To be in the Line of Fire!

Being a software engineer turned Project Manager myself, I can very well relate to this incident. It's quite touching, humbling and a very well written story. I thank my friends for forwarding this to me. Posting it here so that I can read it time and again..

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Vivek Pradhan wasn’t a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the First Class air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi Express couldn’t cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and still not entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought, he had tried to reason with the admin guy, it was the savings in time. A PM had so many things to do! He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.

“Are you from the software industry sir?” the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop.

Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.

“You people have brought so much advancement to the country sir. Today everything is getting computerized.”

“Thanks” smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a detailed look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stocky like a sportsman. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a Railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

“You people always amaze me,” the man continued, “You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside.”

Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naivety demanded reasoning not anger. “It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it.” For a moment he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement. “It is complex, very complex.”

“It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid”

This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence came into his so far affable, persuasive tone. “Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in.” “Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office doesn’t mean our brows don’t sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no lesstaxing.”

He had the man where he wanted him and it was time to drive home the point. “Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country. Thousands of transactions accessing a single database at a given time; concurrency, data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?”

The man was stuck with amazement, like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination.
“You design and code such things?”

“I used to,” Vivek paused for effect, “But now I am the project manager,”

“Oh!” sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, “so your life is easy now.”

It was like being told the fire was better than the frying pan. The man had to be given a feel of the heat. “Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work. Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I don’t do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality. And to tell you about the pressures! There is the customer at one end always changing his requirements, the user wanting something else and your boss always expecting you to have finished it yesterday.”

Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realisation. What he had said was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth.“My friend,” he concluded triumphantly, “you don’t know what it is to be in the line of fire.”

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.

“I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire,”

He was staring blankly as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.

“There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolor at the top only 4 of us were alive.”

“You are a…”

“I am Subedar Sushant from the 13 JAK Rifles on duty at Peak4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a land assignment. But tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier. On the dawn of that capture one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain refused me permission and went ahead himself. He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded. His own personal safety came last, always and every time.

He was killed as he shielded that soldier into the bunker. Every morning now as I stand guard I can see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir; I know what it is to be in the line of fire.”

Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of his reply. Abruptly he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a word document in the presence of a man for whom valor and duty was a daily part of life; a valor and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes. The train slowed down as it pulled into the station and Subedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight.

“It was nice meeting you sir.”

Vivek fumbled with the handshake. This was the hand that had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger and hoisted the tricolor. Suddenly as if by impulse he stood at attention, and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute.

Epilogue: The incident he narrates during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true life incident during the Kargil war. Captain Batra sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight. For this and his various other acts of bravery he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra – the nation’s highest military award.

Source: Click here

A note of 100 BILLION DOLLAR! And Inflation of 12.5 million percent. It's Zimbabwe 4 U!

What would be reaction if I give you a currency note of 100 billion dollar?

And what if I say it's not enough to buy even one loaf of bread? (as of today, July 27, 2008)

Before you even think for a moment that I must be kidding, let me assure you that it's fact of life in Zimbabwe today!

• Central Bank of Zimbabwe released a new 100 billion dollar bank note last week.



• Official figure of inflation in Zimbabwe as of now is 2.2 million percent a year, but the same is estimated by independent analysts to be closer to 12.5 million percent. (Source -Associated Press)



• It also has become virtually impossible to get access to cash as the country's economic collapse worsens.



• The Zimbabwean Govt is reported to have run out of paper to print money

Inflation in India had just reached 12% and there was big hue and cry. Now, think of Zimbabwe!!!

So, what's the reason behind the crisis that lead to world's highest inflation rate?

Here is a good article that analyzes the situation very bluntly.

• "First, it is important to recognise that probably just less than a third of Zimbabwe's population is out of the country, and a sizeable percentage of these Diasporans is domiciled in hard-currency "Western" countries such as Britain, Canada, the US and Australia.



• The Diasporans, as self-serving as ever, have facilitated the sucking out of large amounts of cash from the mainstream economy, and placed it within their own mini-economy within Zimbabwe, from which they and their associates at home only benefit. How does this happen?



• We Diasporans send money home through some criminals running "money transfer" agencies. These people are criminals, in the sense that they are committing a crime called money laundering.



• We deposit pounds and other forms of hard currency into these criminals' bank accounts, and they deposit Zimbabwean dollars into our relatives' accounts back home. This money escapes the legal, official routes and finds its way straight into Zimbabwean banks as Zimdollars, exchanged using the parallel market rate, which is even higher in the Diaspora than in Zimbabwe.



• Thus, there is an extremely high demand for cash that cannot be accounted for, in any way by the Reserve Bank as it represents the illegal transactions carried out abroad and within Zimbabwe via the Zimbabwean-based money exchangers and the naive banks.



• It is not surprising, therefore, that miracle money in turn creates a very high demand for goods and services in the country, which has the inevitable effect of pushing up prices, and that is what inflation is all about!



• The very high demand for cash necessitates the printing of cash on the part of the Reserve Bank, which maintains and nurtures the environment of very high inflation figures."
  

Just a couple of days back, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono has announced that "Zimbabwe Central Bank Plans Measures to Address Cash Shortage".

Lets hope for the best and keep an eye on this crisis. How about selecting this as topic for our presentation in 'International Micro & Macro Economics'?

Time Value of Money: 10 Calculations to Know

Howdy! If first couple of lectures for various subjects are anything to go by, I think we are going to have a great learning experience in this semester. It's an impressive set of subjects that we have in curriculum.

• International Micro and Macro Economics


• Corporate Finance


• Operations Management


• Strategic Marketing Management


• Brand Management


• Business Sustainability

I was amazed to see the level of class participation in Corporate Finance lecture this Saturday. A pof the reason behind it was the topic of discussion - Time Value of Money. Dr. Vrinda Kamat related it to Personal Financing decisions so very well. On the very same topic, I came across a good resource on Net.

Outlook Money recently published a very good piece on "10 Calculation To Know" for money management. It explains following concepts very briefly, but in such a simple language.

1. Compound Interest


2. Compound Annualised Growth Rate


3. Internal Rate of Return


4. XIRR


5. Post-Tax Return


6. Pre-Tax Yield


7. Inflation


8. Purchasing Power


9. Real Rate of Return


10. Doubling, Tripling of Money (Rule -72, Rule -69)

The author has made a very good attempt to highlight that "The value of investments is only as much as their returns. So, it is critical to know how much your money is worth to plan your financial goals!"

Your thoughts?

Contribute to my Capstone Project: Second Life

Hello!!!

First week of MPE semester III and there is lot of action already. We have just started work on our Capstone projects. Let me share what I am going to do as part of my Capstone project.

Project Title: "Second Life's impact on future of business world"

Background:

As you may know, Second Life is an online, 3D virtual world imagined and created by its residents / users. It started as an internet-based video game created by Linden Lab, first launched on June 23, 2003. Today, it's much more than a game. With more than 14residents, living and doing business (with Linden dollor as currency), it's truly a happening world to be in.

Official Site: http://secondlife.com/
Economy Stats: http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php
More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

How does "future of business" fit in here?

Do you know Arcelor Mittal had organised shareholder meeting in Second Life? Yes, Fortune 500 companies, like IBM, also have presence in the Second Life. Organizations use Second Life as a platform (http://secondlifegrid.net/) to achieve:

• Increased Productivity
• Effective Collaboration
• Improved Communication
• Enhanced Engagement with stakeholders
• Reduce cost, etc.

Objective of my project:

I would like to study various implications such a platform may have on future business scenario. Also, look at various opportunities and challenges for the organizations leveraging the Second Life for business purpose. I also wish to use Second Life and demonstrate a business transaction as part of my project.

Who am I in the Second Life? Well, you need to figure that out by actually being in that world. Just a hint, I am a Mahatma!!!

My Humble Request:

Over next 5-6 months, if you come across any insightful article, news or information on this topic, please share them with me. What better option that to post them as comment to this blog entry itself? Looking forward to your support and encouragement.

See you there in the Second Life...

Surprise... Surprise...! It's Lakshmi's Birthday today!

We managed to surprise Lakshmi on her birthday today! Though we reached her home half an hour late, it was great to see her completely surprised at 12:30AM (She was talking to me on phone, when the door bell rang, just to find Nami, Anshu, Tejal, Nayan and I standing outside)! Inspired from DCH, you know!!! By the way, Nitin was already there (just like Saif had reached earlier in DCH:-))

Check out the snaps and video of the birthday celebration...

Thanks Nami and Anshu for giving this idea! Thanks Anand for providing the direction from Bangalore! Thanks Nitin and Amit for doing a great job of not revealing the surprise!

Here is wishing Lakshmi many happy returns of the day!

Anand's Competitor: E. Sarath Babu (IIM-A, 2006)

Remember, Anand passionately talking about his "Idli on Wheels" business plan last week? Well, you have got a tough competition, my friend!

E. Sarath Babu, a software engineer (BITS, Pilani) and IIM-A graduate refused a lucrative job offer and has started a catering company (Foodking Catering Service) to sell "Idlis" in the campus of IIM-A!

• DNA appropriately noted that "E Sharathbabu’s life has come a full circle. He started off with selling idlis in the slums of Madipakkam in Chennai, then left it to graduate from IIM- Ahmedabad. He hit headlines for refusing a lucrative job offer and starting a catering company. He recently inaugurated his first outlet on the IIM-A campus and he’s back to selling idlis".
• He had to ask friends to chip in to raise his initial capital of Rs 10 lakh and form a 15-member team. But with "quality, cleanliness and delivery" as his business motto, he expects to emerge a market leader in 10 years. He says he plans to turn his company into a food chain that will be a "national brand" employing 50,000 people. As per Sarath Babu, Foodking will be worth Rs 500 crore in five to eight years!
• Infosys chief Narayana Murthy had released the business plan of 27-year-old Sarathbabu’s catering business. Mr. Murthy said: "I am happy and proud that they have opted to walk on a road less travelled."
• IIM-A director, Professor Bakul Dholakia, said, " In the last four decades, such a thing has never happened in IIM Ahmedabad. What Sarath has done is very encouraging. He will have a great learning experience here as IIM people have a reputation for being a tough clientele!
• Sarath's proud mother Deeparamani said she knew her son had declined a well-paying job but she was happy that he had chosen to be a caterer. "At least, he would be feeding people".
• Read more...
  The Hindu: He sold idlis; he will start a food chain
• DNA: This IIM grad sells idlis
  Blog:

Well, Anand, this proves that your idea of making it big in catering industry has "DUM"! Guys, mark my words: "Ye bande (Anand) me hain dum"! Join me wish Anand all the very best in becoming a top notch businessman!