A common man-Hero who teaches life's tough lessons

        Today where inflation has made normal life a tough game, there are people who succumb to these fatal disorders and the main victim are the poor lower & lower middle class people. Despite different tricks of the govt  the circumstances have become so tough that its a really a tough stand to live life. And this may be a reason quite case has come to notice where the entire family choose to die due to poverty & many other implications in the society but there are still few fighters in every corner of life & they don't leave any stone unturned to win the race of life. you may find no surprise in my words now as we all are part of the fight to win life in this tough situation, but there are still few people who inspires me and just want to share such a brave man's story.

I travel by local train for more than 25 kms daily to work in one way and its a better mode of transport then any other mode. And in a typical Indian city of rush hours you can expect the general scenario inside the trains. I have travelled in the local train in Mumbai, Chennai, trams in Kolkata & in the Delhi Metro rail as well. As far as luxury is concerned Delhi metro edges out itself followed by tram & local trains. but when it comes to local trains Mumbai being the most dense commuters in the train, is the toughest to travel & followed by Chennai. And in Chennai the locals are hub to easy travelling people & it mostly includes crowd from lower & middle class commuters. And in India typically from ferrywalas to beggars everybody find their market better in these locals than any other place. In the evening return train where the public will be heading home from work one can find items ranging from ripen bananas to vegetables from groundnut to healthy fruits on the train itself & I have witnessed people buying it hurriedly (I think to save money & time as well). in the morning hours as people will be heading to work the beggars aim the public to earn their sympathy. In the morning hours I don't get my mind out of any intention to reach office in time, but the return journey just brings out the reporter or philosopher in me & In that mood the situation too happens to be so tragic that it tends me to think of the people & heir lives.

My story roams around such a man in the train whom I first saw in a crowded train close to 8-10 months back. On my first look of this man of honour & the man of self dignity, my mind just charged. you might be thinking what am I saying , but yes dear its the hero of the story, the old man had made my day. the old man is in his seventies, carrying the load of his life for such a long period hid backbone has leaned in the front ( in the spirit to worship the funda "work is god"). wearing a white dhoti & a kurta ( a typical south Indian dress & a towel on his shoulders to cover his common manship) he was shouting "Nilakadalai" which means groundnut in Tamil. Seeing him I can say that he has defeated age for his earning. I could see he can hardly walk but he dared to sell the favourite time pass item of many in the trains to get his earning. I have seen healthy young people acting like disabled begging on roads in Delhi & they used to run when police chased them. But here an old man who can hardly walk dares to chase the crowd in the no space train. In the beach to tambaram lave where at every 3 minutes a train passes this man travels from chromepet to nungambakkam to sell a little bag of groundnut. I have seen this man counting his earning off the business a chromepet station. Sitting on the ground he tries his mathematics to yeild profit & return home. What a man, what dignity he has as compared to people who dont feel ashamed to beg even if they can earn it. Seeing him i get strength everyday & I say to myself that I won't stop working at least till my body is with my mind. Like his spirit of never let go I will fight with every odd & have little espect to hold my head on my shoulders.  There can be nothing new for people like us to witness hard work in office but considering his age where he should have bedridden & mouth fed he is doing such hard work. It just reminds me of the pain people go through to earn their livings & kicks my butt when I feel tired or lazy to go working. May the almighty lord Venkateswara give him all strength & his share of fruits for the hard work he does.May everybody understand the meaning of work & life , India for sure could have got out of many reasons for which it lags behind...

Lets salute the spirit of such people.

Pappu’s end year final exam

( A nice Read from Firstpost.com )

We all know how important it is for students in India to excel at examinations and what a rat-race it is for youth. The knowledge of current affairs is considered a very, very important sign of academic excellence, so we set a test paper based on events in 2011 and asked Pappu to take a bash at it.

How are laws made in India?

It is very easy. You have to go and fast at either the Ramlila grounds, Azad Maidan or MMRDA grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex (if you can afford it) and demand a particular law.

Do you require a majority in parliament to pass a law?

No, you only need the majority support of the news media.

Who is Anna Hazare?

He is a man who wants Sharad Pawar slapped more than once. He does not like postmen and other Group C and D government servants. He is very powerful. He sits in the front seat of his car without a seat-belt on and no one challans him. He is a very bad blogger. TV cameras love him. His favourite word is niyyat.

What is Ralegan Siddhi?

It is a place like the Jindal Health farm or any Kerala Ayurveda centre. It is a place to go when you want to detox. You cannot drink alcohol there. There is no cable TV. Instead of masseurs, they have people who beat you with a stick.

Could you have passed this exam? Reuters

Who is Arvind Kejriwal?

He is an angry man.

Who is Kiran Bedi?

She is an angry woman.

Who is Prashant Bhushan?

He is an angry man.

Together, what are Kejriwal, Bedi and Bhushan?

They are a game, like Angry Birds. Their game is called Angry Core Committee. In their game, no one throws things at them, they throw things at politicians, especially from the Congress party.

What is FDI?

I think it is a car. The USA likes it, but the opposition parties in India do not like it. I think it is a car because it can be rolled back.

Who is Justice Katju?

A confused man. He thinks he has been appointed the conscience of the country when everyone knows that it is Medha Patkar. He also thinks he is an editor. He thinks he is the greatest editor in the country. He is also opposed to a Bharat Ratna for Sachin Tendulkar. He does not go to astrologers. He doesn’t like TV news channels, though he watches all of them 24X7.

Who is Jayalalithaa?


She is the Santa Claus of Tamil Nadu. She gives everyone free TVs, mixies, laptops and sewing machines.

Who pays for all these freebies? Are they made by elves?

No. There are no elves. The freebies are paid for by the citizens of Tamil Nadu.

What is Mullaiperiyar?

It is a piece required to play chess. My father says it’s a pawn in a game between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

What is Radiagate?

It is a gadget that allows direct contact between industrialists and politicians instantly.

Who is Manmohan Singh?

I’m not sure. But I think he is the one Anna Hazaree copied the concept of maun-vrat from.

Who is the head of the government of India?

Someone called Ten Jan Path.

Who is Mayawati?

She is a statue. She is a statue with a handbag. Actually she is many statues with many handbags.

Who is Kalmadi?

He is a master magician. He can make anything 100 times more expensive in seconds. He can also make large sums of money disappear. However, he cannot disappear from jail.

Who is Raja?

He is also a master magician. He can also make large sums of money disappear. But he, too, cannot disappear from jail.

Who is Sunny Leone?

She is a very nice girl who is much misunderstood. Many people think she is a porn star when, in fact, she is just a very nice girl.

Why do so many people wear funny hats with ‘I am Anna’ written on it?

All these people are called Anna and all have memory deficiencies and, every now and then, they forget their own names. When they do, they look at the funny hats. They meet at Ramlila grounds, Azad Maidan and MMRDA grounds. When this happens, it is very confusing as there are hundreds of people, all called Anna. They all eat while another man called Anna does not eat.

What is the Food Security Act?

It is like the National Security Act. It won’t work.

Who is Kapil Sibal?

He is a man with no friends on Facebook. People on twitter laugh at him the whole day. He does not like people making fun of his real-life friends.

Times Skills Dialogue 9th Dec 2011,Chennai

Timejobs.com in collaboration with the Economics times arranged for a HR conference which centre of to the topic called "Skills Dialogue" & the motto behind the meet was to discuss the issues in the talent haunt & the many issues, today's recruiters face in the industry. This was the second phase of the programme, phase  one of which was concluded in the month of Feb 2011. We being a recruitment partner to Timejobs were invited to attend the meet & yes it was really a fruitful & educating session for me & my colleague Suganthi. The fabulous ambiance was made to host the industry guests who took time from their   busiest schedule to discuss the issues in the talent & skill shortages & action needed to curb the issue. Among the seated industry guest were Mr. Kumar Ekambram, chief People Officer, CSS Corp,Vineet Jain, the  MD of the Bennett & collmen group, Mr.Joe A Scaria,Assistant Editor, The Economic Times, Dr,Bhooshan Kelkar,Country Manager, University Relations-India & South Asia, IBM ,Lokesh Mehra,Director Education Microsoft india, Dr Pallav Bandyopadhyay, Director Hr Citrix & Mr.Prince Jayakumar,Head – Talent Acquisition, Logica India.

Speakers

·         Joe A Scaria, Assistant Editor, The Economic Times (MODERATOR)

Joe A Scaria started his career as Sub Editor with Indian Express, Kochi.He is a commerce graduate and an MBA in Marketing with 27 years of experience in media and management. He has worked as Product Manager with Murphy India Ltd, RPG Group and Business Manager with Magna Publishing Co Ltd in Mumbai. He joined The Economic Times at Coimbatore in 1994. His present assignments include international features and anchoring of news stories from different centres. He is also a faculty member in Institute of Journalism, Trivandrum and visiting faculty, Press Academy, Kochi.

·         Dr. Bhooshan Kelkar, Country Manager, University Relations-India & South Asia, IBM (SESSION CHAIR)

Dr. Kelkar has been with IBM for more than 10 years in different roles in USA and India. He currently heads the University Relations program for IBM in India and South Asia. Through different outreach initiatives, IBM’s University Relations program in India covers a network of over 100 engineering colleges. An alumnus of IIT Bombay, he has an MS and PhD from UK, along with a Bioinformatics Certification from University of California and a Certificate in IP Law from Watson Research Training Center, NY. Currently holding 8 US patents in multiple technologies, he has also been named the “IBM Master Inventor” for 2011. He has designed/delivered courses in universities in the UK, USA and India. He is closely engaged with the academic world and is a visiting faculty at institutes for competitive examinations such as the UPSC and MPSC.  He has been a faculty for “Train the Trainers” on soft skills for University of Pune. And has recently also completed his MBTI certification.

Lokesh Mehra, Director-Education, Microsoft India

Lokesh Mehra is the Director- Education Advocacy at Microsoft Corporation India and is responsible for managing strategic relationships with MHRD and Institutional Bodies, Policy led engagements and Skill development initiatives. By profession, an Electronics Engineering graduate and an MBA, he has had stints with other major companies like Intel, NIIT, Benchmark Microsystems, etc.  He has over 21 years of experience in Education, Marketing, Product Management, Sales and Channel Development in the IT industry.  Prior to Microsoft, he has worked as the Regional Manager – Corporate Responsibility for the South Asia Region at Cisco and was spearheading and driving Cisco’s education charter in both the philanthropic and commercial markets. He was responsible for plotting the company’s strategy for Corporate Affairs and aligning Asia Pacific and global programs for the benefit of the region.  He has also spoken at several public forums hosted by CII, FICCI, NASSCOM, International Telecom Union (ITU), UNDP, etc. and has authored several articles published in leading newspapers and magazines.

·         Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Director-HR, Citrix  Systems

Dr. Pallab Bandyopadhyay currently heads HR function for India for both R&D and Sales as Director-Human resources for Citrix based at Bangalore.  Citrix Systems (NASDAQ listed 2 billion US$ revenue) is a leading provider of virtualization, networking and software as a service (SaaS) technologies for more than 230,000 organizations worldwide. A doctoral fellow in HRD from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and  Academy of HRD, he has also been trained at various human process and organization development interventions at NTL, USA as well as adult learning theories at Interactive consultants, Canada. He has more than 24 years of professional experience in the areas of institution, organization and human resources development. Before joining Citrix, he was the global HR Business Partner for entire Application and Business Process business for Dell based out of Bangalore. He was the past-President of NHRD Bangalore chapter and currently a member at the National HR and IR/ER committee of CII. He has been the member of the CII and NHRD team that developed the first HR competency model HR Compass in India.

Kumar Ekambaram, Chief People Officer, CSS Corp

Kumar Ekambaram brings with him 28 years of diverse and hands-on experience in setting up new projects with innovative business models across diverse verticals while managing large operations which include setting up of HR systems and practices. He has worked with leading players in key industries such as National Dairy Development Board, Apollo Hospitals Group and Tata Group Companies like Indian Hotels Company, Tata Teleservices Ltd. and E2E SerWiz Solutions Ltd. His varied expertise and rich experience across industries such as Dairy, Packaging, Healthcare, Hospitality, Telecom, BPO and Realty helped him handle both cost centre and profit centre responsibilities. He has also managed a 1000 seater BPO and was responsible for the Telecom Business vertical across three centres. He is an electrical engineer with a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad.

Prince Jayakumar, Head – Talent Acquisition, Logica India

Prince Jayakumar heads Logica’s talent acquisition function a part of HR organization. His responsibilities include managing all aspects of talent acquisition delivery, quality and planned growth of the employee base in India. Apart from contributing to functional improvements within HR, he also contributes to other key organizational initiatives like ACOL. He has 14 years of vast experience in all aspects of Human Resources and specializes in Talent Acquisition. He has partnered with the business effectively in the capacity of a hiring specialist or HR generalist in delivering business value. With Logica, he has worked extensively in implementing a new talent acquisition model and structure to cater to the demands of high volume growth. In this short span, he has transformed the function in to a credible recruitment delivery engine which can pull off any growth targets. Prior to Logica, he was Head of Talent Acquisition at EMC where he helped the storage leader create a firm foot print in India through acquiring top talent. Before that he worked with HCL Technologies Ltd. as Senior Manager HR for about eight years.He holds a Masters in Social Work (Specializing in Personnel Management) from Bharathidasan University, Tamil Nadu.

The meet kicked off at the prescribed time at 2 o clock & started with a welcome session by Mr.Mahews & next the talk was live.

Starting with a addressing note Mr.Joe put the idea behind the meet i.e to discuss the skill set available in IT & Tech segment & the difficulties the corporate world facing while filling up the recruitment. He asked to all other sitting members that if they feel there is a shortage of skilled manpower to address their recruitment needs. Answering this Mr.Bhooshan shared his experience when once he was in Cherapunji, the place where it rains the highest in India, he was told by a local people that they have to walk miles together to get water when the rainy season is over. ANd he concluded saying that see there is a possibility we can save the water in the season & use it when its not raining. & yes likely we have numbers to beat in quality & why cant we convert the same in to quality people.

To this Mr Bandyopadhyay started with the figure of the number of Engineers India produces in a year compared to the US. And in the US the number of Engineers passing is not as lesser as compared to our population. He added from NASSCOM report the number of Engineers got placed in the last financial year. And the number of people placed in the last FY as compared to the number of Engineers passed out is quite close to 48%. This clearly indicated that there is clearly a Skill gap in the passing students that makes them employable in the industry. Then ultimately the reason lies in the lack in the quality Educational institutes in the country. Wherein  we have close 45% Indians in NASA & majority of sectors in the U are employing Indians. This confirms the gap in the quality education in the country wherein we are beating the numbers in quality but we lack in producing quality Engineers. 

As he explains the reasons for not getting quality Engineers; the the gap between the syllabus & the corporate needs counts the most.the colleges where teach students the traditional courses to complete the  syllabus, the industry requirements for trained professional in particular & specific domains & technologies  are not answered. There remains the gap wherein a fresh graduate from college need to get a specialised skill set which is sought in the industry& in his new job becomes helpful for him as well as the company is benefited. And as the Educational institutes are only following the syllabus & not inducing career oriented courses or training to students, the corporate giants have to put their feet into training fresh inductees in to the job oriented program after they select them from any college hence incurs huge cost in it. And few  corporate can afford the training they just go for the best colleges & choose the highest percentages. Hence the number of employable engineers are quite less as compared to the passed out ones.

Now Mr.Lokesh pushed the Idea wherein he explained how Microsoft is going behind the boundaries to collaborate with the IIM Bangalore to induce a course called post graduate Diploma in Cloud services. 

In continuation to this Mr. Prince added the other side of the fact that the corporate only aims at the percentage & the Degree & the renowned institutes. The industry don't have place for people without IT or Engineers & people with other not technical degrees. He stressed on how a commerce graduate can understanding accounting better than anyone else & given a basic training in coding how he can do the coding in a better way. wherein for a non commerce student will do coding without knowing the end result & its functionality. in the same way people from other non technical courses should be aligned with the  IT industry to get something innovative & advancement.

There after other members too added many arguments in line & against the talks & reached at a consensus that Indian IT & technology industry needs to do innovation & research in a wider prospectus to bring more and more quantity engineers & non engineers to quality & employable candidates wherein both industry & the youth of this country can be benefited in long run. The Govt too has to play a major role in providing many such aspects & platforms to bring both the student community & the industry biggies to work together to reach the above said objective.

Another aspect that was in the limelight was that only the Industry is confined to only Metros & as the number of engineering colleges outside the metros too has jumped many folds the graduated passing from these colleges are finding it tough to get an employment. Even if the industry has headed towards the small towns to gain result out of the situation it has not been a fruitful journey so far as the youth once experienced in small cities head towards metros & the small city project by the companies land themselves as a mere corporate training organisations. Here Retention of experienced talent in these cities is the headache but  the industry bosses agreed to get solutions for this. Finally everybody was on the same page that for India Inc to grow & contribute to the GDP & economic growth has to do many research activities & innovative ideas to channelise the available talent pool to an employable pool to get the recruitment numbers filled in time & deliver better results.

Followed by this it was the "High tea" session wherein the attendees were allowed to ask questions they face to the chaired industry bosses followed by the coffee break to end the session.

Lakshadweepa Islands, a scenic destination.

What a news ! I am going to the Lakshadweepa Islands...Yes, I was too excited on hearing it but the excitement took a turn when i was told to have a virtual look on the islands. And the media is Internet. This all came as a back end activity to hire around 50 Engineers in Lakshadweepa. Being away from the mainland we were in a dilemma how to do the resource deployment & I was asked to access the avenues available & the best way to approach. Then what , I jumped into the Arabian sea to find out what is there in the Island. Like the Arabian sea i swimmed through the Internet & got to know the history & geography about Lakshadweepa Islands. From Google to Wikipedia &amd from official websites to personal blogs i had to give it 3 days to find the details & the end result was good enough to comment on the beautiful island Union Territory of India.From the opportunities to the issues in islands & the development activities just opened a new window of exploring knowledge to the next state.

Take a look :-

        Lakshadwepa islands being the tiniest  UT of India is actually the only coral chain of India & consists of 36 islands, 12 atolls, 3 reefs and 5 submerged banks. Only 10 of these islands namely, Agatti, Amini, Andrott, Bitra, Chetlat, Kadmat, Kalpeni, Kavaratti, Kiltan and Minicoy are inhabited. Kavaratti is the Administrative Headquarters of the Union Territory & the entire lakshadweepa counts as one district.

With close to 64000 population , literacy rate here is over 92 %, Govt & the administration has put a significant focus in the Education sector.

Malayalam being the official language in the Lakshadweepa, the education system is in Malayalm & English.Apartr from Malayalam people speak a form om Tamil in Arabic version as well. (because of regular trade with the gulf countries)

With a growing demand for the professional education locally & to avoid the students going to the mainland for education which is a costlier business Govt. has have put focus on the building a better education infrastructure from time to time. However anybody who is willing to pursue higher education in specific technical or any other field Govt is helping them to do so by supporting them in terms of getting scholarships to funding the entire education as well.

Next to this as far as higher education is concerned Lakshdweepa has few options for the students. There are only 2 colleges that provide graduate & post graduate program & the colleges are as under.

• Government Jawaharlal Nehru College, Kadmat , Lakshadweepa
• MahatmaGandhi College , Andrott, Lakshadweep

Apart from this entire three is a medical college as well in the islands with 10 seats for the incumbents. People who want to pursue technical & higher education has to go the mainland & the govt takes care of the expanses in form of giving scholarships & funding the course.

Employment & Job Market in the Lakshdweepa

• With limited resources to explore Lakshdweepa people has lesser employment opportunities & head to the mainland for their earnings.
• Indian Navy & the govt administration make the major job opportunities for the locals. Apart from this coconut fibre & coir industry is the main industry set up in the islands wherein the Govt has put up 2 factories which employ moderate numbers on permanent basis. 
• With the scenic beauty of the islands Tourism has a major contribution in the employment. With presence of all majors from the hospitality industry it becomes one of the bet tourist destinations among people across the globe.
• With limited employment opportunities the old system of Recruitment via Employment exchange is still active there and the main employer is the Govt of India in various projects. With the rise of information technology the private sector too has grown but has not been able to employment opportunity in the islands because of its location & cost involved in the setting of plant & travel cost except the tourism industry where the Govt has to create more awareness activity to attract more tourists.
• With most of the people moving to the mainland for higher education & employment, most of the local population is employed in the nearest mainland state of Kerala.

Sources of Recruitment

Armed with all sort of tools in recruitment like the portals, Reference, Social & professional networking sites & headhunting you can do a better job but where Information Technology is a tough reach you need to hit the traditional base line to capture & attract the better available talent.

• The main source could be the locals from the nearest state of Kerala ( kochi & nearby places) who are ready to get to the islands for employment.
• To recruit local there in Lakshdweepa we have only one or two private portals or blogs where adds can be placed can be of help.
• Apart from other dailies like the Mathrubhumi & the Deepika there is the Lakshdweepa times run by the govt wherein advertisements can be useful for recruitment.
• There is always other ways to recruit as well but for this we need to reach the islands.

wishing someone "Happy Bithday" really works...

I never thought it would be welcomed in such a way...wondering ? Hold on its nothing but the response i got today when i wished My friend a Happy Birthday this morning. He was sad ; the reason being that nobody called & wished him Happy Birthday till I rang him up @ 12 noon today. He just flew few miles in emotion in thanking me a lot & sounded happy to be wished & born today 30 yrs back. I remember the days when we first met in a private tuition in my hometown, he used to be among the active & participating guys in every activity people of his age will participate in but in recent years he has just made him underground & been quite submissive. After he joined a private Dental college in Salem,Kerala he has changed a lot. In due course of his dental course which was extended for couple of years following his back papers it might happen that his colleagues & people in his circle have moved on in their lives. This friend of mine has been a great support to me and people around him & that is why i have always been tying to keep in touch with him in dark days as well. Today after the 10 minutes call I could hear his loneliness and eagerness to be around people.Human heart just needs a consoling shoulder every time you are said "NO" in any circumstances.There are stronger people & weaker people who has extraordinary mental strength to handle different situations & things. But when continuously you are said no then your morale goes down & the self belief too starts stumbling. Its like food for the mind. When you feed your mind with positive thoughts which obviously come from affirmative happenings & people with positive energy & encouraging nature, the grey matter grows better & works better. Perhaps my friend has not been so lucky to have company of good people & good things. I feel pity for him & would have been happier to meet him. Anyway i made him little easy today & tried to bring back the demon smile on his face. A birthday without cheers is not bad & at least it should be a happy birthday & then only wishing someone "Happy Bithday" really works...

May the almighty lord bless him with all happiness today..

Happy Birthday Umesh.