Update

Hope you guys are fine.

No post from quite some time..........I have been quite busy since last two weeks. Working on lots of creative writing (pre sales) these days. :)

There is a 3 week assignment coming along at geneva starting on 14 Aug. I am planning to go home before that. lets see.

More stuff to come soon. :) Take care.

My first fiction

Nothing could be better then meeting an old friend after 6 years, that too in a land so far from your country. It was a pleasant surprise when I got Dhananjay's mail last week. He is in Philly, staying with his friends and working for a VLSI design company. I am at Hartford, 4 hours drive from his place working as a financial consolidation consultant. A domain where my knowledge is as little as a consultant should know. I decided to drive down in my rented Nissan at his place and had a nostalgic weekend. Now driving back to Hartford on a deserted I-84. It is 11.30 in night; tomorrow will be start of another long list of deliverables and workshops. But work is the last thing I want to think...

Driving during night is always fascinating. It is more so when you are alone, in another part of the world on a deserted high way. No towns on sides. Just planes for miles and a constant humming of your engine. Vast plains on both sides of roads stretched to eternity. There was no moon, just bright stars spread with such beauty which you can't imagine staying in those busy business streets. A perfect setting for thinking about life!!

From dusty town of Nimbahera, it has been a long journey for me. Life is interesting!!! It is about setting parameters of success based on expectations of society and then chasing them. But this concept of “success” itself is hazy and mostly determined by one’s purpose of life. And here lies the disillusionment. Is becoming successful (As defined by society) should be our purpose of life. Or is it that purpose itself is very personal for every one and hence the Success factor also varies with every individual.

Some people understand the purpose of their life and set goals according to that. And not by what society force them to. I feel they are luckier and happier then me. They live life on their terms. But then there are people like us, most of us, who chase dreams which are not ours. With every pop of champagne there is whisper which politely ask us, " Is this what you want buddy" Among applauds and celebrations, we always chose to ignore this question. Like many do. But it is difficult to ignore this question now. I looked around and lowered the window slightly. It is cold. I was driving at constant speed, not too fast, not too slow. This is what people may say, being in peach with myself. I suddenly felt closer to nature, to life and with myself.

I love thinking about life. I was always a day dreamer. But when you grow up and you are forced to project yourself as extrovert, it is difficult to find such time for yourself. I noticed on side, some exit was approaching. My exit should be easily 90 miles away. Less then 2 hours…. I changed lane, and focused on road.

Equally lucky are those for whom purpose of life is just achieving success. Chasing those parameters of success set by society. You keep on getting them and life moves on. No worries of purpose and all. Probably as they say, ignorance is bliss.

A truck overtook me and bends a little awkwardly. A turn too sharp for its momentum I guess. Then it suddenly braked. Jesus... I don't know how I managed to avoid it. I controlled the steering and looked back. The truck was stopped half covering the road. I cursed and decided to move on. A few seconds later I looked from my rearview. I could see the headlights of the truck far away. I think it was still there. Must be some drunken fellow… I thought and decided to move back to my thoughts.

And when I try to map myself into those parameters of success, the illusion broadens. I am not sure what I want from this life, the purpose. Also I am not too exited running behind the parameters as set by the society. I am somewhere in middle, confused, scared and may be alone. I looked at the planes on starlit night. They were beautiful. Then there was this Milky Way. I am not sure when last I appreciated that. Last 5 years were busy.

The truck incident had shaken me up. I pondered over the idea of pulling over and stop for some time. Rationally it was risky and unusual of me but I felt like doing it. Surprisingly there was no fear. Sometimes you just want to be on your terms instead of what you are expected to do logically. I stopped the car, came out and looked around. Pure stillness; Heaven. The wind was slightly chill but I liked it that way. I thought about my family, my love and my friends. Back in India, it must be afternoon at this time. They must be busy in their work or having lunch. Will they be remembering me at this time?

I leaned on bonnet and tried to think what I am doing so far at this place in night when I must be near to those people who matter to me most, people who love me and worry about my well being. Isn’t it a purpose of my life to give them all happiness and support? What I am doing here then. Am I on right road of my life? And if I am lost, is it too late to go back to basic and try to find the right path? Excitement is missing. Life has been predictable yet successful. Full of achievements but yet useless. I looked around to see if I can spot any alien creature spying on me. No red eyes, no green skins around me. I smiled as I looked up in sky to spot some half human, half bat creature. There was none. I decided to move on and got into car. I looked back at rear seat to see if I have any company of some serial killer. Hard luck. I turned the key and expected car to disobey. It didn’t. I turned on the light. What if there is some strange sight on the road. Nothing but long stretch of tar vanishing into darkness. Finally it is time to go home. I sighed.

Journey after that was eventless. I crossed some exits and decided against stopping anywhere. Traffic was still very less. I saw red blue lights of an ambulance rushing past me. As I took right at my exit, I wondered over stillness of the town. I felt need to be with people who matter to me. Chasing dreams, jobs, money was unattractive suddenly. I am nearing discovering my own little purpose. No more onsite assignments for me I decided. I will go back, look for a house. It is high time I should propose to my love and marry her. Bring parents home and find a role which can give me money and time in the correct measure. Yes, it is time to restructure my life finally and not those financial processes.

I stopped in front of my building. The moon was rising from the horizon. Another beautiful sight. This was a great Trip. I got into my apartment and felt like having tea. I put water to heat and changed. There was no milk but I had developed the taste of black tea so it was ok. Sleep was miles away from my eyes. I was so exited about my future. I switched on the TV with mug of tea in my hand. I browsed some channels while lost in my thoughts. Some teen age comedy show was up at one channel. There was this cooking show on another. Someone was trying to sell some fitness equipment. A movie based on some war, Vietnam may be. A news channel reporting some accident on highway. I stopped momentarily as I looked at the images behind the TV Reporter. The car involved in the accident is same as of mine. Camera moved slightly as I looked at the number plate of the car.

I looked at my mug. The tea was feeling tasteless as its color started fading. Slowly.

IT Branding

The concept of branding is as old as Ramayana. They used Ram branded stones which floated happily on water and resulted in strong ties with our island neighbor. Funny things they used to do in those times. World is more mature now and hence we are branding IT organizations.

IT branding is an interesting topic, and let me tell you, if you have read some good books and can claim that you have published a paper in a magazine that actually published then you can walk away with a 7 figure salary and all expense paid trips abroad. So let’s do some analysis of topic.

Earlier brand was just a logo/picture to be used on SOWs, NDAs, PPTs and MOMs. Now we are realizing that it can actually define the value of an organization. I recently came across a job opening in a large Indian IT organization for corporate brand manager. Some one told me that the incumbent may get double of what we dynamic and charismatic consultants are getting. Hmmm....That should make our life easy. Now we can happily ruin projects and get away with it because the brand is good and the client should be happy paying for the feel good factor. After all, it’s a 'wow' feeling that counts and not those boring deliverables. So, If one knows the spelling of brand, knows how to google and can read and speak globally then impossible is nothing. Of course an MBA degree helps.....

Still, for the uninitiated in branding, here are some clues on how to rub your shoulders among branding biggies during free booze parties.

Lesson#1: Branding is about giving it some personality. Your target audience should associate your company with the person and his/her attributes. If you have seen Tiger Wood ad, then you know what I am up to... I loved the act of hitting blindly to a bell on a foggy morning. Yeah, that’s what IT consulting is all about. Just make sure that those costly Golf balls are billed!!!!

Lesson#2: Build a relationship with your target market based on that personality: This is critical, Now since you have identified your personality or in the process of same, just try to see how your organization’s target segment may be attracted to the personality. Somehow they should believe that your 'personality' is in sync with their mission. For example, if your target market is competitive and appreciates someone who takes problems "head on", you should seriously consider Zinadine Zidane in your branding exercise!!!!

Lesson#3: Reinforce the relationship and trigger recognition with consistent visual symbols. Hmm...Now your brand has a personality and your target segment is obviously associating with them. Next step you should create a logo or punch line which is either a) very generic or 2) extremely confusing. If it is very generic then it will work anywhere. If it is extremely confusing then you will have nice time bending it to suit your different customers. (You can confirm my theory by looking into punch line of all IT companies.)

You may ask why I am not into branding then...... :) because I am about myself.

Life's like that

First days in job are always special. One thing is that you are obviously exited and "fire in the belly" factor is in place. You yearn to put all those skills in work which you had learnt in B-School. You are ready to take on the world and rise the corporate ladder. fast. You want to implement strategies, redefine visions and shift paradigms of every concept that you encounter. You are also worried of people getting laptops and attending Visa interviews within first month. And you start comparing your corporate future with them.

After Induction, I joined the office at MG Road. No posh campuses for me. Just a plain old building. As I press the button for 6th floor, the lift shook but my confidence didn't. Some handshakes happened and the HR lady introduced me to my practice head. I spent next two days in setting up comp, changing passwords and exploring intranet sites. Some ppt based trainings on data warehouse started after that and time flew.

Some time in my second week, I was asked to provide help in pre sales. That was a welcome move. No coding for me at least. Now for most MBAs in IT, coding is as outrageous as foreplay for any self respecting Indian. Anyways, So I was asked to put together a presentation on our capability in some domain. I googled, used some other resources and came up with a strong mind boggling, thought provoking corporate presentation. I used all my learning which was taught in my Managerial communication classes during MBA. prof Nutty must have given me at least B+ for that. (This was great by mine and good by any standard)

I sent the ppt to my manager and waited for appreciation mail. Then I dreamt... What if he copies BU head also while appreciating my effort. May be BU head will Fwd to whole SBU with words of encouragement for a young MBA with less then one month in business and such a great vision. The CEO will in CC. I imagined a mail by him also before evening. What next then..... some great business wins because of my vision, great client benefits, me getting some best employee award, meteoric rise on corporate ladder. Hmm....

"Please come over"...I came back to earth as I saw the mail from my manager. By the time I reached his desk and could understand the meaning of his smile, my Arial Black Font 18 was converted to Verdana 8. I digested a comment on my incremental framework slide........ "Aisa lag raha hai ki machaliyan ud rahi hai."

That was painful, specially when you are an MBA and think that your knowledge about ppts and client presentations is much more then a techie. My (un)learning started as my manager edited and redesigned the presentation. (I respected what he created in next 30 minutes.) I learnt a lot from him in next 5 months, then handled some stuff on my own. And till date, the mentorship and respect is maintained.

So those were the days, funny days. I did some real serious and intense work in last 2 years. Consulting on an area where I had Zero knowledge, Leant a tool called HFM and implemented it. Managing account was next. Some times I was working 15 hours a day for months, and sometimes absolutely no work. I got some appreciation mails. And once " Guys, you are a bunch of Em Bhi Heys, You seriously need to put your sh!t together" :)

One company ,two eventful years, three beautiful countries, four states and five assignments.
What next??

Deep meaning

"A purple squirrel is animated on the screen. Your task is to click on him. If you are successful, you win. Win or lose, the game continues without pause. Only the squirrel knows."

This site is amusing and pointless, kinda like life!!! :)

Good one

Sent by someone who is very close to me and a great correction factor in my life........ Smita.


"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are!!"