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

Need your support and assistance

Photo by Arjun Suri Photography

Fellow acquaintances, colleagues, relatives, brothers and their sisters,

I need you, yes YOU, to help me out.

For what? To start spreading stories about me.

What stories? Stories on the following lines.
1. This guy called Yaju Arya is an angel on earth.
2. Yaju Arya is the ideal role model for today's kids.
3. The most honest, genuine, and kind fellow alive.
4. He makes use of divine intervention and can connect with the one above.
5. Can provide solution to ANY problem of whatever nature.
6. To make the Earth a better place we should support him.
7. Anyone who disagrees with him is a bad human, who will never get 'success in life'.


For doing this I won't offer any money / gifts in return, but would make you stakeholders in my "NGO". That is you'd make money whenever I'd hit the jackpot. This way the number of 'positive' stories spread by you would be directly proportional to YOU raking in the moolah.

The effect of these stories would be that it'd arise curiosity among new sects of people. When I'd tour some city/village, they'd be aware of my arrival and hence they'd come to see me live, to witness the 'divine being' whose stories they had been hearing for long.

In order to make them appear 'real', we'd hold 'camps', where I'd preach 'spiritual stuff' and spend few minutes offering 'solutions' to people's 'problems'. It'd easy uttering spiritual stuff - I'd simply take works of Jiddu Krishnamurti / Swami Vivekanand / Lord Buddha / Bhagwat Geeta , put across in contemporary language, and present them as my own.
As for solving 'problems', I'd tell something random based on sixth sense in a way that it'd induce faith in their minds.

It is natural that there'd be people who'd donate money. So even if 1000 people come to attend one such camp, and we collect Rs. 100 from each of them, we'd earn Rs. 1 Lakh from one event. Holding 4 such events every week throughout the year, we'd earn more than 2 Crore Rupees. Even if you have 1% stake, you'd end up earning 20 Lakh rupess in a year. Much faster than your present job. Also better.

I'd manage my Social Media presence myself and also do my own PR. I'd make sure that my Facebook page will have a lot of 'likes' and there would a mobile app for Android (why only Android, you'll know the reason soon, keep reading this article).

Also, I am confident of my presentation abilities. No, not because I consider myself to be awesome, but because I know that most people are afraid of discovering life, they simply want to take the shortcut to 'success' (which inevitably means easy money). Along with Real Estate, this is the other profession in India which hasn't witnessed decline since Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi. It helps that major chunk of India's growing population is in need of earning quick money, thanks to factors such as inflation and depleting water level.

As is a norm set by people in my 'profession', I'd contemplate change of name, by which I'd be called. I've zeroed in on Sakht Aryaveer Androidanand (translates to Hard Brave Noble Person who gets joy out of Android).

To get started, here are 'solutions' to few heart-wrenching 'problems' (In Software terminology this is called Demo version. You, the reader, can do beta-testing and provide response).

Problem - Androidanand ji, I am not able to sleep early, always do that around 2 AM and hence wake up late. What to do?
Solution - My dear child, the problem is that you are living in India. Consider relocation to a place like Rwanda where time zone is 3.5 hours behind. Then you'd automatically sleep around 10:30 PM.

Problem - Oh Androidanand, this particular boy in my class, never looks at me. What should I do?
Solution - My dear fairy, the problem lies in your dress. Get yourself a crew cut, wear silver-coloured hair band, a necklace made of brass chain with lock, faded Purple T-Shirt of size 50 inches (if you don't find it anywhere then we'll make it for you, at very 'nominal' rates), Pink colour Patiala Salwar, and Florescent Green bedroom slippers. I assure you that you'd get second, third, fourth... googol look-backs by that particular boy, as well as his dad, grand dad, and a heavenly one from his great great grand dad.

Problem - Yo Androidanand! My Internet is too slow! What should I do?
Solution - My dear chic kid, the problem is that you want to access Internet. Why do you want to do that? Because it makes you happy. Why do you want to be happy? Because you are not currently happy. Happiness is a state of mind, some have it, many don't. And when you are not happy, you try to find solace in things like the Internet, end result of which is that you become addicted. You spend money on buying devices, Internet plans, etc. which otherwise could have been donated to my NGO and in effect we'd have helped needful kids. To start with getting rid of this addiction, sell off your device and whatever money you'd have invested in Internet plans in the next 12 months, donate that to 'us', this'd ensure that you'd stay off this evil till that time.


I sincerely hope that the above sample was enough to convince you of my 'selling' abilities.

So what are you waiting for? Go forward with elan and spread the word!


Hard & Noble Regards,
Sakht Aryaveer Androidanand.

(Disclaimer - My dear reader, the above article is a work of fiction. Any sane resemblance to someone living or dead would be nothing short of a miracle.)

Wish I was a child again

Now now, this is something that we all say, for various reasons varying from wandering carelessly -to- sleeping in mother's arms -to- playing with mud -to- fighting with our siblings -to- riding the see-saw -to- standing on the weighing scale so as to see a very less reading -to- not driving through congested areas....

My reason is different.

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When we were tiny tots, almost everyone used to ask us "Beta, aap bade hokar kya banoge?" Mostly our answers used to be "A teacher", "A doctor", "An actor", or "A superhero", with an innocent smile on the face.

If I were a child again, I'd have said "Main bada hokar Property Dealer banoonga!", with an innocent smile on my face and hands on my pocket, symbolizing how rich I would be.

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I remember the time I was 6 years old. On the way to school, I used to pass by a shop called "Jagga Property Dealer". Seeing him, I used to think "What does this guy do? He just sits on a chair, gossiping with people." How I wish I had also learnt the art of gossiping and sitting on a chair, instead of learning stuff like the Human Anatomy / Nuclear Physics / Complex Mathematics....

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Years ago, there were barren areas on the outskirts of my city where no one used to go (such areas are in every city). I used to detest going there as well and felt that no one should build a home there, as those areas were too far from the main city, having no infrastructure at all.

Now I wish that I should have insisted on to my parents "Papa papa, mujhe wahaan pe zameen chahiye, chahiye, CHAHIYE!" and so we'd have purchased huge amounts of land there, whose value would have become 5/10/20/50 times within a few years due to all the I.T. / Multiplexes / lush socities / business centres being developed there.

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Remember how we were made to shout "Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisaan" by our teachers? And the basic neccessties were "Roti, Kapda aur Makaan", in that order?

Had I been a child again, I'd have shouted "Jai Jameen, Jai Kisaan" and the basic necessities would have been "Makaan, Kapda aur Roti", in that order. This is as according to the Governments of various countries, there is too much of food on our planet, because of which most of the farms posessed by farmers are useless. Hence they must be taken over and converted to something on which Industries can be developed, so that the country's economy will recieve a boost leading to a more "prosperous nation".

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To become a Real Estate Agent ( an H.S. alias for Property Dealer), you don't need to be graduate, at least in India. You don't need to pass Plus Two. Even 10th isn't needed. All you need to do is to possess land, which doesn't require any educational qualifications.

If I were a child again, I'd have invested the money used in my education for the purchase of land. And then shouted aloud on the roof of my house "Marks Aren't Everything!"

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To all the Property Dealers / Real Estate Agents reading this :: Yours is a very noble profession, as you are fulfilling a basic necessity of people so that they won't have to sleep on the footpath. Take into consideration that everyone can't pay Rs. 50,000 in a single go, or sign a bond to live for one year, or adjust to live with all sorts of people in order to save money, or take a loan from the bank as his/her parents aren't too rich. Those who leave their families and travel thousands of kilometers in order to fulfil their dreams should be helped, not looted.

To those wishing to become a Property Dealer :: Go for it, if you intend to perform your duties with good intent and are actually going help the people in getting the accomodation of their choice, at reasonable price. There are some people in this field who are angelic and very helpful, but unfortunately their number is less.

Everyone :: Thanks for reading my post. :-)