Trip to GOA

We had an unforgettable trip to GOA earlt this year. It was four days trip starting Saturday, January 23rd. I have posted some great photos that we had taken in our GOA trip.

Raod to GOA


Sunset while sailing over the Sea... unmatched excitement :)


Don't play with water...

Shoaib, Saniya and Scandals..

Saniya Mirza the much hyped international tennis star decided to marry somone from across the border... Pak. Who? Shoaib malik.. who is facing charges of getting married to Aayesha from the city of Nawabs Hyderabad. First he denied everything about Aayesha and then he said I am married to some other Aayesha and not this one.

From the day one, this wedding was in trouble.. initially, some people did not like Saniya marring a person from Pak and still wants to play for India. Doesn't this sound awkward? Marry to a Paki, get settleled in Dubai and play for India.

Though, I personally do not have any problem of her marring Shoaib or any one from Pak, but didn't she find a single bachlor in India? We have so many in the Indian team itself (if she wanted a cricketer only). She can start from Zaheer and can go till Kaif..

I hope truth will come out and everyone will be happy...

BTW.. Congratulations to Saniya.. or best of luck to her. You decide.

My Address on Google Map

You can find me on Google Map. Check out the link.
http://www.batchgeocode.com/map/?i=ff38fc32f2db3327ab9e3c3fd4608a26

India (PL) Moves to Africa

The day didn't start with good news for Cricket lovers including myself... The much awaited IPL-2 going to England because of the great Indian Political Leaders. They say we can't host matches and elections at the same time.

Today, I feel sorry and shamed that the country as big as India can't plan and host two things together, thanks to our leaders' egos and will power. This will send wrong signal to the World that we are prone to attacks and can bend infront of few terrorist who did Lahore attack on SL cricketers.

This would have been golden chance to show the World that you are as safe in India as in the US or UK by organising IPL in India. But I think we missed the train. I don't know how much more time it will take to catch the train.

I hope and pray to God that our so called leaders get some wisdom and we don't face such situation again. Amin.

Thought of the Day!

Situations have the way of changing. Don’t expect help. Help yourself.The day you help yourself, it is the first day of your success.

War on India

From an Indian’s heart.
Terrorist : I am ALIVE, what more can you do?
Politician : I am ALIVE despite you!
I am an Indian!
This is the message shown by one of the Indian and I think this summarizes the feeling of all the Indian against the recent attacks on Mumbai.

When I met President APJ Abdul Kalam

Hi All,
The day when I met President Dr. Abdul Kalam is still the happiest day of my life. This was the time when I was in my final year of Engineering at Nagpur. I and my friends were working on our project “Bionic Arm”. We had submitted our project in the “Techfest” Competition held at IIT Mumbai in 2002.
Our project was the only entry from eastern Maharashtra engineering colleges . On the competition day we came to know that President Dr. Abdul Kalam is here and he is going to see our project work. When he came to see our project at around 9.00 am in the morning, we were so thrilled and excited than we were unable to speak. It was like dream come true for anyone who likes him.
When we were explaining him about the project, he listened to it very carefully. He told us “very good concept, keep it up”. This has been our best compliment we ever had for our project. We were so happy and excited that we forgot to ask for an autograph from him. If we had taken an autograph of him, it would have been like ice on a cake.
We still cherish that moment and the 15 min we spent with President Abdul Kalam will remain forever in our heart.
Ashish

Do we get work, just because we are cheap?

on behalf of my friend Ashwin.
When I started my career as a software professional, I used to think that big Indian companies are very ethical, do high end jobs and get the projects mostly on their capability and not just on cost advantage. I have been a constant supporter of outsourcing as it’s a smart way to do business for both sides, it might be in IT or some other business domain, but something which disappoints me about Indian IT Industry is – manipulating the salary, experience and skillset of their ignorant employees outside and inside India.
I have been outside India since last year and after getting into touch with a lot of consultants, UK/US companies, and UK/US recruiters, I feel that Indian companies are too greedy for the dollars and pounds. Why do they pay Indian employees at onsite with same capabilities/skillset less than the native worker? I wouldn’t just say this, but give some facts to support it :
Salary Given to someone with 4 to 4.5 years IT experience in UK and US by an Indian company:
UK – 36000 GBP
US – 50000 to 55000 USD
Salary Given to someone with 4 to 4.5 years IT experience in UK and US:
UK – 45000 to 50000 GBP
US – 80000 to 90000 GBP
The difference is considerable, and has no rationale behind it ( we do not work cheap at onsite). One more significant drawback of Indian salary structure – You get different numbers on the following important documents:
Appointment Letter/ Appraisal Letter
Pay Slip
Bank Statement
Relieving Letter
Form 16
Why all of them are not consistent, when we are working in India ? Why there is so huge difference between CTC and actual compensation, isn’t something evaded somewhere?We can be indifferent to this, as long as we earn good but this all creates a trouble when you start working as an International Skilled worker.
When you leave a company – on your relieving letter the only thing you get is your designation, your basic salary (which makes you look like a beggar) and duration. A Software Engineer can work on 100 different technologies and may be even on bench all through the entire duration, what assures his skillset and expertise ; nothing?
Your experience certificate in most of the cases – doesn’t mention anything about your projects, skillset, and role in project.
Most of us go to onsite, save some thousands of dollars or pounds and return to India, very gladly considering that we have saved a lot, Yes we do when we compare with an average Indian, but when we are working in US/UK or client site we are working because we have certain skills or because we are needed – or is it always because we are having cost advantage. If it’s not always just cost advantage – are we getting exploited by someone, are the lavish campuses of Indian company just to impress the billion dollar clients who don’t even themselves have an office like this.
Another major issue which plagues Indian IT industry is fake IT professionals – This is something I wrote on a forum few weeks back:
I have been working in IT Industry since last more than 4 years and I used to think that everyone learns things slowly like me, before boasting himself/herself as an expert in any technology. I am working in UK since last one year, and I interacted with so many fake consultants who don’t even know ABC of Datastage or even Software Engineering, similar kind of consultants, Software Engineers exist for other tools and technologies as well. I initially tried being indifferent to it, but then two of my close friends were denied contracts just because they were Indians, and some of the British companies are skeptic about Indian Consultants as most of them are fake. I have personally met at least 25 fake consultants in last one year. I understand that, they need a job, but why to project an experience of 4 or 5 years when you haven’t worked in IT for one day?I request you guys, to give your opinion about it and protest it in anyway you can, me and my bunch of friends have stop cooperating with such guys.

Save Earth

Hi,

Please urge everyone to switch off their lights in the home for an hour on 29 March from 8 PM to 9 PM to save our Earth. In the mean time, look at the sky, look at the stars and go out. The little contribution from everyone can make huge difference. Together we can and we will make the difference.

Ashish