Work Milestone/Millstone

In India we always remember a person with their name and how they are related to us and that is how we call them or refer to them. That is for relatives, for parent's friends especially for ones with very common names usually their workplace would be used as an identifier.  My dad's phone/address book in past and now phone contact list has people always listed this way -  company name followed by person's name.  LIC Harish, BOI Manohar, ABT Mouli etc. Folks of my parent's generation almost always used to work in the same place for a long long time so this kind of reference point worked. They identified really well with their employer and switching jobs for more money or better position was very rare in those days. They had a huge network of office friends and knew each others families well. But gone are those days!

With my generation things changed, the economy really improved in last 20 years the number of jobs available improved and it became easier to switch jobs. Cozy life long association with a company was no more the norm. Switching is what a lot of folks started doing especially ones in my generation. So for kids in my neighborhood and with my cousins I did notice that initially uncles and aunts used to refer to folks by saying Jagadish in CTS, Ashwin who works in Wipro, Roopa who is in Infosys etc. Some major IT services cos were easy on everyone's tongue as almost every other kid used to  work in SWITCH companies. There were folks in product companies with higher salaries and better growth track which were also public knowledge initially. All of these were reference points when talking about someone.

All was hunky dory, until these kids spent a few years in their first jobs and almost all of them started looking at other options like MS or MBA or switch to some MNC. All well and fine and good for them but this caused a big deal of confusion for previous generation as they had to keep updating the reference point. Poor uncles and aunts did keep track for a while when these kids kept hopping companies but it was a futile exercise. Usually while talking to someone when the name of a cousin or kid from neighborhood comes up, instead of confidently naming where he/she works these days it would start with a hesitant guess by the uncle that maybe he/she is working in xyz which would get corrected by aunt who would say no no he/she switched last year remember, he might be in this abc company. It would be followed by a general statement that it is so hard to remember where anyone is working these days. A cousin of mine initially worked in an MNC for a long time and then suddenly started job hopping with gusto that every year we would always wonder where he worked, no one was sure. Another cousin worked initially in HCL which was easy to remember but then he moved to LSI which was hard to remember for my mom and by the time she could remember that name he moved to another company PMC Sierra ( even I had to look it up in LinkedIn while writing this) and my mom who dutifully keeps tracks of where everyone works and always mentions it to me when we talk totally struggled with this name. After a while she just gave up and said he works in some place I can never remember. This eventually became the case with several folks, my mom now says she is not able to remember any of these company names!

In  April 2016 it was time for a major work milestone - 5 year anniversary. My years with this wonderful company - Cognizant - actually represented the maximum time I spent in a single place in my life. Longest stay ever in a place where I clocked 8 hours a day - this is including school /college / work etc. So that was quite something, most folks at work were nice. I was well respected and did enjoy good ratings at work  and was sort of satisfied with what I was doing, so it was a good milestone from that perspective. But with my generation such milestones were actually millstone around neck, many of us had this feeling that longer you stay in one place more you stagnate. Of course there are exceptions like several of my talented relatives in the technical line who are sticking to same company for a long long time.

But for me the feeling of staying too long was there by the time I hit the 4th year mark and thats a feeling very common with most folks of my generation with similar background as me. Its not that we don't like stability but its just that its really easy and seamless to move across companies to get the kind of work, salary or anything else that you desire.  Most of my friends who eventually worked with me in same company at some point in time or other in last few years had started to move on and were working somewhere else so I was sure it was just a matter of time. Staying for a long time at same company used to be a mark of success which was cherished both by the individual and the company. Yet another cousin of mine completed 10 years at Microsoft last year and he was part of some major celebration party his company hosted for folks like him at a football stadium. He sent us the video and photos where the pride and satisfaction was visible.  Happy for him of course, but that works only for a few folks especially in IT product firms. For those in IT services it is not always easy to grow in same firm easily and to retain your happiness and career satisfaction levels. I have always felt great in a new company after a few months only to start drifting away close to 3rd year mark.
While talking to a friend - who did complete 10 years in his company - the other day,  I was trying to find out how he felt. The company he worked for used to give different color tags for the ID card based on seniority, so someone within 5 years would have one color ID card, someone with 5-10 years had a different tag, while those with 10+ had a different one. In 2005/6 he used to refer to those seniors with awe and respect, so I asked him this year how he felt wearing the 'senior' tag now that he has crossed 10 years at his firm and he was quite candid that it was horrible as it called out that he was an oldie who was stuck in this place. He was of course only half serious, but the point is long years in same firm is no longer what it was.

10-15 years back it was always believed that changing jobs initially in career is ok, but the point was to get to a dream role/company and spend a long time there. Everyone I spoke to was sure switching jobs would make their resume look back and sticking to a job for a long time was the way to go after initial few years. But in reality most folks have not followed that advice. Today almost all of us are convinced that how good you are with your work and what you can deliver is all matters for your boss at the end of the day in our line of work. In US I see a lot of folks working purely as contractors and not as full-time employees by choice as you get paid a lot more and if you are ready to travel anywhere in US you can easily get gigs quickly even if the current employer decides not to extend your contract. This 'Gig economy' is said to be future and apparently 1 out 3 people is US work this way and the number is only expected to go up

So how did I mark my 5th anniversary at work ... that's why the blogpost of course with the long pre-face. Yeah, I celebrated that occasion by telling my management that I'm quitting! It was not planned that way, but the stars just aligned in a way that I was able to announce my decision to quit right at that point after getting a mail congratulating me for 5 years of service to the company.
P.S. - The place I moved to was not quite something for job hopping youngsters, my current employer is a 120+ year old firm and most of my colleagues have put in between 15 to 30 years with this company. I have only heard about people retiring rather than resigning in my current workplace which is really strange but interesting experience for me. But the person who hired me here actually acknowledged it as much during a recent performance review. He mentioned that he expected me to do well and grow quickly  in this organization "or any other company that you move to in future which is bound to happen for someone from your generation"! 

Its just not cricket

'Its just not  cricket',  is a phrase used at times to indicate something thats not correct or not done properly or against the norms. But cricket being a game which constantly reinvents itself ,at times this phrase is even used by folks at a newer variant of the game which has suddenly become popular and threatens the more traditional variety. It was used against One Day cricket when it really emerged with colored clothes and day night games. More recently it has been used against the  T20 format which crunched the  game even further for this generation with ADD.

I had been part of those skeptics who viewed this new format with  mild amusement and felt this  probably wont amount to anything as we had two well established formats the Test cricket for the real aficionados and the shorter variant for general public/ mass consumption. Things did seem to be going well for the game in India at least so why  experiment again we all thought. Some of the previous experiments like 'Max cricket' , six a side cricket etc never clicked.

The 2007 T20 WC indeed won many of us over, the tournament worked but mainly because India won! But I think for many of us it took entire IPL season 1 to truly understand what T20 cricket is and to have an opinion which most of us formed and discussed and debated ad nauseam. Long story short, T20 arrived and it was here to stay and stay it did as we roll into IPL 9

I would easily fall into the category of cricket buffs who love watching any decently competitive game of cricket. I eagerly look forward to international matches and its not just about my favorite team and like most folks of my ilk have huge reverence for Test match cricket. I follow through the score card and news reports most of the test match action that happens across the world and remain aware of the key events and players globally. The interest wanes further for other forms of cricket and what I state could be true for most of the keen followers of the game. We all love the drama and slow folding action of Test matches and nothing really comes near that for sure. So leaving that format out of discussion.

As a kid I had started watching cricket since 91 and it was ODI cricket which first really pulled me into this game with the tri-series and WC down under in 92. During childhood it was easy to watch any form of cricket but as you got older watching Test cricket was pretty tough unless on weekends but ODIs with Day/Night games was easier to catch on TV. Most of 90s and until late 2000s there was not much to compete with cricket viewing and cricket being a sport with so many breaks was easy to follow unlike something like Football. As time progressed ODIs for me got a bit harder to watch as other interesting things started coming up! Ofcourse I did watch most of the important matches but slowly reducing my viewing time to first 10 overs and then the final 15 overs and nothing much happened in those boring middle overs.

Again the game didn't change much, the middle overs were the same boring middle overs or consolidation phase of the game which always existed. Its just the mind set of the viewers changed. Faced with several other things to do in our lives and several other entertainment options available the 'boring middle overs' started losing out to other options in tv remote control or internet browser. For most folks in modern world who are not having ginormous amount of free time watching an entire ODI was out of question. Basically we would try to catch first 10 overs before mom/wife starts getting annoyed and starts assigning some random errands. Usually the starting phase of the match is exempt as something is always 'happening'. Same goes for the death overs as something seems to be happening always you are less likely to be disturbed and allowed to watch the ending. So basically you end up watching like 20-25 overs of an ODI and we had sort of made peace with that

T20 as a format has taken some time to evolve, for teams to really  figure out what exactly they need to do and over last few years it seems to have settled into a steady flow. There are bound to be good and bad effects which will impact other forms of the game and the game overall will change for sure. Does it provide good balance for bat and ball? No.
Is this something which aesthetically pleasing  (like watching Roger Federer in full flow)? Of course No.
But is it cricket? Surely yes.
Does it get over in 3 hours? Oh yeah.
Is it possible to actually watch the entire action, given our regular schedules? Oh yeah

All of these factors did play role in me deciding that ODI cricket is just not worth the time and energy and I have really been wishing that people cut down on what I think are meaningless bi-lateral ODI series and instead just play t20s and get over with it sooner and spend more time playing Test cricket. I think its a given that game cannot survive or sustain interest without catering to masses so we need Shorter variant of the game, and my vote goes to T20 for that.

In many social forums I interact with friends and other fellows, I have controversially harped on scrapping or scaling down ODI cricket and instead packing international calender with more T20s and Test cricket instead. I have faced huge opposition at first, but now the volume of protests have come down perhaps because the same folks have argued the same points several times now or because folks arguing for ODIs are getting tired of defending it

Now ODI WC is something that I really enjoy and I dont think anything T20 throws at it can quite match the appeal or the place in our heart that ODI WC holds. Despite my grudges against the format I think ODI WC is quite special and is the only reason why I dont want the format scrapped. Again that is because that is the only ODI tournament/series which has some context or relevance which the bi-lateral series just doesn't have

Now for the main topic which prompted all this cud chewing on limited overs cricket - the recent T20 WC... maybe its because its pretty fresh in mind but the recent tournament was something that I enjoyed highly. I did watch almost all matches despite the tournament happening in early morning time for me and felt this was a very 'open' World cup unlike the 50 over one in which the odds invariably favored 2-3 nations. Most of the matches were close which is perhaps because of the very nature of this format where almost all contests stretch into final over and no one is truly out of the game until the very end.

We have very active college whatsapp group among some of my friends in which 90% of discussion is on cricket and recently we again had a rerun of ODI vs t20 and several folks begged a few of us to stop discussing this again and again. With the recent experience of following 2 major T20 events, I thought I will jot down a list of things which make the format work for me as a viewer/fan who is keen to 'watch'/'follow' entire live sporting action.

1. It sort of respects my time and doesn't assume I have 9-10 hours of free time to park my butt on an uncomfortable seat in the stadium or even my more comfortable couch for TV viewing. Its the usual argument that the game is just about 3-3.5 hours for a t20 match is about the time taken for almost all major spectator friendly sporting events - think Football, Tennis, F1, Soccer

2.The other redeeming factor for pushing for this format was the sheer closeness of the matches because of the format. Lesser the overs closer it gets but if the number of overs become too less its not a match it becomes a farce and I think at this point 20 overs seems to strike the right balance

3.There was a fear that the format would be bowler's graveyard and they would just give up altogether and audience just want to watch 20 over chases of 200+ scores. The recent 2 tournaments in Asia were not quite that way. The pitches were not highways and bowlers who have done their share of innovation came to party with several smart weapons to counter batsmen. So if there is will to have regular size grounds and pitches with some life in it even in this format there can be a good contest between bat and ball

4.As a common man viewing the game, there is a greater sense of identification for masses as this format is pretty close to the game we play on streets and maidans. You dont need to be super talented,skilled to make your mark and an average player can still have his day and pull it off for this team.  The success of journeymen cricketers in IPL like  Bisla, Valthathy, Jakati, Tambe etc is a good example of how it allows folks with basic abilities to have their days under sun as well with positive intent and huge amount of luck as well. Who doesn't love an underdog!

5. I did watch quite a few matches played by associate nations and the gap between them and established nations are narrowing but no format gives them such a good chance to pull off upsets and stay competitive as T20. It seems to be fairly obvious that if cricket wants to move beyond the 10-12 nations where it commands a good following then T20 is the way to go. The good run by Afgans and managing to pull off a stunning win over the eventual champions in the recent world cup is case in point. The qualifier felt like cheating but the number of mismatches have come down drastically and this format represents the only chance for game to expand to a real 16 nation or beyond competitive WC

6. Really good players will still rock this format. Think Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Md Amir, enough said!

7. Cricket is a game which takes stats and records seriously. A bit too seriously! No I'm not going to encourage any discussion on my fav batsman Sachin ;)  There has been lot of debate on whether players slow down when reaching milestones like 50, 100  and yeah 200 etc. There is huge obsession over landmarks, average etc The number of 100s a batsman has and making a 100 was something that ODI inherited from Test cricket, but t20 is a format where people just care about scoring and atleast as of now milestones don't seem to matter as much as other formats and run scoring and delivering for team when needed seems to be even more crucial factor than sheer volume of runs or wickets

8. t20 is the only format which can make leagues like IPL, Big-bash, Ram-slam work and makes it possible for cricket loving folks to get more and more cricket on tv during summer


So thank you T20 for giving some sort of cricketing action throughout the summer, I didnt watch last IPL but this time thanks to Asia cup and WC I'm all enthused despite the fact that my fav IPL team is no longer around. Hoping to get a few hours of regular good cricketing action throughout the summer

2015 - List of Books

This started a few years back and  year end list of books has become an annual tradition of sorts with my cousins - @Vaidya and @Indhu. For almost a month now Vaidya has been hounding me to put up this list and I have been doing a GRRM on him by giving and missing deadlines frequently! Its usually hard trying to remember what you read and to put some meaningful notes for some books you really liked or did not like at all . Considering most of these were read a while back it takes a lot of effort to put it all together

Since last year most of my reading moved to Kindle and this year it was almost entirely on Kindle.  I know its not like actual books etc, but for me it is more about convenience and being able to read the book I wanted to read whenever I wanted. I tried to squeeze some extra reading time by carrying the Kindle around whenever I had to go to any place where there might be some wait time involved and managed to get a little more reading than usual. Some meaningless meetings at work could also be salvaged by reading through Kindle online on my browser! Plus it was easy to make this list as well :)

I notice that of late I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction, 4-5 years back I read only fiction and was reluctant to try anything else. Some things change with age I guess!  My target for the year just like previous years was to reach 15 books and if possible cross it and when I tallied it up I'm surprised that I have not only crossed it but crossed it comfortably and clocked 22 this time

So without much further ado the list

1. Dalai Lama's Cat  by David Miche

Pretty cute concept, covers some of the buddhist philosophies in a very light and easy to read way

2. If It's Monday It Must Be Madurai: A Conduted Tour of India  by Srinath Perur

Had read a few articles by this author earlier, so picked this up. The author goes on 10 conducted tours over an year covering really diverse places Indian tourists travel and what makes them travel.Covers such a wide variety of conducted tours available, ranging from the usual sightseeing, religious ones to really exotic ones. It was like he was sampling various different set of folks all of whom are called Indians but each travel group is totally unlike other ones.  More than the places visited, the writing focuses on the quirks of the groups he travels and people you encounter on the travel. Was a really interesting read!

3. Yatrik by Arnab Ray

Arnab is a very popular blogger who goes by the name GreatBong, had read another non-fiction book of his earlier which I didnt like but this one is fiction set in Kolkata and is pretty much a social commentary of Bengalis and the city and was a decent read

4. The Man in High Castle by Philip K Dick

5. Korma, Kheer & Kismet: Five Seasons in Old Delhi by Pamela Timms

Wonderful exploration of the foods and flavours of Old Delhi, the writing literally transports you and makes you appreciate the flavors. Quite a lot of interesting stories about various street food preparations across seasons and the people behind it.

6.The Sixth Extinction : An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Picked this up from Vaidya's 2014 list. Scary, super scary stuff as you read about how we are slowly destroying the environment we will in and our impact on flora and fauna

7. Hot Tea Across India by Rishad Mehta

The premise was interesting but didn't quite live up. This is mostly a set of blogs about his travel across India and some anecdotes turned into a book

8. Ten Kings  by Ashok Banker

Battle of Thermopylae ( comic/film 300) type story based on an incident mentioned in Rig Veda
A battle of disproportionate numbers set in ancient India. Works if you keep your expectations accordingly!

9.The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

10.The Accidental Prime Minister by Sanjaya Baru

For most middle class Indians 2004 elections and its aftermath was totally unexpected. NDA unexpectedly lost power and out of nowhere congress pulled out a neat trick scored another huge moral victory by picking Mr.Singh the economist turned FM as the Prime Minister. Irrespective of our political preferences I think everyone was delighted to have Mr.Singh as PM. Brilliant economist or FM he might be but as a politician or as leader of the country he was a big disappointment and the book written by his Media advisor  during UPA-1 Sanjaya Baru covers what went on behind the scenes. There are no big reveals or nothing major which we dint know but with deep sympathies and utmost respect for the PM, the author through various events and how decision making happened and how various events unfolded in PMO in the early years of Mr.Singh's tenure. The quagmire in which the PM found himself was partly because of his demure personality and tendency to avoid conflict and tricky decisions but also because of compulsions of coalition politics and lack of power within the set-up to make decisions without checking with Madam. The book very quickly establishes how hard it was for the PM to do what he really wanted to but after a point it seem to labour on and on establishing the same point and at times it felt like the author was blowing his own trumpet a bit. Bit of laborious read after you get the general idea on what happens in the corridors of power as author tries his best to defend hapless Mr.Singh and blame the power brokers of ruling regime for derailing all the good things the PM wanted. Mr.Singh's 10 years as man running such a huge country with zero political base is certainly a unique one and should remain so and as he himself remarked history will certainly judge him more kindly. This book gives a good view of his days as PM from an insider's perspective

11.A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power by Paul Fischer

This was a recco from Book reads in Economist Magazine and for a change was affordable as well. Read the description of this one and immediately ordered it on Kindle! North Korea is a country that has fascinated most of us and this book is about  an extremely bizzare real life story  of a South Korean filmmaker and his ex-wife ( a top actress) kidnapped by N Korean dictator to ensure North Korea is also able to make high quality movies. Sometimes truth is really stranger than fiction, the book covering the life the duo led in North Korea initially getting educated/brain washed and then as filmmakers aiming to put N.Korea on the map in International Cinema also sheds some light on how the country is run and chilling account of  what people go through. It will be really hard for any fiction writer to top this for sure and this was by far the best thing I read this year!

12.A Life Of Spice: Stories of food, culture and life by Monica Bhide

13. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Amazon constantly recommends certain books based on past purchase ( Gone Girl), I usually ignore these as I try not to read similar stuff  too soon. For a change decided to try a recommendation. This was something exactly on the same lines as Gone Girl with unreliable narrator though was not as taut  but certainly a solid thriller

14. Out of the Blue by Aakash Chopra

The cricket book of the year, this about Rajastan's successful Ranji trophy campaign and its good to learn about the life of domestic cricketers way outside the limelight and the big money giving it all for the game

15. Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair

Was a book recommended by lot of folks, finally read it and totally understand why this was recommended

16. Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of Blackberry

In 2000s the Blackberry was associated with 'Managers' and top folks in our offices and end of last decade it was a cool gadget thanks to the BBM. Even more spectacular than its rise was its fall, the book covers how a two young Canadian entrepreneurs ( a tech wizard and Sales/Marketing genius) managed to create a new product line and changed the industry within a short time with almost no backing. It was their ability to guess what business users want and prioritizing functionality and ensuring security and reliability which made them such a valuable brand. But the very same values made them obsolete within 4-5 years of their success, the same folks who could guess what the markets wanted got it so dead wrong within a few years leading to their spectacular fall. The book was a fascinating read to understand what made them succeed and how the very same traits led to their total downfall as well. During my MBA days I had read many such business stories but to read and rise and fall of something which happened so recently and something that had been part of our life made this a really good read

17. Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

Wanted to read this for a long time as I had seen a documentary based on this earlier. Took this from Kindle Owner's library. I can safely say this should be a Must read on anyone's list

18. Tea time for Traditionally built : No:1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The usual one, I read the series after a long time and perhaps the first book I read after watching the delightful HBO adaptation of the series which unfortunately had only covered the first 2-3 books. But the TV series changed my mental image of the characters and their surroundings. Also this was the only physical book I read this year!

19. At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

This was a good follow-up to earlier book by Jared Diamond. It covered some of those same topics about how we evolved to where we are today but this book was more focused on our homes and various everyday common things which we take for granted. Bryson basically takes on a tour of a Victorian era home in England and each chapter is about various various rooms/kitchen/garden came to be. Bryson is a delightful raconteur and we dont always stay on topic and cover a lot of related things but its such an engrossing read. I'm huge trivia buff and this book was a big collection of interesting fats about everyday things in human life and covers how society changed over last 150 years. One of my favorite reads of the year!

20. The Hair Dresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu

About life of a single mother in Zimbabwe, the story aside getting to know how people carry on with their life in a country with hyper-inflation and high unemployment. I like reading books like this which give us a slice of life of someone in a society we have no idea about

21. 2014 The Election that Changed India by Rajdeep Sardesai

The 2014 elections was perhaps one of the most landmark events in the country or atleast that is what it appeared to be. After many years of relative inertia caused by fractured mandate the elections gave a decisive majority to a single party. The book takes us through last few years of UPA where the author contends they clearly lost the plot and pretty much gave up and it also covers how Mr.Modi's campaign was crafted and how efficiently it was run bringing BJP back to power riding on a 'Modi Wave'. The book is certainly a brisk read and chronicles all the events that happened to Modi campaign and Rahul campaign and compares and contrasts both the main candidates for the election. Of course there is that expected bias that you would expect but it is not hard to mute that out and read. To his credit the author has tried his best to tone down judgement to a great extent in the book but it creeps up every now and then though. This is more like a collection of various events that influenced the main event, written from the beginning with the eventual result in mind without doing any in-depth analysis

22. The Tusk that did the Damage by Tania James

A multiple person narrative covering events through eyes of a poacher, western researcher and the Elephant covering Ivory trade and human-animal conflict. This is such a complex issue and well written, it will take me some time to gather my thoughts on this one. Thanks for the gift @Vaidya!


I think I read much more than what I expected at start of the year and I certainly had a fair bit of time on hand at the start of the year and towards year with things totally slowing down at workplace. Target for this year is again 15 books and also hopefully cover all those pending books I have on my bookshelves which I have been putting off to read later for 3-4 years now!