Open Secret

Recently there was a news item in Economic Times about a study which found out that Indian techies are paid less than their US counterparts when they go and work in US on a project. The whole thing was projected as if a startling discovery is being made, whereas the truth is that it has been happening since long time. In fact, the very reason that Indians are being prefered and handed over work because we are cheap and ready to slog out insane hours in a country where people hardly even put eight hours of work daily. In fact, some of the Indian IT companies built their entire empire on the very foundation of this salary difference (as is evident from the first few paragraphs of the news item).

How did US discover this advantage in the very first place? The US has been a favourite destination amongst Indian students. When these students finish their course, they find a job there itself instead of returning. Since the employer is hiring an alien (to US), it has to do more paperwork and hence spend more money. Over a period of time, the employers learnt that the craze amongst Indians to be in US is so high that they won’t mind coming in at a reduced salary. The ball started rolling with H-1B quota increase and then the whole outsourcing wave.

While it is a well-known truth that Indian techies are paid far less than their counterparts in US, and that too since last, I would say, 15 years, why there is brouhaha now? May be it is an excuse to foil the recent attempts to increase the H-1B visa quota for IT professionals. While it may be more palatable argument that the difference between the salaries has recently become glaring and unacceptable but saying that the difference is a recent trend is nothing but a pile of crap.

Wonder when will Indian IT companies start thinking about something different than just offering cheap labour?

To all candles ...

… who burnt themselves to light my path to be a better human being. Yes, this piece is to express my gratitude to all my teachers and those people/entities who influenced me, in one way or another, to be what I am today.

If I go in chronological order, the first one is my mom. She toiled hard, especially during my learning years, despite facing all family problems. I don’t remember how, but apart from teaching subjects like History, Geography and Sanskrit, she also taught me how to bluntly speak the truth and fight for "what is right".

The next one is my favourite - Shri R N Gupta. I am honoured to be one of the very few lucky people who got the opportunity to be his student. He taught my father also, and very reluctantly he agreed to teach me English and Mathematics when I started class six. He truely represents what a good teacher ought to be – hardworking, patient, friendly and willing to go beyond the call of duty to make the student a better person. Truely, the best teacher I have come across so far.

Devendra Srivastava was my class mate in Engineering College. I was lucky to have him as one of my close friends because he is "the person" who taught me what real learning is and how to go about it. He taught me how to dig beneath the surface to understand what something “really” means. I think he is the person who ignited the quest in me to seek knowledge. Devendra, accept my heart-felt gratitude for igniting this passion in me.

Mr. Sanjeev Sinha, a young, dynamic and non-traditional lecturer, used to take our practical classes for workshop in 1st year of engineering. He would not ask us run of the mill questions, and rather would pose practical ones, for example, why are the ceilings of lathe machine shops so high? Why is the roof made of asbestos sheet and not steel or RCC? Why the mould cavity through which the metal is poured is of conical shape? These kind of thought provoking questions made me think about lot of things which we all, generally, take for granted and don’t bother about at all.

Prof Rao taught me Fluid Mechanics in third year of engineering. He would first tell us a practical example related to a concept. Then he would take us forward through that example and explain how it actually happens. His lectures used to be like a story which is happening just in front of me, and by the end of it, I would have learnt a concept in Fluid Mechanics. I wish all my teachers had his wonderful style of teaching by story-telling.

My second employer taught me the reality of this world, in general, and Indian IT industry, in specific. Though, when it happened with me, it was hell but, in the hindsight, I think it was a good thing to happen so early in my career. It taught me how ruthless business can be and the fact that mediocrity is in abundance in this industry, which gets rewarded also just because certain people respond only to flattery.

Roy Singham is CEO of ThoughtWorks Inc, my current employer. He is a socialist by heart and capitalist by mind. I have learnt a lot from him about human values, how to be truly fair and equitable and how to have contradictory perspectives on things and be at ease with it.

Last but not the least - I firmly believe that nature has been influencing my behaviour and personality, in its own secret ways. While I still don’t understand its mechanism, I think, I am just starting to figure out how to return the favour. Though, I wonder, if this is also nature's design :-?

Virtual Reality

Today being Sunday, the newspaper had more material to read. The lead story in the Times Life pullout was about how internet has emerged as the new venue for social networking with Hi5, Friendster, MySpace, Ryze, LinkedIn and Orkut emerging as the leading websites to form communities in cyberworld. As I was reading the story, there was a statement, given by one of the interviewees, which caught my eyes – “I live alone and I have no real dependence on anyone.” Just to provide full context, this lady is hooked on to few online social networking sites and believes that it is one of the good things which have happened to her.

This was not the first time when I heard such a statement. It may be a coincidence that earlier statements, like this one, were also made by my female friends/aquaintances. It surprises me how people take their environment, in which they live, breathe and make such statements, for granted. I know that most of the people don’t bother for the upkeep of their environment, but slowly, people have started behaving as if it doesn’t exist or they really don’t need it. I don’t know how one, in one’s right senses, can ever proclaim that one is not dependent on anyone else? Especially today, when most of us live in a capitalistic world where one is specialized in a skill and buys other goods/services in exchange, which forces people to be more interdependent on each other. Aren’t we dependent on farmers to grow grains, vegetables and fruits for our consumption? Aren’t we dependent on milk-cooperatives for our milk supply? Aren’t we dependent on masons and carpenters for the construction of our home? Yes, we may end up buying these goods/services in exchange of providing ours, but at the end of the day, we can’t live without them. Money can buy something only if it is available in the market, it can’t buy if it doesn’t exist.

I find it strange when people say that they have no real dependence on anyone, but they spend considerable time doing social networking online. The fact that this lady is hooked on to these sites, tells me that she craves for interaction with other human beings, though, it may be easier for her, and may be for many more, to interact with others in a virtual world rather than in real world. While it is true that internet has made the distance disappear and one can easily interact with someone sitting half way down the globe, I still believe that real world interaction is far more fulfilling and gratifying.

Though, I wonder if the huge increase in the membership of these online communities is a message to all of us about our behaviour in real world :-?