The divide

After working for almost two years in an Indian software company, i am going to bring to the fore the imminent problems present here. I trying to paint a true picture of the software scene, and this is no fiction....

Considering the employees of a company as a community, i can classify them as "workhorses" and "mobilians". If in a project of 15 members there will be 5 workhorses and 10 mobilians. Mind you, these workhorses would have been Stallions sometime ago, but due to constant bugging and frusturation they would have been converted into workhorses. I would like to quote my TM here, "We expect commited people, not intelligent people"!!!! So getting back to the workhorses, they slog and accept the unacceptable estimates, virtually becoming "Yes-men" to their managers. Of course they do all this for a reason, to earn an onsite oppurtunity. They dont get to see the other side of life or get to pursue their personal interests.

Now about our "mobilians", yes i named them that way for a reason. I can hardly see them not speaking into their mobiles. Anytime of the day, any place it does not matter you can see them chatting away with their BF/GF. They hardly work for 2-3 hours out of the stipulated 9.5 hours. People can be selfish, but i would say this is the "height of selfishness". When people are working for 12-13 hours a day, they are not asking to share their workload, all they ask for is to do your work. I have even seen people who romance around the office, even at their cubes(disgusting!!!!). To contrast here, i should say i hardly receive calls in my mobile. After seeing such people i tried to figure out the frequency of incoming calls to my mobile, and it was 3calls for a week(Mon-Fri). Okay i am pathetic in this aspect, i even went without noticing for 2 days that my connection was barred !!! But too little is no harm i guess.

Now this divide has forced a horrible work culture down here. Any critical activity will always be assigned to the workhorses, and the mobilians always have a ball 24x7, 365 days a year. Managers are not bothered (or rather helpless) to rectify the situation, because they have to meet deadlines. I am really thankful that i have worked under such circumstances, because these really pushed me to plan for my higher studies(my escape-route). BTW i am not a workhorse as described here. If there is any non-conformance by the manager or if he gives an unacceptable estimate, i will be the first to draw flak on him(u can understand why i am his favourite). But put in such a circumstance i do work, because i dont like to quit or go back on my fellow mates. Even as i write this, i have a critical activity that is to be closed today, and i am expecting a long day at the office. I hate my manager!!!!!!!!

Jodha Akbar - A *critical* review

Jodha Akbar, the movie that generated lots of expectations for a typical movie buff. I happened to see it today. I dont understand how i get to watch hindi movies, inspite of the fact i can speak or understand hindi with the same proficiency as greek or latin :) . The only time i watch hindi movies seriously is when i watch it on DVD with the sub-titles on.

Coming back to Jodha Akbar, the movie was really great !!!! The sets were wonderful, the cast was good, Hritik was exceptional, and on on....... I would have loved to say all this had i understood the dialogues :( . I was surprised to learn that another friend of mine who was proficient in Hindi was not able understand it too !!! The movie is full of classical hindi. The dialogues are unusally lengthy... For example there was a particular scene where Aish goes to the kitchen to prepare food for the guests, and Hritik's grandma (i hope so.. i am not sure if it was his grandma :D ) turns up to prevent her.... Just to convey the message "You are not supposed to cook", she speaks a dialogue for 15 mins. And it was 15 mins of bewilderness for me. And because of such bizarre circumstances and dialogues, the movie goes for 3hrs and 15 mins. For me it was a relief to get out of the theatre and get some fresh air.

Inspite of all this, i was impressed with Hritik's performance. And if you are a Hindi movie buff who can understand "Hindi", and appreciate what is portrayed in the movie, pls forgive me :)

National Treasure - Book of Secrets

I happened to hit inox for this movie on Sunday (primarily due to Arun's bugging). From start to finish, i felt like i made an ass of myself by seeing this movie. The movie was outragiously dumb, i should admit it was dumber than Nicholas Cage's previous flick "Next". Atleast i was pissed off with only the last 5 mins of "Next". Nicholas Cage in his attempt to become a box-office hero has faltered once again. I have made up my mind not see any of his movies in the future. You can understand my plight only if i list the movies i got to see of late:

1. National Treasure 1
2. Ghost Rider
3. Next
4. National Treasure - Book of secrets.

In this regard I cannot resist but quote this old Tamil maxim,

"Keppaiyula nei ozhuguthuna kekkuravanuku enga da pochu buddhi ?".

How good is NCSU ???

As many of you might know by now, i am planning for my Masters in Fall2008. And i am eager to specialise in Network Security. After a poor show in the GRE, i was banking on my work-ex to get me through. After much research i shortlisted the following universities, on grounds that they are doing considerable work in Network Security :

1. NCSU - this was my first choice as they offered MS in Computer Networking.
2. SUNY, Stony Brook
3. UCSB
4. UT Austin - i feel i have wasted 100$ applying for this univ, very remote chance of getting an admit.
5. Penn State
6. UIC

My whole application excercise was ill-planned i should say. I was taking up my GRE when everbody had mailed their apps. I also refrained from applying to a few univs, as it was very close to the deadline(learnt those univs generally reject apps mailed very close to the deadlines).

I have received an admit from NCSU. But from the forums i learnt that the scenario is'nt too optimistic. There is no aid for MS students as they have raised new buildings and are eager to make up for it. So more international students intake but no aid. So i am in a fix whether i should consider the admit seriously. Anyway i am waiting for other admits, and i am hoping for the best. Pls post your comments or info you may have on NCSU...

My next bike

Of late i have been idling, trying to kill time. So i have decided to blog religiously(atleast once a week).

My bike, a Pulsar150, is getting a bit old. So i have started looking for a bigger beast. The India Auto Expo 2008 threw in a lot of surprises, atleast i was surprised to see the no. of bikes launched. Its not just about the numbers but also the quality of the bikes that were being launched. I am listing a few bikes that took my attention, and one of these would be my next bike.

Yamaha R15

The latest from the Yamaha stable for the Indian market. It is inspired from the Yamaha Vixion and the Yamaha R1. It is has the same specs as the Yamaha Vixion with the farings similar to a R1. It looks impressive, so is the specs. Check this out :

149.7 C.C, 4 Stroke
Liquid Cooled
Single Cylinder
4 Valves

6 speed gearbox
Power: 11.10 kw (14.88 HP or 15.09 PS) / 8,500 rpm
Torque: 13.10 nm (1.34 Kgf.m)/ 7,500 rpm
Compression Ratio: 10.4 : 1

The power is still the 'X' factor. The speculation is that it is going to belt down a 20-22 BHP out of the 150cc engine. But the official figures keep it at a modest 16 BHP. At 120 Kg, this is going to be a bike that is going to easy to handle in heavy traffic. Mileage, hmmm..... , it should be somewhere between 30-35 kmpl, similar to a Karizma. Also i am expecting the pricing to be a bit competitive with the other bikes in this segment at around 85,000 to 100,000 Rs.

I was also interested in the following bikes:

1. Bajaj launching the Kawasaki Ninja 250R, but the probable price is Rs200,000(phew... was too expensive). But its a great bike.

2. One another bike that i am eyeing on for a long time is the Hyosung comet. It has now been taken out of production, and only the 650cc variant is available. Sadly this did not hit Indian markets though. Probably this would have been due to the Hyosung designed Kinetic's GF series flopped big time in India.