Public Speaking : My journey through years

(This post was my speech at the 1st demo meeting of Infosys China Toastmasters Club,Shanghai.)

Dear Distinguished Guests, ICTMC Office Bearers and be/to be ICTMC members, a very good afternoon to all of you. I , Rahul U, stand here to deliver my speech on "Public Speaking : My journey through years."

Though my assignment talks about "Body Language", but I, in fact, would actually like to have a small digression for this Demo Meeting and let you know a story about a small , feeble 6th grade kid...

Imagine a small , feeble 6th grade kid who has to give a public speech for the 1st time in his life. Imagine how hard he has prepared for this small event where for the first time in his life, people will actually be sitting to listen to him. That seems great !!!! Isn't it ?? It all seems that a new charismatic leader is about to be born ..to take his men to glory ... a perfect Hollywood drama setting...

That small , feeble 6th grade kid has done all the preparation in the world for these 1st 5 minutes of fame in his small life..he has rehearsed a 100 times in front of mirror , practiced in front of his parents and friends and done everything in name of perfect practice...

And then the real life takes over...On the D day, that small , feeble 6th grade kid waits anxiously for his turn to speak but then he suddenly realizes his heart is pumping...his heart is pumping..for the 1st time in his life, he has realized that his heart is pumping...Gosh..something is happening to him..and some butterflies in the stomach also... he has no clue whatsoever...And then his name is announced...

That was not the perfect time for his name to be called..but he starts going towards the podium...Did he leave something behind...he gives a second look..no thats allright...and then he reaches the podium and what does he see ?? ...He sees all these 40 people sitting in front of him...waiting for him to speak...some ready to clap ..some ready to throw eggs...Uhh...he makes up his mind....clinches his fists...re gathers himself....he has prepared for all of this...and he starts speaking...but oh my God..what is the starting line..he starts looking for his starting line in his papers..but where is the starting paper ????
And while he is searching for his starting lines, all his papers fell from his hand...uhhh..that was over...
NOW, the papers are all over the floor, his hands are trembling and his throat is dry.. he can see some friends giggling at him..he can see all those eyes grinning at him...he can see nothing but black ...AND...he wants water ..no he wants his starting lines...no ..he wants his papers...no he wants a break...no ..he wants something else ....what does he want ??

What did that small , feeble 6th grade kid want ??
What did that small , feeble 6th grade kid do ??
What happened to that small , feeble 6th grade kid ??

Well, after years of failing and standing up again, that small , feeble 6th grade kid is standing in front of you to deliver a speech at this ICTMC demo meeting...
Everyone has a small , feeble 6th grade kid in him ...the kid who wants to grow, the the kid who wants to learn, the kid who wants to be successful, the kid who wants to speak in front of tens and thousands of people, the kid who wants to have it all....
And what a better opportunity than ICTMC to give this small , feeble 6th grade kid in you ...that opportunity in a lifetime ....to get all he wants...

Distributed Hosting

(This post was my speech at Infosys China Toastmasters Club,Shanghai.)

For the last 2000 years since the inception of public speaking, we have been living in a single domain hosting world where the speaker stands in front and addresses his audience. Today, history is going to be created.

Fellow Toastmasters and esteemed guests, I , Rahul Upadhyay, stand here to present to you "Distributed Hosting", public speaking in the new age.

The traditional single person single domain hosting is something like this. (Diagram).

Let us discuss something about this first. What are the pros for a single speaker:

1. Easier for audience to focus.

2. Speaker in charge of the whole event.

3. Success of event depends partially on the ability of the speaker.

What are the cons:

1. Large audience may not feel connected with speaker.

2. Inefficient speaker can mar the whole event.

Now let us consider what some smart people have recently started doing:

Multiple person single domain hosting world: (Diagram)

Pros:

1. Create excitement as single person can become boring.

2. Less dependent on single person.

Cons:

1. Large audience may not feel connected with speaker.

If you look at all these models, one thing that stands out is that people who develop these models do not care about the audience esp the audience at the back of the hall.

So, today on 24th of January 2008, I present to you the mulitple person , multiple domain hosting model.

It looks something like this: (Diagram)

Pros:

1. Multiple points of contact for audience.

2. More interaction with audience.

3. Less dependency on single person.

4. More involved conversation between different hosts and hosts-audience.

5. Large audience can feel connected with the whole event.

Cons:

1. Requires coordination among hosts. That means more practice for hosts.

2. The multiple-person multiple-domain hosting world can turn chaotic. Need an additional synthesizer/collborator to carry the whole event.

3. Audience can sometimes get confused about the whole event.

During the recently concluded Infosys China Annual Dinner, we for the first time, tried to implement this new model. Was it successful ?? Was it enjoyable ?? Was it a welcome change ??

Some lessons learnt:

1. Check the audio enhancement capabilities of the hall.

2. Check the wireless range of the microphone equipments, as hosts are distributed.

3. Check the interference zone of the wireless microphone equipments., as hosts are mobile.

4. Though it is distributed, always keep the best speaker/better than others at the front position. This is for risk mitigation, so that even if technology fails you, you still can carry on the show in the traditional method.

5. Have enough participation from the audience at regular random intervals, not only at specified intervals.

This is the era of collboration.The era of youtube, the era of torrents and the era of open source. I now declare it the era of multiple person multiple domain hosting.

Thanks.

Dropped in Bangalore

On Jul 28,2008 I was dropped into the Great Indian Sea..not the Arabian Sea not the Indian Ocean..the Great Indian Sea..the headquarters of Infosys Technologies at Bangalore.
The journey of 2 hours from the new Bangalore airport to Electonics City was a ride to remember (or to forget ?). So much for the Silicon Valley of India..without the asphalt on road, without the concrete on flyover and bridges, without the glass on bus windows, without the electricity in the traffic lights.
Infosys office though had a different picture. Reading all that stuff about the new India within the old India had made me a bit skeptical but surely no one was wrong. For inside the Infosys office, its a complete world all together. From the bicycles of China to the Mac burgers of US, from the pizzas of Italy to the gyms of Australia, from the architectures of Paris to the banks of England...there was it all..except ,of course, the beers of Germany !! But then, I remind myself, its an office !
And then there was this sea..sea of software engineers from all different parts of the country (and also from different parts of the world, like my badminton friend from Infosys China..Mountain Guo) coming to a single place to achieve their aspirations, aspirations long kept under the hood for centuries.Everywhere I could see there were people and people and people..lots and lots of them. And then a sudden feeling sank into me.

People people everywhere
Not a person to talk.

Who am I ? A mere software engineer. Thats it ? After working in Shanghai for the last 2 years amidst around 400-500 people, I had started carrying an image of me with myself. How pleasant it was to know that everyone in the office knows you and that you know him/her. A courteous smile, an exchange of greeting and the habitual "Ni haoma ?" or "Ni Che Fan Lenma ?". But here in Bagalore, I was no more than 1 of the other 30000 people, all of them more or less the same as me.
Can I really distinguish myself from these hordes of extra ordinary people ?
Can I really stand out with my achievements amidst this sea of talented people ?
Can I really be myself and not be a part of the whole ?

Not sure though, but certainly it seems to me the other (ill) effects of working in such big organisations. I seem to make up my mind to prefer working in small office locations rather than being part of such big messy affairs.
Am I only a drop in the ocean, a drop that originated from the holy glaciers but now a small part of that grandeur river that flows across the land of India and utlimately merges into the ocean. Can a drop really carve out a different path for itself ?
Can a drop really defy the logic of physics and geology and be on its own. Or is it in the drop's destiny to flow in the current wave and make the stream the be-all and end-all of its sole existence ?
Too much of meta physics can drain you out of all your energies, they say.

But going back again to the Infosys office with ever growing population of software engineers seems an ordeal to me now. But then its the Great Indian Sea. Per the ancient Indian scriptures, it was the churning of the sea that produced magnificent pearls of wisdom, thought and action. Will this be the Great India Sea of the India of 21st century ?

Imbibed in work...

It has been a long time since I uploaded something on to this site. Although I promised in my last blog that I will be much more regular, but time constraints and lots of mind boggling work put me in a situation where I just could not get the time to write something up. Although there are a lot of pending drafts in my machine which I think I will someday formulate into something meaningful but again time is always running short and ahead of me but I think that this is the case with everybody else too. So here I am trying again to be disciplined in my approach and get you guys a heads up start into the Chinese culture.
By the way, a lot of events and milestones have crossed my way since I came to China on Nov 18, 2006.
Most importantly, I have been promoted from a Software Engineer to a Programmer Analyst. That has been an eventful journey being a Software Engineer. I can recall all those night outs, all those working till the Saturday mornings and all those coding bugs...Though these things will still continue to bug me but at least I expect myself to be in the driver's seat rather than being an honest passenger. What I am more excited about is the immense potential of learning how to address various issues involving different paradigms and different conflicts, apart from the hurdles of tackling to different aspirations of different mindsets, be it the customer or the manager or your team members. Lets see how things shape up in the future and how well I equip myself to those inner and outer battles.
The second most important milestone is that I gave the GMAT during this period and scored a respected 710. Giving the GMAT had been in my mind for quite a long time but then again given the dynamic nature of this IT industry, deciding on an appointment date and then devoting some hours for its study is indeed a very tricky task. The fact that I scored 700+ is indeed a satisfying feeling for me, even though I know that this is not a true reflection of my capabilities. But life measures what you can do once you are out on the field and not what you can do in the nets or in the practice sessions devoid of that competition and pressure to perform. Nevertheless , I always knew that giving the GMAT was not that such a hard task as was making up your mind to actually come back from work at 10 in the night and study for the exam for at least 1-2 hours. That was the indeed the most troublesome aspect. Some times I felt so tired and exhausted that I just wanted to hit the sack but my determination to prepare hard and the desire for preparing your best for the exam made all these aspects look minute. The week before the exam I was so gratified with my study efforts that I actually had no exam fears or anything similar to that. So all in all, a commendable performance by me in the GMAT, based on the factors that I absolutely had no real time to study for the exam.
The third important milestone for me was that I bought a laptop. Though this may look to be really a petty thing to even mention on the blog, but for me, but it has been what I had been planning for several months now. Every now and then when I decided to purchase a laptop, some new thing emerged in the computer market and I every time postponed my decision. But this time, I went around the Digital Plaza in Shanghai (what an awesome place for gadget freaks) on one fine day, researched through all the available models in the market and settled down on a Compaq Presario 3210. My intention was to write a separate blog for this piece but then time again had put real pressures on me. But I consider this really a "Value for Money" item. Though after buying the laptop, I felt that the whole process was so easy and I somehow wasted much of my time in deciding the best laptop in the market. But what I have gained through this researching of around 14-16 months has been an enriching experience. I can now recommend anybody a good piece of laptop based on the person's requirements. Since the time I bought the laptop, I have already advised around 30 people on the model they should purchase and everyone has indeed gone ahead with my suggestions. (Are HP, Dell , Apple listening ?? :) ) ..Though I am not really interested in being their marketing man but certainly I can let them understand why and what people want and how these companies can make small changes in their configuration which can see new customer segments opening up for them.
Though there have been a lot of other events during these last 5-6 months, but this blog has already become lengthy enough to be too boring...
So I will end this up here and try again to come up with the new things as frequently as possible..

Ciao,
Rahul.

The Elephant and the Dragon - Part 1

Me in China and not a blog..
So here is the detailed report for the 1st day directly from the business centre of the People's Republic of China...

Nov 18th : 8:45 am :
Time to board the Indian flight..IA384...the air plane and the services were even more pathetic than the ones provided by the Air Deccan and I thought that Air Deccan was a low cost airlines...the flight takes at a halt at Bangkok where we are not allowed to go outside the plane as the airlines did not pay for the parking bay expenses...and I thought that Air Deccan was the only low cost airlines...In between the Indian crew made me watch the latest super block buster hit "Chupke Chupke" (How come they got only this movie from the whole gamut of the Bollywood hits...Do not ask me .) with a earphone that had only 1 operational ear phone..Glory to Indian...Jai Bharat.
In between, they made me watch a block buster TV serial called "Khichdi"...hmm..here is a business proposition for them ..they can instead show TC commercial ads and also earn some much needed money.

Nov 18 : 8:30pm : The Indian flight gets late as usual..nothing to worry..But at last I reached SHANGHAI. As has been the tradition with me coming to a new place, it was raining there..Don't know how the weather Gods have come to know this thing ever since I went to Dwarahat, Pune and now Shanghai.

Nov 18 : 9:00pm : My first tryst with Shanghai...and what a city it is...I could not keep my mouth closed for the next 2 hours (stuck with Awe, that is..). The airport was lined up with air plancs waiting for their departures and all were standing in the queue just like we have at the ISBT....
The airport is atleast 7-8 times the airport in Delhi..and that is the part that I could actually see..could be much bigger than that in the actual statistics...I walk for another .5 - 1 km before I actually come to collect my luggage..and there are 10 big luggage carriers carrying the luggage of the passengers from all the flights..The Customs Deptt has 50-60 people who just want to quickstart your visit to Shanghai...all neatly dressed in the official uniforms.
Please note that the Delhi airport had only 10-12 people clearing the Customs..Is it the difference of scale ?

Nov 18 : 10:00pm : I come out of the airport and find the taxi driver who is waiting for me with a placard. I spot him. Don't know why, he is also happy to receive me..really do not know why ..I do not talk to him and actually can not talk to him as he can not speak English.hmm...so its not US. The cab is a sedan and I really can not believe it !!! Hmmm..For the next 20 min, the sedan travelles at an average speed of 110 km/hr and that too without blowing a single horn..hmmm...this is WOW !!!

Nov 18 : 10:30pm : I get to my hotel. Everything is ready for me. The reception guy gives me the password for the door (What !!!! I can not remember another password)...He gives me the directions and that is it..I somehow figure out where to go...And the password are for the central doors and they are all automatic powered by Radio Frequency / Infra Red (That is the true power of technology..)...And there are no manned doorways for each building...(inspite of that Large Population...hmm.)...

Nov 19 : 12:30 am : It is past midnight..and I want to have a bottle of Coke...the city has slept by 10 pm ..everything is closed except that good old Lawson (where you get each and every common comodity) and I thought that People's Republic of China (henceforth referred to as PRC) is a communist nation...hmm...

Nov 19 : 2:30 am: I go to sleep after such a dramatic day where I crossed a Great, old democracy (now I realize why they call India as the sleeping elephant) and crossed over to the communist PRC (which like its dragon) is powering on to change the world and perhaps capture it....

Thats all for the 1st day...
Keep coming back for the other days !!!

That time of the life again !!! Bugs and bugs and bugs

Its the same thing happening all over again.Yes, it is that time of my life when the coding has been over and the module that I prepared is being tested.The same things that happened the time when I created this blog.The same old frustration, the same old bugs, and the same old ignominy.It was that time ( during the ASU project that I first encountered these thoughts...)...and the same old thoughts are recurring over and over again in my mind again.

I know my strengths and I know my weaknesses...yes I am not good at coding that is for sure ,and I am also not good at manipulating things..I know I will not be able to do much for the first thing but I'll have to do something for the second, otherwise the way ahead will be paven with rocks and dust for sure.I tried my best during the UIM Registration Details Coding to minimize the defects and give a defect free module but then it is happening all over again..1 bug comes and along with that, comes a whole crop of bugs...I can not do anything about that ...that last time this thing happened in ASU, I took the decision about preparing for MBA as I thought this was not the right field for me ...but then again... as time flew by, my decision went alongwith the tide of time and whirled itself away from me ...my desire to prepare and go for an MBA weakened as I started getting good work( not in coding but in analysing the requirements, and I proved to be good at it and that is the reason I submerged myself in the very job which seemed to be not so interesting to me ...).I proved myself good in the eyes of my Module Leader and he came under the impression that I was good at everything ...and the worst part started when I willingly took the most crucial sections of the module i.e. the Registration Details Section and the Cascomm Section...and the time since then has been verbally like hell for me...and I did not know that the worst of the worst would come when the System Testing for the same would be
started...I can continue with the story and convert it into a best selling novel and I do not have
the time for that now..I am into my new project ...the Phase 2 Axway Integration...which
I again willingly took...and then again the life seems to be not so easy for me...I wanted to run away from my present, from myself and from the wholw world just a few minutes before but then I calmed down with the help of 2 continuous fags..Now I am thinking what to do ..should I again start preparing for MBA but this is not the right time for it ..or should I sit depressed in fromt of my PC and think nothing ...or should I change my attitude..what has happened has happened ..i can not do a thing about it ...so just sit down and let the things happen by themselves ...The last option seems to be the best ...I am sitting down in from of my PC at office and starting with the next thing that is in my hand...so that atleast nothing goes here...the defects are here to stay ...If I'll not close the, somebody else will ..the defects will be gone..what if I get some low ranking in my next appraisal ...atleast I can not let my life go away...that is the essence.The work will never stop ..the show goes on..At least I have decided, to improve my communication skills and more importantly my presuasion and assertiveness skills ... When I talk about assertiveness, I always thought that I should be able to dominate myself but I have realized that is not the way people are motivated and that is not the way, you can get the work out of people...you have to liten to them and talk to them very politely ( the way Kedar does it is excellent)...and you should be able to manipulate the things so that it all seems clear :)But the thing I believe in is that I have not entered into IT just to code ...I have not entered into IT, just to give the client what he wants...not that is not the reason I have entered into IT ...I have entered into IT because I want to change the way people do business, the way people live, the way people entertain, the whole way people live their lives...

and I know that I will have to be in the system to change the system.

Counteracting "Outsourcing"

Offlate there has been much more than expected backlash in the name of Outsourcing .Though it is very necessary to get the exact picture in the front of the our eyes before we can actually argue about the pros and cons of Outsourcing.As the term suggests, outsourcing is a very strategic function of the business plan, a businees decision that has been implemented by various big firms at various times.then what is there in this outsourcing that has fired up so much trouble than the bigoutsourcing phenomenon in the 1960's in the automobile industry which was , we can say , the beginning of the industrial age in the Asian continent.But surely there must be something this time that has aroused so much public attention that you can actually see people wearing T-shirts with Anti- Outsourcing slogans in the streets of New York. If we look objectively at the problem , there does not seem to be much problem. It is infact a phase of the US economy which will pass on.And come to think of it , the US industrialists and big men are not even bothered about this problem. What has been the root cause of so much public agitation is the propaganda and the light that it has received.And the only plausible reason for that may be the forth coming US Presidential elections.But whatever be the reasons , we are not sitting here to think of the reasons , rather we are here to think proactively and come out with something that can help us in overcoming this phenomenon.And when we think about thinking hoe to win the race , we actually do something that helps us in winning the race. If the US has to overcome this phenomenon , it has to look deep into itscavalry and find out what actually made countries like Malaysia , Argentina ( leave alone Indiaand China, I will be discussing about them later on in the next article !! ) get the work which was done by the big engineers in the US.What has happened in these countries is the rise of a new generation , a generation which is educated and which is willing to work and work much more. Naturally the US big men save a lot when they actually give their low end works to these people at a fraction of the cost of a US engineer.That in place, the small economies start taking things into their hand. They want to show their worth , people their want to work for the big firms . And why not will they work for 12-14 hours a daywhen they are getting 30% more than their counterparts in the other native manufacturing companies. It seems at the first point , that in a given period of time , the US economy will have no jobs exceptfor the posts of CEO and Presidents. But then we have to wait and think . And when we think , then the first thing that comes to the mind is the progress of the US economy .If the US is out sourcing all these lower endjobs to the other countries , then they must have a plan wherein the people as a whole will undergo a radical change in their skillsets.And for that to happen they must have something to resort to . And what better than to hone up their R & D and come up with the new practices in each and every possible field.what matters is not the execution of a test plan but the plan itself.So if US has to remaina leader in the business sector , it will have to come with innovative methods and optimum practices for the production. The US feels that has been and will remain a leader in the market by virtue of its till now sustained positionin the market in all these years. But the US economy must beware at this moment. It is hightime that the US knows what to do to maintain its position in the market.In the next article, I will be discussing about the position of India and China vis a vis US and the strategic factors involved.