Random thoughts on where we are heading?

So it has been a while that I have written anything, and I take the complete blame for that as I was procrastinating as usual. I have had a few thoughts on many things, but I’ve had my own personal problems too, which kept me busy and disturbed for a while. Well anyway, now that I am able to write something, let me get straight to it.

So over this past week and weekend, I read a lot about the situation in Myanmar in news articles, in talk shows, and in TV news. I have to confess that in the beginning I wasn’t too keen at the news, as it sounded like nothing out of the blue. And that is exactly the feeling that has provoked me to write now, what I feel. Why is there so much unrest in the world? What has gone so wrong in the past 50 or so years that forced us to change the way we live our lives? Or is it that the world has never changed and it is just that we have learnt new ways to ignore problems, and have gotten so tired trying to make things right that we have started comprising with the situation instead? What is it?

I know I sound lost and confused, but isn’t that the state of each one of us when we look at the situation in our respective countries (both where we belong to, and where we have immigrated to)? I know many of us would only like to look at things positively and be optimistic, but would it harm us to stop sometime and think about the broader, bigger issues we face as a citizen rather than our day-to-day personal problems? I know I am asking too many questions, and I for one definitely do not have all the answers, but I would be interested to know what others think about this.

Over this past weekend, my wife and I decide to rent some movies. We watched Swades, Children of men and then Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Children of men is quite frankly a disturbing movie, which to my understanding has a shaky, over the top, futuristic story, but the context of the story or the core of the issue is something that we can definitely relate to given our current situation. The movie shows UK in the year 2027 (or 2028), when the government has declared illegal immigrants as criminals and refugees, and are fighting against them in every way possible in every street, nook and corner. And it has been 18 years since a single child has been born in the world (yeah rite!!). Like I said it’s a shaky base for a movie. One of the confusing parts of the movie was that they don't give you a concrete reason as to why the fertility of men and/or women stopped in the first place. The other confusing part was that the rebellion groups they showed in the movie were mostly of Islamic background. However, the civil unrest shown in the movie has an identifiable context about illegal immigrants.

Don't we also have bigger issues to look into, for instance with our environment like global warming, fuel problems, etc, which have been getting worse than before and will have bigger repercussions if ignored? But are we doing anything immediately about it? Many governments and politicians complain that we are not investing much into these issues. So let me get this straight, in US, every year we do have massive amounts of money to be spent on events like parades (New Years day, Thanksgiving day, Columbus Day, St. Patrick’s day, etc), on Sports (NBA, NFL, PGA, US Open, etc), on game shows with huge prize money (Power of 10, Deal or No Deal, etc), political fund raisers, and many other things but we are not able to invest money to save our planet? Is this right? Is there any justification on such spending? Can’t we for one year save all this money and instead invest it to improve our environment, which affects all of us? I know this sounds child-dish, but think about it. This is the money that is really not being put to proper use, as it is being targeted and spent on a selective segment or audience to make them happy by watching it, and reward the players for their hard work in the sport (this is still valid, but a year shouldn’t hurt). Would you rather that a few years down the line, the government out of sheer frustration and non-availability of funds start charging everyone “Global Warming Tax” for improving the environment because we would have lost control by then? Things like these are not uncommon. Has anyone heard about traffic “Congestion Tax”? London, I believe already charges congestion tax to certain types of vehicles entering the main areas during regular rush hours. New York is also trying to come-up with something similar, although it will be very difficult to implement such a thing. So the point is that, if we don’t take proactive steps right now to prevent certain problems, we will be forced at a later point of time, and we will not be given any choice either.

Coming back to the movies, the other movie I watched was Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Apart from being a good comedy film the movie is also thought provoking as is Swades. But they both have their separate points. The target audience for both the movies are the same...the common Indian citizen, and so are some of the problems like our failing government systems, our disinterest in improving the system because we have given up hope of its improvement, and our being satisfied as a by-stander rather than being actively involved. Why is it, that even after 60 years of independence, we Indians are still talking about issues like water, electricity, and failing government systems in our country? Why is it that while on one hand, we talk about becoming a global power, on the other hand we ignore our villages that don't even have the basic necessities and our main metropolitan cities also face similar issues. Do we realize that the capital of our country Delhi still faces issues with electricity and water in some areas consistently? I know Chennai and Mumbai also have such issues, and although I do not know much about the situation in Kolkatta, it shouldn’t be any different if not worse. So the four big metropolitan cities of the worlds future global power is still trying to sort out its grass root existence problems. Isn't that something we should all be ashamed of? In Munna Bhai MBBS, there is a scene where a Chinese tourist is trying to take photos of poor children, and when asked why doesn't he look at other things in India like the Taj Mahal he says..."No, No, I want to take photos of India. India with poor people, hungry people”! I think I've said enough!

Strategic approach my foot!

I am pissed, I am furious, and I just don’t get it.

Those of you who have read my rantings on various topics before, know that I’m not the most patient person on the planet. My friends know me to be short tempered and impulsive. However, I don’t think I’m wrong every single time. I work in the IT field…as do 80% or more Indians, who work here on a visa. Just as most Mexicans are associated with certain jobs, we Indians are associated to the IT field by default.

Getting back to my anger! A few months back, I joined a new project. I was not too keen on taking this project, but I figured why not. It’s definitely better than waiting around for the perfect project at the best company with the best team, which by the way never happens to me. The project is a regular finance project where you load data, do some processing, run some batch processes, and finally generate some reports. In my experience in this field, the one thing that I have learnt the hard way is that that reinventing the wheel (software processes, services or modules) is not only a financial suicide, but it also reflects on what kind of an organization you are, and how good your management is. I have been trying to convey parts of this message since I have been here, because I have seen nothing which remotely resembles what is called as a Software or Systems Development Life Cycle akaSDLC . But, the only thing that people are bothered about is getting the work done no matter how much time, money, and resources you waste doing the same thing again…and again…and again.

So a few weeks back, I was asked to create a process to generate some extracts out of the DB. I started working on that, and two days later I came to know from another team member that he has also been asked to create a process to generate some other extracts (talk about team communication). So we both discussed what was similar in both our processes, and excluding some specific business logic there wasn ’t much difference. So, I created a flow diagram for a generic extract process, and took it to my manager for discussion. He saw the diagram and gave me the “who the hell do you think you are” kind of look. He then challenged me with some questions on how the generic process will work in different scenarios, and what will we have to do if we want to create a new extract, etc. I was happy that at least he is thinking about it. Finally, he tells me with the same look as before that "right now we do not have the resources or the time to do this kind of thing". I told him that I and the other guy working on the extract can try to finish it in the given time frame, and even if it takes some extra time now, in future it will make things easier. But that did not work…after a few minutes of convincing, I felt like I was talking to a rock because the dude was blank and expressionless. A few days later, my team member and I were done creating our extract processes in Java and Perl respectively. Both of us created our processes using different configuration files, to which my manager tells us…”I think you both should use a common config file instead of having your own”. I was shocked by that statement. You ask us to create similar processes separately, but you advice us to use a common configuration file…now isn’t that genius?

Why is it that most managers take our suggestions or inputs as an advice of how they should be doing their jobs? Why do they perceive that we are always after their jobs or positions? And no offense, but one thing I have seen common in many Indian project managers is that they think any Indian developer working under them “has” to listen to them and “has” to agree with them no matter what the case. Did I mention that my manager is also an Indian :-( Anyway, I have heard of and experienced many such situations so I wanted to vent out what I thought. I agree, I might not be right in all the situations, and in many situations my managers (Indian or not) have given me good reasons on why they do or do not agree with me. But would it hurt the IT managers to think strategically, keep the future of the organization ahead of their individual goals, and for once not bother about performance appraisal?

Wouldn't you want to be known as the person who started a good practice once you have moved on to another organization? I would, and that's why I get angry when people tell me to create throw away code, or give me vague reasons for not adhering to the re usability standards.

My thoughts on Rediff and Aajtak - Part 1!

Its about 4 :15 AM in this part of US, and since I have been suffering from insomnia as a side-effect of my allergy medication, I thought I'll browse something on the Internet and keep myself interested. While looking at a few sites on entertainment and Bollywood movies, I eventually stumbled upon Rediff.com. After reading a few articles here-n-there, I knew I had to blog my anger and irritation about rediff. Not the way rediff readers do it on a day-to-day basis, but in a civilized yet constructive manner.

So anyone who has visited the rediff site knows one thing for sure....its pure moronic crap and one hell of a bad portal if not anything else. Rediff doesn't care about the news they publish, or the language they use and let's not get started on their discussion board. Here's a statement from one of the news articles published in rediff news today..."The officers were stopped by a group of persons allegedly led by Ayaz Qazi who allegedly thrashed them.

Qazi, however, said he was his son is unnecessarily dragged into the controversy. "It is a well planned conspiracy against me," he said and demanded an impartial inquiry into the incident".

Is it just me, or is the language really, really bad? And rediff calls itself the No.1 Indian News Portal. I mean come-on. Is this the best we can do?

If one goes to the home page of rediff, it looks like a horrible scrap book kept by a person suffering from short-term memory loss. There is absolutely no order or system of presenting news, or ads for that matter. I'm not an Internet web portal genius of any kind, but I know rediff has a bad web-site design. And almost always you will see one of the main stories on the home page about the entertainment industry whether it is Bollywood and/or Hollywood (yes...we do keep track of Britney Spears shaving her head, Oscars nominees and winners, etc). And as if all of this crap wasn't enough rediff even lets the readers post their comments on all articles in the “Discussion Board”. Mostly, these comments turn into racist controversies between North Indians-South Indians, Gays-Straights, Amitabh fans-Rajnikanth fans (this is not covered under North Indian-South Indian topics, because some North Indians do like Idly/Sambar but hate Rajnikanth and vice-versa), BJP supporters-Congress supporters, and the insane list is endless.

Most of the times you feel like you are listening to some people who have no clue about what they are talking, and are standing around a roadside T-shop in the rural villages of India. The icing on the cake is that sometimes (actually most of the times) you can see the reader comments have vulgar language in the "Discussion Board" or for that matter no connection to the actual article. For instance, in a recent article on Pandit Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Hussains concert in NYC there were some really kiddish cheap comments by some idiot who is a wannabe gay Indian American living in India I guess. Baseline, I think its time rediff makes one of the two changes. One, just become a totally entertainment based portal with no need for other news, and make the web-site rated R (for readers 18 and above) and charge a subscription fee (this should scare away all of the crowd). Two, and I really think this will be the better option, change its name to www.ScrapAboutCrapIff.com - World's first ever negative ranked (-1) web portal and move on (I would still keep the subscription fee and keep it for readers 18 and above).

I'll save my rantings on Aajtak for part 2 of this post!

American Idol or American Laughter Show?

OK, so has anyone other than me been watching the highly over rated American Idol this season. I think America (and apparently India) is trying to send a message to the producers of the show that..."Stop this non sense, and give everyone a break". I mean come-on, one of the singers the famously infamous Sanjaya Malakar has been condemned, laughed-at, and humiliated by one and all, and yet he's the most famous American Idol contender yet. It used to be William Hung earlier, but Sanjaya has broken all the records by staying steady in the contest...no matter how he's doing it.

I'm from India, and refuse to give credit to Sanjaya's singing capabilities, and I'm not even a singer. So the first question in my mind is, what the hell were Simon, Paula, and Randy Jackson thinking or rather smoking when they chose Sanjaya as one of the American Idol contestants to begin with. I mean week after week you can hear each one of the judges implicitly (Simon explicitly) say that Sanjaya is no good, and this competition is for the best singer and not a popularity contest, and blah...blah...blah...well my response to them is that you deserve this since you made the first mistake.

As you can see, I'm pissed at this whole non-sense. Like today, I read this article on LATimes website about how presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton was asked a question about Sanjaya. And I was like...what? Are you guys serious? Doesn't the Senator have more important things to worry about than a stupid show and its hilarious judgement process. And the worst part is the amount of publicity (even if its negative) Sanjaya has been getting by TV Shows (all the late night morons, and early morning idiots), Radio talk shows, and now presidential candidates for not singing well. Isn't that an irony for a reality show which is all about selecting the "Best Singer" in America. Like my wife says, didn't the producers of "American Idol" find a better way to publicize the show.

INDIA - moving in the right direction!

A few days back, one of my friend sent me a link to his blog article, and that provoked me to write this response. I would suggest you also read his article, as (a) he's a better writer than me, and (b) the article is thought-provoking.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Baglihar_cleared_India_has_its_way/articleshow/1600876.cms

Small, but effective victory for India! Just read the above article yesterday, and wanted to share my happiness with all swadesi’s. So finally, India had a so-called “diplomatic” victory over Pakistan, of course by virtue of World Bank’s intervention. However, World Bank did base their decision over the facts part of which were always part of the treaty between India and Pakistan. Oh, and our neighbors still think they were victorious. Also found this article (http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/13/top1.htm) on the critically moronically disclaimed Dawn, which states that India lost and Pakistan won. I thought the whole argument was on the fact that Pak did not want India to construct the dam, and just kept postponing the construction by raising issues. Anyway, finally, like the always crying kid who runs to "mommy", Pakistan had to go out and seek World Bank's help while India did refuse their intervention. And the verdict...well we know that! Not only did we get the nod to construct the dam, but we can also use the latest technology to build the dam.

I also read an interesting article on Vodafone’s controlling stake in Hutch (Hutchison Essar the Indian mobile phone company) http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/12/business/voda.php . I say interesting because of the statistical data provided on the cell phone usage in India, and its staggering growth every month. I couldn't believe that 6 million new cell phone subscribers are added every month in India. And mind you Vodafone is the biggest revenue making mobile operator in the world. So if they have chosen to participate in the Indian mobile phone boom, I’m sure they have done their homework.

So, in the last couple of months we’ve seen Tata Steel’s acquisition of Corus which will make it the world’s fifth biggest steel company, we’re seeing Birla’s (Hindalco Industries Ltd) acquisition of Novelis Inc (US based Canadian company), which will make it the World’s largest aluminum rolling company, and now Vodafone’s stake in Hutch. Though the last one might not be something to be very proud about, as the company now holds stake in our company, but nevertheless it does tell us that other leading companies are interested in our "growing economy".

No matter what some knowledgeable illiterates criticize and write about our country and our economy, we are on our way to becoming a "powerful nation". I sustain myself from using the word "super power" because that word has been misused a lot and has lost its value due to a country and its political leaders. A country which doesn't know the difference between war and peace, or development and destruction anymore; a country which has too many problems and issues in its own democracy, but rather chooses to "liberate" other countries on "humanity grounds". Any guesses people?