Infertility treatment - new incentive by software companies

This morning, when I got into my cube, I saw a paper listing the employee benefits being offered by my company. The list contained the usual ones - ESOPs / ESPPs / RSUs, Doctor on call, in house gym, stress management, medical insurance of 7L.

The thing that caught my eye was 'Additional 1L for infertility treatment'. Now this is something new and definitely worth debating. Lunch and post-lunch sessions were spent in debating 'why infertility treatment'.

There could be multiple reasons why this figures in the list -

• The occurrence of stress induced infertility is on the rise among software professionals, so this can be categorized as an occupational hazard.
• Husband and wife are not co-located because of on-site opportunities.
• People do not have enough time - that means - no action and no reaction :-).
• Last but not the least, it might just be a one off thing and the number of people willing to come forward for this might be very few; so the actual payout from the company might be very very less.

It might be worth asking the HR their reasons for including 'infertility treatment' in the list of employee benefits.

DDCA Vs Sehwag Saga

Last night, the news channels continued with their coverage of DDCA Vs Sehwag et all controversy. That is when I came across one of the DDCA selectors. The news channel was ranting about how the son of an influential office bearer of DDCA is being selected despite his poor performance and at the cost of other more talented players. Then they showed a piece of a TV interview with one of the selectors on why that particular player was being favored.

(A piece of unsolicited advise to news channels: This is not news, this is common knowledge.)

As far as I am concerned, this selector seemed very sensible. His argument was that the player in question is in the team of 15, but has never been given the opportunity to be in the playing 11. Since he has never played in the 11, how can we gauge his performance?

In pure hindi - "abhi tak to woh player paani pila raha tha. to jab woh bahar hi hai, to use aur bahar kaise kar sakte hain?".

Makes sense :-). Dude ! You have got to be a national selector. I am positive Salil Ankola (a competent bowler in my humble opinion, who very seldom got to play cricket) must be cursing his playing days when selectors did not have the common sense that you have shown.

Creativity at its best

Abhijit forwarded me the snap on the right. The snap on the left has been downloaded from google images for the sake of comparison.

Enjoy the contrast :-)

Hunt for Pav-Bhaaji in Bangalore ...

turned out to be an exercise in futility. Richa was craving for something "nice" to eat since Saturday afternoon. Whenever she says "nice" - I know I am in a big soup because converting that "nice" to something specific is a very difficult task. Many-a-times, I have gotten so frustrated with this exercise of conversion that I have literally said - "Get back to me with something specific. I find all this very vague".

This time however, the conversion from "nice" to "pav-bhaaji" was quite quick. It was followed by description of how Pune pav-bhaaji is so good, and how Bangalore sucks. Nevertheless, pav-bhaaji it was. We then browsed through burrp to find out places that served good pav-bhaaji. Adyar-Anand-Bhavan was one of them and it was reasonably close.

AAB in Koramangala was way too crowded. Both of us did not feel like eating there. We made a quiet escape. We then went to Empire on Jyoti-Nivas-College road in the hope that we might get pav-bhaaji there. We forgot that Empire is a predominantly non-veg place, and both of us were NOT in the mood to eat non-veg food. We drank a glass of water and made another quiet escape from there. By now, we had given up on the idea of having pav-bhaaji.

Richa then came up with a place named "Babette's". Actually, quite some time back, I had seen a poster in NetApp. It is a continental place - we both knew. Looking at the exteriors, we thought it would be reasonable. Once inside, we realized that we two were the only people there. Richa warned me that it might be very expensive. After looking at the menu card, we realized that a simple soup was around 200, salads around 250, and entrees around 400. No wonder the place was empty. If the place is Taj, I can pay this much, and I certainly have paid this much in the past. For a place named "Babette's", paying 400 or so is quite atrocious. We made another escape, this time however, on the pretext that my pregnant wife can't eat Italian and Japanese food.

We then headed for Maharaja, a multi-cuisine place, with renewed hopes of finding pav-bhaaji and if not pav-bhaaji then some decent food. When we reached Maharaja, there was no place to park and the place looked full. So "yahan bhi give up ho gaya".

Finally, we parked near "Mast Kalandar", or at least where it was. We were searching for Mast Kalandar, but it was nowhere to be seen. We came to know that it was replaced by "Go Veg", and from the looks of it, it seemed like just a change of names. Anyways, the only other stop would have been "home", so we stepped in. The place looked "nice", the crowd was good, and we were sure we will get vegetarian food.

The food was amazing. We ate Jowar roti, Alu kulcha, Makke ki roti, Chole, Chat, Jal Jeera, Buttermilk, Maa-ki-Daal and Raita. Our tummies were full to the brim. My pregnant wife was also satisfied - which is a rarity in itself.

All this for just 250 bucks. Babette's ka soup and salad was around this much. Babette's - you are gonna close down pretty soon. I am confident.

Last few weekends

Last few weekends were quite good.

Watched a play with friends in Ranga-Shankara called - "An idiot for dinner". I came to know that this play and the movie Bheja Fry are both adaptations of a French movie. I was very happy when Bheja Fry was made. I was under the impression that it was a movie in its own league and was probably a very genuine effort by Bollywood. Alas...

The play was quite good. The performance from the tax inspector was spectacular. After the play, there were shouts of once again and the tax inspector did not disappoint the crowd. The thing to note here was that he was such a seasoned and fantastic actor that one moment he was talking to the crowd - "what part you want me to enact again?" and the very next moment, he had already slipped into the character. Quite amazing.

My brother in law was here for a few days. He was playing Age of Conquerors, and that took me back to my IIT days. Those days, I used to play AoC all night, and in the morning, the whole AoC gang used to visit Maddu mess to eat "Anda Dosa, Medu Vada, Idly, Sambar" at 5:15 a.m. Needless to say, I used to sleep till evening. Those were some days. Anyways - had a couple of nice AoC games with my BIL, to the utter annoyance of Richa.

This weekend, I saw a couple of movies - "Before Sunrise" and "300". Plan to see "Before Sunset" coming weekend, and only then will I write about the pair. 300 is a good movie. It definitely arouses ones interest in history. Damn! I have to start reading history - that's what I had decided some time back, but this damned office work doesn't give me any spare time.

Rakhi Ka Swayamvar

Atrocious. TV has become atrocious.

In the name of reality TV, anything and everything is acceptable. The quality of programmes on TV has become abysmally shallow.

When I was growing up, my family did not impose any restriction on my TV viewing. TV was clean then. We had only 1 channel - DoorDarshan. The quality of programmes on DD is still unmatched. It had poor technology, and ever so often we used to have "rukaawat ke liye khed hai", and the colored vertical bars. As far as the content is concerned, DD was miles ahead of Zee and its siblings.

In the words of Nicklaus Worth, the inventor of Pascal (for the uninitiated, its a programming language that not many people have had the opportunity to learn) - "Pascal is a great improvement over many of its successors".

Similarly, DD was miles ahead in terms of content. Its a totally different story of what has become of DD. However, even in its dilapidated present form, it cannot be as bad as others.

Continuing with Cricket - T20 World Cup

Cricket has become a non-stop business. As soon as one tournament ends, we have another. The bosses of Indian & world cricket are milking the cricketers day in and day out. We keep enjoying the IPL and T20, but we don't realize that we are being taken for a big ride.

Lets get into some specific details and ponder on a chain of events -

• After India's 2007 world cup debacle, the Indian audience was fed up with cricket. The mere mention of cricket would annoy people. The TRP ratings had plummeted, and ad revenue related to cricket for channels had gone down. With it had plummeted BCCI's prospects of making more money. The ICC was also losing a lot of money. They had to do something to bring back the Indian audience to cricket. Immediately after the world cup, we had T20 world cup, and who wins the tournament - India.
• In the last year or so, the situation in Pakistan has been turbulent. No cricket has taken place in that country. PCB has lost a lot of money. Although the ICC has made a lot of money from Indian cricket, not much has been made from cricket in Pakistan. Pakistani audience too is not interested in cricket these days - they already have so many things going on in their day-2-day lives. What needs to happen - Pakistan has to win the next T20 world cup. Who wins the tournament - Pakistan.
• Now lets look at the manner in which these teams have won the tournaments. When India won the tournament, nobody would have given India even 10% chance of winning the tournament. Australia, South Africa, SriLanka, NZ were the strongest contenders. Who won - India. Who would have given Pakistan any chance this year - only the most zealous of Pakistani fans. After losing to a newbie team like Scotland / Ireland - only the idiots would have given any chance to Pakistan. Who won - Pakistan.

Guys. Make your own conclusions.

Bangalore 10K Marathon

For quite some time, I have been thinking about participating in a marathon. Not the 42 km one. Just the 10km one. This 'quite some time' dates back to my days in Pune when I used to run 6 kms in flat 30 mins. That was quite some show. I was 24 then and weighed 73 kgs. Now 30 is dawning on me and I weigh 79 kgs. I can't run the same :-(. I still manage 3.5 kms in 22 mins or so, and can run probably 2 kms more but have to slow down a bit. However, the desire to participate in the marathon is very much intact. 

Bangalore 10K marathon was just perfect for me, and Alistair was there to back me up. I was a bit hesitant - usual doubts crept in my head - whether I will be able to do it, whether I will start cramping etc etc etc - and I was delaying registering for the 10K marathon. One fine day, Richa just registered me for the marathon, and now there was no looking back.

I have been running and gymming quite regularly, but for last 2 weeks, I haven't done any serious training. I was sure somethings gonna give way on the marathon day. Surprisingly, when I entered the Kanteerva stadium and looked at the sea of people around me, a really strong motivating feeling gripped me, and from that moment, I never thought I could not do it.

The arrangements were great. Every km, they would hand over a bottle of water, and starting from the 3rd km, they were giving glucose and electral. I kept myself hydrated, and ensured that my heart rate was within reasonable limits. From what I was feeling, it should have been around 130-140 bpm. I walked a bit, ran quite a bit, and managed to complete it in 75 mins without any cramps or any feeling of discomfort. From what I reckon, I must have ran 7+ kms and waked 3- kms. 

I must say, the people of Bangalore turned out in large numbers to cheer us. The runner's club had banners that read - "Pain is temporary, pride is permanent".  And when you see old people outrunning you, you definitely feel motivated. 

Etcetra

Many things have happened in the last few days - an unexpected performance by UPA and a subsequent and expected reaction of the stock market to an unexpected event. Regarding stock markets, I can safely say - "I don't understand them at all" - and therefore, I keep investing in good large cap companies like NTPC and ONGC. 

On a more personal front, I will be running on 31st May in the Sunfeast Bangalore Marathon in the 10 km category. As of today, I can safely manage 4kms without getting tired in about 24 minutes or so. I am hoping that I will be able to chug along somehow and complete the run.

Why values are important

Yesterday, I was reading an interesting article about the meltdown of Wall Street. You can read it here. This article gives you an insider's view of what was happening in the Wall Street, and how an unsuspecting common man, was being taken for a ride.  

The business honchos at the Wall Street, who are the engineers of this financial crisis, do not have any moral standards. They knew exactly what they were doing, carving out AAA securities from shit. Even the rating agencies, that are supposed to be independent in their analysis, were accomplices. And now, these companies, the Citibanks, the Goldmans, and the lot are asking for a bailout from the government. Looks like a grand plan of robbing the taxpayer.

This is where values are important. I was listening to an all-hands call, and one of our VPs said that creating profit and more and more profit should NOT be the sole motto of a company. The motto should be to make a company a great place to work, a model company, a company loved by the community where it exists. Had this thought even crossed the minds of the engineers of financial crisis, things probably could have been different.

After a long hiatus

After a long hiatus, I am back to blogging. A lot has happened in the mean time - 

• Bomb blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, and now in Assam. The government seems to be in a total mess and does not know how to tackle terror.
• Lehman Brothers and quite a few companies have vanished from the radar screen, effectively forcing a lot of technology companies to go into a cost-cutting mode.
• A very interesting test series between India and Australia is in progress. The Mohali test match was a great spectacle, and India out-bowled Australia in that match. Brett Lee's wicket (bowled Zaheer Khan) reminded me of Rahul Dravid being bowled by a similar delivery by Wasim Akram in the Chennai test. It was a great exhibition of reverse swing.

Let us dig a bit more into the cost-cutting measures in place, and how people have responded to these measures. Many of the cost-cutting measures in place in my company have been suggested by the employees. Here are some of them -

• No work or work-only-from-home on weekends. This will enable the lab to be shut down. This effectively means that we don't require air-conditioning in the labs for 2-1/2 days. A lot of saving indeed.
• Cut the frills from the beer-bash. Some may argue that beer-bash itself should be stopped, but in our company, beer-bash is more about bash than beer. By removing the chicken-tikkas, and chats from the beer-bash, the frills are gone. Beer-bash is not the same anymore.
• Certain restrictions on food items such as biscuits, fruit juices, certain types of tea etc.

Among all measures, restrictions on food items have created the most flutter in the company. There was a big discussion regarding biscuits, coffee and tea. Some people were of the opinion that there should have been a poll about which biscuits to keep and which ones to remove. The person I guess is too influenced with "America Votes". One guy was upset that Twining's Green Tea was removed from the pantry. One guy probably did not enjoy the coffee from the vending machine, so he wanted somebody to make fresh coffee and serve coffee in the office. One guy was of the opinion that coffee should be served in flasks with a depressor.

I feel some times, no matter how much people earn, they still remain nothing but cribbers and are always game for free food. In these difficult times, I feel one should not crib about such petty things. Take for example the issue of green tea. For God's sake, there is Twining's Lemon Tea in the pantry. Drink that. The coffee is still of 4 types - Cappuccino, South Indian Light, South Indian Strong, and Espresso - and it is freshly crushed and brewed. What could be fresher than that? There are two types of biscuits - Britannia Cheese Crackers and Digestive. 

What more do people want? It is time to increase your productivity, which in my opinion, is the best way to save and make money for the company.  Wasting 6-hrs a day fighting over such petty matters is certainly not the way to go.

An interesting junk mail

Today, I got an interesting junk mail on my office email address. Interestingly, this mail originated from within my office because the sender knows quite a bit about the habits of the employees and the name of the VP. Without going into details, here is the email -

From: nobody@nowhere.com

Hello all,
It has been brought to my attention, by a certain soothsayer, that developer productivity, on a given day, is inversely proportional to the number of postings to dl-nb-random.
I have decided to monitor and use this, from this day forward, as a metric to measure what our employees are up to.
--
Weak Rum
President of Vice

Commentary on DD-Sports

It was Saturday again, and as usual I got up early in the morning. Usually on weekdays, I get up around 9am, and on weekends, I get up around 7am. I find that quite unbelievable and strange.

I was surfing the channels, when I noticed that DD-sports was telecasting the final of Junior Asia Cup (hockey), the match India won against Korea two days back. I hadn't seen the match live, so I decided to watch it.

One thing I have noticed is that India always does well in the junior hockey event, but fares poorly in the senior category. I guess the other teams graduate very rapidly and we don't when it comes to playing at the higher level.

The soul of world hockey has changed, ever since "astro-turf" was introduced. Hockey is no longer "dribble past the opponent" game. It has become more of positional play, a quick one-touch game. Very much like football. If you ever see the Dutch playing hockey, you will understand what I mean. We continue to play the same old hockey which was popular when hockey was played on grass. Another major issue with Indian hockey is that we don't have a penalty corner specialist. Diwakar Ram is a budding talent, but he is still not in the class of Bram Lomans of Holland or Sohail Abbas of Pakistan.

The highlight of the programme was the pathetic English commentary on DD-sports. The whole commentary was made up of max. 4 words per sentence. The funny part was one commentator sounded drunk, and was interrupting his partner. Here are some excerpts -

• Koreans moving fastly
• Here come the Korea
• The defence of the Korea
• Yes Yes. Indians takes the move. On the attack.
• Right, right. You are right. Chance missed.

New wonders of the world

A new campaign. Select new wonders of the world. Will Taj be amongst the new wonders? Oh. Our Taj - the monument of eternal love will not make the list of wonders of the world. SMS Taj to 7575.

And millions of people sent their SMSes, worth 3-6 Rs each. The organizers spent a few million in distributing T-shirts, Caps, but gained billions because of these SMSes. Moreover, the campaign was not even backed by UNESCO.

Indian Idol, Voice of India, Wonders of the world - are all examples of making money by creating false impressions, and thus influencing people to send SMSes. Even the news channels ask people to send SMSes for silly things.

Taj will always remain as a symbol of love and a wonder of the world, but what we have done is label it as SMS-Taj.