The opportunity cost?

Phew!two months of internship comes to an end. I am on my way back to Mumbai and its time to get philosophical again :)

My internship was in Chennai, presumably, the worst location for to be in IT sector. After having spent at least two days in the other IT hubs viz Bangalore/Pune/Hyderabad/Gurgaon/Kolkata, I think I understand the popular perception. Anyway, the internship was at a bare minimum, eventful. Met a school friend in Chennai, went three times to Banagalore to meet lots of college friends from engineering and saw off my sister in Hyderabad as she begins her professional career.

Seeing of my sister obviously refreshed the memories of me leaving my home for first time(way back in 2004 for high school). I have been out of my hometown since then: living in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Gurgaon and Mumbai.It was a conscious decision of course, for a better education and a better life. But now, sometimes, I wonder about the opportunity costs involved(these mba fundas!) and I envy people who have lived their entire life in Bhagalpur(my hometown). I wonder what's better? Eating out, visit to malls, movies in PVR, parties in Discs and visiting my parents twice or thrice every year or to spend life living with parents, eating home made food and occasional visit to relatives. What's progress? My father moved from our ancestral village to Bhagalpur and I will most probably live in a metro. Is it that or is it something different. By the way, I relished the 21 days when I was at my home with a broken hand!

I know, i know, there are no straight answers to these questions. I want to return to my hometown someday and people in my hometown want to get out of there(at least those of my age) as soon as they can. May be I am too addicted to the ways of a metro to return to my hometown. Or may be I can find a compromise? A city like Chennai(but possibly in North India) :)

- Abhishek Kumar

My two months sojourn in Chennai

When I eventually got my location for internship as Chennai, it was quite a shocker for obvious reasons (friends gave all kinds of warnings: the bad climate, sambhar-dosa, language problems and all the cultural problems). It was kind of natural progression towards south for me (from Jamshedpur->Gurgaon->Mumbai->Chennai) and now that I have just one week left in Chennai, when I look back at the last 40-45 days that I have been here, it hasn't been half as bad!

The language problem here isn't as severe as the popular perception is. Working in an IT company definitely helps as you have people around you who speak English for at least work-related purpose. Yes, I ran into problems with auto wallas, with small shopkeepers, in small restaurants and so on. There have been instances when I entered a restaurant and came out soon after because the menu was in Tamil and I had neither the energy nor the time to use sign language to place my order. However, if it's a decently sized restaurant/shop, there is a fair chance that menu/rates will be in English too and the stewards will understand English. Besides, I always managed to find someone who spoke English whenever I needed some help with routes, bus numbers etc( it's easy! just look for people wearing some kind of ID/badge or wearing formal shirts with some company's logo). The last fall-back option is to use sign-language. Just remember to say the keywords clearly (e.g Guindy Railway Station) and people generally get the context: saying that keyword at ticket counter will get you the tickets and uttering it at the platform will generally yield the time and platform for the train going there. Just don't confuse them with extra words of English/Hindi. It is wise though, to confirm any query with at least two people!

 Dosa, Idli, Vada here are obviously much better then what you have had anywhere else in the world. Biryani is good at many places, though it's not dum biryani. Plain rice is available in ample and sabhar/chutney is always free. Filter coffee and tea is awesome (make it a point to drink only filter coffee, no instant coffee please even if it's free in your office). I will have to admit though, all things mentioned above are made from rice and all this rice makes your body crave for roti. Chapati(similiar to paratha from north) and parotta(similiar to lachcha paratha, only made of maida) come close but fulkas are a rarity. On top of that, it's difficult to find whole vegetable dish, they kind of mash everything up! There are restaurants which serve north-Indian food but one, they are a bit costly and two, if you are looking for Delhi like flavor (as I was), that is simply not going to happen.

Yes, the climate here is horrible. But hey, you are 12 degrees away from equator, what else can you expect? There isn't much variation in the weather, it's generally hot (close to 40 deg.C during the day) and very humid. I didn't have much problem with the heat (Gurgaon and Jamshedpur are close to 45 deg. C in summers) but the humidity takes its toll on the skin. Using a lot of talcum powder and a lot of AC (my room's electricity bill raced to Rs.3200 in 40 days!) is advisable.

I stayed in the outskirts of the city (the IT hubs are always an outsider to the city) and went to main city quite a few times. It's technically a metro city but you will be disappointed if you expect it to be like Mumbai or Delhi. I generally found Chennai to be a sleepy, slow-moving city which is quite a breather from the hectic pace of Mumbai. For a person like me who likes to take things easy, Chennai perhaps matches my personality! Sadly, I couldn't get people to spell out many places to visit in the city, seems like Chennai likes to spend time at home. The infrastructure of the city is very good for its population and again a good contrast to the overburdened infrastructure of Indian metros (particularly Mumbai). Getting a place to sit almost everyday in the suburban train at 7 p.m in the evening is quite surprising in any city in India.

Judging the people or culture of a place is a dangerous endeavor which I don't want to get into. But not withstanding the language problem, people are generally helpful. I found the dressing sense to be a bit archaic, I even noticed bell-bottomed pants :) (again, remember I come here from Mumbai). I couldn't but notice that people talk less, even the family members among themselves. But they seem to be mad over movies. Anyway, these traits again match my personality!

In absence of many options for spending weekends in Chennai, I am writing this blog while travelling to Bangalore for the third time. It has been good 45 days here. Got to know a city with very different culture (it's as south as I have ever been). Being just 5 hrs away from Bangalore has been a boon in disguise, I met my close college friends after 3 years (I only hope they are not already weary of me :D). And oh! I just noticed, I have now been to all metros (and stayed there for some time) of India.

- Abhishek Kumar

A year at job - the journey

On 30th June, i completed a year at my job. It has been a long long journey to now. Heck, i feel like making a movie out of it (without Aamir Khan in the role of schoolboy please!).
It feels like only yesterday, I had passed the 10th exams. I have always been decent at studies, i was appreciated at my school too. There were instances when the whole class was beaten up but I was spared, when the whole class was derided for its performance but i was applauded. Yes, in a way i was a spoiled brat at my school. I guess that ended with 10th exams ( all good things have to come to an end, right?).
As my native town had very few opportunities to learn after 10th, i moved to Ranchi.My father always wanted me to take up biology, and I did get admission into bio section. But the day he caught the return train, I changed my section to Computer Science! Upon reflecting now, i realize, how small actions/decisions change our life tremendously, how different life would have been had i chosen to pursue biology.
Yes, the two years of life in Ranchi were hectic. The class, the coaching schedules and the pressure. The boy who was always in the eyes of his teachers felt lost in the competition. Peer pressure was simply overwhelming. I must admit those were the two most difficult years. To draw an analogy, it's like trying to get in an overcrowded train with a lot of luggage. You don't have much of support/help but you must make it and make it fast.There were days of frustration and futile attempts at understanding things. However, what ends good is good. Some life long friends were made ( Prasoon, Prince, Laxmi). The board and most importantly, entrance exams were finally over. I got into decent college into a stream of my choice.

Thus began the four most crazy, happy, tension-free years of my life at NIT Jamshedpur. There wasn't much to do(though not entirely by choice!) with loads of free time and a large circle of friends(Ranjan, Kunal, Sharad, Ajit, Saha, Jaiswal and Aayush). Memories of bunking classes every Friday to watch movies ( and shit! movies like Darling, Traffic Signal, RGV ki Aag, Cash, how could i possibly watch them?) , dinner @ Blooms, coffee after drinks, day long arguments, birthday parties, Shyam da, Jha ji, Nimboo pani, post dinner walks, Kolkata trip, Bhubaneshwar trip, the Hyderabad trip, no one of us can possibly ever forget those. Fast forward to last year, and placements loomed. There were everlasting deliberations about companies, jobs and salaries. Days of despair with sparks of hope. Anyways, to say the least, all of us were placed. The placement parties were legendary except for those of us who were still unplaced at that point of time. The college ended with loads of bitter and sweet memories and lots of lessons learnt ( this warrants an another post!).

And now the professional part of the story. There was always a hidden desire to prove myself(I had got campus placement at TCS), that resulted in lot of off campus trials and total of four job offers. Well i took up the one with the largest company and my luck, it turned out to be good one too ( work culture, policies, work-life balance and blah blah..). The free food, parties, helping colleagues, not-so-scary bosses, competitions with finals in Germany, all rock. In short, I am enjoying my job, at least as of now.

Some parting thoughts - there was a time, when I traveled, i never thought beyond the 2nd class, I literally could feel that my father didn't want me to get the unaffordable AC tickets, now is the time, i never think of 2nd class (hell! no AC III/II/I tickets?, how do i or my family travel?). Times change, don't they? Sometimes they change for good and at other times for bad. This is what life is!

The europe tour :)

Some best things in life are unplanned and never foreseen. Who knew that an idea over a 'Samosa' in office's cafeteria would lead us to Germany and France. Let me get back to where it all started. There was a lot of noise about this competition in office which called for 'Innovative Ideas'. As always, such things go over my head, I have never understood how people come up with totally crazy ideas and have the wherewithal to support the idea. May be I have been wrong all through these years.
So, the Samosa-born idea was selected for the first round and then through the second round to the finals. And yes, the finals were to be held at Waldorf, Germany! The finals were just 5 days after the 2nd round. That meant a hell lot of running around, lot of paperwork and a lot of advice :). We finally pulled it off ( of course working in a German company meant we managed to get our visas in just 3 days). On 19th June, I was at the T3 terminal, IGI airport.

The plane took off, stopped over at Dubai and we were at Frankfurt in 9 hours. As a child, everyone has a hidden resolve to get into those flying things and it finally happened and happened in style. After a cab ride of one hour at 150-200 k mph ( Germany's cars and roads are best). Here I was, in a foreign land, in Europe ( like DDLJ's Kajol?, as much excited ), 7000 km away from India. Of course, I cant describe the feeling of those moments in words.

The next day, we presented our idea and lost the finals. After that, it was a weekend, we had return flight on Monday evening and we were 'officially' free to roam. Visited Heidelberg the next day. Obviously everything for us was new. Shining roads, cars, trains, trams and buses (looks like everything is replaced every few years). The local food is very different but McDonalds and KFC are always there, though very expensive! ( remember Germany and France are the richest Euro-zone nations). Malls and all felt very much like Gurgaon but local shops had a distinct flavor.

But wait for it, the most awsome part was the visit to Paris.We took a bullet train to Paris and we stayed at one of the hostels of Paris University. Paris is a wonderfully beautiful city. Almost every structure is made of stone, there are very few concrete structures. And yes, top of the Eiffel Tower was the zenith. You can literally see the whole of Paris from Eiffel top. The metro ride in Paris, dinner at Indian restaurant with some students, Mona Lisa at the Louvre, those are unforgettable moments of my life.
The flight to India was from Paris itself with stop at Dubai. The Dubai airport is a great shopping mall. There wasn't enough time else we would have loved to tour Dubai. One thing we noticed, Dubai feels very much like India, one can easily get pure veg food and airport staff understand Hindi.

P.S The 'Samosa' idea: Stand alone compiler for ABAP, a language internally used by SAP.

Ma college years - Part 1

College days are fast closing in and it seems a good idea to revisit them. However it's a fair bit of exercise to go over the last four years and I don't think I will be able to do it in one session. A friend of mine had rightly enlightened me of the benefits of writing a diary(I am missing it today) but I guess it's too late now.

This would be one of the post, I am not writing for others, I want it to be a sort of diary for me. Anyway, since a blog is meant to be viewed by all, this will be a politically-correct version of college life.

So, let me go back to when I joined the college. Was it July, or August? Hardly matters except that Jamshedpur was extremely hot and the food was bad. It's not that I was out of my home for the first time. I had already lived in Ranchi for two years (for my higher secondary education) away from my family. So there were no bad dreams or insecurity or fear of ragging(this fear was there, albeit very small in degree), I had already been there, done that. I had been waiting for this day and here I was in my college.

Two years of my bachelor life in Ranchi hadn't had the effect as many would believe it should have had, for a boy who has been out of his home for the first time, living with his friends in a flat. We were a closely nit group there, devoted to studies with hardly any interaction with others (Evident from the fact that one of my room-mates is studying in AIMS Delhi, one studying commerce in DU and the other is studying engineering in Punjab University, pretty impressive, isn't it?). Let me take a moment to say thanks to my Ranchi room-mates for all their support and care.

Isn't life strange (like I didn't know it already, but still!), we interact with so many people. I can still remember my messs walla in Ranchi, the shops I visited, many of them were really nice.  A dialogue from the movie Hum-Tum seems apt here - "jaise hum aur logon se milte rahte hain, unki kahani hamari kahani se judti jaati hai".

Oh! it has become a Ranchi chapter when it ought to be Jamshedpur's. I should be able to focus on Jamshedpur in next post.

GATE (M.Tech) or CAT (MBA)

I remember searching the exact terms "M.Tech or MBA" several times with no convincing answer. Now, since I have already been through the ordeal (not exactly because GATE is still there on 14th Feb, still ..) , I am ready to add a bit to the confusion .

To be frank, when I got into engineering college, I had never dreamed of b-school. I liked computers (computers are my first love), I got admission into Computer Science stream in a reputed college and was more than happy. I happily chugged along for 3 years, getting decent if not extraordinary marks (anyways people say you need to study the least in Computer Science stream).


Then towards the end of third year, suddenly everyone around me started making plans for future studies fueled by the recession . While many were content with prospects of getting a job, others considered M.Tech, MBA or MS. Almost half of my class joined a coaching center for MBA exams. Being an egoistic, how could I be left behind? But there was a serious doubt lurking in my mind, what do I go for? M.Tech or MBA. Giving GRE for MS was out of question, first because I am from a well-off family but not so well-off and second no one from my family has even gone to Nepal, save USA or UK.

On one side was the love for computers pulling me for M.Tech, on the other was prospect of quick+bright future with an MBA degree. No to say that M.Tech doesn't have a bright future, but as the state of things go in India, our country is still a "services" economy with much scope for managers but very little innovation through researches.Here, after doing an M.Tech, chances are few and far ( and that is my thinking shaped by what I have seen and mostly heard , I could well be wrong ), please note that I am talking about the general junta. Also, how many good research oriented institutions are there in India? except the IISC and IITs. Many a times I have had a feeling of disgust over the neglect of research-based higher education in India. Believe me, I had spent sleepless nights pondering over what choice I should make.

By now you must have figured out that I chose to prepare for MBA over M.Tech. After all, though I have an interest in technology, I hadn't ever imagined myself as a researcher. I had grown, fascinated by the Ambanis and Tatas (may be an aftermath of reading business magazines which I tried reading to get a sense of business). Many a times I have dreamed of becoming the king of a large business empire, preferably in the IT field. My preparation for MBA made me discover things about myself which I couldn't have had otherwise, which they call the "hidden self" in psychological lingo. I am not sure whether I will be able to get admission into a good b-school this year, but be assured I will, sometime in future. Let's see what does a mix of love for technology and b-school training bring about.


P.S : The views expressed are entirely mine. I am not advocating for or against any choice. As the saying goes " You always have a choice". May the force be with you!!