German Bakery Blast, Pune ... MNIK is more important

Last night we residents saw the scourge of terrorism extend its tentacles to our dear City of Pune. A bomb blast at German Bakery, Koregaon Park - 9-10 dead, scores injured...

What really disgusts me is that we as a people , our government , our opposition seem to concentrate on issues that really don't matter and should be addressed only when we really had nothing else to do.

A prime example of this was the recent charade between a movie star and a political party about a release of some movie ...!! What a waste of time and money ... the entire government machinery focused on whether a movie releases or , 11000 + security personal deployed to allow people to go for a movie ... scores of security personal to protect the actor & the politician ....

while ***a common man walking on the road gets blown apart due to a terror attack **** . Don't we have a priorities wrong ... ?

Scores of police to secure a multiplex and protect celebrities going for a movie

***while the common man looses a leg & livelihood as he walks by German Bakery and a Bomb explodes **** don't our priorities seem a little warped ??

Barricades across roads, 24 hour security, intelligence officials working day an night to ensure foreign nationals and their houses of worship are kept safe...

*** while the Indian Common Man lies in critical condition in some hospital because we could not protect him ..****** does this sound fair ? Should'nt we take care of our own first and then worry about the foreigners ?

It is time we really did a re-think of what our priorities really should be.

Should'nt we protect the common citizen of India instead of wasting time & money protecting some film star, some politician who doesn't really care about his electorate or some foreigner whose loyalty is his home land & not us ?

Mr. Politician ... Leave our brave hearts out of all this..

Today in India, it is very difficult not to become a cynic just about everything. We do have the positives but at times the negatives seem to outweigh everything. The unfortunate part is that most of the time, the negativity always seems to radiate from something that is connected either directly or indirectly to our dear politician.

Our politicians seem to have no boundaries of what or who to use for their own mileage. Now it is the turn of the brave hearts who protected us (some of them gave up their lives to protect us) during the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai who have become a part of their political games.

Our brave hearts from the security forces live & die for our country and its citizens. To them, thwarting an terrorist attack on Indian soil does not depend on caste or religion. Their ferocity and courage to protect us is un paralleled and is never biased on regional lines .... they are our modern day "knights in shining armour" & nationalists to the core. There are an inspiration to us.

So Mr. Politician , leave them alone , do not include their names & honorable deeds in your twisted political manoeuvrings. What you are doing is wrong , very very wrong. We in India have such few people left to look up to ... keep away from them. What they do for us and this country is sacred and should be treated as such.

Using references of their brave deeds for political means is undignified, unpatriotic & unwanted.!

LEAVE OUR BRAVE HEARTS OUT OF ALL THIS !

Another Suicide , another life wasted ...

In the last couple of weeks I keep on hearing about how young children both school going as well as those going to college are committing suicide. One didn't do well in an examination so she committed suicide, another was fined Rs. 150 & did not know how to face the parents so he committed suicide, another could not participate in some reality show so committed suicide, another faced criticism in front of an audience so attempted to commit suicide and so on.....

HORRIFIED & SAD .... yes .. SURPRISED ... no !!!

Why do these children take these drastic steps, why does it seem that is so easy for them to go over the edge ...

Well... we are to blame for this ... the fault lies both with us as parents as well as the teachers especially at school level. We tend to forget that children are what we make them both at home and at school, we as parents & their teachers have brought them up, we as parents & their teachers have have taught them what they know, they have picked up everything from us & the teacher so lets not pick on the child as being weak.

If they have become strong and confident it is because of the parents and the teachers and the same goes if they are weak & insecure ... the responsibility is still ours.

We have suceeded in bringing up a child to be well versed with ABC & 123 but we on the way we forgot to teach them on to be strong, confident & good human beings.

When we look at bringing up a child today, it revolves around school & what happens in school. We seem to always stress on the ABCs & 123s. Everything is about getting it right both at home and at school and all is performance related. Naturally as the years go by the pressure increases, the expectation increases, performance level increases and soon the child is running at break neck speed ... but have we ever paused to think is the child mentally prepared to run at this speed .. ???

We really need to rethink what we are trying to achieve. I think in the early years we should teaching them more about life & the things that are beautiful, kind and happy. We should teach them what this great big world has to offer in terms of the soul. We need to teach them how to enjoy life with the smallest of blessings. We need to continuously build and monitor their self confidence and esteem ...... all this will never be seen on a report card but the child sure needs these paragraphs to graduate in the story of life.

Sure life is tough and competitive but what is the use of all this ABC & 123 if the child cannot handle oneself and the pressures of life ? What is the use of all this ABC and 123 if the child has no confidence and self esteem .....

What is the use of a top ranking report card when the child has committed suicide ?

Let us teach our children how to live life with its ups & downs first and then worry about the ABCs & 123s otherwise we are just going to see an increase in this very unfortunate trend of children taking their own lives. Today it might have happened to someone else's child but when was the last time you took the time to look the child's report card on life .....

Why are we so afraid ?

Recently an elderly gentleman asked me "Why don't you speak up when you see certain government officials or politicians who are supposed to serve this land and its people behave obnoxiously ? Why do you as a citizen allow them to be openly corrupt and break the rules of this land ? Why are you so afraid to speak up and bring these disgusting people to book ?

Well, to tell you the truth I don't speak out openly about it as "I AM SCARED !!" . I rather mind my own business, don't really say anything about it since it does not concern me and go home in the evening to the security of my middle class home & family... & even if it does concern me , I rather placate these politicians / government officials than antagonize them ... I have a wife & child that I want to go back to. I don't want my secure middle class life ripped apart.

Can these certain obnoxious government officials or politicians really mess you up if you chose to antagonize or question them ?? OF COURSE THEY CAN & THEY DO !

The government official / politicians are always in league with one another. They could for example frame / concoct charges against you for evasion of tax.... Sure in the end you will be proved innocent but you might have gone & spent your life saving, your time, ruined your business and family life running to court everyday to prove your innocence. They could do this with any department of the government .. the corrupt politician / government official has a long reach in all aspects of land, revenue, tax & legal .. there are people like them in all our departments.

We must also not forget their sycophant followers / chamchas that will take it as their honourable duty to make you pay for antagonizing their beloved politician / government official as their livelihood depends on the degree to which they will stoop to serve their masters. Pay back could be in the form of mental & physical harassment perhaps even getting beaten up and being sent to hospital.

So tell me shouldn't we be scared ? Wouldn't we rather want to just mind our own business , do our work and in the evening go back to our secure homes & families ?

Pathetic perhaps ! .. realistic DEFINITELY !!

The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes .....

Saw this video .. was inspired .. she spoke sense

http://media.causes.com/510213?p_id=84998284

Sachin got out !!! Boo hoo !!

I am not an ardent fan of cricket. Watch the matches now and then but not really obessed about it. It is entertaining when the teams are evenly matched and you could have an enjoyable evening watch a one day match.

Currently the Australian cricket team is touring the country. In the last match, Sachin Tendulkar who probably is the best cricketer we have, got out on the basis of an incorrect umpiring decision ... my GOD what a ruckus there was about it .. the fans got agitated, the media screamed MURDER , there were countless TV discussions on it .. "not fair .. not fair... disaster.." they all shouted .... 'suspend the umpire' they demanded ... how could this happen to Sachin ... sacrilege ..

C'mom this is just a game, there are good umpiring decisions and they some decisions which are bad. All cricketers go thru this , it is part and parcel of the game. .... he is great player, he will make those runs again sometime .. what is the big deal !!!!

Everything evens out .. it called Karma.

Relax.. what is the big deal... this is a sport , a game, don't we have more important things to discuss, cover, yell & scream about ?

Hey about the farmers in Maharashtra committing suicide .. let scream about that ...!!!!

Crackers.. YES, who cares about the Sick & the Elderly

Diwali has come and gone. A huge celebration for us here in India. It is family time, we clean our homes, light lamps, put up decorations, making of sweets & burst crackers, have religious ceremonies ... yes, it is festival time , a time to celebrate for all.

Unfortunately this year for Diwali , I was in hospital as my wife had undergone an operation and was in the process of recuperation. Yes a hospital where there are sick people , some critical, some recovering, some being admitted , some in pain but hey that is what a hospital is about.

On the ground floor of the hospital there is a restaurant whose owner and employees decided to burst crackers in the middle of the night .. mind you this is the hospital building itself. So lets celebrate Diwali .. burst crackers in front of the hospital. Of course the owner had a big white car and wore a white attire so it had to be some politician or some affiliation to a political party (yes, our dear politicians, our elected representatives). Hey we have a right to celebrate Diwali ... especially in front of a hospital. Lets forget the 100 odd patients who need rest , we must celebrate our festival.

A hospital is a silence zone ......but wait .. sorry this does not apply during the festivals, obviously patients of a hospital are not important and the bursting of crackers takes precedence.. who cares about the sick... this is a time of celebration isn't it !? Why should we bother , we must celebrate, shouldn't we ?

Of course you must be out of your mind object, you would be accused of not respecting the religious sentiments of people, you would incur the wrath of the "connected" citizens and probably get thrashed in the bargain .. oh how accommodating & caring we have become...

The above incident at this particular hospital want the only case, it was reported all over the city.... celebration time we call it !

For heaven's sake, something is wrong with us. !!??!!

Where has our compassion gone ? Has our civic sense flowed into our sewers and more importantly have we forgotten basic decency ... at least leave the sick alone !!!!!

Dadsee ... you were indeed a religious man ...

It been about 3 months since my dear father - in - law Jerome Rodrigues passed away. He was really not well for the last year or so and had suffered a lot. I am so sure he is now in a happier place perhaps sitting on a beach (he loved Goa) in his shorts sipping a nice chilled beer (he loved his little drink) solving his sudoku or doing his crossword puzzle. We miss him..

Anyway the real point of this thought entry was his attitude towards religion. He was a devout Catholic, went to Church & attended Mass very regularly , prayed regularly and literally knew every word of the Bible but not once in my entire association with him did I ever hear him 'spout' or 'preach' religion.

I am a Zoroastrian who has married into a Catholic family but being of a different religion never came up in a discussion with him at any point of time. It was not only the spoken word but also in his actions towards me.

He spoke about values, honesty, family, not to encourage corruption but never really initiated a discussion about one's religion, Christianity or Zoroastrianism, their differences and whether one was better than the other. Sure we could discuss particulars about a certain religion but his general outlook never included the differentiation of people based on religion.

This I think defines being religious.. here was a man so deeply into his religion, have so much faith in his religion, living by the principals as defined by his religion but never imposing it on anyone else. He considered it his own personal belief and it did not go beyond that. Live and let live always seemed to be his advice.

We don't see this too often do we ... ? Someone so orthodox & conservative yet restricting the views & beliefs to oneself and not forcefully imposing it on others.... I think he truly understood what religion stands for and I wish there were more like him. The world would be such a peaceful place.

Dadsee, if I had a glass in my hand I would say "I miss you but Cheers to you ! & let the good times rock."

Is it recession or correction ?

This is based on my experience and knowledge of the field of Information Technology and Outsourcing and so my comments are based around that set of companies.

The economic meltdown is here, the nightmare has just started, tons of companies are shutting down left right & center, thousands are being laid off and many many more expected. The year 2009 does not look good for anyone & "global recession" is the latest buzz word. All of us have to 'hunker' down and try to survive.

But let us take a re look at a couple of issues that are taking place and that are defining the term 'economic melt down'

- The Banks are not lending money, there is a cash crunch
This means that companies will have to use their own money to run their routine business and not use credit for that. Well isn't this way a business is supposed to be run ? You get loans & credit for upcoming projects, you don't usually use loans to run a supposedly sustainable business do you ? Is this recession or correction ?

- The Banks / Investors will be tight fisted and it will require proper project projections and serious due diligence for money to be invested.

Strange, so what was the criteria thus so far ?...wasn't proper project projections & serious due diligence basic criteria to get funding anyway ? Is this recession or correction ?

- Salary raise will probably be a mere 5-10% as compared to 30-40% in 2008 ?

7-10% is a well tried and tested norm for business for so many years. Everyone in the industry knew long ago that 30-40% increase yearly for salary for never be sustainable... so why the outcry now ?

- There will be continuous lay offs
It was common knowledge that most large IT companies in India are over staffed. They have so many workers on bench all the time and projects have been overestimated just so that more engineers could be billed for. The clients were paying so no one was asking. Now the clients are cutting project sizes to realistic levels and hence realistic levels of man - power. The rest will get laid off. Once why the noise ? It was all well known.. and it just catching up.

- Salaries will be restructured
Now I am surprised this is even being attributed to the recession. Anyone who has anything to do with the IT field knew the salaries were sky high and many a time just ridiculous. Even if a person did not have the experience, nor the skill and really did not deserve it , they still got mammoth salaries just to retain them... do you really think this would be sustainable over the long run ??. Salaries are going to come down to what they were supposed to be !

So would this be termed as recession or a correction. ?

I think we are just coming back to reality, we are being forced to accept one of the very basics of money... "Cut your coat according to your cloth ". Companies will now downsize to what they realistically are, their valuations will be more realistic, they wont have bloated reserves and yet use money from the bank, team sizes and project estimates will be what they are really supposed to be, salaries will be based on expertise and experience and finally we will back to "living, working & conducting business within our means."

So who is accountable ?

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Disclaimer: This post does not target any specific parent, any specific child, any specific teacher and any specific school. We as parents and our teachers try thier best but we all know it happens !
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Today we hear so much "blah blah" about accountability and corporate governance in India. We hear so much about accountability or lack of it in our public services & utilities.

Oh how we love to talk about it so lets talk about 'accountability' and lets see how accountable we hold ourselves towards something that is closer to home..."our children"

When a child does well in school, all love to take responsibility and credit for it , the parents, the teachers ...... oh how proud we all are. (we should be !!)

Ok, now lets change the equation a little bit...'the child does not do well in school', ' the child is having trouble coping with school', ' the child is getting in trouble in school'................ what are the conventional reasons you will generally hear ?

If you ask the parents... it would possibly be
"Oh the teacher is horrible", "there is so much work to do", "they just keeping having tests", "they don't correct the work or bother to do anything for the child" & so on.

If you ask the teacher... it would possibly be
"the child is not up to the mark", "the parents don't bother & expect us to do everything". "there are so many children, I cant take care of everyone", "we don't control the syllabus and have to complete it in time", " how much more do you expect us to" & so on

I am not disputing the above reasons given my both us parents and the teachers, I am just stating them, I am no judge as to whether they are wrong or right.

So let me get this straight , if the child is facing trouble in school both the parents and teachers seem to have perfectly good reasons for it and they themselves never seem to be part of it in most cases........ so my question is who takes final responsibility for it, who takes final responsibility to set it right........the child ? Are we seriously expecting the child to set it right ? Is there no one else who should be held accountable ? (oops I used the word accountable ..!!)

Reasons, excuses, you can call it what you like, but the child is in trouble, you have brought up this child, you have educated this child, shouldn't we as parents & teachers hold oursleves accountable for that child ?

I was under the impression that when we decided to have a child , it was one of our obligations to be accountable for the child's well being in heart , mind and soul . !!

I was under the impression that when one chooses the vocation of a teacher, it is one's obligation to be accountable for the child's welfare in heart , mind and soul while in school !!

Parents & Teachers together are responsbile for the child. Accountability does not mean blaming someone else and then leaving it.....

We talk about accountability in governance of the country but are we holding ourselves accountable as parents and teachers ? Perhaps lets start from there first before pointing our fingers at others.

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Disclaimer: (Before I get into trouble). This post does not target any specific parent, any specific child, any specific teacher and any specific school. But we all know it happens !
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Mamma Mia!

I know this post really has nothing to do with computer security and being a managing director of a software development firm but what the hell.. this is a personal blog and hence this entry.

After quite some time I went for a movie in a theater and it was called Mamma Mia! It was directed by Phyllide Lloyd and had a cast which included Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth , Christine Baranski and several other very talented people. It is a musical about a girl who is trying to find out who her real dad is and and the all sound tracks are based on some of the greatest ABBA songs like "I had a dream", "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen" , " Money Money Money" and all those wonderful yester year songs.

I LOVED the movie ! Not only was it because the sound track was so so familiar but it was a refreshing change. It was worth paying for the tickets, worth getting out on a Sunday and even worth the popcorn.

I am not the kind who really enjoys movies that might have 'gooey' & ' mushy' elements but seeing this movie gave you a HAPPY FEELING about life. Not a great movie goer or movie critic but I think the cast & crew of the movie had a great time making the movie and that it turn reflects on the audience as well which had a great time seeing the movie. The audience including me were lapping up all the movie was giving, absorbing all the emotions happily. We laughed, we clicked our fingers and swayed with the music, we felt sentimental .... everyting all together.

The story line, the cast , the music , the settings everything was just right and after a very very long time I would take the trouble of seeing this movie again !

Pune IT engineers need rain to work ....need good mud too..

It is Thursday today.. lights usually go off, but we have battery backups to last us the day so not really anything out of the blue for us. I walk into office I see one of our ex-employees sitting at one of our workstations. It is strange to see her in our office during work hours.

Is everything OK ? I enquire ?... Yes Boss .. she says .. we were given the day off as we do not have lights & we were asked to go home.

So let me get this straight .. over 100 engineers of this specific company being asked to stop work today as there is no power, no battery back up power and no diesel to run the backup gensets either. On further query I find out to my surprise that several divisions of several other IT companies have also shut down today, resulting in 1000s of man hours of loss of work due to no diesel in their gensets... whats up with these IT companies ??? Huh ?? !! hello ?? is this happening in the IT super hub of Pune ? Large Buildings ... huge jobs, great salaries.. exponential growth, ISO / CMM certifications and ......... no lights, no fuel ..no work.. go home with full pay...... is this some sort of joke ??!! We are supposed to be an IT super - power ..

Aha !!, I think to myself, I thought agriculture depended on rains.. but it looks we need rains for our IT engineers too... ! ... and why do they need the rain ? .. well there is a shortage of diesel, apparently caused due to the excessive use of backup generators by our IT companies & malls...& why is there this excessive use of backup gensets ? .. well, there have been no lights.. & why have there been no lights..well, there have been no rains.

Hence conclusion IT engineers need rain to work ....& our emails to our clients will go something like this...

Dear So & So.
This is with regards to the work we are hoping to do for you tommorrow. As soon as we get into office tommorrow, we will look out of window, check the chances of rain and of course our value added services division will include a rain dance for free..should it happen to rain, we will complete your work..
Thanking you ....
CC. NASSCOM

I had to lay off some of my most loyal staff...

Well, our company is under going some serious corporate level restructuring and focus re-evaluation. In some cases this has involved cutting down of staff.

In this process, the most difficult part of the job (and it never gets easier) is giving staff their notice and asking them to leave. This becomes even more gut wrenching when it involves staff who have been loyal, good to the company and a great asset to the focus which unfortunately does not have any relevance now.

Yes, this is business and I have to make decisions so that it continues to run but times like this just do not seem to be fair for these employees.. they have been good for the company and they are being asked to leave for no fault of theirs. It is the company and the management who are responsible finally. Sure this is the "nature of business" but is it right to do this under the guise of "This is business and it is all about bottom line". ?

Just because they don't contribute to the bottom line currently, are they to be cast off as redundant.? We wouldn't have dared to lay them off when they were contributing to the bottom line earlier but we do it just the same today as such is "the nature of business". But is that correct or am I just getting emotional unnecessarily. ?

I know we have taken care of them as they have taken care of us. They have worked for us and we have paid them for the effort but we all know it is not as simple as that. As the years go by , you tend to treat them more as friends than as employees, you tend to bank on them more, you tend to take their advice more often, you involve them more and make them feel more than just employees and then suddenly one day you decide its time to "lay them off" as such is the "nature of business". I wonder "Is that right , it that correct ? "

People often say that you don't come to office to make friends or enemies , to trust people or not to trust people. You come to office to get your work done and go home leaving it all behind in the evening. Surely its not simple as that if you are with a organization for a couple of years. You make friends, your loyalty increases for the company, you not only work for the money but also for the company. You might even take on more work and extra duties with the belief that the company requires it and yet due to the demands of the so called "bottom line" and "corporate re-structuring" one day suddenly you are to be laid of. Is that correct ?

I am not saying that when I employed people , I guaranteed them employment for a life - time. They all know what they were getting into. They all signed a agreement which clearly stated that they would be given "1 months notice" in case of termination and sure I have given extra re numeration to several of them when I asked them to leave so that they can find another job without too much financial strain but my question still remains the same...

"I did what I had to do for the company bottom line and such is the nature of business but was it correct to do so ?"