unfortunately… We are just as bad

I am feeling extremely conflicted because of the attack on Indian students in Australia. On one hand my heart goes out to those who have been attacked on the other hand I am saddened by the coverage that our fourth estate has given to these attacks.  Aurnab Goswami of times now was hell bent on proving that all Australians are racist. Which ant sensible person will concur is incorrect. Some people who have lived in Australia that were interviewed and had been subjected to racially motivated attacks and abuses said that they still felt that they were better off there than in India.

The debatable point is that when we condemn these attacks of which we have a indelible right to do so should we be as pompous or righteous about as the media has been? As Indians we have migrated all over the world. Any continent or economically prosperous hot spot and chances are you would find Indians there. Most places we have assimilated to the mainstream culture and retained our identity as Indians. We have contributed to the host country’s with out hard work and our skills. Unfortunately there are a few elements who have given most of us a bad name by subverting the system as they do in India. Still being attacked is just not justified.

The media is crying hoarse that Australia is a racist and a bigoted country and taking pot shots at them for being a convict colony. The sad part is we Indians are have elevated racism to an art form. Today as Indians we are discriminating and blatantly so on grounds of gender, religion, color, region , language, caste and lets not forget ethnicity. Any one from North east of mongoloid descent is referred to as some Chinese dish in the streets of our major cities like Delhi, Bombay. Lets not talk how we treat African students. I remember a friend telling me how his friends who were students from Kenya were barred from gaining membership to a municipal run pool for the fear that they may spread AIDS. The media was showing that the police was being brutal to Indian students. It still pales in comparison to the acts of police violence that our police perpetuates on a regular basis.

I am not saying that if we are as guilty of the same crimes that we accuse Aussies of we should not register our protests in the strongest possible manner. All I want to express is that this episode of violence in Australia has made it easier for us to blame someone else for evils that we feel guilty for at a subliminal level and we seriously need to put our house in order before we can get on a high horse and preach to someone without a scintilla of guilt.

The enterprising Indian’s

The underpass that connects Indrapuram ghaziabad to Sec – 62, Noida is a hive of activity during the morning hours. As it is the most convenient way to commute from residential apartments of Indrapuram to the offices of Noida there is a huge surge in Traffic which quite plainly this one-lane underpass is ill equipped to handle. As there is nothing else of interest around the underpass we do not have the usual thelas like cigarettes, chai etc in the vicinity…. That was case till today morning!! As I crossed the underpass lo and behold I saw a huge mound of tyres …. A puncture walla had setup shop there…. which I thought was a strange place due to limited opportunities…. Never underestimate the enterprising Indian…. looking at the remoteness of the location, due diligence and unquestionable business development had been undertaken by the proprietor of the establishment…. There stood three bikes in a row all seeking to fix thier flat tyres…. Have to make it a point to avoid that road for punctures from now on!!

Shaadi ki gaadi

On my way back I had a surreal conversation with this gentleman sitting next to me. Well in this time of season of matrimony so the match making is a t fever pitch. Let me start by painting this picture of me. A (un)designer stubble, Unwashed hair a T-Shirt with a printed bulls eye also sporting a well worn denim jacket and a pair of worn out jeans. To add to my already awesome aura. Imagine playing phone poker with one hand and headphones blaring out such “unsuitable” songs like “everybody nose (all the girls standing in the line to the bathroom) – NERD”.  Somehow a prospective FIL candidate suddenly tapped me on the shoulder and whispered to me.

“Are you a Aggarwal”

“…….. No”

“O.K What do you do?”

“(pause for a good minute here)…..uh…. Work in a private company… Software you know……”

“Ok nice….. My daughter is in Satyam”

“………….Thats nice”

“So how much do you earn”

“(Choke on my water here glance at the daughter and let loose a trumped up package) 7 lacs”

“……oh you must be starting out then….. How many years of experience”

“3 years”

“Not bad for 3″

all this while I am thinking that this a mightily inappropriate conversation.

“So what exactly is your caste”.

Did not want a religious debate so I said

“I was from Punjab”

“Oh Ok (his voice is now laced with Disappointment)”

Suddenly he chirps up

“Are there any Aggarwals in your office.”

Now I felt that my matrimonial realty took a hiding at this juncture so I said

“Just joined this place so don’t know any aggarwals.”

look for a excuse to put on my earphones and listen to every damn song on it till the gentleman gets down at Mathura.

Shatabdi Express a very improbable place to tap up a prospective SIL. Still why the hell me? My unconventional good looks I hope.

Scarily though I could have been a neat and presentable serial axe mudrer and I would have been tapped up for marrige if I was a Aggarwal! Only in India I guess

As NASSCOM gently sleeps!!

I personally feel that IT needs labor laws or some degree of protection from the government…. At present as IT is treated as a services company there is no limitation on the working hours or government mandated overtime…. All this coupled with unabated corporate greed has ensured that working in India IT is one of the most stressful things to do. The so called software organization watchdog agencies like NASSCOM and STPI never blink an eyelid to all that is going on. This situation is now progressing from bad to worse with work life balance going totally out of sync. The companies keep raising the bar in the number of hours a worker has to stay in office from a decent 8 hours it had nudged upto 9 hrs. Here is where I feel that things have gone wrong for us. let me illustrate with some simple maths. A day is composed of 24 hrs. Of those 24 hrs if a person has to spend 9.5 hrs in office it would leave a person with a balance of 14.5 hrs which would give him about 9 hrs of sleep and 5.5 for family and personal development… Now of the 5.5 hrs let us reduce a 2 hour commute which is the norm in the bigger centers. So effectively an avg IT worker has 3.5 hours of time for household chores, family and self… Is that enough?!

Software pimps!!

A few days back I had gone to a friend’s cocktail function in Chandigarh.After a couple of drinks we started talking shop and our conversation steered towards the topic of ethics. It seems that a couple of years back, one of the
Aussie clients was visiting my previous organization. As is it is customary to please our white paymasters, there was a party organized. With dancing and drinks of course. It seems that the client took fancy to one of the girls who
was dancing. And made this lewd and atrocious request to the senior management that he really liked how that girl was dancing… And he suggested that she do some steps and he would like to join her after his drink… The management as you can imagine was in a tizzy… Unfortunately it was not a crisis of ethics that they were facing. The dilemma was who would bell the cat and ask her to comply. They then asked one of my friends to go bell the cat. Thankfully he did not comply else he was hitching his way back from Chandigarh!! but they eventually got the
message across…. This one incident was orchestrated with the blessing of at least 3-4 senior managers. This without an iota of doubt was probably one of the most stomach churning things that I have heard in all my years in the industry.

In contrast I heard another story that at least restored some faith in my last organisation. This particular incident happened a few years back. The person who narrated me told me that he was just starting out and this incident made a strong impression on him. My friend and his team were working late one day and the big boss used to sit in the adjoining cabin. around 10 in the night the PL of one of the projects made his way to the big guys cabin. He burst into the cabin and asked “Kya hum bhadwagiri ke business mein hain kya?”( are we in the pimping business). To which the big boss asked what was the matter. The PL replied that client at onsite who was a convicted sex offender
had said that to get more business he wanted that the PL send over a certain women to onsite. If he was not going to comply then he should forget the project contract. To which the boss said “Cancel kar dein?” (Should we cancel)…. And they unanimously concurred to do so!! Even when the opportunity arose to revive business terms with that guy he declined saying that it was a question of ethics. Sadly I am sure such stories a few and far between…

Lessons learnt don’t work for someone who is willing to compromise on topics which require a high degree of integrity and sensitivity. That person(s) will be more than willing to sell you of for something a lot lesser too….