My supervisor with Disciplined character

I completed 4.5 years in Wipro technologies and worked under various managers. I take this blog as an opportunity to share my experience of working under SyamSunder Yellamraju with whom I worked for 2.5 years.

What a fantastic fortune!!!

I was unhappy to join the current project in 2007 after missing an onsite chance to UK. Syam was made my supervisor. Initially, I was busy in interacting with senior colleagues, especially Srinivasan & Vimal, forming new friendships. The offline coffee-break talk (among many groups) is that any person working under Syam or RaghuBabu Mungonda is considered to be lucky in my business unit. Fortunately, I worked with former and unfortunately, I missed the latter.

What a charismatic character!!!

You put a herculean project task on his shoulders, Syam still responds in the coolest possible way. Usually, one can learn or acquire the skills of the person while working with him/her. But here, while working with Syam, one can learn or acquire the character in addition to the skill. It is often the character of a person which creates issues but not the skill. Mihaly said, "There are managers so preoccupied with their e-mail messages that they never look up from their screens to see what's happening in the non-digital world". Syam is my manager by designation but he is much more than that in reality. Taken in a positive sense, he is a servant to our team because each of us approaches him for any problem we have. He never misused the power of his designation. I agree to what Mr.AzimPremji said, "If you're losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization". Yes it is true; Syam is one of the chief reasons for my stay in Wipro for the last 2.5 years.

What a lively listener!!!

I wondered why many people approach Syam to tell their issues and I slowly realized the unrevealed secret that he is an empathic listener. He listens not to judge you but to understand you. May be, this nature allows others to open up. In my case, I share both personal and professional problems with him especially whenever I am in terrible predicament.

What an amazing award!!!

My team thought of giving highest awards available in Wipro but as team members we could nominate him for only DearBoss award which he received in the month of September of 2008. As a boss, he gave awards to all his team members by building rich relationships with each of us. We all are sure that he will reach the heights of his dreams one day with the support of all the people around him.

We are in a world of competition for everything. Many subordinates feel "When I do well, my boss never remembers. When I do wrong, he never forgets". Managers need to change and become an exception to the above to stay in the hearts of their team members. Good managers should be promoted to exalted positions and when these managers exercise their powers with full freedom (which many managers are not doing because of various fears) in a positive manner, the number of people benefitted will be more.

Disgruntled Telangana = Affluent Politicians

For the first time, I am writing a blog on a much hyped sensitive issue. As you keep on reading, you will come to know whether I support Separate Telangana or united Andhra Pradesh. For now, bear the suspense.

History: In the recent years, Hyderabad is popularly known as Hi-Tech city. But in the recent weeks, WE (=people of this nation) made it as High-tension city. Telangana means ‘Land of Telugus’. This land has got a history since Treta Yuga (it is believed that lord Rama, Sita and Lakshmana spent their life in exile at Bhadrachalam). This region came under Muslim rule in 18th century and called as Hyderabad state. After India got independence, the Nizam of Hyderabad still wanted to retain his independence. But government of India amalgamated his state by force.
The Fazal Ali commission or States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) in 1953 formed states based on linguistic lines. Telangana and Andhra were clubbed (forcefully but with gentlemen's agreement) to form AndhraPradesh state on November 1st, 1956 after Potti SriRamulus fast unto death. The second agitation, especially from students, for separate Telangana state started in 1969 (during which approximately 360 people died) and ended in political benefits to politicians. Later, agitations started many times but were minor in severity because they originated from political drama.

Rationale: There are certain things WE should understand. The formation of mandals, districts, states etc are for better governing. The ultimate benefit should go to India, not to telangana alone or united AndhraPradesh alone. If Telangana gets developed by forming a separate state, WE should accept it. If united AndhraPradesh assures development better than Telangana alone, WE should accept it. Our internal competition should help India emerge as a super power, not create quarrels among us. Remember the forecast of global leaders that India or China would emerge as super power in this century.
I wondered when I saw huge number of students participated in the recent Telangana agitation. I question all the students (with age>18): how many of you casted your vote during general elections (~52% says election commission`) or greater Hyderabad elections (~42% says election commission)? Surveys constantly remind that polling percentage is low because of the less participation of educated people. When you do not vote, you do not have the right to question the society. If the same students put the same energy in teaching a lesson to the polluted politicians (irrespective of region, religion, race), think of the change that could be brought in.

Here comes an interesting observation: Before 2009 general elections, I used to hate politics & never showed any interest to understand politics. I agree that most of our politicians are corrupted but I disagree that our system itself is corrupted. It is WE who are allowing the corrupted people and rowdies to enter into the political system. During April 2009 general elections in state and center, I watched news channels and read news papers a lot to understand politics. I am worried about my understanding but I cannot deny the fact because it is reality. Political parties, by and large, tried to put people into different buckets for their survival. For example, BJP came with religion disparity bucket; TRS came with regional disparity bucket; some new and existing parties came with community disparity bucket or some other bucket. These parties, with vote banking premise, succeeded in putting 60-70% of actual voters (which is around 50% of total voters) in their respective buckets. Election campaign, manifesto, using stardom for publicity etc are to attract only 30% of the remaining actual voters. Unfortunately, most of the print & electronic media are one-sided to political parties. Politicians, joining hands with media, are making people as mere scapegoats. Discussions to find solutions can be thought of a dream as long as politicians are willing to speak their own version and not willing to listen to other politicians version.

Wake up time buddy: All this crap is required for the political parties for their survival, not to foster the development of the nation. They constantly pump these disparities into public. The impact of dirty politics is on the nation and is very severe. Did you people ever observe what these shameless politicians are trying to break?? It is NATIONAL INTEGRITY. It is the feeling of being INDIAN which is beyond the region, religion, caste, language & other feelings. Sachin Tendulkar said, "I am a Marathi but first I am an INDIAN". Youth of this nation should walk with unity to lead India. There is a need to not only change the players but also the rules of this political game. Martin Luther King said, "The silence of good men is more dangerous than the brutality of bad men". At the least, WE should try to cease the perpetuation of current politics into our next generations.

Life, death and REBIRTH are inevitable

On 28th May, at about 10 P.M., I was in deep sleep at my friend’s house after finishing my day at Wipro. I did not attend an incoming call from unknown caller, thinking it would be from loan/creditcard guys. Within couple of minutes, I got a call but this time it is from my sister. I attended the call unwillingly but there was an ominous silence from my end and in no time I said opening my mouth "aaa…" after hearing from my sister that my parents met with road accident near Miryalguda town. I held all my credit cards and rushed from friend’s house to Dilsukhnagar (place where my family stays).

Before nasty thoughts occupied my mind, I meditated and requested the divine power to save my parents and other relatives in the vehicle. Few of my relatives gathered at our house at midnight 11.30 P.M. and all were crying along with my siblings. Latest information we had at 11.45 P.M. is that government hospital at Miryalguda denied to admit and suggested to shift to hospital in Hyderabad. Ambulance started from Miryalguda. We took the advice of Dr. Pasupuleti Somulu, highly reputed doctor in Dilsukhnagar zone of Hyderabad and brother of my Dad, who helped in admitting to Malakpet-Yashoda hospital. Doctors in Yashoda hospital gave no assurance on day1, day2, day3….but my enthusiasm did not ebb away. On the other hand, I swiped all my credit cards for the 1st time to the respective card limit within a week time.

Till date, I am not depressed for this unforeseen accident. My love towards my loved ones is detached. I mean, if someone falls in a pit, I neither jump into the pit nor cry sitting around but try to put most of my time and energy to pull the person out of the pit. I believe that the strength of character depends upon my ability to remain unaffected by adverse circumstances.

Dad is strong supporter of congress. In other words, a supporter of Ex-home minister Mr. K. Jana Reddy. Jana Reddy uncle visited Yashoda hospital to express his condolences to our family and asked the doctors to take a good care of my Dad. On my request, Jana uncle told the hospital management not to pressurize on the payments. I never knew that my Dad got such a giant human network. It became very tough to control the well-wishers/relatives visiting the hospital. It was a great relaxation for many after seeing Dad opening both of his dizzy eyes on 25th day.

Medical treatment in corporate hospitals is very expensive and Yashoda hospital is no exception. Doctors suggested shifting to NIMS hospital looking at our financial condition. But I knew that God almighty is there to take care of everything. Without me asking for help, many of my friends called and asked me to accept their financial help. They don’t know when I will pay back yet they are ready to give money. At that moment, I felt the invisible deep rooted love in their hearts and I am blessed to have such friends and relatives. I sincerely thank Ashwin, Avinash, Bhavana, Hari, HarithaReddy, Jagananna, Jitin sir, Madhuri, Rohan, Ravi, Shanthi, Shanthan, Sinanna, Sita, Srikanth, Swathi, Syam, Vikranth and my relatives & other friends for the help and support shown to our family. Your immense love can change any person having the thought "God is no-where" to "God is now-here".

Doctors said that the complete left part of my Dad got paralyzed. They kept a hole (tracheostomy) at neck for proper breathing and a hole (PEG) at stomach for food intake. After 43 days, on July 10th 2009, intellectual doctors explained the course of action to be taken and agreed to discharge my father. His condition at the time of discharge was pathetic. My family was in a hunt for the best physiotherapist, not fledgling & we found Dr.Sabu who agreed to treat my Dad only at Bowenpally. Our entire family shifted to Bowenpally and resided at the house of my elder sister but the doctor is regularly irregular. Our patience reached saturation state in two months and we shifted back to Dilsukhnagar. We now got a good physiotherapist couple Mr.KrishnaMohan & Mrs.Indira who are known for their dedication on work. Slowly, we are able to push 2 sessions per day for speedy recovery. It is painful to describe the pains my Dad has been undergoing. Life is like an onion; You peel it off layer by layer and sometimes you cry. Hats off to the confidence he held for this unprecedented situation that he could walk one day. By god’s grace, my father is now able to drag his leg with the help of splint shoe.

There is one name which I did not take so far and I cannot close this blog without telling about her. She is my sister Ujwala who has been playing a pivotal role all through this journey. She said good bye to her job in order to take care of Dad. She studied medical books on the related injuries to gain confidence on what she is doing. She maintained good contacts with nurses and doctors. If I am not exaggerating, I would call her as Mother Teresa (at least to my Dad). Tell me who will sacrifice to such an extent? Who will show such a great dedication without any personal expectation in these days? My family is lucky and I am proud to be a brother of her.

Alfred A Montapert said, "Man's ultimate destiny is to become one with the Divine Power which governs and sustains the creation and its creatures". Well, I have full confidence that the divine power will solve everything. I knew that God will take good care of people who trust him with pure desire and unconditional love. God is great.

Myth: Money has Magical power

Human being came on to this planet earth with empty hands & can take nothing at the time the person leaves from this planet earth. All of us see a high drama between the first and last breathe and most of us are part of this drama. I would not point/take anyone as example but would generalize & give my observations on the magical power of money in this blog.
Nature created everything required for humans & blessed him with super intelligence. With that intelligence, man invented MONEY. It is a lubricant that facilitates exchange and acts as a ubiquitous matchmaker between buyers and sellers. To become slave or master of this lubricant is left on the individuals.

Even to fulfill the basic needs such as food, clothing & shelter, one will need money. There is no better scale other than money scale to measure the differences between rich and poor (former plays with money while latter dreams of playing with it). It is equally loved by a King as well as a Beggar but not equally distributed. The distribution of money goes primarily with the skill of the person unless it is inherited. For instance: doctors earn more than janitors even though a janitor works round the clock. Therefore, the division of labor took its birth (long back) in the society.
Money is the common relative of every human being living on this planet irrespective of his/her Region, Religion, Race. It gives opulent living to the individual and motif to the nameplate. It has the power to change friends as enemies and vice-versa. It also adds tension, stress & health problems. It makes all the squalid affairs possible. Worst part is that most of us kill our genuine aspirations and forcefully work on unwilling things just for money. Sometimes, this is required to fulfill the basic needs but what is the end of this avarice? As Ghandhiji said "Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed". The view of people is making all this non-sense possible.

Definitely, there are certain things which money cannot buy but are very essential in the human journey. You cannot buy love, humanity, joy, peace etc with money but these qualities define the character of the person. Roosevelt said "Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort". HELP is one of the greatest words I love. But even this is entwined with money. In reality, you need a big heart to help someone, not money. Though less in number, I have friends and relatives with big heart and helping hands. The biggest inhibitor to helpful nature is having polluted heart. You can help a person to come out of his/her physical/ mental/ emotional/ spiritual problems. Doing so may sometimes require money. Funny part is with help receiving people. Many of us treat only financial help as help. Daily meditation is the best medicine to know about you in a deeper way and come out of all problems.

A visit to one of the top B-schools

Since my second year of engineering course, I have plans to do MBA. At that point of time, I did not carry the concrete mission for my life. As a student, I wished to see the life of an MBA student and see how different it is when compared to the life of bachelor of engineering student. I fulfilled that dream after four years on 25th July 2008. I took this blog as an opportunity to share my experiences in visiting a top B-school.

During college days, I took the initiatives of gathering people and making them to participate in activities such as movies, parties, sports. Though informal, these activities boosted my confidence that I can lead people from the front. The rationale for such confidence is that I was able to unite people with different mentalities and tastes. After joining Wipro, my immediate thoughts were when to pursue MBA. In India, the popular business schools which we frequently hear are IIMs and ISB. The avid interest to visit a B-school became easy as ISB is located in Hyderabad (where I was born and brought up) and that too in the lane of Wipro, where I am currently working. Whenever I pass in front of ISB, I feel energetic. It motivates me, reminds me and makes me feel responsible. Inside my mind, I stand and salute to all such top institutions across the globe.

ISB allows the prospective students to visit the campus. I got the opportunity to visit the campus after reserving a slot through online. On the visiting day at 6.30 P.M., I was little late due to the work at office. I parked my bike and rushed to the reception. I found the hall with the help of a security guy and joined the session. The room was crammed full of prospective students and one of the current year students with mellifluous English accent is taking the session explaining the various activities that are carried out there. Then a member from admissions panel continued the session by briefing about admissions process. I knew the admissions process in advance which would be, more or less, the same for many B-schools. Later I visited the campus which is full of greenery and then library which is very conducive for reading. Before leaving, I interacted with couple of students. They are very conceited of themselves. Students get admission in good educational institutions because of their smart and hard work, not by some freak of fate.

I knew that a visit to a top B-school would strengthen my direction & lift my spirits. John Kotter said, “Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there; they cause change. They motivate and inspire others to go in the right direction and they, along with everyone else, sacrifice to get there.” I was positively beaming with pleasure after reaching home.

Building strong character by being truthful

Background

I read Seven Habits of Highly Effective people in February 2008. Since then, a desire to be honest has developed in me. This would not happen without speaking truth. The intensity of this desire has been growing since I started meditating daily. I realized some new dimensions such as not telling lies, answering to the point, diverting the topic. But speaking truth is different from all those. I conducted an experiment on myself for the last two months to know why do we lie, why cannot we speak truth all the time, and observed some interesting patterns. We will analyze the results of this experiment and see the advantages of speaking truth in this blog.
Truth has a glut of definitions. More or less, most of the definitions lead directly or indirectly to the meaning of truth as sincerity and integrity. Mark Twain said, “Always tell the truth. That way, you don't have to remember what you said”. No one wishes to be a crooked person but then why do not we stop lying? Why do we struggle to remember what we said to which person? Many times, the lies which we say may not cause serious harm to any person or may not result in property loss. But still we are liars. In fact, these small harmless lies are taking us to the negative comfort zone where we are not aware of that we do not wish to speak truth. Gradually, fear is instilled in us to the extent that we cannot face the truth. Michael Levy said, “You can bend it and twist it... You can misuse and abuse it... But even God cannot change the Truth.” So, we will end up in living with unreal self. That is, we live with unreality or far away from reality. I believe that self analysis is the best analysis and conducted an experiment on myself for about two months. Unfortunately, the bottom-line of my experiment is that many of us kill ourselves without our knowing because the pain is hidden on the short run and unseen on the long run.

Courage factor

Humans exude confidence by being truthful. By observing myself and others, I found that courage plays a crucial role. We can categorize people who could speak truth into two buckets:
1. People having courage
2. People who do not require/need courage.
In this contemporary world, human mind is teeming with pollution because of the shoddy thoughts carried by us in our day-to-day activities. Sinister thoughts became part of human life. Hikes, power, positions, awards, rewards etc became part of human’s life. In realizing some of the above, some persons are even ready to drench or murder other person. We do ingenious contrivance to get the things done in our favor. Deals are not always completely kosher. Under such unhygienic environment, you definitely need to have courage if you want to speak truth. Because you started speaking truth, sometimes, either you or others may be in trouble. At times, truth may be unpleasant but don’t step back. Have the courage and consider the feelings of other person before telling. That means we need courage with consideration. Express the genuine truth in a palatable manner. Henry David said, “The only way to tell the truth is to speak with kindness. Only the words of a loving man can be heard”. For example, you cannot go to media and reveal your company’s confidential data. You cannot call such violation of trust as courage. The courage of a person should be prudent, not imprudent. People will slowly show great reverence towards you.
The other category is not like many of us who spend most of our lives as grouches. If you are pure at heart having no evil thoughts, genuinely happy for others success, able to forgive unintentional mistakes, then you don’t require courage to speak truth. For example, Does a saint require courage to speak truth? No, because he lives in a pure world, he feels only good and has no hatred. Not that these people don’t have courage but they don’t need the use of courage to speak the truth. Confidence gushes out of them. These people carry great character sustained with unyielding integrity in them and are usually impervious to criticism.

10 tough days

I decided to speak truth for 10 days and belabored the point to myself to digest the significance. At the end of each day, I had retrospective meeting with myself. By the end of 10 days, I said many lies. But the desire to speak truth has made some changes in me. I am not sharing the actual conversations happened during this experiment for various reasons but we will see the conclusions. All my lies fall into the below four categories:
1. When a person is made low by others, the person will tell lies to match the expectations of the other person.
2. When a person is forced to answer, the person will tell lies to escape or change the topic.
3. When a person wants to win his/her point, the person will tell lies to show his/her command on that point.
4. When a person wants to see/support the other person for whatever reason, the person will tell lies to show his/her respect/support towards other person.
For some days, I thought why humans do so many wrong things for the sake of others. But later I realized that humans do all these wrong acts to protect themselves or their image. There may be more categories than what I mentioned but I am sure that we would lie to protect our own image in any category. I am sure that many people will get ample number of examples in each of those categories. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Similarly, the journey of every liar starts with a single lie.

Common denominator

The other interesting pattern which is common in any of the above categories or common to people who tell lies is: we think when we lie. We may run the thought process before telling lies if a lie is constructed in planned way or after telling lies if a lie is constructed on the fly. Think of your own situations when you try to prepare the various possible answers to possible questions (Eg: to support your resume in an interview). We try to estimate the other possibilities to escape/protect ourselves. When this process increases, it creates stress in us. The more you vacillate, the more you become subject to all the fickle forces at play on the outside. Note the difference that person who thinks need not tell lies but person who tell lies, by and large, cannot avoid thinking.

Coming out of the pit

The impeccable solution is to be spontaneous in any situation. Never use your latitude to think & choose what to tell others. Be spontaneous. This will devoid the unnecessary stress in us. At one shot, this may be tough. Remember, every major change takes some time. I found one more interesting observation. When you try to speak only truth, slowly you will avoid telling lies, however minor it may be. You can slowly avoid the situations fraught with danger. Indirectly, you will not be a part of the situation where you need to tell lies. This in turn means that you are doing well in all walks of your life. Speaking truth does not mean to dig your past and tell everyone. Let bygones be bygones. You can build a better tomorrow, not yesterday. You need to show the commitment of allegiance to speak truth. As you don’t lie, you don’t need to encounter the situations filled with remorse. Your self-integrity increases by leaps & bounds. Slowly, you will achieve what you want through noble ways.
Failures are the stepping stones to success. But intentional failures are stepping stones to disaster. We often cheat ourselves into oblivion. We think that others do not know us. But we are what we are and others can easily see us, at least on the long run. Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”. Be spontaneous, you will surely enjoy the ethereal beauty of being truthful.

Humble tribute to this great friend

This is an amusing anecdote about one of my close friends. His name is Muralidhar Movva (known as Murali) who left this world on 16th October 2006. Inspired by the quote “Good men must die, but death cannot kill their names”, I take this blog as an opportunity for paying tribute to my dearest friend. I shared my experiences and my views about him.

Murali, a tall guy with a good build was like any other teenager who enjoyed playing sports, can call him a cricket freak. He was from a middle class family which had the basic amenities. He stayed in Hyderabad with his parents and sister. His grandparents, who love him more than anyone else, stay in a different place running their family owned business.

Srikanth (from Murali’s college), Murali and I spent most of our weekend times together during the first two-years of our under graduation days. Three of us stayed in adjacent streets and the distance between any two houses is very small, similar to the distance among our hearts which made it very easy for us to laze around and have fun. He had a craze to drive two-wheeler like any other young lad of India would have during their college days. He took either Srikanth’s motorcycle or my scooter to have test ride. I told myself that he was a bad driver after seeing a number of rides from him. Apart from two-wheeler driving, he was a big movie buff and also fascinated by computer games. You rarely see him fretting about anything except while playing sports. Of course, many times, he coaxed a brilliant performance out of the team.

One peculiar thing about Murali is that he becomes very irrational in believing some people. He supports them on whatever they say. I was not lucky to be in that category. There is one more interesting point about him which you see during arguments. Usually, though one may say externally that the subject is important and not the person, but internally many people see only the person and not the subject, especially in heated arguments. Murali was a true exception to this notion. During arguments, he takes and gives abuses to people. Within no time after the argument, he behaves with you in a normal way as if he did not involve in the argument. Initially, you may think he is pretending but you have to change your opinion on the long run. He does it innately & wholeheartedly. Even if you avoid him, he will come back to you without any hard feelings. His anger was mercurial and restricted to subject of the argument/discussion. Among my friends, this was unique only to Murali and I have not seen this particular trait in any of my other friends.

During our final year of bachelors’ course, we had campus placements. He was landed a plum job at CTS and me at Wipro. Both are software companies and offered a good pay package. After he started receiving salary, he began fulfilling his wishes such as mobile, attires, bike etc, all of them being brand new. I was still a bit cynical about his driving amidst of terrible traffic of Hyderabad. I started preparing for GMAT to pursue my dream course, MBA. I booked my GMAT slot on 17th October 2006 and was not in contact with friends since September 2006. I got a call to my landline (mobile was switched off) from Srikanth’s father on October 16th 2006. I opened my eyes and mouth as wide as possible after hearing from the receiver "Murali met with an accident and is no more with us in this world". I lost my senses for the next 10 minutes. Just before the call, I was doing mental preparation for the exam and all of a sudden I was getting calls from US to know how this tragedy happened. All of his friends were asked to come to Osmania hospital mortuary. I felt shame on myself on that night because I thought for a moment whether to go the mortuary or to do mental preparation for GMAT.

For Murali, friends are assets. We (=all friends) decided to support his family financially, though we know that we could not replace life with money. I should specially thank Rohan for coordinating with CTS folks & other friends of Murali in sorting out various issues. I also thank the other assets of Murali such as Hari, Shanthan, Shanthi, Ashwin, Ravi, Vikranth, Chenna, Srikanth and Raghu for providing all forms of support to his family. The list could go on like a long train but I am not aware of all his college and office friends. His mother gave new shirts of her son to some of his friends. I accepted one shirt as a memory of my friend.

In this barren wilderness of modern life, we still use the moments with Murali (under graduation days in particular) as a metaphor for the happiness of life. His foot prints are so strong in the hearts of his friends that we often recollect him. Even now, we recollect him whenever we discuss about our happiest moments. We don’t have to recollect him intentionally but cannot avoid recollecting him because he was a part of those joyous moments we had during our under graduation days.

William Shakespeare said “And, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of Heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun”. We know that the soul of my friend is resting in peace and joy. To the family members of Murali: we, friends of Murali, are here to support you in all walks of your life. Please do treat us as your family members.