TRIP TO INNER SPACE

I had a nice trip today with Rajesh anna's family to 'Inner-Space' (A cavern near Austin). On our way to the cavern, we visited JFK Assasination spot at Dallas Downtown, and had our lunch at the rest-area on the highway (I-35). The highway (I-35) runs north-south leading to most of the important cities in Texas. It took nearly 2.5 hours to reach the cavern named 'INNER SPACE'which is located 20 miles away from Austin. Let me quote a few words about Inner Space from its official website.

"Before its discovery, Inner Space cavern has been hidden for several thousand of years. Then in 1963, a construction crew from the Texas Highway Department found a large system of caves directly beneath the site of Texas' first Interstate Highway (I-35). Members of the crew were the first to enter into the unknown". The first captured photos are available here.

At the Innerspace, a guide came along with us and we all went in a group of nearly 12-15 persons. The cave is very well maintained and its an awesome sight. The limestone dripping from the ceiling and the big mass of snow-white crystal flowstone that covered the walls/ceiling looked splendid. We were not allowed to touch any of them except at 2 specific spots. Some areas had the stickiest kind of mud that u can ever imagine. However, we did not step on that.

It was 6:00 pm when we got into our car. We had our way straight to Starbucks to have coffee, and then to an outlet mall where I got myself a pair of Nike shoes. Then, we went to a mexican restaurant and I had a veggi-burrito. It tasted too good... I reached home at 10:30 pm and I at once switched on my laptop to update my blogsite. Well... thats all for now and I had a grt time for the day.

SEMINAR - 'CAREER IN TELECOM'

I attended a seminar today morning and it was all about 'Career in Telecom'. The guest speakers were the representatives from 5 different companies (Fujitsu, MCI, Nortel Networks, SBC Telecom and Texas Instruments). It was an informative session where each of them talked briefly about how they managed to go up their career ladder and spoke a few words about their company. The colloquium was primarily dominated by question-answer session and it was indeed very informative... The answers given by these people in the I.T/Telecom industry clarified most of the doubts that had been lingering in my mind for a long time. Well... I shall briefly write abt a few good qts and the corresponding answers given by the guests.

What do the employers look in a person (applicant) for recruitment?

In addition to the necessary technical and marketable skills that most of the applicants possess, we would look out for leadership qualities, ability to work in teams, communication skills and the enthusiasm in the applicant. These were the qualities stressed on by all the 5 guest speakers. (Well... I would like to add on to the list a few more that I learnt from other seminars. They include the ability to make quick & right decisions and willingness to learn more. These are in addition to the work experience in the related field, which forms a major factor for recruitment.)

What are the opportunities to Freshers in a sloppy economy and a hard-to-find job-scenario like the one we have now?
The opportunities to fresh graduate passed-out students is very meek. (I was surprised to hear such frank and explicit opinions...)

What to focus on...? Whether to be a jack of all trades in order to have a broader scope for job [OR] be an expert in few specific trades and try chances with a limited scope for a job?
Be an expert in specific field of your interest and have knowledge on (i.e be good at) all the related ones to that field. For example, a programmer may be an expert in all flavors of Java, however he must be good at programming in C,C++, .NET C#, etc... This may increase his job opportunities and may also enhance his chances to get high in his specialized field of work.

Do the companies prefer not to opt for a H1-B visa applicant...?
With off-shoring being the practice, intake of new passed-out international graduate students under H1-B visa is not prefered by most companies in today's job-market scenario. So, it is becomming very hard for international students to find a job and eventually a career in US soon after completing their education.

Outsourcing - What is the future?
Off-shoring and Outsourcing will carry on and will infact increase in the upcoming years. This will further damage the job-market scenario in USA. The companies have been attracted to get on to off-shoring in order to cut down costs and increase productivity around the globe. I also learnt that Nortel Networks were running at loss for the past 6 years earlier to the year 2003. It was only in 2003 that they saw profits, and hence they celebrated by giving away bonus and hike in salary to its employees. This was possible only becos of off-sourcing. So... its very clear that more companies will follow the same strategy (out-sourcing and off-shoring) to make profits.

M.S vs M.B.A... Which is better? Do we need to take up both degrees to get high on career ladder?
It is the self-interest and personal choice that should guide the person on which path to take. But, getting a dual degree is obviously an asset to your career.

Well... There are many more questions, but only the ones above caught my attention...

GOT MY TICKETS

Today, I got my tickets (Lufthansa airlines) to India. Hmmm... 2 more months before I can have my first trip to my motherland from USA.

CAN U IMAGINE A SHOWER FOR $1,20,000

I just found a bathroom shower for a price of $1,20,000. It is the SilverTag shower that uses various hydrotherapy techniques by varying water temperature and the pressure from the shower. It is said to be fully customised by the customer and it consists of a touch screen panel to select among the 6 shower frequencies, 18 shower heads and target 6 different zones of the body. Whatever may be the features of a shower, spending $1,20,000 is ridiculous. All that it can atmost do is to pour water on your body. It makes more sense to donate so much money to the poor and needy rather than to purchase it. May be the shower was designed only for the TOP 10 richest people in the world ~

SPEEDING UP BY... PROJECT MANAGERS !

An article in Computer world puts forward the need to balance speed and quality of the ongoing software projects. It was rightly said that the waterfall development model is too slow for today's need to develop instant solutions to rapidly changing specifications of the customer. To preserve the quality and long-term reputation, we need to device a standardised Rapid Application development model to speed up the development process. A framework based on the Rational Unified Process was reported to achieve a quality greater than CMM Level 5.

This approach will further improve the communication among the team members, customers, management personnel and the project managers using a common ground. "By shifting from the waterfall approach to the RAD technique, developers were delivering exactly what the businesses required, and there was no documentation hurdle between them" says Vanessa Beer, a Fujitsu consultant. This is a good technique rather than partially implementing the slow waterfall development model to quickly meet the deadlines.

SNOW AT DALLAS

May be once in a year, it snows in Dallas... and today is that day for the year 2004. For the first time, I touched and felt the snow, played with it, made a small snowman out of it and enjoyed my presence in the midst of it. Sushil (my room-mate), was the first one in my appt to find the snow falling outside. He called us at-once, and we all went around the campus to feel and play with snow. It was toooo good... Several photo snaps were taken and they have been uploaded to the web. Check out the link at the right column of this page "SPLENDID PHOTO SNAPS: UTD".

HOW TO MAKE HISTORY? ? ?

Many a times, I used to ponder abt how to mark my presence and how to stand out from the rest of the world. I came up with a maxim : "THINK beyond the boundaries, ACT against the convention, and QUESTION the obvious". I truely believe that this is the underlying principle over which I should lay my focus on. The above maxim says just one thing: BE DIFFERENT (and hence BE YOURSELF). Let us all not go blindly at the conventional methods of doing things. Let us innovate new lifestyles, new trends, new business principles, new ways of expressing love & affection, new ways of flattering people, new marketing tricks, new administration strategies, .... and the list can go on~ Let us make our own road to live life... and once we show up results... May be, the world will consider our strategy as a new conventional way to live life in course of time.

Examples are numerous.... People who followed this kind of a strategy and tasted success through out their life are the ones who make history. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Dhirubai Ambani, Sachin Tendulkar, ... and all the ones who have patents to their credit are the examples...

WHICH AIRLINES DO I CHOOSE? ? ?

Today, I was gathering information about the cost of travel to-&-from India at various airlines. There is a $200 difference between the Singapore airlines and Lufthansa. I am trying to figure out which airline shall I go in for. The only drawback of Singapore airlines is that I need to spend nearly 10 hrs at Singapore airport.... Well ! I have to make quick decisions to get the tickets at their best price.

DART DID THE SERVICE AGAIN

Yday, I had my way to the the SSN office to submit an application for name-correction in my SSN card. Dart public transport did the service again... I had to spend nearly 2 hrs travelling and so, I took my MP3 player with me just to kill time... I was listening to pretty old (but good) stuff that include the ones by Backstreet boys, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson,... and all the big names. I was also trying to play a trick to make my time interesting. The trick is the same old one which we all know and have read in many many books. It is just observing everything that I could see and gather insights or make judgements. So, I started looking out of the window and tried to observe the buildings, people and cars on my way.

When I was looking at the interiors of the bus, a poster which contained a poem caught my eyes. It reads as follows...
My heart is like a singing bird
whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple tree
whose boughs are bent with thick fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
that paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
because my love has come to me.

Well... this is a good poem and reminded me of many romantic movies and novels. This is all inside the bus; and I could find nothing very interesting in the train. Out of the window, I could find many companies and hence, I started making track of all I.T companies that I passed by. Some included HBS Systems, Sonus Networks, Nortell, Collins and Raddison at my neighborhood. There are a few big ones which I was looking out for, but they did not come on my way.

At the SSN office, I had to wait in the long queue before I got my work done. Small kids were running all over the place catching each other. They were one of those games that I played in my school days. After I came home, I had my lunch and soon, I went out to catch a bus to Walmart. It was 5:30 in the evening when I reached home and I was tired and very sleepy by then ~

HOW DIFFERENT IS INDIA FROM USA?

Well.... I am not talking abt the infrastructural differences and the materialistic pleasures. I am basically talking abt the people and their behavior in the 2 countries. India has so much diversity that it could not be counted as one. I had the chance to know abt North Indians since my room-mate is from Haryana. He tells a lot abt N.India , their people and explains how they celebrate the typical N.Indian festivals such as Holy at their home-town. We also tell him a lot abt South India.

Same is the case with America as well. The people and their habits are also very diversified and it is hard for me to generalize them. But anyway, they all have few things in common. They all love solitude, greeting at people(including strangers) when they come across each other, and be fond of music. I could find many who could not kill time with out a CD player/walkman. Well... we cannot find any of these characteristics in people of India. The Americans also do things explicitly (not shy), be outspoken (frank) and not be very bothered abt what his neighbour might think of him. This is also something that we dont see in India. Indian culture is more of a society-centric one.

"MAATHA PITHA GURU DEYWAM" - DO U KNOW WHAT IT MEANS??

There is a very famous adage in sanskrit - "Maatha, Pitha, Guru, Deywam" whose intended meaning is always misunderstood by most of the people using it. I am fortunate to be among the few ones who know its real meaning. The wrong and the most obvious meaning is that the mother (Maatha) is given first importance, then father (Pitha), then master (Guru) and finally is the god (Deywam). But the intended message in the adage is nowhere near its obvious meaning. The real meaning is as follows:

'When a child is born, it only knows who its mother is. The mother will show the child who its father is. The father in turn takes the child to a master (guru). It is the guru alone who can show the child who and where the GOD (Deywam) is.' So... This adage higlights the principle role of each person / character in a child's life who enable him to find the ultimate truth (GOD).

WELL DONE 2003! WHATZ UP FOR 2004?

The Year 2003 marked few bookmarks in my life and things went as I wanted them to get going... I got my under-grad degree, admission to UTD, visa to US and experienced every moment of life. I further experienced the cultural differences here in US, experimented with solitude, managed things all by myself and this elevated my confidence level, gained valuable expertise in various programming languages and made many new friends at UTD. To add more to the list, I made a framework for my career from all the advices that I recieved from Rajesh anna. For now, I am just awaiting for an oncampus job... may be it is in store for me in the year 2004.

Much awaited bookmarks are yet to come in the year 2004. Some of them include getting my first job (oncampus ofcourse), my first trip to India from US, and visiting various places in US during vacations. With my under-grad friends with me now, I am getting more comfortable with my living place. I just feel like thanking god a million times for what ever he has done. Anyway, I firmly believe that anything that happens is for my own good and find every reason to thank god.

A STORY...

This is a story to describe the importance of .... (Read it). There once lived a king who ruled the entire world. One day, he wanted to honour the person who is responsible for all the wealth and prosperity of his kingdom. His ministers gave him a list of names-of-persons, because of whom his kingdom is safe, prosperous and blissful. The list included the Senathapathi (Militrary Head) who is responsible for protection of the kingdom, the administration head, the home minister, the finance minister, the Chief Business Men, and the list went on.... The king was confused of who is the greatest one in the list. So, the king requested every one in the list to come & meet him at the same time.

When everyone assembled at the king's court, the mantri (King's P.A) remarked to the king that there is one man who is far superior to all the people who have assembled infront of him. The king at once asked the mantri to get that person to the court. The mantri brought along with him an elderly person with a walking stick, impaired hearing, blurred eyesight and few teeth missing. When the person entered the king's court, all the great men who had assembled there got up from their seats and showed respect to this elderly person. The king was astonished to find everyone giving their atmost respect to that person. Now, the mantri stated that this elderly person is the Guru (Master) who taught all the great people as how to become great in their own fields of interest. The Guru was at once honoured and the story ended....

Now, u know on whom the story emphasises on... Never forget to remember that person !

GOOD BLOG...

Good Blogging stuff at Cerebral Shangrilla. His recent blogs were very interesting and informative. They include a short note on Gandhiji's principles, Abdul Kalam's speech on the Republic day, a short-list of 25 most influential Business persons in the past 25 years, an inspiring story from the 3rd Edition of "Chicken Soup for the soul" and some more interesting stuff... Do check it out. Dont forget to check out the speech by our beloved president. It is indeed the highlighted one ...