Chamat-Car

Some time in 2020 (I know u must be petrified that this one again must talk about Developed India in yrs to come ….so don’t gasp it doesn’t …I am no where close to APJ in the making) a Conversation b/w Boss and a new Fresher Joinee :

Boss: Hi, I need a favor from u buddy.
Fresher: Yes Sir tell me?

Boss: Can u lend me your bike for few Hours, I have to clinch a deal with our new client and the meeting is scheduled in an hour from now at Le Meridian 3kms from here.
Fresher: But Sir u have all Merc’s and CRV’s in the parking lot to drive u there.

Boss: Come on man with all those Nano’s, Lite’s, Micro’s and the Mini’s on road u know I cannot make it to the meeting in time even being such a short distance. And on top of that they don’t make machines (no guessing, he is referring to bike here) like Ur’s these days. It’s been my dream to ride a city bike for ages now. Barely get to see any of these nowadays.
Fresher: K fine, here are the keys sir …go ahead …and just make sure this favor reflects in my appraisal if the deal gets through :)

This might actually be the scenario in yrs to come. I am not any astrologer or an Economy Guru but the events which unfolded at Auto Show in Delhi made me think in such a way. The much awaited 1 Lack car by Tata’s was launched here in a magnanimous way. All the newspapers, news channels, media in all possible forms were geared up to cover the event. Right from the morning news, to forwarded mails in office, to the most searched keyword on Google, everything had one agenda: what’s up the sleeve of Tata’s. Even before the D-Day everyone was apprehensive as to how can a car be manufactured in such a price range, how will it look like, will it be safe, will it stick to emission norms, and will it be in the price range as promised coz of Rocketing steel and oil prices? …

D-Day approaches and Mr. Ratan Tata himself drives the car on to center stage at Delhi Auto Expo. Man Oh Man….is what people witnessing the launch have to say…With thunderous applause is the most awaited and speculated car in India so far gets launched. Critics, Experts, Business Rivals, Politicians and at last the common man, everyone goes gaga over this masterpiece of Engineering thinking of it as none less then a miracle or a Chamatkar. Winning accolade form everyone this car of Tata’s sticked to what they had promised (wish our politicians were like Mr. Tata)… An “Aaam Aaadmi Car” as it is to be called.

But then is India Equipped enough to bear such a car, this is the Question of the hour. Social impact of such inventions can not be judged at ease. With a population of more then a Billion people where are we heading to? …With such a stupendous increase in household dispensable income, and a booming Economy with loans available for even a holiday trip u might plan, this might be car for masses. But then this is not some miniature cell phone ke ‘karlo Duniyaa mutthi main’…Cars like these will crash the backbone of Indian Infrastructure to the max extent possible. With Tata’s planning to sell 2.5 lack on Nano’s in a year as of now…u r sure to spot many of these on Roads very soon. Who’s to be blamed? Surely not the Tata’s…They r into business and its simply supply and demand game. They have a come up with a very nice product and it’s sure to sell too. With better mileage u cannot blame them to be sole threat to pollution, what about fuel guzzler SUV’s on Roads. And with cars speeds just marginally above then that of a pedestrian in places like Bangalore does anyone have to worry about high speed car crashes? …so I don’t see any reason for guys like Mr. Pachauri to question Tata’s…they will be barking up the wrong tree if they do so…coz it’s the Government which has to start thinking now as to how do they scale infrastructure requirements of the growing country like ours. It shouldn’t be like Bangalore where government builds an international airport in 5 years timeframe that too 40kms away from the city limits, and after its completion suddenly wakes up to see they never had a dedicated road to that place!

I don’t know much as to how things shape up in future, but I can assure u to expect much more traffic on Indian roads in time to come. These buggies and many more like these and bigger (39 other cars were showcased at auto expo this year) are bound to flood Indian roads in no time. Affordability will no longer be an issue to buy a car, and parking zone for bikes will have to be squeezed so as to accommodate many more cars in near future coz a decent bike and “tuk-tuk” like this one will almost be equally priced “to jab wohee mobility same daam main milee to koi bike kyun le, car na le”. So at the end of it crux is to be prepared to spend some more time of our life waiting for those Red lights to turn Green.

Hare Krishna...........Heyyyyy Ram

I am back! ….yes after more then a month’s hiatus and a lot of thinking what to write on, I have finally come up with something ….

This lull was not just coz of me not able to think of what to write on, it has a lot to do with my work environment …ya u read it correctly “WORK”! ...I have been put to work now and the surroundings which I have at present don’t really shore up to creative phenomenon like Blogging … :( There is all so called “Techie Janta” in the backdrop here, that they might come up with some unwelcome work 4 me if they even see me reading a blog forget about writing one…and the entry level software engineer that I am, I can only dream of my company buying me a laptop…and for god sake don’t put your brains thinking that how come I cannot afford one still…I can assure u I can’t ....so this is the extra hours I am chipping in at work to write a blog, and ‘I am loving it’…

This weekend I was thinking of doing something or going somewhere to get of out routine life which I have, but didn’t coz couldn’t find nething to do neways, but this thought reminded me of one great episode which occurred with me and some of my friends almost an year ago…. We were new at our job and Bangalore both ….so the trainee gang of ours had much enthu to sort of explore Bangalore on weekends in particular, but as those who know this place can tell u there is nothing much to do so …it’s a city which has I.T offices where u earn on weekdays, a few malls and some other places where u spend on weekends …nothing else much to do around …so we came up with an idea to visit ISKON temple …not that me our some of us were any devotee or something but just that may be the spiritual element that we all have as being an Indian we were born and brought up in that manner that everyone’s ready all the time to go to a temple …so this is all abt what happened that day when we visited the temple or shall I say what happened after …u will get to know…

We decided to meet at the ISKON temple directly at 4pm appox. Lazy me and that too Sunday …man it was tough to get ready and mentally prepare 4 a daunting task ahead coz the place was supposedly 15-20 kms. from where I live and on top of that I was new to ‘namma bangaluru’ and did’nt know the exact way to that place …so somehow I managed to get ready and leave in time …to reach the place I believe I had to ask in total 5-6 times the way from auto fellows and people waiting at red lights, coz in Bangalore light take ample time to change to green that one can easily ask the routes thoroughly…finally I reach the place traumatized to know that I was probably the first one to reach, so now I had to wait some more time 4 may friends to appear before I could enter the place…finally everyone turned up and we went inside …it’s a very remarkable and immense setup…one of the most fine-looking temples I have seen in my life, very neat and well managed temple of lord Krishna …no wonder they get hefty donations from people world over being an international society and it shows …thus it took us some 2hrs to look at it from start till end, moving at a snail's pace in a long queue which included a process of enchanting “Hare Ram hare Ram, hare Krishna hare Krishna” fleeting over 108 small square shaped stones…there is a direct route 4 darshan as well if u r in bit of a hurry and don’t have time to do stepping stone …but then we had all the time in the world so we thought it would be fun to do it the apt way…by the time we did the darshan and came out it was somewhere around 6:30 and odd…

Now it was time to leave to our respective places after a bit of chit chat and hovering around that place ….but then destiny had something else in store 4 me …this other bunch of my friends had 4 bikes and were 9 people …so it was peculiar situation where 1 of them had to take an auto or something to reach to their place…so the bighearted self of mine suggested that it would be some odd 10-12 kms off-route 4 me, but better I shall drop him instead on him taking such pains and spending so much to reach at his place …but then as some wise man had said “A weak man has doubts before a decision, a strong man has them afterwards.”…so I was of the latter types now I know…there starts the convoy of 5 bikes speeding towards destination called as Bannerghatta which is a different extreme of Bangalore altogether …as it always happens this one friend of ours “dude that he is” takes the charge and leads the way, so sure that he new the way flawlessly. I was unaware that even these guys had come to ISKON the way I did: inquiring the route on the way itself…so we were in wrong hands and on wrong path…we had traveled some 10-15 kms. already and we were nowhere close to place that we had to reach to …in fact we were now on some periphery roads with almost nil traffic, but we had assumed that this Mr. Navigator knew the way…but then “ass-u-me” can be interpreted differently …we still kept traveling till one of us stopped and asked somebody the route…surprise-surprise ! ... “Guys u r on wrong track-bannerghatta is the opposite way some 20-25 kms. from here” …we r screwed, we r screwed, we r screwed!!!!!!!!! …I should have guessed if there was no traffic its can’t be B’lore…now we start again, and these odd roads with name of places we came across even more strange …after some 10-15 kms. we have shock of our life when we see a big board on the road which reads “WELCOME TO BANGALORE”… o.o…where the hell we were so far…now we know that the road we were on was actually some highway leading to B’lore …To finish we still we had to travel some 20-30 kms …finally we reach Bannerghatta, but I still had to travel again some 15 kms. to reach my place...I start off and after a very very long and painstaking ride, I finally reach home…what a day it was, appox. My bike’s trip meter read some 90-100 kms. of travel that day …and I could feel the every bit of it… I guess it would have been some 108 kms. like those steps at the temple but this time around I was enchanting “Hare Krishna….Heyyyyy Ram” with the every km. that I must have traveled…Societal work was not my piece of cake, at least not this one…Only now I knew.

Benchmarking the Bench...

It was almost midnight but the celebrations weren’t even close to stopping at all. People congratulating each other, hugging each other cheers all around the hall in which we guys were sitting .No don’t think it was some college farewell or some party going on, this is the scene a year back when we guys were selected on campus for our first job. Wow man what a great day 4 us, selection in a big MNC and all …first job, through campus …when half of the college was still jobless, we guys were few chosen one ,very few to be very frank (53 out of 900) who appeared 4 the selection process and got through with flying colors.

Now when I write this blog, a year later the scene is totally changed. Unlike the new Vodafone add says “change is good” 4 me it is not the case .Wish it was that way, but unfortunately it is not. Big companies, big cities, big dreams that is the way it all starts, but Start that is what we are still waiting 4.Ya u haven’t read it wrong, 1 year and still waiting 4 a start how’s that possible?...but as u must have heard adidas punch line “impossible is nothing”…god knows why I am coming up with brand slogans so often, may be this also is one thing common in generation next with big dreams and bigger firms to work with and enough money in pockets to splurge out on such brands. So what is that I was doing so far in one year? I was on “Bench” - Yes that’s the word, I am not sure if it has been still added in dictionary so far, the way Bangalored just got added last year, so 4 those who do not get it let me tell u, it’s a term 4 people in software industry who have been hired for sole purpose of increasing headcount and bagging new bigger projects and hence even being on job r not actually into client projects. So our accomplishment after a year now is we have benched mark the bench.

Things never started on a bad note for that matter. Coming to Silicon Valley of India, joining your 1st job, superb lush glass offices and a very professional office environment. Then starts the painstaking training sessions and a whole metamorphosis from campus to corporate. Things were looking to move forward in a right direction. But gradually luck has its own track to follow. Thankfully after trainings we were in safe hands with very concerned and professional seniors. Till we were put into some live projects we needed to have some hands-on. So we have a thing called I.P coming into picture. I.P is the Intellectual Property projects 4 the company and not the Internet Protocol as many of engineers tend to think at the first go. So there we were working hard on task at hand. This was the chance to learn and prove our mettle. That was the time when our learning curve was going up up and away analogous to the Bulls raging the markets these days. But then what ever goes up has to come down. But never expected it to come down in this fashion coz we never had reached 18k first of all and now it was coming down with a crash. Wish the I.P projects were ever considered as a property coz at the end they never were. And this was a disheartening realization.

So now we are at Bench as they call it. Contributing to at least the headcount 4 that matter. Hope is the only thing which remains coz now when we see people whom we counted upon, mail us referring to articles like “On Bench” which appeared in a Leading Newspaper recently, we get confused to take it positively or negatively. Positively coz I was amongst the one who had left a biggie firm with such practices to join a smaller one thinking that they must be having some good High-end work in store 4 me. Only Optimism in this scenario where even the Captains and Vice Captains r putting down there armor are some new projects in the pipeline. But God only know when we get to see some output from that pipeline….its a wait too long it seems …. I at times get envious seeing other companies winning some big projects with big scopes of everything in it. But then I believe as it happens in our bollywood movies there will be a “happy ending” to this as well & if not, as SRK says in his new venture Om Shanti Om “picture abhi baki hai mere dost” …so mere picture to abhi kafi baki hai …so I will end with this positive note coz one thing I know is that there is a greener pasture for me, the dream which I have seen, coz this was just a step to reach there..Just the need of the hour is to go 4 it ….and I can surely say something that life has its own experiences in store 4 me. So be it not the way we wish, but there is learning in some form or the other for each of us to take from this experience so why bitch about it… :)

So this is it about my first blog. I hope u enjoyed reading it, coz this was just an experience which I wanted to share, and being a novice in blogging phenomenon I just gave it my best shot. I can hope to do better in times to come… :)