USP

USP or unique selling point is vital for my life. I need to be convinced of what I'm doing, not just do the ordinary thing to survive. I'm never happy to run faster to remain at the same point, I need to move ahead too. Its just not in me to be happy that whatever I'm doing since the past one year, I've become exceedingly well at that and there's nothing new. Like Chetan Bhagat says in his book "One night @ Call Centre", the four important things for success are: intelligence, imagination, self confidence and FAILURE. I'm OK with the last ingredient, but not a great fan of it. I've been doing what I'm doing for long and have always managed to find a way out. But then suddenly I realize that all my colleagues have moved ahead and now speak a language that I cannot understand. And all of a sudden, what I'm doing is what anyone else with average intelligence can do and I do not have a USP - nothing unique to convince myself that I'm contributing to my work. Suddenly became a person who serves "chai/koffee" in a big productive environment, who cannot even understand what the "bosses" are talking even though get full exposure to their conversation. So, I'm complete with all ingredients for breakdown - no intelligence, absolutely no imagination, low on self-confidence and no failure since there is nothing new to try; all ready to roll downhill!! Seems I need some 'military' talk rather nice talking or maybe I just need to have a fight with my dad which will help me 'clean my head'. Or maybe I just need a call from God!!

A story goes like this:

One night the author dreamt that he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the dark sky flashed the scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord. But when he looked back at the footprints, he noticed only one set of footprints at the lowest and saddest times of his life. Disappointed, he asked the Lord as to why He left him when he needed Him the most. He whispered: "My child, when you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you"

This story is widely known as the "Footprints on the sands of time". To think about this, its very true. However deeply in trouble we are, end is never at that point. Somehow we manage to move on, get into more troubles or better life, but still we move on!! Does one ever wonder what took us through the previous pain? Does one remember to turn back and look at the "footprints"? No, because we are all tuned in such a way that we always look ahead without being thankful for how we reach where we are!! Like in the 'Gita', even if a sinner seeks the shelter of the lord, the lord always welcomes with open arms. Same reason how in the 'Mahabharath' when King Yudhistir reaches heaven to see his 'evil' cousin Dhuryodhan already there. Why this philosophy you may ask?
Because in the past few days I've realised the importance of smart work. I've always been talking about this, but I've actually done it only in the last few days. In fact this smart work was delegation - something I've always encouraged others but forgot that I never did it myself.
Situation - I've working actively on 3 projects and generally I am very closely involved with these projects. Sad to say that I get so involved that I generally know the in and out of these projects if not every line in the code. I'm always proud of this fact but then forgot that some place I lost sight of attachment I had - something so precious that growing up in the chain would be diffcult. But now I delegate the work but still check on people to ensure that (still that small attachment).
I know 2 paras, 2 different thought streams.....thats the stress I'm under and unable focus. Will try to be more focussed now on :)

Domain Expertise

Today I had a really wonderful meeting. Between a group of 3 from coporate marketing of my client company, there was so much knowledge about the 3G Wireless industry and the wireless industry as a whole. But the catch was that it was restricted just the branding and services offered by various operators in the field. So I was wondering at the end of the meeting that if I could spend sufficient time with all these people, would I become a domain expert? And more over, since its such a specialised area, it would more be like a sub-domain expert. If thats the case, what really does it mean when one refers to as domain expert? According to me, no one can practically have an understanding of any entire domain unless thats more like a niche and in which case, there wouldn't be a 'domain-expert'. Or unless the sub domains have become so fine-grained to call it a domain by itself!! Guess either I have to choose and bestow myself with the tag of domain-expert or be silent with the knowledge gained.

Diwali Mystery

Diwali - the festival of lights. Signifies the victory of good over evil and as far I can recall, Ayodhya citizens welcomed lord Rama back and they lit up the entire city with lights. Every year in India this is celebrated with crackers bursting, lighting up entire streets and of course lots of sweets and new clothes. One festival which is celebrated by all communities and really brings out the unity among people - some in there for the fun of it, some in there for the religion and some just be a part of it!! And moreover, all Indians really miss this while abroad and tend to staisfy themselves with parties and get-togethers.
The mystery in this is that even though one never indulged in this festive ocassion, its really sad that one cannot be in India at this time. And for me, a person who never indulged in this much, I miss all the spirit and fun I used to see around me sitting in this country far away.
I wish everyone a Very Happy Diwali!!

Dedicated to the NON-BELIEVERS

Name: Carrot
Scientific Name: Daucus carota

Today was another day that I had a debate over the colors in a carrot. In India, the south pre-dominantly see only carrots in 'orange' color while in the north we can also see 'red' color. However, its believed that the 'red' ones are sweeter than the 'orange' ones and hence we use the former to prepare 'gajar ka halwa' which, I must add, is one among my favorite desserts. Like usual, people do not believe in the 'red' color of the carrot - some outright deny the existence of that and other call it 'pink'. Either people want to see the colors they want to (there cannot be much hope in this case) or they are plain ignorant. And more over, when I went to Bhopal to my in-laws place, I made it a point to get a picture of the 'red' carrots. Still folks accuse me of getting the carrots painted in red or saying that the tip is 'orange' and hence they are not 'red' carrots. And the people I had argument with today, well they are the hopeless case. They see what they want to and hear what they want to - and believe that world is perfectly predictable. Lets toast to their belief and one would be very naive if they believed in such innocence existing in the work. The truth - eccentricity is their motto of life!!

Amazing day!!

I think the stress is finally catching up with me. I think the picture about sums up my feeling. Its been on me since last night and as time advances, my irritation is getting higher. Maybe I've been working too hard, maybe I want to do too much and nothing is working out, maybe I am kind of feeling left out or maybe the fun is finally over. But all said and done, I'm miserable without any aid to cheer myself up. And to top it all, all I can see are expenses and bill with zilch as my savings. I'm tired - being bugged at office with client who ahve un-ending demands and at home with the fact that I can never do anything for my educated-forced-to-sit-at-home wife. In short, a complete failure with no money to save and highly unsuccessful at keeping anyone happy!! Sometimes that might count as an achievement, but this times it's as throught the thunder-clouds are raining only on top of my head while everyone is basking in sunshine. Life goes on, but its sort-of frozen for me. I hate H1-B and strongly feel that to classify for h1-B, one should either be unmarried or the married couple both should qualify. Otherwise it's the worst thing one can end up with. I'm already a victim!!

Hurt - Is the job worth it?

I generally am very attached to every project that I work on. I cannot sleep in peace even if there is one small bug in production will try everything possible to get stuff working and can catch anyone's leg to solve an issue and get it out there in production. I love what I do in projects, even the smallest things are monumental achievements that calls for celebrations. Every time something is accomplished, I'm extremely thrilled. But who says life is fair - when you take projects with this enthusiasm, how come always a new person walks in and takes away everything from you and the only thing you are responsible is development? Then why the hell call me a coordinator if I had to sit onsite and do development? I'm not enchanted by the fact that I'm onsite. Sure it earns me more money, but if that were ever my concern, I would have been working for money and would have had a break though long back. I'm here since I have different interests in my career and moreover, I saw a possibility to pursue it under my project manager. But the moment I get a chance to take a peek at what I wanted to do, it's already "the end" for me. So, I am hurt, very badly and deeply hurt that I've lost all the interest in this project. But then the real question is if the job is worth for me to take this hurt? Well, for now yes. The reason is that I trust my PM and I believe that nothing is messed up and sincerity never goes un-rewarded. Anyway, let me wait and see the shape this mist is building around me and how long it can last!!

Update: Short of reaching the pie

Second thoughts: Just forget it - for all practical reasons, abilities are secondary to position on the hierarchical ladder!!

Short of reaching the pie

Like the 'beautiful' bargains I end up with, another one has been handed down. I've been pretty busy and lazy to blog since my last post since I've trying to get into a more responsible routine. Though pretty much of the time I am working (compelling Payal to protest everyday), sometimes I end up "washing the donkey's ass". I am a pretty choosy person when it comes to my boss and I only enjoy the work if I perceive that my boss is capable. Else it really put me off. Currently, my boss is on leave and he had pretty much cordoned off the work areas of each member. But circumstances or force has another person in my team to ask me status every day even when my boss used to get in only when he felt I was going off track. Now I cannot do much since hierarchy demands me to work under him, even though I feel quite as capable as him at least. So now I've to wait for opportunity to climb up the hierarchy to do something I very well feel I can do. Reason? I'm not anywhere close to a gambler and I only do things when I know the odds of success are 99.99%. Even a little bit of hesitancy means I'll try to wiggle my way out of it. So if I feel confident, then 1+ 1 = 2 (mathematically). Anyways, life moves on and nothing waits for another. But one day I shall have someone answer the questions of this justice.
And hey, I'm back to blogging and hope to get regular again :)

One Year Plus

I completed about 5 quarters in TIL and looking back, this is the hardest I've ever worked. I've been working on latest technologies (and surprisingly seemed to have grasped them), high interaction with the client and lot of co-ordination. But surprisingly, I'm not satisfied with the work I've done. In-fact I feel that I've even barely stretched my hands. The reason - well after coming out of B-School, there were a lot of things that I wanted to do and I funneled them to more realistic options after working 5 quarters in MphasiS. I quit MphasiS coz I irritated with the work I was doing and any time I had original ideas, a complaint was raised against me even though it was implemented. And the worst part was my own company never stood by me. So a place where in the company had to play safe, is not a place where I would get challenges. In TIL, the life and work environment is wonderful (probably because I knew so many people already). The work I've been doing is a lot better than I did before. I mean new technologies, smart client, etc was a graduates dream, but not exactly mine. I was looking forward to more of requirements, estimations, project management, client interactions and implementations. I guess the last two I got to do a lot of and I also surprised myself with the amount of technical knowledge I've gained over the same period too. But still I've not been stretched enough to really run out of ideas. A lot of hard-work I sure did on the project, like long hours for implementation, testing, quick fixes and all that. So I should ideally be rating myself a 5 since from company stand of view and their recognition of my skills, I did a lot more than a person at that level would do. But from a personal level, I would still be a 3+ since I already am doing what I'm capable of and there has not been any situation till now I needed to stretch myself. That’s why I decided to ask for extra work. I want to see how much I can stretch myself and also how good I'm at coordinating with people whom I don't know and implement successful projects. I also did a small enhancement to ensure that I was not technically lame. Seriously, sometimes I amaze myself more than anything else. But then I still believe in my assumption that I'm the dumbest on the planet and everyone else is better than me, due to which I've to fight every moment to keep up with the rest of the pack!!

Life Never Better

To think after my last 'crib' post that I would think anything like this..........no, my performance results are not yet decided since like a government office, it's lying on the table of the top most person who has to pass it.....but is he waiting for an 'under table transaction"? Well, I'm not going to bribe him. But yes, it takes as much time or maybe even more!! My dad always said that your organization (before merger) is a shame to the private sector since it functions like a public sector. Even in my dad's organization (its central government) a performance appraisal process is completed within a month after all the paperwork and discussions are done. But then, let's not move away from the focus of my inspiration to work!!
Well I'm very happy today because I managed to get up early and I'm extremely fresh at work. Things are much clearer, I started early and things look more hopeful even though they are big road blocks. This is what should be happening everyday, but late night calls and other stuff take toll on my early rising. I've always been an early riser (I'm happy my parents put me into this habit) for 2 reasons - generally temples in Kerala open by 4 AM and while in hostel, its easier to concentrate in the morning when rest of the crowd is sleeping rather than at night when everyone are at peak activity hours. My temper is definitely more under my control today and frustrations need to try harder to upset me. I also did not get upset when I got a call from my client on a bug and I'm patiently trying to fix it!! Also there is a lot of work left on multiple projects and if I can make it early in the morning tomorrow also, it'll be just great.
A saying which made my day today:

"The quality of leadership is reflected in the caliber of people following you".

Just love the depth in it!!

Patience wearing out

I've been analyzing the major hassles I've been seeing in my organization - both from individual and team perspective. Major root cause as what I've seen is that lower upper management is badly organized with individuals who look for their gain but try to impress that they are wearing the cloak of the organization. This means that favoritism, lack of judgment (short term vs. long term), internal feuds and ignorance of employees form the backbone of the decision-making structure. While they portray and talk of bottom-line/top-line margins, in reality they are calculating their bonuses and profits at the cost of employees. Hollow speeches and material self gains are the sole intentions at most times. Why else would a person responsible for increase in sales push employees at client locations to get in more business forcefully by making it a huge part of the employee's performance evaluation and have nothing for their individual growth? Logically, why is an employee's bother (other than his main work) to help a sales guy with his job for no rhyme or reason? Why would the processing of a person's performance evaluation after being approved by his manager and group manager still not be complete? Just cause the domain head has to prove a point? Why would an organization fight for an ODC in Mumbai or Bangalore and be resolved (or move closer to resolution) when the client steps in? And why would an organization have a favoritism towards the HQ location and neglect other centers? In all this what is talking about share holders’ wealth creation? Attrition rates? Petty fights? Showing lack of decision making ability and disjoint ness of the organization to the client?
One of the foremost qualities for being a manager is understand the difference. What difference? The fact that individuality is sacrificed for the team and your influence on the team is responsible for the outcome of the tasks. If individuality is high priority over team, then you are not ready to be a manager. Clearly competencies for individual success is a whole different set compared to the competencies of being a manager. So, why are people in the lower upper management in their current position? Just because they had individual success and spent a lot of time in the organization? But then, if we kept in mind the goal of the organization (general goal definition), aren't we losing out on 2 terms - first the fact that individual gains they could have delivered is lost and secondly they have become a huge cause of friction in the daily running of the organization? Well, for all this gyan, let me add one thing - offers are tempting and current add-ons are repulsive. Why am I still here? The reason is I like doing what I'm doing and my hope is fueled by one source. Hopefully, I might not reach a situation where temptation exceeds hope and I have to decide. Still not ready to be a manger you think?? Well atleast I'm not disrespecting someone elses contribution!!

Bad day at work

After spending a lot of time yesterday with work and sleeping very little, I come to work early to find that the off-site team is upset. Well, faults on both sides - my side is the fact that I've not been intuitive enough to implement what the off-site team had sent and am still unable to complete things successfully and off-site's is that the release came unexpected even when they knew that implementation for a person (technically on the lower side) who is setting up an environment on-site similar to off-site (where the application works) without documentation or exposure to off-site environment is a difficult task. My apologies, but their mood has certainly put me off. Mainly because of the fact that I was interacting everyday with the team off-site and also knowing the people well. For thinking about growing the team, seems that co-ordination with the core members are neglected. Hugely disappointed and have to find a way to come back. As for the day today, hardly expect to accomplish anything noticeable.

Thoughts during the merger

For 2 years during my MBA I was confronted with change management. Payal and me have always had discussions over change management and most case-studies had always an aspect of change management. I always planned for a lot of scenarios for change management, but then one aspect they forgot to highlight was the psycological state. My company (Tata Infotech or TIL) has merged with TCS and this happened on a Friday evening (after Indian working hours). This was an event that occured atleast 3 months early for me though pretty much on the cards. But then this unexpected event has blanked out my mind. It only has questions of uncertainity - what happens to my project? What is my base location? What is my position with respect to immigration in the US? How will I be treated? Being part of such a vast ocean, will my career ambitions have to be thrown out? Will I be layed off? Do I need to quit and join another organization to achieve what hopes I ahd from my previous company? And so on....................
I joined TIL from engineering, left it to do my MBA and rejoined as soon as I had the opportunity. A set of people and working culture definitely unique to itself. It also gave a lot of freedom to individuals. I'm sure lot of talent stayed back in TIL (inspite of the low pay) because they were in love with the organization and now they might go looking for something they want. I'm glad atleast I was there when the entity TIL diminished in the horizon to join TCS while at her peak with her head held high.
I'm not against the merger, since business-wise, organization-wise, employee-wise and other-wise it is definitely good. Its just that it was so unexpected and that no one even communicated anything to take care of the employee psyche other than a generic letter from the chairman.
Arun, Jayesh, 25% of NIE Mechanical junta of 1999 and Ramadorai - here I come to be a part of your organization and I sure am looking forward to a positive and growth oriented stint with you guys both for the organization and myself.
Tata Infotech - I shall miss you in everyway.

Fun @ work

This was a term coined by Payal while she was a part of the branding exercise of HR at Tata Elxsi during her summer internship. The HR prooudly hosted this section for about a couple of years. She is always the creative half of 'Harpal' while I generally tend to be the logical half - similar to the left brain-right brain concept. The best part of course is that I do not need to be any different since she makes up for my weakness and in her case, I would like to assume the same. She is the one who actually opened my eyes into the concept of enjoyment at the work place. I wouldn't call myself a workoholic though I would go to any lengths to ensure that the task given to me is completed. And I've never been an epitome of concentration more than a few hours. I generally like to take a walk around and see what everyone else is doing while all my problems are processed in the background (I would like to think this is true). And most of the time this break usually helps achieve my objective. I do believe in fun at the work place and I generally disturb others (generally everyone is kind enough not to shout at me and when they want to be rude, they just ignore me) to ensure that they too take a few seconds off work and learn to relax. When I get a team, I shall sure ensure that everyone has their share of fun. Of course the fun does not exactly mean party, but a totally silent atmosphere gives me the creeps. Also this means that you are enjoying the work. And when this happens that means that the job is good.
Anyways, Payal would also tell me that bragging is another habit I have and I generally prove it. But then is putting down my thoughts bragging?? Well I guess sometimes it is, but I would like to see it in another way.

Indian Software Developer

I couldn't resist posting this cartoon that came in my mail. For those who have trouble understanding hindi (not than mine is but I'll try to translate as accurately as possible), here goes:
Project as big as a sea,
Effort as big as a river,
Estimate as big as a bucket,
Salary as big as a small box,
Increment as big as a droplet!!

What good ever happens?? - Achievement!!

Vivek Paul istyle.........

For most people, he is or rather was the man running the wheels of WIPRO. And for many unknown (including my close ones), he was my idol. I've been tracking his stories, his events and news since the end of 2000, when I was getting ready to join B-school. The reason behind that was the most unthinkable - I was always under the impression that he was a mallu who had made it big in the IT sector or more than that the IT management field. Anyways it’s besides the fact that I never found out if he was a mallu. I've always been a fan of strategic management and believed that operations are the key to success of any project (right from shopping for grocery to running a firm). And as I had this argument with Payal, I realized that CEO is not a role I can relate to even though I've always had pride in the fact that my college always made me the CEO to represent at the AIMA Strategic management games. As I look back I realized that even there I was more closely taking over the operations than looking at the whole picture. I'm good in finance and I can handle marketing, but then my strengths never had the ability to excel in both. Even whatever selling I've done have always been based on what can be done not 'selling' in the true sense. Only I can dream of a convincing act of selling a product based on facts!!! So I realize that my ultimate goal will be a COO rather than a CEO as I had always dreamed and still V Paul path is the one I need to tread.
This article is a real eye-opener. I particularly like this part from it -

As Paul says in his interview, Indian managers are "in a cocoon" and don't really understand what it takes to succeed. "In the real world, there is no cocoon."

How very true!!! And mind you change is always top driven!! Here it is a reference to the top management. Sometimes the top management is so content in being "snug'n'fit" in the position they are in that they forget the rest of the team. They are always so number conscious, that they always dream about getting the numbers. Mind you that their dream is single-tracked like a horse, never move out of the track. I'm no expert on operations, but I very well understand the concept of a team. I know that loyalty is something that can get wonders and to get people to be loyal is definitely a good investment. Why would I say this? Because I got a team of three total strangers who were new to technology to deliver on time while I worked only on one thing, getting them to gel-in well together and sat through their pain points during development and assisted them. And now 2 of them are moving from the question mark on BCG towards the star quarter. I'm really proud of them. So getting back to top management, strategy is something that is best understood and implemented when shared with others in the team, atleast the top guys on the team. The reason - for one the top guys in the team are generally more well connected to know the strengths and weakness of the team (more touch with reality) and secondly, they are the people who get into the dirt for implementing the strategy. One fact of V Paul which impressed me is -

Paul was, in many ways, an 'offline' manager. He did not sit with people as they worked. Neither did he follow traditional norms like experience when choosing someone for a job.

You need the right people on the team and being professional to pick guys who have the ability rather than those just experienced is a hidden secret. Anyways I can go on and on giving commentary on what I love.
One sad fact - I've never had the privilege of working with V Paul or being in Wipro. And moreover I believe that I'm in an organization that may go to dogs because of the likes of people higher ups. One truth before I end my blog - never move a sales guy into delivery and the reason - most sales people I believe are professional yet sensitive that hinders the professionalism that they carry over the egos. They are best left alone to work as one man team for targets

Confusions-galore

Yesterday I was asked a couple of questions by 2 "mutually exclusive" people - what do I want to do? How long do I intend to stay in the US? I suddenly realised that an immediate answer was not possible since it involved work, personal life and all the fundings towards the balance sheet of my life's finances (actually at this point in time - 2 of us) and I have to decide. Something I want to balance out are opportunities that exist at a time and the opportunities that I can create. I would ideally like a good stay but for the fact that money and ambitions are not exactly doing a tango. I guess this blog update is confusion enough.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Four words, but of enormous depth. That's what the graduating students from Stanford got to hear from Steve Jobs. In effect, leading to my principle of - "everything that happens in life, is for a reason and sincerity always pays".
I am seriously planning to take on the PMP certification heads on. Infact, the latest feeling I've been brooding over the weekend is that I'm bored of sleep and I can invest some of the time I sleep into learning new things. After all like JF Kennedy said -

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other"

So lets see if I still have the zest in me for learning!!

Diamond or carbon - subtle choice

It’s not exactly been a bright day at work, especially the fact that the weekend is looming. I've been unable to sleep the whole night with strange thoughts in my dreams. All I've been doing is finishing up things that I needed to have completed at least 2 days ago. There is a lot of research that’s been waiting for my attention and also need to solve a lot of implementation issues. I hate doing this. Not that I cannot do this, but then solving these easily does not impress on higher-ups the fact that I'm capable. Not that I ever think capability is a factor considered for getting to a higher responsibility level. I'm slowly realizing the fact that there is a lot of ability in me that’s being unused. I know for a fact that my financial ability and number playing is extremely good but then after 2 years of latency on this skill, it’s something I feel I'm loosing out on.
I also have a good feeling on project management but I need a little more dabble with the marketing to be sure that I can handle it. According to me, project management is the true outlook of management that utilizes the all-round ability of the manager. The manager has to make the numbers look good, do proper allocation, needs to have knowledge of operations of the field he/she is in, run it successfully and before that plan/strategize it accordingly and sell his plans to superiors and client. A total all-round ability and the icing on the cake - politics involved in every stage. Operations and finance I am confident of handling, resource allocation and planning/strategizing I can improvise with time but marketing is something I've never messed with till now. So guys in project management, you actually are not relishing the pressure you are into. It’s the same as driving a beautiful vehicle at top speeds without ever waiting to enjoy the sounds and mechanics behind it. Till you relish pressure, you are still a piece of carbon resisting to be converted to a diamond.

Debate - new topic yet again!!

Yes folks - another new topic to debate on though for this one I'll try not take sides. The topic is -
"Should a person's appraisal/promotion depend on the performance/capabilities or the experience?"
We newer B-school pass outs would vouch for the former while the old school of thought would go along with the latter. The reasons are simple - path of progress for individual holds the key and experience is a wiser teacher than books. But the first thing I was taught at the B-school was "increasing share holders wealth" which by my simple brain calculation means organization comes first. And stupid being me, have always believed in this. But like my dad always told me, charity is not something to be indulged in when one is a beggar. And the sad part is I never have thought of myself as a beggar. I've always gone along with the decisions, whether right or wrong for my individual perspective, but then as everyone can still see I still get the lowest salaries among batch mates, struggle for almost everything in life and like most losers have lost hope in dreaming for something for myself since meeting my other dear ones need is the higher priority.
On the other hand, bookish knowledge is no great tutor. The vast experience of doing things right and wrong accounts for some amount of points compared to a few people's judgment on ability. And moreover, a leader who has not tasted or understood failure is a risky proposition for the organization. Its equivalent to the fact that riding a bicycle slower is harder than doing the same faster.
But the end result is the fact that given the open market for jobs, the facts for judgment are governed by performance in past, capability, employee morale, retention and organizational value. The major fact I notice missing in my current organization as in many is the last one - organizational value. Higher ups are very evident of the threats posed by bright sub-ordinates and it generally ends in company loosing a valuable person or employee losing faith in the system leading to poorer performances. In either case, organizational goals take a hit and hence decreasing shareholder wealth. But in any case, I'm no Peter Drucker!!

Splendid San Francisco

Finally a place in the US (after San Diego) that I found to my liking - San Francisco or SFO in common terms. A beautiful and green city, with a decent amount of fellow countrymen and locality and a interesting yet down-to-earth downtown. I visited Fremont (places where my friends lived, Indian temple with more authenticity, Indian restaurant) and downtown - Golden Gate Bridge (it was truly a long and high suspension bridge that looks strikingly beautiful in reality than the cold purpose for which it was built), Lombard Street/Crooked Street (nothing can describe the drive up the steep incline of Lombard to stop totally at the stop sign an the very top while coming from the Golden Gate bridge and then through the curves of crooked street and finally down the incline of Lombard again), Pier 39/Fisherman's Warf (a section we can see a lot of street musicians, robot men, hilarious scenes, sea elephants/lions (I actually don't remember what they were) and of course 'machli bazaar' where you can see a lot more than 'machlis') and Union Square (gives one more of the feeling of NY downtown which I am not a fan of). I was also pleasantly surprised to see the greenery and have to acknowledge the fact that it is colder at night, perfect to my liking. The only reason why I would rate San Diego above SFO is for the simple fact that the place has more open space and things here are simple compared to the big cities. And not to mention that I loved the drive from SD to SFO and reverse route. Wonder how it would be if I had taken the scenic route instead of the 7.5 hrs short drive (for the simple fact that I wanted to drive all the way)?
Definitely would love to spend more time in this city than the 1.5 days I spent on the last weekend. Looking forward to being in more such cities too!!

WANTED: Long weekend

Finally the much awaited long weekend after the tensions of 3GToday started. Ideally I would like to have a peaceful weekend of not doing any hard-work, enjoy life and just laze around. Plans are for Sea-World on saturday, loaf around and grocery on Sunaday and take Monday entirely peacefully. Would like to play some tennis over the weekend (my first tennis in more tha 3 months). The hectic schedules of 3Gtoday started last december, right after my vacation and gradually ramped up to hectic frenzy that concluded this week with the site going live. Everyday was filled with calls, bug fixes and having to convince the client the reason why something was not do-able. But in all, a super learning and fun project it has been. But hey, I still would be cautious to ask for another one like this. At the end of this project my earnings are: pride of having helped some team members to improve, learnings of handling client and situations, learnings of portal and portlets (including JSF) and having fun in the face of tension. My weaknesses exposed (hey PM if you are reading this, you shouldn't be using it against me in my evaluation) are: lesser patience, losing sight of work priority to the ambitious heart of doing a lot of stuff and ability to multi-task among highly asking projects. But then overall, my balance sheet is still profitable and would like to invest the profits in the long weekend!!

A Toast to 3GToday Team

When I was complaining about work, it was the 3GToday website that I was working on. Looking at the site, its hard to judge the complexityin the technology, architecture and effort behind it. Hats off to all my team members who have been working hard (day and night) to get this up and running. Vinay (our project manager), Lakshmi (who has unfortunately for us has moved on), Aruna, Ramesh, Niladri, Kannan, Ananth, Vinod, Jyoti Ranjan, Pankaj, Sunil, Harisha, Saritha, Saravana Kumar, Mullai and Shyamala (analyst and test lead) form the successful team of which I was a part. This may not have be the best project ever, but given the experiences of people, complexity of technology and the fact that most of them were new, it has been a project of which I am really proud. We also went through a lot of effort in the end, but I must say it was worth it. Though there are senior members in the management who have no regards for the effort of the team members and think a congratulations mail is a formality that everyone has to pass through, I cannot let be stopped from rejoicing. For many of us, even our families had to put up with the erratic schedules. But after everything is said and done, this has been a success story in the organization.
Coming to part of management, if upper middle management is not going to be people oriented, their survival will only lead to the demise of the organization. Today we recieved a mail from one member who thinks a person totally unrelated to our project is the one to be attributed to the success. And this was after he had challenged the teams technical capability and finally mentioned that the delivery was a 'fluke' and only future would tell us how consistent we can be. And none of the members were attributed to the success and all it indicated was the formality of the event of being congratulated. Extremely irritating and left a dirty taste in mouth. For sure this person will never earn my respect even if he does the 'bestest' act in the world. And it also indicates to me the fact that if such members form the part of our top brass, I amy not survive long.
Anyways, I would like to personally thank every member in my team and hope that as we build the site further and fix any bugs that still exist, we'll only taste success. Thanks everyone.

Rewarding Work Life

Life would be less complicated if poeple completed their immediate tasks at hand before doing a role-play for someone else. And to add more to that, if they would care to use their brains once in a while. I can better relate to people if they don't understand rather than when they talk about things which they have no clue about but are not willing to accept their lack of knowledge!!! And to be in a Fortune 500 company and to deal with such creatures, RIDICULOUS!!!!!!
But being in a client servicing organization, I'm forced to put up with all this and its supposed to be a part of life. And not to mention, have to take it with a smile and say "thank you for all the hard work". And at the end the company rewards these brainless nit-wits while all I get to hear is "good work". And does my organization know what we go through in execution? Sure. But will they do something about it? Nothing other than give the sales guy his cut of the revenue!!! Strange cycle for me to think that the work I'm doing is a great learning experience and rewarding, when infact your promotions are held up (when it should be prompt if they think I deserve it), your non-work life is as screwed up as it can be and let's not go to monetary aspects of it. As for my ambitions in life, I don't think that this life time is even close to achieving half of what I want (and trust me when I say that I'm not ambitious). My well-wishers think that I'm in the wrong organization for achieving my targets and keep flooding me with opportunities they think is beneficial. But for the most of it, I am not confident of what I'm capable of since it is an unknown to me (and not to others). So I'm hoping to build my confidence and strengths in the organization that first recruited me out of grad school and among folks whom I trust. Not a bad thing I suppose, except that I seem to be running out of time. I am very confused as well as frightened. But where most people look at me for whatever little I achieve, I take the pleasure of success in every small problem I over come while for the big ones, I seem to be loosing out.

Proxy me please!!

Finally a solution to reduce the load on the server - put a proxy caching server in front of it. After days of struggle and long hours at work, my determined boss finally got the proxy caching to work. Well lot of short-cuts and forbidden paths undertaken, but the we fnially got the performance imporvement we wnated on a non-clustered environment. To put it simply, we put a proxy server in front of our web server & application server so that all the users get the content that is cached (it is updated periodically) in the proxy server instead of requesting our servers who serve real-time information. Please note - a way to relieve stress. So, can I put a proxy in front of me at work so that all static and monotonous requests can eb served by the proxy while I am enjoying my life?? This whole week I've not spent any quality time with my wife and she's already mad with me for making her run through everyhting from grocery shopping to birthday parties.
But the best part is I still manage to amaze myself most of the times (if you guys did not get me - modesty is not my virtue). I have managed to work on everyone elses modules when I had not written any myself in offshore. And I'm no geek in java!! And all this after members in my team said - "there is no way you'll make changes in the code since you did not write any". I think there is someone out there who definitely looks out for me and I'm very grateful to that 'someone'. Me looking forward to lot more fun in the coming weeks and put all this behind me.

Has time moved?

I've been in the US for over 3 months now. I'm still doing the implementation of the site. Though it is scheduled to go on for more phases, I've my doubts. I was to do requirements for another project, but this one closed me out (and my hopes of being an analyst). And the worst part, dealing with pathetic infrastructure guys who feel that the site going live may add burden to their already existing chores that they are determined to pull down the application for development issues. Haven't we moved onto the era where everyone was aligning their goals with teh organizational goals? or has time stopped for these people? I know there are tweaks possible in teh application developed and I do not claim perfection. But why does everyone else think they are perfect? Or do I have a kiddish attitude towards competitiveness? My life does only move in the negetive direction with the fact that I get lesser time and energy towards home. My career ambitions are more realistically seeming to move on a horizontal level. And on the monetary front, there is only movement backward (this one is for sure). Where is my motivation coming from? What is making me come to office at 8 AM and leave after 6:30 PM everyday if not later? Am I making a fool out of myself?
Anyways hopefully it gets cleared in the next few exercises and I'll be happy to come and work again. But really, now the site seems old to me, nothing exciting. Afterall I've been seeng it since last October!!

Life in the US

Life has been so hectic in the last 3-4 months. Not only are there issues at work with tackling new technology, grooming/getting work done from relatively fresh people to deliver as well as get a good rappot with them and, delivering results on time, there are also the personal issues of not spending much time with people you care for, invest time in the house I'm building and having my personal life and hobbies in complete disarray. The few events that took place on the way are getting US visas for Payal and me, getting the housing loan approved and being in the good books of my entire team (the last one is my assessment). And yes by the way, I also managed to land up in San Diego (not to mention that I am eagerly waiting for Payal to join me this weekend to start enjoying).

US is a strange country (perfectly normal to the poeple here I'm sure) with a lot of differences where I come from. Will Blog more on my experiences soon to prove this point.

Tsunami and globalization

Tsunami - the giant killer waves spreading in the oceans caused by disturbances in the ocean floor (this time near Sumatra), created a havoc in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia with other countries in the Indian Ocean also enrolled in the destruction list. They did not confine themselves to the realms of Indian Ocean but tried a hand at globalization by reaching out to Australia in the south to eastern coasts of Africa in the north. The one thing they offered everyone free of cost was 'DESTRUCTION'. The first one to embrace globalization in a win-win situation for it!!