Life is…My thoughts…

Today, finally i got the chance to watch Rahat Fateh Ali Khan live in concert. As we haven’t seen Nusrat singing live so to watch Rahat perform is the closest we can get to watching Nusrat live. And yes that is true as well. No surprises here, Rahat is hugely talented.

Lets first talk about the good stuff. He stared with man kunto maula and did it brialliantly. After that came 2 bollywood movie songs he has done, no wonder he did it awesomely but that was not the stuff we were interested in. Then came the real gem dillagi…Nusrat’s version is of 17 mins. It was not that long but again brilliantly did. Next was yeh jo halka halka saroor hai…& it was a mind blowing performance clearly showing what a great teacher Nusrat was and how beautifully Rahat has been trained under him. Again a long spell of bollywood stuff and then sanu ik pal chain na aave & akhian udeekdiyan. He was about to end it with dam mast qalandar but somebody requestesd to sing tere mast mast do nain (from movie Dabbang). He amazingly sung tere mast mast do nain; not really in a movie song style but at really high pitch. Amazing…amazing performance. And the ending beauty was evergreen dam mast qalandar mast mast that got everyone to clapping with the song. For me personally, the bollywood stuff was the absolute crap, firstly in a sense that that is not what Rahat’s real talent is and secondly it disturbed the flow. When he sang dillagi & halka halka saroor it was magic all around but it got disturbed with that x y z stuff from bollywood.

Really, Rahat has got a huge talent. While singing for more than 2 hours not a single time his voice went out of sur or pitch went low. To give such a performance one needs to have some potential which was clearly visible. Due to the kind of idiotic Indian crowd that comes to attend such shows, they are expected to sing such bollywood numbers and for the same they need to keep drums and other things in orchestra. Otherwise from a qawali point of view, mouth organ & another instrument (probably keyboard) were sounding too loud. There probably was some issue with the sound setup as well. Also clapping sound was not audible and harmonium & tabla were also lost in the drums sound. The whole orchestra was being driven by the mouth organ not by harmonium. Despite of all this, it was an awesome, amazing performance by Rahat and i would love to watch him again & again; best probably at some place where he would sing only qawalis.

Now coming to all the bullshit that happens in India. As expected the arrangement was pathetic. They divided it into 3 sections. First was some VVVVVIP shit, second one for the people who had 2000 Rs tickets and third for the people carrying 1500 Rs tickets. And oh yes there was one ticket for Rs 1000 also and i think those people were standing at the end. The 2000 Rs ticket section was just 20-30% full and people from the 3rd section were trying to enter there but being stopped by security. Finally the revolution erupted, people jumped (man aunties also ) over the fencing and everybody was sitting in the 2nd section leaving the 3rd one empty.

About the people, as usual they just go there because they can afford to go. One thing i don’t understand is that while going to such an event cant they dump their kids at home ? And oh yes is it for the first time in their life that they get to see ice cream, coke, spring rolls etc over there ? Why the heck they cant take care of their tummies before coming to such shows ? Then every alternate person was getting up and fetching coke ++ stuff for their family of dozen plus items etc etc.

Despite all this, it was an amazing experience to watch Rahat perform live. Wish to see many more such concerts !!!

Me and my roomie went to KFC yesterday and ordered 2 burgers and a PEPSI & another drink (hey it was mango krusher , an overpriced mango shake in simple language   ). There was not much rush but even then it took around 20 mins or so to get the order. I was just wondering that how the quality of service at these western outlets (I think, it holds true for some hi-fi Indian restaurants as well) like KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, mix veg style food courts etc etc sucks big time as compared to our very own desi dhabaz. It is almost a very regular thing that they will take good 15 mins to take your order, will take another half an hour to serve it and there are around 25% or so chances that they will not serve the right order. And never forget the time required to get the bill, pay it and get your card or balance back !

On the other side, take our very own dhabaz. Pretty good of them always have full halls to serve. Even then they manage to take everyone’s order in 5 mins, get back to you in another 5 and that too with the right order. I started my first job in Mohali and there was very famous Khalsa Dhaba in Phase 5. In the morning & evening it always used to be full and i can bet that you will never sit in waiting state and seeing that nobody is there to take your order, you have sabzi but not chapati etc etc. And one guy, after taking orders from 5 or 6 tables, will manage to get all the things right and also tell the guy sitting at the counter that on which table what order was served (including number of chapatiz !!!).

So what exactly makes this difference ? And the difference is not slight; it is huge ! For me personally, it gets even irritating to wait so much !

Day before yesterday morning, while coming back from office after doing a night lost my wallet somewhere. Man it is so disturbing. Firstly due to the loss of so many important things and secondly due the feeling of carelessness i am getting that i couldn’t take care of it and lost it somewhere like this. Absolutely no clues how and where it happened but i am feeling so so bad about it .

Another cause of headache for last two weeks have been finding a new accommodation. So many things related to this one suck, so we have been planning to change it since long. Finally when some stuff got out of control, we had to take the decision and start the hunt. Man it is such a shitty job. Finally after 2 weeks or so and compromising a bit on our choice and all, finalized one and will be shifting by this month end.

On the little better side, finally managed to watch Rajneeti yesterday night. A good movie after pretty long time. Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai and especially Ranbir Kapoor gave brilliant performances. Katrina did a pretty nice job too. A good enjoyment overall.

Looks like an incomplete post . Not much to write, just hoping for the things to be in little better order in coming time .

While reading editorials one thing that always strikes my mind is that what part of it is close to truth and what part is just what the writer thinks. A week back or so i read an article in Times of India and it just made me almost go mad. So to release some frustration and comment on what the reality is, thought of writing a post. I am just taking quotes from the article and posting comments on them. Your comments are welcome 

Back in 2002, India claimed to produce 350,000 engineers per year. But this included “diploma engineers” who were not true engineers at all. India actually had only 102,000 real engineering graduates in 2002. This went up to 222,000 in 2006 and may be double that in 2011.

Yes ! That was dependent upon number of colleges. When IT was booming after recession in 2004, Comp Engg was a hot cake so Engg College an awesome business. That is what gave rise to opening of engineering colleges like karyana shops.

India does have some excellent engineering schools, but McKinsey estimates that only 25% of Indian engineering graduates are good enough to work for multinationals (and only 15% of finance graduates and 10% of those with degrees of any kind).

Yes true again because these are not collegses. There are currency printing shops. They are charging high fees and collecting some good money. Who cares about the quality and standard of the education provided ?

Yet in 2007, India’s five largest IT services companies added 120,000 engineering jobs, and IBM and Accenture added another 14,000. Pharma R&D companies boomed. And foreign car companies made India an export and R&D hub to capitalize on its engineering skills.

Because the IT work was being outsourced to India like anything and Indian companies needed to show employee strength to catch those projects. They needed the head count and the easiest way to get that was to go to campus and hire masses.

In recruitment, Indian companies stopped looking at resumes. Good resumes often reflect an ability to write good resumes, not real skills. Instead, Indian companies put applicants through psychometric tests and rigorous interviews to identify general abilities and aptitude, rather than specialized skills. Instead of hiring only from elite engineering colleges, companies like Infosys and TCS recruited from second- and third-tier colleges, and also from arts and science schools.

Bullshit ! Perhaps, except top institues like IIT and others, where else the graduates know how to make their CVs. Almost all of them look the same, talking about some small projects done there and other academic details.

Multinationals preferred to recruit people with established skills. But Indian companies realized that recruits had to be trained from scratch. Many companies virtually became universities, employing hundreds of trainers.The Infosys Global Education Centre at Mysore trains 13,500 people at a time. For arts and science recruits, TCS provides an additional three months of training. In all, many recruits get four to seven months of training before starting work.

So, as per the author, this is the real juice but in reality its such a superior quality bullshit that you won’t believe it. First thing, only biggies can afford to send people on tranings for months (And boy that has been reduced to 1/3 or less, in the name of cost cutting). Second important thing is that in which company people are trained & made to work on the same technology ? Whatever little i have come across in 6 years of my careers is that A is trained on Technology X, made to work on Y; B is trained on Y made to work on Z; C is trained on Z, made to sit on bench. Where the heck do you see that knowledge grabbed from the tranining being used ? Its almost nowhere. And id you saw it somewhere, that must be accidental.

This would be impossibly expensive in the West. It is economic in India. Thus, low-cost training has been transformed into an international advantage, giving India a competitive edge in high-tech exports.

Cheap labor ! Thats it !

Training is a continuous process, not just in technical issues but also in management skills, quality consciousness, communications, foreign language and personal-effectiveness skills. Companies commonly mandate one to four weeks of yearly training. The career development and salaries of staff are linked to skills acquired from training. Mentorship by senior executives is another key Indian practice. Cadence India has a “leaders-as-teachers” program: every manager must spend one to two weeks teaching internal classes. Even the CEO is not exempt.

What the heck ?

Managers are groomed through fast-track programs for the best-performing employees, who then get preference for promotion. Once, Indian companies desperately sought foreign-returned managers. Today, they can find better talent locally. Returnees from abroad can have a hard time getting a good job.

Hahaha..lol…

Employees get reviewed at the end of every project and are prescribed training if found to have weaknesses. Mechanisms such as 360-degree reviews (wherein you review your bosses and peers) and balanced scorecard reviews are widely used.

360 degree reviews ? Dude say something against your manager and see your rating. You would come to know what this 360 degree shit is !!!

Managers are evaluated on a variety of non-financial measures, including employee satisfaction, attrition rates and mentoring.

Another factor that is missed is that how much a manager can butter his boss !

The software industry complains of a high attrition rate — up to 30% employees leave every year. But this means that companies end up training people not just for themselves but for the whole industry. That is one more secret of India’s success.

Money dude ! People can get good money by changing jobs every year. So that drives the attrition rates !

Enough of crap. No more energy left in me. So leaving it here for your judgment considering what the reality is !

And see; this article was published in Times of India, India’s so called No 1 English newspaper. And someone who is not aware of the actual situation in Indian IT would think that don’t know what kind of high-tech rocket making India was into .

Most of the Indians go to see live concerts because:

• They are the people with approach and can manage to get free VIP passes and all.
• They are from rich section of the society and can manage to buy tickets (if any).
• Attending live concerts is a feel good thing and a bit of fun.

The real fans of artists are generally sitting in last rows, or even worse; standing. The folks sitting in VVIP and VIP sections are the the output of above 3 points. Anyways yesterday night there was a live concert of Ghulam Ali and me and 2 of my friends were ready to enjoy and had high hopes. So we got the tickets well in advance to avoid any “not available” etc etc situation. The time printed on the ticket was of 7 PM and 2 other singers were supposed to perform before Ghulam Ali. So we reached the venue around 6:15 to find that they had just started to setup the stage and other stuff. Nothing much strange as India runs like that only. Finally after 8 PM they started entering people and we got good seats. Weather was being tricky and a rainfall was a sure thing to happen. Finally things started moving a bit and it started drizzling as well. They introduced some local signer on stage and he left after singing 1 song. Then came the two expected ones; a man and a lady and till then it was no more drizzling; it was raining. Things continued but people were waiting for Ghulam Ali only.

Then after 9:30 Ghulam Ali came (rain had stopped by then) and was seated in the first row with some chief guests and that guy and the lady were still singing.  Now  those guys were not supposed to waste any time but he still continued. Many people had even left till this moment. Ghulam Ali took the control of stage around 9:45. It has been just half an hour or little more that  police came to get it closed due to 10:30 PM limit. Somehow somebody talked to them and the matter was sorted out but probably for some time only. After sometime a policeman came in front of the stage, raised his hands and asked them to stop ! Man just imagine, an artist of the stature of Ghulam Ali singing on stage and a policeman, in this way, telling him to stop; what a crying shame !!! What the heck the organizers were doing at that time ? Anyways Ghulam Ali did acknowledge him and said “shayad woh keh rahe hain k hum yeh band kar dein…bas 2 min mein kar dete hain….” Ghulam Ali said the final words and started to leave.

Then the stage was taken over by the host. He got pretty emotional and said that some xyz of Delhi is sitting here (some counselor or something was sitting there in guests). The night clubs can run up to 4 AM. There is not an issue with that but a ghazal mehfil cant continue after 10:30 PM. Then some action was taken and permission was given for another half an hour or so. Then Ghulam Ali started again but the taste has been lost till then. So things were just not that good.

And about the ambiance and other things there i just don’t understand what the heck is the need for people to bring their 0-14 yrs kids along. And then eating chips, sipping soft drinks…ghazal mehfils are for that ? On stage on guy is going up, another coming down etc etc. One sick idiot was standing in front of the stage and shooting with his video camera, Ghulam Ali requested him twice to stop but everything fell on deaf ears. Then two security guards came and literally pushed him away. Still he was not ready to move. Enough of  crap…

Lets talk about the whatever little Ghulam Ali saab sang…well he started with Ghalib’s har ek baat pe kehte ho with an opening sher from ishq mujhko nahi vahashat hi sahi……then came Faraz saab’s hui hai shaam to aankhon mein bas gaya hai fir tu followed by dil mein ik lehar si uthi hai abhi; amazingly done. Every time the word leher being presented with different sur taal and style. Pure magic ! After that pehli wari aj uhna akhian ne takkia. And then in hurry few others like awargi and hum tere shahar mein aaye hain.

At the end it was a magical show spoiled by few idiots ! We came back so sad and disappointed. An oppurtunity to watch such a great artist lost

And for the friends who would like to know what what according to me a ghazal mehfil should be like, please watch these videos. This is what magic a ghazal mehfil can create.

Just trying to test a small post from iPhone

So far so good

I was browsing through The Times of India website and came across a link to a video of a performance by Abida Parveen at a recent Aman ki Asha concert. I had already seen this video many times but this time more than the video, a comment caught my attention. Quoting here the same:

Roopa, bangalore, says: OMG what a horrible singer with horrible voice.. Somebody without training could sing better then her….

Nothing much to say. vichari poor soul…she doesn’t even know what she is talking about. God bless her that she, sometime in future understands what Abida Parveen means to music and its lovers across the globe.

Today one of my friend had to go to Greater Noida for an interview. He asked me to accompany him and i did so. We reached Noida by Metro and then the question was to go to Greater Noida. So we took an auto (for Rs 200) for Greater Noida and hoped to reach there in an hour. Oh we did actually, but the address was something like Knowledge Park 4. Everyone knew about Knowledge Park 1,2 and 3 but what the heck was 4 ? So it took us another half an hour to find that location. Anyways finally we were there. And due to all of this additional crap, had to pay 250 Rs to auto wala. After he got freed from there, we had to come back to Delhi; actually Noida first . So we came out and starting looking for auto. Oh boy…it was a complete jungle and nothing there really. So we thought about calling a cab. Called almost call radio taxi services but same response “Sir we don’t operate in Greater Noida” . Finally we saw an auto (carrying bricks ) wala and asked him to send some auto if he found one on his way. Man something adventurous here. He asked us to adjust in the same auto itself . So somehow we 3 guys adjusted with him and started the journey. He dropped his load on the way and dropped us to Noida after that.

What I am still wondering about is that they have setup almost a new city, so far from the main city but without laying down any transport infrastructure. Someone stuck there in the evening won’t have an option to come back. Moreover there is not a bit of security. It is such a long distance and no police post nothing. Such a crappy idea of first setting up a city in jungle and then opening an office there. Blunder in itself !

In the evening, me and my roommate went out for a round of market and i was telling him this story. Just felt like writing it.

It was in Jan or Feb of 2004 and i hadn’t got a job by then. I was doing my final semester 6 months training. 2 of my good friends were in Delhi for the training. One day they came to know about some job opening in some not-really-a-BPO company (yea, something like handling calls about some networking or some similar stuff…not that dishwasher can wash under wears or not types). So they called me in the evening, say 5 PM and asked me to take the night train to Delhi, as the interviews were scheduled for the next day. So it was the time to pack bags and leave for Delhi. I packed the necessary luggage and started getting ready to catch the night train. It was just my 3rd or 4th time in a train. So i was not aware about the reservations thing and different types of tickets. Just knew one thing; ticket to Delhi . I reached the railway station well before time, bought one ticket and started waiting for the train. It was just a general compartment ticket so had to board that only. Finally the train arrived and man this general compartment thingie was crowded like anything. But there was no other option available so had to enter somehow. After entering i adjusted myself and the bag i was carrying. It was a long journey (around 6 hours) and it was really difficult to travel in this position. Finaly after 1-2 hours i got a half seat; yea exactly half. So it was little better but still traveling on half seat in the night, that too in such a crowded compartment is no fun, for sure but oh yes…there was no other option.

It had started to dawn and the train reached Delhi railway station. As i had to go to Noida so there was another mission pending to be accomplished. As i was explained, i started looking for a bus to Noida (It is such a pity that even being called NCR, traveling from Delhi to Noida/Gurgaon or opposite is the most pathetic thing to do). It took me around half an hour or more to look for the place from where i would get a bus to Noida. And by the time people had directed me to 3 different places that you would get it from here, here or there etc etc. As they say that people in Delhi don’t say NO. They do tell you something, may be wrong only ! So finally i succeeded and got the bus to Noida. As luck would have it, there was some problem with the engine of the bus and the driver spent around 15 minutes trying to do some jugaad-ment. Anyways, just taking it as part of the mission, i was sitting quietly, half sleepy and tired. Oh yes…then the stop where i had to get off came. I took rickshaw from there and now the target was just 10 minutes away . As expected, i reached in the room in 10 minutes. The next task was to skim through some books and get ready for the interview. I took half-bath (yea half as there was no hot water and moreover i was tired and sleepy so could mange half only ). Then i skimmed through some technical stuff. 2 of my friends had to leave for their office but there was another friend who had to accompany me to the company as i was totally new to the city…

He told me about some interview tips and all and in the afternoon, we left for the venue. In 45 minutes or so we were there. Went to the company’s office and found that actually there were no interviews happening that day ! Oh boy hit the shit ! I was with totally blank head and the only thing i could think of was to come back. Again there was no other option . But my friend was already doing a job in some BPO, so he was aware about the recruitment process of BPOs. There was another BPO’s building adjacent to this one and he said that we should check there also. As we went there, we found out that there was some recruitment planned and a chance to appear for that. Oh man some luck at last. We went inside, filled the forms and started waiting. My friend said that he would also sit in the test to avoid some boredom. As otherwise also he had nothing to do . Finally i cleared the test (he didn’t as he sat in the test to just kill some time…). There was an interview after that and they asked me to wait for HR round.  After sometime they called me for the HR round and oh YES it was done. The final wait was for the offer letter. I can’t express in words that how good it feels after clearing  2-3 rounds of interviews and waiting for your offer letter. And boy if it is your first job, it is pure magic ! My friend had to go for his shift so he left. It was evening already so my 2 other friends got free from their office and directly reached there. I was still waiting for the offer letter. Finally they gave us the offer letters and we left for the room happily. I would again say that the feeling of getting your first job is really awesome. Though it was not an A class job, but still a job is a job and something is almost always better than nothing. We had got really late and reached at room around 1 in the night. In the society, we even met the UP police’s night patrolling guys  and they congratulated for the job and asked for a treat .

So that was how i landed the first job of my career .

One day, after 2-3 weeks, i was coming back from office and met the same guys and they said “bhai tune party ni di abhi tak” . Their party is still pending…

Reunions are a good thing…they take you back across the lanes of old golden days…

It was around 2 weeks ago, that I happened to meet a guy from my first company. While we were talking about the old stuff, he told me that they were planning for a reunion of folks who are in NCR these days.  Surely, it was a nice idea…chance to meet all the old guys. So it was finalized and and the date was fixed…6th of Feb…

…so guys (with few exceptions…) were there at the venue. I, one of my friend and his wife were the last people to reach, though . There is kind of different feeling in going late, you know . When we reached almost everyone has already started with their drinks and snacks . So after saying Hello to everyone, we also joined the gang. The main difference one could notice was that everybody came with his/her better 1/2 and kids…so it was kind of different scene from those old days when not everyone was marred…oops married . Everyone was recalling those old times; those nights spent in office, the morning breakfasts, few blunders when hopes of survival jumped between earth and sky, that “what the heck you have done” things from their bosses etc…

It was all fun. Your first job is like the first love, it is hard to forget and for most of the people present there it was their first job. They started their career from there, learned the corporate stuff, grew up as professionals and so on…After some time started the round of introductions (as there were few new faces…mostly in the form of better halves ). It was suggested that everyone would introduce the one sitting adjacent to him. It was fun time knowing everyone’s specialties in personal and professions lives. People present there, as per the introductions given were loving, caring, sweet, responsible, hard working, dedicated, straight forward, with good sense of humour, desi, [stuff not told in public starts] good cooks, good husbands, good workers at home etc etc [stuff not told in public ends]…hey  obviously all these qualities are from no single individual . It is all mixed stuff . While introductions were going on…my ex-boss, who is a really good singer was requested to sing a song and he sang  Jagjit Singh’s apni marzi se kahan…

Then one more guy was introduced as a good singer and he made everyone hum to the tunes of

So after all the introductions and fun it was time to have lunch. Again folks who came with their kids, took their turns to hold kids and hold a plate and vice-versa. One thing was so much clear that taking care of kids is probably harder than working in IT . Then it was mobile no exchange time before leaving. Everyone enjoyed the meet and said that we should meet more often and such meets should continue. It was like living that life again…Finally after having 3-4 hours of good fun we said goodbye to each other and left to live in our present !

It was memorable…we were re-unioned !