Soller thoughts

A 'clever' blog of a 'free' mind

Posts Tagged india

I want to be a Project Leader .. in 2 years ..

Jan 9

Posted by Swapnil in Career thoughts, Mind thoughts | 20 Comments

Guess what .. this was a response given to me by a non engineering fresher graduate in response to a question, “where do you want to see yourself in 2 years time if you join us?” !

Of course, the person was not selected. Moreover, this was not the first time I got such an answer from the fresher non-engineering graduate who is aspiring to be an IT professional.

Its such a shame and probably now has come in a highlight because of the wonderful movie 3 Idiots, that our education system promotes only competition of marks and not of knowledge.

I wrote an article last year about the lack of innovation in India (not Indians) and the root cause in education system and for some reason, it was evident that the education system also gives importance to role or status of a person rather than the knowledge he has got within.

Another thing that made me unhappy about the answers I received during the interviews was the fact that none of the candidates gave me an answer that In next 2-3 years I want to be more knowledgeable and seek expertise in a technology and domain. 

Every one wanted to be A project leader .. in 2 years !

 

Recommended reading

Lack of innovation in India – Root cause in education system?

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Ten commandments to driving in Pune (or anywhere in India) .. !!

Jul 27

Posted by Swapnil in India thoughts, Random thoughts | No Comments

Its been a long time for me in Pune (India) now to get myself, yet again, familiarized with the surroundings here and hopefully I can now proceed to post few of my experiences during this time !!

One of the most annoying thing that you do and can not avoid here is to “drive your vehicle”. The traffic system & the traffic habits of the crowd (no people plz… they are crowd!) is absolutely amazing and makes you believe that the GOD does exist and runs this whole world ! Including the traffic here in Pune.

Driving in Pune on busy streets is NOT easy and is definitely a challenge even if you are to go to the next door or cross the road !

Things have changed since last time I actually took efforts to drive on roads few years ago for good, but unfortunately so are the number of drivers and in most metros and urban cities, the infrastructure is getting stretched to cope with the demands.

The following 10 commandments are supposed to make you understand how things work here and why you thank GOD each evening after you reach home safely !!

So here I go ..

  1. Rules – What rules? – Apparently the traffic rules have been listed so the commuters can ensure they break them one by one. No one follows the traffic rules and signals so in case you are interested to stick to the rules, be prepared to be a victim of swearing & honking by fellow commuters and the ones who are queuing behind you !
  2. Understand traffic signals – Forget your traditional knowledge of the Green / Amber & Red signals. 
    Here, the Green signal light of course means you go on and cross the signal.  The Amber signal light means you should drive faster to cross the signal and the Red signal light means you honk for fellow drivers and try to push forward inviting accidents, noises & arguments ! If you stick to the actual rules, then read Rule # 1 !
  3. trafficUnderstand positioning of traffic signal ! – I guess in most countries the traffic signals are present and active where the commuters should STOP waiting for road clearance for moving ahead. However, in my dear city the traffic signals are positioned where you are supposed to GO ! 
    This eventually ensures there is a bottleneck at on the road causing traffic chaos !
  4. Stop right on the zebra crossings – Who says the zebra crossings at signals are meant for pedestrian crossing ! They are supposed to be the last point where the commuters with vehicles should stop (if you see a policeman watching) and if ever a pedestrian tries to cross the road, ensure you scare him by raising your accelerator or honking continuously !
  5. Be ready for race, who says F1 is not in India as yet? – If you are waiting at signal (if at all you do), then you are expected to move on the millisecond the light turns green. Someone who is 10 rows behind you and honking continuously is supposedly in more hurry to reach somewhere ! Often the road leading to the signal is wider than the road after the signal where you go, thus ensure you are first in the race !! The signal waiting is a pit-stop & rest of your driving is a race !!

    The traffic police are supposed to be more interested in taking money from offenders than controlling the traffic. Do not ever be surprised to see a brand new road dug up by telephone or electricity officials the next day it was built and apparently the roads are supposed to be built with a “pothole” facility all over !

  6. Do not ever follow lanes ! – Apparently the wise men in traffic office devised the road lanes to make sure the traffic flows properly. However, if you are driving in Pune or probably anywhere in India do not ever try to follow lanes. If you eventually do, then be ready to wait indefinitely to move on !
  7. Turn right / Turn left – If you want to take right turn, ensure you are first on the leftmost lane and park your vehicle horizontal to the road and take right turn. This is supposedly easier method than staying in the right lane and waiting for your turn to be in the queue. For the left turn, exactly opposite.

    While you are doing all this, just ensure you are constantly pressing the horn & weaving the hands asking rest of the traffic to stop and allow you go !

  8. Be ready to be surrounded by Matrix 3 kind of viruses .. aka bikers ! – Remember the war scene in The Matrix 3, where the viruses enter the men’s world in thousands via a small hole ?? Its exactly the same happens each minute, each hour & each day on the roads here. Apparently the space between two cars, buses or other big vehicles is supposedly to be filled in by bikers, auto rickshaws & cyclists. So if you are patiently waiting for your turn on the signals & suddenly feel surrounded by 10-15 bikers around you from all possible directions, do not be scared ! This is meant to happen.
  9. Expect the unexpected ! – If you think you are driving decently in a flowing traffic, you are seriously mistaken ! Expect all the bikers & auto rickshaws to land up in front of you and cross your vehicle in all possible directions anytime causing your vehicle a scratch or making you wonder what is he / she doing? Apparently they have all right to drive left right centre on any road overtaking any vehicle without any warning or following any rules.

    Also, be prepared for a long fight including assault in case some biker or rickshaw touches your car (without your fault) and causes themselves a dash or so !

    The double blinking of your headlight supposedly means “let me go first” rather than “please go”. Don’t wonder if you have to wait for 1 hour to turn right on a road where there are no signals !!

  10. Your ego size is the size of your vehicle ! – If you are driving a bus or a big truck, you are supposed to be the king of the road. You can drive anywhere anyhow and you would not be questioned. The bigger the vehicle, the bigger is your ego and bigger are your rights to drive.
    Apparently bikers have full right to drive their bikes on footpath & pedestrians have no right to exist on the roads ! If you are pedestrian then you carry no value on the road !

No wonder, you thank GOD each day you reach home safely and do a prayer before venturing out !!

In case you want to drive in Bangalore, visit the Bangalore specific 10 commandments here !!

All the best !!

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Why India still remains a developing country .. an eye opener !

Jul 17

Posted by Swapnil in India thoughts, Random thoughts | No Comments

This was forwarded to me by one of my colleagues and I thought it was worth putting it on my blog. I do not know the original author of this post so can not divert the credits to him / her unfortunately.

Anyways, an interesting perspective and worth a read though.

Old Story (global Version):

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs, Come, winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. And the Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

Indian Version:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up  supplies for winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant’s a fool and laughs; dances: plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls  a press conference and demands to know why ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN, show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to the video of  the Ant in his comfortable home with a table  filled with food.

The world is stunned by sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of  the Ant’s house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter.

Mayawati states this as ‘injustice’ done on minorities.

Amnesty International and Ban ki Moon criticize the Indian government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace of prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for ‘Bengal Band’ in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian railway trains, Aptly name as the ‘Grasshopper Rath’.

Finally, the Judicial Committee  drafts the ‘Prevention of Terrorism  Against Grasshoppers Act [POTAGA], with effect from beginning of winter.

Arjun Singh makes ‘Special Reservation’ for Grasshoppers in the Educational Institutions and in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, it’s home is confiscated by the government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ‘A Triumph of Justice’

Lalu calls it ‘Socialistic Justice’.

CPM calls it the ‘Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden’.

Ban Ki Moon invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Moral of the Story

Many years later …. ….

*The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley .

*100s of Grasshoppers  still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India

and …

As a result of loosing lots of hard working Ants and feeding the Grasshoppers, India still remains a developing country …!!!

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India’s disastrous World Twenty20 campaign .. what went wrong and way ahead?

Jun 16

Posted by Swapnil in Sports thoughts | 2 Comments

I would just like to summarize India’s campaign in the ICC World Twenty20 in one word – Self-destruction !

Mr Cool & the captain of the team Mr Dhoni led from the front to ensure that the campaign is ended in a disastrous mode. Another defeat at the hands of South Africa put a final nail in the coffin, which was already prepared when India lost to England in the second Super Eight game earlier.

dhoni During the entire course of the tournament, it always seemed like very few players actually cared about win. It was visible from the appearance of quite a few players and most notably Dhoni, that they are playing in a pub tournament and not in the world cup. Many decisions that were taken were weird and lacked common sense. The matches were lost from a potential winnable position.

I am sure there will be an angry reaction back home in India after the performance of the team in this campaign.

I just hope, the public do not go insane and do silly things.  After all, we need to keep in mind that this is a game and not a matter of life & death.

Apparently the effigies of the players have been burnt back home and people have come out on streets protesting the way the team performed. Just the reflection of the hope everyone carried and how the hope came down crashing during last 2 weeks or so.

There were few bright sparks in the performance, most notably from Yuvraaj Singh, who once again showed that he carries the team on his shoulder and India always do well when he plays well. It was unfortunate that he did not get proper support from other so called marquee players when we needed most.  Rohit Sharma did well and did not let the absence of Sehwag be an issue at the top.  Ojha also enhanced his reputation during this tournament as a sensible spin bowler.  So its not all doom & gloom for India and we can look forward to build a good team again.

Few visible problems that would require BCCI to intervene and sort out would be to get rid of the supposed rift within the team. It was really unfortunate to see in today’s match the rift between Dhoni, Yuvraaj. The run out of Dhoni was a complete lack of coordination and when Harbhajan got Dhoni as his runner, the following 3-4 balls turned the game upside down and got India virtually out of the game as Harbhajan & Yuvraaj both got out.  The way the entire Sehwag episode was handled and he was sent back, looked suspicious to everyone.

I would hate to say that, but it is apparent that success has got into the head of Dhoni and he looked too overconfident in the decisions he took during the matches at various stages. I just hope its not true and as a true fan, would believe in the theory of IPL taking its toll on them and having fatigue as an issue. 

I would hope this defeat will put some sanity in the heads of BCCI authorities and selectors about the policy they need to follow in future tournaments. After all, even if the players are supposed to be professionals, you can not expect them to perform at highest level consistently week after week without having a proper break.

IPL was supposed to be a gold mine for new players to make their name in the international tournament and I hoped the IPL II to provide few. There were few really good players who players real good cricket but were not given chance in the world cup and India went with traditional tried & tested team.  The new players could possibly have played with bit more passion and aggression than Dhohi and co, I would have thought !

Anyways, enough of bashing and time to turn attention to somewhere else, where chances of success are more !

Hey, what about supporting India Women team who are into Semi finals of ICC Womens World Twenty20 and have a good chance to show the boys how its done !!

All the best to you girls! I just hope you do well!

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A quick reflection on the India Elections and expectations from new Government !

May 19

Posted by Swapnil in India thoughts | No Comments

So the elections in India are over and we know officially that the Congress led Government is on the cards. Not a much change as such for common people but I have been pleasantly surprised by the way the common people in India have voted in favour of one party. This is something I think has not happened since a long time and is definitely a welcome change !

india-election Although I have been away from India for a great part of last 5 years of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) rule in India, but whenever I have been, I was probably impressed by the progress work done by them, particularly in the Delhi area where I was the most frequent visitor. The region has definitely progressed well on infrastructure front, but I think few things that the new Government needs to ponder, in my opinion are,

  • Robust internal security Plan -  After what happened in Mumbai, definitely the Indians are in no mood to have another episode of such terrorist mayhem.  Although the previous Government in power (UPA only) had formed something called NIA (National Investigation Agency) which is a national level security agency. It is still unknown what is the structure of the NIA and what procedures & powers are given to the country’s elite force (expected to be).
  • Economic reforms / development – Although the infrastructure upgrades have been planned well since the times of Vajpayee Government but this government is expected, now since they are on their own, to carry them forward with a rapid pace. The massive projects like national highways development, golden quadrilateral, river-interlinking were started during the BJP government should be taken forward with a purpose and be completed to assist the development of the country. 
  • IT & Telecommunications – Although India has long been pressing its position as a leader in “providing” IT Services to the world, its about time we start “consuming” these services within to strengthen the IT & Communication infrastructure in the country. Its such a shame that 3G network is introduced only few weeks ago in India and the average broadband speeds in India are ranked 115th in the world ! The Government & the IT ministry should be really focussing on how to improve the infrastructure and making the high end technology available to the public at affordable rates.
  • Better civilization & public rights – Although RTI (Right to Information) has gone a long way in giving the public a right to know what is happening with respect to various public / personal issues managed within Government, I guess India is still divided over several issues such as castes systems, religion & regionalism. The Women in average Indian society still do not have equal rights as Men and this is really sad to be seen in the 21st century.  The Government needs to step up and create laws that would allow equal rights to all Indians irrespective of Caste, Religion or Region.  Check out my extended thoughts on this on my blog post on Protectionism & Economy.
  • Promote entrepreneurship – Not only in the IT, but the entrepreneurship should be promoted across various sectors. We need innovative solutions that would resolve practical problems such as shortage of electricity, water, food etc., we need young Indians to come forward & get into entrepreneurship.  Do you still remember the person who supposedly developed the petrol using tree leaves ! What happened to him and his project? And remember project Rainbow that used paper to store Terabytes of data ! What about ‘Sakshat’, the $10 laptop?  We need more entrepreneurs to come forward and lead India into the new century.  Read my thoughts on entrepreneurship in India & education system here.
  • Reform the education system – The current education system needs reforms to allow innovation rather than follow up!  We need innovative methods of education rather than reading and mugging up the books, which, in practical life are of little or no use !!  Read more here..

Well, these are few thoughts I could jot down. Might be many more, but your comments are always welcome.  Do leave your comment if you could spare few seconds.

Thanks & more later !

 

[ Image taken from here ]

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