Aur Pyar ho gaya..!!

Love at first sight a different proposition but love as a baseline is core and integral part of most of the relationship. Why one falls in love or what make one to pursue feelings of love and affection is very individualist issue but there are certain characteristics, attributes and qualities which plays as catalyst of attraction mechanism in human beings. Developing a feeling of love for someone is a long drawn process, love evolves slowly and steadily but gradually taking control of one’s heart and mind and one day we suddenly discover that we are in love. :)

It also needs a different kind of environment and dynamics for love to happen at first sight. Our primary motivation as human beings, is to expand the self and this inner instinct shoots to a unprecedented levels when the situation are highly arousing, mind and body are highly stirred and excited; that point of time we tend to experience attraction at the highest level.

Feel of love and being in loved puts us into a different world all together heart beats are little faster, voice of the beloved one is enough to send a shiver down the spine, we always want to be with the loved ones and expand our primary self. This is what I have understood from romantic movies and novels …hahaha…

It was 13th Feb and was like any other normal day; me spending the entire day @ work place and my venlentini @ home busy with her household chore, but with a promise to spend some quality time together. Till evening everything was absolutely normal but things were waiting to happen.

I came across something which made adrenaline rush; I couldn’t believe my eyes and neither could take off my eyes from …. The first encounter was around 7.00 pm inside a cabin but I didn’t acknowledged it that seriously… but mind was not relaxed and things were not usual, I repeatedly want to be with it and see it again and again…… I again relooked it after an hour or so and my heart beats were at a faster rate… this was getting something similar to love at first sight…. One wants to take off his eyes but mind resists to….

Well I asked one of my colleague the status quo and inform me if my feelings and observations are correct… the way we share our feelings with our friends and associates… he evaluated the situation and conveyed to me that there was nothing as what I felt about…. I was doubly sure about my feelings as I believed to what I have seen… heart and mind speaking the same language.

I became restless after that interaction and couldn’t concentrate on anything else….. My behavior got a twist and I was only thinking about the incident of evening…. After spending restless evening I couldn’t resist the temptation to validate my feelings and was toying with an idea of validating the same… Somehow I could manage to confirm my observation and to my surprise it was it… Oh my god…. How could this happen… and why?

At 10.30 Pm I realized that it that for which I was not prepared for…..

I want to see it again in action and rushed to the office, it was 11.30 pm by then and all my colleagues who were present by me at that point of time acknowledged my observation….
Wait I’m not talking about love at first sight which made adrenaline rush J this all is about a malicious valentine attack which took place on my site on 13th Feb leaving me high and dry…..

It has been hardly few days we moved to a new Datacenter… the attack made me to spend my valentine in office exploring the probable and root cause….

But as we are with one of the top service provider of India I’m sure that they will take care of these issues in future… Aamin

This really kept me and my valentini waiting…. Cupid struck badly

image source: picsdesigns.info

Sify - Surety infinite

No one better than we ourselves understands our strengths and weakness but those perceptions are really tested in tough situations and most of the times the internal strengths which we boasts on proves to be weakness when time comes calling. The same happened with me even, I use to boast on my grip and insight on database application, management and fine tuning as I was successfully handling, managing the database and architecture for almost eleven years.

To add more to my confidence were the certification on database application, architecture and management which I have scored in my carrier and most of the time I successfully overcome the challenges of known unknown situations of database crash, performance tuning and malicious attacks.

I was working on the project wherein I was in charge of migrating two big portals and multiple websites from one location to another. Prima facie it looks like a simple job and yes it was, provided one has a strong team who takes care of multiple aspects of networks, hardware, application and database and you as a project manager you patch with multiple stakeholder and control the operation. But to my surprise I was working with only one or two resources at any given point of time on this ultra ambitious project and to my agony the resources were not fully equipped to understand the nitty-gritty of the entire project.

As program manager I was aware of skewed resource pool and resource engagement that the project demanded and I decided to outsource most of the non-core activities to the service provider which in turn was there core business line. After a long drawn process of vendor selection, negotiation for solutions and prices, we selected Sify Technologies ltd ,there solutions and pricing appeared to be very aggressive and pocket friendly and we were very impressed by the in-depth knowledge and understanding of the team on the desired solution, inclination of the team to understand the customer requirement and to assist the customer was superb.

Keeping fingers crossed we moved our network from existing location to Sify’s data centre, any migration is a tricky job and for an online business which is 24X7 and acknowledged globally it becomes more tricky and complicated. Transition of online assets happened smoothly and everything appeared to be fine… but I was little skeptical for the database performance as we were migrating to a newer version of the database. Though water testing and regressive checking were all positive, but still I was bit skeptical as during testing phase one can’t simulate online real traffic; I was expecting some sort of disturbance or last minute rush to happen.

After going live with the new infrastructure on cloud and with a few hours of operation we started getting database timeouts we immediately checked index and fragmentation status, prima facie it appeared working fine and reflected the latest date but still things were not that fine.

We were trying to figure out the probable cause of timeouts we introspected everything within the network, firewall, connectivity between the server, indexes, queries, the storage device and what not. Finally we concluded that the indexes are the culprit and they didn’t behaved in the manner we anticipated.

I was not having enough resource pool to answer this sudden priority requirement and post migration there were lot of activities internally, externally and at network level which were to be changed as per new infrastructure.

But as we were subscribed for the database management activities we immediately called the Sify team and asked them to ascertain the root case and fine tune the database if possible. They responded within 8 hours and fine tuned the database to an excellent level, which I think was not possible for me to pursue independently.

DBA Team from Sify showcased/implemented their knowledge and in-depth understanding about the database and structure and thank God we were able to stabilize that.

Kudos to the team for making me feel proud of our decision of selecting Sify as technology partner in our business endeavors

Looking for underwriters.

Invitation strictly for all those individuals who are born investors but never got an opportunity to invest in short term and long term tailored money instruments.

I have certain equation to execute and proposition to equate. I’m looking for underwriters who guarantee financial obligation which surfaced during the course of acquiring an asset. Nature and type of asset I’m not disclosing now, but for hypothesis and understanding I will consider Yacht (a recreational or sailing boat) as the asset.

Intention of taking Yacht as an example being that I strongly believe that “Sail not the wind decide the way we go”

Equations at this level being

Global Indicators: Globally it is felt that financial equations will smoothen in coming years as there is no room left for further deterioration.

National Indicators: Interest rate will dilute and economy will revive.

General Sentiments: People will invest in appreciating assets as during the economy revival the big ticket items appreciate at a faster rate. Example large cap vs. / small caps stocks.

I have a commitment to buy an asset with a base price of 2.4 million to which there is attached additional attached of 10%, which contributes to cost of acquiring the asset, holding, creating and maintenance. The total final cost of Yacht comes down to 2.65 million, of which payments of .4 million has been already made. Remaining amount has to be settled in one go or in parts.

During last one year this asset has appreciated by 26% and the base price stands to be 3 million as per current market valuation. As the asset is appreciating I’m happy with the returns but at the same time don’t want to stop here and wait till this investment has fully ripen and yield returns; instead I want to diversify myself in multiple such assets backed up by underwriters as I believe that resources are limited and If one wants to trade in multiple assets without backups it becomes close to impossible.

The equation is that I convert my asset valued at base price of 24 million to shares of face value 10 INR, held privately among the partners. As the shares are privately held and are in physical format they can be traded within the partners, they can be also traded with future partners and investors but can’t be traded on the bourses.

Anyone purchasing shares at the face value has the profit of 25% at the very first day as the current valuation of the assets emerges to 3 million, though the market valuation is governed by various external factors but all the factors inclusively adds to the valuation of the asset.

Everyone have the exclusive right to sell but promoter posses selective rights to buy and exclusive rights to recall. In case promoter is approached by a buyer who agrees to buy the entire shares, the shares will be recalled from other buyers and profit will be shared based on the share holding pattern.

Does it sounds interesting, please contact me for further details.
Image source: mubasher.info

Price purchase parity.

I’ve been in Chennai for almost a week and shuttled daily between hotel where I had put up to Tidel Park for some official assignments. The only option which proved easy and convenient most of the time for commuting was auto rickshaw; rickshaws in Chennai hard nut to crack.

No other city In India have earned more accolades and fame than Chennai as far as Auto rickshaw are concerned, Really they are world famous in India.. hahha… all because of the customer experiences and the unrealistic fares they charge. But my experiences with the auto drivers were different; the most of guys with whom I transacted appeared to be genuine and charging realistic figure, I met some rotten apple as well, but those case should not be taken as a base for forming a perception and treating everyone like that.

It also happened that when we were riding a Rick it was about to get out of fuel and the driver sought our permission to drive towards the fuelling station. As most of the Ricks had LPG written on the front panel I though he will fuel LPG or CNG, but to my surprise he asked the auto to be fuelled for petrol.

Reasons for high fares Bubbled, as to why they are charging more fare as compared to fares in other cities. In most of the metros public transport uses CNG which cost max 35-42 INR/ kg and a vehicle like rickshaw answers 16-18 miles to one kg whereas the petrol cost at least 70 INR to a litre; the calculation is pretty simple they are operating at double to cost of CNG .

I really felt sympathy with those guys; they got defamed without any reason. High cost of living would have really pushed them to corner and they might be facing difficulties in making booth ends meet.

If there is price purchase parity then that has to be compensated by none other than high fares and that’s what they are doing and I personally don’t feel anything wrong in that.

After all taking a ride on an elephant would cost you proportionately. I feel if this condition persist, auto-drivers in Chennai would have a card swiping machine installed facilitating the customers with a swipe and a smile..:)

Image source: aartikrishnakumar.com

Chennai Times

I have never visited southern India, but have read and heard a lot through my colleagues and known associates, to me; prima facie it appeared to be a different country within the country. A lot of told-untold stories regarding compatibility of food, language, lifestyle, cultural, people and specially the cabs drivers and the way they charge.

Destiny gave me a chance to visit Chennai the happening city of Tamilnadu, city blessed with rich heritage and cultural values, boasting on longest and beautiful beaches. I and my colleagues happened to visit Chennai for some official purpose. When we were about to land the city I can sense that the stay is not going to be comfortable at the city, the sky appeared very cloudy and a cyclone hitting the eastern part of India few days back created some unrest in the atmosphere.

We landed at Kamraj Airport; the airport didn’t appeared as a treat to eyes, there was a lot of restructuring happening and I personally felt that much work is needed to make it more presentable to the audience. After getting out of the terminal we were roaming around in search of a prepaid taxi counter, and after a small search we were able to locate one, when we were looking for the prepaid counter a lot of people wanted to understand where we wanted to go… to my surprise they can speak English fluently, there command over English was better than few of the white collared executive I have interacted.

Anyways this was the second surprise, we got loaded in a Cab, but here the driver didn’t understand any language other than the local language, it went difficult for us to make him understand where we wanted to go exactly. We gave him the counter slip which we got from prepaid counter and he drove us the way. The guy appeared to be genuine and decent. During the course I tried to interact with him but he preferred to keep mum; language barrier... :)

After finishing off with our jobs we wanted to go back to our hotel and were looking for an auto rickshaw, I remembered a learning which I had through my own reading experience, it suggests pay only 70% of the fare asked for especially if you are in Chennai, With this learning we managed to strike a deal with the rickshaw and reached the hotel.

Annsun Botique Hotel, located in the heart of city; ambiance and room was very good and I found it a very good and convenient option for business travellers. The hotel owned by a gentleman named as “Sundar” (meaning “beautiful”) and it seems that he has nicely crafted everything for his establishment. We had our supper; it appreared to be a fusion of North and South recipes having a gentle touch of south preparation and spices.

After having yummy dinner we had a small walk in the nearby lanes and called off the day as we had many challenges waiting for us the next day.

Image source: tamilnadu.ellamey.com

Streching the limits

It’s an old adage that in rough time nothing favors you and all news reaching to you is "bad news"; I was also facing rough times since the start of this financial year after few of my key resources from application development and maintenance decided to part away. Though at ground level there was a lot of action and restructuring happening at the technology front; newer resources were getting aligned, but it didn’t bought cheer to the colleagues who had decided to part away.

I was working on an important assignment of restructuring the physical hardware infrastructure and delivery model. My core skills being into applications, development and program management with little exposure to the infrastructure, I was thrilled with the new assignment, but on the contrary the network team felt nerves, as most of the infrastructure was moving towards managed services and they can sense a threat to their job, sensing the smoke of uncertainty they decided to part away.

This was like a double whammy for me as I was already struggling with regular development, maintenance and management task on top of it the infrastructure management team started shirking. At given point of time I appeared too much occupied with multiple types of responsibilities that too without having enough resources to answer the never ending dynamic requirements and challenges of typical IT setup.

I was bit worried and alone to understand the criticality of resources or to respond to contingent situations; it was getting difficult for me to answer all requirements, there were multiple challenges at every level and to me it appeared as if I’m fighting the lone battle. At times I appeared like an enterprise in myself, an institution which has knowledge and understanding of all the happenings in the vicinity.

But one can’t think of running the organization with this proposition, building in-house capacity or getting resources on an immediate basis was difficult. I explored an idea with my former colleagues and known associates of outsourcing certain activities which were not our core business.

The advantages of outsourcing started getting reflected, we could manage two independent consultants in less than half of the cost of a dedicated resource also with a high availability of 24X7. There are recruitment errors and so were some errors in vendor selection as well, a handful assignment with the consultants didn’t worked well and they were not able to provide solutions for some of our requirements.

But those were only one of the few cases and can be ignored. But the lesson learned is that the operations should be process driven and not person driven, with the lesson I started building In-house capabilities and capacities, though it will take some time to get fine tune and responding the requirements, but sooner or later they will take over the charge of consultants. I’m also happy with the newer dimensions getting added to the existing team as they are getting opportunity to work on different assignments.

Images source: chornyruns.blogspot.com

Unlocking the Mentality

Mindset doesn’t change and yeah it’s very difficult to change. Mindsets are basic instincts, a long drawn process formed by sedimentation of layers the way we had perceived things in our past. One and all interchangeably used mindset, mentality or a perception are governed by our upbringing, the social, political and economical environment and is a part of our DNA. In most of cases upbringing of Kids in Indian society is under strict vigil of parents, grandparents and relatives, our upbringing methodology doesn’t encourage kids to be courageous, fearless and risk takers but sometimes molest their entities. In general context we perceive a very cautious approach for the kids, we warn them repeatedly to be cautious in whatever they do and from the very beginning we start transforming them to fearful and risk aversive individuals.

The same mindset and approaches we try to put in every task we pursue and in most of the causes we tend to more reserve and cautious then what’s really required. Basic instinct of insecurity and fear of oneself getting challenges, consequences and questions in future never leaves us; we always want to carry proofs of the past and security for the future.

I could see the primitive mindset in real action in one of my assignment wherein I was working on email application which hosted some hundred odd users. Typically we don’t abort things which are unused or have lost the context, even our houses are filled up with objects which are obsolete and might be never put into the use still we carry those things with us for years and preserve them with a possibility of future use. Household items are repaired many times even if the cost of repairs surpassing the cost of newer one just because we have emotional bonding to them, we feel everything close to our heart and believe all objects are elements of our identity.

I could see thousands of mails which had lost the context and value preserved in the mail boxes. Questions regarding the usability of those email which were generally reports and archived documents got a uniform answer “I may be asked for the report and status quo for that reason I want them to preserve”. Mail box size ran into Gigabytes and it appeared next to impossible for me to work with the giant mail boxes and bulky mail items.

After a hard time convincing the mail box owners agreed to get rid of those items but I could see the fear and insecurity that they were foreseeing with future requirement. Future equation which may or may not happen and may be different than what we perceive but still we wanted to prepare for future and carry the proof of our past because we fearful, threatened and uncertain.

Mindset hardly change and it’s difficult to change

Image source: adamsprackling.com