The Oil Carnage

Boston: For the last few days, the electronic and print media here got an opportunity on the eve of 5th Anniversary of Iraq ‘invasion’.

I was in engineering when it had dawned on some wise minds in the West to prick the fewer heads blocking their road to domination and damaging their claims to the lone Super Power. The whole world including few undergraduates from a remote town in India were discussing the matters. Though I was against the war, I never showed interest to join their debates. Because I know it was needless.
The media utilized the war more than even the thoughtful persons could think of and reaped huge profits (at the cost of some brave journalists).
But, after the coverage of 5th anniversary on the media, I wanted to voice something.

If one observes carefully, all anti-war campaigns here talk about 4000 American soldiers and cost in thousands of dollars and how it has affected the US economy. Sadly, not even one newspaper, channel or online article I covered talked about the lives of innocent Iraqis lost in this brutal effort.

And I believe this uproar would not have raised on this scale - if everything had went according to their original plans; if they had got hold on the oil wells which was their actual target and held their economy from crashing – now they have to visit other countries and offer them funds.

Secondly, the media should remember that it is the Fourth Estate that has a responsibility to provide the people with authentic unbiased information. That’s why I fear the new directions in India to lift/liberalize the foreign capital in media. We could already see the change in news coverage in Indian media, even with the limited 26% cap.

So, don’t blindly go with the media. Try to open your eyes to the world and read international media before believing or forming an opinion on a topic.

ఎప్పటికి ఆగును ఈ మారణహోమం?

FIR from Boston

The managers had finally decided to Effectively utilize resources. As usual they took a last minute decision making me running from one office to another to make the last minute arrangements.

Ok, you should have guessed it. There is a change of track in my Journey of Life. I took a turn from India to US to face new challenges in my career.

Guntur -> Pune -> Hyderabad -> Bhubaneswar -> Hyderabad -> Gurgaon -> Hyderabad -> Bangalore -> Hyderabad -> Boston ... The Journey continues.

The new journey has started well. At least I assume so.
One immediate relief was I no more need to answer one of the When questions.

But I have to face a new question from my close circle and I don’t want to appear to justify myself.

Some things I liked /* no, not typical US is the best, Indians are bad kind of blog */ personally –

1. I love observing people and the cosmopolitan culture of the city and a 30 minute train commute provides me varied people from distinct cultures.
2. As a person who spends weekends at home playing cricket in 40+ temperatures and who prefers Chennai to Bangalore (one of the few, might be only one non-Tamilian from my training batch, to opt Chennai as preferred location), I feared the negative scale on thermometer – But, I started loving the other extreme of the climate- minus degrees +snow.
3. High-speed internet allowing me to enjoy more stuff on cyberspace.

Now, some of my beliefs about this land that were turned myths –

1. Uncovered overflowing garbage bin invading the footpaths.
2. Passengers waiting for bus beside such bin with no bus-shelter to protect from the weather gods and demons.
3. Commuters throwing magazines/newspapers on platform – those sweepers don’t do less work than the railway sweepers back home.
4. Arts on train window panes and the inspirations for invention of non-sticky chewing gums.

Is anyone of those sitting here?

Job Profile
System Administrator for a nationalized bank. /* I went as a fresher */.

Location
It was a big conference room, enough to accommodate 50 computers. I was sitting on a metal chair with no arm-rests in front of a panel of seven-eight interviewers. All are middle-aged, seemed to be high-profile except for one – an old man with long white hair and beard and easily mistaken for a swamiji.

Time
Around 2 PM on a hot afternoon day and I was sitting there with a half-stomach.

And so, the interview had started and the questions were shot at me in such a way that on more than one occasion I was looking to run away from there.

Why?

There was no gap between the questions and replies – It went as a quick session. I am giving only a snapshot of the marathon 1.5 hour interview!

You graduated in CSE. Why do you want to join a bank?

/* Why did I come for interview? */
Basically, I don’t like big cities like Chennai and Bangalore. IT companies exist only in such cities. I want to work in small cities.

If we post you in Mumbai, will you go?

/* If I’m getting the job, location doesn’t matter */
I will.

You said you don’t like big cities. If you go there, won’t you work half-heartedly? Won’t it affect your performance?

/* Err…. */
I can adapt myself into any situation. I…

Recently, Microsoft was in news for its site getting hacked.What is hacking?

Hacking is … blah.. blah.. blah.. /* Continued for 3 minutes. */

That’s it? Where did you get this info?

/* Trying to get some impression */
During engineering, in addition to academic books, we used to read computer journals like Chip, Digit, etc.

Do they have only this much info?

Err. Actually, we were too busy with our academics that we could get enough time to only browse through headings.

Do you read your textbooks also like this?

Not exactly… but…

What are your favorite subjects?

Operating Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Graphics… /* Not now */

/* I was not finished, one interviewer was already opening my resume and marklists. */
Which semester do you have OS?

2nd year 2nd sem

You got only 65? You told that’s your favorite subject?

Mmm. Our batch was the unluckiest in our university. They generally do a tough evaluation and only one or two go past 80%.

/* Not leaving */
But you got 94 in Probability and Statistics?

/* This is the highlight of all. */
Ok. Have you visited our website?

/* Should get back some impression */
Yes, I had. It was www.abcxyz.com.

What did you see there?

The website mentions some schemes, different deposits available, bank history…

You said you were preparing for GATE. Haven’t you gone through the Education Loan schemes?

No. I think I might not need one.

Ok. What else did you see?

/* Ahhh! How much can one see on a bank website? Feeling hungry, tired and ready to hit*/
The Home page lists Board of Directors and their photos… and …

Is anyone of those sitting here? Can you identify?

/* I started staring at each one’s face. They were smiling at each other. These were old and bald fellows and the website had images of similar old persons. I gave up.*/

Ok. Let’s do some technical questions.

The interview went on. I felt like I went to a civil services interview. I rate it as my best performance.

p.s. Later I found out that the swamiji was the Chairman of the bank.