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Saturday, February 20, 2010

Khichdi...

Hi friends

How are you all? I regret not have written for quite some time now... guess it had to do with those 'trough' phases when I would just love to stay within me. Well, to compensate, I did paint two graffitis on Facebook, not the best you would see, say in a Public Gallery. But well, it felt nice to see that some creativity is still left, after the daily chores.

What about you all!! Recently Preposterous girl told me that my comment page is disabled. In fact those two graffitis had played havoc on my entire blog layout - a reason in part for me writing this post! ...to set this straight!

The last week:
Packed with work and training! I did find my solitude after a tiring day at work through social networking and chatting up with old friends and acquaintances and most importantly, music!
I have recently been listening more to the likes of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and western evergreen music of Kenny G and Yanni!

The ideal way to listen to Music:
Here are the steps I follow (and you should :P) =>
1. Switch off all the lights. Make the room dark.
2. Tune in to the music you want to listen to.
3. Keep the volume low so that it soothes your soul, rather than pounding on your ear drums.
4. Close your eyes
5. Picture beautiful scenes in connection to the tunes and feel lost.
Before you know, you would fall into a silent sleep. Ahh!! the much awaited rest for the eyes, for the soul!!


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Graffiti








Straight from my facebook profile... :)

Friday, February 5, 2010

IT: What's the future?

It was sort of spam - which triggered the idea!

Let me tell all of you in detail. I have recently switched to full-fledged comment moderation, as these spammers have really started becoming pain in my a**. Anyway, in one of these comment moderation phases, I saw this pseudo-spam. 'Pseudo' because although the comment was not at related to the post, it was not entirely rubbish. In fact it spoke about solar panels and how he had been able to manufacture one with little cost involved. I am not yet sure if there are scripts which could download malwares and spywares in my machine as soon as a single click was done, but the articles there made sense.

Anyway, he not given me any money to promote his site (and already I have been generous enough by publishing his pseudo-spam). So, lets leave the discussion right here.

However, just the other day, I was thinking about our huge IT industry. I am sure most of the bloggers come from that arena. Let me ask you an open question: How many of you think you would retire as an IT professional? Well, a frank confession from my end: I do not think so! The simple reason being, open your eyes, this industry is fast attaining saturation. Readers who think they are afraid, let me tell you, this will take another, say 10-15 years (minimum)... but this WILL happen.

Let me enumerate the reasons for you:

Short term effect:
The worldwide recession which hit the market in 2008-09. Although the markets are getting revived, yet the golden days are gone.

Long term effect:
The predominant factor why IT industries saw their boom in India and other south Asian countries was because of the scope of having the same work done through comparatively much lower wages. Various sectors saw IT as being an enabler to the competitive edge. Sadly, this no longer holds true. Today IT provides efficiency, but is no longer as effective in providing the competitive edge. I did read an article on similar lines from Harvard Business Reviews. Also check statistics of all IT majors and medium players and check how they had progressed in the 90s in terms of employee count, % year to year profit and how they are doing now!

Counter-argument:
There are counter-arguments to this. Innovation, thinking out-of-the-box can still help. As long as there is value addition, competition will thrive. From a technical perspective, suppose company A1 provides technical maintenance to a retail major B1 and company A2 provides the same support to another retail major B2. So, if the basics are same, work is mechanical, no value addition, there is no difference technically. However, if company A1 can provide an additional measure which provides capability of statistical forecasting, it could be something that even company B2 would be interested in. There comes the competition. So why do you say? IT is getting saturated - its merely an enabler, not an entity to drive crucial competitive edge?

Well.. true.. very true.. however, there are other factors to consider. In the initial years of globalization, India did not have too many companies investing here or ready to hire natives. However, the market was fresh and opportunities were galore, if one had the eyes to recognize. Big players cashed in. Even small and medium players saw their opportunities. But today, this is not so. With the rupee gaining steadily versus the dollar, the wages gave climbed up! Recession and unemployment have hit the Western world badly. There's large scale hue and cry as to why their own nationals are not being given jobs - why work is being outsourced.. Well, still, there's point in investing in our people... good skills for comparatively low wages! Great deal!

But the question is: How long? With China crawling in closer by the day and continents like Africa still unexplored by the biggies, there's more to come! India still has the advantage of housing the largest English speaking population of the world! But that advantage could fade away with our neighbor speeding up at remarkable pace.

So what next! Well, I would put my money on the industries for non-conventional energy sources - solar energy, wind energy, nuclear energy... all of these should take up and grow at a rapid rate. The conditions are favorable as well. With the fossil fuels degenerating and getting used up at an astronomical rate, this industry will experience an unprecedented boom in the coming years. It is a niche area as well and not many players are out there competing. The sector is more or less unorganized as well, specially in India.

So, friends: what are you thinking? Pour your hearts out and comment!


Monday, February 1, 2010

The sweet-as-sugar guys

The sweet-as-sugar guys

There are various kinds of people in this world and today, I am tempted to write about one type. The type that is the most dangerous.
Well, these people are generally average built, have a calm disposition, always put down their heads and listen to superiors without as much as a word. But within, they curse them with all their might.

Friends, you should be particularly aware that these people can really stab at your back and make your life miserable if they get a single chance. Diplomatic to the core, they know how to appease men in high ranks. But look out for that scratch which you suffered.. still wondering, how it happened? Be assured, it's the work of that same average looking guy who smiled at you and gave a rose!! You saw the rose, you did not see the spike!!

But they have a BIG shortcoming. They think none can understand their true motive. They think they can fool all.

THEY DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE WRONG!!