Bye Accenture

Finally it seems that I am ready for the journey I have long awaited.......I am lucky and thankful to divine for he made my plans work, it started when I was in 3rd year of my B.tech when like most of the Indian parents my parents too started getting worried about my future. Yeah of course they told me that B.tech would be the last place where I will need to dig my head in to the books , but of-course I am used to this now, after placement offers from 3 reputed IT firms, I knew I have more work to do. I decided that I would do an MBA as I very well knew my limits as an engineer. Now with MBA came two options CAT and GMAT. Somehow what I have seen on various research articles and heard from people around I too felt that getting an MBA from U.S is worth the pains and expenses and more over i always knew that in U.S I can bang on some new innovation or something that might give a push to my entrepreneurial motives.It was not an easy journey from preparing for GMAT to getting my VISA. Yeah Visa guarantees you of a ticket to the land of opportunities . Although I did not find the Visa part difficult but I had heard all those monstrous stories of Visa Rejections, and so it was only after I got Visa last Friday I was sure of doing my MBA From UB.

I have noticed that Indians have a different perception about GMAT. I can not compare the CAT of late years to the GMAT exam but as we have all seen CAT is remoulding itself in to the patterns of GMAT. When we discuss about GMAT among CAT takers they normally dismiss GMAT as an easier cousin of CAT but I do not agree with it.I can say so because I committed this mistake and resulted in taking GMAT twice. I feel GMAT is a more result oriented exam and definitely needs guided and streamlined efforts. Moreover preparing for an exam while you are working in a competitive software industry is never easy.

As I was in Accenture I really never enjoyed my time as my heart was never in there but I knew that brand name is always important and so I chose to join Accenture(Of-course I never knew Tiger Woods had such an testosterone driven emotions!!!!!) rather than going for Infosys or Torry harris. Although latter never even sent any joining letter.

Finally here I am preparing to leave for my MBA. Everything looks to be smooth and sweet and God wants me to celebrate somehow in last 2 weeks of my stay in Accenture we had record number of parties and of-course I didn't miss even one of them even if it was on a night before my Visa interview. Journey was never easy but I had promised myself not to go down without a fight.

Two years I did something that never interested me but I am happy that I utilized those two years in something that I always wanted and here I am a happy soul and I really thank all the people who have been with me though out this journey.

Excerpts from my Adieu mail....

The road I have traveled here has been challenging and enriching. During my tenure I met wonderful people be it from my team , or groups that accompanied me to Belum caves or Dandeli or individuals I met while organizing various GPTW or CSR activities. It was wonderful to be the part of Accenture Volleyball and Football team and playing along with very best talents. There are so many things that I have learnt here at Accenture , being advised and motivated by experienced individuals and given opportunities by my superiors has made me a more confident individual.

Life is a journey to explore the unexplored with convenient halts. With this zeal and having explored what Accenture had in store for me, I move ahead chasing the bigger and taller dreams. Seeds were already sown in my Undergrad years and I could watch them sprouting during my stay at Accenture. I have decided to pursue MBA at SUNY Buffalo in New York ,US. I am excited about the impending student life but will always be reminded of how it is at Work Place.

I am grateful to all of you who bumped into me and accepted me as your friend. Friends once made are always missed in their absence and so shall I. Thanks a ton for all your love, care, consolations and encouragements!

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Good Boss! Bad Boss!

As a wannabe manger this was always a topic of curiosity to me. Initially I thought that every boss is one and the same and believed that bosses have to be strict, unfriendly and have to carry that extra attitude in office. May be because they want the team members to take him seriously and deliver more during working hours. But I always wondered does that mean that you have to be uncaring towards your employees, speak to them only when you need to boost the productivity or promoting favoritism in the team. At one point I had actually started believing that in corporate may be it is not the human touch that is promoted and more than an employees emotions and feelings it is the productivity and deliverable that count. One part of my sleepy brain accepts it because if we think it in the terms of give and take philosophy then may be it is all right - companies pays us well for the work we do, and work is the only thing they expect from us and vice versa. I always wondered that one day if I would take on my bosses's shoes would I take on the same strategy - productivity is all that matters. No no no….. , I still and will always believe that human are not machines there output is directly related to their thought process and how good they feel about a certain things so there has to be a right mix of professionalism with human touch. How far can we push our body mechanics without reinventing it and with out giving life a new meaning?

This was the one side of the corporate culture that I had noticed. Of course I never liked it and it was a little demoralizing but then my 15 years of "out of home" experience had taught me the ways of picking myself up. I joined swimming and started playing volleyball for my corporate team.

It was here that I met new mangers from the same corporate house and got to see the other side of the story. They were at the same or at a higher level as my current boss but in different teams, but It was a completely different experience with them. They were actually interested in what I was saying. Although they were not my supervisors or had any liability of discussing things other than volleyball with me but they discussed with me my aspirations, about the working culture and even the way individuals irrespective of their positions are suppose to behave in the corporate culture. Indeed they felt the same way like I did - Value human touch. One of them was even the winner of “best boss" category and told me that every boss is unique and handles things differently. On my so many questions he blinked and with a canny smile told me that sometimes it is the matter of finding a "right boss". We both smiled at each other and topic died down but those thoughts have a deeper meaning, you see we can never ignore the luck completely.

It is a simple thing that I learned as a kid in my school. When I joined the boarding school at an age of 12 years we all were ragged and bullied by our seniors. It was all fun and masti but yes at times knowingly or unknowingly we were pushed to extremes. We all felt bad and were angry about the way certain things went and each time we were ragged and taken to extremes we made some perceptions in our young minds about the outside un-protective world and since then knew how we would treat our juniors. Will we defend them from such extremes or will we show them the new extremes????? And indeed three classes of seniors emerged:

One who pushed the juniors to new extremes.
Second who went up against their own friends to stop this.
Third who either enjoyed or were confused which way to go.

Obviously this is how nature maintains the perfect balance. So now when I am grown up and working among the most learned individuals, I still see these 3 classes existing. Wow that is my discovery of the day!

Now I know why the work experience was so important before going for an MBA. My corporate has been one of the great learning experiences because with a bad experience you know what you do not want to do next time you take on the same job.

Welcome back...............

So I am back from a sabbatical…….I don’t think if that is the right word because I have never been so busy in other phases of life . This one is the first since I have stepped out from my college life and before I knew it, 2 years were almost over. Like all humans even I believe that I had rather tough time in my corporate (Yes we normally do not remember our good times) but yes again I learnt more about life and people here then anywhere else. Trust me competition we faced in our schools and college is nothing as compared to real life…….Its not just about our grades but about our lives, and yes unlike for me this job meant more than anything for employees here, and why not when you have only one bride and 100 suitors you have no option but to prove yourself to be the best . Another important thing I learnt here is that targets wont finish and even after finishing the most stupendous task you will be left with much more to do so always do things you like (I really missed writing on my wall L).

So time for a new beginning and what better way to do it then playing with those innocent kids who are not even aware of my language. Today we had an NGO

( Nanhi kali) visiting our office premises. I with other members of GPTW made all the arrangements for the visit to our premises. These kids made us believe that humanity and love needs no language. Although I hardly understood any words they spoke (They only understood telgu!!!) but the glitter in their eyes and radiance of their smile made me believe that they really enjoyed every moment in Accenture. May be when we have fewer luxuries and more hardships in our lives we learn to value things in a better way and these government school kids were personified examples. When I was so young I did not had such amazing table manners and discipline but these kids already knew the importance of things we often take for granted. At times when I do not like food in my cafeteria I tend to leave my plate unfinished but these 10-12 year kids understand the importance of food that is served to them, I did not see even 1 out of 30 kids wasting even a spoonful of rice, yes gentleman we got to learn from these experiences. Shakespeare said “It is a good divine that follows his own instructions; I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.”

There was this little girl Maheshwari who was happiest amongst the lot. Although she never understood a single word I said but every time I asked her if she is enjoying it she used to smile gracefully and I think even prettiest of women in my office can not beat that unmalicious and pleasing smile. She made me realize that all the efforts made in organizing the event were worth it and we have been successful in giving these nanhi kali’s some memorable moments of their childhood. When we asked them if they have any questions for us they told us that they are interested in going to the library. Is not that amazing……..at least I was surprised, as a kid I was always running away from the books and the library period was a kind of torture period for me. May be because I had a tutor coming to my home everyday who made me learn those important answers and get those descent grades but these underprivileged kids were very different and it seemed that they were much more grown up then what is reflected by their age and those innocent faces. As they went inside the library that curiosity of learning and knowing more was apparently visible in their shining eyes.

We wanted to share many more things from our so called uncooperative corporate world but then we had our work waiting for us. We gifted each girl with a lunch box and a water filter for their school. In the end I returned to my seat as a happy man , I had done my bit towards the society and may be for few days I will feel happy that I did something which I like…………….

Hour Glass

"When we are young opportunities are unlimited" i picked up this line from somewhere , and as i pondered about the statement i realized it to be very true.TIME - the biggest change that we witness every hour every minute and evry second, still we ignore this change and we realize it when its late.Here is a story of a man who in his grey days realize the importance of this change the most..........

Few days before, he turned 79 and obviously he was sad.As he opened his store room a loaf of dirt fell on his feet , he looked at his feet but ignored the dust on his feet, he didnot wanted to bend down and clear it ,because if he would then his severe backache would start all over again and would deprive him of half his energy.He switched on the light and thankfully it was working,so what if it was giving only half of the illuminance of its actual capacity.Store room was full of his belongings that he used in his hay days and which were now discarded away as a waste and thrown away in this wasteroom by his more powerful son Ram who now ruled his fathers house with his beautiful wife, but this old men wished if his sons wife could have been half as beautiful with her thoughts then his son wouldnot had moved away from him.

He still remember how Ram used to carry out his smallest orders like a most obedient son, but things changed when he first disobeyed him by moving into a new house.Ram was earning well from the buisness, which he took over from his father few years before. Till the time old man was earning for his family everything seemed to be in control, he happily married his younger daughter to a buisnessmen , and she loved him more than anything,but this old man had social restrictions that prevented him from visiting her daughter very often.He had complete faith in his son so he gave all his property to his only son moreover he believed in the saying that "To be successful in a race you should pass the baton at the right time"and so he did.But now in his old age he regrets the decision and held his wrong foresight responsible for his misreable condition.

As the old man moved in the room he came across something very precious to him an hourglass, he took it in his trembling hands.When he was a kid he used to look at the hour-glass, it was so much fun, every particle of sand flowing away gracefully , and after 60 seconds it had all moved to the other side.and then he used to turn it again and again , he smiled everytime when there were last few particles left in the hour-glass because these were the particles that he could observe more clearly and yeah they slid so fast, that the child wanted to do it again and again but now the same hourglass looked scary to him , particles in it seemed to be synonomous to the time and days of his long life and with his shaky hands he turned the hourglass and then the sand started pouring down again,he was terrified by the speed of the flowing sand, he realized that how fast time is slipping away and as last few particles were slipping away that old man lost his control.

Thudddd...... with a loud noise hourglass fell on the ground,and by its side he layed aching in that unbeareable pain ,with his thick lensed spectacles broken, in that dim light old men stressed his cornea muscles to see the hourglass.It fell on a frame ,brittle glass of hour glass had broken giving way to those sand particles , that were trapped in those confined walls, particles scattered on the frame lying beneath , these tiny scattered particles seemed to be telling his story,tired of juggling with the life and hoping to breakaway from these mournfull shackles of life. Uneven patterns of inhalations and Old man knew that he is taking last few breaths, just then he saw the frame lying by his side on which sand was lying, with his last chunk of energy he moved away that sand from the frame and then as he looked at the frame , a drop of water made its way from his old parched eyes and fell on frame that contained the potrait of his dead wife.......................................................................