Monday, March 28, 2005

My Friend Thiru...

There was this guy who lived in an extremely backward village in Andhra. A village of 200 ppl and 30 houses. Where there wasn't any electricity till late 90's, and no telephone till a couple years back. A village which still does not have a pucca road. There isn't a school for 5 km's. And if there is a school there are no teachers. This is a story of a guy who lived there. Till he was in 9th standard, he hadn't had a teacher for hindi or maths in his 'school'. Still on the advice of a bus driver, his father sent him to a residential school to do his 10th. His irregular schooling had affected his studies, he started 10th at the bottom of his class, but in course of one year, ended up topping it. The villagers persuaded his father to let him pursue his studies, he did and topped his college. Got admitted in one of the top engineering institutes of this country but not in a creamy course, he worked hard, had a cgpa of 10.0 and was shifted to computer engineering and there he ended up with a class rank of 3.

This is the story of Annapurreddy Thirupathiah and this is what I got to know over lunch at caffarels, Sec-18 NOIDA today. Thiru as he is known, is one of the best if not the best software engineers in his group in NOIDA and I found his story truly inspiring. Thiru has succeeded against all odds and that is the best part of the story. We may crib day in and day out over the sad state of affairs and backwardness of our country but once in a while ppl like Thiru do inspire confidence. Come what may, if you have the talent and the fire in your belly you CAN make it.

Fortunately, I've been born in much more luxurious environments, and had to hardly struggle for anything, I take a lot of things in life for granted, maybe I can learn a lot from Thiru. But me being me, I know this amazing story would end up being just another anecdote in my repertoire, I had heard such stories before and I had heard of such people before but now I've seen one, and this is probably the first 'rags to riches by sheer hard work' story from one of my generation.

Good Going Thiru.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Lingua Indica

Well,

This appeared in Outlook some years back, A to Z, I'm reproducing S here...

S 'Saale', Saare Jahan se Achcha, 'Saab tour pe hain', Sablok clinic, Salwar-kameez, Same to same, Sanskrit, Sari, Satellite TV, Sati, Sati Savitri, Sat Sri Akal, Scam, SC/ST, Scheduled Language, Secularism, Secure job, Sex, Sensex, Shampoo, Shehnai, Shukriya, Slums, Socialism, Social justice, Snake-charmers, 'SALE upto 50% off', Spitting in public, Subsidies, Sugar, Supari, Suprabhatam, Shikakai, Seema-Paar

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Key to my last post...

Most ppl have not been able to understand what I meant with my last post, I'll publish a key at a suitable time.

Ankur

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Of Curries and Career: A tribute to the journalists of Nepal...

It has been a paricularly wretched day. I'm once again torn in the turmoil of which curry do I like the most. Initially, when I used to be in the university, I was thrilled with the thought of Rajmah. But I've been having them aplenty since the last three years. I liked them alright for an year but then I was drawn towards other delicacies. I should particularly mention Shahi Paneer. My mother didn't like it. After the first year of Rajmah, I couldn't have any of Shahi Paneer in the second year, had to make do with Rajmah again. This year I'm having Shahi Paneer but not from the restaurant that I would have liked, I'm further torn whether I actually like Shahi Paneer or not. Meanwhile looking at other guys having Paneer Tikka and Dal Makhani, I'm drawn towards other curries as well. I'm really really depressed also because of the fact that my wife can only cook Shahi Paneer and Rajmah and she insists that she'll make shahi paneer only this year. I've very little choice.

:-(
Ankur

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

A (not so) Novel Idea...

Over a few years I've noticed that for the guys, who got their first job through campus interviews, changing jobs is a nightmare of a thought. Since the initial struggle has never been there, like the effort of making a polished resume or giving an interview where you are on the recieving end, for these guys the outside world is an unknown entity. And then add inertia to this. Switching jobs becomes well nigh impossible.
For the benefit of these ppl, I guess there should be campus interviews in their respective companies. All those who wish to leave an organisation, should give their names to HR deptt. which in turn can invite other companies for Campus Interviews. Like good colleges, the placement rate for good organizations should be over 100%. With this assumption, one can safely say that there won't be any employees left who wanted to move but couldn't. The organization itself benefits in the sense that there won't be any employees stuck in its system who want to move but can't due to inertia and other factors. And the organization also stands to benefit in the sense that it too will have access to employees with good skill sets in other organizations who would like to move and it saves itself from consultants.
I like the transparency that is inherent in this idea. I never cease to amaze myself!!!
Ankur

P.S. This is an underworked mind generating ideas and then falling in love with it. Absurd, nonsense or #$#%