Home - Diaries - Indipepal

 I have been accessing the internet for the last 10 years now. I had been tracking every movement on the internet by major companies. Initially i got attracted my some part time money making sites, which i later found were mostly fake. I have actually worked for 1 year for a paid to click site and found that it was fake. I even tried fraud clicks to generate revenue through Google Adsense when i was 15 but of course i could n't beat the big G and got tracked.

My next phase started with internship at Onyomo.com. Onyomo is a local search engine covering some major Indian cities. This is where i understood the Web 2.0 arriving in India. I did some interesting work there and got to learn a lot.

I was looking for some freelancing work last year when i found a proposal from Adbhai.com. I applied for the assignment and got it. Since then i have been working with Adbhai on all kinds of things. We are a small team at Adbhai but are doing things even faster than some biggies out there. We outsource things we are not good at, it does cost us but then it makes us save a lot of time and release some serious features like our Orkut app.

The most serious searchers on classifieds sites in India generally come for real estate search. Used electronics, books etc. are not really something people often search for on internet. Here at Adbhai also we find a lot part time job postings and a look at it will tell you they are fake but then maybe that is how it will always work.

Things are changing fast on internet hope I don’t lose interest.

You must have heard of this popular quote. All human wisdom is summed up in two words. Wait and hope. Yes, patience, a hidden talent, which is tested in crisis situation and more the difficulties we face in life, the more our hidden talent is polished.

• Waiting for my turn to pay the fare at the parking lot. That's alrite. I should have started my day earlier to avoid the rush of the bikers.
• Waiting for the train to arrive, hopefully on time. The digital clocks now only help us to give us an exact idea as to how much they run late. That's alrite too because that's a part of taking that mode of  transport. 
• Waiting to cross the foot-over bridge to go the other end towards the exit point of the station. The brigde is too narrow and it can't handle the rush. Speed is 0.01 miles/hr while climbing the bridge. That's alrite.. i have a book with me to read. So time Flies..

Now all these scenes make our journey a little more exciting if adventerous is not the right word. One can pe patient enough to handle these daily Jhik Jhik and it doesn't really test your patience level. Not much.

Now comes a scene where there is so much to tell but all one can do is look at your computer and carry on with your work.

My office is late by  23 days to pay the salary of all the employees. Its a big banner office and the thought of being a part of this always excited me. But the motivation level isnt there much and there is a feeling of being used.

I don't do charity. Patience level is zero in this scenario and it is not allright and there is no alternate feeling to make yourself feel better.

Waiting , Waiting, Waitng. For the salary to be credited. The hidden talent,patience, has been polished and is now shiny. Can't Wait any longer. 

Such is post recession life.

The month of April, the first day considered as April fools day, started with an unexpected call. I said, “Hello”. A stubborn, hard, commanding voice on the other side of the phone said, “We went through your resume and we find it suitable for a new opening. Would you come down for an interview?” It had been a month that I had mailed my resume to them. Without hesitation I said, “That’s wonderful. What time?”

 Next day, a short man, little fat, in his thirties was going through my CV and my mind was running very fast trying to predict the questions that he would ask me. I was in the interview room.

 1- What is your experience?

2- Would you be able to travel so long?

3- Why do you want to join us?

4- What’s salary do you expect?

Most of the predictions for the questions were right except that the order was different. “Your salary won’t be as handsome as your face.” he said jokingly when I asked him about the package.

 Anyways, cut to scene on the floor. There was a lot of buzz and most of the employees were not on their seat. I could see them little worried, whispering in each other ears as if they broke a sad news to each other.

“I better finish my work on time and not divert my attention to something I don’t know” I said to myself. It was my first job and was passionately in the grove to do quality work without wasting anytime.

 Next day I met the senior employee who had interviewed me and selected me. "Sir, I believe you told me that the salary gets credit on the 1^st of every month. It’s the 12^th today and I haven’t received the numbers I worked for.”

 How dumb I was not to realize why the other employees look worried yesterday. The salary was not given. The headlines on all the mind of the employees read, “Oh God!! Recession.”

 Someone had e.m.i to clear. Someone had pending bills. Someone wanted to celebrate his birthday party by taking his family to an expensive hotel. Yes, the last someone was me.

 All these year, the first day of the month never had any relevance to me as I got what I wanted. I was never demanding to my father and was happy to ride a bicycle till the age of 18. After this incident, I really valued the importance of money when most of my plans which had been chalked, had to be erased from my mind with a painful duster because I didn’t get my salary.

 Everyday, waiting at the entrance of the parking lot to park my bike, at the railway ticket counter, the foot over bridge used to walk out of  the station, the line at the bus stop and in the canteen.

 Today, its 3 months working in the company and still waiting for my second salary.

 Such is life diaries.

 Here I am, driving out of Sector 17, Chandigarh this evening and I dare to take a wrong side which, naturally, everyone takes else having to face a long circituous route to get to the main route. Unfortunately, I have the habit of getting caught by cops on those days about which I’m so extremely confident that they are passing well. Well, I nearly run down the cop who stops me mid-flight to tell me that I would be challan-ed. He asks for my documents. I quickly look into my wallet and ascertain that I don’t have a single 50 Rupee note on me with which I can bribe this Mama (Hindi Slang for Policeman, Just like Cop) and since I don’t wish to loose sight of my precious 100 Rupee notes, I must try to evade the ticket. I try to coax him with the usual talk- I’m a Student, won’t do it ever again, etc etc…

 But since he sees a reluctance in me to get loose on the cash, he refers me to his boss who simply takes out his Challan Book and starts looking up the details of my Drivers License. This is it, its now or never. So I fall down on his knees and clutch them, leaving them not till he relents and pushing me off, hurls a few abuses at me and gives me back my DL and RC and tells me to get lost. Trust me, I did that more than happily, having pulled this gig for the first time.

 Morals of the Story- Grab the legs, you won’t believe it although its been said to you many times, but it really works!!

– The old Indian tradition of touching the feet of your elder ones as an offering of respect surely has more using than as a good back exercise!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a "parent-teachers" meeting at my son's dancing academy. As a proud father, I wanted to support a passionate teenager getting trained by an equally passionate and celebrity dance director from Bollywood. They invited us to a big auditorium and I took my seat. I felt the usual anticipation of hearing a bit about my son's progress, getting exposed to some of their initiatives and styles, and faintly expecting some entertainment from a performance of the senior students.

When the dance director appeared on stage, he announced that he wanted all the fathers to join him and entertain the audience with a dance performance! We were all taken aback. For some it was an embarrassment. Others felt shy. A scared few ran towards the exit, without much success. For many, it was the first time ever they were being invited on stage.

The director said with a smile, "If your children could, you better be good at it and I will help."

It seemed impossible then he counted one-two-three-four. Right leg is Jerry drag it right, and left leg is Tom and Tom follows Jerry. And then he taught us seven more steps using arms, shoulders, hips and head all the time on stage while the audience laughed to their hearts content.

The first step: Don't close your eyes or give excuses like recession and troubled times.

In 10 minutes, he had replaced the count with a popular Hindi song and bingo we performed. We, the people, fat, thin, stifled, ego-houses shed all our inhibitions and became dancers, amid huge applause from giggling spouses and children.

I draw a lot of learning from this experiment in leadership today. Especially in the most unexpected times, where everything is variable, shifting, unpredictable and perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime situation. Can our leaders dance? The answer is yes and this is the best time to learn.

It all starts with coming to the floor. For many of us who stopped or ran towards the exit door, we had no choice but to be on the floor at least for our children's sake.

How does this translate to business? Go to the front line, chuck your office, meet customers, and feel the heat and the pain and you will find a new rhythm in the Tom and Jerry style.

The first step: don't close your eyes or give excuses like recession and troubled times and don't be blissfully placid, hiding behind, "I don't know what I don't know."

The second step is to break all the rules. The game is different now. The context of the rules has changed and new rules have to be made. At the count of four we have to learn these new steps.

Most managers in corporations are "rulebooks" personified. The best way to encourage them is to be contrarian and rewrite the rules. A clear example of that is to disproportionately reward and recognize people who are exhibiting leadership, who are learning to navigate the ship for a better cruise. This is the time to make or learn new rules.

Lastly, managers have to become adventurous. The classical theory of aspiration and ambition is no longer relevant. The fundamental cerebral models of managers need to be shaken up. Calculated behaviour in known territories will not work. A new world order is emerging and there's no better time than now to hone new skills. A flat world, flat teams and flat egos will allow and enable managers to take those extra steps.

Call your people to the dance floor. Teach them what they haven't yet learned. You will be surprised to see what they can do. It's like dancing in the rain or when things aren't right. To add that zing! I wish we had many dance directors in corporations who could mentor managers to bring the rhythm back.

I had completed my engineering with computer science in 2006. Until now I haven’t given a single interview. As when I was in my final year of engineering I made a decision to start my own company. One of my seniors had given me the idea to start a company instead of working under someone. So I have started making a group of people who can go with my decision. Finally, a group of four engineers evolved. They are different from each other; one is best for marketing then one is best for HR Management one is good software developer the final one is best for the administration.

Now as the four pillars are ready, we are on roll to do something and to change the thinking of the world. We had worked round the clock; we have so much pressure one is our final year studies as well as the company.

The Company started with an initial investment of 4000 thousand rupees just necessary for the paperwork. Then we had started marketing in the Allahabad city (as I have done my engineering in Allahabad). After putting so much of assiduous and diligence we got our first project, a project of website development for a college which is 20 miles away from the Allahabad city and in very rural area. Finally we started something. Then after the first, we started getting small projects and in one years time we were able to get a good client list along with a handsome amount of money in our bank account and along with the company work we had finished our engineering.

After the Allahabad success we came to Lucknow and started a BPO with all our saving and we involved someone who is not to be trusted but we finally started. Everyone got dazzled the Lakhera engineers group are on something very different and big that nobody could think of it.

We started our call center in 2006 when people have just buzz about BPO industry. But that was our most disastrous decision in six month. We lost our all savings the BPO was a disaster. It also broke the relationship, bonding and faith in each other. We started fighting with each other.

Finally, we split. The other three guys had taken a route back as they were unable to go with it anymore. One person got a job in Accenture, the  other in NIIT software division and one had gone to do his MBA and finally now working for ICICI Bank.

But I stayed on my decision that I will work for me, I will not work for any other one. I started everything again and then finally cracked so many deals.

Now I am happy to claim a 2 crore turnovers over 30 people working for me and three offices in lucknow even have bought a small company. I am just 24 and really happy with my decision and will be on my decision forever.

Rest things are in gods hand how he move us we move.

Yasar Arafat, Managing Director, Engg Sylph Technologies

I have been indeed blessed with having the opportunity to work on varied kinds of technologies. A startup and gaming-type environment gives you opportunity to work on different kinds of technologies and you have very less lead time to pick up and deliver a world class products.

I was inducted as a Java Programmer and started with JSP Programming with a heavy involvement of PL-SQL. It was fine as JSP and Java was easy to pickup and you can do a little coding and then lot of browsing and chatting. I also coded few Games in Java. Java makes life simpler. There are millions of Java Programmers in the country and like the Farmers and Soldiers,they have done and are doing a great Job for the country. In my own Humble Capacity, I would add to the famous quote of “Jai Jawan,Jai Kisan” of our former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri. I will like to give this slogan “Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisaan , Jai JSP Programmers” !!

Our Java Programmers have provided a low cost platform of services industry skills over which we have built our niche R&D and Product development skills.I am grateful to java to induct a non Computer Science guy like me to IT Industry.I was one of those Mechanical Engineering student who doesn’t knows what does “Windows” mean !!. I didn’t knew how to check Email before joining IT Industry !.

Java embraced me like the typical homely Housewive kind of heroines of 1970’s(Mausami Chatterji,Asha Parekh) with whom you start your life of poverty and struggle and then make it big.

But though java was easy to pickup and helped me earn my bread and occasional Beer and “Prawn Masala”, but I think i was naturally inclined towards UI and client side programming. So when the opportunity came and my company needed a VC++ programmer as we were developing a new Gaming Product with intensive GUI programming I jumped at it. Besides myself being interested in UI Programming in VC++,in the hindsight it was a struggle for survival also. In Startups if you are a developer you have to be Multiskilled and get yourself involved in Multiple Projects. This is a mandatory requirement if you are working in a low profile product or project.If you are working in a high profile project or some project which is management’s pet project then you are a little bit safe. But if you are working in a low profile project then you have to really struggle hard.

Then if you are JSP programmer you are doomed. JSP programmers are the first one to be thrown away in Layoffs. They are like the Indian Farmers and Indian Security Forces who get a little bit Media space only when they commit Suicides or die in Encounters and many of the times these encounters will be doubted as Fake.

I moved to VC++. It was a bit difficult to learn as I have never learned C in my college. It was much complex language than Java with memory management and pointers etc and functions with 12 arguments !. Then a small mistake will result in ugly crash,plus something working perfectly in Debug build failing Shamelessly in Release build.Then struggling for performance related issues around memory leaks ,CPU usage and GDI usage makes your life really exciting.

So Visual C++ presents before you all the hardships but overcoming them and mastering it give you the same pleasure which the Hero of 1970-1980 Bollywood Movies (usually Jeetendra) use to get after subduing a Horse Riding, Hunter swinging and Bad Mouthed Heroine(Usually Hema Malini,Sreedevi) and then going on a bizarre Dance and song sequence with her. Hard to win over and subdue but once done then faithful for ever.

We developed a good line of Products in VC++ and Java combined.We tried our hands with Flash for the client side but since Flash has disadvantage of being single threaded model we burnt our hands with it and we discuntinued it. But Gaming Sector is a funny place. There are many times when things change over which you have absolutely no control and unwillingly you have to go into Startup mode again and again. Same thing happened with us.

Due to some external environment changes it happened in such a way that one of our rival company manamement became our bosses. Now their product was in flash and it seemed that they ahve done good home work on us. They started insisting us to develop products in flash knowing well our Weakness. I always knew that Flash would hit us sometime as in Gaming industry you couldn’t do without flash. Though we were trying to do a VC++ and Flash mix kind of thing. But not developing fulltime capacity in Flash was like a Fisherman of deep seas not knowing swimming. We took this challenge and though i was not required to learn Flash,i learnt it myself and coded for sometime to guide my team well. Flash has been enhanced by now and Adobe CS3 was much better than earlier versions. Plus you have new product Flex from Adobe which was much Developer Friendly.Usually original Flash Tool was more Creative Developers oriented and that’s why Developers were a bit reluctant to use the tool.

So we took the challenge,we struggled and proved ourselves much better as compared to our competitors in terms of quality of our Products and deliverables.Our speed of Development was unmatched.But though a great technology and I liked working on it but it proved for me at personal level like marrying and trying to live happily with your Friend’s Widow as Amitabh Bachan did in the Bollywood Movie Silsila. You have lot of performance,resources and technical management related issues with Flash. But I can’t run away from it. Even though I may love VC++ more than Flash but I have been married to Flash however forcibleit it may seem,I have to live it through and make it work.

Hello Friends,

I am about to tell you that i never worked as a salesman in life than i am doing currently.

It starts from here, my parents were to send me to my uncle's office for some experience in the business, but i refused and told them that I wanted to make it on my own. Without any recommendations. So one day my college freind told me that there is an opportunity for a part-time (2 months) job in DNA Newspaper as an MRE (Market Research Executive). I thought it would be nice to work as an executive with a established newspaper. So we both headed for the interview. After the interview we both shared our views and I asked him that will he joined that job he said no. I also initially said no but then what came to my mind is the money factor, my uncle was paying me Rs.3000/- and here I was getting Rs. 7000/- and that was quite enough for me.

When the day of job came I was so exited. It was my first job. How will I impress my boss? All the hurdles came in my mind and then my boss came and told that we (2 more boys of my age) have to go DOOR TO DOOR at each area and convince them to renew their newspaper subscription.

That's when I found out that the MRE is the salesman itself.

But the experience here is much difference rather to site in the office and that all stuffs.

I liked my job and there is always compitetion between my colleuges about the orders we bring each day.

Lalu Yadav: Art of People Management by a little Buffoonery - Lalu Yadav has just presented his last budget. For the last five years, he has enchanted the audience which is common Indian public by his skills.First, he took all the credit for good work done by Nitish Kumar of previous NDA Government. Then, he increased the freight rates to maximum possible. So he could show the fools in IIM and the other enchanted ones the increase in railway profit while cleverly suppressing the fact that this increase in freight rates was the cause of hike in prices and thus common man was badly affected whom the UPA Government claims to represent.Of course the media which makes him the poster boy will choose to conveniently ignore these things.

The high freight Charges which Lalo took has raised Inflation to such levels of 12% . It is maximum and next government has to reduce it or all business will move to Road Transport Companies as Diesel prices are reduced . Remember railways get subsidised diesel while transporters don’t. So railway was at an advantage when diesel prices were high, but with diesel prices reducing railways will face tough competetition.

About not doing any fare hike in 5 years, government itself is selling 50% ticket in black in name of “Tatkal” scheme . Laloo has removed carry forward journey and has made all trains super fast to take 25 rupees extra. These “super fast” trains have no increase in running speed, reduction in number of stations still people have to pay extra money for them.

He has acted as a typical “pocketmar” but has skill to carry it through masses . He is master of this as he has fooled Bihar for 15 years. Lalu's magic is that he can loot people in this rustic style . If it has been done by some other leader he would have been roasted by the media and public.It is a conscious effort of madame Sonia and media controlled by Congress to project him as a hero to counter Nitish Kumar.

Another Masterstroke is “Garib Rath” started by Lalu. This a typical mamangement trick to induce people to spend more under the garb of increasing the “self-respect”of the garib.The price of AC class in Garib Rath is little less than normal AC . So it is to lure the normal sleeper class travellers to travel via Third AC and thus taking more money from their pocket, and making them feel good in the bargian. So that nobody cribs of this sound business tactic, Lalu offseted it in starting itself by calling it  “Garib rath”. Surely, any other railway minister would have messed this up.

Definitely Lalu is the only minister in UPA Govt who has a positive report card. His skill is that he can carry on the changes with masses without getting them agitated and offsetting it by his buffonery. E.g with “Tatkal” scheme he is charging 150 rupees more for a ticket and around 40% ticket would be tatakal (could be more) and coupled with superfast charge (all trains are now superfast ) he has definitely increased fare by 30%. But no crib on this by public. That’s his skill.

“I feel drunk but I am sober, I’m young and I’m underpaid. I ‘m tired but I’m still working” ...as my iTunes fed the words of Alanis Morissette into my ears, I felt like a robot and the song my master. Working around the clock, presentations and meetings, I was tired and just wanted to be pissed drunk. Looked into my watch, it was only 11 am. Seriously? It’s been only an hour since I have been here.

As I looked around the office, everybody just looked liked tired potatoes to me. I had to get out and had to do it now. Only how? After a few suggestions from friends online, I headed towards my boss’ cabin, masking a sad face.  As I informed of a maternal aunt passing away (no such relative exists), I requested to take the next two days off.  After an exchange of condolences, I tried my best not to do a little dance on my way out.

The next two days were spent in pure alcoholic bliss. As I spent the night’s bar-hopping and the days being hung-over, little did I realise that my friends very putting up pictures of our outings on Facebook. My boss saw them and commented on it too, “You have a very unusual way of mourning.” 

P.S: I wasn’t fired, I quit.