Month: October 2018

Graduation Diaries

by Sreejith KaimalPersonalLeave a Comment on Graduation Diaries

1998-99 was my college year, the year of Armageddon; as the movie was running successfully in theaters all over the world, I was dealing with one of my own.

Those days Engineering colleges were not commodity, entrance exams were still high value than money and I was certainly short by a few points, eventually had to fall back on a bachelor’s degree. Although now I feel it was a good thing , Kerala is no more the place where you want your kids to be studying Engineering.

I had to compensate my aspiration to keep up with technology by joining a computer course. The only two options were Aptech & NIIT. Had to spend many days comparing & picking the right course for myself. The options were plenty, right from Windows 98 & NT, VB , Web Technology that was mostly HTML & JavaScript. Microsoft had included the MTS in Windows NT option pack, it was fun to do something with it on a LAN . Most fun part was the internet via the awesome V.90 modem that connects via a phone line. Every time it fired up, it made the squeaky sound of a newborn robot baby. Every 3 minute was 1 pulse that was payable on a slab, had to keep track of time. Web technologies was catching up & I still remember a conversation from one of my seniors from college who was very proud of how he could do things with the <a href> tag and the potentials of how it could so many things. There was a boom of internet browsing centers all over the city and it revolutionized the concept of payable observatories for rejoiceful neddies (no pun intended) a.k.a browsing centers. Satyam(Sify) was handing over dial up promo cards & offers, kids who had a landline phone and a v90 card were considered cool. Now I look at the FIOS Ad kid & the fact that internet speed has increased 16,000 times in 20 years is a miracle in itself. 

I used to carry a small notebook where I had some very good websites categorized, I also had a text file on my first computer where I stored all the interesting links. I used to teach fellow buddies on what they should do if they had access to internet. Parents would pay their kids pocket money to browse the internet, the browsing centers were full with gamers and web surfers.

The Daily Commute

Being a resident of a geographically isolated defense factory office quarters had its own trouble & benefits. Being away from city meant extended travel time to reach any destination.  Those long travel times were very useful to take a quick pause & watch the world around. Most part of the travel was through rural areas touching the life’s of many hard working people. They all had no connection to technology of any sort, having any battery powered devices like a torch or a FM radio was a luxury. Initiating a conversation with anyone was quite normal, some days I would find people who talked about how world was changing from a socially interactive place to people trying to race against time. 

Joining the evening college was the best option to use the daylight efficiently, although morning just went in anticipation of what surprises would be in store for evenings. Our heroes were the bus drivers who could drive the fully packed bus at 100Km/hr with passengers even on the foot board , good music system was important as it meant that more students will travel. The most famous bus service was “SJT” well maintained, clean and super fast. 

I was too soon out in the wild: from a very civilized CBSE schooling system, it took a while to figure out the world. It was quite astounding to find out the fact that the college system was exactly opposite of school, first semester I was the good scoring well behaved FOB guy sitting in the front row and by second semester I earned my way to the back bench by roughing up myself with other qualified fellow citizens. By third semester I had grown strong to be kicked out of classes by a psychotic teacher who was always annoyed by unparameterized  scenarios. Only later I found that he had a specific bias & dislike for kids who wore a ‘tilak’ on the forehead. Although it was a religious thing, traditionally a tilak was a symbol of attentiveness & respect.

Meanwhile I kept my ’tilak’ and was religiously getting kicked out of class every day , as sad as it sounds I was quite happy to walk to the nearby Ayyappa temple where I patiently spent my ‘outstanding’ hours meditating & wondering where all this is leading me to. It took a few weeks for me to find out what was tipping him off as I saw other fellow college mates roaming around with similar concerns. I did not want to change my habits for his anger was of OCD category & I didn’t care a whit. His lectures were anyway worth missing. 

Ayyappa Temple Trichy

TripAdvisor photo
(pic)Temple picture from tripadvisor

Among all the noise & chaos in the city stood a temple that was iconic to historic ethos and resilient culture that prevailed on the land , originally founded & funded by a veteran army personnel. Maintaining discipline was the most Important theme here. Even at the peak hours, the visitors would maintain pin-drop silence. The place had an aura of its own, the volunteers and staff working there were always found in a joyful meditative state. A majestic open meditation hall where you can experience a cold breeze on the hottest days. The only sound that would be heard is of the temple bells or the distant rendition of  music maestro Ilayaraja-Yesudas classic ‘Amma EndrAzhaikkadha’ song. It was a very unique feature of this temple , an isolated section behind the meditation hall where you can repeat play this song at the press of a button , the place could accommodate just one person amidst the decorations of ever blossoming marigold flowers. One could stand with eyes closed and meditate on the omnipresent feeling of selfless love that we all know as ‘Mother’. I have noticed how people end up in tears towards the end of the song. It remains an unsolved mystery that how humans do not value the present & then find ways to honor things that they have lost in past. It was a lesson to me that if I don’t do what I should for my parents, then I am coming back here & crying for what I could not.

Days passed like this and I was enjoying the routine. Meanwhile at the evening college, I came to know that the fascist nutty professor guy was beaten black & blue by a few seniors who passed out the same year. I am sure he had troubled them too. Tamil Nadu being a more culturally resilient state and tolerating something like this is not normal. After a week of sick leave he came back shamefully as a changed man to make peace with all others. He would still get excited , but had got his ducks in order. Some lessons are only effective when it’s administered with pain, concussion & everlasting shoe marks on backside.

Ruby Miss

In ones academic journey, there would be only very few teachers that leave an unforgettable mark. Ruby miss was one of them. She was a junior teaching assistant then & yet she would be able to control a class of 30+ crazy boys with ease. She was not only good with her knowledge of physics, she was also extremely talented at customizing the tone that each person deserved. She was the angel that carried a double barrel gun: just for fun. I am thankful for the fact that in a world where there were devils, there were angels too. 

The Evening Batch

The fact that I was in a boys batch made the evening college so much fun, we did some super interesting things together.I remember Monitor Srinath, naughty Satyanarayan(s), Bala, Purushottam, Farooq, Satish(s), Shankar, tall guy Sadhesh, Madhu, Shantaram and ton of other great batch batchmates.  The episode of trying to flick the diffraction scale & walking into HOD room with Raju a.k.a Usha was quite an adventure. We organized the physics department program Surphy 2000, it was a great success compared to the previous years. I am eternally thankful for the wonderful camaraderie.

The micro economics of cutting classes

One ground rule of being in college is to be able to explore & take some risk. Watching movies was the least common denominator of all student-ly risky jobs. Sci-Fi was catching up fast & only way to keep up with Hollywood was to cut classes & secure a front row seat. Those precious seats only costed Rs.5-7(10 cents) although it took skills to navigate the crowd. The key was to plan ahead and fit our schedule into one of those P.T classes. For an active generation PT class was the time when everyone would grab a cup of coffee & sit under a tree, I might as well be catching up. I used to maintain the diary log of those movies in an encrypted text to celebrate the victory of not getting caught or noticed. Destroying evidence was the key , but I kept the bus tickets as a memorabilia of that. 

There was a slight difference between the cost of boarding a govt. bus vs. private bus. If we could manage the bus timings for the commute, we could easily save around 4-5Rs a week. Acquiring a govt. bus pass doubled the savings by a big margin, rest of money was liquid asset. When I think back, we could do so much with so little. There was the famous Michaels ice cream shop where you could have a pretty good desert for Rs.1.5(2cents). A unique drink called panner soda was available at Rs.2 & multi flavor popsicle a.k.a peppsi was just Rs.1. The most refreshing & original filter coffee used to be just Rs.3. None of it needed branding , crazy ads or endorsements. If it was good it would sell out good. Although there would not be no fun without a partner in crime , obviously needed someone who had higher level of risk taking capability.

Partners in crime

I still don’t remember when I actually met my good buddy Dipu. One of the very few ‘born-happy souls’ that I know of. Never intimidated by height, muscle, talent or ego. He would happily appreciate everyone and humbly recognize the greatness that lies within everyone. He had no enemies & would be still somehow make it to the center stage of most conflicting situations ; for no specific reason. I still remember the day when the cricket team got into a gang-fight situation & since no one knew which side he was, he was about to get beaten by both sides. Realizing that he looked at everyone & said “enakku tamil theriyadhu 🙂 “, knowing a language was never a criteria for getting beat up and yet he was let go. 

I have some really good memories with him some of which are Math tuitions classes with July Miss, the Maris movie adventures , Neem tree diaries, Cricket matches, early morning study etc..He was ready to jump on any crazy adventure along with me. It’s what great friends do . I am sure he is still somewhere out there looking for more trouble.

Another important name that I cannot miss is Sourabh, he was a very focussed and unselfish Bengali. Although it might sound like an oxymoron, he was a unique piece.  I met him in RSK School, his introduction was that he could cook as well. His best dish was Maggi Noodles and Glucon-D, In fact the foundation of our friendship was that I spared myself from strangling him that day for his cooking brag. His story is yet to come, in fact there is good enough story for a movie.

(to be continued ..)

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An exuberant Sardar

by Sreejith KaimalPersonal / SocialLeave a Comment on An exuberant Sardar

It would be amazing to see an IT workplace that has almost no sign of envy, jealousy or no resemblance to ’Game Of Thrones’ plot. Imagine a day where every one in your office greets you with a honest smile with no signs of stress at workplace, not because of lack of goals or work ; but because the awesome people in the office make it worthwhile to stay & work.

While the industry accepts what Moore’s law had predicted , there are no conclusive studies to see if people who are using these CPU’s are becoming more mean or lonely every year. Stress management at workplace has evolved to be a separate industry in itself and building quality IT workforce is becoming more costly every year.
Agreed that its impossible to create an ‘always happy’ workplace , but there are always astounding personalities that light up the darkest of such places. This is a diary log of one such amazing human being, an ‘exuberant sardar‘.

I will be ever grateful to my first company which gave me an amazing entry into the fast lane during some tough recession times. As expected a metro life and enough gala time in a fast growing company has its own carrot vs donkey situation. As it turns out, the natural progression was to look for green grass across the ocean.

Being ‘Single & Joyful’, thriving happily in a harsh humid Chennai weather, zipping away on my Bajaj Pulsar 150 across the stretch of the town like a free spirit I spent 4 joyful years.
As much I was unwilling to leave, the search for onsite role was in full swing by then. While the company pushes you to get a work visa, the choice to travel was quite similar to an arranged Indian match making. The candidate assumes the role of the fateful bride that is expected to brighten the lives of the company & onsite account managers.
Securing a lead position for a big account had its own drill. As the tradition was already set, a group of self proclaimed intellectuals held the keys to the ’Bifröst’. To get an entry, one had to demonstrate the nerve of ‘Loki’ & guts of ‘Thor’ . Once you establish the necessary qualifiers, they will turn the key and teleport you to the land of opportunities.
The primary skill set for any onshore lead is the ability to setup a quick ‘dog & pony show’ for almost anyone anywhere . Being able to prepare intellectually intimidating presentations was a plus, I was told that being unequivocal and categorical about people helped character building. As inevitable, things worked out & I set forth my journey. The departure from Chennai was eventful, I would be eternally thankful to almost a dozen good friends who came to see me off, especially the many young ladies who were there for the emotional support or may-be to doubly ensure that I left for sure. Anyway the first travel experience was phenomenal, I missed my connecting flight and ironically spent the night at DEL airport chatting with an old man on why the ‘brain-drain’ is causing a ‘cultural-zombie’ state for this generation.

Entry into a new country was life changing, there was a 50X multiplier to expenses and 3$ for a black coffee was exorbitant amount for a  South Indian guy like me. Coffee known as ‘Kaapi’ in south India comes in various forms, the Chennai filter Kaapi is my favorite. The black coffee in my hometown in Kerala is a poor man’s drink, one could walk into any house in my village and ask for some hot water and this is what is offered – ‘for free’. The coffee tasted better because it was flavored with palm jaggery & spices.

The pre-uber-era commute in a foreign country was certainly a nightmare, that’s when our own people in the name of helping show weird step-brotherly treatment. Back home; helping was a very natural thing, for the years I remember I could give or take a lift from anyplace and from anyone. In-fact traveling on a bike without a pillion rider was pretty much a wastage of fuel. Although a bike always gives better mileage when the pillion rider is a friend who also is a girl, but that’s my own unconfirmed observation.

Here in the land of opportunity, It was quite uncomfortable to see all the folks carrying so much weight on their shoulders. In office everyone had something or the other painful work experience to talk about. It appeared that no one was really happy, life was more or less a predetermined routine. Most systems had war rooms & issues, every single IT application was always in the operation room expecting a delivery or surviving a stroke. First week it was too much action to handle. The next 3 months, I was working almost 16 hours everyday to get up to speed with what was going on. My boss will pick me in his own convenient time, he will drop me and on the way he will dump more of his own work on my head. He was a smart & hardworking guy, not so much a good manager. The dynamics of the team was very political & I was at the center of the war between onshore vs. offshore. It was the same old debate, the chicken or the egg.
I was asked to give a tough time to offshore as there was ego clashes everywhere. Writing strong emails & pointing out mistakes was customary. It was not a common pattern, it was a trickle effect of the sad state of leadership transition. The previous client engagement manager was a super nice person and I would have preferred him to be sticking around, but I had no say. There were no folks in the office who had not been troubled by the so called new client engagement manager, the lady was a sad porcupine who wanted to climb up the corporate ladder with her tiny hands and was using every possible way to ensure her success over others. Keeping teams conflicted was one strategy that worked like a charm.
The only relief was the excellent client team that I was part of, it was almost the yin & yang pattern of this whole arrangement that kept me going for two years. It was not bad, it was just tough to deal with dictatorship.

The Fun Mascot

For an enlightened person, friend and foe are the same. Once upon a time, not so long ago there was such a person. He was a happy sardar, been in the office for over many years and literally knew every single person in each cubicle in every corner of the building that could hold about 1000 odd people big & small. It was joyful to to spot this person in office. He was naturally cheerful and a bubbly character, surprisingly the old age had only got him better and more peaceful within himself. He used to greet ladies with hands folded , for men he had hands welcoming & stretched out. In a corporate world where success was measured by ones ability to verbally decapitate their competitors and peers, he was one person who was the embodiment of the fact that being humble is one’s greatest strength.
He would address every single person with the prefix ‘Gentlemen’. His logic probably was that the ladies are always gentle, the ‘men’ however needed to be reminded quite often. I often wondered if it was his ‘async-await’ logic to fetch the person’s context as he simply knew too many people.

His workplace was the most iconic and happening place in the whole wing, he would have a cupboard full of various snacks and sweets that was open for anyone. He would leave a few jar’s of fresh snacks for anyone who wanted to stop by. Meeting with him left a good feel always, he never encouraged rumor or bad-mouthing  and looked at every situation as a bunch of input parameters to a program that handles people.

When a new person came to this office, it was his task to get him introduced with everyone in the office and he would go around appreciating a guy whom he has never met or worked with. He would always receive big boxes of sweets from India and he would go around the office distributing it to anyone and everyone. If on a certain day I was feeling sad, I would simply go and meet him. Surprisingly he had access to some of the great food places in the area and once he took me to a chai place where they served hot tea in a strange looking round bottom glass flask with hot samosas. It was certainly the best ‘chai’ I had during those cold years.

There is a famous verse from the movie song ‘Arth’ which goes like this
“Why is it that you are smiling so much, what is the sadness that you are trying to hide “
Some days I feel that there was something sad about him that he did not disclose, yet he cared less about himself and more about others.

It is so true that, an ability of a multi dimensional being is to be able to cheerfully thrive in a world that is unjust & unkind.
For most of us a simple plot of happiness with age would be a diminishing graph, it’s the same with friends. While many suggest that the real problem is in our expectations from others & reducing it can be a solution to all of our problems, I disagree with that thought  pattern. When people reduce expectations, they end up shooting someone because its ok to let someone go if you have nothing to do with them.

Due to the limited nature of human acceptance & crooked ways of education , all organizations will stay political. An example of how we have skewed our experiences is the industry famous Porters five forces model, which when applied to co-workers can turn situations into a psychological war-zone.
Often the teams which are progressing, they often find an acceptable ‘zero-sum game’.  In Sigmund Freud analogy, office people are like hedgehogs in winter : they need to be close to stay warm, but if they get too close they can sting & poke each other. The result is average performance , sometimes leading to ‘Operation Successful : Patient Dead’ situation.
Leaders should focus on their ability discourage politics , for that they need to exhibit exuberance and first work on their own self. The change is around the corner when companies will prefer emotional intelligence over verbal or technology skills. That day the glorious sardar will be promoted without the need to try hard.

 

 

References

  1. Workplace stress. (n.d.). The American Institute of Stress. Retrieved from http://www.stress.org/workplace-stress/
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_five_forces_analysis
  3. https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
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