Dicken’s quote is certainly relevant now - It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..

P.S. - This is unabridged version of writeup which I shared with for my unit newsletter. 

PGSEM Qtr 1 (5/5) # MBA (1/10)

I am again late in writing the final post for Quarter 1, blame it on the hectic work schedule at office, 3 college projects and all this sucked out all the energy out from me. And right now when I am preparing for the vicious circle of Office, Class, Quiz, Project, Mid-term, End-Term again I thought of closing what was the needed. Did I miss anything? Oh Yeah! my personal time!  But this time I have planned to change the rules of game. I just hope that I will be able to do that. :(

I have once written my encounter with Murphy's law which states 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong'. I guess that encounter was nothing compared to what I faced during ending time of quarter 1. I just hope that this doesn't get repeated ever.

I had a inkling that my office project beta deployment may coincide with my end-term/college project submission. I was also worried about the new requirement coming to me in office at the last moment, worried that I may have to work late night in office during my end-term, worried that my college project will be a mess altogether because of all the above mentioned priorities. BOOM! As if I was wishing for everything, and wish granter was happy with my deeds, everything turned true including things which I was not even expecting. Wish granter must be really pissed off with me.. hahaha

I some time wonder why I am pushing myself to write this, I don't love writing anymore, neither do I write for friends nor do I get money for writing this. May be I am still a confused being or may be I want to remember this till eternity what phase I have passed through.. haha..  Whatever, Quarter summary - 

Microeconomics - I always thought that I have understood the subject pretty well and not even that my day-to-day activities were having element of microeconomics principles. But somehow the theory  wasn't getting reflected in terms of performance in marks. Not that I care about it, but when you have relative marking and you join the league of Farhan and Raju of 3 idiots then you gotta be caring about it. As Virus said in movie - I  will be very very worried Mr. Raju Rastogi. I was feeling ME professor may like to tell me the same after correcting my ME answer-sheets. :( 

Financial Accounting - There is ME and there is FA, both are class apart. In ME were I was in bottom side with clear concepts and open book exam, FA was the subject were I was on the top side with shaky concepts and closed book exam. I somehow fail to understand it how and why it happened.  Not that I scored good in end-term, but I had scored so much in mid-term that even if I would have had skipped end-term I would have passed overall. Best part was, for whole quarter I was taking off from office on Friday and never worked late night in office for any other week day during my tenure at company, but then exactly on day before exam I ended in office. And when you come to exam from your office instead of your home then there is a serious problem! I guess my marks will show that problem. OK! at this very line I realized why I am writing this. This is to remind me as well as fellow/future PGSEM'ers that things can go worse, very worse, so challenge is to be prepared all the time along with your office work. :-)

Strategy Management - This was one subject where not only me none of my classmates had any idea, what could be the pattern of paper. 4 hour test  with one 25 page case reading and question based on that, was too little of time. But paper was important because this paper dint had any mid-term so pressure was high. but unfortunately I had no time to prepare for the test. Fate yet to be decided.

ME/FA/SM Projects - This was hell of a task and given the limited time to work on it along with late-night stay in office because of last minute requirement sucked out all the energy from me. But now when its over, I am enjoying one week of peace till the cycle begins! And seriously I don't want to write anything more about it, as I don't want to remember it anymore.

Now when the Quarter 1 has ended, I feel good about the time I had. Have got new friends, had opportunity to listen and interact with profs who are best in their fields. In corporate people talk about Work-Life balance, but now equation has changed for me. Work-Studies balance is the new mantra. Life you ask? well as my engineering friends have started quoting, "I have no more Life left". I will award myself a gold medal on completing this course! So my own gold medal here I come.

Whatever, MBA 1/10 is over. 9/10 more to go!!!

Last working day tomorrow @ XYZ

Mail was sent on 12th September to my colleagues for 13th September being the last day with the Organization. Surprisingly, drafting the mail took a significant time, but time given was totally worth considering I stayed with my first organization for more than 5 years. And I can shamelessly say that I may have continued for my life time with this organization and I do intend to come back some day. It was/is/will be best company to work with. 

Mail body as below :-

THE 5 year Moment!

This blog page is slowly turning into my random musing. So to not much is there for blog reader for checking my blog page anymore.

The year 2011 is like a year of milestones for me. Completed 5 year of my blogging, 5 years after passing out from college and today marks the completion of 5 year in my organization as well as in IT sector. There were moments when I could have taken a different path altogether but things just happened and I was definitely here to stay. Not sure how long I will last long further but definitely there is air of uncertainty. Have learned the lesson; no matter what happens, what we do, life keeps going on. Though I have said in my previous post to be regular on the blog page, I really find it difficult now-a-days. The inspiration factor is lost, but this is not the end.

Many more to come..

Being IIM

So what's the first thought came into your mind after reading the title of this post?  Indian Institute of Management(IIM)? Story of IIM student? About fight to get into IIM? MBA? C'mon give a break. Time to grow up. This post doesn't have to do anything with mentioned above. This is a story about Indian IT Male(IIM), a profile which is very common in India now. And yeah this spicy post shouldn't be taken as true reality though it might be. :P

Engineering a very easy degree in India, which can be obtained from grey market(fake one) other then getting it first hand with your effortless effort of 4 years in engineering college. Here engineering doesn't mean working on new idea or developing something on idea already existing, but just to cram some formulae, theory a night before exam and just vomit everything(I am not talking about vomiting literally %$#%) you crammed a night before in the paper to clear it and come out with a bright,shining degree. Engineering degree can be analogous of "India Shining" campaign which was as hollow as the degree. So coming to what an engineer learn at educational front? Answer is in one word NOTHING. Now don't come to me saying that you have learnt a lot in your engineering life. ;-) 

But few things they become good at, and that are, giving bolvachan (say, philosophical thought), how to download movies & songs and from where, crashing the computer and rest are clandestine and shouldn't be spoken over here. :P And Achievement after completing the engineering degree are, thousands of movies and songs stored in there TB(in our time it was GB) capacity hardisk, a long list of movies they have seen, few friends and of course a degree. Its pity if you did not do it in your engineer life. And am really sorry if you have wasted your FOUR precious year studying some engineering concept or some research paper which you will never use. 

And there are two path after completing the degree, one come and join IT or go for higher studies to again do the same stuff. :P And those who join the IT give rise to flavoured IIM. But someway or other one admirable quality of Indian engineers are, they can DO anything under given timeline and that is the thing which make them survive the IT. 

And now comes what they do and what they think.  Starting from fresher till they become experienced player.

Before joining the company they are full of  enthusiastic to do something great in life. Yeah they start thinking about LIFE, a questionable and debatable topic. Pass the training period which lies anywhere between 1-4 months, get into some project and then suddenly 8 more month passes (yes without doing any work and not to miss, learning), which completes the first year. By that time looking around no work, no learning situation the seed of higher education planted. And only thing which they find is, yeah, its the one and only one, CAT. Donate some money to coaching institute, and later more donation to colleges for filling the form, and bingo when the exam is just a month away, WORK as a blood thirsty demon in face of project lead comes from nowhere. Feel frustrated with it, but somehow do the work and preparing side by side for exam. Write the paper and fail to reach the expected percentile and then donate more money for application form where their percentile requirement they can fulfill. Take adhoc leave in Jan/Feb/March to attend the selection process and process follows as mentioned in my previous post 'yem bee yee'.  Get admission but realize that college doesn't match there aspiration, drop the plan for admission thinking in mind to prepare again. And this marks the completion of TWO years in IT. By the time third year begin the very thought of preparing starts dieing, third year passes with retrospection. Feel more frustrated, plan for shifting the company and some take this measure while some do not. Think about career option beyond Master's course and the monotonous IT life. More they think more interesting ideas they get. Few are listed as below in priority level.

• To go back to village and start farming.
• To open a PAN shop.
• To open a tiffin shop or restaurant.
• To commit suicide???
• To continue working in IT

Whatever career option they think, they do continue with the least priority thing which is continue working in IT.  And this complete there fourth year in IT. Fifth year may result in them thinking that them becoming stagnant in career and then taking some part time course to improve the resume and in side working on marriage plan, as by the time they become lead they become lonely with everyone flocking around mostly with selfish motifs.  And then the never ending cycle continues. Guess I will be able to comment over the final destination after reaching there till then, No Comments!!!

Possibly story of IIF(Indian IT Female) also goes on same line, till they get married and from there IIF and IIM takes different path because for female life become secure while for male probably it become insecure. hehehe Making males taking some different measures. ;-)

Inspired by yahoo

In an attempt to revamp the yahoo and to come at the level of google, yahoo has improved the features. But the thing is they, do things pretty late which takes away the market from them. Had they taken initiative before google, they could have been a leading web portal in the world and richest company too, and their share prices in 100's of $  like Google's 342$ per share, in place of current value of  around 12$. But one thing they are still top on, that's the web cam feature in there messenger. Google probably still struggling to get it done.

But thing I like about Yahoo, they do learn from mistake and they never take back step whatever may be the condition is. 

Declining Microsoft hostile bid, in spite of crisis running in the company need a hell lot of courage. People may say the aftermath of declining the offer was devastating for yahoo, but the same rule hit hard Microsoft too. And MS attempt to topple the board of directors gone in vein due to strong hold of Yang and Filo.  

And improving on features, on mail, messenger, personal after taking lesson from GOOGLE success is another learning. 

Hope yahoo will achieve its lost glory again. :-)

Another milestone!!!

A lot is there to say over the milestone achieved and things happened to reach up to this point. But as always caught under the time constraint, so wont be able to post a long matter. And I am sure no one will be bored to read it. For the time being, I would like to inform my blog readers, Today marks the completion of 2 year in the industry where I wanted to come entire my college life, and from where I want to run away since joining. :-)

Satisfaction is what I never get and I never want to get satisfied from anything. Hope I will be able to move to next field where I am currently wish to go. To start a new cycle of event. Amen!!!

I congratulates myself for achieving the feat of dissatisfied 2 year in IT. :-)

Murphy's Law!!!

There are surely something in this world which is above any scientific explanation. And even if some theory is provided its too vague. A similar incident happened with me(say crossed the limits of being an incident) for which I am still thinking about explanation and thought Murphy's law will be the right way of explaining it, if not completely then partially.

Prologue:- It happens that every morning, I have to catch bus(City Bus) after attending the classes from 7-9 AM. It takes nearly 30-45 minutes to reach my house from classroom (depending upon traffic situation). and for that I take bus no 171. But it never happened that I got the bus immediately after coming out of the class. I always have to wait at least 10-15 minutes. So by the time I reach my home,it almost cross 10 AM. And I am always in little hurry after the class because I have to go back to my home and get ready for office (which takes another 30-40 minutes) and again have to come to bus stand to get my office bus which leaves at 11 A.M. And whenever I wait for bus number I see a lot of bus numbered 164. And when at least 3-4 buses with number 164 passes I get one bus numbered 171 which is jam packed and I board it somehow.

Stroy:- Generally I don't work on Saturday but due to project requirement and none availability of any other resource, I was suppose to work last Saturday. But to my relief, I was given flexibility to work from Home and was asked to be online at 9:30 AM sharp to attend the client meeting. I didn't have internet connection at home so I was provided with a data card on Thursday. And from here on, Murphy's law started its play.

> I tried installing the data card software in my laptop whole Thursday and it was never detected and I was not able to configure the card for net accessibility. Was pissed off completely. Sent the communication to my lead saying IF he can assign the work to someone else, as I wasn't able to configure the card. I was told I can go to some cafe and from there I can work. I told, Ok. [First]

> I wasn't worried that much though as I thought I will use my brothers data card which works absolutely fine in my system. But dint take it Friday morning.

>Friday afternoon a mail came to all of us that a riot has started in some area out here in Bangalore so we may have to stay late as buses wont be plying at stipulated time. Late at night while going back to my house I called my brother to tell him to bring the data card so that I can access the net Saturday morning. And I came to know that he wont be coming tonight as the area is little disturbed so he will be spending the night at his friends house. [Second]

>At that point of time I thought I will access the internet from cafe. Then realized cafe wont be opening before 10 AM. And it will take sometime to configure other network to my system too. Done!!! I can't rely on cafe too. [Third]

>Thought I will go to my friends house after the class and will access the internet there and will complete the office work. And as 164 was a frequent bus I wont be having problem reaching on time, as from my classroom it takes hardly 20 minutes if I get the bus number 164. Things were taking shape now. And I slept peacefully.

> Woke up at 6. left for my classes. But just to be extra cautious about timing I came out 10 minute before the class end time. And started waiting for bus at bus stand. And as expected I saw a bus coming at some distance. But number was not clear. And to my surprise it was 171. Crap!!! I thought may be I came earlier thats why I am seeing 171. No issues!!! Wait was still on. I waited for nearly 30 minutes at bus stop and to my surprise nearly 15 bus passed and all where numbered 171. I was so angry with this rally that I decided not to take auto. [Fourth]

>At last, I got the bus 164 at 9:20 AM. And I was fuming like anything. I asked for ticket and got to know that bus wont be going till the stop near my friends house. [Fifth] Grrrrr

> Still boarded the ticket and went till the last stop and from there took the auto and reached my friends house at 9:40 AM. In between I tried calling my lead to inform him that I wont be able to join before 9:45. No one responded. [Sixth] Grrr

Epilogue :- Completed the work sent the communication and I was so tired by that time that I slept for whole day. Woke up in evening. Went to home. Was so frustrated with the unproductive day passed that I made it more unproductive by watching 3 movie in a row on my system. And finally slept at 2 AM thinking never to say 'YES' for working on weekend.