Manish’s Scribble Board

Before starting I would like to state that its a flame post, read it only if you can digest properly.

All my fellow readers might be knowing about the much hyped Microsoft internship which was offered to me last semester.I screwed up my academics (to some extent) to get this prestigious opportunity. What was the final outcome of it? Read on…..

When I arrived at the office, I was nearly taken away by the impressive building, the superb lifts, cokes and coffee machines. We had night cab drop and food allowance. Everything looked so impressive! Slowly I came to know that this India Dev Center is just a place where M$ dumps all its useless and crappy work which they think “The Redmond guys” should not handle at all. Its nothing but cheap labour !! We are paid CTC of say 9 lakhs, but look back a little. We are being underpaid badly and that too without an overtime pay. Isnt this cheap labour? (I repeat again) What work is being handled here? Visual Studio Tools, SMS UI, Wordpad UI and product experience groups. This may be daring work to some extent, but not at all core job from any angle. The whole Visual Studio is being build somewhere else, Wordpad is built somewhere else, just the UI testing is over here. IE is built at Redmond, but testing work is sent here. WTF!

I always had thought that India was one of the top countries when it comes to IT sector. Is it really true? Narayanmurthy had clearly said that until we improve out hardware proficiency, we cant advance at all, and I firmly stand by his statement. NASSCOM and all these Indian organization rely too much on foreign companies rather than starting their own business without external help. They don’t dare make M$ angry and this was the reason why they backed OOXML for Indian stand at ISO.

Again once I wondered why all big MNC’s choose India as their destination? They cite “Good Brains, Nice Workforce, Good English Speaking Professionals”. I agree with first and third but not with second. It should be remodelled “Nice Cheap Workforce”. We have lax labour laws in our own country and people are made to work hours and hours after office timings for completing their work. Can this happen in the US and European countries? I can only say that whatever the big MNC’s say, India and developing countries are nothing but a place to cut costs, cheap abundant labour makes it simpler. They would never go out of their slavish mentality and keep all their core development in top-secret centers which cannot be a developing country at any cost!

My last line is “Work for an MNC if you want, you would be lucky if you had freedom and got a prestigous work in real sense (not in sense of salary)”

This post is going to a bit philosophical at the beginning, but am going to tell a great *known* fact. Hold your breath and continue.

I hear many people saying that they cant do this, cant do that. All of us have some or the other capabilities. I recall Hellen Keller for her amazing feat, such a handicapped person can achive such things. Recall Braille, the creator of Braille script which is widely used as a language for teaching to the visually handicapped.

It so happened that while working on a product over at my workplace, I faced a big problem whose solution looked impossible. Disgruntled, I left the product for a moment and opened the Feed Reader to find a blog post which contained a link to a YouTube Video. After watching that I felt  I can achieve anything. Have a look, and gear yourself for the toughest thing in this world.

More such Videos are here on YouTube, check them

Video-1 Video-2 Video-3 Video-4

Now its Amisha’s turn! It looks that Yash Raj too thinks that making a movie hit is by item songs not by quality. After Kareena sizzling appearance in Tashan, which was a big heap of crap, now Amisha took the bold step. Yash Raj always failed to make a good movie whenever they tried making stupid moves.

Now have a look at the latest movie: Thoda pyar thoda magic in which Rani Mukherjee figures as an angel for rescuing four orphans! Its clearly a kid’s movie. Now what the hell is that item no of Amisha Patel in bikini got to do in such a movie intended to be watched by kids to a large extent? Lazy Lamhe? Its surely Crazy!!!

Do they think people are fools? I cant forget one movie last year which was from the same banner, no hotness,no masala and it still has a place in my mind! Its “Chak De India!”. It was really a wonderful movie. Barring Dhoom, which had skin how, all movies of Yash Raj fall flat on box office these days. Remember “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom”? Even Rang De Basanti, one of the best movies (not from Yash camp) does not have much of those hot scenes which are meant just for pulling the public to the theaters. Those directors who know that they are serving quality movies should not care much about these crappy ideas. I remember one famous quotation in my childhood.

Pake hue ghade pe mitti nahin chadhti

You must be asking what it means? It means that you cant put clay on a baked pot. I hope this clearly sends out a true message.

I had heard somewhere that when you are in misery and luck shines “It Rains, and you then desperately need a shelter”. This is what I feel now! In last five sems of my engineering, I did nothing except timepass, orkut, chatting and parties. It was sixth sem when I thought that something really needs to be done to make this degree a meaningful one.

I didnt have anything to write in my resume as any proficiency which I ought to right needs a certi to prove it (which I dont have). I havnt even done any networking course or anything of the sort which others have done. Then in the start of semester I came to know of a golden opportunity, applied for it and I achieved it. I am still short of words to explain the whole experiences.

Even after coming back from Bangalore, I didnt even get a single second to gasp! Assignments, Lab exams, projects etc etc have made my life a hell. I have manged to get outputs in last two lab exams ( ITT- Last Fri and CG-Today) and have to face Compiler lab exam tomorrow. Frankly speaking I dont know anything in viva as I skipped this paper to achieve the *achievement of the semester*.

TCS is coming this Friday,2nd of May. Interviews are scheduled for two days as far as my knowledge is concerned. Everything will be over by 4th May though we are still supposed to show our ITT lab mini project this Friday. Third sessionals are scheduled from 8th May and Semester exams from 16th (which is going to get preponed). I still have to start with S of SE (Software Engineering) and even in Compilers. Too bad situation over this side, never ever faced such in all six semesters of my engineering.

Next update is surely scheduled on Saturday, maybe one even before.

So finally the much hyped Web Design and Development workshop kick started today, am very much exhausted today. Though I tried my best to make the class as interesting as possible, still the topic in itself was such dull that even three people could not make it so interesting. In the middle I felt that people have started sleeping but still we cant help them if they cant help themselves.

The turnout was some 40-45, I was expecting more! Many of my third year friends didnt attend today since they know HTML, they will be turning up tomorrow for advanced HTML and getting the basics of Web Scripting. The Basics of Web Scripting includes telling how web development languages are different from desktop based languages. Telling them about interpreteres, how are they different from compilers and all those stuffs.

Well on the other side, my interview is caught badly in sessionals. We has appealed to college to just postpone the sessionals a day ahead next week, they taking a lot of time to give their decision. People had suggested me to give the interview at Mumbai this Saturday which is quite difficult as I have not prepared anything and in this present situation am sure to be rejected. Tomorrow Director will be coming out with his decision from which I dont have much hope. More updates tomorrow…

Is there something so special on this day? Does on need a special day to show off his/her love? Are other 364 days of the year not suited for the same? These questions can be answered only by those love birds, not by people like me and other singles! Those who do have some valentine miss no chance to prove their might on this auspicious event.

So how I passed this day? Just like any other day! Why? Quite simple, I dont have a girlfriend. Proud to be Single!!!

I had some unavoidable experiences while going out for work today at campus. Not my fault, if you are out of room on this day, you cant walk with your eyes closed. And I dont believe in that preaching of Gandhiji “Bura mat Dekho”!

Update on 18th March(This section is edited) : Well, said a lot, leaving for Bangalore on Saturday afternoon for Microsoft Internship Exams. Expect something from this exam, am an optimistic person but dont fly too high.