GBS Bindra, a spark to our organisation

It’s been more than five years I have been working in this company. Most of the people who joined with me left the company. When one of my old friends asks me why I am not moving out of Logica I said “Where else would I get a chance to sit diagonally opposite to the Global Innovation Director of the company?” Even if it was a joke, I personally feel that the guys working in PE would definitely have a private pride of working for GBS. There would be thousand of things that anyone would have to say about him on his achievements, I am writing on the different face of the person which most of us would have noticed. There are many people who joined Telecoms for the reason that they needs to work with GBS. One of my coleague once told me that she and her friends did not even knew that there is a company called Logica, but after hearing the speech of GBS, they all decided to join Loiga. Well I do not know the authenticity of what it is been told but yes, He is a good speaker too. His speaches are very inspirational and also informative. When I joined, I have got many chance to hear him talking, one thing I noticed is that he speaks like an Australian in the morning and towards the noon he starts speaking like a British. Late in the evening he speaks like an American. His accent is different each time you see him talking. Later I myself concluded that the reason would be that he would have been in meetings with the people of these respective region of the world. Not sure though. For the people who work for him he acts as a WALL, like any ball that comes to the wicket Rahul Dravid defend its. And how ever fast the ball comes it turns to a zero speed with his touch. Having said about cricket. He is known to be a person who is always updated. On anything that you talk to him he seems to have a still new information on it. While having a coffee with Asit Mishra, last day, I heard him wondering about the same thing. You walk from your desk to his, watching Tendulkar hitting a six to century, and tell him that Tendulkar has done with his next one day century. And he would say, “Yes, but then he is also out”. He is so updated on anything that you talk to him and you wonder how. He is one such person I have noticed who should need more time a day. We would never see him wasting time on anything. Even while he walk, you would see him checking the mails in his blackberry. No wonder he became the Global Director of Innovation at Logica, where he is responsible for driving company’s innovations and works closely with the executive committee to align these initiatives with Logica’s strategic goals.  I have read some were that prior joining Logica he was brought in to lead R&D in India at Ariba after the dotcom downturn, which leverage innovation to fuel growth. Puncom become official IT service provider to create and manage an IT and communications system for the ICC World Cup of Cricket in 1996 in most of the areas of the Indian subcontinent, under his leadrship. The name GBS Bindra itself is an innovative spark to our organisation. To me, yes,  he is one of the inspiration in the current world.

Bangalore, Ever thought, what happens to the water that you spit in the wash basin at your home? Any idea?

Atleast some of you might know that most of the water flows to Belledur lake, but from there? .. It receives water/sewage from Ulsoor Lake, Chellaghatta Valley, Hulimavu, Doddbegur drain, Madivaala Lake, Tavarrrakere, Bellandur Lake. That becomes most of the water waste in Bangalore. It’s not a short story. It’s a long one. It travels around 350 kilometers and reaches the Bay of bangal :)  Interesting??

It’s not a joke, see the picture.

It crosses Tamil Nadu border after flowing 40 KM. and another three kilometers to Avalappali Dam.

After flowing for 110 KM it reaches the , KRP(Krishnagiri Reservoir Project) Dam, the main Water resource for Kaverippatinam and around 100 villages. It continues to flow to Sathanur Dam/reservoir while it has already flow 220 KM. This magnificent Sathanur dam was built in the year 1958. It is located near the Chennakeshava hills in Chengam. A large area of agriculture lands are benefited through water stored in this dam. From there it continues to flow to flow to bay of bangal and reaches it after flowing for 350 KM in between Cuddalore and Pondichery along with the Pennaiyar river that originates at the Chennakesava hills.

Why false promise? Where is the shadow show?

The mail from syntillations about the Pongal celebrations also announced that there would be a shadow show, which did not happen. Why? How many of you found this, it’s that we do not bother as we are in a society where we hear lots of promise which we know will not come true. Still we cheer when someone makes a promise. How many of you questioned this? Well if someone wanted to know then. Yes, the Anandapadmanaban and his son Tejaswi was here. Most of you might have seen Tejaswi, he was once introduced to all of us last year immediately after he got recognized as the youngest juggler in Karnataka. I have visited his home. The bright student in his school, back from his school learned magic from one of the book he got. Looking at his interest and skill, Anandapadmanaban, an employee of Biocon, started buying him more books and videos on magic. While we appreciate movies like Three Idiots and Tare jameen par, and we preach about bringing up children with the real interest they have, back home we ignore to practice it. “Well my son, I know, he wanted to be a doctor, is that not by boy?” In the middle of the people like us Anandapadmanaban practice this in his real life. When asked about his boy’s studies and his daily activities, Anandapadmanaban said,” He had never given me a chance to worry about his studies, I do not want to bring the culture of comparing him with his friends, I do not do that, eventhough he is one of the best in the class. Only thing I do is that I make sure that he is not de-motivated. He like to show his talent to people and he gets great satisfaction, So I take him to any possible stages where I could take him. I take leave in my office. I think my boys interest is more important for me”. Now the boy is interested in shadowgraphs and is doing his own experiments.

This father and son were not allowed inside by our security. They said that the boy is just 14 years old and it is a violation and child labor is not allowed. Is that the security guard did not had the differentiating capability between an artist and a labor. If that is the case then how could we have Sachin in cricket, Kamalahasan in theater, They were all child labors when they started performing. We proudly say about Lata Mangeshkar that on the first day in the school, she started teaching songs to other children. When the teacher stopped her, she was so angry that she stopped going to the school, where she sang her first song when she was 13 year old.

The boy and his father kept waiting in the reception for an hour and returned sadly without performing. The right of a boy to perform was questioned when National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) itself allows child artists to perform for certain duration of time. Even in the United States, federal law "Specifically exempted minors working the Entertainment Business from all provisions of the Child Labor Laws." Any regulation of child actors is governed by disparate state law.

Loving letters to Claire

Few days from, my child Claire was born, I send a mail to my friends about the happy news. To make a difference I wrote the mail as if she herself was writing to them. Hello Uncle /Aunty

But I wondered when I go t reply from some of them. Some of them responded to her itself. This was a wonderful feeling. I would keep all those letters safe as these are the first letters which was written ever for her.
This is what I wrote

I’m sending you one of the pictures that my father has taken soon after my birth.
Both me and my mother are doing fine. I’m a nice girl, I cry only when I’m hungry. So please bless me
Please do remember my birthday to send me birthday wishes every year. I was born on 22nd Nov 2008. (22-11-08), It’s a nice number to remember isn’t it?

With love
Claire

To which she got replays like this

From: Nayak, ChittaRanjan
Surly My Cuteeeeee

From: Pratik Roy
Hello Claire,
Of course baby... We'll surely remember u n ur birthday sweetheart...
N tell ur father that Pratik uncle has told that u'll be a genius.. cos he learned to send mail only after clearing his degree... but u.. hats off :)...
By the way... u r looking veryyyyyy pretty ... Hope to meet u soon...
N tell ur papa and mumma to take care of u... and not to scare u with his powerful voice :)..
and throw us a grand party soon...
cheers ( U can use a glass of milk for that)
Pratik Uncle :)

From: Gurav, Chidanand
Belated happy birthday to the angel!!!
By seeing at you, feels like you are the precious child on the earth….
All the best complements and lots of love to you….
With Loads of love
Chidanand & Tejashri

From: Sujit Banerjee
Hi Claire,
Nice meeting you...........welcome to the earth............
You got nicest parents..that u'll understand gradually....
Wish you all the very best to you and to your parents.........
Say your papa and mom...CONGRATS...once again...
Will remember your birthday and send wishes every year............
Be happy always like your papa..............
With Love,
Sujit Uncle

From: Balakrishnan, Tharangini
To my dearest Claire,
U r luking very pretty, May the lord shower his blessings upon u…convey my regards to mom too 
Ur bday wud b definitely remembered by me, as mine is on 24th,Nov …every year wishes wud definitely flow to u
Regards
Tharangini,B

From: Roy, Rinky
Surely baby....please aunty mat kaho na ;)

From: Shivappayyanamath, Sujatha

God bless you.

Do we need a better security checking, or dont

Security checking is one of our responsibility, because it not only helps the organization but also you as an individual it is important for us. But is it done in the right way? I do not know if it is a requirement from some standards that we are supposed to follow, which insist us to follow all these security checking before we enter into the company premises. I have noticed that some of the employees shows their faces to the security guards who asks them to open the boot of the car for the security checking, or the employees who are asked to give the bag for security checking. It is sad, they are only doing their job. They are hired to do this as you are hired to do your job could be coding or testing, managing or what so ever it is. How would a test engineer feel if the developer shows his face to him when he reports a bugs? Lol.. interesting, isn’t it? Think what goes those security guards, when they end up doing a day’s job. “I do not know how his manager manages him, or how would he be at his home”, I overheard one of the security staff saying this on the back of one of our employees who shouted at the guard when asked to park the vehicle in another place as the place he parked is on the way.

Having said that, I gave a thought on why people react this way? Why do they feel offended while security offers a security check. I found one interesting fact about it. Most of the checking are done as part of the Job and people feel that whatever is done is not helping. Once you reach office in a car you happily stops the car letting the security checking the bottom of the car. This makes sense to most of us. What if someone keeps something (a bomb) under the car and makes us a carrier to office. “Good please check, I do not want me to be one, and also would not want someone to destroy at least my car in the whole process”. But the next step would certainly take people a little back. The security guard asks to open the boot of the car so that he could check it. We pull the liver. He opens it wide and closes it. I wonder what was he looking for. He would ignore if there is a box in it. If some things needs to be there, it’s only me who could keep it as it’s a locked one. So do they doubt you? And they do not have a problem if you bring the thing in a suitcase. And even if some employee wants to bring it in. Knowing that They would check the boot he would keep it in the front seat or in the dash or at least keep it in the bag. They would not mind if you keep something which is as big as a trunk box. If the car is a hunch back one, then they would ask you to open the rear door and peep in behind the rear seat. This would certainly make you feel that there is no meaning for what is done there, at least the way it is done is not effective. If someone wants to bring something can he not use the space near the engine in the front of the car? Why only the boot? Now as the first step is over, you go ahead and reach the securities in blue near the swipe in points.

He would ask you to handover the bag. He would open the fly and peep in to it. Just for the reason of doing it. But what was he looking for. And while he do so, you see a board which makes you understand what are the things security guards are looking for. There was a picture of a hand grenade too quite a while ago. Now are these people trained enough to detect things. Explosives can now be molded in to any shape. what if someone makes a cap shaped explosive and walk in? Or are they expecting five 15 inch roads with a clock attached to it with blue, red and yellow wires springs running all around and all the rods are taped together with an insulation tape? (The usual cinema one) . If a person has got to bring in any of these things then why not he plan better? Why not he stop the fruit vendor and bring it in with one of the baskets which goes directly to the cafeteria?

Now why are all the pouches of the bag not checked? Now if I am a person who wanted to bring in one of the things displayed on the screen, knowing that I will be checked, will certainly not keep it in the main pouch but on one of the side pockets. Or what would stop me bringing it in my Lunch box? Or what if I bring it in one of the pockets of my Jacket. Not at all bothered. Only thing the security is bothered is that the fly of the main box has to be opened and peeped in and closed. All the mobile phones has got a camera now the latest ones have got a pretty decent zoom and focus. But a still camera is not allowed in? Where the mobiles can also record video.

These are one of the things which is making people think that the system is not effective enough to handle what is required. And is one of the reason why people are not appreciating it. If we are doing only to satisfy the process,… else we need to have a better way of doing this or needs to have a correction in the current process.

 

Finally Number Portability Starting Jan 20th 2011

Keep your mobile number and change your operator so simple.

Most of us wanted to change the number because of the operator but could not change it because we would have shared their mobile numbers with many contacts and would not like to leave the number. At last MNP is happening from January 20th 2010. And it should happen in 4 days as the law enforces.

change your operator in six simple steps

You are done with your operator changing :)

Another thing to keep in mind about MNP is that even though a subscriber is free to keep switching service providers as many times as he/she wishes to; they would have to stay for 3months with an operator.