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

Modern Punjab's Numero Uno Role Model

Whom am I talking about? Let me narrate some facets about him in various sections, before finally revealing his identity in the end.


Growing years and Academic achievements

• Though raised in a well respected family, he wasn't born with a silver spoon in mouth. Most of his childhood went eating dry Chapatis with Onions, as they were the cheapest food stuffs available.

• He remained a topper throughout, and recieved scholarship consistently. He avoided taking money from home, and his scholarship used to go in paying his school / college fees.

• An academically brilliant student, there were times when he cleared multiple classes in one year. He was destined to take up Engineering, however due to being underage he wasn't eligible to appear for IIT. So he shifted gears to Medical and in first attempt got MBBS in GMC, Amritsar, which was the leading college for that course back then. He passed from the college as a Gold Medalist.

• Post GMC Amritsar, he got admission in MD Medicine at PGI Chandigarh, which at that time had only a couple of seats in that course. He topped there as well.

Professional

• His colleagues went to North America / Europe. He got multiple offers to go abroad, but on insistence of his ailing parents to take care of them, stayed in India.

• He joined PGI Chandigarh while doing his masters and was working there when he got married.

• Soon after marriage, he relocated to Jalandhar, when compared to Amritsar there were lesser medical facilities for patients.

• Without borrowing a single penny from his parents, he opened up his own private clinic. After some time he got a Clinical Laboratory opened up for his wife as well.

• His clinic has stood the test of time for more than 30 years. Despite renowned multi-specialty hospitals opening up their branches in the city, his clinic continues attracting people.

• While some hospitals these days rely on fancy furniture, soft spoken female nurses, computerized systems, glitters in buildings, free check-up camps for increasing awareness ; his clinic emphasizes on having all the necessary facilities that a patient actually needs. Thus he doesn't charge his patients just for providing a "luxurious experience".

• He patiently listens to his patients and does not make them run away quickly in order to wind up for the day ASAP. He gives individual attention to all his patients equally.

• Remains up to date on the latest happenings in the field of Medicine and prescribes the better stuff to his patients.

Family

• His elder brother, who was extremely close to him, passed away when he was 16. Disturbed, he provided support to his ailing father and ensured he passed the exams securing top marks on scholarship, post which he got admission in Medical College on first attempt.

• His father passed away when he was 29. He became head of family and took charge of marrying his younger brother soon thereafter.

• After the death of his younger sister and her husband (he was 38 then), he took custody of their two children and educated as well as married them.

• His younger brother passed away two years ago, leaving behind a widow and two young daughters. He worked towards completing all government related work, got his sister-in-law along with daughters settle at a place closer to his own home. He has worked genuinely hard to ensure comforts for them and tried his best in whatever ways he could.

• Though he didn't have the best of facilities when growing up, he ensured his kids didn't remain deprived of it. He took them on foreign as well as national tours, made them stay in well constructed homes in the best localities, would come to home for lunch so as to meet them when they returned from school, would meet them every night before sleeping. He would never go on private vacations away from family, would take his kids along if he had to go out of town for a long duration.

• To inject values into his kids, he first emphasized them on the need of being a good human and then assured them about the stuff done by people with angelic qualities. He developed a friend circle of similar people and taught his kids to learn from the right role models in history. He made them feel they were following the right path by doing so, never made them feel inferior in any way.

• He acts as an unofficial guardian to some of his friend's children, giving advice on various matters such as personal, investments, job security, future planning, etc.

Serving the people of Punjab

• Didn't leave the state despite the terror of 80's. He continued doing his medical practice, treating patients in times of need.

• Treats few patients for free everyday who aren't financially well-off, and has never advertised about the same in news papers or pamphlets or web sites (the author got to know about this via various sources who themselves had been present at his clinic, the man never told self about this).

• His fees is very nominal. Not more, not less. Just what it should be.

• His referrals of patients to other hospitals is based on merit instead of commission.

• He doesn't have any corporate tie ups for providing medical facilities to employees.

• Everyone is treated equally in his clinic. There is no VIP area, and you have to wait along with other patients even if their background differs from you in various terms.

• Till date he never advertised about his achievements. Whatever his clinic has sustained for the past 30+ years, is solely on word of mouth.

• He has done more work for financially underprivileged people than a lot of NGO's. He does not put of photos of him treating such patients on web sites, magazines, posters, etc.

Love for the country

• Remained connected to roots by staying in India, and has devoted his life to helping people who come to him for assistance in various fields, be it Medicine, Psychology, Philosophy, Development, etc. He has gone out of the way to help establish several careers of those who weren't related to him by blood. He does that due to inborn interest.

• He raised his kids as Indians. Never in his house did he tell them that you are 'Punjabi'. He taught them the emphasis of respecting people from other states on the basis of character, knowledge, and virtues. He ensured their proficiency in Hindi due to it being the National Language.

• He is well aware of Indian tradition and values. He educates people about the same and has cleared several misconceptions of those around him on various topics.

• He knows the ground reality of the country, where it is going right and where it can do better. You have to talk to him to know what the actual picture is.

Lifestyle

• Gets up 5 in the morning, sometimes 4. Does regular exercise, prepares tea for wife, reads newspapers for remaining abreast with local developments. Leaves for clinic by 10, treats patients till 2 PM (often this extends), reaches home for lunch, does family related work if needed, leaves again by 5, stays till 7:30 PM (often extends), reaches home, does family related work if needed, reads books/magazines, watches TV, goes to sleep.

• Does not drink alcohol. Does not smoke tobacco. Is not into drugs. Consumes Lacto Vegetarian food, often eats 1 Chapati at a time. Avoids fried, fast food, excess sweets.

• With his friends, he does not discuss about where to party, the newly introduced luxurious entities in market, toys for rich, which top brass officials to please in order to gain favours, etc. He discusses about the issues in society and viable solutions.

• At times he walks to his clinic, other times he goes via his two wheeler. He rarely uses his car to commute to office.

• The clothes that he wears, aren't very different from what he used to wear when he was a kid. Simple and basic, no designer brands. He never shops for his apparels himself. Some people deliberately gift him fine stuff so that he'd wear them which otherwise he wouldn't have.

• When many of his contemporaries are thinking about where to have the next drink and how to remove the hangover thereafter, he is thinking about how to make life comfortable for those around him and shaping path of young individuals.

• He attends his phone calls himself. He hasn't kept a PA to look after his accounts or to take care of his financial matters. He has kept minimal dependencies on his employees. He talks to his juniors himself without asking anyone else to fix a meeting with them or to handover his card / phone number.

Personal

• He doesn't believe in birth based Caste system and his last name signifies the organization he belongs to. He did not accept any dowry at the time of his marriage, and had self belief that he'd be able to take care of his wife with his income.

• His often gifts books to his close associates. The books he presents are the ones he has purchased on his money and has himself gone through it. There is always a purpose behind him gifting a book to someone.

• Does not go to theater to watch movies. Does not go to Casino to do gambling. Does not invest in "easy money" schemes.

• Watches News, Science, Spiritual channels on TV.

• He does not change his behaviour with patients, after they get promoted to high government posts. Nor does he forget them after they are no longer in power.

• He spends very little on himself. But on family he spends generously, whatever is their need he fulfills it. When his son was in Kindergarten he used to buy one new toy for him everyday. He always insisted his kids on getting the best instead of inferior cheaper options, provided it was something they really needed for their education / development / health.

• Though some of his patients happen to be prominent industrialists / actors / politicians / MP's, he does not click photos with them to display at his clinic / house.

• He sends New Year greetings to his close associates every 12 months. He himself writes on the cards with pen, without making use of a Computer generated mechanism, to give more personal touch.

Revelation of identity

At a time when India is often accused for its unethical practices, he has laid down an example as to how one can lead a life of simplicity, honesty, ethics, first generation professional in his respected field, sacrifice for the nation, and putting family above personal leisure.

This line in my poem 'The purpose of life' was based on him.

'Some people live to compromise, so as to provide joy to their closed ones'


His name is Dr. Rishi Kumar Arya.

Happy Birthday, Papa ji.

Dr. Rishi Kumar Arya