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What does he do for a living?

Since the day I got into an engineering college, my mother has been proudly saying “Majha mulga computer engineer ahe!” . I used to get amused by her pride, and it still makes me smile that she is happy for me (love you Aai :-) ). As days went by and I graduated to become a software developer, the “Computer engineer ahe” line was still there. Even when I got admission into one of the better known b-schools in the country, Aai would still tag me with Computer engineer.

The point is that sometimes you feel stereo-typed with the tag. People still ask me to troubleshoot their Windows. I dont mind doing that, but to expect me to visit their place at Borivali just because something is wrong with their Internet Explorer?? Sometimes I think I need a tag which defines my work and competency space better than “Computer Engineer”.

When I started working in a start-up, explaining to my family what I do became slightly more difficult. I was in charge of handling and building the technology on an entire organization. A lot of work which required a considerable bandwidth of know-how across the tech domain – a CTO in a nutshell. Whenever someone would ask, prompt would come the reply “Majha mulga computer engineer ahe!” . I kind of prefer IIM grad, but I dont think many people know about them – with people I mean the old aunty types, who ask your mother (in a nasal twang) “Kaay karto tumcha mulga?” The ones that sometimes do know about then quip “Oohh! Ahemadabad hoy?”, mother then simply says “To computer engineer ahe!!"” . Then I would butt in to say - “I sell shirts” rather than the oft repeated computer engineer tag.

These days I am working in a knowledge lab. We work on designing knowledge interventions and designing models which can change communities to become more productive and human oriented. I hope I got it right in this one line. My specific job entails a mini-CTO who is in charge of taking care of all technology details. Now what?!? I think “Majha mulga computer engineer ahe!”  is there to stay :-)

Familiar Strangers

If you travel everyday in a Mumbai local, then you are bound to have certain trains (and their times) in your mind. For e.g – I take the 8.24 Churchgate Slow from Andheri in the morning, if I miss that, then there is the 8.45 Churchgate Slow and the 8.51 Churchgate Slow, etc.

Most of the people think in these terms, so its obvious that you keep on seeing the same people everyday in your trains. Its their train as well. The mousy faced fellow, the guy who keeps on playing on his Nokia N-series, the guy who carries the Milton dabba. You see them, you have placed them and even named them … but what you don’t do, is befriend them. Maybe over a period of time, the ice breaks and you become good friends, but that takes many a train journey. The strangest thing is – that when you see the same person anywhere out of this morning train context, you still recognize him … and you see that spark on recognition in their eyes as well. But, you don’t talk. Strange aint it?

Uncertainty

I had gone to a friend’s place today to see his new born baby. Babblo* has a cute little daughter – I hope she doesnt take her looks from her dad!

So we got talking as friends do when they meet after a long time. Our favorite “R” word did come up. and so did the job switch. I see so many people who do not love their jobs, that I wonder has anybody written a paper on this? (let’s figure that out later)

This guy works for one of the big 4 consultancies, has been working with that firm for the past 4 years now. A job that any Systems MBA would kill for … yes, present company included :-) But I know the hours are long and the gyaan is hot. It requires the sheer dedication that dissolves my resolve to get into a post like that. Again, this is not the point, moving on …

Babblo’s reason for wanting to switch is that he does not see himself becoming one of the head honchoes and top guys in the next 5-6 years. He see himself reach the middle echelons of the organization, but still sees miles to go before he sleeps. Hence, the idea of moving out and getting into a different vertical altogether. A new stint even a startup. Have you imagined a guy who eats, sleeps, breathes ITIL trying to get things done in a startup? A comic strip on these lines can rival Dilbert :-D. Moot point being that Babblo (of course its not the true name!!) is actually turned off by the certainty of the job.

I cant identify with this funda. I for one would love some certainty on knowing what I will be doing 5-6 years down the line. Its easy to bluff, but do I really KNOW what I will be doing … hmmmmm … web surely, technology definitely, startup – could be, big hulking monolithic organization – sure why not, just pay me well!! I don’t know which is better – the certainty or the uncertainty!

Vision

I am not going to throw up corporate gyaan into your face. Today I met up with a very good friend of mine; over a cup of coffee, he tells me – I have a vision. A 2020 vision.

Upon hearing this I went into “corporate mode”; with the mission, vision thingy … before I could dwell any more deeper into those buzzwords, Nikhil stops me. He tells me that he has no idea what jargon I was spewing, but he has a clear well defined vision towards which he intends to work. The manager within me came forth and suggested that maybe he should outline a plan and start reaching towards that goal, since at the moment he did not have a clear idea as to how he is going to get there.

But what impressed me is that he had a vision. How many of us have a vision about what we want to do in 2020?

Atlas Shrugged and the Samajwadi Party

This Sunday’s headlines read that the Samajwadi Party has promised that they will ban English in schools and the use of computers at work. I assume, these promises are to woo the masses into thinking that banning English will somehow make us “more” Indian. Banning computers means more jobs (although I seriously doubt that).

I was shocked. Reviled even. In one instant I wanted to kill Mulayam, Mayawati and their minions. Yes, minions is the word, because they are demons; demons for Indian economy. People who learn to exploit the country for their personal benefit under the pretext of social/community good.

But this takes the cake, how can banning English and computers help the Indian nation? It can only cripple the economy ensuring that the next genre of professionals are disabled without computers and incompetent in the global market without English. And we vote for these bastards?!? The link to Atlas Shrugged in my mind was almost instantaneous. They know the underlying concept … and they are exploiting it. I hate the way politics has changed, compared to this, the US presidential elections are a treat. Wake up India!!

Then and Now

My first job was in IRIS, in the year 2002. I loved my job. I had joined with seven other software engineers. We bonded really well together. We used to work on different projects, but lunched together … discussed problems, solved them … and generally helped each other out. Life was good, life was beautiful. I loved my life of a programmer. Our batch was one of the best the organization had, in fact some of us were awarded as the most valuable programmer, et al. No, I am not being modest :-), but we loved helping each other out … contributing to the organization.

My last job was in I2I. It was a simple transaction for me. I went to work, I stayed there till 6.30pm everyday, I came back – the company paid me for it. The very transactional nature of this perspective made me shudder … I had to leave the organization in search of greener pastures.

My new job is with Illumine, where the culture of the organization is to actualize the paradigm shift from transactional thinking of a job to contribution thinking. Will post more on this later, but at the moment think about it. Is your job a transaction for you?

Summers here

• Mangoes, mmmm …. yummm
• When ice-cream, cold-drink and A/C sales spike up
• School vacations, ahhh … those were the best. No more pencils, no more books … no more teachers’ dirty looks
• When employees report early to office and stay beyond their normal time in order to stay in the cool recesses of their offices’ central A/C
• When you want to discard everything else in life and head towards a beach and have some beers … read Goa!! :-)
• Time for the Harry Potter films to come out and gather a throng of kids (and their parents) in the theaters
• Shorter clothes ;-)
• Families migrating towards hill stations

Summer gets me all nostalgic, what about you?

Marriage

As promised – Some words of wisdom from my better half on the M word.

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Hi Friends,

I am so glad today to finally write a post on my Hubby's Blog. Recently seeing him totally out of action (on his blog :P), I decided to enlighten this blog by highlighting certain aspects of MARRIAGE.

Life after marriage changes; alteast to an extent. Well one always find guys complaining more than gals. I feel its equal for each of them. I am sure most of you reading this post have already found their life partner/looking for a life partner/ thinking whether to climb the huge cliff (tie a knot). If you and your partner compile the 3C's i.e Compatibility, Connection and Chemistry then surely you both are ready to tie the knot.

"Marriages are made in Heaven" - a very famous phrase ... most of the bachelors/singletons say, "What crap? If they are made in Heaven then there would be no divorce."

Even before marriage or rather before dating Kidakaka :) I felt the same, this so called Idealistic phrase was a crap. Within a year my notions about this completely changes and now actually I am a believer.

Logically if you apply your mind how many guys/gals you have dated have actually clicked, the odds of finding the right person and selecting is really a difficult task.. Ask you friends who are going through trouble of meeting their opposites for an arranged wedding.

On top of that we also have different cultures in India which also play an important variant, different professions, hectic lives and varied interests. Ok Ok! the list just goes on; finding the ONE after so many odds is (PHEW!) definitely a difficult task. So really If any two people click and decide to get married then i must say "unki jodi baghwan ne banai hai :P"

Think about it and if you have someone in your life who does make a difference/rather if you feel he/she is the one for you ..go ahead and say it..before someone else does :P COMPETITION YOU SEE !!!!

So after all thsi Gyan heres KIDAKAKI signing off..bye have great year friends!!!

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Some of you really needed this – I wont name who :-)

The Dead blog

Ok. So I haven't been active lately here. Mea culpa. There were some personal crises that had cropped up, the details of which I will divulge over the next row of posts. Of course I can always give the standard alibi that is floating around – Recession hain bhaiyya!

Enough of that though, not one more word (well some might crop up here and there). Here is what you can expect to follow on the blog -

1. Marriage (as seen by my significant other) – the editing will of course be done by moi :-)
2. The jhols and some bitching against a few corporates
3. Other gyaan that I may feel free to impart from time to time

HNY 2009

Wishing all of you a very happy and prosperous new year!!

Merci beacoup

A big thanks to all for making it to the marriage. A special thanks to the maxxx group for giving us the lava lamp :-) … wheeeeee!!

The wedding went without a hitch, 4 hours of getting blessings and smiling with everyone tests your facial muscles and patience as well. Grateful to a lot of people for seeing this through. Photos to come soon. Meanwhile, feel free to check some of the photos that Amit has uploaded on facebook.

Shaadi 2.0

No, its not about collaborative marriage over the web :-). Amol gave me this crazy idea. We were discussing the Indian SMS site, Vakow which enables us to push normal SMS into a web-based RSS/Atom feed. There are about a gazillion applications for an RSS feed. Well, this is just one such mashup between a practical application of Vakow and Google Reader.

Well to be honest, the title of the blog should not be Shaadi 2.0, but rather Event 2.0, but since we are using the my marriage as the event to cover, I decided to name the title so, well ..  and this one is more exciting na? So here is what we did.

1. Register on Vakow, get a username and have your phone number associated with that username, so that you can SMS messages to your Vakow id.
2. You are on track now, and you should be able to post a feed … now that your feed is set, we just need to integrate that feed with my marriage feed
3. Send me the RSS link, I will add it in my Google Reader public folder, and voila!! You can view the sample page here.

People who cannot attend the wedding in person can keep on hitting the RSS page for an up-to-date status.

Wedding Invite

Google Maps Link
Prasad & Harshaja

Diabetes

My father is a diabetic; my grand-father was a diabetic (may god bless his soul); my great-grandfather was also a diabetic. Diabetes is a Y-linked disease – meaning that it gets inherited from father to son. So much for parental legacy :)

Diabetes is an incurable disease. That does not mean that once you get it you are doomed … no, certainly not. The day my father was diagnosed with diabetes, my mother started learning more and more about the same. She was smart enough to educate us as well. Well, hope some of you benefit from this post as I did from my mother’s admonitions. 

What’s this? – Diabetes mellitus refers to the group of diseases that lead to high blood glucose levels due to defects in either insulin secretion or insulin action.

So? – So, that means blood sugar levels go through the roof, increasing your chronic exposure. In short, if not taken proper care … you are in deep shit.

Why Me? – It’s hereditary, so you cannot escape it if its in your genes. Might as well embrace it and understand how to control your sugar levels.

Now what? – Worry naught. The entire secret is in controlling your sugar levels (the implicit ones and the explicit ones as well). With explicit, I mean the intake of sugar and sweet substances; implicit are those which are finally broken down into sugar – oil being one of the major stakeholders. Monitor those sugar levels judiciously, reduce the oil intake you eat.

Change your oil especially if you eats Saffola or Sunflower (these two brands are a strict no-no). They advertise to be healthy oils, but frankly speaking, they are not!! Would recommend changing to olive oil (too expensive for some) or mustard oil (too smelly for some), well if you don't like these, then groundnut oil will do as well.

Exercise is also good, I am not saying heavy gym work-outs. Simple half an hour to one hour walks every day would do you good. Establish a routine. Normal life helps get your health back on track.

Eating certain items also help – 1 walnut a day, home-made ghee (sajuk tup), flax-seed (alshi), fish (halwa, bangda, surmai). All of these contain a chemical called as Omega-3 fatty acids. These help the body combat sugar levels.

Here’s looking at a healthier, happier and stress-free life.

New leaf

An extension of the last post, but I figured – that it deserves a separate mention. So, here we go!!

On the day I touched Mumbai, one of the first things I did was back-up my machine and format it. Formatting is like a cleansing mechanism for me … like turning over a new leaf. A new OS, a new folder structure, my choice and my will to decide how I want to proceed forward. The data of the past legacy long forgotten and the freedom to take decisions as I want them.

Erasing all the baggage and getting rejuvenated for a new life. As I write this, it gives me a secret thrill … to be on the verge of a new year, in the middle of an economic crisis, without getting shackled to a conventional “job”. Have decided to benefit from the past years, and the advises given by friends … and here is my resolution for the new year (I know it’s early, but I intend on keeping this one).

To be more critical – because chalta hain does not cut it.

Think about it.

Home Sweet Home

Yes, the post is slightly late, but after all the action happening throughout the week, there was minimal time to post. Well, I am back in Mumbai for good, and am set on settling for good … no more travelling around for me. The stint in Hyderabad has ended after a good two years, feeling refreshed after a good week’s rest.

Did I tell you what a daunting task shopping for you marriage can be (honey, in case you are reading this, I am just kidding :-)). But seriously, when you lie on one side of the size-spectrum as me, shopping can sometimes become a tirade. All in all, glad to be home, in Mumbai.

So I bid adieu to the biryanis and the Karachi biscuits, to the Famous ice-creams and the Serengetti keebabs, to the unruly traffic and the relaxed way of life. Hello to Mumbai :) … to a life with family and loved ones.

Heart

the difference between a smile and a frown you can see when the chips are down what sets the winners and whiners apart is that winners have got heart

I'll take boring

As a child ... and as a teen even ... well lets just say the pre-25 years :), I used to love the thrill of life. The excitement of it all ... resigning from the job to give the CAT, not knowing what I am going to do next, walking around in the city with friends ... carefree, without a care in the world. The one thing I looked down upon despised, was the normal, routine rote of a life that my folks and all the 40 something's were following. How boring!! How can one live a life knowing ahead their every move?

I then touched 25. Finished by Post Graduation. Got a job. Welcome to the real world Neo.

With my risk appetite going down every coming year, and with my blood pressure going up, it becomes a necessity to know these things. To follow the simplicity of a routine. No surprises. Give me my daal-roti and I will gladly leave the Chicken Makhanwalla's of the restaurants. Yeah ... I would love having a normal, boring life for once. We as human beings are constantly striving to achieve that normalcy ... and so few of us actually manage to achieve it. As Fido Dido would have you believe ... Normal is boring .. hey give me boring, and let me be :-)

Then, Now and Will be

Got tagged by Archana, I know this tag is going to make me do a lot of introspection; much needed at that. Tags spread through viral referrals, and I hope that this one spreads out ... through me and through my friends (you are going to be tagged!!).

The tag:

Two questions in each category answer them and then tag your friends from the blog-o-sphere. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged and you are all set.

Then:

Your oldest memories

• Getting spanked on my derriere by the nurse ... ohhh the blood rushing to my head ... for crying out loud!! (he he .. was just kidding :-) )
• Throwing toys down the 9^th floor and watching them disappear as they fell fell fell ... from my grandparents flat in Churchgate when I was a toddler
• The glee when I saw my first horse at the age of 6
• The achievement I felt when my aunt taught me to draw a horse shortly afterwards ... I was addicted to horses after watching the movie Betaab ... had seen the movie 3 times in one night!! ... for the horse ... no I dont mean Amrita Singh :-D
• Seeing my first computer at the age of 9, it was a 80386 and my mothers brother had forked out one lakh for that machine ... shucks ... so much for Moore's Law. Played Prince of Persia for an hour, I was thrilled ... decided then and there that I would be a computer engineer :))
• Owning a XT 8086 with a monochrome display and 640KB of RAM, the machine did not have a hard drive, and I was happy
• Feeling the pride when my Maths teacher called my parents to commend my papers and explain the empty class notebooks in my 4^th standard
• Feeling an even greater humiliation when I finished last in class during the mid-terms of 9^th standard ... cable TV is a great evil
• My first ship cruise to Goa ... fresh fish and a choppy sea
• Standing atop a spiked gate and then the horror I felt when I saw that my new cream chappals had turn blood red ... weirdly I do not remember feeling any pain

What were you doing ten years ago?

November 1998, I was a first year engineering student, the first semester was coming to an end; and I was fast learning that I am loving engineering more and more since it does not adhere to the sad mugging pattern of school. I remember going to college, attending tuition, bartering notes, copying assignments, discussing over the phone, the long bus rides along the beach. My engineering college was Fr. Conceicao Rodriguez College of Engineering ... it is on bandstand, Bandra and generally a very nice place to hangout if you get over the engineering studies :). I was having a rocking time.

 

Now:

Your first thought in the morning

I should not have stayed up late in the night to finish Brisingr.

If you build a time capsule what would it contain?

Hmmm ... good question. It would contain nothing; the present is to be lived ... enjoyed ... why give the future excess baggage to dig up. (pun intended)

 

Will Be:

This year…

I intend to get married to the love of my life, possibly shift jobs and find a way of means to be near my loved ones. Activities such as blogging, web dev, tweeting, et al are bound to happen!!

What do you see yourself doing 14 years from now?

Why the no. 14?? Well ... I would be attending PTA meetings ... and planning my retirement as well. Archana, are you up for co-authoring that book?

 

I tag:

Amol

Sudhir

Amit

Ashish

End of the tag