Life is…My thoughts…

Q: Favorite show ?

A: Roadies.

Q: Aim in life ?

A: To be a Roadie.

Q: Ideal ?

A: Raghu sir.

Q: What are you up to these days ?

A: Sir, preparing for this season of roadies.

Q: Is this your first time ?

A: No. 5th time sir.

Q: If we don’t select you ?

A: Will come next year again sir.

WOW !

We are in Delhi, attending a Sufi music festival and a singer abc from some xyz country is singing Bulle Shah’s poetry “tere ishq nachaya kar ke thaiya thaiya”.

Some hooligans get on to the stage and start raising anti xyz country slogans and obviously the performance is disrupted and the scene is totally different now.

Who could do such a stupid act at a Sufi music festival ?

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I think most of you would have guessed the country by now. Let me tell you the event and singer’s name: Sanam Marvi singing at Sufi Sindhi festival. And those murdabaad torch bearers were Shiv Sainiks. (Here is the link to the piece of news in Hindu)

They are well known for all such things but I seriously don’t understand the point of disturbing a singer’s performance even if she happens to be from the country which we don’t have a very good relations with. Personally there are things from Pakistan that disappoint me but those policies and all are governed by establishment not singers.

Honestly to my surprise she started singing again once they were driven off the stage by the event crew folks. Earlier she was sitting but now she was standing and sung few songs. The performance lasted for an hour or little more but obviously they had spoiled the scene !

What crap !

But I do have a suggestion that I posted on FB last night:

“Our govt must create a new regiment in the army where only Shiv Sena walas will be allowed to join. And then that regiment should guard our international borders with Pakistan and China.

Lets use this blood that boils so much !”

Quite literally everything…I repeat every damn thing is wrong in this country !

The defunct law and order system: In general system the law and order system is totally defunct. The criminals are no longer scared of what their fate is gonna be after the crime ? One can easily get away after committing a heinous crimes like murder or rape.

The police: The police no longer works for the common man or the sufferer. I have a personal experience of dealing with Delhi Police (in the capital of India…you hear ?) while trying to get an FIR registered for a theft. No one is ready to listen to you; NO ONE. The misery and helplessness you are made to feel at police stations is beyond the expression in words. In such a scenario where one can go for help ? There is no need to mention how the police will behave in case someone from an influential background is involved in the crime.

Judiciary: Judiciary has turned out to be the absolute disappointment. Lakhs of cases are pending in the courts. Judges, lawyers, eye witnesses everyone can be bought for money and in such a scenario you can hardly hope for any justice. Even one manages to file a case, the trial goes on for years resulting in even more suffering. Remember Surjit Patar’s words ?

Es adalat ‘ch bande birakh ho gaye,
Faisle sundeyan sundeyan suk gaye
Aakho enha nu ujjade gharin jaan hun
Eh kado teek ethe khade rehange

Such is the state of our judicial system.

Today’s generation: We do talk a lot about helping someone if he/she is in trouble. But reality tells a different bit. You see something happening on the road and try to get involved in that. There are pretty much chances that you yourself are going to be injured, killed or something like that. We have already seen cases where someone challenged few youngsters who were eve teasing a girl and that poor man has to pay with his life. Such shameful and horrible incidents set a different tone and everybody tries to walk away even if he sees something happening around.

The sick mentality of this society: One of the most important points is the sick mentality of the society especially MEN. I don’t want to write much on this topic. That saying “All Men are dogs” explains it all.

Women’s portrait in the media: Our media, newspapers, magazines, movies have left no stone unturned to portrait woman as a bodily object of pleasure that can be used as man wants and then thrown away. That is what most of the movies and music videos present. Result of all that is that we are at this stage !

So my friends this is where we stand today ! I can just hope that we head towards betterment. Nothing more to say. If the scenario remains the same, you already know what the future is gonna be like .

I shuddered with horror after reading what this poor girl has to go through. She was a brave girl and fought very bravely. But today she lost the fight and is no more with us.

We all are responsible for your death girl. We are all ashamed of

being part of this society,

being mute spectators of the injustice happening around us,

being part of this impotent system,

choosing this impotent government that can’t protect us.

May your soul rest in peace !

And I am not sure where “God” is at this moment ? As Nasir Kazmi said

oh mere masroof khuda,

apni dunia dekh zara

One thing that always gets ignored while talking about India’s independence is the partition of India. It was the largest displacement of people in the 20th century. The state worst affected by this was Punjab. It was divided into two parts and a large displacement of Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus & Sikhs to India started. Result was that an uncontrolled bloodshed followed. The unfortunate thing is that today’s generation hardly understands what exactly happened during those times. Even Punjabis don’t understand what exactly partition meant ? A friend sent me the link to this poem by a young Pakistani poet Afzal Saahir that describes the pain of the people who had to leave their homes and move to a complete new place. They could never forget the pain of leaving the place of their childhood and youth. In the poem Afzal talks about similar emotions.

Also the amazing kaun dushman hai by Ali Sardar Jafri

ghulam tum bhi the yaroon,
ghulam hum bhi thhe

Naha ke khoon mein aayi thi fasle azadi
Maza to tab tha ki milkar ilaaj e jaan karte

khud apne haath se tameer e gulsitan karte

hammare dard mein tum, aur tumhare dard mein ham
shareek hote to jashne aashiyaan karte

Tum aao gulshan e Lahore se chaman bardosh
hum ayen subah Banaras ki roshni lekar
Himalaye ki hawaaon ki taazgi lekar
Aur iske baad ye punchhen kaun dushman hai

(Taken from here)

Someone’s comment on youtube on a video of Atta Ullah Khan:

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 .

I wanted to write this post in some different way but, just a change of mind. Now i will just post what i saw.

Today we went to the International Book Fair at Pragati Maidan. Few of the observations:

1. At none of the gate it was mentioned that where the tickets were available and from which gate was the entry for book fair. As far as i am aware this information is not available online as well.
2. After entering from the main gate there was no information about in what all halls book stalls were being hosted ?
3. No single board telling what all publishers were there.
4. There are maps near landmarks in the province (but some of them probably without “You are here” mark) telling about the locations of various halls but after reaching in front of a hall, you wont be able to tell anything about it as there is not a single board telling about its name or number.
5. There was no question of any support staff being there/helping you.
6. Least number of sign-boards so that you take the longest route for reaching from one place to another.
7. Every possible eatable thing was over-priced. (An OK types paneer kulcha for Rs 40 and a plate of gol-gappas (6 pieces) for Rs 15).

May be i am missing something…for now…that is it !

I had to get the third party transfer option enabled in my HDFC bank account and that needs you to fill a form and submit it to some branch. So I went to HDFC bank nearby and asked for the form. For the first time in my life probably, it was a really simple form. Just 3-4 required fields and that is it. Though there was one little thing that can be pointed out. They asked for customer ID which is not as common thing as account number. But the lady at the counter asked me to write account number only. So problem solved. It was really a rare example of good experience of “going to a bank”  . Wish all the bank related things were that simple .

Cheers !!!

I go to Gurudwara, once in 2-3 months. That means I am not really a religious person. Period ! But from what I see around, I think people are way better. They go to Temple/Gurudwara/Mosque daily and some even twice in a day. But what leaves me wondering is the other side of  the coin. That is their behaviour in their lives. They are fully dedicated to these religious practices but when it comes to applying the teachings in their daily lives; NO…it is nowhere to be seen. And often I put this very same question to everyone who talks about this religious commitment thing and the answer is …but still…he does go to Gurdwara/Temple daily. I mean one doesn’t go for the sake of going. It is for your betterment, to learn to be good and do good. If you aren’t ready to follow what religion teaches then what is the use of going ? Are you trying to fool God ?