En Route Wipro
Yet another milestone, another feather to our cap. In our constant endeavour to continue as the employer of choice across campuses in the country, we have introduced a swift resolution system. The toll free number 1-800-103-4678 will provide you with responses to all campus recruitment related queries.
The number is operational between 8.30 am – 6.00 pm. Meanwhile you can also continue to write in to manager.campus@wipro.com.
As I had shared with you earlier, my earlier stint had been with the Indian Army. If you ever happen to drive down the road which leads into the sprawling 8000 acre valley of Khadakwasla, one comes across a small board hidden behind the bou·gain·vil·le·a bushes that says, “Welcome to the cradle of leadership”.
While my article of my experiences at the National Defence Academy can run into thousands of pages, let me share with you the some words from our daily prayer “Oh God! Help us to do the harder right instead of the easier wrong” We used to recite these words day in and day out each day at 0500h and each day the value got ingrained into our minds.
I am out of the army now and eking my livelihood by working with this distinguished company called Wipro Technologies. I interact with hundreds of young job aspirants each day and my experiences with them are rich and varied. I see a thirst for success in this generation which I did not see 15 yrs ago. I also notice a burning desire in them to create a niche for them selves. While the intentions are good, the methods that are adopted by some to gain employment often leave me pondering whether there is a moral and ethical degradation in the society. The fact cannot be generalized, but there is adequate evidence on record to substantiate such a claim. I notice a tremendous pressure on the young minds to make to the big three in the IT. Blessed are those who make it into these companies from their college campus and god help the rest who have to start seeking a job on completion of their graduation.
This society has no place for the non-performers. The jabs from the immediate environment can often be sharp and torturous. As time passes, a combination of these facts develop into twin edged swords slowly cutting deep into the flesh of fresh graduates. Any Tier 1 company seeks experience and so is the case with Wipro Technologies. So If one has an aspiration to join a reputed company what are the choices. Gain experience in a genuine company over a period of two - three years or buy fake documents. The harder right or the easier wrong.
It’s easy to buy a fake experience these days, does not cost more than some thousands of rupees and a whole industry which manufactures custom made fake documents has come up in major towns to meet the demand of the job seekers and perhaps one can hood wink the recruiters too. But then how long ?
No respectable company likes to start a relationship with an employee based on a lie and companies like Wipro design some deep audits to ascertain the nature of information provided by a job seeker. The fact finding may be delayed but the lie gets caught at some point of time, if not today some time in future and the repercussions can be catastrophic. If an employee gets terminated on reasons of integrity, his career may get doomed for the balance of his life. He may get blacklisted by the NASSCOM and associated companies and the future prospects of getting employed in any Tier 1 company may be lost forever.
There fore choosing the harder right seems an eminently safer choice rather the easier wrong of faking an experience.
Caught this delightful piece of Iranian film (released in 2006) on disc and wasn’t disappointed at all. Once more am amazed at the simplicity of film making of some of the film makers we hardly hear or know about.
Directedand written by Jafar Panahi whose two films Dayereh and Talaye Sorkh were forbidden by the Islamic government of Iran. This time Jafar brings to you the comic tale of a group of young women who are football (soccer) fanatics and unfortunately for them the Islamic government has forbidden women from all sporting events. These young group of women dress up as men and try sneaking into the stadium and get caught, to be guarded by a young group of guards. They are keen to get a few glimpses of the Iran-Bahrain World cup qualifier and would do anything to get out of the guards eyes and mix with the crowd.
The story is simple and the director treats the movie as if he is a news crew covering an event and that’s what makes this movie a delightful watch. The cast is brilliant in being absolutely natural. There are quite a few hilarious scenes that are accentuated by just the expressions of the actors.The young guards guarding the women are amused on one hand and are restless to get on with work and share their tales with the prisoners There is this sequence where one of the girls asks to visit the toilet and a young guard is sent to escort her to the men’s toilet (no women’s toilets in the stadium you see) and she escapes, only to come back out of guilt Continue reading ‘Offside’
Hey! How are you folks doing? Campus Season is just around the corner, am sure all those eligible are burning their mid night oil, to woo those interviewers and bag the best job.
It’s gonna be HOT! Environment is hot with global warming and so is job market, Companies flocking institutions to be the first to hire crème-le-crème. But for those who are prepared, it is going to be a cake walk. Am sure, fore-warned, is fore-armed. By now, all students know the pattern of selection of organizations and expectations of organizations from fresh talent. It is not going to be tough to sail thru’ selection process, that is easiest of the chain. As I always say, keep your antenna up in the air, you will come out with flying colors.
It’s all about preparation. Hone your skills, analytical & verbal. Go thru’ those batteries and let tricks of trade be in your finger tips. Brush up your subjects, for all you know, you may not refer those text books down the road, so it’s ok to spend some extra time. Focus on fundamentals, as I wrote in one of my earlier blog, ask Why? Why? Why? Search for those answers….Last but not the least, if choice of your destiny is Software, get your hands dirty with programming languages, syntax, logic… What’s hot and what’s latest in technology, do browse, search, go that Xtra mile, results will surely be worth a celebration….
For years now there has been a certain principle that drives technology forward. It’s not a rationale, cohesive or tangible standard, but more to do with emotion and passion. This is called the WOW Factor and it describes the emotional state that you enter when you see a new category of technology that completely and totally knocks your socks off. The first time you saw a ultra portable super slim notebook, the initial euphoria of using a digital camera for the first time, the pure bliss of wire free browsing on your Wi-Fi computer, the initial shock of seeing the clarity of a High Definition Plasma display, the pure sensory experience of hearing a perfectly tuned 5.1 Home theatre – that Ladies and Gentlemen is called the WOW Factor; and sadly it may be time for us to bid goodbye to this incredible experience.
Face it; when was the last time you truly felt like the earth had moved when you had either heard or seen something new in the consumer technology arena. Innovations and inventions in this field have been few and far between for quite sometime now. Things have moved to a evolutionary phase and it’s always add on features that come to mind. The iPod is in its fifth generation and still looks pretty much the same, Plasma Displays have entered their eighth generation and still suffer from burn in, CD’s have been around forever and still get scratched, mobile phones still crash, cameras still generate red eyes, notebook batteries are exploding all over the world and it will take about 3 wrong key presses to bring your computer to a grinding halt.
Just about the biggest thing that we have all been waiting for in the last 3 years have been High Definition Displays. While it is has been slow to come, today most companies have delivered some cutting edge products. They are rock solid, crystal clear, bigger than ever (140 inch is in the works), have great color depth and amazing resolution. But what now? These display are already as clear as the human eye can perceive. Going any clearer or increasing the resolution anymore will be a zero sum game with very few benefits. They also can’t make them bigger as even the 110 inchers weigh about 400 pounds and need 8 people to carry them. The fact that your house doors and maybe a few walls will have to be torn down to carry the TV in - may be another damper.
Consider the other Holy Grail of Technology. We all want it lighter, smaller, thinner and sleeker. Today we have hybrid camcorders so small that they barely fit in our hands, mp3 players the size of our fingernail, notebooks so slim that they look like they may snap into two and phones that are pure featherweights. While these micro machines are radical devices - the small ergonomics and form factor may have hit the law of diminishing returns. Have these products become so diminutive that they are now effectively unusable? Our fingers are already too large and clumsy to press the buttons on our gadgets, our eyes can hardly comprehend their tiny screens and most of us cannot grip or control such small gadgets properly. It’s just not possible for them to make them any thinner or smaller without sacrificing usability completely. Technology will still continue to enthral us - but in tiny surges. It may well be time for us to embrace the fact that from here on technology will only move forward in small incremental steps. It’s lights out for WOW technology and the sooner we all realize it - the lesser the chances of being disappointed.
Saurabh Saxena
On the topic of the Oscars® you may wish to see all the movies ever sent in by India in an article on wikipedia.
My personal belief & opinion is that the movies that get nominated and win in the Best Foreign film category are all films, in order of priority are, the ones that -1. Deal with human emotions 2. Portray stories that can be easily understood and felt by western audiences 3. Reflect the life/history/culture of the country the film is made in, in a manner that reflects the way it is perceived or understood by western audiences.
Yes, Lagaan was an exception in spite of its 3.5 hour length and numerous songs and dances.
Since the Golden Globes® were scrapped due to the writer’s strike (as mentioned in my post -65th Golden Globes® in jeopardy? and Golden Globes® scrapped ) I wonder if an arrangement will be reached before the Oscars® or will the Oscars® too get reduced to a 32 minute press conference to announce the results ? I hope not!
Sports like football have been trying to eradicate racism from their grounds for many years now, but cricket’s associations have only now come to terms with the fact that the issue needs to be sorted out in a systematic manner in their sport as well. The Symonds incidents with the crowd chants in
One thing to come out of the controversy is that the ICC has no established rules and procedures to tackle and punish race related offences in the game, whether by players or by fans. As football has been dealing with this issue for a very long time now, I thought I would spend some time discussing the history of racism in football, and the steps towards eradication taken by it’s governing bodies.
The phenomenon of racism in football is obviously not as old as the scourge of racism in society in general, but it has been around for a very long time, and over the last 2 decades, FIFA has initiated numerous programs to try and eradicate this unsavoury practice, which is most prevalent in Europe.
Most of football’s issues with racism are with the crowds, with monkey gestures and bananas being thrown at black players being very common, seen recently in Spain with Samuel Etoo the target. Crowd chants related to colour of skin are commonplace. Recently we saw this in in cricket as well with Andrew Symonds clearly being targeted by the Indian crowd.
Nazi swastika flags can be found flying in the crowds of
Pointing out the many specific incidents would take up too much space, but high profile targets of racism have included John Barnes, Thierry Henry, Samuel Etoo and Marcel Desailly. You can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_football for interesting specific occurrences of racism in the sport.
Continue reading ‘Racism in football - Of monkeys, bananas and Swastikas’
I could’nt resist posting on this right away !
Taare Zameen Par
The genius of Aamir Khan shines through in his directorial debut. The star proves his genius is not limited to being on screen alone and another star is born in the form of Darsheel Safary.
With a host of relatively unknown actors, Aamir Khan puts together the brilliant Taare Zameen Par which is easily the best of films of 2007 along with Chak De. The two best films of 2007 are Khan films and the films speak for themselves. The host of unknown actors is a common feature of both these films. The comparisons and similarities do not end here. Both movies stand out this year because they stick to the art of honest storytelling, which is what cinema is really all about.
Taare Zameen Par is the story of a 9 year old Ishaan Awasthi, for whom the outside world, the colours, the sights, smells and tastes hold more interest than the alphabets, numbers and the monotonous education that all of us have gone through. The one solace is Ishaan’s interest in painting. But all is not as desired. With failing marks and constant trouble at school, Ishaan’s parents see no other option than to send him to a boarding school where his ‘discipline’ issues will be resolved and he may turn out to be successful like his older brother Yohaan Awasthi (Sachet Engineer).
Ishaan’stroubles only continue and Ishaan draws into a shell, a world occupied only by his vivid imagination and bright colours. A temp art teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan) turns up and notices the boy and recognizes the symptoms of dyslexia. Will ram connect with the boy ? Will Ram be able to convince Ishaan’s parents and teacher’s alike to the true nature of dyslexia and make them realise the talent that lurks within the boy ? The questions are answered Continue reading ‘The stars came down to earth’
Imagine you are the last man alive in a city trying to find a cure to a virus to which you are immune, but which has wiped out humanity as we know it. You have your dog for company and everything that’s left in the city is yours to take, but keep away from the dark corners and stay indoors, hidden, after dark.
You end up talking to mannequins to keep your sanity, you end up watching movie after movie. You end up watching taped news telecast. You end up broadcasting a message and waiting at a place at the same time every day, all in the hope that there is someone else out there, for you are the only man alive but you are not alone. The darkness brings out the creatures, who were once human.
Does this give you a foreboding preview of the tone of this movie ? I hope it does for words cannot describe the efforts of the director (Francis Lawrence) and the intense performance of Will Smith, as Robert Neville. A strain of measles modified to cure cancer soon mutates to become a deadly virus that turns the infected into vampire like creatures. Like I mentioned about the movie ‘30 Days of Night’, this movie Continue reading ‘I am Legend’
Sourav to me has time and again been an unnatural phenomenon. He has this uncanny knack of rising from the dust and turning all odds in his favour!!!
I have observed Ganguly right from our under – 19 days, while playing together in junior matches and having interacted with him on the field and off it consistently,- it’s given me a good idea of the person he is in both situations…or that’s what I believed!!!
‘Unreasonable!!’Ganguly
I thought of him as a highly talented and more than capable batsman—however, having an attitude and work ethic unbecoming of a successful cricketer. I never gave him a chance to succeed at the higher level simply because of his unprofessional attitude. I have seen him always taking the easy way out – avoiding critical fielding positions, demoting himself in the batting order at critical situations ( especially when he had to face a good fast bowler ) and avoiding training sessions.
If all the people (playing or otherwise) around him were asked to fill out a column under the heading ‘Reasons for Ganguly to be unsuccessful ’, the list would be quite extensive.
But, what does Mr. Ganguly do?!! — Goes beyond these reasons by striking out each one on the list and comes out as a ‘hero from zero’. He has made it happen once too often to be brushed off as luck. He is simply being ‘unreasonable’—not stopped by the reasons!!
Isn’t it a lesson for all of us to learn? — Just take action & go after our possibilities and dreams without succumbing to all the reasons (excuses) for failure. These reasons that would negate the same possibility that we create!!
Ganguly’s second coming defines and gives practical meaning to the words such as belief, perseverance and confidence.
It also has shattered all my perceptions of him and his ways and my viewpoints of his attitude. There is no one way in achieving your goals as long as you have the belief in your abilities and go after all your possibilities with conviction!!!
Shall we all start being unreasonable going forward?!!!! I will for sure !!….
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