The IT Lothlórien!

It was just another day at work - yesterday! Minimal time and infinite deliverables and expectations! After managing to do what would fit in as a hard dog's day - I was browing my favourite Indian Zeitung website - Times of India. 

With the normal news of the Indian puppet elections and the ministers' lucky draw results - it was seemingly a boring view! All of a sudden, somewhere there was a link about something exciting in the IT field!

My eyebrow directed my cornea to focus on that one link. It was about something wavy called Google Wave!

With limited broadband facility at my residence in Aundh, I couldnt really view the entire video all in one go! Determination after a long day slog, is a topic for a book, not a blog! Somehow, after half an hour, I was finally able to see the video uninterrupted.

This was a demo of Google Wave which was done earlier at the Google I/O summit. My heart sort of jumped a beat, as each and every functionality of this unique and powerful product/platform was unveiled! Most amazing was the breakthrough in technology to make information sharing in IM and Email as real-time as is possible - to the level of "a letter" and not "individual messages". Equally amazing was the fact that this was Open Sourced right from the beginning, making it an important strategic technology shift since the invention of Internet!

You can name anything - email/IM/web browsing/blogging/social communication - everything has changed and changed for the extraordinarily best!

The most extraordinary feature in the demo is the part where one single email is being edited by multiple users - all at the same time! Creation of team deliverables will no longer need to be done in iterations - the door has been opened for them to be done "in collaboration" and "in parallel".

Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox have ruled for too long. Time for them to retire!!

Sincere suggestion to each and every IT worker in the world - whatever you do today - please check out the future of IT - Google Wave. The link to the demo is here: http://wave.google.com/

If you see this demo and you are not blown away,  there is nothing much which can interest you any longer in the IT world. You can quietly retire today!

Taking a few steps away from the topic in a related way - AR Rahman's Lothlorien composition in the "Lord of the Rings" musical - is a true masterpiece. If you are a true/loyal Rahman fan and you havent heard it, please take corrective actions immediately.

The lyrics of the song go something like this:

From the west she appeared,
Sunlight and stars in her hair.
In her eyes an undying memory of home,
A land that is magical and fair.

When her feet came to rest,
Deep in a canopied glade,
She lifted her face and there she danced.
The realm of Lothlórien she made.

Gaze on me lady of gold,
Reawaken my slumbering soul.
Beacon of courage summon me home,
to your haven of wonders untold.

Oh child of my heart,
Born of a never ending dream.
You were cradled in light,
Bathed in an ever flowing stream.

Flourish and grow,
my mystical world.
Here you will ever belong.
Son of my yearning,
Daughter of hope.
Beautiful child of my song.

Although storms may descend,
Mountain and valley may quake.
For the days that remain,
This is the promise I make.
No shadow fall across this land,
Before the wind and fire I stand,
And you my child will know no harm,
Enfolded in my arms,
Lothlórien!

The IT Lothlorien has arrived. Google Wave is the golden invention of the decade. Mountains of companies and valleys of IT vendors may quake, but the promise it holds is truly magical! 

Fresh off the Mac!

After many days, composed some music today.

Link: http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=114501

Other earlier compositions can be found at:

http://www.icompositions.com/artists/avsatish

Last word:

There is a fine line between music and noise. Someday I intend to erase it!

Silence at Frankfurt!

It was a cold windy day in January 2009. Germany was experiencing its normal quota of excess winter weather conditions and the temperatures are freezing.

Frankfurt Airport Terminal 1.

7:21 AM

Raghav just finished checking in his luggage. He was booked on a Lufthansa flight to Chicago. As is routine in his Sales Development job at Google, he has to regularly fly to meet potential customers all over the world. In tune with the hectic travel schedules, Raghav has always been a true Indian IT professional - he always keeps work first and family next :)

Nearly 12 hours ago, he was bidding farewell to his wife and son in Chennai. Nothing dramatically emotional at the airport, it was only a short visit of a few days! Couple of visits from the Sun and the Moon would ensure that he returned back home.

Waiting at gate 32, he was left all to himself. No one to talk to, no topic to think of.

There was an hour to kill. The flight to Chicago was delayed because of the bad weather. 

"A brief stroll in the terminal - some window shopping" or "finding a good corner to snooze with a bit of snore" he thought. Finally he decided he would go for a walk.

Known as one of the busiest airport terminals in the world, the place was buzzing. Though it was early in the morning, one could see passengers of different sizes and genders walking keenly to different corners of the terminal - making sure they have all their bags intact. One elderly old man was trying hard to keep pace with what seemed like his 10 year old grandson. A baby, on the other side, was desperately waiting for the morning quota of milk, while her mother was doing the routine of mixing milk powder and water, in the next seat. 

Having seen his wife Kavitha do these routines every day in the morning, he could understand how delicate the situation was. Babies, like managers only want results. They have their own deadlines and will create enough problems if things are not delivered on time!

Deep in this thought, he was walking ahead, when something caught his eye. At a distance, a young girl, in her twenties, was holding on to a heavy trolley, stuffed with suitcases. She seemed to be having a lot of difficulty in keeping them all from falling down. Dressed in proper winter wear, and a scarf to go with it, the young girl was of Indian origin. Bumping into Indians in foreign airports is nothing new in 2009 - he thought. The Indian had arrived on the world scene with the stupendous success of the IT firms some 'many years' ago!

There was something a bit familiar about this person, more than the normal. All of a sudden, it struck him like a lightning bolt. He knew this person!!

Straining his eyes, he tried to catch a proper glimpse of her face. With the scarf hiding it, it was a tough proposition, but he finally made it happen.  Was it Shruthi?!?!

Years seemed to rewind in seconds. The scene was changing.

Pondicherry, April 1995.

6:10 AM

The town was just about waking up, the odd dog barking down the lane. April is a horrible month in Pondicherry, only second in intensity to May. The Kathri Sun would literally come outside the homes and watch intently at what we were doing inside. Sweat, sweat and more sweat was the order of the day. Nights tend to be a bit better with dry winds, completing the equation.

Raghav was getting out of his home, on the main road. On his Kinetic Honda, he sped, as usual, like it was a F1 track. Luckily for the others, it was early in the morning and the roads were nearly deserted. 

The road to the Mathematics tuition class, was just about 5 mins away. Raghu always made it in 3. 

Parking it outside, he took the stairs to reach the class. It always started at 6:30. He was early and sat down at the last row. Unlike the early birds, he preferred the last seat, for unknown reasons. Looking around, he noticed that there were some girls seating across the class, in the last row. Little did he know, he would become very good friends with them, in the days to come.

Unlike in the movies, its hard to remember how the initial introductions are made. In the next 12 months or so, he would know the 4 of them very well. Cometh the 12th std exams, cometh the results. 

Life started spanning out into different directions. As is common with most 'school friend groups', it was time to move on to new places, meet new people and keep the past archived! All went in different directions and no formal communication channels existed.. for unknown reasons!

Raghav came to his senses again. Shruthi had just passed him at the airport terminal lounge. She hardly noticed him!

Before trying to stop her - he rewinded again in his thoughts.

It was nearly 15 years since they had first met. 15 years since they first spoke in that tuition class. How many new people would have come in her life, since then, she must be married too.. would she even remember the good old tuition mate? Would she take him seriously? Raghav had certain bad experiences earlier on with some of his college friends. One of them, who was really close to him - he had tracked her down to her home in California. After a brief phone call, she promised to mail him back. 

Yeah, that was more than 2 years now! - He thought. Would it be a repeat of that? Anyway, its worth a try - he muttered. 

Shruthi was now far ahead and was moving towards gate 50. 

Raghav had to act quick and smartly. He rushed towards her, while avoiding other passengers walking in the opposite direction. Finally, as he was nearly there, one of her bags fell down. As she stopped abruptly, Raghav was standing just behind her.. and bent down to pick it up for her. 

Shruthi was too keen to pick her stuff, she gave a simple glance at the stranger helping her. Raghav started the conversation - Hi!

The sudden glance turned into surprise and from nowhere - the face beamed with a smile. She managed to recognize him. With the bag restored to its original place in the trolley.. the conversation started - exactly where it stopped 15 years ago!

How are you? Fine - And you? Where have you been? - What a "Super" surprise?! Meeting in the middle of nowhere? - Laughter interspersed the words.

Shruthi seemed to have caught on with the word "Super". She used it more frequently than the verbs and nouns - surely this would disappoint her English teacher at school!

Having helped her go to Gate 50 and check-in her bags, Raghav took her to the nearest coffee shop at the terminal. Both of them, have seen umpteen people in their lives in the past 15 years, some close, some closer and others - in general. But there was something truly genuine between them, something which stood the test of time. Its called friendship -  the most ancient of gifts, given by King God Himself.

There are moments when you let someone take you for granted, pull your leg as you discuss your mistakes openly and voluntarily. This was just that - Raghav and Shruthi had a funny conversation of what happened, what did not, what should have and what could not!

With the multiple rounds of 'catch-up' conversations over, they walked back to the Gate 50. Shruthi's flight was to take off earlier. When she was leaving, she looked back at Raghav. Not a word was said, the silence was still and yet stirring. 

In a matter of a few minutes, someone had come from the past, knocked at the present and was leaving away again into the unknown future. How time plays with our emotions! - Raghav thought.

Emails were exchanged this time - not to repeat the mistakes 15 years hence. The link was re-inked.

This incident could have happened to several of you, reading this blog. While you could manage to retain the old friendships going with some of your schoolmates, years apart, there would surely be others who have moved on and do not have time for you anymore. Such is today's fast paced life with totally re-organized priorities.

And yeah, if you ever want to know how deep your friendship is - its not the words which are spoken - its those that aren't that matters. Silence - is the language of the eyes. The language of truth!

As the 'Moon' sees it!

Yet another foregone incident with a common man. Yet another night in the average life of an Indian!

A Hyundai Getz was leaving the Aundh area of Pune. It was nearly 11 PM at night - on the 14th of May. Another hot summer day in Pune had passed by, the trees were tired of the heat and were intent on sleeping early. I was trying to help them at it. The roads were nearly empty, the wind all but dead.

The car zipped through the outer Baner Road and headed towards the University Circle. Inside it, three people were travelling. The occasion was to drop a lady at the railway station. The train was to arrive at 15 past midnite. At the station, the car was parked and the three walked in. Platform tickets were not purchased because of the long queue. It was announced that the train would arrive at Platform 5.

Indian railway stations, for those who havent felt and smelt it, are nothing but an absolute disgrace. On one hand, the Railways is earning profits in crores, on the other hand, it has no vision to spend on enriching the conditions in the trains and the stations. Pune was no ordinary station in India, btw! Its one of the second ring of cities and not some distant village in the middle of Timbuktoo!

The coach was supposed to be S6. The three protoganists duly reached the location where the bogie would end up aligning on the platform. Around 11:50 PM. The stench, the uncleaned platforms and the ever-adapting Indian crowd were all around the three.

Soon and surely, the train chugged into the station. The seat number was supposed to be 16. Umpteen train journeys have come and gone in their lives till then. They never had had too many issues to comfort themselves with, once a train arrived. It was the mere formality of getting in and arranging one's luggage. A due-diligence inspection of the namelist pasted on the bogie usually accompanied the final round of the "train onboarding formality". Happened here too, but with the name not seen at all, in the entire S6 namelist. Strange situation - Hmm?? - they thought!!!

Nevertheless, the three marched into the train. Suprisingly the seat 16, which is supposed to be "Side Upper" - complicated the matter. The normal side berths in Indian trains only had two tiers. One nearly aligned to the window and the other absolutely above it. As they say in german - Fall der Fenster and Uber der Fenster...! This one had drei tiers. The english translation would go with the number between 2 and 4.

Whats this new complication?! To add masala to the omelette being cooked, all the three tiers were occupied. "Which one is number 16?" - asked one man accompanying the lady. One can congratulate Luck for it - the person who occupied berth 16 - immediately got down and said it was not his berth. The lady jumped in and put her luggage in the mid tier berth. The person at the topmost berth was dreaming about something very important - and hence couldnt muster the distraction of opening his eyes! The one at the lowermost berth, awake, was probably getting worried if the next question would put him out of the berth he was occupying!

Not used to travels made in the middle of the night, with Me shining bright - especially with a lady in Modern India - the two men were worried, if she would be able to manage the probable situation - if the person whose name was posted in 16 on the namelist - did arrive?!!! Ofcourse one has the maturity to handle such situations, but was midnite in that dirty train; in the middle of nowhere - the opportunity to test one's skills?!

Dilemma ensued. To ensure that all was cross-verified, they tried to check the lists of S5 and S7. No luck. Seemed like the Railway employee who printed the namelists, didnt like any name we were looking for!?!! How could all this go wrong, in such quick minutes. A good point to note, Indian trains have a healthy habit of leaving the platforms - without any formal announcement or preword! Time was running short. Enter a man in his 30s and another one accompanying him, equally old! One of them, wearing a heavy rimmed glasses, came to seat 16. "Is this your seat?" was his question. A quick cross-check of both tickets by the lady and the spectacled man ensued. The lady asserted that it was her seat. The man and his companion duly left to check if their name was in the namelist.

One could see them duly studying the list for S6 from seat 10 to almost 20! With obvious confused looks, they walked back right in.

The Indian train was keeping up to its habits - only this time it was nearly punctual. Without any hint, it started leaving the station. The two men waved "bye" only with worries written between the frowns on their faces. Called the lady on phone and told her to manage any situation with the TTR to ensure that she had a place for herself. The lady sounded confident of handing the situation.

Pune saw an eventless morning the next day as I moved on and my counterpart took charge. The phone rang - on what actually happened the previous night, in the train. The lady explained that there was no TTR to discuss the situation with, suprising since, such situations are great opportunities for "minting" money from the average Indian passenger..! She added "The spectacled man was probably a very soft spoken man, with a village background." He pleaded to her - "Where will I go now?" - with a very distinct simpleness and resignation to fate. The lady got support from the men in berth 15 - as she was a lady! They convinced the villager to go and find a place somewhere else.

There was absolute fairness in what they had said.
Was there absolute fairness in what they had said?

Only almost. The lady had got the ticket for the train - S6, berth 16 but dated the 14th of May. It was expected to reach Pune station by 12:15 midnight time, which meant the travel date should be the 15th of May. Since she had got the ticket for the previous day's journey, her name was not listed in the namelist. The printer clerk at the Railways is correct and exonerated of any charges! The spectacled mild-mannered villager was the due occupant of berth 16 - for the journey on the 15th of May.

No TTR and no one else to clarify on this issue - the villager found a place to sleep on the compartment floor. He had duly paid for the fare of the journey, only to be left not availing it!

As the silent "Moon" watching all of this happen, I didnt know how to react! Was it the fault of the lady? Could she have accepted her fault to the villager - and ended up travelling in "no-man's berth" on that train? Was it safe for her in that crowded train, to take that risk? Could the villager have been more assertive in putting his case through? What would have ensued if he was a city bred dude? Who would have taken berth 16? What if there was a duty bound TTR - added to the mix?

- These questions will remain unanswered. For ever!

The irony of Indian life these days is such! Who comes first, takes it all. Whoever is duly supposed to - doesnt! Who needs to be present to monitor it, isnt!

In a Moon's life, this is not anything new. I see many such incidents from the distance. Sometimes I introspect - sometimes I ignore. Now that you have heard the complete story, hope I have you introspecting!!

Listen - dont just hear!

Today - the IT world is getting templatized!

In the previous generation, it was raining "engineers and doctors". Some droplets of "lawyers" maybe. "Army and Police" were the options of the rural youth. "Government jobs" and the "9-to-5" lifestyle were the norm. It was quite a success too.

But then the ones who really moved away from these quadrants of public acceptability, neednt be termed as failures. In fact those that are currently enterpreneurs can be termed as having culturally moved out of the mould - to realise their own dream! Why they do that is because of the fact that they see "something which others dont"!

Dont want this blog to sound like a cut-paste from any management book - but then I do feel the time is right to put my perspective to some of my dudes at work.

This generation is aligned with IT whether they like it or not. Most fields are aligned with the omnipresent "computer"! In core IT terminology, there exists a divide between "the acceptable" and the "also ran". Development/Delivery roles are really accepted as having the most benefit to one's career. Support roles are slightly looked down at! BPO roles probably fall even lower!

At the end of the day, they all get paid, in proportion ofcourse. But if you look at the careers of the chunk, they will fall under development/delivery. Does this mean that they are all very successful? Not really. They only believe in going with the crowd - nothing more nothing less.

When I joined HP, I faced some interesting questions from my friends as to why I chose the "support" role that I did. Looking back at those years, I had a chance to work in multiple technologies - facilitated by the chance of attending multiple trainings and it really helped me widen my perspective. Wasnt the case of looking between the code written by another developer in the team and the bug therein!

Sincere suggestion to my dudes in the IT world - break the template - do step into newer roles. Its no longer a fair world. The one who takes the risk, gets ahead!

Now, dont tell me you didnt know all this!! You did - you have heard it before but didnt listen enough. Thats the mistake you made and it has made all the difference.

Listen - dont just Hear!