Phatela jeb sil jaayega!!

jo chaahega mil jaayega

Tere bhi din aayenge chhote,

achcha khaasa hil jaanyega

And so goes lyrics of one popular Hindi number, which Ganja and I used to sing along around 8 years back. Year was late 2001 and we were in final year of engineering at REC Warangal. IT slump of 2001-02 saw fewer and fewer companies visiting us for campus recruitment and most of my batch mate, including me, were left high and dry. Cut to 2009, things have changed for all of us, settling in life now.

Christmas holiday of this year resulted in a long weekend and gave me an opportunity to have a short trip to my alma-matter, now NIT Warangal. Early morning on Christmas day I, along with my wife and a close friend, started for Warangal. Once we reached there and were inside the campus I was like wow, all old memories of college days became live in front of my eyes. I felt like I am reading stories from an old book. College was being given a face lift after becoming NIT 7 years back, but the underlying essence remained the same. All the places in the campus had some or other memories associated with it. We roamed around entire campus, I reliving those good old days.

First year classroom reminded me that I used to sit on the first bench, without fail. One day I was little late to class and Kiran had occupied that place and I was like how dare he. Being holiday classrooms were closed but I could open windows. Opening each window and peeping inside the classroom brought some memories or other from that room. Second year’s room reminded me of Robot, who used to teach, no rather read out from the book in very robotic manner, and hence the nick name. By the time we were in third year my regular sitting place has almost reached to the last bench (one of the reason, among others, was my tallness :-O). A chalk fight in classroom on back of IAKR, third year. And HOD asking me to leave the class for not attending his previous lecture, final year. Krishnanand caughting Jhakki in his attempt of proxy, drawing class. Mistaking a professor for support staff, design class. We standing outside the examination hall and many of us still trying to cram, before commencement of exam, civil department, usual venue of our exams.

Entrance of our department, where we posed for photograph during last few days in college. The graveyard abutting the boundary wall of college , where we ventured late night about 1 am when we were returning after watching a night show of some movie. The audi , in front of which Chaudhary and I sat and discussed our future. SAC, spring spree of 2002. Main entrance to the college , we were stopped from entering as it was way beyond permissible time of 11pm. NCH and NSH , attending PPT from companies. Boy , there are quite a lot of memories from those days. I would not go on recollecting memories from our hostel area , essentially most eventful of all places.

By 3 in the afternoon we were through with campus. Then we ventured into the town. There was this Kalinga dhaba where we dined for 50 bucks (those days we hardly had money). Public garden , the usual venue for intro after ragging. Amrutha hall, where we used to watch movies in just 16-18 bucks in the comfort of AC.

After reliving all these and many more memories from college days for an entire day we came back to Hyderabad in the night.

Attending this college has influenced me in many ways.All the four years attended here were enriching. I was getting prepared for the real world. My thought processes were refined here, my world view changed, interacting with people from all parts of India helped me broaden my horizon. Few of my beliefs got strengthen, others got shattered.A significant part of me is only because I attended this college. Getting a degree and helping me start my career were just bonus.

Going forward, Rukne ka nahin, thakne ka nahin, life mein chalte rehne ka

So Where Are You From? !!

The other day I was at the eye clinic , waiting for my turn to see the doctor. There was this old lady sitting beside me and we striked converstaion. She asked where am I from? Ummmm , lets see.

I was born in Gaya , brought up in Motihari (Both in Bihar). Then in Narsinghragh , a remote village in south Jharkhand. Then next 8 years I was in Jamshedpur , where currently my parents are settled. Then I moved out to Warangal, in Andhra Pradesh , for my graduation. After which I have been working in Hyderabad close to 8 years now.

So where do I belong to? Bihar . where I was born. Or Jharakhand , where I was brought up. Or Andhra Pradesh , where I studied and then currently working?

Am I a Jamshedpurian , where my parents are settled now and where I frequently visit. Or am I a Hyderabadi , where I stay to earn my living?

Or am I an Indian?

Anything That Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong !!

Who is the Murphy anyway?

Who ever he is, he makes his presence felt when you are least likely expecting him. Sometime he acts as spanner in the wheel and other just a deflated tyre. But for sure you , me and others are affected by him day-in , day-out. Him affecting us can be minimized but the thought of altogether removing his presence would be a foolhardy one.

However we can be better prepared to tackle anything and everything which may, potentially, go wrong.

By paying attention to detail. Even before you start executing, a well thought out plan should be in place. This is the "well thought out" part of the planning I am stressing at. Proper care should be taken in initial planning so as to capture all necessary activities needed to complete the task. While listing down activities you would know what could possibly go wrong while executing the task. And that's where you need to have your contingency management in place. Which can be arrived at by "what if" analysis. What if one of your key people falls sick !! What if your development system crashes!! This analysis will help you identify possible areas where things related to your project can go wrong. You can anticipate them and can avoid them by taking proper care during execution or you can be well prepared in case the event occurs.

Even after paying proper attention to detail at various stages in the project things can go wrong. Now use those learning as your experience but make sure that next project onwards these learnings are put in to practice. Or still better learn from others mistake.Please remember that everybody needs help sometime. It is good to learn from one's mistake but it is still wiser to learn from others mistake. Perhaps at organization/team level a document capturing what went wrong in a particular project and what was the learning, can be maintained and shared. Just to ensure that same mistake is not repeated / similar situation dont repeat.

Sooner or later, something fundamental in your business world/ the factors contributing the the success of the project will change. As Andy Grove said "Only the Paranoid Survive". Being paranoid helps you to analyse ,to be better prepared. Be paranoid , but be sure that you act as well. Otherwise being paranoid is sure sign of failure. Dont overdo.

But one thing is for sure that in spite of one's best effort shit happens and then you dont have any other option than to accept it. Dont fret , take lesson and move on. You'd be better prepared for future.

I want my money back!!

When was the last time you saw a movie almost entirely shoot on sets? And foreign locations for songs? That is very 80s man. Add to that childish situational comedy and sub standard acting by the male protagonist. You have Gazab Kahani of Ajab Prem. How many Indian Christian you know who speaks Hindi with forced English accent, the female protagonist and her family does so in the movie.And oh, add to that Atif Asalam’s voice for Ranbir Kapoor.A full two and half hours of atyachar.

Not even a month back RK gave appreciable performance in Wake Up Sid and in APGK he was almost pathetic. A director’s actor?

So you can’t speak Bihari!!

No, I can’t. And wait a minute there is no language as Bihari. It is the way we speak Hindi out there sounds like altogether different language, aka Bihari or perhaps a new dialect. Well it is not a dialect either. It is Hindi with regional flavor and some accent to it.

You find many dialects of Hindi being spoken in Bihar, one such dialect Magahi (Magahi paan, beetle, is famous all over India) is what my folks speak. And I don’t know Magahi as well. In fact hardly many in my generation speak Magahi. That is sad. Essentially languages are very integral part of any culture and with most of us confining ourselves to English lately its matter of merely a decade when not many languages would be around. In face I read somewhere that every year 400 languages are getting extinct every year (?). Can something be done about it?

Technology, Entertainment, Design!!

So TED was here, here in India for three days. TED talks going for three whole days in Mysore. But I could not attend those sessions. Reason: money honey!! It was too costly for me to attend. Well never mind, there is always next time. But there is addition to the To Do list and someday I don’t only want to be in the audience at one of those TED sessions but I want to speak at one. Hopefully on the topic related to technology and design.