Arrived

I sometimes catch myself stalking some of my old coleagues agin. Now and then,  I check upon them. To keep track of where they are, but mostly just to feel better. At the the beginning of my career, I wanted to do a lot of things, travel to a lot of places, visit , and meet people. I thought my career in IT would allow me these rare opportunities to see a little more of this world. And I worked hard towards that goal. But I was working under bad managers, and was plagued by terrible management. One of the many reasons I decided to migrate out. And it was not an easy decision. So, I try to imagine, where would I be, if I had decided to stay. And continue to suffer. Would my life have changed for the better ? Could I have stayed on and still achieved a  little more ?

The answer, thankfully, is NO.

If I had stayed, I would have been pummelled by meaningless, tedious, repeating tasks, increasing frustration, and a feeling of uselessness. And I know this because everybody else I worked with back in the day, are still where I had last left them.

My old team at e*, that company in Bangalore where I worked for 3 years. They are all still stuck in that same job, working in an over-crowded, pollutted city. None of them got that chance to travel abroad.

Poor little P is still doing data entry jobs. And that SB is still making them work. S and S are holding on for dear life. V has put on more weight, must be all that late night snack they have been having.

My old, sick, demeaning managers. Well they have done pretty good, actually. Feeding on the blood of innocent subordinates, they have become more successful. At least , thats what I infer from their shortening designations.

And my competition, yes , I had a lot of that. To be fair, we were all struggling in the same , dwindling, putrid pool of meaningless work, so we all wanted to escape somewhere. I gave up easily, and moved away. While for most of them, the struggle continues.

Competition is fierce in India's private job market. And with only a few guidelines set by the government, companies play a one sided game of micro-management. While emloyees in the sector do have the option of unions, they also understand that live is much better for them in the tech sector compared to the others. So they let it go. People work for years chasing that elusive 'onsite' opportunity, that one chance to make some money, tax free, which will enable them to buy a home in one of those crowded cities. And also , the chance to see a different country, with the company footing all the travel bills.

Choosing to move to Australia was the best decision we had taken in a long , long time. With a lot more professionalism, flexibility and wage, ones problems seem to dwindle away. For the first time, I have a good balance of professional and personal life. Last year, my manager here came to me and told me to take a few days off. Leave. For real. And he really meant it. That was an amazing feeling, which I had never experienced during my time in India. That instruction came from years of having mentored subordinates, and the employee-friendly laws of this country.

I hope more people get to see such professionalism, and kindness. But they wil have to travel away to experience that. As for me, I am living the dream.

Birds in the city

It is spring time in the city. After a particularly stretched winter, I can now hear bird sounds in the morning again. Not just simple chirping charping. Melodius, long , complex bird songs !

Always a good sign, the birds are the first to know of the changing season. The next few months are going to be pleasant , cool and a little rainy (hopefullly), until we get fried by the harsh Australian summer.

Not looking foward to that. Summer is the worst part of the year.

Satirical governance

It is that time of the year again. Half way through,we Indians get this opportunity to observe the anniversary of the day India won its independence. Today is mostly a day of political buffoonery. Speeches, promises, lies. But a great day for flag-sellers. As children, we used to be proud observing this Independence Day, today the meaning of those words is truly lost.

Today, most of the country is drowning in flood water, caused by unprecedented torrential rain, but the actual destruction caused by uncontrolled development, and destruction of natural resources. More than 150 people have died. This after the country reeled under a summer heatwave, droughts, and its cities running out of drinking water. So now one half of the year is time of drought, and the rest if the time for floods.

Multiple reports seem to point to the economy being in severe distress, especially since the date the last budget was announced. Manufacutring, specially automobiles, has nose dived. There are still religion driven atrocities being reported from all over the country. Attacks and molestation on women continue. And the decision to abrogate the special status provision for one if India's own state has now put the nation on the nation's watch citing human rights violation.

The British might have left decades ago. But India still has not learnt to properly govern and run itself. Is there a reason to be happy about any of this ?

Governance has become a joke. And its not even funny.

Super 30, and the Indian dream

There is no denying that education is an important and un-avoidable part of modern, human society. It is a human right, and access to education is essential for emancipation.

I recently came across a series of video documentaries on Super- 30, and education movement spearheaded by a certain Anand Kumar, who has helped thousands of Indian students change their lives. In order to do this, he has set his sights on the IITs, the highest institutions offering engineering education in India, and runs coaching centres to coach high school students to 'game' the IIT test system. Students who are able to 'crack' these tests get to join India's premium engineering colleges, paving their way to a well-paid job, and successful lives afterwards. Instead of being overambitious and enrolling as many students as he can, Anand had decided on training 30, and only 30 students any given year. These would be the smartest, brightest and most hardworking students from those who apply for his unique course. Hence the term: Super 30.

The first of the documentaries was filmed 10 years ago and uploaded in 2008. Al Jazeera, tracked and followed the daily lives of around 5 of the super-30 students, and vigorously documented the lives of everyone involved. Not only the students and their teacher, but also friends and family of the students, and even the local police officers. The life of the students and their teacher is clearly shown to be in ruins, Anand gives his daily maths class in something that looks like a remnant of a workshop, and the 30 lucky chosen are given special coaching in a similar, separate enclosure. The parents are farmers, daily wage labourers, or stay at home housewives. Their surroundings may be dim, but there is optimism in the air. There have been no engineers or doctors in their families so far, and everyone has placed their hopes on the one child who has been chosen into the Super-30.

The students give the test, the results are announced. 29 of the 30 clear the entrance to IITs across India.

Fast forward 10 years now. The second documentary tracks three of the students who were documented earlier, to try and chart their success and live afterwards. It is mind-blowing.

Not only are they all living better lives, they only have a faint resemblance to their former selves. They are healthier, wealthier , and wise.

One of them, Raju, the son of a farmer, is now a software engineer living and working in the tech city of India, Bengaluru. Working for the offices of an American automobile company at the time of the documentary, he now speaks English fluently (all the boys spoke only hindi in the earlier videos), and travels abroad for work. He himself seems surprised on how the education he received changed his fortunes.

Alok, son of a labourer, is now working as an electrical engineer in the nation's powergrid. He could not get into IIT, but wisely picked up a course from NIT. He had to move out of his hometown , as local goons began extorting money from his family, as the son had become and engineer.

Jyotish, another one of the students, is doing well, but in a different direction. He dropped out of IIT, and found his calling in Economics, where he has a PhD. He now teaches , and is happy and content to be contributing to his people and country.

But no one changed their lives around as much as Pranav Prince, who now works full time abroad as a; wait for it..; management consultant ! In the first videos 10 years ago, Pranav was the brightest of the 30, and had scored highest. He said his dream was to become a scientist, and open a research centre in India, on par with NASA. That could have been the naïve child in him talking, because he has now thrown research out of the window, having discovered the perennial money spinner that is blue-chip management. He had caused quite a scandal to Anand 10 years ago, when he attributed his success to the coaching of a rival institute, and almost shutdown the super-30 program.

Access to the nation's highest engineering program changed these lives. Hundreds of thousands of youngsters have a similar story to tell, and many more are still being written. It is an empowering story of how sheer determination, and perseverance can positively affect one's future. My own story is similar, though I never even tried to get into IIT.

The IITs of India today produce the world's top engineers, who then go on to work of multinational companies around the world, though that was not why the IITs were setup in the first place. They were created to produce engineers for the nation, who would help develop India' future. A lofty ,well intended goal. It’s a shame that most students who get enrolled there do not share that vision.

Nevertheless, this story proves that education is possibly the only path to better futures, and permanent emancipation. And that is the Indian dream.

Out with section 370

By now all online media, and most of the western world, will have heard of India' government passing a new rule, abrogating one of its own, self imposed 'special status' clause to a state very much within its sovereignty. While those with prior knowledge of the history, present, and forthcoming future will , I think , rightly agree with this decision, a huge part of those ignorant are going to question if India has this right in the first place.

Short answer: No one knows either way. Political experts, pundits, and citizens of every country are debating both sides. Section 370, the just abrogated law, was not imposed by the UN, or any other country in India. It was designed by India's parliament. So India should have full power to decide when to take it off. That’s where my point of view ends.

But others more knowledgeable than me have spoken wisely on this matter. Change, however small , or even big as this, is good.

. Why not plebiscite?

Answer: Plebiscite is not for Article 370 but for annexation to Pakistan. The plebiscite, promised by once by Chacha Nehru (Greatness be unto him), could only be done, as per T&C, if Pakistan withdrew their troops totally and then India did, just keeping that part necessary to maintain order. Since the preconditions of Pakistan withdrawing from PoK will never happen, neither will the plebiscite. There is also that little moral problem I have that you do not get to do a plebiscite after demographic change, after communally picking out Hindu pandits and ejecting them from their homeland. Any plebiscite is rigged by default.

The power of abrogation of 370 comes to the current government from the people of India, Kashmir included, through our democratic institutions. You may say “this fascist Hitler is not my leader”, but unfortunately this is the way democracy works. Sorry.

Is this the right way forward. Any way forward from a logjam, is good. Will this help the people of the region ? Only time can tell.

Is this change good ?

I do not know, but it is worth a try. Because we have been “talking” for decades, and there has been very little to show for it.