My prayer to God on India's IT Industry

Prayer - START

Dear god, 

I would be happy if, all these big offices of Tech MNC's in India would shut shops, the ones that are surviving almost entirely by outsourcing Maintenance projects and making employees work hard without giving adequate incentives compared to their western counterparts. I'd love to see all those huge buildings getting empty, real estate prices falling down drastically and traffic on roads naturally decreasing. And when I say it, I mean it.

I've been a good boy last year (innocent until proven guilty). So for this year, please please please, kindly grant this one wish of mine.

Prayer - STOP

Commentary - START

Man selling Peanuts, Gachak, Rewriyan, etc. in Jalandhar. Respect for his genuineness.

Dear reader, I do not wish anyone to lose their bread and butter. This wish of mine is something that'd benefit India much more than doing harm. Here's why.

1. Moral high. We are getting outsourced work because our labour costs are significantly cheaper and our English is better than rival countries with similar rates. Tomorrow if the Chinese improve their English then they'd do the same work, maybe at even lesser costs. Then gradually all our work would start getting shifted over there and several of those huge IT offices in cities like Hyderabad, Gurgaon, etc. would be empty. Knowing the Chinese they must have started working on their English skills secretly, and it might not be long before they kick us out. Already economy of some countries have been negatively affected as China has started doing the kind of outsourced manufacturing work that they were undertaking but for lesser costs.

Those under impression that we are hard workers and such a scenario would never take place, should ask a question to themselves. With the same skill set, knowledge and experience; would many of us be having our jobs if we were based in USA or Europe? If the answer is no, then that's admitting that there is lesser respect for our resumes and more for the fact that we work in good English for lesser salary.

Quickly people realize the ground reality, better it'd be for realizing that their life can be more profound.

I am not against foreign companies setting up bases in India (I admire Nestle, whatever they make in any country they sell locally without exporting, so unlike others they neither save costs nor increase profit margins). I am not against working in foreign companies, what I am against is them opening offices in India just to save costs, not having real respect for our USP, and projecting as if they are doing some kind of huge favour by providing jobs to our countrymen.

2. Realize your true calling. After seeing the lull in IT sector, people would begin turning to other professions, the way it happened in certain Medical streams. How I wish some people decide that they've saved decent money for a lifetime and start teaching in village schools. It doesn't hurt to have experienced humans teaching the poor so that they also receive education as per latest trends.

3. A new Silicon Valley. The general perception of USA's Silicon Valley is that brilliant products come out of it. But our IT Hubs are known more for outsourcing and less for innovative products.

When talented people would be without a job, quite a few would make a switch to other domains. I believe that the more passionate ones would get involved with product firms, because that would be the best way out. They would work to defeat their global competitors with quality. More success stories would give rise to greater number of entrepreneurs. Whatever be the key to success, the key to failure is to stop innovation.

In the 50's American Automobile industry was at the top, with companies like Ford and General Motors ruling the roost. Japanese were rebuilding themselves after the devastation caused in World War II. They worked really hard to improve upon their processes, learn what customers really wanted, and were ever ready to reinvent. Today Japanese car industry is ahead of USA's, in fact my next car may or may not be Japanese but surely it won't be American.

One of the most popular restaurants in Jalandhar, Head Quarter's. There's also Cafe Coffee Day, India's most popular retail coffee chain.

4. Look, I wish Indian Rupee gets stronger versus US Dollar, I want my country's economy to get better. But if that happens, then would we continue getting outsourced kind of work in India because of lesser wages? No chance - that work would get shifted to countries with weaker economies or who can get work done at dirt cheap rates. India's economy would become better if we made products that were sold all over the world, thereby increasing exports. There are countries with currencies stronger than US Dollar and so can be Indian Rupee, if they can do it then so can we. I wonder if a significant ratio of jobs in those countries are like what ours are.

5. Entrepreneur-friendly government policies. Some of my acquaintances wish to start their own company. But they aren't doing so, because they feel their respective governments aren't friendly for business. If they spent lesser time dealing with stuff that tests their patience and more time innovating then their deliverable's would definitely improve.

Note - I am not affiliated to any political party.

Airtel showroom in Jalandhar. The brand has stood tall despite influx of foreign telecom vendors and has expanded outside India as well.

6. Better education system. During the IT boom phase, lot of Engineering colleges opened up, on pretext that there were few companies arriving for recruitment in "trucks", and our education naturally became quantitative instead of qualitative. Some colleges even started promising "200% placement" citing every student would get 2 jobs at least. There was even a time when I saw reputed colleges having 4th year students teaching their juniors due to reason that there weren't enough graduate teachers, for right after college they were getting placed in outsourcing based IT maintenance jobs. The ideology of such Engineering colleges was to  train students to learn things on their own and deliver under pressure, you may call it serendipity for this is what they ended up doing in their jobs as well.

But a cash cow can be milked only till a point of time. I'd be more happy seeing such colleges shut shops and students doing what they really want to (during the boom period I saw parents forcing their kids to take Engineering for they felt it would provide more returns in lesser time). The kind of stuff being taught in such colleges, I feel it is actually better to self-study free courses from the Internet and start one's own company with available resources. Also, more number of micro startups in smaller cities would reduce burden on bigger ones, and thus development of certain states would be all-around instead of prime cities.

I genuinely admire a guy called Varun Shoor, without a college degree he started his own company called Kayako that built the World's leading Helpdesk software. From a small town called Jalandhar that did not have the facilities of metro cities or Silicon Valley. If a small town Indian teenager can do it, then there would be more. They need to step out of their comfort zone and even if they don't start their own firm they need to realize the plus points of working with local startups that could suit them more than established ones in terms of career growth and learning opportunities.

7. It might actually be a bitter medicine for my fellow countrymen. Without jobs, the really passionate ones would try doing something to survive. Some of them would join product firms, some would start their own companies. Thus more products in IT would begin churning out of India.

I know our people work really hard, that too overwork at times. But hard work isn't enough, happy work is also important. Young Software Engineers have died while in office, several have stress and health issues, most would rather choose to switch fields but they have a family to feed. The state of India's IT Industry is such that if people had to choose between doing this kind of work all their lives, versus getting a big amount of money so that they won't have to work again, then almost all would choose the latter. Whatever the future might hold for me I'd still be learning new things and making use of them in some way or the other, I am optimistic that way.

CONCLUSION

Ho kya raha hai humare desh mein? Humaari koi izzat hi nahi hai, kyunki hum saste mein kaam karte hain Angrezi mein, voh bhi agar kal China wale aa gaye to hum gaye kaam se. Log products banaana chahte hain but na hi education system unhe sikhaata hai, aur na hi government utni sahayta karti hai. Magar kal ko sir par aa padhi to achcha hi hoga, log apne aap karna shuru karenge. Kuch log dusre kaam karenge, jo log sach mein passionate hain veh dil se products banayenge. Aur ant mein jo bhi hoga, achcha hi hoga.

Commentary - STOP

Prayer - START

Bhagwaan ji, meri ichcha to poori kar hi dena. Magar usse pehle dhyaan rakhna ki main sahi salamat rahoon, auron ke saath jo bhi ho magar mujhe kuch na ho. Roz aapka naam leta hoon, achche samay mein bhi yaad karta hoon, aapke naam ka durupyog nahi karta hoon. Ab itna to mere liye kar hi dijiye na, please... :)

Prayer - STOP

Reader's Viewpoint - START :).

Ahead of everyone. Photo by Arjun Suri Photography

Widows are being burnt around us

(The following article is a conversation between two 20 something men called Sarvam and Devam over the former sharing views on why he feels the ancient practice of Sati is still alive in modern times, though a widow isn't burnt physically she is made to undergo constant torture by the ones around her. I'd leave it to the reader to imagine if the conversation is real, fictitious, or a piece of fiction inspired by real life incidents).

Photo by Arjun Suri Photography

Devam - The other day I was reading a book on Vedic Literature and was amazed to learn how advanced India was several centuries ago.

Sarvam - That's true. Ain't for nothing we were called The Golden Sparrow!

Devam - But I wonder how come so many evils came up in our society. Sati, for instance.

Sarvam - Yup.

Devam - Thankfully Sati got eradicated where...

Sarvam (Interrupting) - What makes you feel Sati is over?

Devam (puzzled) - Raja Ram Mohan Roy worked proactively towards getting it abolished. You don't read about such incidents these days, do you?

Sarvam - Physically yes, Sati is no longer practiced  But mentally it is, society kills quite a few women in case that tragic incident occurs.

Devam (shaking head) - I need more info on this.

Sarvam - Okay let me ask you a question.

Devam - Yes please.

Sarvam - Think of a girl in her mid-twenties, the kind you studied with in college. There is a lot of jubilation in her family when she gets married with fanfare, complete with all traditional rituals.

Devam (closes eyes, then opens) - Hmm, okay.

Sarvam - Imagine her changing relationship status on Facebook, receiving greetings from all over, putting a lot of photos with her soul mate who'd be her everything and adopting his family as hers.

Devam (keeps eyes closed for a while) - Right.

Sarvam - She is all settled in her new home and her family is considered a "happy family", with some of her female colleagues using the word "lucky" for her on specific occasions such as receiving an anniversary gift.

Devam - Bingo.

Sarvam - Now, close your eyes, feel her happiness and celebrate her existence  Slowly, slowly. Yes. And now... (pauses for a minute)

Devam - What?

Sarvam - She loses her husband in a very sad incident.

Devam - (becomes motionless and does not utter anything).

Sarvam (after a minute) - Now tell me honestly. What would be the reaction of people around her, especially those from older generations?

Devam (in a low voice) - They would say that it is fault of the girl. She must have done some bad karma for which her husband suffered.

Sarvam - Exactly. At her husband's funeral there'd be a lot of people, mostly her contemporaries, deriving sadistic pleasure out of her misery without showing any real empathy.

Devam - (nods head).

Sarvam - Forward to a week after the incident, with the girl still coming to terms with what happened. Now, what clothes should she wear?

Devam (after few seconds) - Society would expect her to wear white..

Sarvam (cuts him) - Exactly. Society. Please continue.

Devam - But she should wear what she wants to. It is her life.

Sarvam - In all probability she wouldn't remain dressed like all the time or do acts in order to evoke sympathy. She would get up and do what she feels is best for her and find out a will to live. She may even imagine that her husband's soul is still alive somewhere and do the kind of things that used to make him happy, like dressing up the way he loved to. She would make herself as strong as possible and find out reasons to survive in this world.

Devam - Yes, that's true. Most people around me would want to lead a good life despite what happened while trying to re-discover the purpose of their lives.

Sarvam - Precisely. Now imagine her in a decent attire, wearing a newly stitched pair of clothes with accessories that compliment her well. There's a grace on her face and it is inspiring to those looking to seek inspiration towards battling the hardships of life.

Devam - Salute to what she's doing.

Sarvam - This is what you feel. Don't you think that there'd be nasty people judging her at every moment and saying stuff like "her husband passed away and she is dressing up in this manner?". Am sure you can think of people around you who have such a thought process, and many are from well-educated families.

Devam - Sadly this is indeed the case. They won't be having the guts to say it on her face, but she might be able to make out such people by the power of intuition.

Sarvam - Right. Long before she got married, she used to dress up well and work towards leading a good life. She's being who she really is. We don't expect a man to roam around in Kurta-Pyjamas all his life if he was in such a situation, do we?

Devam - No, we don't.

Sarvam - And then who should take care of the girl? Her parents 'donated' her during marriage, so it is responsibility of in-laws as she's their daughter now. Aren't there families who'd rather send her back to her parent's home asking them to take care of her, projecting as if it was due to her that their son got killed?

Devam (pauses for a while) - Ideally it is the responsibility of in-laws and not parents for they are her new family members. She left behind everything to get adjusted in their home, and they are priority for her.

Sarvam - Parents are willing to sacrifice themselves for their son. It could involve selling off their ancestral land so as to invest towards son's education or business. How many would do so for their widowed daughter-in-law?

Devam - I.. believe, very few.

Sarvam - And before I go further, let me remind you of our topic of discussion. I feel that Sati is still prevalent in today's times, even though physical body of widowed wife isn't burnt along with her husband. And before I conclude my viewpoints I'd leave you with a set of questions that I'd let you ponder over.
What if her in-laws did take out their hard earned savings towards setting up career of their daughter-in-law?
If they did, how many of them would be openly appreciated by society for setting example within people?
And even after all this, what if the girl met another man in her life and felt the need to get married? She got married in the first place to complete few elements that were missing in her life. Wouldn't it be appropriate if she was given another chance to re-live them?
Wouldn't it be duty of her in-laws to "donate" her to new family as parents? This is what every parent does towards their child by not expecting anything in return irrespective of the gender, isn't it?
And lastly how many people from the society would care to observe that despite the presence of a new man in her life, she hasn't forgotten her first husband and still holds their limited memories in a good stead?

Photo by Arjun Suri Photography