House TO-LET

Searching for a good rented house in Bangalore is a big problem and headache now a days. I am staying in Bangalore from last 5 years, earlier before marriage with friends and now with my wife (ofcourse). My present owner’s son is shifting here from Australia and also getting married. Hence we need to search for another house. Since we both are very much comfortable with the area, we decided to look out for some place here only. The area I am talking about is Vijanagar, Saraswathi Nagar and around GKW layout. When we shifted here almost two and half years back, the rent here was not that much as it is now. We are paying around 6K per month excluding water bills which is shared in between. As it’s a independent 2 story house, there is no question of maintenance and all. Parking is shared again, good thing is there is not much disturbance from the owner. Though we were at the receiving end in sharing the water bills every month, since the area is calm and other facilities (like Bus stop, auto and grocery shops are walkable) were nearby, we did not bother much.

Now we are searching house so that at least some of the above things are satisfied. Our quest for finding new house started with searching houses in Ad-mag and Free-ads every week. Ams looks out potential houses and marks them, and we start calling them for having a look at the house and here starts the problem.

The attitude of people, especially those who have built houses especially for rent is really disturbing and horrible, apart from outsiders who were responsible for the increase in cost of living of the garden city, the locals are also equally responsible for the present situation.

Coming back to house searching adventure,  In less than 600 sft of area they construct two bed rooms (somehow) , where if you put a 5X6 cot, no space will be left around (You will have a wardrobe for name sake) to even walk. A small kitchen where it will be difficult to sit, only thing you could do is stand (Don’t think of relaxing if you get tired while cooking…..) and cook. A tiny hall which you can hardly accommodate TV set and some chairs (A large sofa set is totally ruled out… Don’t even think it), and in case you happen to be visited by more than 4 guests, you should ask them to wait outside for a while, or ask them to get into a bedroom or kitchen.

The owners proudly say, their house is perfectly suited for a small family (We got to ask definition of “small family” to this gentleman).  If you look out for apartment, then though the rooms might be smaller but the rent will be more as there will be car parking and security as they claim.

The greed to make more MONEY has totally ruined the Bangalore culture and made the owners to build small match box like houses and rent them out for hefty amount. Some houses which are more than couple of decades old and have cockroaches, lizerds  and mouse as co-occupants. But rent wise no one is simply ready to come down even if the facilities go for a toss.

Once the house is shown to you, first question that the house owner will shoot is “Are you a software engineer?” else somehow he will try to get your occupation as what work you are doing. He could be judging what is your salary and based on that he will decide how much to ask you as rent. If the company is not heard or not so famous then owner will be least interested to rent it out. Also if your company name ends with something like “SOFTWARE LIMITED” or “SOFTWARE CORP” then you may get some respect.

One more funny incident when a house owner did not show any interest to even tell the rent the moment he realized I am not a software guy. Well, situation was not so bad earlier, Bangalore was not like this. People were not so greedy. Though I’m restricting myself to Vijaynagar, my friends tell that across all places in Bangalore its the same thing and some places the exploitation is still worst.

People don’t know how long this boom will be there and what impact it will have aftermath. Till these so called “software guys” are there everyone wants to make money. House owners, Vegetable vendors, Builders, Auto wallas, Shopping malls, multiplex, domestic help  and virtually everyone. Resulting in increase in the cost of living. And the people who will be at receiving end are the middle class and lower middle class people. I have come across many examples where people have shifted from Bangalore to their natives due to increase in cost, and these peopel were in Bangalore from really long time. It may be still worst if the cost of living is not controlled at this point of time… Further due to the increase in cost factor multinationals may shift (some have already begun) to tier 2 cities leaving Bangalore dry. The BUBBLE will burst, sooner or later…

Solutions like planned layouts, regulation in rentals, more strict building regulations may help to control mammoth unplanned growth of the city. Whether it is outsiders or locals, restoring the culture of Bangalore is important.

Let’s wish “Namma Bangalooru” will have same green and peaceful city reputation for many years to come…

Ram Naam SATYAM

No one in corporate world would have dreamt about first week of 2009 would be so horrible. Indian IT industry was stunned by SATYAM chairman Ramalinga Raju’s resignation on Wednesday 7^th January 2009, from the post admitting to INR 7000 crore scam by inflating the company profits which was never existed in reality.  Raju also claimed to cook up the financial records from past several years showing profit and failed MAYTAS takeover bid was the last attempt to set the things right in India’s fourth largest IT Company serving more than 185 fortune 500 companies worldwide.  SATYAM was listed company in BSE, NIFTY and NYSE.

Complete Coverage in Times of India online

Complete text of Ramalinga Raju Resignation letter to Board and SEBI.

SATYAM headquartered in Hyderabad was one of the reputed companies with presence in more than 60 countries worldwide. SATYAM has also major presence in engineering services and consultancy. They have impressive client list, some of which include Bombardier Aerospace, Airbus, Boeing, GE, Caterpillar, Falcon, Oceaneering Inc and so on. Apart SATYAM subsidiary SATYAM Venture Engineering serves few of the well known automotive giants in Europe and Japan.

I worked for SATYAM during Feb thru April 2007 as Senior Analysis Engineer (Level 4) in Hyderbad. I was put up in SATYAM Technology Center campus in Bahudurpalli, which is located approximately 22 kms from city.

I had a mixed experience in Satyam. On one hand I had made few good friends out and learned many things technically, but I had a bad experience on how the things are managed there, especially from the people in middle level management. SATYAM has got many people across different verticals who are just there in company from long time doing nothing.
The day I joined at SATYAM (19^th February 2007), I was told repeatedly by the SATYAM staffer who was verifying the certificates that in case the credentials submitted are not genuine then I may be asked to leave anytime. The things did not simply stop there. When I was introduced to my reporting manager (SK – Level 7) and one more senior fellow (SP – Technical manager CAE Level Eight) in our engineering services group, they also repeated these things about sacking the employees. Thing is all of my certificates were genuine, but it gave an impression of uncertain future in Satyam. They were giving examples of how people were sacked on producing fake bills, LTA claims and so on. Really crap isn’t it ?

I have heard and also come across many organizations where people are taken into organization by making them feel good and confident about the company on first day at office. But in SATYAM I felt it exactly opposite.

Job wise, the kind of work we were doing was pretty good technically. As a culture, in SATYAM the managers there make sure that they give 12 hours work in 8 hour shift. I guess each manager is trained in that way before he takes up the charge. And especially when I joined, there were some escalations and we used to work from morning 9 to midnight. Even on weekends and holidays as well. I found absolutely no time to search for a house as the pressure was high at that time. I requested my manager who was aware of my situation to either extend my hotel stay from 15 days to a month or allot me some dorm in the campus for some time. But he simply kept on dragging the things. Speaking about the manager SK, who was had very little know how of technical stuff was more suited for regional politics and language bias.  He always used to start meeting in local language and end the meeting it in same language. People at manager level, who were there in SATYAM from a very long time always used to talk about SATYAM values and culture, about which the country is getting to know now.

As in case of any other company, the HR show lots stuff as CTC and talk as if their company best, but usually salary wise there will be many deductions as well. Variable pay is one thing which no one knows how they calculate. Apart the recruitment guy also told me about getting a shift allowance of 4-5k per month which none of us in the team got for couple of months. Later I got to know the shift allowance is being held every 2 months citing some disciplinary reason like incoming time delay or even the time sheet defaulting. (Guess this money is also being siphoned away in some way). To add to this, there was no word from HR regarding the notice period reimbursement or relocation advance despite my repeated follow ups. Later I got to know that people who claimed the bills from last 6-8 months are yet to receive their claims.  The circle HR was one of the most irresponsible and careless employee I have ever seen

I got opportunity at right time and shifted back to Bangalore, as I was getting suffocated in SATYAM. (I feel now I made a excellent decision by shifting). I put up my papers on 28^th of April 2007 and took a forced exit. I addressed all the issues to the center head and the ES circle head keeping SK in loop which forced me to take the decision to get out of the company.

Our only wish is the company gets back to normal and things get settled soon . I also feel all the useless people who do no work and think SATYAM is their ancestor property are shown the door and new and competitive people come on  board. I wish all the very best to my friends and surely SATYAM will be back with “What Business Demands…”

Ghajini conquers

The last week of 2008 saw release of one of the most hyped movie of the year. Me and Ams were eagerly waiting to catch up like many other. Yes, it was Aamir Khan starer, remake of Tamil original Ghajini. A pure action flick with a successful transformation of Aamir from a Teacher in Tare Zamin Par to a anterograde amnesia patient Sanjay. Tracing back, few of Aamir’s last action flicks Baazi and Mela (apart from skinny Twinkle Khanna, no one remembers this movie though) are best forgotten. I thought Baazi was a refreshing movie with cleanly shaven legs of Aamir dancing an item number, but somehow failed to generate that tempo at box office. The failure of Baazi also put breaks on the career of promising young director Ashutosh Gowarikar.

Coming to the commercial success of the movie Ghajini, today morning news report showed that it has crossed 100 crores mark in first week itself. The movie rights were reportedly sold for more than 90 crores. The marketing and promotion of the movie was well planned and executed.

Ghajini inspiration 2001 flick Momento

Talking about the movie Ghajini, it has a simple and straight storyline with some high voltage action. Based on the American movie Memento which was directed by Christopher Nolan,adapted from his brother Jonathan Nolan’s short story Memento Mori. (The concepts like writing notes behind instant Polaroid photographs, tattooing facts on body etc. are directly lifted from the movie without crediting the fact.)

Aamir’s new avataar in Ghajini

The film is a romantic action thriller that explores the life of a once-rich businessman who suffers from anterograde amnesia following a violent encounter. With the aid of Polaroid images and permanent tattoos on his torso, the businessman tries to avenge the murder of his vivacious model girlfriend, Kalpana, who was killed shortly before he was also attacked leading to his diagnosis of amnesia. Performancewise, Asin as Kalpana is refreshing, especially after her irritating role in Dashavtharam and Pradeep Rawat as Ghajani has done justice to the role. Jiah Khan is average with not giving much life to the role as a medical student Sunita.

A R Murgadoss

The movie belongs to Aamir, as young US return CEO Sanjay Singhania of Air voice mobile and later anterograde amnesia patient. Whether its dazzling corporate honcho in Van Huesan shirts or with those lovely 8 pack abs as anterograde amnesia patient ought to revange for Kalpana’s death. The movie’s some part are shot in ITPL Banaglore and his shooting was a best kept secret till it was finished. With relatively two new comers Aamir stars all the way in the movie. Muragodoss debut in bollywood have not been better than this.

Surya and Asin in Ghajini (Tamil)

Comparison between Surya and Aamir would be unfair as they both are winners in their own way. Aamir being a volatile hero shines in Ghajini as action hero giving action a new dimension in Hindi cinema. However Surya is known to be a action hero with serious roles like Ghajini and Khaka Khaka. Both shine in their own way.

Aamir Khan has come a long way since his debut as a chocolate boy in QSQT. A no nonsense actor as he is considered to be, minds only his business and nothing else. With his filmi background and talent combined with professionalism Aamir has knowledge of what to exploit when it comes to film making. Whether it is Munna in Rangeela or Bhuvan in Lagaan or Akaash in Dil Chahta Hai, he completely transforms into a role and does it with perfection. Unlike other bollywood heroes, Aamir has bought that professionalism in Indian cinema and wish he will soon get an Oscar for India…