Something about Everything

I remember the first time I saw someone working on an SAP screen. He was a warehouse executive, carrying out regular material receipt and issue transactions. I was not exposed to ERP at that time and hence tried to understand things from him. He was too busy posting goods and creating invoices and hence I had to understand from seeing what he was doing. I remember that at that time I was really amazed by the executive’s ‘expertise’. His fingers would float on the keyboard; he always knew where to go; and he remembered the puzzling t-codes by rote! What would be his qualification? Not more than a graduation in any stream. But his work impressed me. I also noticed that majority of his colleagues at his level, were all very good at their work.

Now that I have got proper training and have understood the functionalities, I see the same situation and the same guys in a very different way. I remember that when I asked those guys about anything beyond those selected navigations, they won’t know. They didn’t even know the proper full forms of terms like ‘T-code’ or ‘GRN’. Now I realize that the expertise they had gained is because of working on the same few screens day in and day out. They don’t understand things beyond what they have been taught. And they don’t fully understand the implications of what they are doing in down/upstream the supply chain. Their work is kind of transactional, repetitive and even robotic.

If we don’t properly understand things, we can easily get into the trap of accepting things on their face values and getting carried away. I think “knowing something about everything and everything about something” is still the key.

- Rahul

Peace and Memory

In one scene from the movie “The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day”, the voiceover says, “Peace is the enemy of memory.” What a startling fact!

It is so easy to forget some troubling incidents or some important reminders, if we only remain in peace for quite some time. I think it works both ways: it’s good as well as bad. If we take the example of Kashmir, the revolting people are like that because they haven’t really seen peace. And that has been the strategy of the neighboring enemy state Pakistan: if there is a period of peace in Kashmir, Kashmiris would forget to “revolt” against Indian state. On the other hand, peace is also what has made Indians numb towards many of the national goals for which our freedom fighters worked. We go on with our lives no matter one of our own people lives or dies on the footpath: our individual contribution towards poverty eradication is very low. We keep being proud of our children who go to elite schools and then settle abroad; while many like us can’t afford to feed their children properly. At one time before independence, our nation was one, behind Mahatma, in spreading the light of education.

Peace has indeed eliminated our collective memory of our national priorities. Today, we live life in a modern India, completely oblivious of many like us who have seen no light of modernity.

- Rahul

Segregated

It was going on for many days then. And I observed a pattern. We had daily tests to appear in and we studied late in the night in the computer labs. There were several labs, each assigned to one batch. There were guys who would start discussing things with colleagues, mostly related to studies, loudly. I had two options: either to ask them to be quiet, or to leave. To tolerate them was not happening as I needed much concentration for the difficult subject matter. I realized that asking them to be quiet won’t really help because bound by their habit; they would get into discussions again. And I didn’t want to suffer in discomfort and annoyance. So I left the lab and entered another one assigned for another batch.

I found that there were many like me who had taken a refuse in that lab. And that lab was pretty quiet. That made me think. The loud-guys will force the behaved-guys to quit their designated labs. After some time, all the behaved-guys would accumulate in the other quieter labs, while the loud-labs would become dominated by the loud-guys. In that situation, if one behaved-guy is trapped, he would have no option but to leave. Was my experience a simulation of the real world?

Birds of same feather flock together. Guys with similar nature would hang around amongst themselves. If this goes on without social interruption, the anecdotes like, “Know a man by his company” would stand true. But in my opinion, world is at a loss in this arrangement. When people of different natures mix, they also influence each other. With such segregation, there would be little chance for them to know and learn from each other. Is there a way out? I think in organized environments, there is still a way out. In my experience, if there was an invigilator he would discourage the loud-guys and would ask them to behave. But in real life, we seldom get to have instructors and invigilators. Our conscience would help, but only if we care.

- Rahul

Social Roles

The company has a very big campus in Hyderabad. It has more than a dozen buildings amidst trees and gardens. The whole campus is an aesthetic delight. The company is also among India’s biggest, with more than a lakh employees. Naturally, a lot of parents aspire to have their kids working here. And the manner, in which the company goes about its social responsibility, is a case study in itself.

Every Saturday, employees are free to bring in their family or friends inside the campus. A couple walking over the green grass, both holding a hand of their daughter or son is a usual scene. Then there are old parents, reviewing the place where their child spends major part of his or her waking hours. Not to mention, the campus takes a very different color every weekend. And it is such a delight! Many times students from local colleges also visit the campus as part of industrial visit. I believe they go back with a dream which would not only help them but also our nation. Then there are skills development programs conducted for teachers and professors. It is like a win-win strategy, much like the legendary Henry Ford’s strategy of empowering his employees so that they could buy a Ford car. The company also holds a very high position in terms of business ethics and values, and with these social interactions, it plays a very important role in our nation’s progress.

I remember the time when a college was discussing whether to close an access road which ran through its campus, for the ‘outsiders’. Locals took it to save their precious minutes. One professor suggested that we should never close it for them. A university has a very constructive role to play for the place where it is situated. To allow the locals to have whiffs of that fresh academic air should definitely not be disrupted, in spirits of the larger good.

If only all our institutions play a more constructive role in the development of our society our nation would take a faster pace towards reclaiming its past glory.

- Rahul

Business Risk in Marital Convenience

While on a train journey, I met a lady of my mother’s age. She enquired about my job and about what my spouse does. When she came to know that wife was in a very un-matching profession than mine, she started sharing her apprehensions. Her son and her daughter-in-law both had same qualifications and were working in similar consultancy profiles for two competing companies. She expressed happiness that whenever one of them needed help on professional front, the other was right there to help. She thought that both ‘gained’ and hence rose fast because of their same job profiles. But I had my doubts.

I wonder if the two companies where they are working know about their case. In consultancy, there is lot of confidential client information involved, which should be protected at all cost. In the lady’s case, such secrecy is defeated. Secondly, companies also guard their confidential procedures, systems, checks and loop-holes from their competitors. What if the husband and wife kept feeding each other with confidential client information; which actually helped them win accounts ‘individually’? Both these guys would become outstanding performers due to their nexus, but their companies might start losing lots of prospects and money in the process! This is why I believe that companies should be watchful of such circumstances during the background check stage. If husband and wife are in the same profession, both of them could be given offer of employment by the company. That would be a good proposition. But if a critical employee’s spouse is working with a competitor, there is lot at the stake in the long run.

On the other hand, a couple in the same profession may lack ‘variety’ in life. I don’t know anyone who loves absolute monotony percolating from office to home. And for help, we can always trust good colleagues and close friends! Being in different professions would also avoid any ‘ego-clash’ which is inevitable in same profession couples. Bottom-line: I see more advantages than disadvantages in couples having different professions. What say you?

- Rahul

Let there be Light

Today, we had a group photograph in our office. Our unit is about a hundred strong. When we gathered at the entry stairs for that perfect portrait, it was around afternoon. The three front rows were out in the sun while the last three rows were in the shade. I and my group of friends comfortably settled in the middle of the last row. We could see the photographer from there and made adjustments so that our face would come in the snap. The guys who had chosen the front rows were getting red in the harsh sunlight. The last rows even laughed at their sorry condition. When we said ‘cheese’, the last rows had the first smiles and the front rows tried hard to look up with their tiny eyes. Three shots captured the moment.

The photographs have come a few minutes ago. The guys in the front rows appeared bright and lit-up in the snaps while the faces in the shaded last rows are dark and not so apparent. What an eye-opener!

If you want to make a difference, you have to be in the ‘sun’. Never mind the sunlight. And bear the ‘heat’.

- Rahul

Book Review: Hinduism, doctrine and way of life

Hinduism, doctrine and way of life

by C Rajagopalachari (1878-1972)

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
 

“Hinduism, doctrine and way of life” is a wonderful book explaining the fundamental beliefs, doctrines, and way of life of Hindus, or practitioners of Sanatan Dharm. Like in his other books, the author has explained the concepts in such a simple yet scientific language which all of us can understand. “If a religion is contrary to the scientific findings, it makes itself nothing but hypocrisy”, he says. Vedanta, as he elaborated in most of the pages, is both scientifically proven and finds inspirations in so many other world religions. Is Sanyasa about renouncing Karma or attachment? What is the concept of Karma – the scientific law of cause and effect? What is Maya? What is Leela? Is God one? All these questions are answered in the book. Nowhere else, you can find such a wonderful compilation of world’s ageless wisdom which comes from the land of Bharat or India.
 

Basically, all of we living beings are like reflections of the One eternal soul – the Parmatma, over water-like Maya. Like the same sun is reflected in so many water drops and we can confuse if there are suns in every drop, similarly all of us are reflections of the same Paramatma over Maya. This is part of Vedanta. Also, a Vedantin would obey the rules or dharma which one is expected to because of his/her birth or place in society. And Karma, based on scientific cause-and-effect process, makes us think farther and beyond the confines of this body made of flesh and bones. Karma is also one concept which is a contribution of our land – and is common and unifies most of the religions and sects which developed in the holy land of India. Also, concepts like how Hinduism doesn’t preach fatalism but we believe in “vidhi” – law, and how free will is an ingredient in many concepts, are explained very well.
 

It was a wonderful experience of having read this book from a learned thinker and great politician like Rajaji, also popularly known as Chakravarti or C.R. I am looking forward to read it again.
 

This book is part of a series of books from Rajaji published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. It is a small size book of about 100 pages. If you are in Hyderabad and not finding it, one place is the bookshop of Birla Mandir. 

The Hype of Outsourcing Ban in the US

Very recently there is a heated debate going on in the USA and in India Inc too about the proposed ‘IT Outsourcing Ban’. This week only, Ohio in the US has banned outsourcing of jobs to countries like India for government departments. There is much hype being generated in the US, accusing Indian IT companies of ‘stealing’ jobs out of the hands of the Americans. I remember the current US president Barack Obama promising the ban during his political campaign and even after his election he has constantly spoken against outsourcing. In his recent move, he increased the visa fee immensely, affecting the profitability of Indian IT companies which send a lot of professionals to the US for onshore jobs. Now almost whole lot of Indian IT companies are opposing this ‘protectionism’ by the American government. (We also remember that at one time the US stood against protectionism in the business world and promoted developing economies to open-up!)
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Here, I have done a quick analysis. Let us see if Indian IT companies really come anywhere nearby the US behemoths:
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Revenue:
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IBM $103.630 billion (2009)
Microsoft $62.484 billion (2010)
Oracle Corp $26.82 billion (2010)
TCS $6.52 billion (2010)
Wipro $6.03 billion (March 2010)
Infosys $4.59 billion (2010)
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Data taken from Wikipedia articles of the respective companies.
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As is clear from the above tabling that the top three Indian IT companies don’t even make a mere 9% of the revenue of their top US counterparts!
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May be comparing the employment data would throw some relevant light; as the US political sphere is more concerned about the job losses than the revenues.
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Employees:
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IBM 399,409 (2009)
Microsoft 89,000 (2010)
Oracle Corp 105,000
TCS 160,429
Wipro 112,925 (June 2010)
Infosys 114,822 (2010)
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Data taken from Wikipedia articles of the respective companies.
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The data tells that the top 3 Indian IT companies employ about 65% of the employee base of their US counterparts; though the data doesn’t discriminate between employment in home countries and employment in BUs abroad. Let us see the populations of the two countries:
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Population:
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USA 310,216,000 (2010 estimate)
India 1,185,863,000 (2010 estimate)
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Data taken from Wikipedia articles of the respective countries.
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We see that the population of India is 3.8 times the population of the US! That makes it so evident that the responsibility and urgency of new job creations in India is not at all less important than in the US!
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The analysis makes it clear that while top-3 Indian IT firms make only less than 9% in revenue and employ only 65% of people resources as compared to the US; India’s population which is about 4 times that of the US tilts the case of ‘protectionism’ in India’s favor. It comes that it should be India which should be doing ‘protectionism’ not the US! Though I believe ‘protectionism’ is a matter of political ethics and no country should indulge in it unfairly.
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In my opinion, outsourcing ban or outsourcing job-losses has been made a debate in the US for political reasons. An example of the same was made evident in the Ohio ban; since Indian IT companies do very little work for the government departments anyway which the ban was intended to curb! The financial crisis which spread in 2008 was more due to some fundamental flaws in the US economic model than any ‘outside’ threat like India or China. And until the Americans address these core and real issues, the financial and economic crisis can’t be fixed by an outsourcing ban!
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- Rahul

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CWG and Nation’s priority towards Sports

‘India bashing’ is an old sport. And who can do it better than those with Indian genes themselves! I read the following article by Mihir Bose, published in The Independent, UK:

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Why India is a bit player in the world of sport
Deep-seated cultural attitudes may be to blame for the Commonwealth Games fiasco
By Mihir Bose
Thursday, 23 September 2010
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/why-india-is-a-bit-player-in-the-world-of-sport-2087034.html

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Here is what I sent as a comment and feedback:
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We have organized Asian Games before, right? And many other individual games, without any such mess (like the one with CWG)! Has our ‘deep-seated cultural attitude’ changed over-night? I don’t think so. The fact is that these games have become a victim of “organized corruption”. Government officials, organizing committee, contractors and subcontractors - they have joined together to exploit the bulk of money that was to be spent on the games. And I hope once the games are over, we would probe the thing well and fix the blame.

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There is no need to go into extensive but misplaced self-criticism, as a nation.
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I agree that the sports position in the Indian society’s eye is not very high. But let us also look at their ‘point’. A scientist gives the world something different, an engineer makes our life more convenient, a doctor heals human misery, a priest gives us peace; but a sportsperson plays only for fame (for self/team/nation’s) and awards. His profession (definitely sports are a profession) doesn’t add anything new to the world at large. In fact sports are a natural activity - babies start playing from the time they are born. It’s like ‘eating’ as a natural activity; or ‘fighting’ as a natural activity too. And all such activities or inclinations should not be done in ‘over-dose’.

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For a nation which is building itself, there are some areas of focus. And it is very important that our society’s priorities should match the nation’s aspirations. When Japan went on the rise after WW-II, they didn’t start playing some new sports - they invested in science and technology! Today when Mr. Obama asks American kids to study hard to compete with Indian and Chinese science students, I don’t see a parallel when he had to ask Americans to play Cricket harder to leave India or Australia behind! In fact when it comes to ‘National Priority’, sports are poor laggard anywhere in the world. Let us accept this fact.
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Only when a nation has achieved its dearest aspirations, it starts to think about the new areas in which it can prove its excellence. But the same doesn’t go the other way round! (No nation which is great in a particular sport goes around building great companies and products) So I completely agree with our society’s view which doesn’t give sports a priority over other ‘career options’, even if there is enough money in sports today. It’s because sports don’t reach us ‘there’! And we don’t want to support our players too beyond a limit (We saw Jaspal Rana and Sania Mirza dumping us in a way, right?)

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Also, let us not compare our nation which some others which ‘depend’ on things like sports and tourism in order to run their economy. It would be erroneous to believe that they are doing that ‘by choice’. There are so many small (in size and GDP) nations which are great in many sports, but we haven’t heard any of their companies to match the might of our Tatas or Birlas or Mahindras.
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I repeat that CWG are not connected anyhow with our nation’s attitude towards sports. CWG was a sports event, organizing which was to be our nation’s pride. Otherwise we would not have agreed to organize CWG in the first place. And the Asian games that we had organized or other international events like World Cup never got us in such a soup!

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Still, I definitely appreciate the author’s willingness to evaluate and think 360 degrees on the issue. That is very much needed for any progressive society and the article has made some points very well.

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- Rahul

Judging?

I was watching a movie. The story revolved around a father searching for his abducted daughters. A gang of organized criminals used to traffic women and his daughters had fallen into their trap. The man was an ex-detective. The only thing he had to start his search with, was the voice sample of the abductors. He sent the sample to an expert, who, noticing the accent and choice of words, identified the criminals to belong to a particular nationality and origin. Now matching their ‘way of doing crime’, he guessed that they belonged to a particular gang (gangs were formed also on the basis of the area from which the members had migrated from). This gang was found to be more active at airports, so the man concluded that he would find the culprits there. And he was right! He laid a trap for the abductors to come out again and nabbed them.
 

What interests me is the fact that the detective’s predictions were based on some common traits existing in the communities and groups. If a particular suspect had a particular type of beard, he would be from a particular community. If he pronounced a certain word in a certain manner, his origins would be guessed with confidence. His choice of words and even body language would tell where he came from. And then detectives would go on their trail. But, all these seem to me in contrary to what we have been taught to practice, by our civilized society. Just because a person behaved in a certain inappropriate manner, it should not mean that he came from uneducated or uncultured parents. Just because a person’s language is derogatory, we should not judge about one’s upbringing. We are asked not to judge people – “judge not lest ye be judged” as they often quote. So are we really judging people by their actions, in instances like interrogation and detective services? And are we doing right?
 

The question may be answered in different ways. In my view, the question arrived in my mind because I got confused between ‘personal judgments’ and ‘speculations’ or ‘suppositions’.  To understand it we should go deeper into the way investigations are done. Many a time we really don’t have any other choice than to start with whatever smallest clues and evidences available. We make a story around it – we form hypotheses – and then we test the hypotheses. The hypothesis is a tentative theory provisionally made to explain certain facts. As we go along the investigation, we test our hypotheses. If the actual facts encountered during the course of investigation indicate our hypotheses to be wrong, we look along a different line. This way of forming and testing hypotheses is actually not the same as judging others. 
 

Therefore, in my opinion it is nothing wrong in the way the detective in the movie went about in his trail– guessing about the criminals based on their appearances and way of doing things. If the facts would contradict his hypotheses, he would have to take a different line. Judging is like concluding and making verdicts. If we make verdicts and judgments based on incomplete facts, we have high probability to commit mistakes. Therefore, let us not judge others; but at the same time nothing is wrong in forming a hypothesis when we are going to test it. 
 

What do you say?

What is Personal?

We often use the word ‘personal’, but at one time I wondered if there are things in our life which could be called ‘personal’ to us in real sense. I would start with the closest guess. Are our feelings really personal to us? There are people who can guess our feelings accurately by looking at our face or into our eyes. And then we by ourselves show our feelings in many ways, unconsciously. And then there would be people close to us who would feel a part of our own feelings – out of empathy. Our life itself is also not personal. There are interferences from our parents and friends which we can’t avoid. In fact if we look back into our life, we would realize that most of our life was shaped by external events and circumstances. What if my parents didn’t have money to fund my education? What if I was born into a remote location with no school? What if my wife said no to the marriage proposal? What if I missed that train to attend that interview on time? Our life is definitely not entirely in our hands. So what others can be our ‘personal’ in true sense? Any relationship that we share has different aspects and many stakeholders in it. The properties and assets we own really don’t amount to be counted in the personal list – they won’t be there if we don’t have finances to retain or maintain them. Our parents or our relationships with our parents are very close to our personal in the sense – but then they have other children apart from us; some others too call them papa and mom. 
 

But I think there is one thing which we can call entirely personal. And there won’t be any others to guess what it stands for us and no others to claim a stake in it. It’s the feeling of nostalgia. What you feel seeing that locality, or that design of chair, or the name of that school, or any mention of that teacher or person, no other in this world can feel it the same way. No other person knows about every memory behind our recollections at the moment and there are no stakeholders present today in the events of the past that make us feel nostalgia. I think our feeling of nostalgia is such a unique thing that it should qualify for our truly ‘personal’ by any definition…

True Spirits of Gandhism

The US president Barack Obama is a declared fan of Mahatma Gandhi and practitioner of non-violence. But I was surprised to read this piece of news where a teen-age has been banned from entering the USA, as a punishment for sending an abusive email to the President!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-11296303 (14 Sep 2010)

In the true spirits of Gandhism he should have remembered that “Hatred can’t be won by hatred.” Or in the spirits of what we popularly call Gandhigiri now a day thanks to the Munnabhai series of Bollywood movies, he should have called the boy to the White House and give him a warm hug (jadu ki jhapki). That is what would have healed the boy and would have made Obama great in the eyes of the masses. That would have been a far better message to the humanity too, sending ‘hope’ to the world that we can win over hatred by love. I wish he would have done something as peaceful and non-violent as that.

- Rahul

Indian IT – Boon or Bane for the US?

Here is a very interesting statistic. So far the US president has been victimizing Indian IT industry for job losses for the Americans. And he has gone far enough to support outsourcing bans or to tax the American companies which outsource to India. But as Indian Commerce Minister reveals now, the fact is that Indian IT industry has created about 2.5 lakh (two hundred fifty thousand) jobs in the last three years! In August 2010 alone, Indian IT firms created 7000 jobs in the US!

http://news.oneindia.in/2010/09/15/indian-it-creates-2-5-lakh-jobs-in-us.html

I hope this clears a lot of air.

- Rahul