Reading Corner : Articles For the Day

  1. The CEO’s Path to the Top: How Times Have Changed I liked this quote in the article - “Skills and capabilities open the doors, not degrees”.
  2. Presentations on The Talent 50 and Presentation Excellence Tom Rules as always! Call it good or bad but I have developed a habit of judging executives by the presentations they make. I went through a day long induction program yesterday. It was quite an ordeal to drag myself to work this morning! I love these presentation tips by Tom. I feel you can lose the audience in a minute if you pull a long face and mutter the words “Lets be passionate about work”.
  3. Games managers should play —
    Game theory can help managers make better strategic decisions when facing the uncertainty of competitive conduct. If you don’t change your game to gain advantage, one of your competitors will.

Economic Divide. A train ride


Pune Railway Station. 18:00 hrs. Destination : A Pune suburb. Mode of Transportation : Local Train.

At the ticket counter, I request for a first-class ticket. The ticket collector looks at me for a few seconds, states the price and on second thoughts says (in English), “I think you should be with the ladies in the ladies compartment. Take a regular ticket.” I follow his advice and duly march towards the a bench on the platform where a few ladies are sitting.

18:10 hrs. The silent platform suddenly is buzzing with activity. College students discussing the day’s highs and lows, white collar workers whining about their bosses, blue collar workers resigning quietly after the day’s work, low wage workers squatting on the ground and above all this noise hawkers shouting loudly selling chat (read: junk food), biscuits luring prospective customers.

18:15 hrs. The loud speaker announces that the local train is on time and is expected in a few minutes. People get up and move towards the edge of the platform. Boyfriends bid goodbye to girlfriends.

18:20 hrs. As the train pulls in, it sends a shiver down my spine. As a kid, I fell from a moving local train close to the platform and was lucky to come out alive. Since then, I have a train phobia and avoided traveling by one for many years. When a express train zips past at 80 Km ph or one pulls into the station, I shudder looking at the moving monster. Thankfully, this local train pulled into the station very slowly.

If you are seeing one such train for the first time, you could get a heart attack and die in shock. The train was overflowing with people, some were hanging out of the door with a iron handle standing in the way of their life and death. Before the train stopped, people disembarked (well, jumped) out so adeptly that they have done all their lives. It was a shock but then this is INDIA. Anything and everything can happen if you can’t find your way through a country with over 1 Billion people.

Once the train stopped fully, everyone was pushing one another to get into the bogies. The trains stop for 30 seconds at every station. No fancy doors. If your feet slips, you could be on the tracks counting the last minutes of your life. I was behind not pushing anyone. Apparently, the people behind pushed me and with the natural force I got in. Once in, I found a few inches to keep my feet and myself in balance.

Despite warnings from acquaintances refraining me from taking the train during the peak hour which it was, I took the train. Thanks to my driver who called in sick. You might ask what was I thinking? Honestly, I don’t know and wasn’t sure quite what to expect. But I’m glad I did it because —

The scene inside was a representation of the real India. Ladies of multicultural, multilingual background from the middle and the lower segments of the society chatting away with no strings attached. Discussing their festival plans, discussing work, college students talking about guys.

It was a slap in the face. The India IT has made us forget. Bangalore and Hyderabad is not India. That is the India the world knows about. As we gloat in our status having lived for the past few years in the comforts of plush offices/residences and commuting in a chauffeur driven car and shopping in malls and vacationing in foreign destinations and huge disposable incomes, the IT generation is leaving their past behind. But the past hasn’t vanished. It is still a reality for some.

This is the true face of India. According to a recent McKinsey report, an estimated 695,000 people are employed by the Indian IT and business-process -outsourcing industry. Sure, it is a large number. Interestingly, it is a meager 0.0695% of India’s population. These 695,00 odd people are the envy of the rest of the Indians. Our older generation toiled hard but couldn’t make it big. There is a huge economic divide and you can sense it in the railway stations. Be adventurous and go on one yourself!

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Cubicles/Corner Offices - a distant dream. My new job at a "cyber cafe"

My new job is very exciting. Tabbed browsing for 8 hours is harder than real work. Or is it? The temporary “Office Space” has no cubicles and thank god no corner offices either. I was fishing for an appropriate term for this open space when a coworker commented it resembles a cyber cafe. Cyber cafes in India are Internet Browsing centers where people with no internet access pay money and browse for a fixed time. Typically, it is a 10*10 space cramped with 10-15 desktops. Privacy, huh?

I’m not complaining. I’m having a great time doing what I enjoy the most. Reading and loads of it and all kinds.

When to leave that first tech job has evinced keen interest on Slashdot. It is an overwhelming account of a fresh grad joining a startup firm getting fired within a year offering advice on when to quit. Too inexperienced to offer one citing all the wrong reasons! The comments are more interesting than the article itself.

It happens only in India ….

A good ole’ friend wisely remarked “Any transition is difficult.” when I switched jobs in April. This transition to Pune has been significant in more ways than one. And a lot harder. New place, no friends and no job for a month was not hard to cope with. But the traffic and the daily commute is SCARY. I’m not kidding. The 40 KM ride to and fro is a drive thr hell. An unfortunate traffic incident involving us about a fornight back has made me very paranoid. Every time our driver overtakes someone, I’m sitting on the edge of my seat squeezing it tight and applying brakes in the air as though it would have an effect. Lane discipline and traffic rules are unheard of here. Last evening was quite funny or was it?) We were stranded for a couple of mins..thanks to the 20 buffaloes parading through the center of the road. 2 of them happily brushed the car too. Welcome to India!

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