All in a day's work

It's something quite interesting, the work of a public servant.
Not the ones found working at Government offices sitting at desks piled up with files and an old computer. But those who we chance to see doing their work everyday as we head for our workplaces. In our mode of commute. The public transport buses. The bus conductors and drivers too fall into the category of public servants and are those who add real meaning to the label they are associated with.
I take a bus route that has a standard set of bus numbers and sometimes I end up in the same bus that I have taken before. The bus conductor  looks familiar in such a case and  I even get a smile of recognition, which is nice. This gesture made by some of them caught my attention and I started observing them more.
There is a lot more than meets the eye in the work a bus conductor does.

From a third person's perspective the job profile of the bus conductor will be just to collects bus tickets at every stop. This is probably a task that is insignificant if taken all by itself.
The conductor will have to ensure that everyone gets their tickets. But this is no easy job as people try to blend into the to get a free ride, the conductor's job is to ensure this doesn't happen.

Also he has to very fast with his arithmetic! Collecting and neatly arranging notes in his brown satchel  and tendering exact change to whoever hands out a hundred for a meagre 12-13 rupees ticket.

His set of tasks also involves noting down some figures of tickets sold by each stage of the bus route in this small sheet of paper folded in his pocket.
The conductor will have to monitor and reprimand people who bring luggage into the bus. Vendors bring their aluminium vessels which occupy quite a bit of space. He has to ensure that they are kept where it does trip somebody or cause any inconvenience to the other commuters

He has to ensure that everyone gets their tickets, this involves constantly and loudly reminding the people who got in at the previous stop to get their tickets or atleast pass the money and say where they need to go.
To add to this once the bus starts getting crowded he has to regulate the standing crowd asking them to move in to give way to the ones who will get in at the next stop.

He has to keep shouting out the stop names to ensure that people atleast make an attempt to get near the exits so that the bus doesn't have to stop for too long.
Alerting the driver about someone who wants to get off and to whistle and shout out an 'ok right' when it is safe enough for on-boarding passengers to get the bus moving.

Just a job of issuing bus tickets?
I'd like to think otherwise.

Medical Experience

Touchwood, never has there been an instance when anyone from my family, parents and brother have had to get admitted in the hospital. This is a god willed blessing indeed. But recent events brought me close to learning how to manage by myself if someone does get that seriously ill that they require hospital treatment. Story time...
 To find that my first weekend home after quite some time spent away from from home was to be spent alone was disheartening, but resulted in an opportunity to manage certain situations that I was unlikely to have encountered otherwise.

It so happened that my mom and dad would not be home till the weekend and one of my cousins who is working in the city had fallen seriously ill. He stays in the city outskirts and when his illness got worse he decided to come down to his uncle's place, our house to ease the healing. I was to take care of him. Updating his parents in Kerala he and I somehow managed through 1 night and day. The 2nd night proved to be a little too hard for both of us as my cousin was severely dehydrated and needed intravenous intake of fluids owing to severe vomiting.
I drove him down to the nearest hospital, put him on a wheelchair and into an emergency ward. After initial check ups they asked me to admit him. I was all nervous because my cousin was quite ill with food poisoning, called everyone up and updated them and went ahead and admitted him. A little unsure of what was going on as I'd never really taken such a responsibility before. I called a couple of people to hear some reassuring words, my cousin on the other hand was hiccuping and puking quite severely. Over the night managing very little sleep I took care of him.

His parents flew from Kerala the next day morning, my dad managed to get home, my mom was to arrive a day later and suddenly my house was full of relatives. Never I think will I forget that night, a little before going to the hospital. It was one of those moments when I felt completely helpless looking at someone suffer right in front of me. But now I'd give myself a pat on the back commending my efforts while facing a crisis.

A tryst with hyderabad

"The ten of you in the tech middleware domain would be going to Hyderabad. Pack your bags by the weekend, you'll report in Hyderabad on tuesday." there was some groaning about leaving chennai and some anxiety as our city shift was too quick, we were informed of this on the Friday before the weekend. Managed to get the train tickets and we were on our way, ten hclites strangers to each other set off to Hyderabad for domain training.
 Broke the ice between us discussing things like where we were all from, college and all. And it all happened, training, meeting the seniors from our domain, making new friends, homesickness, managing those quick weekend trips back home, getting assigned to projects, more training, periods of no work but "to office we must go".

 Jan to April, 4 months just went by. Looking back, so much so much has happened that I could write a book on it! A book seems too much to ask hence a blog post. Can go overboard if I elaborate everyday of these 4 memorable  months. I shall put them all into a few headings and make it more readable-

 The initial struggle.
 I landed in Hyderabad on the 10th of January. Winter. Hyderabad tends to cool down a little too much in the nights during the winter months often to the single digits in the degree scale. Me, having come from chennai was not at all used to this kind of weather, cold and dry and my first month was a phase filled with homesickness. Managed to get some warm clothes as I had come unprepared for such cold weather. But the damage was done, Hyderabad seemed a hostile place all of a sudden.
 It didn't help at all that this one occasion when I was on my way home and I was ill, the auto guys where quarrelling over each other for who should take me to the railway station. It was too far for any of their liking. I was almost stranded late in the evening without transport. Small incidents tend to be blown out of proportion when nothing is going your way.. A reason probably why I still remember this one. But there was this one statement that my friend said that give a new place some time and it grows on you. That I guess made all the difference. I just gave this new place Hyderabad some time and it quite turned out fine.
 The reason I was finding hyd so uncomfortable was because I was comparing it with chennai, where I am from, and that didn't go too well. All I had to do is accept hyd with all it's uniqueness and it turned out great! The famous hyderabad Biriyani, the challenge of a new language to learn, different culture, a whole new city exploring opportunity did the trick.

 Feeling the college to corporate shift
 In college, and as a matter of fact most non-IT but Indian workplaces, there is a concept of hierarchy. It took a while to break those shackles and forget forever that you address someone who is senior to you as 'Sir' in the office. Calling people by their first names was quite awkward at first, but later on it brought in a little more intimacy to the conversations coz of what I've noticed these big guys take you more seriously  if you happen to address them by name.  And no more is there a concept of a classroom of any sorts, you are by yourself when it comes to work, as in, no one associates you to a class or department unless or otherwise it's for the purpose of work.  Maybe not now when you are 22 23 and in the beginning of your first job, but eventually you'll be in a position where work is assigned to you and you do it. Not too sure how to frame it into a sentence, it's just that there is a lot more individual responsibility to manage than before.

 Period of introspection
My training period at work wasn't too smooth, it was very erratic,a little unorganised so we took it easy, but we did have to learn a lot of technology but no one was really interested to take it seriously, neither us trainees nor the trainers. But I gradually realised that my batch of 10 were being trained to be mapped into a particular project and they are likely to only choose a few out of the ten.  Took things a little more seriously, found a lot of online company-provided resources to make use of, eventually got selected into the project but then I didn't find the work hours and effort I put to have actually been that significant. I doubted if I went overboard with my preparation frenzy and that whether I should continue with it. I did something then that I should admit was very smart. I discussed it with some of my friends and mentor uncles. One of them just said that, "there is no Absolutely no equivalent task to the amount of hours you spend on doing something." at that point it made little sense in my context or that I didn't catch what he actually meant. Another friend of mine just said read this book-


 Go kiss the world book impact
 "go kiss the world" is a book written by Subroto Bagchi, if you come across this book, do read it. If you're just out of college and into a job, you must read it! What I learnt from it was that in the initial stages of your career, everyday at work is a day you can learn something new, you just need to keep your mind and ears open. And the answer to my question too was well explained.  Generally your first experience with a job can tell you a little bit of how your career graph may look like, not in a big way, but in those little things. How you behave with your peers, how you interact with your boss, the dedication you show, punctuality etc. quoting out of the book, your first generally offers you a chance to build a work ethic for yourself to follow for the rest of your career.
 The earlier you build it, the better because as you go deeper in your career your responsibilities increases and you have less or no time for these small things. Patience the virtue If there's anything that I have definitely learnt out of my hyderabad experience is that I've learnt to be patient. More I taking an effort to show some patient, my company has forced me to learn how to be. Right from getting workstations (computers), permissions to install software, help regarding any technical issues I faced, project info... The list is big enough to  sink the idea that 'waiting is inevitable'  deep into my work culture. It's ridiculous and foolish for a fresher to blow his top for not getting something that he requires, but most of us give up when it gets on our nerves.  But  ( yes, I've read a lot more than just two books in my hyd stay)  as Randy Pausch says in the last lecture- brick walls ( waiting for no reason and no fault of mine), brick walls, brick walls are those obstacles that simply question whether you want something badly enough.
 There is no way out other than to climb over the wall, which can be hard but it will keep those people away who don't want it enough. You climb over the wall, you'll get what you asked for, and you can be proud of yourself that you did, and climbing one wall will give you the experience to climb many more. I climbed my wall, the wall of patience. Rest assured I have the patience to do anything now!

 Friends forever 
 Friends form an integral part your life. I'll be too cliched if I elaborate here with fancy phrases, but can't help but admit that friends are so important. I'm not too much of a keep in touch guy but I find the thoughts of my friends and the dreams I have of them full of positive emotions. Thinking of them motivates me to believe there is something very beautiful in this world. I take the effort, search for a nice phrase or saying online, customise it and send it as a message every time I think of them. Very proud of the fact that I do this. And sweet memories, especially the ones that are funny are so rejuvenating! I am grateful that I have many incidents that I still laugh head over heels for.
 Memories, most of mine involve friends and family. Whether I remember my programming languages or not, I am very fortunate for these memories are forever there in my head. Also, I came to realise that memories are the only way friends are with you every moment. They can't be physically present with you in all you do. Keeping in touch over the phone is not something I fancy to much. I prefer remembering and cherishing their memories. Possibly if I think of them enough they'd be thinking of me too!

 The more you see your world, the richer you become.
 This is probably what Hyderabad has taught me as a lesson experience teaches you.  Apart from a lot more experience in wielding my tongue into speaking decent Hindi, I've in my own way realised what was really meant by the term unity in diversity- the phrase associated to India we learnt in our history and civics text books.  I am actually just around say 600 km away from chennai but the place is so different! The food, the people, the languages, the terrain Hyderabad has more of a plateau like geography compared to the plains of chennai. There is a lot more meat in Hyderabadi cuisine. The biriyani is just ambrosia. You get Bihari chaat at every street corner. That pani puri chaat right outside your office is something chennai doesn't fancy. And chennai isn't too far away, I just have to catch a bus and the next morning I'm back home so I've got the best of both worlds and more importantly I'm culturally richer.

 A special note on Hyderabad biriyani.
 Hyderabadi biriyani is a special kind of biriyani cooked using coals. It is an age old tradition and generally consists of big cylindrical container with coal underneath and is layered with rice and curry alternatively. Coals are placed over the lid as well so there's heat from the top and bottom of the vessel. The pieces of meat from my understanding are cooked separately and mixed with rice in the end of the cooking. If you have the biriyani at the five star restaurants, they serve it you as a slice, like a cake where you have to use your elitist ways of eating with a fork and spoon to mix up the contents and savour the meal.
Many hotels serve Hyderabad biriyani. On the plate they all look almost the same, but once in the mouth, you'll quickly identify the winner front the rest. Some places serve biriyani that is so excellent that you'll kiss your fingers. If you chance to visit Hyderabad you must for heaven's sake try some of these restaurants- Bawarchi, Al-Saba, Paradise,Shadab,Cafe Bahar.
Contrary to popular belief, the  Paradise hotel biriyani doesn't even make top three in my list. Honestly if you want to taste the best of the biriyanis you should ask the locals and they point to only one place and that is Shadab. Another fact about this dish is that you, like anything else, got to give it time to like it. You may not like the taste the first time itself. Have it 3-4 times and you'll be hooked. Hyderabad biriyani according to my friend is an acquired taste, much like how it is with beer. Well that was a paragraph of tribute to one heck of a delicacy. It has made Hyderabad famous, putting it on the culinary world map.

Book Review- The Fifth Mountain by Paolo Coelho

Just like many of  his other books, Paolo Coelho has managed to make the reader ponder over the core psyche of what one's life is about. I've read two of his books, both of them worked along similar lines of story telling, carrying an inner meaning. There would be so much to talk about analysing Coelho's books in review discussions as every reader can relate to his books. The fifth mountain has a central character named Elijah who worked as a carpenter in Israel during the time when Jewish priests and when the region was ruled by king Solomon's sons and when the Assyrian and Phoenician civilisations were in power. The story takes Elijah, who is summoned by god's angel and given instructions to follow which he obliges to. This takes him to a city called Akbar across the border of israel into enemy territory. At first he is unwelcome and sent away as punishment to the fifth mountain , the place where Akbar's god are said to live but on god's will he performs a miracle that makes him get accepted by the people and he is eventually taken in as a government advisor. The neighbours, the Assyrians then chance to attack the city and burns down Akbar to the ground but Elijah leads the survivors giving them hope and rebuilds the city.  There were instances where he could avoid the flee from his homeland, avoid the Assyrian war and the burning down of the city, the loss of his loved one, but towards the end he finds the purpose in all the events that occur in his life and realises that it is all what we call fate. It is how he chose how to face these situations and what decisions he made that defined his life. Some instances from the book that describe this thought is the one when Elijah and the person he loves, along with her son set to leave Akbar, before the war, back to Israel.  But the angel of god appears in front of him and asks him to go back to Akbar as it was not yet time for him to leave. He obliges and gets back to Akbar only to find that the enemies have attacked by night and burned down the city. He loses his loved one in fire. Her last words compels Elijah to stay back and rebuild it after the war which he eventually does and teaches her son the trade of carpentry and stone and of the spiritualism he has learnt. He leaves Akbar finally to see it flourish in the new systems of governance brought about during his tenure as governor. Elijah could have chosen to leave as the onset of war made him lose most of his faith on his god but he chose to turn around the stay back. There is a short tale mentioned in the story about Jacob into whose tent a stranger enters at night and fights with him till day and when the stranger asks Jacob as of who he is, he replies asking him to bless him before he does so. He blesses him and jacob replies with his name and the stranger says that he is no longer to be referred to as Jacob but as Israel.  The stranger, who I have interpreted it, was a form of god who tests Jacob, where the struggle through the night in the tent was a metaphor of the struggle through life when things are dark and unclear and as Jacob survives the struggles till the day breaks and things are more clear and  the god defines Jacob by his actions. What he meant by Israel I'm not too sure though but it definitely says that he comes out of the night a changed man. I enjoyed reading This one particularly because of the meaning the story conveys, probably the only turn off being that there are instance of old English being used that had to be a couple of times for it to make some sense to me.  Should say read it for the insight into a little bit of  history of that time before Christ in israel it teaches and to ponder over the inner meaning the book conveys.

The Work Phase of life- the beginings

My first day in the company, the induction day and seminars on corporate functioning was a flood of information and followed by some advice as to how to approach work life in my company. I should admit that as much as it was exciting it was also in a way intimidating. The latter emotion more out of the fact that little had I realized the magnanimity of what is going to follow.

I took the fact of getting a job in campus very lightly at first but eventually due to the long waiting time I went and  I tried other companies for more job offers as back ups and it was only then I realized how lucky I was to have a job in hand through placements in college and how much value the job holds. After that initial struggle and long wait now I finally am in the company. I took it as a good start and I saw it as some training followed by a job where I can prove myself to be quite good at what I do.

There's more to it than just work, If I can define every phase of life with a major activity then it is only in school that it was academics college it was a mix of  academics and  friend circles and contacts. But work place attitude seem to be drastically different. Good grades in academics can only go as far as getting you a job, how you manage your job is completely based on the skills one has acquired interacting with people.

My uncle called me up before my joining and we had this chat about this new era of work life I am going to start off and all he emphasized on was- yes learning during the training was important but that's not  all, because eventually its all just going to be tests that determine how much we comprehend and more or less all of us in the batch would be at the same level or at least only considered so owing to our lack of industry experience in what we know.

What matters most according to him was how I project myself, in the way I dress to work, how I interact with my peers how good my communication skills are. This way I would be able to interact with people better and more effectively. How this works, according to him is that it's more pleasing to listen to a man dressed in a suit than one in ragged clothes and well dressed people are the ones who are more likely to be taken seriously.  I realized how true his statement was during the induction they did mention there are opportunities during work where we can brush up our skills as even the company agrees with the fact that a one time training is not going to effectively educate us in a comprehensive way, so they have a system which we can use and re-evaluate ourselves and work on our technical weaknesses.

What they expected out of us is to decide how we portray ourselves as company employee and of the moral responsibility we carry along with that ID card. One of the personnel did exemplify with a story that if one was arguing over the meter charge with an auto driver on your way to work, even if you mention your name to him, he will remember you by associating you with the brand you are wearing around your neck and that people from your company are more likely to be a bothersome lot. Hence the way the way you speak, the way dress are a little more important than what you know when it comes to the workplace.

Anyway all this work philosophy can make one go bonkers if delved into too deep, so as of now I am just very eager to know what's at stake for me during this period, and the important thing is to get the most out of what is offered to us, and that's what is the best thing to do with life in general as well. And to the end result is happiness and peace of mind.

Bus hikes in the state

From midnight last night, Tamil nadu saw major overhauls and hikes in the prices of milk and bus fares. Government got the hike sanctioned in order to generate funds for sustenance. When times are this bad it is only normal that the Government has resorted to such drastic changes especially that the central government is reeking with inefficiency. With no way out the Government puts the people in deep shit.

With the hike in bus fares to almost double the previous ticket prices much to the plight of public transport users, there no alternative to getting place to place or to work than cough up the extra cash for the bus fare.
But there is little to blame, we elected this government so can expect only so much out of them.

But the adverse affect of such a change is saddening. Some vendors use the bus service to get their produce from the market to their shops and they plan on how much money can be spent for their travel well in advance. Such a revision in bus fares will see them suffer as they probably have to cut down their daily expenses severely.

However for us, it would just be a matter of travel costing a little more than usual, at the most it would annoy us that we have less money to spend. Some would probably care less about such a hike and continue their splurging ways as it concerns only those who use the bus service to commute. The scooties and bikes are unaffected.

Today I had to travel to Mylapore and back in the morning, it cost me 15 buck what normally would have cost me 7-8 bucks, almost twice. To add to the price hike, the whole bus was quarreling with the conductor refusing to buy tickets and the whole trip was uncomfortably noisy. Perhaps we should have thought back into how much money was spent by the parties buying us things like free color t.vs free one incandescent bulb's electricity think out from where they conjoured up enough money for such luxorious provisions while neighbouring states can't even manage one of them.

Saving up the 10,000 Cr that is required for an attaining this apparent stability could have been saved up by the Government if they had not spent precious revenue on the poverty ridden fulfilling their childish fantasies Not to put down the already down trodden, but of what use is a color t.v that runs on free electricity when one can't afford their daily staple? People have to rethink their priorities and all will sail through quietly during these hard times.

The fault is like always on the Government's side, the poverty ridden class would do anything to uplift themselves, to give their lives a little more dignity, if I may compare them with kids who want every toy available in the toy shop, the Government pose as a parental figure. The child obviously craves for more toys, but the parent should not spoil him buying him more and more but instead constrain the child to some and make sure he has maintained them well and carefully. This way the child realizes the value of what he has got hence strives to keep safe what he already has and only then should parents get him more as a reward.

Well, what the Government has done is they've spent too much on the toys so they have little money left for basic resources like food and travel and it obviously exposes the government lacking in forward thinking.
Lets hope atleast that the governments learn from their mistakes and we can expect better governance from our future leaders.

At the fork

Everyone in life will or have come across situations where one has to make crucial decisions. We all tend to ask everyone around us for advice on how to go about it. Some encourage a certain decision others discourage, some end up confusing you even more. You tend to value a more learned or elderly person's advice more, but it still remains your decision to make no matter what.

Gathering all the advice you sit down and assimilate what you have heard and draw a conclusion and analyse it again and again to see whether everyone's opinion was taken into consideration.

Many a time, we consider others' advice and suggestions so much that we forget to respect our own opinion on the issue. This is quite sad. And it is as though it hardly matters. But one can be so wrong. If we look at how people resort to giving advice is by telling you how they would decide to act upon the choices they have been given or that fork on the road where they have to choose a path. At times the advice they give can be so impractical yet it value it more than ours.

I right now am faced with a situation where I have graduated from college. Got placed in a IT company that recruited me from the college campus placements but have been delaying the date of my joining for just about have a year now. I should admit I am no extraordinary student, I have decent grades but feel this is not the way to start my career, waiting indefinitely for an offer. I resorted to try other companies and have got a job at a small  IT firm of just over 50 employees doing some financial sector software product business.

The company I got through college is an IT giant, offers standard pay, insurance and other benefits, stable job, not so great on the learning curve but compensates quite well with other facilities. This small firm offer, the pay probably is much lesser, can't expect a perk filled benefit package, another unprecedented recession will wipe this company out. The only advantage that has a lot of hidden potential is the fact that the office is very near where I stay so I can save on travel time and expenses.

My parents expressed disapproval and said jobs got in campus has added value and that it was best I wait, but the very same day I got a letter from the IT giant that my wait can extend over another 5 months or so. They asked me to decide upon something by myself because either way there is something to lose. But I didn't believe it was that pathetic.

Plus points in my small firm job is that, it is run by a bunch of IT veterans as you can call them, went to the US during the IT boom, made a lot of money, now settled down with an IT company within walking distance from their homes. I only see it an opportunity to grow and learn from these pioneers in the field. The company has been around for around 13 years and that didn't sound bad at all.

It is a big question, a big risk that I am taking, will I benefit from a decision of choosing  David over Goliath? Will I be in a better position than my big company peers, at least at par if not more? How big is the risk that I am taking? How much can I bank upon the fact that my learning curve will be robust and steady. Obviously I'm looking at two years maximum three in this company but it is crucial as it defines how the rest of my career will be shaped in a big way. My choices will be scrutinised.

The fact that worries my parents are that small companies can be so unpredictable, they can go bust in a matter of a string of bad decisions in a week. And close down in a month. But if I take that risk and go for it then all I can do is gain, and gain in a big way considering the exposure, the experience, the responsibility and this happens to be a research and development division of it's parent branch in bangalore so that's another big plus point.

Taking chances can work both ways. If it works fine, then there is much to gain from the fact I willed to take that risk.

Since all I want to see myself do is go with flow once something has been decided. Following the path I have chosen,if into the road  less taken i tread, then maybe, maybe, there may be a day several years from now, when I look back and reminisce that I saw, 


two roads diverge in the wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that made all the difference.