Zinda hoooo Main...........

"IBM" Walkin for Mainframe/Java/.Net/Websphere/SAP/testing/Unix/DBMS

2008-09-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

Interested candidates may send your resumes to shaz.prashant@gmail.com with [position name/experience/location] in the subject line.

There are openings for all profiles & all technologies. Please go through the list carefully.

Event Calendar (Skills to Refer, Minimum Experience Required, Cities of Event)

Event Date : 13th Sept (Saturday)
For weekend events, Registration Timing : 10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Please check the detailed calendar for participating skills

(minimum experience is 3 yrs for all interviews ; candidates with less experience will be sent back)

************************************************** ***
AS400/Mainframe
Application Developer - COBOL( with DB2, JCL,VSAM)
(Joining Location : Bangalore )
Application Developer - CICS
(Joining Location : Bangalore, Chennai )
Application Developer - PL1, BPCS / INFOR
(Joining Location : Pune)
Application Developer - Assembler, PL1, IMS, Life400, RPG, Rexx, Synon, COBOL(VM OS)
(Joining Location :Bangalore, Chennai)
Application Developer - COBOL400, SAS with COBOL
(Joining Location :Hyderabad)
DB2 DBA, MVS DBA
(Joining Location : Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai,Gurgaon)
Technical Team Leader -Mainframe
(Joining Location : Bangalore, Hyderabad )

Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai
************************************************** ***
Application Developer - Java/J2EE (SE , Sr. SE & TL)
(Joining Location: Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon ,Kolkata , Chennai )
Event City : Bangalore , Gurgaon , Mumbai , Pune , Chennai , Kolkata

Application Developer - Visual Basic, .Net ( SE & Sr.SE)
( Joining Location - Bangalore , Kolkata , Chennai )
Event City : Bangalore , Chennai , Kolkata

Rational Developers
Event City : Bangalore , Kolkata , Pune (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

WebSphere Application Server Developers, WAS Admin
Event City : Bangalore , Kolkata , Pune , Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
************************************************** ***
DBMS
Database Administrator - DB2 UDB, Informix, SQL, Oracle
Application Developer - Teradata, Sybase, SQL, PL/SQL
Data Specialist - Data Modeler
Event City : Bangalore(SA), Hyderabad, Gurgaon
************************************************** ***
SAP
Application Developer - SAP.NW.ABAP, SAP.NW.BI, SAP.NW.EP, SAP.NW.XI
Application Architect - SAP.NW.Basis, SAP.NW.Security
Package Solution Consultant - SAP.FIN.BI, SAP.NW.BI, SAP.NW.EP, SAP. IS, SAP.NW.XI
Technical Team Leader-SAP.NW.ABAP
Project Manager - SAP
Event City : Bangalore(DD), Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai

Application Developer - SAP.NW.ABAP.HR
Package Solution Consultant - SAP.HR, SAP.HR Time Management, SAP.HR.Comp Mgt, SAP.HR.Payroll, SAP.HR.Self Serve, Workbrain
Event City : Bangalore(DD), Chennai, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Pune
Package Solution Consultant - SAP.FIN.SEM
Event City : Bangalore(DD), Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Gurgaon (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)
Package Solution Consultant - SAP.FIN, SAP.FIN.CO
Event City : Bangalore(DD), Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Mumbai
SAP - IT Specialist - Basis
Event City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)
Package Solution Consultant - SAP.CRM, NW. BI, Chordiant
Event City : Bangalore(DD), Kolkata, Gurgaon, Hyderabad
************************************************** ***
LCD Learning Developer - Instructional Design
Learning Consultant - e-learning
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
************************************************** ***
Siebel Application Developer- Siebel Integration, Siebel OM
Package Solution Consultant - Siebel Analytics, Siebel Configuration, Pega,
Event City : Bangalore(DD), Pune, Hyderabad
************************************************** ***
DWBI Application Developer-BI Reporting Tools, BusinessObjects, COGNOS, MicroStrategy
Data Specialist-Data Modeling, ETL.Ab Initio, ETL.Ascential, ETL.Informatica
Event City : Bangalore(SA), Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune
************************************************** ***
FMS Package Solution Consultant - Hyperion, COGNOS, Oracle Financials
Event City : Banglore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
************************************************** ***
Unix Application Developers C++
(Joining Location: Bangalore, Chennai)
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai
************************************************** ***
Application Developer- Websphere MQ Series, Websphere Process Server, Websphere Customer Center, Websphere Business Integration Message Broker, TIBCO
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
Application Developer - Portals.Websphere (Websphere / Weblogic),
Application Developer - Content Management (Filenet)
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
************************************************** ***
AIS Security Speciality - Security
Security Consultant - S&P
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
************************************************** ***
Test Specialist-Technical-Test Planning (AMDOCS Testing)
Event City : Hyderabad
Test Specialist-Technical-Mercury Testing Tool (TIBCO/TUXEDO)
Event City : Gurgaon

Test Engineer-Datacomm
Network Test Engineer
Software Testing - QA Engineer - ENMS
System Verification Engineer
Test Specialist- Technical General- ( Life-400 Testers)
Event City : Bangalore
************************************************** ***
Application Consultant-Comms Billing - Comptel Eventlink Developer
Event City : Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)

Project Manager-Communications Sector (Software Configuration Manager)
Event City : Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)

Project Manager-Communications Sector (Staffing and Metrics Manager)
Event City : Kolkata, Chennai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)

Application Consultant-Comms Billing-Portal Infranet
Event City : Kolkata, Chennai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)

Business Analyst - Function Point Analysis
Event City : Kolkata, Chennai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Project Administrator-Project Support (PMO)
Event City : Pune, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Quality Delivery Excellence - PQA
Project Manager- Quality Delivery Excellence - Lead PQA
Event City : Pune, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)

Telecom - Netcool
Event City : Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)

Business Transformation Consultant-Application Architect - Finacle, Flex cube, Tenenon, Revelious
Event City : Chennai (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Business Transformation Consultant-Enterprise Integration Architect - Finacle, Flex cube, Tenenon, Revelious
Event City : Bangalore (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Business Transformation Consultant-Package Solution Consultant - Finacle, Flex cube, Tenenon, Revelious
Event City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Gurgoan, Pune, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Business Transformation Consultant-Solution Architect - Finacle, Flex cube, Tenenon, Revelious
Event City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Gurgoan, Pune, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Industry Consultant-INDUSTRY.Financial Markets - Investment Banking, Stock exchanges, Custody, Clearing and settlement, Trading systems, Order/Trade Management
Event City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Gurgoan, Pune, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Resource Deployment Manager-Resource & Capacity Management (R&CM)
Event City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Others Application Consultant :Genesys
Event City : Kolkata, Chennai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Groupware Application Developer - Lotus Notes
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

"IBM" Walkin for Mainframe/Java/.Net/Websphere/SAP/testing/Unix/DBMS

2008-09-04T03:34:00.000-07:00

Interested candidates may send your resumes to shaz.prashant@gmail.com with [position name/experience/location] in the subject line.

There are openings for all profiles & all technologies. Please go through the list carefully.

Event Calendar (Skills to Refer, Minimum Experience Required, Cities of Event)

Event Date : 6th Sept (Saturday)
For weekend events, Registration Timing : 10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Please check the detailed calendar for participating skills

(minimum experience is 3 yrs for all interviews ; candidates with less experience will be sent back)

Mainframe/AS400

Application Developer - COBOL( with DB2, JCL,VSAM)
(Joining Location : Bangalore, Hyderabad )
Application Developer - CICS
(Joining Location : Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad )
Application Developer - PL1, BPCS / INFOR
(Joining Location : Pune)
Application Developer - Assembler, PL1 , IMS, Life400, RPG, Rexx, Synon, COBOL (VM OS)
(Joining Location :Bangalore, Chennai)
Application Developer - COBOL400, SAS with COBOL
(Joining Location :Hyderabad)
DB2 DBA , MVS DBA
(Joining Location : Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Gurgaon)
Technical Team Leader -Natural Adabas
(Joining Location : Kolkata )
Technical Team Leader -Mainframe
(Joining Location : Bangalore, Hyderabad )

Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Gurgaon, Kolkata

************************************************** ************************
Web Development
Application Developer - Java/J2EE (SE & Sr. SE)
(Joining Location - Pune , Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Hyderabad )
Event City : Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Hyderabad
Application Developer - Java/J2EE (TL)
(Joining Location - Pune , Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai )
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai
Application Developer - Visual Basic, .Net*( SE & Sr.SE)
( Joining Location - Pune , Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad )
Event City : Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata
Application Developer - Visual Basic, .Net (TL)
(Joining location - Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata)
Event City : Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata

Rational Developers Bangalore, Kolkata
(By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
WebSphere Application Server Developers, WAS Admin Bangalore, Kolkata
(By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

************************************************** ************************
DBMS
Database Administrator - DB2 UDB, Informix, SQL, Oracle
Application Developer - Teradata, Sybase, SQL, PL/SQL
Data Specialist-Data Modeler
Event City : Bangalore(SA), Chennai, Kolkata

************************************************** ************************
SAP
Application Developer-SAP.NW.ABAP, SAP.NW.BI, SAP.NW.EP, SAP.NW.XI
Application Architect-SAP.NW.Basis, SAP.NW.Security
Technical Team Leader-SAP.NW.ABAP
Package Solution Consultant-SAP.NW.BI, SAP.IS, SAP.NW.EP, SAP.NW.XI, SAP.FIN.BI
Project Manager-SAP
Event City : Bangalore(DD), Chennai, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Kolkata
Package Solution Consultant - SAP.FIN.SEM
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)
Package Solution Consultant - SAP.FIN, SAP.FIN.CO
Event City : Bangalore(DD), Kolkata, Chennai

************************************************** ************************

LCD Learning Developer - Instructional Design
Learning Consultant - e-learning
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)

************************************************** ************************
FMS Package Solution Consultant - Hyperion, COGNOS, Oracle Financials
Event City : Banglore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)

************************************************** ************************

Unix Application Developers C++
(Joining Location: Bangalore, Chennai)
Event City : Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata

************************************************** ************************
AIS
Application Developer- Web Methods, Websphere MQ Series, Websphere Process Server, Websphere Customer Centre, Websphere Business Integration Message Broker
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
Application Developer- Portals.Websphere (Websphere / Weblogic),
Application Developer- Content Management (Filenet)
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
Security Speciality - Security
Security Consultant - S&P
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)

************************************************** ************************
TESTING
Test Specialist-Technical-Test Planning (AMDOCS Testing)
Event City : Hyderabad
Test Specialist-Technical-Mercury Testing Tool (TIBCO/TUXEDO)
Event City : Gurgaon
Test Specialist-Technical - General- (QTP and Performance/ MF Testers)
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)

Test Engineer-Datacomm
Network Test Engineer
Software Testitng - QA Engineer - ENMS
System Verification Engineer
Test Specialist- Technical General- ( Life-400 Testers)
Event City : Bangalore (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)

************************************************** ************************
Others
Application Consultant-Comms Billing - Comptel Eventlink Developer
Event City : Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)
Project Manager-Communications Sector
Event City : Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)
Application Consultant-Comms Billing-Portal Infranet
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)
Business Analyst - Function Point Analysis
Event City : Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Gurgaon (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
Project Administrator-Project Support (PMO)
Event City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Gurgaon (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
Quality Assurance - PQA
Project Manager- Quality Assurance - Lead PQA
Event City : Gurgaon, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)
Industry Consultant : INDUSTRY.Financial Markets (Calypso Trading Systems)
Event City : Chennai (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
Industry Consultant-INDUSTRY.Insurance Products
Event City : Bangalore (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
Industry Consultant-INDUSTRY.Financial Markets - Investment Banking, Stock exchanges, Custody, Clearing and settlement, Trading systems, Order/Trade Management, Finacle, Flex cube, Tenenon, Revelious
Event City : Kolkata, Gurgoan, Banglore, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
Core Banking - Application Architect, Solution Architect, Enterprise Integration Architect, Package Solutions Consultant,
Event City : Kolkata, Gurgoan, Banglore, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
Project Manager - Core Banking Specialization
Event City : Kolkata, Gurgoan, Banglore, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

************************************************** ************************
Groupware Application Developer-Lotus Notes
Event City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Walk In @IBM Mainframe/Java/.Net/Websphere/DBA/SAP/Unix/Testing/Siebel/DWBI/Peoplesoft

2008-08-25T01:25:00.000-07:00

Interested candidates may send your resumes to shaz.prashant@gmail.com with [position name/experience/location] in the subject line.

There are openings for all profiles & all technologies. Please go through the list carefully.

Event Calendar (Skills to Refer, Minimum Experience Required, Cities of Event)

Event Date : 30th August (Saturday)
For weekend events, Registration Timing : 10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Please check the detailed calendar for participating skills

(minimum experience is 3 yrs for all interviews ; candidates with less experience will be sent back)

************************************************** **
Application Developer - COBOL( with DB2, JCL,VSAM)
(Joining Location : Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad )
Application Developer - CICS
(Joining Location : Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad , Kolkata)
Application Developer - Assembler, PL1 , IMS, Life400, RPG, Synon, COBOL(VM OS)
(Joining Location :Bangalore, Chennai)
Application Developer - PL1, BPCS / INFOR, COBOL(with Japanese language),
(Joining Location : Pune)
Application Developer - COBOL400, SAS with COBOL
(Joining Location :Hyderabad)
DB2 DBA
(Joining Location : Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai)
AS400/MF
Technical Team Leader -Mainframe
(Joining Location : Bangalore, Hyderabad )

City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai

************************************************** **

Application Developer - Java/J2EE
(Joining Location - Bangalore , Pune , Kolkata , Gurgaon ,Chennai )

City : Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Chennai

Application Developer - Visual Basic, .Net
( Joining Location - Kolkata )
City : Kolkata

Rational Developers
City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

WebSphere Application Server Developers, WAS Admin
City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

************************************************** **

Database Administrator - DB2 UDB, Informix, SQL, Oracle
Application Developer - Teradata, Sybase, SQL
DBMS
Data Specialist-Data Modeler

City : Bangalore(SA), Chennai, Hyderabad, Gurgaon

************************************************** **
SAP ABAP, Basis, BI, XI, EP, ISU, Security
Project Manager

City : Bangalore(DD), Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Mumbai

Package Solution Consultant - SAP.HR, SAP.HR Time Management, SAP.HR.Comp Mgt, SAP.HR.Payroll, SAP.HR.Self Serve, Workbrain

City : Bangalore(DD), Kolkata, Pune, Gurgaon

Package Solution Consultant - SAP.CRM, SAP.NW.BI, Chordiant
City : Bangalore (DD), Kolkata, Gurgaon, Hyderabad

Package Solution Consultant - SAP.FIN.SEM
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)

Package Solution Consultant - SAP.FIN, SAP.FIN.CO
City : Bangalore(DD), Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Pune

************************************************** **

LCD Instructional Designers and Lead Instructional Designers
City : Kolkata (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
************************************************** **
FMS Package Solution Consultant - Hyperion, COGNOS, Oracle Financials
City : Banglore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai(By individual invitation only; no walk-in)

************************************************** **
Unix Application Developers C++
(Joining Location: Bangalore)
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai

************************************************** **
Application Developer - Websphere Process Server
Application Developer - Websphere Business Integration Message Broker
City : Bangalore
************************************************** **
Application Developer- Web Methods, Websphere MQ Series, Websphere Process Server, Websphere Customer Centre
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
************************************************** **
Application Developer- Portals.Websphere (Websphere / Weblogic),
Application Developer- Content Management (Filenet)
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
************************************************** **
AIS Security Speciality-Security, Security Consultant - S&P
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
************************************************** **
TESTING
QTP Automation Testers
Performance testers
City : Pune, Gurgaon, Chennai

Mainframe testers
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad

Test Specialist-Business-General, Technical-Test Execution(Telecom)
City : Bangalore

Test Specialist-Technical-General
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai

Test Specialist-Technical-Testing - Tools
City : Chennai

Test Specialist-Technical - SAP, Siebel
City : Bangalore

Test Manager-General
City : Kolkata

Test Engineer-Datacomm
Network Test Engineer
Software Testitng - QA Engineer - ENMS
System Verification Engineer
City : Bangalore

Software Testitng - QA Engineer - Wireless LAN
City : Bangalore(By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

************************************************** **
Siebel
Application Architect - Siebel
Application Developer - Siebel Integration, Siebel Analytics, Siebel Configuration, Pega
Package Solution Consultant - Siebel OM

City : Bangalore(DD)
************************************************** **
DW&BI
Application Developer - BI Reporting tools, BO, COGNOS, Microstrategy,
Data Specialist - ETL.Data Modeling, ETL.AbInitio, ETL.Ascential, ETL.Informatica
City : Bangalore (SA), Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune
************************************************** **
PeopleSoft
Application Developer - PeopleSoft
Database Administrator - PeopleSoft
Package Solution Consultant - PeopleSoft HCM
City : Bangalore(DD), Gurgaon
************************************************** **
Oracle Apps
Application Developer - Oracle Applications
City : Bangalore(DD), Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gurgaon
************************************************** **
Application Consultant-Comms Billing - Comptel Eventlink Developer, Documentation designer
City : Pune, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad

Project Manager-Communications Sector
City : Pune, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad

Application Consultant-Comms Billing-Portal Infranet
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune

Business Analyst - Function Point Analysis
City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon

Project Administrator-Project Support (PMO)
City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon

Project Manager-Quality Assurance - Lead PQA, PQA
City : Pune, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai

Industry Consultant : INDUSTRY.Financial Markets (Calypso Trading Systems)
City : Pune, Chennai (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Industry Consultant-INDUSTRY.Insurance Products
City : Bangalore (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Industry Consultant-INDUSTRY.Financial Markets - Investment Banking, Stock exchanges, Custody, Clearing and settlement, Trading systems, Order/Trade Management, Finacle, Flex cube, Tenenon, Revelious
City : Kolkata, Gurgoan, Pune, Banglore, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Core Banking - Application Architect, Solution Architect, Enterprise Integration Architect, Package Solutions Consultant,
City : Kolkata, Gurgoan, Pune, Banglore, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
************************************************** **
Others
Project Manager - Core Banking Specialization
City : Kolkata, Gurgoan, Pune, Banglore, Hyderabad(By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
************************************************** **
Groupware
Application Developer-Lotus Notes
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai
(By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

IBM Hiring SAP Domain Hires & Junior Programmers

2008-08-21T01:17:00.000-07:00

Interested candidates may send your resumes to shaz.prashant@gmail.com with [position name/experience/location] in the subject line.

On (23rd Aug - Sat)
Application Developer - Java/J2EE
Experience : 2-3 yrs of relevant Java/J2EE experience in any reputed organization
City : Pune

Application Developer - Microsoft .Net
Experience : 2-3 yrs of relevant VB,.Net experience in any reputed organization
City : Pune

SAP DOMAIN HIRES on (24th Aug - Sun)
1) SAP FI / CO Domain
Experience : i)Candidates must have CA, ICWA, CFA or full-time MBA Finance background (Full time) from reputed institutes.
ii)Candidates must have min 4 and max 8 years of finance domain experience in any reputed organization
iii)16 years of min. education mandatory with good communication skills

City : Bangalore (DD), Kolkata, Pune, Noida , Chennai

2)SAP MM / PP Domain
Experience : i) Candidates must have min 4 and max 8 years of relevant domain experience in any reputed organization
ii) 16 years of min. education mandatory with good communication skills

City : Bangalore (DD), Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad

Others(23rd Aug - Sat)
Application Consultant-Comms Billing
Experience : 2-3 years of relevant experience with Domain knowledge of Billing Mediation and Hands on experience Comptel Eventlink.

City : Pune, Bangalore, Noida, Hyderabad

Jobs in IBM ITD-GD

2008-08-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

There are openings with IBM for Remote IT Infrastructure Management Services.
Experience : Minimum 2+ years
Job Locations : Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Noida

Interested candidates may send your resumes to shaz.prashant@gmail.com with [position name/experience/location] in the subject line.

Midrange Storage IBM Storage-Storage Management System Admin
Midrange Storage EMC Storage Management System Admin
Midrange Storage Storage Adminstrator- Legato Networker
Midrange Storage Backup & Recovery ( Tivoli Storage Manager) Admin
Midrange Storage Storage Management Admin- Veritas Netbackup
Midrange Storage Storage Management Admin- HP Storage
Net App- Storage Management System Admin
Midrange Storage SAN Administrator (Hitachi) - ITD
Midrange SME - AIX System Administrator - SO - GSDC (4+ years of experience)
Midrange SME - HP Unix System Administrator - SO - GSDC (4+ years of experience)
Midrange SME Solaris System Administrator - GSDC (4+ years of experience)
Midrange Senior - Intel Citrix Support - SME / Specialist - SO - GSDC (4+ years of experience)
Midrange SME - VMWare and Windows Administrator - SO - GSDC (4+ years of experience)
Midrange Senior VMWare and Windows Administrator - SO - GSDC (3+ years of experience)
SM Service manager(Task management &Customer facing)-GSDC
AHS DBA-DB2-SO GSDC
AHS DBA's(MS SQL Server/UDB)-GSDC
AHS Senior Oracle DBA (RAC) -ITD-GD
AHS Sybase Data Administrator-ITD-GD
AHS MQSeries Systems Software Support-GSDC
AHS Web Admin-Weblogic/Websphere/IIS/Sunone-GSDC
AHS Siebel CRM - GSDC
Management Disaster Recovery Coordinator.
EUS Asst Manager Operations (4+ years of experience)
EUS Voice and Accent Trainers
EUS Senior Tech Service Asociates
EUS Process Trainer (4+ years of experience)

Walk in @ IBM for Mainframe/Java/.Net/Websphere/DBA/SAP/Unix/Testing/Siebel/DWBI/Peoplesoft/Oracle Apps

2008-08-20T10:11:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone,

These are the openings for the week ending on 24th Aug'08. Stay tuned for the coming weeks.
Share it with your friends, interested candidates may send their resumes to shaz.prashant@gmail.com with [Skills/Experience/Location] as subject line.
~Prashant

SPECIAL DRIVE this weekend in city of COCHIN !!
Please check the detailed calendar for participating skills

(minimum experience is 3 yrs for all interviews ; candidates with less experience will be sent back)
*********************************************** Event City
Application Developer - PL1, BPCS / INFOR, CICS, COBOL(with Japanese language),
(Joining Location : Pune)
Application Developer - , IMS, Life400, COBOL(VM Operating System)
(Joining Location :Bangalore, Chennai)
Application Developer - COBOL400, SAS with COBOL
(Joining Location :Hyderabad)
DB2 DBA
(Joining Location : Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai)

City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Noida
***********************************************
Java/J2EE Developers
City : Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Noida , Chennai, Cochin

Visual Basic, .Net Developers
City : Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Cochin

Rational Developers
City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

WebSphere Application Server Developers, WAS Admin
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

PowerBuilder Developers
City : Bangalore (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)
***********************************************
Database Administrator - DB2 UDB, Informix, SQL, Oracle
Application Developer - Teradata, Sybase, SQL, Oracle
Data Specialist-Data Modeler
City : Bangalore(SA), Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, Noida , Hyderabad
***********************************************
SAP ABAP, Basis, BI, XI, EP, Security
City : Bangalore(DD), Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Noida , Kolkata, Mumbai, Cochin

Package Solution Consultant - SAP.FIN, SAP.FIN.CO, SAP.FIN.SEM
City : Bangalore(DD), Kolkata, Pune, Noida , Chennai

Application Developer-SAP.NW.ABAP.HR
Package Solution Consultant - SAP.HR, SAP.HR Time Management, SAP.HR.Comp Mgt, SAP.HR.Payroll, SAP.HR.Self Serve, Workbrain City : Bangalore (DD), Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Noida

Package Solution Consultant-SAP.SCM.MM, SAP.SCM.SD, SAP.SCM.PP, SAP.SCM.QM, SAP.SCM.PM, SAP.SCM.PS, SAP.SCM.SRM, SAP.SCM.WMS, SAP.SCM.PLM, SAP.SCM.APO
City : Bangalore (DD), Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata Weekday/Weekend interviews (by individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Package Solution Consultant - SAP.CRM, SAP.NW.BI, Chordiant
City : Bangalore (DD), Cochin
***********************************************
LCD Instructional Designers and Lead Instructional Designers
City : Kolkata (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
***********************************************
FMS Package Solution Consultant-Hyperion, COGNOS, Oracle Financials
City : Banglore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in on weekend)
***********************************************
Unix Application Developers C++
(Joining Location: Bangalore) Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin
***********************************************
Application Developer- Web Methods, Websphere MQ Series, Websphere Process Server, Websphere Business Integration Message Broker, Websphere Customer Centre
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)

Application Developer- Portals.Websphere, Content Management
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)

AIS Security Speciality-Security, Consultant S&P
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai (By individual invitation only; no walk-in)
***********************************************
QTP Automation Testers
Performance testers
City : Pune, Chennai, Noida, Cochin

Mainframe testers
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad

Test Manager-Automation Test
City : Kolkata

Test Specialist - QTP on Finance Domain
City : Chennai

Test Specialist - Networking (LAN, CDN - routers/switches protocol)
City : Bangalore, Pune

Testing Test Specialist-Technical - SAP, Siebel
Test Specialist - CDMA (VoIP, Voice Data, LAN, WAN, MAN)
Network Test Engineer
Software Testitng - QA Engineer - Wireless, ENMS
System Verification Engineer
City : Bangalore
***********************************************
Siebel Application Architect - Siebel
Application Developer - Siebel Integration, Siebel Analytics, Siebel Configuration, Pega
Package Solution Consultant - Siebel OM
City : Bangalore(DD), Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune
***********************************************
DWBI Application Developer - BI Reporting tools, BO, COGNOS, Microstrategy,
Data Specialist - ETL.Data Modeling, ETL.AbInitio, ETL.Ascential, ETL.Informatica
City : Bangalore (SA), Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Noida, Pune, Mumbai, Cochin
***********************************************
PeopleSoft Application Developer - PeopleSoft
Database Administrator - PeopleSoft
Package Solution Consultant - PeopleSoft HCM
City : Bangalore, Gurgaon
***********************************************
Oracle Apps Application Developer - Oracle Applications
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Noida
***********************************************
Application Consultant-Comms Billing - Comptel Eventlink Developer
City : Pune, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Project Manager-Communications Sector
City : Pune, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Business Analyst - Function Point Analysis
City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Application Consultant-Comms Billing- - Portal Infranet
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Project Administrator-Project Support (PMO)
City : Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Project Manager-Quality Assurance - Lead PQA, PQA
City : Pune, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Industry Consultant-INDUSTRY.Financial Markets - Investment Banking; Stock exchanges, Custody, Clearing and settlement; Trading systems; Order/Trade Management
City : Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Banglore, Hyderabad (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Industry Consultant : INDUSTRY.Financial Markets (Calypso Trading Systems)
City : Pune, Chennai (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Industry Consultant-INDUSTRY.Insurance Products
City : Bangalore (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Groupware Application Developer-Lotus Notes
City : Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai (By individual invitation only ; no walk-in on weekend)

Flirty Ways.....

2007-03-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

1. (Walk up behind girl and point fingers shaped like gun into her back)
You're under arrest! ;
(For what?)
For stealing my heart.

2. Hi, my name is Chance, Do I have one?

3. Are your legs tired?
( girl: Why?)
because you have been running through my mind all day!

4. I lost my phone number, can I borrow yours?

5. Can you give me directions to your heart?
I've seemed to have lost myself in your eyes.

6 (Pick up a flower and walk over to girl.)
I was just showing this flower how beautiful you are.

7 Is it hot in here or is it just you?

8 Walk up to a girl and say: Are you from Greece?
She answers.
Oh, I thought all the goddesses were from Greece...

9 I could be born in your eye, run down your cheek,
and & die on your lips.

10 Did you know they changed the alphabet?
They put U and I together.

11 Are you lost?
'cause it's so strange to see an angel so far from heaven.

12 Do you believe in love at first sight,
or do I have to walk by you again?

13 What's that in your eye? Oh...it's a sparkle.

14 Do you have a map? I just got lost in your eyes.

15 You can forget about going to heaven because it's
a sin to look that good.

16 If I had eleven roses and you, I'd have a dozen.

Girl's diary vs boy's diary..........

2007-01-02T04:32:00.000-08:00

HER DIARY

Day night, I thought he was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a cafe to

have some coffee.I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he

was upset at the fact that I

was a bit late, but he made no comment. Conversation wasn't flowing so I

suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk, he agreed but he kept

quiet and absent. I asked him what was wrong - he said, "Nothing. "I asked him

if it was my fault that he was upset. He said it had nothing to do with me and

not to worry.On the way home I told him that I loved him, he simply smiled and

kept driving.I can't explain his behavior; I don't know why he didn't say, "I

love u,too."When we got home I felt as if I had losthim, as if he wanted

nothing to do with me anymore . He just sat there and watched TV. He seemed

distant and absent. Finally I decided to go to bed. About 10 minutes later he

came to bed. I decided that I could not take it anymore, so I decided to

confront him with the situation but he had fallen asleep. I started crying and

cried until I too fell asleep.I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his

thoughts are with someone else . My life is a disaster.

||

||

|

|

|

|

|

|

HIS DIARY

Today India lost the cricket match

against bangladesh.

DAMN

IT.

NOW that's called

Simplicity of Men

Vs

Complexity of Women!!!

Is IBM taking over SATYAM..............?

2006-11-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

So, the question has started floating in the Air again.......... A Billion Dollar Question........?
Rewinding back to my earlier post, where I discussed about IBM's expansion plans in India and strong possibility of IBM taking over one of the Top 5 Indian IT companies.
A National English Newspaper has sparked these talks again by reporting that IBM is reconsidering their plans of taking over Satyam again, which was earlier rejected for undervaluation of the Company.............

KANBAY takeover by Capgemini gives strength to the fact that More and More MNCs are now eager to have a foothold in Subcontinent IT Industry......

This may disturb a few chauvinist people, But in my personal opinion, I am open for this deal, It is business.
When an Indian can head world's mammoth Steel Company, and when He can take over Its immediate competitor............. This too can happen.........
Lets wait and watch............ this space for more..............

Chanakya's Neeti........

2006-11-18T05:44:00.000-08:00

***************************************************

"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and
Honest people are screwed first."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC 75 BC )

***************************************************

" Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC -275 BC)

***************************************************

"The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. ! It will destroy you."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)

***************************************************

"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no
Friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)

***************************************************

"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions -
Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful.
Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)

***************************************************

"As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC)

***************************************************

"Once you start a working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC )

***************************************************

"The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind.
But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC )

***************************************************

"Whore s don't live in company of poor men, citizens never support a
weak company and birds don't build nests on a tree that doesn't bear fruits."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC )

***************************************************

"God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC )

***************************************************

"A man is great by deeds, not by birth."

Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC )

***************************************************

"Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status.
Such friendships will never give you any happiness."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC )

***************************************************

"Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next
five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a
friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275BC )

***************************************************

"Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC )

***************************************************

"Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected
everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth."
Chanakya quotes (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC-275 BC )

*************************************************

Man in a Bar......good one...

2006-11-09T05:32:00.000-08:00

Embarrassing Situation
A very shy young man goes into a bar and sees a beautiful woman
sitting alone. After an hour he gathers enough courage to go and ask
her, "Er...
excuse me, but would you mind if I sat here beside you?"
She responds in a loud voice :
"NO, I DON'T WANT TO SPEND THE NIGHT WITH YOU!"
Everyone in the bar turns to stare at them. The young man is surprised,
shocked and embarrassed and goes back to his table.
After a few minutes the woman walks over to him smiles, apologizes,
and says, "You see, I'm a graduate student in psychology and I'm
studying how
people respond to embarrassing situations."
The young man responds loudly with,
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THREE THOUSAND RUPEES.
THATS TOO MUCH !"

So You think women are Clever........ think again

2006-11-06T06:01:00.000-08:00

A Woman was out golfing one day when she hit the ball into the woods.
She went into the woods to look for it and found a frog in a trap.

The frog said to her, "If you release me from this trap, I will grant you three wishes."
The woman freed the frog, and the frog said, "Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes.

Whatever you wish for, your husband will get times ten!" The woman said, "That's okay."

For her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world.
The frog warned her, "You do realise that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis whom women will flock to".

The woman replied, "That's okay, because I will be the most beautiful Woman and he will have eyes only for me."
So, KAZAM-she's the most beautiful Woman in the world!

For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world.
The frog said, "That will make your husband the richest man in the world.
And he will be ten times richer than you. " The woman said, "That's okay, because what's mine is his and what's his is mine."

So, KAZAM-she's the richest woman in the world!

The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, "I'd like a mild heart attack."

Moral of the story: Women are clever. Don't mess with them.
Attention female readers: This is the end of the joke for you. Stop here and continue feeling good.
Male readers: Please scroll down.

The man had a heart attack ten times milder than his wife!!!
Moral of the story: Women are really dumb but think they're really smart.
Let them continue to think that way and just enjoy the show.
PS: If you are a woman and are still reading this; it only goes to show that women never listen!!!
Forward this to all the guys for a good laugh, and to all the ladies who have a good sense of humour.

Hot HR Interview questions and Answers

2006-10-13T01:10:00.000-07:00

Honestly, we will have these answers in our mind ... but we give different, tailored and suitable answers to the guy !

1. Why did you apply for this job?

I have applied for many jobs along with this and you called me now.

2. Why do you want to work for this company?

I have to work for some company who ever gives me a job, I don't have any specific company in mind.

3. Why should I hire you?

You have to hire some one, you may give me a try.

4. What would you do if this happened?

Well, it depends my mindset and mood at that situation...

5. What is your biggest strength?

Basically, daring to join any company who pays me well, without thinking of the fate of company

6.What is your biggest weakness?

Girls

7. What was your worst mistake, and how did you learn from it?

Joining my earlier company and learnt that I need to jump to get more money, so I am here today

8. What accomplishments in your last position are you most proud of?

Had I accomplished any in my last position, why do I need to change my job? I could demand more and stay there.

9. Describe a challenge you faced and how you overcame it?

Biggest challenge is answering the question "why are you looking for a change" and I started blabbering irrelevantly to overcome that.

10. Why did you leave/ are you leaving your last job?

For the same reason why you left your earlier job

11. What do you want from this job?

If no work is given but keep giving good hikes

12. What are your career goals and how do you plan to achieve them?

Make more money and for that keep jumping companies for every 2 yrs

13. Did you hear of our company and what do you know of us?

Yeah, I know that you will ask this, I've gone through your website

14. What is the salary expected and how do justify that?

Well, no one will change job for the same salary, hence, give me 20% extra than what I am getting and that is unpublished industry standard

(I know you will bargain on what ever I ask, hence, I have already hiked my current salary by 30%)

Gmail Drive there for you :)

2006-10-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Frns.........GOOGLE ROCKS AGAIN… and this time with GMail drive… Its something like carrying your storage device wherever u go........ It gets shown in ur My Computer as just another Drive and you can transfer data to and from it.....

Chk it out.. Things you need to have:

1) Gmail account

2) Gmail Drive software Process:

i) Download Gmail Drive from (takes seconds to download)

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/GMail-Drive-shell-extension-Download-15944.html

ii) Install the software.

iii) After installing, a drive named Gmail drive will be created in My Computer (just like C: D.

iv) Double click on this drive, login to Gmail acct. You will get a space of 2.61 GB.

v) Whatever content you copy to this drive will be sent to your mail acct directly to which you have logged in. The copy is pretty fast.

GMail Drive
GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual drive in the Windows Explorer, allowing you to use your Google Gmail account as a storage medium. It allows you to do basic file manipulation, such as copy and delete, on files inside the GMail folder. Because it is a Shell Extension, the interface you work in is Windows Explorer itself. GMail files are physically stored as e-mails on your Google Gmail account.

The files are stored in mail attachments and the filename and file information (such as file size) is stored in the message subject line.

Hoping for your pleasant Gmail Drive experience and comments ;-)

The Indian success story

2006-09-29T00:41:00.000-07:00

Another wonderful article on rediff....... by B S Prakash..........

We were speeding on a broad California highway and it was pitch dark early in the morning. Our destination Sacramento, the capital of the state of California was still a few hours away and Paul my American friend in the car suggested a coffee break. Actually more than that since like many Americans he was already hungry even before dawn and was ready to eat.

We came off the highway and soon found a donut shop, or doughnut shop to spell it correctly, ubiquitous in USA and the standard place for a quick breakfast and coffee. I don't know if you like the creamy sweetness of donuts or pastries so early after waking up. Having been brought up on a healthy diet of idlis or upma, I don't, but most Americans seem to like it.

Inside the shop, there were no customers, but two sales personnel, as they are referred to, representing both genders. Both Asians. Living in these parts, one begins to recognise different types of Asians, to discern by look some differences between Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, though one can never be sure. But these did not look like Chinese. They seemed shorter, shyer and less assured.

As the supply van which had unloaded a fresh batch of hot donuts drove away, they were heard talking in an unfamiliar tongue with the driver of the van and with each other.

"Which language are you speaking?" I asked with a smile. I am curious and inquisitive in situations like this.

"How many?" one of them replied pointing at the donuts.

"No. No. Is it Cantonese?" I repeated and saw bafflement and irritation on his face.

We had a few more rounds of utterly unsuccessful exchanges like this with the result that I was only learning that these donuts cost 60 cents, while the ones glazed and glistening in the back tray were at $1.29.

Meanwhile Paul who had gone around the corner came in, took in the scene, and told me not to trouble them with my enquiries any more.

"Don't harass these guys with your questions. Don't you know that they are Cambodians with very limited English?" he said.

"How would I know?" I replied.

"It is common knowledge. Donut shops in California are owned and manned by Cambodians. You should know that. It is like the Laundromats being run by the Koreans," he said.

I was struck by this sweeping generalisation about vocation and ethnic origin, though somewhat sceptical. More enquiries and research showed however that there is often a fascinating correlation between who you are as an immigrant American and what you do.

Why are donuts shops run largely by Cambodians? These are simple shops with limited fare, not really like restaurants, but running them is really hard work. Typically the donuts are baked/fried at midnight and brought into the shop by 3 am. A small family can manage the whole operation -- cook, deliver, sell, clean -- and can even buy a franchise for a modest investment. But the most important factor in our story is that this operation hardly requires any English.

Unlike any other customer oriented business based on labour -- laundry or drycleaning, hair-saloons or facials, or as you go up the value chain, groceries or pharmacies -- in the donut shop, you go in, point to what you need and say: 'I want six or a dozen'. Conversely, the salesperson merely has to point to the trays and ask: 'Which one -- this or that' and that is it.

The Indian success story

Silicon Valley Revisited

2006-09-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

Thought provoking article on rediff.......

"A year ago, totally new in these parts, I wrote my first rediff column titled Sounding silly in Silicon Valley. It did capture my state of befuddlement then about not only technology, but stratospheric success, dazzling wizardry and the brains to riches story of many Indians in the IT industry which surrounded me in my new job in San Francisco.

A year is a long time in Silicon Valley where today's discoveries in technology render obsolete yesterday's wonders, new business models create stock market sensations or disasters, companies rise and crumble, and millions are made or lost if not in a click, then in a week.

A year is a short time, however, for someone like me untutored in the IITs or the IIMs to truly understand all this. But it is perhaps sufficient to gain some insights. I have no claim to write today on 'Making sense of Silicon Valley', but I hope that frequent visits, many encounters, and professional requirements have made me if not wise, at least less silly. Hence this 'revisit' to decode the current happenings in the Silicon valley, the high technology centre of the world, made doubly interesting for us because of the significant Indian connection.

Yes, one thing is still true from my old article, the Indian connection. Names of Bangalore and increasingly Hyderabad, Chennai and Gurgaon have become if not household at least 'corporatehold' words in the Silicon Valley, just as in the myriad call centers, IT parks and R&D units that now dot the Indian landscape, the names of the local shrines here -- Intel, Google, Sun, and Cisco -- are constantly invoked. Not only the symbiotic link, as the management jargon has it, but there is a growing perception that it is useful to factor India while weighing the future options and opportunities in many areas of high-technology.

One of the interesting questions is: What makes Silicon Valley what it is, a frontier locale for high technologies? The technologies being hatched and nurtured today cover not only IT but increasingly Bio, Nano, Web, and Communications. How did this particular landscape develop as a 'habitat' for technological innovation and creativity? I have been asking pundits."

Silicon Valley Revisited

Joke: Vaccum Cleaner

2006-09-21T01:57:00.000-07:00

A new vacuum cleaner salesman knocked on the door on the first house of the street. A tall lady answered the door. Before she could speak, the enthusiastic salesman barged into the living room and opened a big black plastic bag and poured all the cow droppings onto the carpet.

"Madam, if I could not clean this up with the use of this new powerful vacuum cleaner, I will EAT all this s...!" exclaimed the eager salesman.

"Do you need chili sauce or ketchup with that" asked the lady.

The bewildered salesman asked, "Why, madam?"

"We just moved in, & there's no electricity in the house!"

MORAL: Gather All Required Information Before Working On Any Project...

MBA Exams.....

2006-09-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

ONE NIGHT 4 MBA STUDENTS WERE BOOZING TILL LATE NIGHT AND DIDN'T STUDY

FOR THE TEST WHICH WAS SCHEDULED FOR THE NEXT DAY.

IN THE MORNING THEY THOUGHT OF A PLAN. THEY MADE THEMSELVES LOOK AS DIRTY
AND WEIRD AS THEY COULD WITH GREASE AND DIRT.
THEY THEN WENT UP TO THE DEAN AND SAID THAT THEY HAD GONE OUT TO A WEDDING
LAST NIGHT AND ON THEIR RETURN THE TYRE OF THEIR CAR BURST AND THEY HAD TO
PUSH THE CAR ALL THE WAY BACK AND THAT THEY WERE IN NO CONDITION TO APPEAR
FOR THE TEST.

THEN DEAN WAS A JUST PERSON SO HE SAID THAT YOU CAN HAVE THE RETEST AFTER 3
DAYS.

THEY SAID THEY WILL BE READY BY THAT TIME. ON THE THIRD DAY THEY APPEARED
BEFORE THE DEAN. THE DEAN SAID THAT THIS WAS A SPECIAL CONDITION TEST.

ALL FOUR WERE REQUIRED TO SIT IN SEPARATE CLASSROOMS FOR THE TEST. THEY ALL
AGREED AS THEY HAD PREPARED WELL IN THE LAST THREE DAYS. THE TEST CONSISTED
OF 2 QUESTIONS WITH TOTAL OF 100 MARKS.

Q.1. WRITE DOWN YOUR NAME -----(2 MARKS)

Q.2. WHICH TYRE BURST -------(98 MARKS)!!

Facts about HIV/AIDS

2006-08-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends!!!
Its good to be well informed about HIV. There was a story on junk some days back where it is said that a boy got infected by HIV virus by eating pani-puri. And there have also been rumors where people are affected by the HIV virus when they got pricked by an HIV infected needle in theaters which is rubbish.
I received this mail in my mailbox and thought of sharing with you but still please please enquire and educate yourself properly before jumping to any conclusion.
So read along!
RANBAXY....
I have seen this below mentioned mail floating across group email & I feel its my moral responsibility to correct all misconceptions
regarding HIV /AIDS.
I can do this because I am educated enough to comment on this and for those who don't know my profession ...I am serving as Brand Manager (Product Manager) handling anti HIV/AIDS portfolio (called as Antiretroviral Drugs) in Ranbaxy.

Please read following points carefully & don't send emails related to Medical ailments without having complete knowledge about it (even partial knowledge could be grossly dangerous).

* HIV (virus) requires *ONLY* *Blood or Semen* as medium to transmit from one body to another.

* HIV *can not* transmit even through *Saliva*(mucous) i.e. even if
HIV-infected patient coughs or smooches and another person is exposed to his sputum (cough) or saliva, the virus still can not transmit because concentration of virus particles in sputum is almost NIL & exposure to air anyway kills virus in fraction of seconds.

* In case an HIV-infected person gets an injury (like the cut in
below mentioned story) and he is bleeding, the virus can transmit to another person only if another person has a cut/wound in his body & that too when blood from both person comes in contact with each other* (this is also very very rare unless bleeding is very high) and not otherwise.

* HIV can *never survive in any other liquid* medium also other than blood or semen (& please for God sake ... never in Pani Puri wala pani)

* Even if one drinks an HIV infected blood (or semen) of someone
(ingest through Gastro Intestinal track), the virus can not survive in the acidic pH of stomach*. Highest extent of acidity is 0 (practically not possible) so imagine 1 as pH which is in our stomach. (This pH can burn your own finger in less than a second if you dip in that acid).

* Exposure of less than 1 second in AIR KILLS the HIV virus*(hence
story of needle pricks in Cinema theatres is crap). Even if blood from a wound (of infected person) dries up (*blood clot*), *the virus dies*and can not infect anyone else

* HIV transmission is *ONLY* an *INFECTION* i.e.entrance of virus in one's body. It *DOES NOT MEAN AIDS*.

** An HIV-infected person (after entrance of virus) can progress to a condition of AIDS only after *8 to 10 YEARS *(not in 15 days as in the Pani Puri story)

* It is *not HIV (virus) that kills a human* .....the virus attacks
immune cells (cells that fight against foreign pathogens/antigens) and hence a person's ability to fight against infections & diseases slowly diminishes and person ultimately dies of a disease which could be as simple as TB

* Most importantly, HIV is no longer a dreadful disease ... it is
"*CHRONIC MANAGEABLE DISEASE*" just like Diabetes or Hypertension.

* If there is anything you need to be careful from to prevent HIV is Unsafe sex*, *Blood transfusion* (check before taking) /Blood donation (use sterilized needles only) and any *blood contact during an accident *or so where amount of bleeding is very high.

PLZ O PLZ spread this message to avoid rumors and to educate people.

Now Home Entertainment : the next booming sector

2006-08-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

You would have always wished to get rid of Monopoly of these Cablewalllahs..... who every month rake in lot of money despite poor transmission quality and Customer Service...
Now it seems this home entertainment sector is going to get revolutionised... like telecom in India. Yes, many private players are planning a foray, with cutting edge technology, quality customer services, and off course a price battle is expected.
Neverthless, people are going to get benefitted out of it. A very well knitted article on Rediff giving clues about developments in this sector....

"A cranked up direct-to-home platform and digitised cable content means you'll get the finest content, sound and picture quality as home entertainment goes retail.

You love them, and you hate them, and now you can do without them. Which gives you the choice to sit back and look at their offerings - which aren't too pretty - to decide whether you want to live with your cablewallah, or start a dalliance with any of a slew of new services, all of it guaranteed to give you hundreds of channels, 24x7, with clear transmission quality, pay-per-view films and programmes, and a whole set of choices hitherto unknown to the Indian television viewer.

Better than cable? Apparently so. Even better: you won't have to deal with your grouchy cablewallah and his lousy customer service because he's changing his set-up too. Already, select cable operators have begun to shift from the analog format (which is what you watch) to the digital in a bid to protect their turf.

But the big news is the direct to home (DTH) format to leverage its superior technology and woo away discerning customers from cable. DTH isn't new but it's the biggest thing that's happening to television viewing.

And on Tuesday, television viewers will get another taste of independence as Tata-Sky (a joint venture between Tata and Star TV) hits the markets with its DTH platform, ending the two-year monopoly of Subhash Chandra's Dish TV (which has 1.3 million subscribers in the private DTH platform space, so far restricted to non-metros).

At an introductory price of Rs 2,999 as upfront charges, and Rs 200 a month for 55 channels, Tata-Sky has already brought the battle straight into the cable operators' court.

Says Vikram Kaushik, managing director of the new company, "We are already cheaper than what customers pay monthly, which is an average of Rs 220 for cable. We will be disappointed if we don't become the leader in DTH in the first year. What we will offer customers is service, which they have never enjoyed before."

Not that Dish TV is willing to relinquish its first-mover advantage. So far, it had concentrated its spread in regions where cable was not available, but is now correcting that to make a grab for the larger metro and city markets.

Says Dish TV boss Jawahar Goel, "We estimate that 60 per cent of the incremental subscriber base will come from urban markets which were only 15 per cent of our business till now. But now we have both the Star and Sony bouquets on our platform (which have been made available only a week or two ago), so it makes sense to tap the metros."

Tata-Sky has already tied up with 15,000 apartments and housing societies in Mumbai and around Delhi by installing a single dish antenna (instead of separate antennas for every connection, which can be cumbersome in a condominium).

But that's a move that has met with stiff opposition from cable operators who are crying hoarse and have already complained to the regulator (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or TRAI) that the move is anti-competitive as it deprives them entry into these societies. (Tata-Sky ripostes that it is for each housing society to make its choice, and individual flat-owners can say no, so how is it monopolistic?)

The cable operators haven't simply rolled over to allow DTH access to their traditional turf. Big cable operators like IN Cable or Hathway have begun investments to move from analog to digital, and are putting up a fibre optic cable backbone in the major metros to offer value-adds like broadband (and perhaps also telephony) at a bundled pricing.

Their expectation is that at least 30 per cent of the existing cable customers (around 2 million) will choose digital cable (with a set top box) in the metros once conditional access system (CAS) gets implemented. Come Diwali then, IN Cable will launch pay TV with both Hindi and English movies on demand."

Read Freedom from the cablewallah!

IBM's silent revolution

2006-08-12T02:05:00.000-07:00

IBM may no longer make personal computers but 25 years ago -- on August 12, 1981 -- it triggered a silent unplanned revolution when it announced the smallest lowest-priced computer system (IBM Personal Computer-5150), pricing it at $1,565.

An analyst was quoted as saying that 'IBM bringing out a personal computer would be like teaching an elephant to tap-dance.'

It had an enhanced version of the Microsoft BASIC programming language (we have XP today and Vista to follow); an 83-key adjustable keyboard (we may laugh at it today); and 16 KB (512 MB and 1 GB are household memory names today) memory.

This was the just the basic system for home use. It did not include a monitor, video card, parallel or serial port, operating system, or floppy drive. If you wanted a 64 KB (remember Bill Gates saying this was enough?) one, including a single diskette drive (where are they today?) and display (those monitors with a greenish tinge), it would cost a little over $3000.

An expanded system for business with colour graphics, two diskette drives, and a printer would cost about $4,500. Today, for these amounts (the value of money has changed over the years), you can buy a dozen computers with hyper-threading capabilities (HT technology) that are a hundred times faster, and store gigabytes of data and video (computers did not even have a hard drive in those days.

Read the revolution

Transformation of IBM in India

2006-07-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

IT IS difficult to analyse IBM and its corporate strategies without recourse to superlatives. Samuel Palmisano, Chief Executive of the company, stunned the world when he announced in Bangalore on June 5 that IBM proposed to invest $6 billion in India over the next three years. "I am not going to miss the (India) opportunity,'' he added for good measure.

The surprise to IBM watchers was not the new investment as such but its magnitude. It is three times the investment made by the company in the past and more than the combined investments announced by Microsoft, Intel and Cisco.

For years, IBM was a model that embodied U.S. technology and stock market capitalism. It was a tight fisted monolith which held closely on to its technology and believed more in selling products such as computer hardware than software or services. Globally, it believed in operating through branches or wholly owned subsidiaries primarily to safeguard its technology.

In 1977, when it came to the crunch, the company decided to close its operations in India as it was unwilling to associate resident equity. As it then explained, "It was contrary to its globally orchestrated corporate policy.'' This posture did create bad blood with the Indian authorities. However, over the years, with both sides deciding to forget the past a new synergy has emerged.

End of a saga

The structure of the computer industry was changing and IBM was losing its dominance. It might have pioneered the mainframe computers in the post-war years and the personal computers (PCs) in the 1980s and dominated the market. By early 1990s, it was humbled when companies like Intel and Microsoft came out with their chips and operating systems. IBM was making futile attempts to fine-tune its OS/2 to retain market share.

By 1998, losses forced the company to abandon its PC business. In 2002, it sold its PC factories and began to engage in contract manufacturing with companies outside the group. This was a sad departure for a company that had looked upon in-house manufacture of its requirements as an article of faith. IBM's saga of PC business ended when it sold in 2005 the business to Lenovo, a state-owned Chinese company. When Lou Gerstner took over the reins in 1992, many analysts viewed the company as a crumbling empire or a fossil. Departments were fighting with each other rather than with competitors outside. There was inertia and unwillingness to change. In fact, serious proposals were afoot to break up the company into several operating units.

The turnaround

He set the direction and new priorities by promoting IBM Global Services. By a clever twist, IBM's business units for PCs, servers, software and technical services became "back end'' suppliers to solution sellers, who helped customers assemble complete computer systems. Selling "solutions" rather than products was the new thrust and "on demand solutions'' the new slogan.

Read The Hindu for more

Greatest Paradox

2006-07-13T06:26:00.001-07:00

Few centuries ago, a Law teacher came across a student who was willing to learn but as unable to pay the fees. The student struck a deal saying, "I will pay your fee the day I win my first case in the court". Teacher agreed and proceeded with the law course. When the course was finished and teacher started pestering the student to pay up the fee, the student reminded him of the deal and pushed days. Fed up with this, the teacher decided to sue the student in the court of law and both of them decided to argue for themselves.
The teacher put forward his argument saying: "If I win this case, as per the court of law, the student has to pay me as the case is about his non-payment of dues. And if I lose the case, student will still pay me because he would have won his first case. So either way I will have to get the money". Equally brilliant student argued back saying: "If I win the case, as per the court of law, I don't have to pay anything to the teacher as the case is about my non-payment of dues. And if I lose the case, I don't have to pay him because I haven't won my first case yet. So either way, I am not going to pay the teacher anything". This is one of the greatest paradoxes ever recorded in history.

Words That Can Change Life

2006-07-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

These are the words I really value the most, A very well said, beautiful word snippet.
CONFIDENCE:
Ones all village people decided to pray for rain.
On the day of prayer all people gathered and only one boy came with an
Umbrella that's confidence...........

TRUST:
Trust should be like the feeling of a one year old baby
when you throw him in the air, he laughs......
Because he knows you will catch him........

HOPE:
A human being can live for
40 days without water
8 minutes without air
But not even 1 second without hope....

SO ALWAYS HAVE CONFIDENCE, TRUST OTHERS AND NEVER LOSE HOPE

Learn before foraying into China Corporates

2006-07-02T06:24:00.000-07:00

So, my globetrotting over internet has landed me again on a Wonderful Column. I think, One of most well researched article before coming on paper, beautifully written by Chinmoy Mohanty on Rediff.
Its about google's foray into China, obstacles they faced and challenges ahead. Why Yahoo could not make it big in China, and lessons learnt by google from yahoo. The part which baffled me was about, how and why google was blocked in CHINA by its government, Great Firewall of CHINA. It gives an insight about how CHINA is different from rest of the world, and what should be your modus operandi if you are planning to enter in CHINA. Its a must read, Hope you would like it, it begins with ......

"Probably you guessed it already; yes this is about Google's stance in China. On April 12, 2006, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google; Kaifu Lee, vice president of Google China, and Johnny Chou, president of Google China, unveiled the new Chinese-language Google brand name at a press conference in Beijing.

The new brand name 'Gu Ge' or 'Valley Song,' draws on Chinese rural traditions to describe a fruitful and rewarding experience, according to Google. This innovative marketing strategy from Google of gaining popularity in the Chinese market with a Chinese name has not been overly successful as an overwhelming number of Chinese Web browsers ask: "Does the Chinese name for Google "Guge" befit the world's No. 1 search engine?

Some Google fans don't think it does. They have created an online petition called www.noguge.com to get the search engine to change its Chinese name. Reasons cited for the petition are the name is "weird," "unsophisticated" and could damage the "cool" image of Google in China.

"Google, we love you, but we don't love Guge," said the Web site, which has received 16,370 signatures till now and counting. Domestic media were quick to pounce on the "harvesting song," saying the Chinese name reflects the US-based company's lack of understanding of the local psyche. Guge in Chinese also means a valley song or a grain song.

The name Google came from the word "Googol," which denotes the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. "Google gives us an individualistic feel, yet Guge sounds traditional and rustic ... in other words, it's outdated," said a blogger on another Chinese website. Industry analysts also told Shanghai Daily that Google could have picked a better name. But Google China is unfazed by the commotion.

"Guge is not a substitute for Google, rather, it will complement Google," the company said in response to queries from Shanghai Daily.

"Names such as Gougou (dog dog) are unable to fulfill the responsibilities of a corporate, brand or product name, nor do they reflect fully our goals and mission," it said in reference to the more literal suggestions from net users.

A survey conducted last year by the China Internet Network Information Company revealed that more than half of respondents could not correctly spell "Google," a glitch, which the company hopes to rectify with the new Chinese name.

The statement also said the name aims to cater to users unfamiliar with English usage of the search engine. "It would be unfair to ignore their needs," it said.

Baidu vs Google

Google has been trying hard to attract increasing number of users in China and one of the key points in having this Chinese name strategy is to divert users from Bai Du, the most popular Chinese search engine.

For those of you who are not aware, a recent study from Alexa Internet states that Bai Du is the most popular website in the world. Baidu certainly looks like Google. There's an equally sparse white home page, decorated in simple primary colors, and centered on a plain search box.

Even Baidu's name and logo evoke Google. The name 'Baidu' references a line in a classical poem referring to a very large number, echoing Google's creative misspelling of Googol (10 to the power of 100). And in China, the Baidu logo, a dog's paw print, trades on a common local mispronunciation of the word 'Google' - which makes it sound similar to the Chinese for 'dog'.

A recent survey of urban Internet users shows Baidu well ahead of Google in China's Internet search market (with other competitors trailing far behind). But these figures give a misleading impression.

For example, Baidu's usage figures are boosted by searches for pirated mp3s, says Shanghai-based analyst Jim Sun, of Evolution Securities. This does not look like a tenable long-term business, and Baidu has already faced two lawsuits over the service.

Moreover, Google has considerably more high-income and highly-educated users than Baidu in China. This group holds a disproportionate share of wealth, is more likely to be able to buy items online with credit cards, is more likely to be within reach of product distribution networks, and is therefore worth much more to advertisers. While Google has been held back by a lack of local connections, recent deals with local partners have changed that.

Who is Kai-Fu Lee?

For many young people in China, Kai-Fu Lee (vice president of Google China) is a celebrity. Not quite on the level of a movie star like Edison Chen or the singers in the boy band F4, but for a 44-year-old computer scientist who invariably appears in a somber dark suit, he can really draw a crowd.

It is not hard to see why Lee has become a cult figure for China's high-tech youth. He grew up in Taiwan, went to Columbia and Carnegie-Mellon and is fluent in both English and Mandarin. Before joining Google last year, he worked for Apple in California and then for Microsoft in China; he set up Microsoft Research Asia, the company's research-and-development lab in Beijing.

Lee has been with Google since only last summer, but he wears the company's earnest, utopian ethos on his sleeve: when he was hired away from Microsoft, he published a gushingly emotional open letter on his personal Web site, praising Google's mission to bring information to the masses. He concluded with an exuberant equation that translates as "youth + freedom + equality + bottom-up innovation + user focus + don't be evil = The Miracle of Google."

Though Lee claims to be an idealist in his heart yet Google's conduct in China has in recent months seemed considerably less than idealistic

Feeling like Reading MORE "Lessons for Indians from Google China"

Fanaa Quotes (Shaayaris) RELOADED

2006-06-28T05:31:00.000-07:00

Here I am with rest of the Fanaa Movie Shaayaris............

Tumhari Khoobsurati ne Khuda se ek Khataa kara di
Kahi khud se nazar na lag jaye, yu kar tumhe nazar na di

Phool hu Gulab ka Chameli ka mat samajhna
Aashiq hu Aapka apni Saheli ka mat samajhna

Baithi hai Hothon ko si kar, pachhtayengi Aaap
Ishq jaag uthta hai Aksar, aisi khamoshi ke baad

Insaan ki khwahish ki koi inteha nahi
Do gazz Zameen chahiye Do gaz kafan ke baad

Dard se aankhe chaar kar lenge
Hum bhi inteha de denge
Teri Dosti ki khatir e dost
Hum Dushmano se bhi Pyaar kar lenge

Humse dur jaoge kaise
Dil se hume bhulaoge kaise
Hum woh khushbu hai jo saanso me basate hai
Khud ki saaanso ko rok paoge kaise

Kahte hai pyaar me neend ud jati hai
Koi hamse bhi mohabbat kar le
Kambakht neend bahut aaati hai

Aisa laga khuda ne, rakh diya hamare dil pe haath
liya naam hamara unhone kuchh aisi adaa ke saath

Bekhudi ki zindagi hum jiya nahi karte
Jaam dusro se chhin ke hum piya nahi karte
unko mohabbat hai to aakar izhaar kare
Pichhha hum bhi kisi ka kiya nahi karte

Paani se pyaaas na bujhi to maikhane ki taraf chal nikala
Socha shikayat karu teri khuda se, par woh bhi tera aashiq nikla

Tujhe is baazar ka Main dastoor samajha nahi sakta
Bik gaya ho jo, Woh khariddar nahi ho sakta

2006-06-27T04:17:00.000-07:00

An old man lived alone in a village. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, who could have helped him, was in prison! The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation.

“Dear son, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I wouldn’t be able to plant my potato garden this year. I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting time. I am just getting too old to dig up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren’t in prison. Love, Dad.”

Shortly, the old man received this telegram: “For heaven’s sake, dad don’t dig up the garden! That’s where I buried the GUNS!!” At 4 a.m the next morning, a dozen FBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug up the entire garden, without finding any guns.

Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what happened, and asked him what to do next.

His son’ reply was: “ Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad… it’s the least I could do for you.”

God, Make me a thoughtful son.

Fanaa Quotes (Shaayaris)

2006-06-22T05:18:00.000-07:00

E Khuda Aaj Ye Faisla Karde,
Use Mera ya Mujhe Uska Karde.
Bahut Dukh Sahe He Maine,
Koi Khusi Ab Toh Muqadar Karde.
Bahot Muskil Lagta Hai Usse Duur Rehna,
Judai Ke Safar Ko Kum Karde.
Jitna Duur Chale Gaye Woh Mujhse,
Use Utna Kareeb Karde.
Nahi Likha Agar Nasib Me Uska Naam,
To Khatam Kar Ye Zindagi aur Mujhe FANAA Karde.

Tere dil mein meri saanson ko panah mil jaaye,
Tere ishk mein meri jaan fanaa ho jaaye.

Phool hun Gulaab kaâ?
Chameli ka mat samjhnaâ?
Aashiq hun aapkaâ?
Apni Saheli ka mat samjhnaâ

RONE DE TU AAJ HAMAKO TU AANKHE SUJANE DE
BAHO ME LELE AUR KHUD KO BHEEG JANE DE
HAI JO SEENE ME QUAID DARIYA WO CHHUT JAYEGA
HAI ITANA DARD KI TERA DAMAN BHEEG JAYEGA....

will be coming back with more, till then njoy, god bless u

Passing the Baton at Infosys

2006-06-21T00:54:00.000-07:00

The Infosys Chairman and chief mentor Mr NR Narayana Murthy will step down as chairman of Infosys Technologies Ltd on his 60th birthday.

Mr Murthy who turns 60 on August 20 this year, said in an interview to the IT portal CIOL.Com,

According to Infosys regulations, the retirement age for a chairman is 60. Hence Mr Murthy will become non-executive chairman of the company from 21st August, quoted the report.

I have come across this exclusive interview of Mr. Murthy by Business week, It goes this way........

As he prepares to step down, CEO N.R. Narayana Murthy reflects on the company he built, tech's future, and the effects of globalization

The stock prices of leading Indian tech companies have been battered in recent weeks. Investors are skittish over rising inflation and higher interest rates that could tap the brakes on growth globally. But there's no sign India's companies themselves are losing strength. Indeed, Infosys Technologies (INFY), Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro (WIT), and others continue to disrupt the $600 billion global tech-services industry. Infosys said on Apr. 14 that per-share earnings in the current quarter would rise as much as 27% on a sales increase of as much as 33%.

With that as a backdrop, N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder and longtime chairman of Infosys, stopped in New York on June 15 on something of a farewell tour. After 25 years at the helm, he's stepping out of his executive role and handing the baton to the next generation of leaders. BusinessWeek Senior Writer Steve Hamm interviewed Murthy at the company's offices in Rockefeller Center. Here's an edited version of their conversation:

You started Infosys and built it to what it is today. Why have you decided to retire from your role as executive chairman?

I set the rule that we should all retire at 60 so we can give opportunities to younger people to play a role in shaping the future of the company. I believe in the power and importance of youth. I gave up my CEO position four years ago so Nandan Nilekani could become the CEO. He will continue in the CEO role. Until now, both of us were running the company. Now I'll become the non-executive chairman primarily responsible for managing the board, for governance functions. I won't be involved in running the company in an executive capacity.

When you look back on the early formative days of the company, did you ever imagine that Infosys would become such an important company in the worldwide tech industry?

No, not really. We started out as seven people in 1981, with $250. We had just one customer. Last year we closed at $2.5 billion. We have 52,000 employees and a market cap of about $20 billion. We never imagined we would come this far. However, we were certain of one thing, and that is our value system. In fact, when we sat down in the bedroom of my apartment in 1981, we discussed for four hours what our objective should be. Should it be revenues, profits, market capitalization?

No, we said it should be none of those. We will seek respect from every one of the stakeholders. My view was if we sought respect we'd automatically do the right thing by each of them. We'd satisfy our customers, be fair to our employees, and follow the finest principles with respect to investors, we would not violate laws, and, finally, we'd make a difference to society. And then I said automatically you'll get revenues and profits and all that.

Why have Infosys and the other leaders of the Indian tech industry had such a dramatic and powerful effect on the worldwide tech industry?

It is simply because we are becoming more and more relevant to our customers and we are having greater and greater impact. Why? For two fundamental reasons. We have helped our customers reduce the cycle time in designing and implementing new systems that reflect the changing marketplace and the new business rules. By reducing cycle time, we have ensured that the people in the corporation that use these IT systems are that much more enthusiastic about the flexibility of the corporation to keep pace with the changes in the marketplace.

Earlier, what was happening was it took three or four years to implement a system and there was a low level of probability of success. Because of the high level of programming talent in India, because of our focus on process excellence, and because of the power of leveraging the 24-hour work day, we have been able to take up large projects and complete them with reduced cycle time with the requisite quality. People said, “Now we can go think of new business initiatives to go after.” The second thing we have done is we're able to give more value for money. Both of these things matter a lot.

Rakhi Savant ---- Mika Video

2006-06-20T06:38:00.000-07:00

Rakhi Savant really got a lot of coverage in media, for her molestation case. People abroad, have fired so many queries on Rakhi & Mika in google search, many reached here.
Most of them were looking for Video of the Mika kissing Rakhi.
I finally got it and uploaded it for you.
Here it is for download
I dont want to comment anything on the video, But I cudnt stop laughing.
Imraan Hashmi would get worried after watching Mika in action.
Stay Tunnnnnned
njoy

Why IBM's Sam keep coming to INDIA

2006-06-16T02:10:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, May 2004, Recruitment dates were freezed by companies in college. I was nervous, preparing for Campus like my peers. I happened to go through Latest(By then) edition of BW(BusinessWorld). Cover story was weaved around What is happening @ Big Blue in India, and Its plan to become biggest IT player in INDIA. I was mesmerised, Story was pictured as .......

" Extraordinary things have been happening at IBM India in the past 36 months, but not too many people picked up the cues initially. The 100% Indian subsidiary of the world's largest IT firm had been so slothful ever since it re-entered the country in 1992 that few noticed any difference when it finally woke up. You couldn't blame industry analysts for missing the signs - after all, the firm had done nothing spectacular for years. It had crawled up to sales of just $300 million by 2000. It had set an ambitious target of $1 billion by 2002, but didn't even seem close to it.

That's why when Samuel Palmisano, chairman & CEO of the world's largest IT firm, was in Delhi in May last year and made a point of calling on Bharti group chairman Sunil Mittal, the meeting was passed off as just another courtesy call. After all, during his two-day visit, he also met IT minister Arun Shourie, Karnataka chief minister S.M. Krishna, government officials, and IBM India's customers. Outsiders couldn't catch the real import of such a high-profile visit.

Sam Palmisano is no ordinary CEO. As the head of the $89-billion IBM, he has 165 countries to cater to. That's why the fact that he was visiting India just over a year after taking charge from Lou Gerstner should have alerted industry watchers in the country. That Palmisano was the only IBM CEO to have ever come to India was also ignored by IT watchers here and abroad.

Nobody picked up the next five clues either. Palmisano was followed by Steve Mills, senior vice-president(software group); Nick Donofrio, senior vice-president (technology and manufacturing); Frank Kern, general manager (Asia Pacific), who oversees 19 of the 165 countries on the IBM map; Satish Khatu, general manager (Asean and South Asia); and Paul Horn, senior vice-president (research). This was an unprecedented number of high-profile guests for IBM India - all in a space of 10 months.

To outsiders, they seemed to be preoccupied with the India team, government officials and customers. But inside its headquarters on Bangalore's Airport Road, IBM India managing director Abraham Thomas was overseeing a quiet transformation. And doing things extraordinary. In March-April, when Big Blue came out with two big bang announcements in quick succession, the industry couldn't ignore it any more.

At Delhi's Taj Mahal Hotel, IBM's Tim Shaughnessy and Coleen Arnold, and Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal announced that over the next 10 years Bharti Tele-Ventures would outsource all its IT requirements to IBM for $750 million. With that, IBM raised the curtains on its biggest deal ever in India. We'll come to how that deal (termed Project Taj) was struck later in the story. But within a month of the Bharti deal, IBM India sprang another surprise. It announced the buyout of the four-year old email and voice specialist call centre Daksh eServices for $160 million. "

Certainly you would like to read this story from May 10, 2004 BusinessWorld edition.

After being impressed with it, I commited a sin, sin of thinking to get into IBM in the Campus Recruitment. Becoming an IBMer was certainly a sin at that time, because IBM used to pick 4-5 students from our college those days, but still I commited.

July 19, 2004 IBM recruited 42 candidates from our college, registering itself as one of the top recruiters on the charts that year. Many dreams came true that day, one was mine too :-)

From that day onwards I have observed IBM's India operations growing exponentialy.

Now June, 2006 we are 43000 strong IBMers in india, scaling up from a few thousands two years ago. Reaching the size of mammoth domestic players like Infosys, Wipro, TCS and others, while far ahead from its worldwide competitors EDS, Accenture.

Again India is in the center of IBM's future expansion strategies.

For the first time ever on June 6, 2006 IBM convened its annual investor meeting outside of the United States, bringing together more than 50 institutional investors and industry analysts in Bangalore, India.
IBM celebrated India
IBM CEO Sam Palmisano announced to the world,
"For all my colleagues listening to this broadcast today around the world, I want you to understand the incredible capability we've established in India," said Sam. "It's also true in China, and it's also true in Eastern Europe, and it's also true in Brazil. If you take those regions of the world in the past couple of years we've added about 75,000 people, with phenomenal skills and capabilities. And very simply I want all of IBM to understand it and take advantage of it."

India is the second-fastest growing economy and the fourth largest based on purchasing power parity. IBM India has the second largest employee population outside of the United States; and the fastest-growing software and services provider in India.

From above disussion and My earlier post on IBM, I am trying two focus on two points:

1. Industry sources estimate, to keep pace with its growth and compete with other IT players, IBM needs to slash its jobs overseas, and a major portion of the pie is expected to come to India.

2. IBM has invested $2 billion in India so far......... and CEO Sam Palmisano announced, "We are more than forty-thousand strong in India, and our investment in this strategic country will continue to grow from $2 billion over the last three years to nearly $6 billion in the next three years."

Sam last visited india in 2004, and eventually two big announcements were released from its Camp, $750 million Bharati deal and acquisition of Dakh, which gave IBM a long anticipated breakthrough in India.

If we go by the investment, and apply simple Mathematics, then IBM is to triple its strength in India. This would result into a headcount of more than 1,25,000 IBMers in India.

To grow with such plans IBM needs make some significant acquisitions in india, if speculations to believe certainly acquisitions of one of the Top Five Indian IT players like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Satyam........
Yes, I agree with you, It seems a very tough task to woo these players.
But I dont deny any possibilities, Its business.
I am excited and optimistic.
Keep your fingers crossed, wait till mystery gets unfolded.
Share your opinion.......

Sensex Fanaa ..........

2006-06-15T01:05:00.000-07:00

Khuda Aaj Ye Faisla Karde..
market mein teji yaa Mandi Karde.
Bahut debit Sahe He Maine.
Koi Credit Ab Toh Muqadar Karde.
Bahot Muskil Lagta Hai teji se Duur Rehna,
Mandi Ke Safar Ko Kum Karde.
Jitna niche Chala Gaya senxex,
Use Utna uppar Karde.
Nahi Likha Agar Nasib Me Credit,
To Khatam Kar Ye Zindagi aur MARKET FANAA Karde.......

If stock brokers become film directors following would be the name of the films.
* Mujhe (investor) jeene do.
* Delivery Ho Na Ho.
** Janam stop loss rakha karo.
* Funding ka karz.
* Kabhi tezi kabhi Mandi.
* Maine Nifty Thoka
* Option koi khel nahi.
* Mandi ko jala kar rakh dunga.
** Hum margin de chuke sanam.
* FII Bin, (love triangle starring FII,SEBI and retail investors)
** Humara POA aapke pas hai. (Power Of Attorny)
* panic mana hai.
* Cercuit jaruri hai.
* FNO kiya toh darna kya.
** Aa ab teji kare.
* Market Days
* Script Code 9211
** BSE nambri, NSE Dhaas nambri !!!
** 36 Thousand Down ...... and the last one
*** Share market meharban toh bhikari bhi dhanwan (wealthy)

Quotes of the Day

2006-06-14T04:48:00.000-07:00

If you don't like something, change it.
If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.
---Maya Angelou

Investors getting poorer

2006-06-14T02:48:00.000-07:00

Sensex is again down in the third straight session @ 8894(as on Jun 14, 3:16:05 PM).
It has shed 168 points so far, in a very high volatile session.

Investors are getting poorer, therefore market is losing its charm. In the last two months market is down by 18%, getting investors wealth depriciated by average 18-20%.

Stockbroker Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, whose net worth zoomed up over Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) on May 10 is poorer by almost Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) today.

In the last month Jhunjhunwala's key holdings have eroded in value. They include Bharat Earth Movers (Rs 85 crore), CRISIL (Rs 40 crore), Lupin (Rs 70 crore), Nagarjuna Construction (Rs 100 crore) and Titan (Rs 90 crore) - have all dim.

Despite the erosion in wealth, Jhunjhunwala believes the secular and structural bull market is very much alive and kicking. "Although factors known or unknown may slow it, it will need God's wrath for it to be reversed prematurely," he is believed to have said.

Read more on Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

Free Fall of Stocks

2006-06-13T05:28:00.000-07:00

The market witnessed a free fall for the second straight session and tanked by 4.36% at the close on across-the-board selling pressure.

The Sensex' valuation has dropped by about 17% over the last two months on heavy selling by the FIIs. Indian equity market has had more than its share of pain compared with its peers, as the BSE Sensex has corrected much more than the other emerging market indices in the past few weeks.

It was worst closing Since Dec 8, 2005.
I dont want to spread pain by giving you more statistics.

Someone very well said,
"IN STOCK MARKET PEOPLE COME WITH MONEY AND NO EXPERIENCE AND WHEN THEY LEAVE THEY ARE WITH EXPERIENCE BUT NO MONEY AND BECOME ANALYIST TO HELP OTHER LOOSE MONEY"

One more for a little smile

Prince Charles & Sardar ji were having dinner.
Prince said : "pass the wine u divine".
Sardar thinks how poetic.....
Sardar says," Pass the custurd you basturd".

A peck on Cheek is OKAY

2006-06-12T04:10:00.000-07:00

I picked today's newspaper, and tried reading with still my one eye closed.
"Rakhi accuses singer of moletation" opened my both eyes with wonder.

All I could figure out after reading this article is Mika Singh's behavior wasnt appropriate.
It was his Bday, that doesnt mean he will take a bite of Rakhi's lips, and that too twice, and on top of that he broke her earrings too. Now you will ask a genuine question, how did you know that Mika bit Rakhi's lips twice, neither one less nor one more?
Well only two persons can answer it correctly, Mika & Rakhi, Mika hasnt accepted anything yet, he is yet to be probed how many times? therefore you got to believe Rakhi.Look what Rakhi Savant yells, “Mika Singh took advantage of our friendship and misbehaved with me. He bit my lips twice and in the process my earring broke,”

We have still listened to Rakhi's take on this, Mika has his colourful side to express "“There is no question about me molesting her. I am feeling embarrassed about this whole affair...her boyfriend was angry because she had kissed me,’’ he said.

As per TOI Mumbai, there were many guests present in the party, Spectators who witnessed the Mika-Rakhi friendly kiss gone sour at the singer’s birthday bash gave mixed reactions to TOI, with Rakhi herself stating that it was no publicity stunt.
Singer Sunidhi Chauhan, who was among the guests, said: “Rakhi was the one who kissed him first, she should have been sporting when he reciprocated.... Mika has skin allergy and he told Rakhi not to put cake on his face, but she went ahead which probably upset him.’’
A brawl ensued at the party when Rakhi’s friend Ashish Sherwood, a music video director, clashed with Singh’s bodyguard and ended up getting beaten. Singh said Sherwood broken a beer bottle and a glass.
Shefali Jariwala, the Kaanta Laga girl also vouched for the Punjabi munda. “I refuse to believe Mika can do something like that. He is a Punjabi and they respect women. Mika can’t sexually assault anyone....Rakhi was enjoying herself at the party. I don’t know when the whole thing turned dramatic.’’

If you think why is she fussing over this issue so much........ listen to her voice before you reach any conclusion
“This is not a publicity stunt. Even a woman with loose character would not want such publicity,’’ she said.

“I am an Indian woman. I will not allow a liplock — a peck on the cheek is okay.’’

Just to remind you friends, She is the same INDIAN WOMAN who was booked for obscenity over a stage show in Kolhapur barely a month before.
One thing from this whole episode, which can spark debates across the nation "A Peck on Cheek is Okay for an Indian Woman." Kavya Vishwanathan shall rewrite her novel with a new theme
" How Rakhi Savant
Got kissed
Got Wild,
and Got a life."

IBM celebrates INDIA " What makes us Special ? "

2006-06-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

Historic employee town hall in Bangalore awakens the world to IBM’s global model

It was really a once in a lifetime opportunity, listening to the two heads, one heading largest democracy in the world, other heading the biggest IT conglomerate.

The theme was "What makes us special?"
Giving you an insiders story about the historic event on 6th June, 2006.

"Creativity has to be the vision of IBM. Creativity has to be the business for IBM." — Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India

IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano with Dr. A. P.J. Abdul Kalam, the President of India

The air shook with excitement as the town hall in Bangalore, India began. Live performances of traditional Indian dancers — projected upon massive screens to the sound of their regional music — charged the meeting hall with a celebratory atmosphere. As emcee and Indian movie star, Dia Mirza took the stage, the audience of ten thousand IBM India employees and distinguished guests burst into applause.

We are more than forty-thousand strong in India, and our investment in this strategic country will continue to grow from $2 billion over the last three years to nearly $6 billion in the next three years. Yet this event — simulcasted across four Indian cities -- celebrates more than our presence in India, it marks IBM's strength around the world.

Sam announced

"For all my colleagues listening to this broadcast today around the world, I want you to understand the incredible capability we've established in India," said Sam. "It's also true in China, and it's also true in Eastern Europe, and it's also true in Brazil. If you take those regions of the world in the past couple of years we've added about 75,000 people, with phenomenal skills and capabilities. And very simply I want all of IBM to understand it and take advantage of it."

Today's news

IBM made headlines all over the world today in gathering 10,000 IBMers in Bangalore. Here, Sam Palmisano announced that IBM will triple our investment in India to $6 billion over the next three years to:

Establish the first in a new breed of Service Delivery Centers in Bangalore. IBM will deploy new processes and technology that will greatly automate IT service delivery, provide clients with enhanced flexibility and increase worldwide access to skills, service offerings and continuous availability at lower cost. The new technologies being deployed in India will be rolled out to IBM services centers worldwide in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.; Bratislava, Slovakia; Brno, Czech Republic; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Dublin, Ireland; Hortolandia, Brazil; Johannesburg, South Africa; Shenzhen, People's Republic of China; and Szekesfehervar, Hungary.
Create the IBM Systems & Technology Group (STG) Solutions/Innovation Center & Executive Briefing Center in Bangalore, which will focus on IBM infrastructure solutions, technologies and innovations and providing performance benchmarking, testing, data migration and competency building capabilities.
Enhance a Telecommunications Research & Innovation Center at IBM's India Research Lab that will serve IBM's telecommunications clients around the world.
Increase the capabilities and staff of the High Performance On Demand Solutions Lab in Bangalore, a specialized software and services lab driving automation and virtualization of complex IT infrastructures.
Inaugurate the "The Great Mind Challenge", which is designed to improve the software development skills of Indian students as they work to solve issues facing businesses today.

Recognizing the innovators

The town hall began in earnest with the lighting of a ceremonial lamp — a tradition that aims to inspire the participants and awaken greater understanding.

Shanker Annaswamy, country general manager for India welcomed our chairman, Sam Palmisano and Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, president of India who then presented Innovation Awards on behalf of IBM India to five key role models of innovation. The awards recognize a company, organization or government body that has been successful in introducing an innovation with a citation and cash award.

Along with the presentations by distinguished guests, the audience was treated to entertainment by Himesh Reshammiya and several inspirational videos

An Indian perspective on innovation

President Kalam, widely recognized as one of the leaders who has encouraged India's technological and economic progress, gave a presentation on the progress India has participated in and the creativity it will take to continue.

"Creativity has got multi dimensions like invention, discoveries and innovations," said President Kalam. "Creative minds have the ability to do magic or invent something new by combining, changing or reapplying existing ideas. Creative persons have an aptitude to accept change and ideas and possibilities. They have flexibility of outlook, they're happy enjoying the good while looking for a way to improve."

Corporate Lesson part-2

2006-06-10T01:17:00.000-07:00

First-year students at Medical School were receiving their first
Anatomy class with a real dead human body. They all gathered around the
surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet.

The professor started the class by telling them: "In medicine, it is
necessary to have 2 important qualities as a doctor. The first is that
you not be disgusted by anything involving the human body." For an
example, the Professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the
butt of the corpse, withdrew it and stuck his finger in his mouth." Go
ahead and do the same thing," he told his students. The students
freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took turns
sticking a finger in the butt of the dead body and sucking on it.

When everyone had finished, the Professor looked at them and told them,
"The
second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my Middle
finger
and sucked on my Index finger. Now learn to pay attention."

MORAL of th Story : Learn to pay Attention to your work

AIDS in Panipuri

2006-06-09T00:41:00.000-07:00

I received it in my mailbox. I do not know how much right it is…. To be true I really dont believe this, read it as a funny story, enjoy it, and forget it, unless someone proves infection is possible this way too.
“A 10 year old boy, had eaten panipuri about 15 days back, and fell sick, from the day he had eaten. Later when he had his Health check done... doctors diagnosed that he had AIDS. His parents couldn't believe it... Then the entire family under went a Checkup... none of them suffered from Aids. So the doctors checked again with the boy if he had eaten out...The boy said "yes". He had panipuri that evening. Immediately a group from Mallya hospital went to the panipuri vendor to check.
They found the panipuri seller had a cut on his finger while cutting the onions, his blood had spread in food. When they had his blood checked...the guy was suffering from AIDS ..... but he himself was NOT aware. Unfortunately the boy is suffering from it now.
Please take care while u eat on the road side. and pls fwd this to your dear one.”

How to find a good gift for the women in your life

2006-06-08T01:27:00.000-07:00

A few times a year we are always looking for gifts for the females in our life.
Have you ever tried to read their mind, what they like most ?
Certainly Its jewellery on every mind, and diamonds are the star of every women's eye.
I have finally discovered a foolproof method to finding the right gift:
Buy diamond jewellery. Simple, yes? But also effective. No more searching around for something I hope they like, fine jewellery
It always works, Gift her the world, if she means world for you.

After Reservation ...............

2006-06-03T05:04:00.000-07:00

IBM's Tryst with INDIA

2006-06-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

Dear friends

Some of you may have already seen this story that appeared in the leading Indian publication BusinessWorld. Nonetheless, I am taking this opportunity to share this insightful article with you once again, hoping you would take time to read it.
For more details you should refer BusinessWorld's this edition.

This truly is a very special event as for the very first time in the history of IBM, the organization is hosting its investors outside of US and Europe. And the country that gets this honor is India. Also attending this event will be over 43,000 IBM India employees across Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai, and getting broadcasted to IBMers worldwide later on. And most importantly the gathering would be addressed by the likes of His Excellency President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, our Chairman Sam Palmisano, and Sunil Mittal, MD, Bharti Enterprises, among other key dignitaries.

Enough Said.........Here we go ..............

When Sam Palmisano calls, you generally go. Even if it means travelling half way across the globe to a dusty, traffic-clogged, southern Indian city. So, in the first week of June, nearly 50 Wall Street equity analysts will troop into Bangalore to attend IBM Corporation’s annual analysts’ summit.
The summit, generally hosted in New York, has been held in Europe a couple of times. But this is the first time in IBM’s history that the Armonk-based, $91-billion IT giant is asking Wall Street analysts who follow its stock to come so far afield.
The question that naturally follows is: why Bangalore? At a superficial level, it can be answered by talking about the India growth story. Over the past three years, IBM’s India operations have grown at breakneck speed. IBM India’s headcount at the end of 2005 stood at 38,500 or 11.6 per cent of its total headcount, the most among any centre outside the US. Last year, it recruited 15,500 people in India, even while it shed 14,500 in Europe. IBM services 250 clients across the world from its global delivery centre in Bangalore, which is the only one that can offer solutions across continents. Finally, India revenues have been growing at 60 per cent per year, though from a small base, while IBM’s overall revenues have remained flat.
At a deeper level, though, the answer lies in understanding IBM’s struggle to reinvent itself as a company focused on services solutions. And in understanding why it needs to get its India story right to succeed in that exercise. Palmisano needs to demonstrate to Wall Street analysts that the company is on the right track in its services business. To do that, he has only one real thing to show — the way IBM India has been shaping up. It is India that holds the key to Palmisano’s services gameplan. And that is also why he is looking at a really big ticket acquisition — one of the top five Indian software services companies — to ramp up India operations even further. But that is getting ahead with the tale. First, the reason why India is so important to Palmisano.
Reinventing Big Blue
About four years before Palmisano became Big Blue’s big chief, in January 1998, then IBM top dog Louis V. Gerstner Jr put him in charge of IBM Global Services, which was specifically created in 1991 to offer full computing solutions to clients. When Gerstner had taken charge of IBM, it was a loose confederation of hardware and software businesses working autonomously, and often at cross purposes. He turned it around by knitting it into an integrated computing solutions seller. Palmisano’s job was to rev up growth at Global Services, which had revenues of $19.3 billion (as on December 1997). When he moved to the server business late 1999, it was clocking revenues of $32.2 billion, up 66.8 per cent in 24 months. This success laid the foundation for the top job in 2002.
Today, Global Services accounts for a little over half of IBM’s revenues (the balance comes from hardware, software and global financing). Palmisano’s goal is to take that to 70 per cent in another five years. When Palmisano took over as chief of IBM, two critical pieces were missing from Global Services. First, IBM was absent in high-end consulting services. Two, it lacked a low cost base for executing services work. IBM was strong in traditional areas of computer maintenance and support, but margins were getting increasingly squeezed in those areas. More importantly, these were legacy contracts and new clients were looking for something very different — service providers who help them transform their businesses and also take up the responsibility for managing many of their functions.
Nine months after taking over, Palmisano pushed through the acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ consulting arm. This removed one weakness. With 30,000 PwC consultants on board, Palmisano could bid as aggressively for consulting projects as an Accenture could. (As part of its overall strategy, IBM also shed its commodity PC business by selling it to Chinese PC maker Lenovo in early 2005.)

The big India push of the past three years — which includes the takeover of the BPO company Daksh eServices for $160 million and ramping up its delivery centres in Bangalore — is meant to remove the second weakness. A small point here — the India strategy is part of IBM’s overall plan to create four delivery hubs in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries to bring down cost of operations. However, as we will see, India is way, way ahead of the other three.
The BRIC plan has been clearly laid out. Essentially, over the long term, it will use these four hubs to offer clients the best deals at extremely competitive prices. Brazil, where it has over 6,000 people, is expected to become its offshore hub for tapping the Latin American market, as well as a nearshore option for US customers. Russia, a nascent operation, gives IBM a nearshore but low-cost solution for the diverse European market. Its big advantage in Russia is a large per capita pool of engineers — 3,500 for every 1 million people. Then there’s China. Compared to India, IBM has just 7,000 people in China doing offshore, but the country has a huge domestic market over which IBM has established a stronghold over a 15-year period. India, as Micahel Cannon-Brookes, vice-president (business development, China and India), puts it and as IBM sees it, is at the epicentre of the flat world. In 2005, the BRIC countries collectively ploughed in $3.8 billion in revenues and employed close to 60,000 people.

Among these four, India has not only gained critical size but is also growing the fastest. Besides, with 38,500 employees, India is a bigger operation than the other three put together.

Palmisano’s strategy is based on the premise that IBM’s consultants in the US should be able to sell high-end, high-margin consulting solutions to clients across the globe and then have those solutions implemented out of its base in India. It is not something that others haven’t thought of — practically every one of its rivals is following the same strategy, including Accenture and EDS. And Indian software services companies like TCS, Wipro and Infosys are trying to transform themselves into end-to-end solution providers by adding consulting services to their traditional range of offerings.
The weapon IBM hopes to use to bludgeon its rivals is the sheer size and depth of its offerings. Consider this — at $47 billion, the Global Services business dwarfs the next competitor, the $19.8-billion EDS. Moreover, no one can offer the kind of integrated solutions IBM can, such as consulting, maintenance, BPO and remote infrastructure solutions. It can offer solutions practically in any industry and in any part of the world. It can also offer R&D solutions — it spends an average of $5 billion on R&D every year. No one player among its rivals has the breadth of offerings that it has.
The problem: because of legacy costs, IBM can’t provide those services particularly cheaply.
The question is, can IBM ramp up its low-cost operations in India while winding down its high-cost operations across the globe fast enough?

Even till 2001, IBM India was a sluggish and unimaginative IT company. Over nine years of operations, revenues had just about crossed $300 million and staff strength was around 4,000. IBM’s bid to redefine itself globally as a services player had not made any material difference to its India operations. Then, two things happened within a span of 12 months. In January 2001, Abraham Thomas took charge as CEO and managing director of IBM India, after having spent a significant part of his 14-year career at IBM in senior positions in the Asia-Pacific region. But more importantly, Palmisano became chairman of IBM in March 2002. With Palmisano and Abraham at the helm of affairs in Armonk and Bangalore respectively, IBM India went on a growth overdrive and the chairman became an annual visitor to Bangalore. India revenues jumped from $350 milion in 2002 to $937 million in 2004, the year Abraham moved back to Singapore. His successor, Shankar Annaswamy, has kept the momentum on track and in 2005, IBM India crossed the $1-billion revenue mark.

Two events particularly signalled IBM’s new growth drive in India. First, in March 2004, IBM’s India team clinched a $750-million IT outsourcing contract from Bharti Tele-Ventures, beating rival bids from HP and Oracle. A month later, it acquired Gurgaon-based call centre Daksh eServices. The Bharti deal gave IBM India the much-needed inroad into the domestic Indian market, and Daksh catapulted it among the top five BPO service providers from India. All these were part of Palmisano’s overall game plan to leverage India and ramp up its presence in the country really fast.
Under Palmisano, IBM bet on three key trends taking off — Linux, on-demand computing and, finally, emerging markets not just as a low-cost base, but also as a market (all part of the Global Services portfolio). India figured heavily on all three counts. In 2001-2002, a part of the $1 billion that IBM spent on promoting Linux went into setting up the Linux Center of Competency in India. Subsequently, a large chunk of its $1-billion research budget for e-business came to the India Research Lab. But the primary focus was on global delivery. The explosive growth it has seen in global delivery out of India is what has driven IBM’s growth here.
Since 2004, Palmisano has accelerated the India initiatives. He has reorganised the India team to drive growth in line with IBM’s global objectives. Most of the senior India management team, for instance, does not report directly to Annaswamy. So, former PwC Consulting man Amitabh Ray, head of IBM Global Services India, reports directly to IBM Global Services’ chief Ginni Rometty. “This helps get rid of the bureaucracy and makes decision-making faster,” says a company source. Inderpreet Thukral, director (strategy and business development), has been deputed to drive growth in emerging business opportunities in India. That focus was further emphasised in 2005 when Palmisano deputed Shanghai-based Michael Cannon-Brookes, an old IBM hand in Asia, to take special charge of China and India. Cannon-Brookes’ mandate is to oversee strategy for both these markets and align them with IBM’s globally integrated services game plan. Thukral reports to Brookes, who sees his job as one that facilitates a sharper focus withi n the IBM leadership in India. He says: “You go not only where the growth is, but also where the new pools of talent are — obviously India and China. It was necessary to take a more longer term view beyond day-to-day operations. So, we had to get a focus within the company at the senior level on these two markets.”

So, as the India organisation structure stands today, Annaswamy, apart from being managing director for IBM India, also oversees growth in the domestic market. The focus is important because the market for IT outsourcing services in India is just beginning to open up. In fact, according to sources, the domestic business is likely to be spun off into a strategic business unit and expansion plans this year include 40 additional tier-II cities. “There are plans to set up dedicated delivery centres for the domestic market,” say sources. Cannon-Brookes and Thukral take care of the longer-term strategic imperatives. The jewel in the crown, global delivery services, includes within it IBM-Daksh and what IBM calls the business transformation outsourcing (BTO) practice, remote infrastructure management and application development and maintainence. The decentralised structure enables each unit to function independently and, thus, grow faster. The 32,000 people global services operation in India is almost evenly split between BPO services offered by Daksh (18,000 people) and other offerings (14,000 people).Of late, IBM has been using the global delivery services in India to win contracts. In fact, the newly acquired global delivery capability in India helped it clinch the recent $2.2-billion ABN Amro deal. A large chunk of the new application development work for ABN Amro will be executed by IBM out of India. According to Ray, the year-on-year growth on the global delivery front has only started taking off. “In two years, we will be the biggest IT services company in India,” he says.
There have been other more subtle, but equally important, changes in India. Thukral and Ray are good examples of the change — they straddle both India and global roles, while being based in India. “That’s a huge cultural shift for IBM,” say sources. It is as much about India’s growing significance in the IBM frame of things as it is about IBM’s bid to shed its former identity of a US-centric, bureaucracy-driven heavyweight.

So, as the India organisation structure stands today, Annaswamy, apart from being managing director for IBM India, also oversees growth in the domestic market. The focus is important because the market for IT outsourcing services in India is just beginning to open up. In fact, according to sources, the domestic business is likely to be spun off into a strategic business unit and expansion plans this year include 40 additional tier-II cities. “There are plans to set up dedicated delivery centres for the domestic market,” say sources. Cannon-Brookes and Thukral take care of the longer-term strategic imperatives. The jewel in the crown, global delivery services, includes within it IBM-Daksh and what IBM calls the business transformation outsourcing (BTO) practice, remote infrastructure management and application development and maintainence. The decentralised structure enables each unit to function independently and, thus, grow faster. The 32,000 people global services operation in India is almost evenly split between BPO services offered by Daksh (18,000 people) and other offerings (14,000 people).Of late, IBM has been using the global delivery services in India to win contracts. In fact, the newly acquired global delivery capability in India helped it clinch the recent $2.2-billion ABN Amro deal. A large chunk of the new application development work for ABN Amro will be executed by IBM out of India. According to Ray, the year-on-year growth on the global delivery front has only started taking off. “In two years, we will be the biggest IT services company in India,” he says.
There have been other more subtle, but equally important, changes in India. Thukral and Ray are good examples of the change — they straddle both India and global roles, while being based in India. “That’s a huge cultural shift for IBM,” say sources. It is as much about India’s growing significance in the IBM frame of things as it is about IBM’s bid to shed its former identity of a US-centric, bureaucracy-driven heavyweight.

But Questions Remain
India is growing explosively, but is it growing fast enough to make a difference to IBM? That is the question analysts are beginning to ask. The questions are valid because, of late, IBM Global Services seems to be struggling. A year ago, it missed both its revenue and earnings targets. High-cost operations in Europe and sluggish European markets were identified as the root cause of that miss.
That miss was the primary reason why IBM decided to shed 14,500 jobs from its European operations — 14.5 per cent of 100,000 it had there. That caused huge protests and much pain within IBM, which had always tried to project itself as a company that offered jobs for life. One big loss was the exit of IBM Global Services’ chief John R. Joyce, who quit in July 2005. Joyce left two months after the job cuts in Europe were announced. But, so far, Palmisano hasn’t let the pain deter him.
In the latest quarter again, IBM Global Services’ revenues have been flat. The trend continues from last year. Revenues grew 2.1 per cent in 2005. Gross profit margins were also unimpressive: 25.9 per cent in 2005 against 25.1 per cent in 2004.
Clearly, Global Services seems to have hit some sort of a plateau. The PwC acquisition is not yet bringing in the kind of heavyweight business IBM had hoped for. More importantly, with topline of the global services business largely flat, IBM needs to make sure that at least the bottomline is improving. And for that, it needs to cut jobs drastically in the US itself, which is likely to be far harder to accomplish than Europe. By some estimates, IBM needs to slash its US employee strength of 260,000 by half. Before it can do that, IBM India will have to be able to take up the workload of those 130,000 people that it needs to shed — and that is going to be the key factor.
A couple of influential IBM watchers feel that for India to make a significant difference to IBM’s bottomline and topline, Big Blue needs to make at least one more spectacular acquisition, perhaps of one of the top five Indian services firms. Enough organic growth simply cannot happen in the timeframe IBM needs to put the global services business on track. Sometime back there were rumours that IBM was shopping for Satyam, but Satyam chief B. Ramalinga Raju had scotched those rumours. There’s talk in the market currently that IBM is looking closely at a north Indian software services firm, though the company refuses to talk on the subject.

Can Palmisano handle all those problems? He has the will and IBM has enough cash to take hard decisions. What remains to be seen is how the cards fall for IBM in India now.

Lighter Moments

2006-05-23T04:57:00.000-07:00

Never Argue with an IDIOT, they drag you down to their level and then beat you with the EXPERIENCE :-)

Corporate Lessons part 1

2006-05-20T05:57:00.000-07:00

CORPORATE LESSON # 1

A young executive was leaving the office at 6 PM when he found the CEO standing in front of a shredder with a piece of paper in his hand. “Listen,” said the CEO, “this is a very sensitive and important document and my secretary has left. Can you make this thing work?”

“Certainly, Sir” said the young executive. He turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button.

“Excellent, excellent!” said the CEO as his paper disappeared inside the machine.” I just need one copy.”

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Never, never assume that your BOSS knows everything.

CORPORATE LESSON # 2

There were these 4 guys, a Russian, a German, an American and a French, who found this small genie bottle. When they rubbed the bottle, a genie appears. Thankful that the 4 guys had released him out of the bottle, he said, “Next to you all are 4 swimming pools, I will give each of you a wish. When you run towards the pool and jump, you shout what you want the pool of water to become, then your wish will come true.”

The French wanted to start. He ran towards the pool, jumped and shouted WINE”. The pool immediately changed into a pool of wine. The Frenchman was so happy swimming and drinking from the pool.

Next is the Russian’s turn, he did the same and shouted, “VODKA” and immersed himself into a pool of vodka.

The German was next and he jumped and shouted, “BEER”. He was so contented with his beer pool.

The last is the American. He was running towards the pool when suddenly he steps on a banana peel. He slipped towards the pool and shouted, “SH**!!!!!!!………”

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Mind your language, you never Know what it will land you in.

2006-05-15T00:52:00.000-07:00

Guys I have come across, this excellent piece of Poetry.............. Kudos to the anonymous writer ......

2006-05-12T04:20:00.000-07:00

Mastermind behind Orkut Communities

I received an interesting email, i was not aware of this fact.Sharing it with you all my regular readers, hope it interests you.Thanks to abhishek for sending this.............

He was/is working wid Google in the Google labs
And google gives 20% of the daily worktime to all their employees to do what interests them, be it development or fun.
So while at work with Google labs, orkut developed slowly and slowly his idea of a worldly community.
When he finished with it, google put it online and named it Orkut Community.This is the mastermind behind Orkut community.
Some facts about Orkut:
1)Orkut Buyukkokten(the creator of Orkut) gets $12 when every person registers to this website.
2)He also gets $10 when you add somebody as a friend.
3)He gets $8 when your friend’s friend adds you as a friend & gets $6 if anybody adds you as a friend in the resulting chain.
4)He gets $5 when you scrap somebody & $4 when somebody scraps you.
5)He also gets $200 for each photograph you upload on Orkut.
6)He gets $2.5 when you add your friend in the crush-list or in the hot-list.
7)He gets $2 when you become somebody’s fan.
8)He gets $1.5 when somebody else becomes your fan.
9)He even gets $1 every time you logout of Orkut.
10)He gets $0.5 every time you just change your profile-photograph.
11)He also gets $0.5 every time you read your friend’s scrap-book & $0.5 every time you view your friend’s friend-list.
12)Many Global Financial Consultants think this person might become the richest-person in the world by the end of 2009.
13)Finally, this is the best fact. This person has 13 assistants to monitor his scrapbook & 8 assistants to monitor his friends-list. He gets around 20,000 friend-requests a day & about 85,000 scraps a day.

Visit
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=325082930226142255

2006-05-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

LIONS ONSITE EXPERIENCE ...........

In a poor zoo of India, a lion was frustrated as he was offered not more than 1 kg meat a day.

The lion thought its prayers were answered when one US Zoo Manager visited the zoo and requested the zoo management to shift the lion to the US Zoo.

The lion was so happy and started thinking of a central A/c environment, a goat or two every day and a US Green Card also.

On its first day after arrival, the lion was offered a big bag, sealed very nicely for breakfast.

The lion opened it quickly but was shocked to see that it contained few bananas.

Then the lion thought that may be they cared too much for him as they were worried about his stomach as he had recently shifted from India.

The next day the same thing happened. On the third day again the same food bag of bananas was delivered.

The lion was so furious, it stopped the delivery boy and blasted at him, 'Don't you know I am the lion...king of the Jungle..., what's wrong with your management? what nonsense is this?, why are you delivering bananas to me?'

The delivery boy politely said, 'Sir, I know you are the king of the jungle but .. did you know that you have been brought here on a monkey's visa!!!

Moral of the story: Better to be a Lion in India than a Monkey elsewhere!

2006-04-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

ECONOMICS FOR DUMMIES

"VALUE HAS A VALUE ONLY IF ITS VALUE IS VALUED BY YOU"

SAVING IS SIN, SPENDING IS VIRTUE" - Written by an Indian Economist

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more
than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over $100 billions. Yet
Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an
annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is
considered strong and trusted to get stronger.

But where from do Americans get money to spend?
They borrow from Japan, China and even India. Virtually others save for the
US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India
itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US
securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan's
stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result:
The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for
the US, Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going,
that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180
billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US! Otherwise the
US economy would go for a six. So will the global economy. The result will
be no different if US consumers begin consuming less.

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in
China, or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what
China has invested in US. The same is the case with India. We have invested
in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20
billion in India.

Why the world is after US?
The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact
they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends
is what makes it attractive to export to the US. So US imports more than
what it exports year after year.

The result:
The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening
culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US
consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world
provides the money. It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer
so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer will not
buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US
is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper
financier.

Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier?
Japan of course. Yet it's Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists
complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the
Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted it self, reduced the
savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend
(habits don't change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal
savings alone is over$1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus,
savings, far from being the strength of Japan, has become itspain.

Hence, what is the lesson?
That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just
spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born
economist in the US, told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask
them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will
put India on a growth curve. "Saving is sin, and spending is virtue." Before
you follow this neo economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow
from them and spend, ofcourse this will apply to the individual also.

This is what US has successfully done in last few decades.

2006-04-26T05:29:00.000-07:00

What is ur Take on this ??????????
--------------------------------------------------------
ET has opened a debate on "Is Premji right to go against job quotas in Wipro?"
As expected most of the posts agree with him...
here is someone who put his pt in a v diff way.. :))
--------------------------------------------------------
I think we should have job reservations in all the fields. I completely support the PM and all the politicians for promoting this.

Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 10 percent reservation for muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that.
Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player.
The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a OBC player should be counted as 8 runs.
An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century.

We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an OBC player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal.

Also we should have reservation in Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an OBC player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.

There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts which are carrying the ministers and
politicians (that can really help the country.. )

Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other politicians. (Another way of saving the country..)

Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide INDIA forward...

Let's show the world that INDIA is a GREAT country. Let's be proud of being an INDIAN..
May the good breed of politicans like ARJUN SINGH long live...

So, what do you think, huh???

2006-04-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

BEST T-SHIRT EVER MADE

2006-04-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

LAUGHING Riot

There was a husband and his wife sitting next to a drunk in a
bar. Suddenly the drunk stands up and yells, "ATTENTION
ALL" and farts loudly.

The wife is extremely embarrassed, and the husband looks at
the drunk and says" Excuse me, you just farted before my
wife."

The drunks replies," I'm sorry I didn't know it was her turn."

2006-04-23T05:22:00.000-07:00

For all my friends who have not a messenger downloaded or yahoo, msn, google, rediff messengers are blocked in their office........................
I have something very useful and interesting to offer u..................
STILL YOU CAN CHAT
go to this site.

www.chatzy.com

create your virtual room and send out invitation to all your frns.
have nice chatting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-04-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

Fresh Fish

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to
Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese
population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther
the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the
return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese
did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their
boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers
allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the
difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish.

The frozen fish brought a lower price. So fishing companies installed
fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin
to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They
were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still
taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost
their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of
fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they
get fresh-tasting fish to Japan? If you were consulting the fish
industry, what would you recommend?

How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh:

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still
put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank.
The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively
state. The fish are challenged.

Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most
of the time tired & dull, so we need a Shark in our life to keep us
awake and moving? Basically in our lives Sharks are new challenges to keep
us active and taste better.....

The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you
enjoy a challenge. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you
are steadily conquering those challenges, you are Conqueror. You think
of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new
solutions. You have fun. You are alive!

2006-04-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

What does it cost to have a celebration?

A winter evening.
Four friends.
One barsaat.
Four glasses of chai.

Hundred bucks of gas.
A rusty old bike.
And an open road.

Maggi noodles.
A hostel room.
4.25 a.m.

3 old friends.
3 separate cities.
3 coffee mugs.
1 internet messenger.

Rain on a hot tin roof.
Pakoras deep-frying.
Neighbours dropping in.
A party.

You and mom.
A summer night.
A bottle of coconut oil.
A head massage.
Gossiping about absent family members.

You can spend hundreds on birthdays, thousands on festivals, lakhs on weddings, but to celebrate all you have to spend is your Time.

2006-04-22T06:43:00.000-07:00

Chetan Bhagat is an ex-IITian, graduating from IIT Delhi in 1995. At IIT he had his stint as the editor of the hostel magazine. Post IIT, he did an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad graduating in 1997. He received a medal for the 'best outgoing student award'. After IIM, he has been working in Hong Kong with a prominent US investment bank for the past six years.

Chetan is 29 years old and grew up in Delhi most of his life and attended The Army Public School. His love for writing has meant he has frequently contributed articles and stories to local publications and newspapers. Through Five-point someone, he attempts to provide an insider's view about the most famous colleges of India.

My Stupid Suicide Plan - CHETAN BHAGAT Last week, an IITian committed suicide. People who commit suicide do it when they feel there's no future. But wait, isn't IIT the one place where a bright and shining future is a foregone conclusion? It just doesn't add up, does it? Why would a young, hardworking, bright student who has the world ahead of him do something like this? But the answer is this-in our constant reverence for the great institution (and I do believe IITs are great), we forget the dark side. And the dark side is that the IITs are afflicted by the quintessential Indian phenomenon of academic pressure, probably the highest in the world. I can rant about the educational system and how it requires serious fixing, or I can address the immediate-try my best to prevent such suicides. For this column I have chosen the latter, and I do so with a personal story. News of a suicide always brings back one particular childhood memory. I was 14 years old when I first seriously contemplated suicide. I had done badly in chemistry in the Class X half yearly exam. I was an IIT aspirant, and 68% was nowhere near what an IIT candidate should be getting. I don't know what had made me screw up the exam, but I did know this, I was going to kill myself. The only debate was about method. Ironically, chemistry offered a way. I had read about copper sulphate, and that it was both cheap and poisonous. Copper sulphate was available at the kirana store. I had it all worked out. My rationale for killing myself was simple-nobody loved me, my chemistry score was awful, I had no future and what difference would it make to the world if I was not there. I bought the copper sulphate for two rupees-probably the cheapest exit strategy in the world. I didn't do it for two reasons. One, I had a casual chat with the aunty next door about copper sulphate, and my knowledgeable aunty knew about a woman who had died that way. She said it was the most painful death possible, all your veins burst and you suffer for hours. This tale made my insides shudder. Second, on the day I was to do it, I noticed a street dog outside my house being teased by the neighborhood kids as he hunted for scraps of food. Nobody loved him. It would make no difference to the world if the dog wasn't there. And I was pretty sure that its chemistry score would be awful. Yet, the dog wasn't trotting off to the kirana store. He was only interested in figuring out a strategy for his next meal. And when he was full, he merely curled up in a corner with one eye open, clearly content and not giving a damn about the world. If he wasn't planning to die anytime soon what the hell was I ranting about? I threw the copper sulphate in the bin. It was the best two bucks I ever wasted. So why did I tell you this story? Because sometimes the pressure gets too much; like it did for the IITian who couldn't take it no more. On the day he took that dreadful decision, his family and friends were shattered, and India lost a wonderful, bright child. And as the silly but true copper sulphate story tells you-it could happen to any of us or those around us. So please be on the lookout, if you see a distressed young soul, lend a supportive, non-judgmental ear. When I look back, I thank that aunt and that dog for unwittingly saving my life. If God wanted us to take our own life, he would have provided a power off button. He didn't, so have faith and let his plan for you unfold. Because no matter how tough life gets and how much it hurts, if street dogs don't give up, there is no reason why we, the smart species, should. Makes sense right?