The Natural Communicator

A birthday gift for the most natural communicator I met in my life…

It was a bright Sunday morning. The door bell rang and I rushed to respond as I was waiting for my friends for playing cricket. On the contrary, it was a couple in their late forties. I shouted “Papa” and ran away to search a corner in my home at highest possible Cartesian distance from the drawing room centre. Soon, I could be seen occupied with my pending home-work. This is how I used to react to all the guests in my childhood. Whenever we used to visit someone’s place, the hosts and my parents used to try everything out to make me speak but to no avail. My grandmother made futile efforts for the same by giving examples of from my father’s life. He used to talk to everyone from ninety days old kid to ninety year old great-grand-parents. He was famous among my pals for his friendly manner and had an impeccable sense of humour.

I am blessed with a wonderful sister. In our childhood, we used to fight a lot. Still she was my companion 24X7. She used to keep count zeros that I used to score in unit tests and glasses that I used to break while playing cricket. In my college days, she started counting my secret crushes and ensured that they remain secret. She is quite outspoken. It’s really difficult to keep her quiet. I wonder how siblings are so different from each other in their behaviour.

Two decades have passed and I made decent progress in communicating. I am a Post Graduate from MICA, won a small prize for stand up comedy, made short videos and wrote many articles that have found appreciations from friends, classmates and colleagues.

My mother has a similar story. She belongs to a Kannada family that was crazy about cinema. She was always forced to watch movies on big screen. She had to cry to say no for a movie. Her family could never understand how she could refuse to come. She also has an outspoken sister that gave her less chance to speak in public. She was also among those students who study the whole year just to celebrate that one day - when examination results are declared. In her formative years, she was in a habit of cracking the merit and she tried to inculcate the same in us.

My mother remained an introvert even after her marriage and we were born. However, she used to talk to infants and small kids easily. It’s amazing to see why kids never cry in her arms and how they stop weeping whenever she lifts them and talks in their own language. Kids give you sufficient time to talk. They don’t have anything to say yet express so much through expressions. They don’t cut you in between when you are speaking.

My mother works with Allahabad Bank. She has more than three decades of banking experience. Any public sector bank has a huge variety of customers, salaried customers: who have fixed spending and saving pattern, small businessmen: who want to use savings account as current, unlucky customers: whose ideas never work and are not able to repay loans, NRI customers: who think dollars and transact rupees, rural farmers: who remove their footwear while entering the bank, old patients: who don’t have enough money for operation, thieves: who make a good life with some help from generous branch managers. My mother is a stickler to rules and uses both love and stick to treat customers.

Sometime in late nineties Allahabad Bank started shifting to computerization. In the initial stages, they didn’t have any standardization and different branches worked on different software. Computers were mostly used for data entry in those days. Later they shifted to uniform software countrywide and finally adopted core banking. Recently they also introduced an online portal where employees can get instant help on banking issues. They can also contribute to non-work related articles. This portal (called forum) connects all Allahabad Bank employees countrywide.

My mother started using this medium to express herself as she did never before. She started writing about customer experiences in bank, personal incidences, corruption, must visit places in Bhopal, healthy lifestyle, generation gap, religion and many more. It gave her the visibility throughout the organization. 

The questions that arise are how my mother, who was an introvert throughout her life, could contribute so much to the organization’s blog? Why didn’t these stories come out earlier in some social gathering? Why couldn’t my mother capture limelight ever? Answers to these questions might be found Susan Cain’s work on introversion. According to her one third of the people in this world are introverts. Their opinion might often be ignored as they find it difficult to express. But they could focus a lot more in solitude and come up with solutions to most complex problems or create masterpieces.

Online medium is wonderful for introverts. It gives them a neutral platform to express themselves. People who always failed to find their turn in discussions with family, friends and colleagues could write articles and publish it. One doesn’t have to fight for time slot when writing and or posting articles on blog. There is no necessity to gather listeners too. One can write articles and people around the globe can read it whenever they find time. Moreover, it is the cheapest mode of long distance communication medium known to mankind. This medium has worked for my mother and me. It might work for other introverts as well.  

If you want to explore introversion visit this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0KYU2j0TM4

Bheja Fry - Part I

Missing the first train ever

There has been a regular motivation to put the incidence of Yasha and me missing our train to Bhopal into my words. Here goes the story of our most trusted and reliable Pappu Bhai and his colleague Abdul Bhai. They made untiring efforts to ensure that we miss our train to Bhopal. The story also covers our journey thereafter.

Characters

• Yasha Verma, beautiful, confident student of MICA PGDCM
• Abhishek Shandilya, most experienced student of PGP-17
• Pappu Bhai, most trusted auto driver of MICA
• Abdul Bhai, an amateur auto driver
• Bhavin Patel, owner of “Hotel Decent” near Ahmedabad Bus Depot
• Rinkesh Arondekar, formerly a human, now a resident of Palaash 

Background

In the past decade, I have lived away from my home into various cities like Kota, Indore, Pune and now Ahmedabad for education and work. Over the years, I have developed a habit of travelling alone. I have always reached Railway Stations just a few minutes before the departure of the train. At times I have caught trains even after reaching stations beyond scheduled time of departure. I had a confidence that no matter what I don’t miss trains. But this confidence was broken during Term-II holidays. It is often said that a novice swimmer is safer in water than an experienced one, as an experienced swimmer starts trying butterfly strokes in turbulent water. This is where the probability of making mistakes rise.

But, this was not the case when Yasha and I decided to travel to Bhopal together during Term-II break. I was extra cautious to call our beloved Pappu Bhai at 1:00 p.m to inform him to come to MICA at 5:00 to pick us for station. Our train was scheduled to depart at 6:45. Later, I got a call from Abhishek Shandilya and he asked me to leave MICA early as there was traffic on the way to station. But I royally ignored his warning as I thought it’s my age of taking risks and gaining experience which Abhishek Shandilya has in plenty.

Pappu Bhai’s surprise gift – first moment of truth

I woke up as my phone started ringing. It was Yasha. She asked me whether I have called any auto. I told her that Pappu Bhai was coming at 5:00. It was already 4:30. I started packing my bag and called Pappu Bhai again to ensure that he is coming. He replied saying that he is in the city and will send someone. Yasha and I decided to move to the main gate to avoid any delay. I came to know there that Yasha was suffering from stomach upset.

It was 5:15 and no auto was seen at the main gate. We called Pappu Bhai again and he told that Abdul Bhai is coming in 5 minutes and gave us his number. Abdul Bhai missed our calls many times before finally picking up and told us that he is coming in 5 minutes. It was again a chain of multiple calls with the same reply of 5 minutes. Finally to our relief Abdul Bhai came at 5:40 p.m. There was still 1 hour left for our train to depart and we could have easily made it.

Abdul Bhai’s surprise gift – second moment of truth

As our auto started off from MICA, we discussed Professors, Placements, Sankalp, Food Joints in Ahmedabad, Late Night Parties, Palaash–28, Thakur Chacha, Bhopal, Mathew’s Movies and of course Roxy. Bhai-Waah! The discussion was reaching heights and Abdul Bhai was entertaining himself with MICA gossips. We didn’t know that he also wanted to surprise us like Pappu Bhai. He turned out to be more innovative. He was driving us to Airport instead of Station. I saw the first sign board for Airport and ignored it as 75% of the way from MICA for both Railway Station and Airport is common. But on the next sign board, I questioned Abdul Bhai that where was he going, though somewhere in my mind I already knew the answer. As he replied, “Airport”, it was the extreme stage of our bheja-fry. I felt like banging my head on some wall and Yasha felt like killing someone (probably Pappu Bhai). I asked Abdul Bhai who told him to drive us to Airport. He replied, “Pappu Bhai”.

As expected, Abdul Bhai took a U-turn and we re-traced a long route in opposite direction. On our way back we were getting the updates from Abhishek Shandilya, about the arrival of the train. Yasha was quite sure that we would miss the train but I was still confident that we would catch it. As we reached the station the train just started and by the time we reached the platform it had vanished.

Bheja Fry - Part II

Journey after missing the train

As we missed the train and Yasha called her home, her mother wanted her to catch a flight to Bhopal which she refused. She told me that she didn’t want to go back to MICA. Going by flight was not an option for me because of the over priced tickets. And going back to MICA was not even considered by me. I would have better asked Abdul Bhai to take me to Bhopal by Auto with both of us driving turn by turn 100-100 kms. But that’s the difference travelling with a girl brings to your way of thinking. It was not me alone but I had to take her care. But does a Parijat creature needs that much care? May be Yasha was also capable of driving an auto. So it becomes 100-100-100 kms all three of us.

After some brain storming and thinking all permutations, we decided to go by bus. We took an auto to a private bus agent and got the last two tickets left in non-AC sleeper bus to Indore. The bus was scheduled two hours later. Thereafter we went to dinner in a 0-Star restaurant where the bill amounted to something in two-figure (yes two-figure INR for both of us). No comments the quality of food.

After dinner we realized that Yasha wanted to use washroom once before boarding the bus. She also wanted some pills. Our quest for a humanly usable toilet started at the same restaurant where we ate. Its toilet was bad. Yasha tried to use the govt. bus depot toilet which was worse. Planning Commission statistics show that 638 million Indians don’t have access to proper sanitation. I wondered whether government calculates people travelling by buses in that figure. Anyways, we decided that we can get a usable toilet only at a hotel. So we ended up searching a medical store to buy pills and a low cost hotel. When we asked people for both of these, they started passing sarcastic smiles. And I quickly made out what were they thinking. But in our case, the search was driven by worry and not by wild intensions.

Anyways, with some effort we got our Hotel Decent. We asked the owner Bhavin Patel to do us a favour of letting Yasha use the toilet. He agreed. After she was back Bhavin asked us to pay a huge amount. And then I replied that she have used only the washroom. I felt like showing middle finger to him. In the end it was argument and we left without paying him anything. Now we started searching a medical store. Someone told us the way for one.

Inception Level–2: The Kite Bazaar

As we entered the street where medical store was supposed to be located it was filled all around with kites. Nearly all the shops were selling kites. As we furthered onto our path, more and more shops selling kites revealed themselves. It was a beautiful site. A complete street filled with colourful kites. I suddenly started dreaming. I used to fly a lot many kites when I was a kid. I started remembering the battles fought in the sky. I also remembered “The Kite Runner”. I was searching for a kite bazaar like this since long, but couldn’t find it anywhere. This bazaar can’t be a reality. It has to be a dream. I felt like this kite bazaar was a dream within a dream of missing our train. Suddenly we were in front of the medical store and Yasha purchased the pills. We re-traced our way back through the kite street.

The last mile

When we boarded the bus, I realized that Yasha was the only woman in the bus. I asked her to wake me up in case of any nuisance created by anyone. The bus started and it was a peaceful journey despite the chilling cold. At 3 a.m in the night it stopped at some village which looked like Omkara set with only one hand pump in a long field. The travellers were supposed to pee in the chilling cold. When I got out of bus I had already decided to write an article on this journey and I thought probably this Omkara set would be the concluding part of it. We reached Indore around 9: 30 a.m from where a taxi took us to Bhopal within 4 hours.  Over all we wasted around 5 hours for this memorable journey.

If you ever want to go from MICA to Railway Station then please call Pappu Bhai on this number: 9879228637

Professor Patriarch

This article was taken out from the blog due to possible action against my entire computer engineering class of 2007. But as fortune favors the brave and all of us survive both Chachu and the action the post is back. And what could be a better day than fool’s day to bring it back. Happy fool’s day!

Drive fast man. Hari said this to Ryan in an absolutely cold Sunday morning with Alok adjusted behind him. When the three sat on the bike in that manner it seemed like they were performing a show in a circus. You might think where were they going when everybody else was sleeping & would continue to sleep till 12 noon? They were going to attend the lecture of IRTS (Intelligent Real Time Systems). Cold Sunday morning. Three college boys. Going to attend a lecture. Sounds strange. Only one thing must seem acceptable to you that three boys adjusted on one bike. The great engineering colleges of India have huge number of boys & not many bikes. But there was one professor who could make this morning class possible. You might think that whether she was very beautiful that made these boys get up early morning to attend a complex lecture of a complex subject?

But believe me they were going to attend the lecture of a 60 year old man who was going to teach something which was never going to help any one of them ever in their future. Forget the professor’s name. They used to call him “Chachu”. If you want to understand Chachu then imagine a person who never got married, held a double M.E & double PhD & had 25 years of experience in formal systems. He was father of all fathers, king of all kings. He used to take their classes 4 hrs a day, 7 days a week. For the whole semester he taught verification & validation but in the end even the topper was unable to tell what verification & validation is.

Chachu didn’t know how to operate a computer leave programming aside. His cabin was 4ft X 6ft & can you imagine what stuff you would find there? 3 lockers, 3 PCs, 1 printer, 3 phones, 2 tables, 4 chairs, 3 stools, 90 registers, thousands of stapled photocopies, a decade old project reports & assignment files, confidential material of some Japanese company. You must be thinking why he needed 3 PCs & all other stuff. The explanation for PCs is: One computer was for surfing & because viruses come from internet he would not keep his secure data on that, one was his personal system & he wouldn’t allow students to touch it, and one PC was for students which he would not touch. Now you can make out similar explanations for other stuff.

For the past 15 years his project groups were submitting the same project with different names every year. The project that he allotted to my topper was somewhat like this: Combine the four operating systems: DOS, Windows, Linux & UNIX & to make a single operating system & provide user the flexibility to switch from one operating system to other whenever he likes on a mouse click.

Now read the most unique quality of Chachu. He used to tell the whole examination paper in advance & sometimes gave students the opportunity to put their own questions in the examination paper. Imagine the amount of satisfaction that a student can get when he prepares his own examination paper. When the paper was finalized he used to ask the toppers to solve the paper. They used to solve it & distribute the solutions. Then he used to arrange practice sessions for the students to solve the examination paper in 2 ½ hrs so that in the final examination they can do it in 3 hrs.

And last but not the least Hari attempted for 88 marks in the IRTS paper. Chachu called him & said that he would definitely fail this time but when the result came to everybody’s surprise Hari got 95. Whether this kind of professor really exists? Whether students really wake up early morning to attend such lectures? Can a 60 year old man teach for 4 hrs a day, 7 days a week? Does Japanese company know that its confidential material is no longer confidential? Can students club four operating systems into one? Can a person survive in such a small cabin with this much stuff to handle? Can students set their own examination paper? If this all can happen then why is this article posted as pure fiction? Aren’t the names stolen from “five point someone”? Think!!!

Lead by Inspiration - part II

In this concluding part, I would write about three prominent leaders from corporate world/social sector. I would write my personal experience with them & why I feel that they lead by inspiration. The three leaders are:  

• Mr. Vineet Nayyar, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Tech Mahindra Ltd.
• Ms. Shaheen Mistri, CEO, Teach For India & Founder, Akanksha
• Mr. Datta Shrikhande, Pune – City Director, Muktangan Rehabilitation Center

Mr. Vineet Nayyar

My encounter with Mr. Nayyar dates back to May-20-2008. 2008 was a year when the effects of financial crisis could be seen on Indian IT industry. There was a lot of uncertainty. IT professionals throughout the industry were scared of lay-offs. Projects from the biggest deal struck by Tech Mahindra in the recent past were getting delayed. The dollar price was around Rs.35 and it was sinking. Tech Mahindra “all hands meet” was scheduled on May-20th. All hands meet is a concept at Tech Mahindra where CEO addresses all employees of a city and after that employees ask their questions. At times it is conducted as a phone conference. But CEO speaking in person before all the employees has its own charm. On May 20th, the hall was packed at 10:00 a.m with at least 2000 young IT professionals of Tech Mahindra. They were discussing their project deadlines, India’s poor performance in cricket, latest movies in the theatre & sale at Nike showroom near Sharda Centre.

Mr. Nayyar arrived exactly on time. He was completely dressed in formals & wore i-card around the neck. This is the formal Tech Mahindra attire on any weekday. As Mr. Nayyar started his speech his leadership qualities got revealed in front of ground level employees like me. Before he began I could sense the dissatisfaction among employees. But Mr. Nayyar was fully composed. He was not shaken by any facts and figures that business channels used to report those days. He was bullish on the long term prospects of the company. He assured that Tech Mahindra will do business even if dollar prices sink to Rs. 20. In the question answer session he patiently answered the most tricky questions on long term strategies as well as silliest questions related to sodexo passes. The beauty lied in the manner in which he responded. He was even willing to reply to the counter arguments. There was not a single question that was not convincingly answered.

I felt that Mr. Nayyar lead us by inspiration that day because of the empathy that he showed. I felt that he was someone among us and not somebody who was ruling from outside. He was well aware of ground realities and knew the business inside out. He was very accurate while stating facts and figures and showed a realistic way forward in those turbulent times. The learning that we take away with this experience is excellent speaking skills, composure even in stress, responding to the uncomfortable questions that people under you ask with dignity.

Ms. Shaheen Mistri

The graceful lady came to my desk when I was engrossed reading a change of interview slot request by a Teach For India (TFI) Fellowship applicant. “So you are the computer engineer who quit his IT job for working with TFI Selection”, she said. As I shifted my eyes from my 10 inch HCL laptop to Shaheen, I remembered my old school days when teachers used to come to my desk and I felt puzzled because I was day dreaming. The calmness of Shaheen’s face was impressive. She was there in the office since morning but the shy me couldn’t talk to her. In corporate world when your CEO is in office, you are supposed to attend to him like you attend a five year old kid. But here this was not the case. Shaheen must have seen many shy people by now in her students and fellows. So she doesn’t takes anything otherwise and anyways she thinks much beyond such petty things. As I came out of my day dream she was waiting to shake hands with me. As we shook hands she said, “Let’s go for the meeting”. There was a meeting scheduled that day for TFI Pune fellows. This was my first ever meeting with fellows as well. Shaheen was supposed to introduce community project to them.

As the Shaheen entered the room she was applauded by fellows and staff. She proceeded with the presentation and it was short and to the point. She had a clear cut idea of what she wanted fellows to do. She talked about realistic targets that were achievable. Most importantly she knew what works and what doesn’t when it comes to working with communities. The most important and the most difficult part in such case are to change the mindset of the people. But once that is successfully done, the change is sustainable. Shaheen gets a personal connect with the audience. The fellows that she was addressing also believed in the same dream. This was a perfect example of a communication being delivered successfully. TFI being a small organization that time had its entire people close to each other. It was easy to address everyone’s concern. Shaheen doesn’t gets depressed by the widespread poverty but she sees a hope and has a vision to achieve the goals. In my opinion she is a truly inspirational leader.

Mr. Datta Shrikhande

Mr. Datta Shrikhande appears like a right of centre party worker with hard core beliefs in Hindutva. When I first met Mr. Datta, he didn’t show any inclination to help us neither he showed any interest in what we were speaking. But it was Mr. Sanjay Bhagat could foresee a productive session. He agreed to help TFI fellows understand the functional and social aspects of Muktangan. And the deal was made. We finalized the plan to keep Muktangan in our itenary of end of year fellows meet.

The visit to Muktangan rehabilitation centre was scheduled post lunch. I entered the session a bit late as the TFI office was to be locked and other logistics needed to be worked out. Mr. Bhagat was addressing TFI fellows and staff. The session looked like a typical MBA HR class where people were observing wrist watches more than the presentation slides. It was like Rahul Dravid batting at 49 since last 49 balls. Finally, Mr. Bhagat concluded it and made the way for Mr. Datta. Mr. Datta was dressed in white from top to bottom. But these days white doesn’t signify peace. It signifies politics which is anything but peaceful. I was highly skeptical about Datta’s speech as he didn’t show any interest in our proposal earlier.

Mr. Datta didn’t come up with a presentation. He started his speech which was in Marathi and Hindi. It translates to English something like this:

“I am the biggest drunker that I have met in my entire life. I was born and brought up in Thane. My father was a drunker. I started drinking when I was 10 year old kid and by the time I turned 25, I used to drink almost all the time when I was awake. I was locked up in Thane jail for two years before I was brought to Muktangan. At that time I didn’t know that my entire life would be centered on this place. Muktangan took 5 years to make me a human being. I highly appreciate the efforts of the instructors of that time for their relentless efforts on me.

To cure an addict he is asked to choose a dream and then he is motivated to achieve that dream. The dream that I chose to see was to fall in love and get married. After I was cured, I started working as a peon in Muktangan and was later appointed as an instructor. First I bought a bicycle, then a scooter and recently a flat. I still remember that I couldn’t sleep the night I bought my scooter as I was excited to come to Muktangan by scooter next morning. There was an article published on my life in one local newspaper. A lady who was brought up in a local orphanage read that. She came to meet me at Muktangan and then we came closer and decided to get married. The news of our marriage was published on front page along with the news of marriage of a celebrity. I always wanted a quite wife. But this is the first wish of mine that god hasn’t filled. The second one being that I wanted my first kid to survive. He couldn’t survive and died at the age of 2. My second child is 13 year old and goes to school. When he started going there, he told me that all his friends’ parents are educated and I am not. I decided that I would also learn. I completed first graduation and then post graduation in psychology. There have been 2 movies made on my life.

I am heading Pune operations of Muktangan since past 12 years. In my life I have seen many severe cases of addiction. Whenever someone completely cured starts drinking again we get disappointment. But my team has strong enough will power to cure every patient that comes to us. Be it addiction, jail, progress, love or death of my child in my own hands. I have seen it all in my life. My next ambition is to make my body like Salman Khan. When I went to the gym for the first time, the instructor turned out to be an old patient of mine. As soon as I met him he smiled and said that sir you have helped me in curing my soul, I would make you shape your body”

Mr. Datta’s speech was excellent. The whole lot of fellows and staff gave him a standing ovation and later took his autographs. I couldn’t have imagined that my perceptions could go so wrong. I couldn’t have imagined that Mr. Datta would turn out to be the hero of the day. I couldn’t have imagined that Mr. Bhagat’s speech wouldn’t catch our attention. God has decided some or the other work that suits each one of us. The work that he has decided for Mr. Datta is to eliminate addiction from human life. The rate at which Muktangan has been removing addictions in the past makes me feel that Pune will reach an absolute figure of 0. That means 0 deaths, 0 accidents, 0 family break ups, 0 convictions, 0 fights due to addictions. As I see it, Mr. Datta’s life is an inspiration beyond this. His story tells us that whatever mistakes one has committed in the past, life gives everyone a chance to correct those. His life also inspires us to keep high spirits when things go wrong. This makes me believe that Mr. Datta leads by inspiration.

Lead by Inspiration - part I

If I wish to declare that tomorrow I am going to start a journey on foot which would be 390 km long will 60,000+ people come to listen to my declaration? Can I inspire 75+ friends or co-workers of mine to walk with me without having anything at stake? Can I make 270 million people believe in a dream, that the change is possible? No. I can’t. But there was one man who did it. We know him as Mahatma Gandhi – father of the nation.

If I want to write a small piece of text & call it “Lead by inspiration”, which not more than a few hundred people are going to read, should I choose Mahatma Gandhi as a leader? No one in my generation has seen Mahatma Gandhi. We have read his principles in our text books that most of us have forgotten & some small bits that we remember are not brought to practice. Thanks to Mr. Rajkumar Hirani to throw some light on the teachings of the father of the nation in “Lage raho Munna Bhai” that helped us understand Bapu in a friendly manner. But for my article Bapu is not an ideal choice because of these reasons:
1. My generation haven’t seen him
2. In his era there were no IT companies or other industries that we see today
3. There are already many books on him that one can read

Now if we have to search for an inspirational leader like Bapu in today’s era, we don’t have to search for a person with simple living & high thinking. The times have changed. Today, I see Mr. Narayan Murthy & Mr. Ratan Tata as the Bapus of modern India. Now have we seen them in Dhotis? No. But that shouldn’t stop us from appreciating their contribution to this country. In Gandhiji’s era there was a dire need to free India from the British rule that he contributed in. In Mr. Murthy’s & Mr. Tata’s era there is a dire need to prepare a strong foundation of corporate India which they contributed in.

As they enter into their twilight years, a dire need is felt to rebuild India. This is why we are seeing mushrooming NGOs & CSR initiatives of many companies. Some of these display some real good quality leadership by executing the projects to perfection. Now I have met neither Mr. Murthy nor Mr. Tata so I won’t use examples from their lives in the second part of this article. What I want to write about in second part is the leadership qualities inherent in three prominent personalities from totally different fields, whom I have personally met. I would write why I feel that these leaders have influenced me & why I feel that they lead by inspiration. Also, what are the qualities that we can inherit from them so that we - the next generation improve our leadership qualities?

But before I do that let me tell you why I felt that there is a need to write an article on leadership. As we all know, these are the days of transformation of India from a developing to a developed nation. Indian corporate world has to play a major role in this transformation. Now to make an organization profitable, progressive & happy there is a strong necessity of quality leadership. During my experience in IT industry, I felt that my organization was profitable & progressive but not happy. The employees at ground level are highly frustrated. At times, lack of experience could be a reason for this. But as I gained more experience, I realized that my colleagues don’t feel good about what they are doing & they don’t feel good when they think that they will become managers one day & lead projects. There is no-one in their departments whom the employees at ground level look upon as an idol. The aspiration to grow is necessary for an employee to deliver the best output. But because the employees don’t find anyone whom they can follow, they feel insecure about their career paths. The reason for this is that the managers of my organization don’t lead by inspiration.

My last e-mail to all@teachforindia.org

Dear All,

The association with Teach For India was small but sweet.

Today is my last day at Teach For India. After TFI internship, I am going to join Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) to pursue MBA. Thankfully, I don’t have to resign & this is the best part of internship that it comes with an expiry date. Though I continued voluntarily for one more month after completion of internship because of the beauty of the work culture here. Thanks Sheela/Kavita/Anuja for working out this extension.

TFI has given me an opportunity to grow & to become a kid at the same time. I understand myself better now & enjoyed past four months to the fullest. I came to the office full of energy & enthusiasm every single day.

Special thanks to:

1. Anil Bhaiya – For all the things that I learnt from you. You should be given a PhD considering the large pool of contacts that you have & the research you put in on every single day at TFI. Also, thanks for hunting for my life partner, though we couldn’t succeed but we should celebrate the efforts. I promise to get married within five years.

2. Sheela – For believing in my potential & getting me into TFI. At times I think how boring & monotonous my life would have been if I wouldn’t have written that casual mail to careers@teachforindia.org that you took seriously.

3. Rebecca – For your creative talent & spontaneity that I will copy/paste at MICA.

4. Ruchi Mathur – For guiding me to take better decisions for my career.

5. Sangeeta Maushi – For giving Pune staff the food & keeping the office tidy.

6. Kids from Surya’s/Subhashini’s/Jyoti’s class – For calling me bhaiya & playing with me.

7. Last but not the least – Shaheen & everyone in TFI whose names are not mentioned above & who interacted with me or passed a smile while passing by. For all the love, support & guidance that you gave me during my work. 2010 Fellows & all other applicants for coming to Assessment Centre on time & co-operating in Selection processes.

Special sorry to:

Fiona – For asking you to go to Thermax, Mumbai to guide Fellowship applicants when the assessments were scheduled in Thermax, Pune.

Now as I sign off, two of my juniors (Medha Krishnan & Siddharth Maru) are signing-in to TFI. Both are 2010 batch Civil Engineers. I hope they will contribute a lot to the student achievement & to TFI culture. I would continue to volunteer with Selection/Recruitment depending upon the time I get during my studies.

In the end…..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUBHADRA!

Goodbye & see you all when I sign-in again. I hope you dance…..

Thanks & Regards,

Rinkesh Arondekar

Cell no: 9921946979

TFI - Selection/Summer School

Ella, Anna, Seri

After IIT Kharagpur MHRM and K. J. Somaiya interviews I was all set for IIT Madras GT/PI. I negotiated a day leave from Teach For India and Good Friday followed by weekend helped me to attend the process peacefully. While heading towards Chennai, I never thought that this would be the most satisfying experience but on my way back at Raichur station, the train has already taken a halt for 20 minutes & the temperature is too high here. I can see something written in jalebi characters on a tea stall and this where I think I should write about va, chol, chatham and nir.....

On my way to Chennai, I was reading 2 States by Chetan Bhagat, that gave me a fair idea about how a North Indian would feel in Chennai. Though I felt things are too exaggerated in 2 states. Off course the book has to be sold out and Chetan is an IIM-A veteran so who knows marketing better than him. On reaching Chennai, I heard "Chuk Chukma, Chuk Chuk Chukma.... ". Chennai Central has a beautiful arrangement of multiple TV sets aligned one after another that one can watch while waiting for trains. Though someone from north can hardly understand anything apart from the fact that it was an advertisement. The chuk-chukma actor was quite fair, contrary to common perception about South India. On coming out of the station, I was chased by some auto-rickshaw drivers who were talking in tamil. I was convinced that I won't be able to make out what they were discussing. I was in no mood to spend any money on this GT/PI so I took a bus (5C) from the other side of the road. It was 5:30 a.m in the morning & I was sweating like a waterfall. The public conveyance in Chennai is a lot cheaper compared to Pune. The conductor was helpful & replied modestly in Hindi to my question in English. The bus passed through many flyovers, one of them very close to a residential society which made me remember Lata Mangeshkar's controversy.

IIT Madras hostels are named on rivers of India. At the main gate, I inquired about Mahanadi hostel & the security guard told me that it was 20 minutes walkable distance. On my way, I observed an animal behind the bushes. I thought it must be a dog. It turned out to be a deer instead. It was IIT Madras & care was taken to allow only branded animals in. I walked for 20 minutes but no hostel was seen. On inquiring, another guard told me that it was 20 minutes walkable distance from there. Hence the conclusion - IIT Madras security guards like fooling North Indians early morning. I asked about the bus & was told the way to nearest bus stop. The bus carried me back to the main gate & then to the boys hostel. The guard of the hostel told me that I will be allotted room at 9 a.m & asked me to wait in room no. 721. I met Kinchuk & Sapan, my friends for rest of the stay.

Vishal sir came at around 8 a.m & issued us the coupons for breakfast, lunch & dinner. I thought that this is what I came for. IIT Madras has a separate building for mess which was inaugurated by Mr. Narayan Murthi. The building has four floors & there are two mess on every floor. Together they offer every possible food known to mankind. Vishal sir tied up with Annapurna mess for the tenners. The food was tasty & unlimited. So my purpose of coming to Chennai was fulfilled. For GT/PI, I was in 3:30 p.m slot. It was the last slot for the day. We were shown a video of Department of Management Studies(DoMS) followed by question & answer session where the actual fun started. Seniors were answering the queries modestly when Prof. L. S. Ganesh(LSG) came in. DoMS aspirants kept asking their questions. Prof. kept replying patiently & eventually said "Everyone of our students cries disregarding the age & work-experience, everyone just breaks down at convocation. No one wants to leave IIT Madras". I saw many videos of Ganesh sir on youtube. those were titled "Pushing your limits" & were highly inspirational. So overall, I have a great impression of LSG sir but IIT Madras says LSG rocks.

The impression that I carried with me in the end was that an MBA student will learn a lot in DoMS, IIT Madras. The campus is exceptional. It is 650 acres of jungle. Every student is free to attend any lecture from any depatrtment. DoMS is quite low rated in most of the b-school rankings that come out every year. It deserves better rankings & average salaries than current levels. My GT/PI experience was fine but there is huge competition & IIT professors are obsessed with ranks which in my case is not so great (AIR 2049, GEN). After the process, I had dinner with my new friends & headed towards Chennai Central. I have written this article on my way back to Pune.

PS: I couldn't convert DoMS call but I still believe it is a great b-school & one should put possible efforts to get in.

Note: Bold text added later.

Teach For India - First Impression

It's Janauary 12, a fine Tuesday morning. I wake up & call my mother to wish her happy birthday. We discuss Teach For India on call. My internship with Teach For India Selection Team is commencing today.

I don't have any idea about what is expected out of me. I just have one intension of joining Teach For India that I want to bridge the gap between privileged & under privileged, between rulers & masses. I don't know what literacy statics in India say. Plan NGO's website says literacy percentage in India is 61%. A person who can write his or her name is considered a literate. That means 39% Indians cannot even write their name. Am I fit for Teach For India? If I needed a short time job shouldn't I have tried for some internship with an IT company? I am still thinking while getting ready. Do I really want to do this? Do I know what it takes to work for an NGO? What will my friends think who earn many times more?

Teach For India Pune centre operates from K.C. Thakeray primary school near Daruwala Pul. While working with Tech Mahindra I have never been to this place. I was busy visiting multiplexes & malls. Pune is a perfect example of what rapid intrusion of IT does to a city. There is a visible disconnect between lavish IT people & local Punekars who have been living here for centuries.

As I reach Teach For India office I meet Sumit, who is an intern with school placement project. Sheela - my manager is in a meeting. She comes to greet me & says that she talks to me in another 30 minutes. Meanwhile I am issued a laptop which convinces me that I am into real business. Tech Mahindra never issued a laptop to me. There was no necessity. Welcome to Teach For India. It's a mission.

In the meeting Sheela introduces herself & tells me about the objective of Teach For India. What is Teach For India Fellowship? What is the selection process? Who are the other members in the selection team? What are the parameters considered while selecting a Fellows? She asks me to visit a few websites & read a few documents which I do. Days pass & I learn more & more about education inequity. About Fellowship. About selection process which is by far the most efficient selection process I have ever experienced. Teach For India selectors are told that behind every application there is a person. A person is not just a profile & utmost justice should be done to each application. In my third week at Teach For India I interview 2010 Fellowship applicants. It's fun interacting with someone making huge money in IT, handling a database with millions of records, now willing to manage a classroom.

As I write this blog I have already spent four weeks at Teach For India & I am already involved in nearly all the activities of selection team. I also get opportunity to meet 2009 Fellows & find many inspirational leaders in them. I have already talked to Shaheen Mistri, Teach for India, CEO & founder of Akanksha. My biggest achievement till now - managed eight interviewers & more than two hundred interviews in a week.

Tech Mahindra vs. Teach For India

The objective of both the organizations is different & hence they cannot be compared head-to-head. Tech Mahindra is focused to provide software solutions & application support to it's customers & create wealth for all share holders & employees. Simultaneously it has CSR initiatives like project - Nanhi Kali to support education of underprivileged girl child. On the other hand Teach For India is a mission to eliminate education inequity. Professionals join Tech Mahindra for good salaries & progressive career path. Teach For India cannot offer salary structure similar to Tech Mahindra but stress levels are quite low at Teach For India. Teach For India is smaller in size but it finds equally talented workforce. People work here with passion & they get opportunity to develop leadership qualities in real big way.

Effective Utilization Of Bench Strength

This article was addressed to Tech Mahindra employees. It was written to boost the morale of people who were un-necessarily scared of layoffs as they were on bench. It found appreciations from Mr. Sujit Baksi, President Corporate Affairs, Tech Mahindra Ltd.

It comes in everyone’s IT career at least once. It’s one of the necessary evils of IT industry. It’s a period when you don’t have any project to handle. Yes you guessed it correctly – its bench. People do a variety of things being on bench. Fathers start dropping their kids to schools as they get flexibility of flashing-in. Once considered night riders in their projects start going home on time. For some professionals it is a time to relax & celebrate, for some a time of distress. Indian IT companies have, on an average, 20% people on bench at any time. This article can incite strong responses considering the recession time & global financial meltdown. But its purpose is to explore the possibilities of how IT industry can utilize these man hours.
The foremost step that should be taken is to integrate people on bench. Generally the associates who are released from their role are unaware about who are the other ones getting released. This is due to huge number of projects & resources working on them in any IT company. Then the next step is to develop a mechanism to utilize their time effectively. The leadership for both these activities should be taken up by somebody on bench. If we deploy someone like “bench manager” who can dedicatedly work with people on bench, we will end up investing more resources. This is undesirable. Bench strength will be best managed by someone on bench.
In our company, we can take many initiatives like enhancing each other’s knowledge by discussing situations/problems that we faced in our projects. We can organize sessions for teaching each other the technologies or sharing domain knowledge & giving learning credits to those who attend it. ESG might help us framing such program. I have seen many associates sincerely enhancing their technical capabilities by utilizing their precious time in library. It would be great if they can share their knowledge with others. The purpose of doing all this should be to improve each other’s competence so that we can contribute more effectively to the projects that we will be put on. We also need to improve our general awareness & to form opinion on issues of international interest. There is a huge scope of improvement for all of us in this regard. For example, we don’t know about Israel-Palestine problem, or when & why India liberalized its economy or what is CRR, repo rate, reverse repo rate, or what FDI in retail is etc. In our formative years in IT this kind of information doesn’t have much significance but as we grow in the organization & have to take decisions to strategize future course of action, this learning developed on bench might prove to be handy.
As another example, take the case of acquisition of Satyam by Tech Mahindra. This is a benchmark for Tech Mahindra, Satyam & Indian IT industry as it has saved the livelihood of 40000+ Satyam employees. It has uplifted the respect for corporate governance of Indian companies to the height it deserves. This deal was executed by our leaders & they executed it to perfection. There are many things that we can learn from this deal. There is huge amount of information available on Tech Mahindra website as well as on Mybeat regarding this deal. When will we read this? When our project deadline is two days away? No. This is to be read when we have ample time on bench. This information will definitely help us a lot at a later stage in our career.
I still remember the first day of my ITP training in Tech Mahindra when we were addressed saying – “I want to see you people first growing into young techies & later into young business leaders”. This transition from techies to business leaders will not happen overnight. In my opinion it is best to work towards improving leadership skills whenever we get opportunity on & off projects by taking complete ownerships of the tasks assigned. We can work towards this on bench too by working on our communication skills, trying to address large audience, improving our business GK etc. I am a TG1 & when I have written this article I am on bench. I think I utilized my time effectively while writing this. Your thoughts are welcome.

Signature Night

I am a singer in Indian Railways & survive on passenger’s largesse. I was born in a poor family which didn’t have a single penny as its savings. I was brought up in trains and Railway Stations. In my childhood my mother told me that this was the consequence of the misdeeds done by me in my previous birth. I don’t know where she is & where the rest of my family members are. As far as I remember I had three siblings & a father who was always drunk. I don’t know when I was born & what my age is. My companions tell me that I am at least 16.

As the means of satisfying my hunger I had the options to sweep the train compartments or to sing in it. I couldn’t polish shoes or sell tea & other stuff because all these required some money to start with & I didn’t had any. I chose to sing because I had heard a lot of songs. Since the day I started I have no self respect. Most of the people scold me & tell me to move forward, some give me a rupee or two.

On that night as usual I was tired up singing whole day & received only 14 rupees till then. It was 7:30 in the evening & I was on Habibganj Railway Station. The Habibganj-Kurla Express was about to leave. I was uncertain whether to catch it or not. At last I decided to go with it & try my songs in front of its passengers. In the train I kept moving one coach to other sang songs & asked for money. I was about to enter an A.C coach when it was 10:30. Everybody in the coach was preparing his bed except a group of friends who were chatting loudly & were in no mood to sleep.

When I reached nearer to them I found that they were enjoying whisky. Most of them were already empowered by their pegs. I started singing & they all stared at me. I again expected a move forward gesture but to my surprise one of them asked me to sing some good song. I sat on the floor & started. They made a peg for me & I drank it. They all admired my song & demanded more. I sang & they made more pegs.

The scene continued till 12:00 when the T.C came & asked about what was happening. They told him that they were 25 year old college friends who met for an alumni get together at Bhopal & after their journey to Mumbai they may not meet each other forever. Meanwhile one of them made a drink for T.C and handed him. In this way T.C also joined the party. I sang & sang from the depth of my heart.

Yaari hai eemaan mera yaar meri zindagi……

Ae maalik tere bande hum…….

Mere angane mein tumhara kya kaam hai........

Tum to thehere pardesi saath kya nibhaoge..........

Musaafir hu yaaro. Na ghar hai naa thikaana……

And lot many songs….

They also had the food packed with them. They gave it to me & asked not to shy. First time in my life I had my hunger satisfied. And the food was delicious. They didn’t sleep the whole night & all sang with me. We played lots of games. In the end they all collected 10-10 rupees each & gave me a total of Rs.110 which was equivalent to my five day begs.

At Kalyan station I was about to leave to catch my next target train. It was 7 in the morning. They all bid farewell to me & I asked what was the name of the whisky. They told me that it was “Signature”. I asked them to give me the empty bottles so that I can sell them somewhere. That night will be remembered by each one of them & I was grateful to be a part of it. I do not remember that night because of the money, whisky or food that they offered me. I remember it because of the dignity that they gave me. But the fact remains that I am a singer not at Bollywood but at Indian Railways.

Bhai-Jaan (1952-2007)

Collar ko thoda sa oopar chadha ke

Cigarette ke dhooe ka chhalla bana ke

Sochna hai kya?

Jo hona hai hoga

Chal pade hain fikar yaaro dhooe mein uda ke

Jaane kya hoga Rama re?

Jaane kya hoga Rama re?

Cigarette & cut tea used to be in everybody’s hands. Students of my college used to eat samosas and kachories fried in cheap mustard oil. That’s what Bhai-jaan stall was all about. Bhai-jaan was the owner of small tea shop right in front of my college. The stall was just made of thin tin sheets. A turbulent flow of air was sufficient to uproot the stall. But the foundation of stall didn’t lie in tin sheets - but in cigarette lovers of my college. Bhai-jaan stall was a bench mark. It was a place to reunite.

History says that the tin sheets of the Bhai-jaan stall were laid before the walls of my college. Three generations of Bhai-jaan served the smokers of my college. Bhai-jaan never distinguished between toppers & droppers. He gave cigarettes & tea to everybody with equal dignity. I used to smoke at Bhai-jaan stall. Whenever I didn’t have enough money, I smoked without paying for it. I used to pay him whenever I had enough bucks.

Whether you haven’t submitted the assignment or you were unable to complete the project. Whether you have a bad reputation among professors or a girl refused your proposal. Whether you were beaten by a scoundrel or you are yourself a scoundrel. Whether you failed in one subject or you are detained for whole semester. Share your happiness, share your sorrow, and forget your tension - just smoke. Bhai-jaan stall was a pill for all diseases.

But now, Bhai-jaan is gone. My friends in Indore told me that there was a Garba festival to be organized that needed parking space. Bhai-jaan tea stall was uprooted to make way for it. And with it, fifty-five year old tradition was broken. If Garba is Indian tradition then Bhai-jaan is ours. I feel very bad about it & hope that the stall reappears after the festival is over.

WARNING: Smoking is the prime cause of lung and other cancers.

The Climax

I was omnipresent. I could see many things at the same time. That day I saw four of them & listened to their conversation. Their names were Akash, Vinay, Prachi and Rizwan. They had their project submission the next day. This was the last milestone after which their degree would be completed. Mr. P Mittal, CTO Impetus technologies was external examiner for their project submission.

It was 5’o clock in the evening when the four left the canteen. Akash & Vinay went to the lab. They were going to check whether the project was working properly or not. Akash turned the systems on.
The system with UDDI was booting……
The HTTP Server was booting……..
The Soap Server was booting………
Ok! They were all set to test the project.
Vinay typed in the address bar:
http://198.162.0.3:8083/project/Welcome.html
The Welcome page was displayed.

While testing suddenly Vinay saw a big “Http Server Not Found Error - 404” on the screen. Akash headed towards Soap Server to see what happened. Oh no to his surprise the Soap Server was formatted. He shouted-“What’s this?” The whole hard work done on the project burnt into ashes.

Meanwhile Prachi & Rizwan were collecting the bounded project reports. Soon they arrived in the lab. They were also shocked on listening that the Soap Server was formatted. They had the backup of the whole code. But they didn’t remembered how they configured the Soap Server. It was practically impossible to reconfigure the whole server again. When they were developing the project it took one month to prepare the Soap Server & the Web Service.

The internal examiner for the project submission was HOD Computer Engineering Mr. D. A. Mehta. The project group decided to talk to him. When they talked to him about the matter he asked them to implement as much part as they could. But they all knew that things won’t work.

I watched them silently. They were turning mad. I could see Prachi shivering with fear. She was very sensitive. Rizwan remained indifferent. He always believed that nobody can change the fate. Whatever is written has to happen. So the present situation was written in their fate. Vinay though concerned believed in reality. And the reality was that the project couldn’t be demonstrated. I could see fear on Akash’s face but he was there to try out everything till the end.

Three of them gave up but Akash still tried to reconfigure it. He did whatever he could, tried everything to get the project working in the shortest possible way but to no avail. He created database in MS-ACCESS instead of ORACLE, pasted .jar files here & there, tried to run the web service on different Soap Servers of other project groups. Everything failed.

It was 7:30 in the evening when Mike came into the lab. He was Akash’s very good friend. He was aware what had happened. The lab was dark with Akash alone. When Mike met Akash he was hitting the keys hard on the keyboard. The noise was breaking the silence of lab. He tried to ask Akash about how everything happened. He was too busy to reply Mike. Mike even offered to take revenge from whoever formatted the system. But Akash was not listening.

Soon Mike understood the situation & tried to think rationally. But in an emergency like this even he was unable to offer some logical solution. He didn’t know anything about Web Services. The lab was open till 8 pm. Akash was still trying hopelessly. Mike asked Akash that he must go home, have his food & configure the server at his PC & bring it the next day. Akash had already tried everything he could so he agreed.

Akash shut down the system, went home & started the work. He had to start everything from the scratch. He turned on his PC and began to install Oracle on it. He then had his dinner. He rebuilt the whole database again. It was 12 o’clock in the night. Akash was feeling sleepy. He set the alarm to 4:30 am & went to sleep.

I could see the other three of them. Vinay who had already given up tried once again at home to make impossible possible but eventually scolded his fate & went to sleep. I saw Prachi. She was already crying or she was about to cry. I think even she couldn’t tell whether she was weeping or not. Rizwan was smoking silently & thinking in depth. He was calm. Still I couldn’t see any tension on his face.

In the morning alarm was ringing. Akash woke up. His head was aching. Still he resumed his work. He didn’t have Java installed on his PC neither he had the Java setup. At 5:30 he went to his junior to pick up the Java setup. The junior barely managed to wake up & open his gate. Akash felt how easy it was for thieves to rob his home. Finally getting the Java setup Akash went home. He installed Java followed by Tomcat container. He then configured the Soap Server. At 7:00 am Soap Server configuration was complete. But still it had to be tested on the LAN.

Soon Mike arrived. He & Akash adjusted cabinet on the bike & headed towards the college. As soon as they reached college Akash started his work. Connected his PC in the LAN & again tried to run the project. The Welcome page was displayed. The project was running fine. But as soon as the UDDI returned the IP address of Soap Server. Again a big “This Page Cannot Be Displayed” appeared. Akash thought that all the efforts went in vain. If the server doesn’t workout then the project cannot be demonstrated leading to failure in the examination. Who would like to extend his/her degree by six more months?

He thought what could be the probable reason for non-functioning Soap Server? He had done everything correct. He checked step by step & caught where the problem was. He forgot to set the IP address of the Soap Server that he configured at home. He just did that & tested the project again. Bingo! The project started working. It was 10:55 am & the project submission was scheduled at 11:00 am. Akash completed his work 5 minutes before time. Mr. P Mittal came & took the submission. He was satisfied by the project demonstration & further suggested a few ways in which project group could have improved the performance of the system. In the evening the project group had a big party.

I saw tiny drops coming out of Prachi’s eyes. It was like a happy ending of a typical Hindi movie. I observed their fears; I observed Akash’s dedication; I observed that how efforts can change fate. Now it’s up to you to decide whether it is a fiction or reality.