Passion for India

Last month I travelled to Bangalore for training. No, this post is not about the training I attended, but about the trainer and some thoughts triggered by what he said during the course of the training.


The trainer is an American who has been staying and working in Bangalore for the past decade or so. An out and out Indophile, he loves India – warts and all. One of his favourite hobbies is to hunt for Chola Bronzes - bronze sculptures built during the Chola period.

Now, I have been living in India all my life and yet I know very little of the Chola period, much less of the bronze sculptures made then!

However what interested (and impressed) me was the passion with which he spoke (about not just the bronzes).

He went on to speak of the history and heritage of India and where we could be if we put our minds to it. In the last sentence I stressed the word ‘we’ for that was the word he used. He was enthusiastic about the creative potential of India and its people. He genuinely believes in and identifies with India and was quite optimistic about where we are headed. How many of us Indians feel the same with the same amount of passion?

The gentleman also had an interesting perspective on the way we (folks in the software industry) perceive and deal with people. He was dead against the term ‘resources’ used while referring to software engineers. In his view, the word resources dehumanizes the work performed. For him resources refer to non human resources like coal, oil, computers etc. He advocates the usage of the word ‘people’ while referring to software engineers.

Does make sense, doesn’t it?!?

Kolaveri Di vs Rathri SivaRathri !

Over the past few days, one can’t help running into the latest video sensation ‘Kolaveri Di’. It’s all over the newspaper supplements, the news channels (both local and national) and now also on the music channels. On reading about it for the first time, I eagerly looked forward to viewing the video. However, it was a big letdown– one can’t help feeling that the whole thing is a cleverly drafted campaign (first started on the net where it went viral). It seems Dhanush took a few Tamil words and a few (more) English words, put them into a blender and gave it a twirl – viola – a song was penned!

Contrast it with the song Rathri SivaRathri by Santosh Pandit. The lyrics are equally obnoxious (or funny whichever way you see it) but at least it is one language (Malayalam).

Whilst both songs went viral on the net, Santosh received brickbats for his efforts while Dhanush is now the toast of everyone - even Bollywood ! Of course it helps when you are from a powerful background :-)

Office Office

Yesterday I physically visited an old generation bank after a long time. Come to think of it - my first visit to a bank in ages since I transact mostly online or through ATMs.

It was quite an interesting experience. I expected no rush since public transportation was off the roads due to a strike. As expected, there were only a handful of customers.

The lady at the counter was quite co-operative and helpful. She took down the details of my request and disappeared to act on it. Feeling bored, I got around to observing the rest of the staff and the customers.

One thing has not changed over the past two decades. The pecking order is very much evident. The front-line are the lowly clerks / officers. After a gap of a couple of feet we have the managers / senior managers seated at larger tables. The sanctum sanctorum is the largest cabin (the only one that is enclosed) which seats the senior most manager.

The front-line staff looked the busiest - the change from the past being that now they were busy typing away at the terminals. The managers looked less busy but no less important. One chap had a couple of customers (who seemed quite nervous) at his desk. Yet, he was on his cell phone talking to someone loudly about the lack of traffic on his way to work and about the number of autos on the road. The customers patiently waited for the 'babu' to finish his important call.

The senior most manager was sitting in his glass enclosure picking his nose frantically. He had no one waiting at his desk. After satisfactorily completing his job (picking his nose that is), the manager came out of his cabin. Immediately the 'lesser' manager completed his call and attended to his boss.

By then the lady at the counter was back after completing my request. She inquired as to whether I was bored, I said it was interesting experience. Interesting it indeed was.

Palakkad blues

Long before ‘Dhoni’ became a household name thanks to MS Dhoni, some of us had a Dhoni in our lives. The Dhoni I am referring to is the name of a farm on the outskirts of Palakkad. Enroute to this place in the middle of scenic paddy fields, we had a small private hostel which took the name of the place the road in front of it led to.

‘Dhoni hostel’ was my ‘home’ for the better part of two years. This refuge for first and second year students of Palakkad engineering college could house up to 40 students at a time. We used to spend more time at the hostel than at the college. Besides the paddy fields, we also had a little Government LP school adjacent to the hostel building. From the hostel it was a 2 km walk to the college. It was a barely motorable road with very few houses on either side.

More often than not the ‘mess’ used to be a ‘messy’ affair (one time it was closed for a couple of months because the cook ran away with the money given to him to buy provisions in bulk! The princely sum in question was two hundred rupees!) Our savior on such occasions was one Azi-ettan (a young chap who ran a tea shop opposite the hostel). We used to have breakfast at his place almost daily (probably more due to lack of choice).

After schooling in what I thought then was a big city (Trivandrum), college life at Dhoni was peaceful and slow.

Why this flashback (you may ask) now after 20 years of leaving Dhoni?

Well, earlier this week, thanks my nephew’s wedding, I got a chance to visit Dhoni. I drove to the place and as expected the paddy fields have gone (most of them) – giving way to small houses. The hostel building is still there but instead of students, the owner has rented out the rooms out to families. The ‘mess’ has made way for a small ‘office’ space. I parked near the building and looked around but could not locate Azi-ettan’s tea shop – I guessed it must have also made way for progress. Seeing a stranger, a gentleman with graying hair came and asked me what I was looking for. I told him I was looking for one Azi-ettan who used to run a tea shop. Imagine my surprise when he said that he was the same ‘Aziz’. His make shift restaurant / tea shop is now a provision shop. He was very happy to see me (though he remembered neither me nor any of my friends – only natural since hundreds of students would have had ‘appams’ at his place). Before leaving, I also drove to the college. The road is very motorable now and both sides are lined with houses. At one point during the 2 km drive I thought I had lost my way!

Visiting Dhoni after two decades was an exhilarating experience. I was flooded with nostalgic memories of college life and carefree time then. As far as Dhoni hostel and the surroundings are concerned, progress has dampened the beauty of the place but one thing though - the place still has not lost its rustic charm.

I took leave of the place by driving a bit further down the road towards Dhoni farm. I was happy to see that ‘our’ paddy fields still exist and are still in the same pristine condition!

Dennis Ritchie

Dennis Ritchie, one of the pioneers in the field of modern computing passed away earlier this week. He was the creator of the C programming language and was instrumental in the development of Unix as well.

Generations of programmers took their first baby steps in the world of programming through his definitive book (co authored with Kerninghan) - 'The C Programming Language'

Except for eulogies in the technology press, his passing away seems to have found not much mention in the mainstream media. But his contributions to technology have been no less than Steve Jobs who passed away earlier this month.

Let me quote two statements that bring out the importance of Ritchie's contributions to the world of computing.

Google programmer, Tim Bray - "I've been living in a world he helped invent for over thirty years,"

James Grimmelman - "Ritchie's influence rivals Jobs's; it's just less visible."

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Here is a link to Steve Job's famous speech at Stanford in 2005

http://www.ndtv.com/article/technology/stay-hungry-stay-foolish-steve-jobs-famous-speech-139029

And I just can't resist uploading Amul's tribute to Jobs.

iCon

Earlier this week Steve Jobs passed away. The impact this man had on the world can be gauged from the reaction across the world. From the most powerful man in the world to the average joe in the street, millions mourned his death.

Jobs touched hundreds of thousands of people - those who use one or the other of the Apple gadgets every day .

The genius of this man was not just in his technology savvy nature nor that of the organisation he built (not once but twice !) but in the way he used technology to enhance customer interface and took it to a completely different plane altogether.

Commentators have said that he brought ‘beauty to technology’. I was watching a tech guru on the BBC yesterday. He mentioned that once when Jobs was talking about one of the Macs, he was highlighting the back of the product and how smooth it was. The commentator went on to ask ‘How many Tech CEOs talk about the back of a product as a selling point attribute?’ While most focus on just functionality, Jobs (and Apple) gave equal importance to the form factor as well.

There have been many geniuses from the Silicon valley, some more ‘geniusey’ than Jobs, but he will be the one remembered most for revolutionising the way we use technology.

Steven Paul Jobs, you will live on in the memories of all those who use an ipod / ipad / iphone / iMac / i….