'Indians are In and I am Out'

Recently I was watching a program on TV about the response in England to the recent shift of a large number of call center (BPO) jobs to India. During the program they asked an ex-employee of Norwich Union (who shifted 2500 call center jobs to India) how he felt after loosing his job to an Indian call center.

He replied (rather calmly) 'Indians are In and I am Out, that's the way the world works'.

 This, I found to be, a stunning acceptance of the new world order. The BPO business is firmly shifting east-wards. But again and again we are forced to question the hand that feeds us. Debates still rage on about the BPO industry (and its respectable sister the KPO / LPO industry) and how good/bad is it for people working in it.

Companies like 'e-serve' with their 'ad-campaigns' do try and throw a positive light on working the graveyard shift. But I wonder again what would happen if the call center business was to start leaving India. What will happen to those people who have spent their formative years working into the wee hours of the night serving people half-way across the world.

Is the BPO industry also creating a generation of people who to make money have sacrificed their future? 

 What is the use of such growth if it is not self-sustaining?

What use is this growth if to achieve it one has to sacrifice the well being of our youth?

Speaking with a friend of mine who used to work for Norwich Union in India further opened my eyes. People do hate the fact that Indians are taking away their jobs. At the same time they enjoy the savings that they get because their insurance provider has outsourced operations.

We come back to the age old question of whether being a source of cheap labour is a good thing or bad. Should we put a positive spin on things like the e-serve people are trying?

Back home this new found business opportunity (i.e. BPO/KPO/LPO) are not seen in a positive light. I think BPOs etc. are respectable lines of work. Any form of work in which you can earn money without doing anything illegal is perfectly ok and respectable for me.

But looking at the intensity of the ad-campaing made me think that the Indian BPOs are not only having a tough time finding acceptance among people outside India, but within India as well.

Case in point being that if you are a call center employee you would find it difficult to get a good marriage proposal. Most people just wouldnt want to live with someone who works at night. Other factors like money and type of work also influence people a lot.

Many people still react negatively if they know you are working at a call center.

So for the call center people it seems they are trapped between a society that doesnt give them the true respect that they deserve (as the bringers of new-found wealth) and often difficult clients who blame them for taking away their jobs.

Some More Pictures

Closeup of the Clifton Bridge (Bristol, UK)


Clifton Bridge and Bristol (on the right bank)
The muddy Avon River flowing through the Avon Gorge


Strange clouds

Sunset over Western Europe...

Photographs of twilight taken by me while on the Amsterdam-Bristol flight. Camera used: Canon S2-IS.

Some Spectacular Pics.... (1 of 4)

What follows are some of the pics I took while travelling thru Canada. Here I am posting the pictures that I found to be spectacular.

Some Spectacular Pics.... (2 of 4)

What follows are some of the pics I took while travelling thru Canada. Here I am posting the pictures that I found to be spectacular.

Some Spectacular Pics.... (3 of 4)

What follows are some of the pics I took while travelling thru Canada. Here I am posting the pictures that I found to be spectacular.

Some Spectacular Pics.... (4 of 4)

What follows are some of the pics I took while travelling thru Canada. Here I am posting the pictures that I found to be spectacular.

Thoughts at 5 AM

On a random Sunday morning it comes to me:
A breakup is like an accident of the heart. After the accident you might recover fully the use of your heart but the scars never really go away.

A Conversation with Sorabh

posted here at his suggestion...

Sorabh : waise wht is the threshhold
Sorabh : I wud like to discuss
Sorabh : before u beat the hell outta ur boss
Sorabh : I mean till wen u shud wait???
Sorabh :
Azahar: till u have enough money to hire the best lawyer to get u out

Substitutes for Love

I was thinking one day.. why do we crave love of the opposite sex (same sex if you are homo-sexual).

We start out by needing love of our parents... a mother and a father.
We also may or may not get the love of a sibling and other family members...
Yet we seek another kind of love... this basic love is not enough to sustain us.

Next stage comes when we go out into the world... we develop a friend-circle.
They give us love too... the pure love of a good friend is something amazing.
Yet we seek more! A different kind of love we keep on seeking...

Then we find a girl (or boy), if we are lucky, to fall in love with.. if we are REALLY lucky they return our love...
Thus we discover what some people call the ultimate emotion of them all... the emotion of love..

Just like a child demands a new toy once he gets bored of the old one...

My question is.. can we achieve happiness with just one of the forms of love available to us.. do we need all all the forms of love in our live to really smile and feel happy?
Most importantly why do all other forms of love fail badly in front of the love between a man and a woman...
(For example: people leave their parents to marry the person of their choice, fight with their best friend to date a girl...)

Cute Quote...

Power of Quotes:

Full Quote taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1653687.stm

How you quote can totally change the meaning … proof:

Quote 1: He told BBC News Online: "Women have smaller brains…”

Quote 2: “ ….there is no difference in the mental performance of men and women”.



Full Quote: He told BBC News Online: "Women have smaller brains, but there is no difference in the mental performance of men and women.”



Quote 1 is 100% accurate… but Quote 2 doesn’t make much sense ;)

LOVE: SIGNS AND COUNTER-SIGNS...

Recently I got a forwarded email talking about the 13 signs of falling in love...
So I added few of my comments to it.. and here goes!

***13 signs of falling in love***

13. When your on the phone with them late at night and they hang up...but you miss them already when it was just two minutes ago
> MAYBE COZ U FORGOT TO ASK THEM WHAT YOU WANTED TO ASK!

12. You read their texts over and over again...
> A GOOD WAY TO TEST YOUR EYESIGHT TO FIND OUT IF YOU NEED READING GLASSES.

11. You walk really slow when you're with them...
> COZ YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT THE 500 BUCKS U JUST BLEW ON 'THEM' AND WHAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE WITH IT!

10. You feel shy whenever you're with them...
> COZ U DON'T LIKE TO BE SEEN TALKING WITH THEM IN PUBLIC...

9. When you think about them, your heart beats faster and faster...
> COZ U GET FRUSTRATED THINKING ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF TIME AND MONEY YOU HAVE WASTED ON 'THEM' (FOR NOTHING) AND ABOUT HOW YOU NOW DONT HAVE ANY MONEY TO BUY THAT NEW IPOD!

8. You smile when you hear their voice...
> TO HIDE THE FEAR... ;)

7. When you look at them, you can't see the other people around
you... all you see is him/her...
> COZ U GO INTO SHOCK (COZ OF FEAR!) AND UR EYES CANT FOCUS

6. You start listening to slow songs, while thinking of them...
> SO THAT YOU FALL ASLEEP ASAP AND DONT HAVE TO THINK OF THEM!

5. They become ALL you think about...
> WHICH IS A CLASSIC RESPONSE AFTER BEING SUBJECTED TO EXTENDED PERIODS OF TORTURE AND INTIMIDATION!

4. You get high just from their scent...
> YA COZ U DRINK TO FORGET THAT THE 'SCENT' THEY ARE WEARING COST U A SMALL FORTUNE!

3. You realize that you're always smiling to yourself when you think
about them...
> OR U R GOING SENILE AT AN YOUNG AGE ;)

2. You would do anything for them...
> AS LONG AS 'anything' DOESNT INVOLVE GETTING OUT OF BED N GETTING DRESSED OR SPENDING ANY MONEY...

1. While reading this, there was one person on your mind the whole
time.....
> THERE WERE MANY... WHICH SHOWS EITHER THAT I LOVE MORE THAN ONE WOMAN (MAKING ME A PLAYBOY) OR THAT I HAVE AN ATTENTION DISORDER

Now make a wish

> MY WISH: PLEASE STOP SENDING ME SUCH EMAILS!

;)

--- Azahar

Independence Day.....

Is it really our Independence Day?
Being thousands of miles away from home the only thing I feel from India is a deep sense of dread and billions of people hiding in their houses fearing to go out on a holiday.
Independence Day when security is most important. So much so that most people prefer to celebrate our 'indepdence' by locking themselves in their houses, protecting themselves against 'terrorist attacks'.

The question I ask on this Independence Day is: why are we Hindus afraid of dying. Our philosophy tells us that we all have to escape from the cycle of birth and death one day. If we are good in a particular lifetime and learn all lessons which we were supposed to, we progess towards release.
So if every birth - death cycle brings us closer to release... why do we run away from death. Are we so afraid that we will not rise towards release because we spent this life stealing from our own people? Are we so afraid of our sins or have we forgotten what it means to be a Hindu (beyond just visiting the temple).

No one should hide in their houses. Go forth and live your life yet do not get attached to it.
Death is sure to come knocking at your door... and when it comes welcome it with a smile... no matter if you are 80 or 20.

Death is but a new beginning... that is what Hinduism teaches us.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehena (Never Say Goodbye)

After my mind, emotions and spirit had been hammered into blackness by the LATEST KARAN JOHAR masterpiece (A.K.A. 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehena' or 'Never Say Goodbye') I was just aware of the following three things.
1) Deep and almost primal hatred for almost everything around me.
2) Lust for a sexy girl!
3) A yawning emptiness inside me like emotional blackness or vaccume.

For me watching this movie was like having an overhaul of my brain and emotions. While the overhaul was going on I was just aware of the above three things.
Kind of like when a room full of people goes quite one person at a time. You can slowly start making out what everyone is saying!
The same way this Karan Johar movie made most of my thoughts and emotions shut down (one-by-one). So I became aware of certain things. ;)
They should show this movie before they start to interrogate spies. It will surely break down any mental barriers ;)

The message (it may save your life!) that the movie wants to put out is:
Don't start thinking about how you are going to dump the gum which you are chewing in the middle of the road.... (that is what the main guy was doing when he gets run over by a car!) So make sure you are in a safe place before ruminating on the final destination of you gum.

The background girls (backup dancers/extras/etc.) are AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL in this movie.
I wonder if they picked out professional models / small time actresses or just issued an ad for extras. The girl I like the best is one with Amitabh (LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY!) when Rani thinks that Preity is in the bedroom...

Oh yes and call me insane but I thought the 'bondage mistress' look (leather corset/whip) really suited Rani Mukherjee... something tells me that this is not the first time she has worn such clothes ;)

All in all this movie is a combination of the following five things (in my humble opinion):
1) story line which makes no-sense whatsoever
2) impossible (and strange) characters
3) no connection with 'real life' either for the characters or the story!
4) sexy extras.
5) hollywood style jokes (weird ones at that).

Joke!

Result of my chat with Sorabh about girls, love and life:

Azahar: well i am seriously curious to see the girl who would say yes to me kind of like ppl are curious to see what aliens look like

The Season Song

The Season Song by the Blue States

OST: 28 Days Later

Lyrics:


The unfolding of the year
And now our season is here
All the balances are clear
Now that our time is here

In our perfect present tense
Through our wide rose tinted lens
When the words have all been spent
Will we still have that lens

Through the window see that place
Like the fondest sweet embrace
For a moment face to face
In the sweetest embrace

The unfolding of the year
And now our season is here
All the balances are clear
Now that our time is here
Now that our time is here


28 Days Later is one of my favourite movies! This song in particular from the OST is one of my favourite songs.

Pictures and Stuff!

With Blogger giving so much trouble with the formatting I posted my Canada pics on MSN Space.
It is at http://3sense.spaces.live.com

Pics have been organised into Albums. MSN provides much better photo management than Blogger. Looks cleaner too!

The journey log (complete with return journey) can now be found at:
http://www.pisceslab.com/Canada/JourneyLog.htm

KLM: A Dream Lies Shattered...

I always wanted to travel by KLM (The Royal Dutch Airlines). Right now I am sitting at Amsterdam Airport Schipol (have an 8 hour transit here!) thinking why did I ever have this dream!
Lets start from the beginning... I have always had this thing about flying KLM. Don't know how it got into my head. So when I had a chance to fly to Vancouver by KLM I took it without a second thought. The one big advantage of flying KLM is that they fly from Bristol (where I am based) therefore I don't have to undertake a long and expensive bus ride to Heathrow (London).

Anyway so the aircraft for the Bristol-Amsterdam flight was a Fokker 70. It was bit old but I knew they would not put a brand new Boeing 777-200ER on a low yeild route like Bristol-Amsterdam. Now during the Bristol - Amsterdam flight I just happen to pick up the KLM Inflight Magazine. In the magazine they had given a list of all the aircraft in the KLM fleet. Reading through the list I spotted the 777-200ER and I thought that I would be travelling to Vancouver from Amsterdam on that. The special thing about 777-200ER is that it has an on demand entertainment system for every seat. So you can decide what you want to see and when you want to see it. The next aircraft which caught my attention was the MD-11 (the worlds only 3 engine aircraft!). Seeing it I smiled and thought of the poor people travelling in an old aircraft like that! I thought probably they reserve it for non-major routes say going towards Eastern Europe or Russia. With these happy thoughts I landed at Amsterdam and made my way towards the connecting flight.

I guess you all can imagine what happened next.
To my utter amazement I saw that the aircraft for Vancouver was an MD-11! I couldn't believe it!
My shock turned to horror when I entered the aircraft and took my seat. No on demand entertainment system, no private viewing screen... there was NOTHING modern about the aircraft.
I knew it would be a long long 9 hours to Vancouver.
I prayed to God that atleast on the return flight the aircraft would be bit better. I didnt want an on demand entertainment system, a simple personal viewer would do. But the return flight turned out to be even more amusing.
The aircraft airconditioning system was leaking, a reading light wouldnt switch off (so the crew covered it with metal foil) and the food was (to put it in a nice way) crap.

The leaking roof ;)


Reading light covered with foil!

Compared to this my flight to Melbourne via Dubai was much more entertaining. The service aboard Emirates was first class (even in Economy!), the air hostesses were real hot looking and on the whole it was a travellers dream come true.

The First Indian

Yellowknife is a small city (Population approx: 20,000).
I might have been the first Indian tourist there. There are some Indian doctors working at the local hospital but they are probably Canadian-Indians.
Anyway I went to the National Assembly building for North-West Territories and there they had a world-map on which you were supposed to put a pin on your home city.

This is the map:


Now zooming in on India there was no pin on any Indian city but one pin on Karachi, Pakistan. This made me wonder was I the first Indian there and closely following that who the hell came here from Karachi!

Here is the zoomed view:


Well then I did what a true Indian would do, instead of putting a pin on Bristol, UK I put the pin on New Delhi, India. That is where I am from. One cannot deny ones roots. Its like cutting off your hands so that you can run faster.

Here is the map once I put in the pin on New Delhi:


I chose a white pin coz white means peace. India stands for peace. Even though it is not the most peaceful country in the world. Bombs still go off, people still get raped and murdered. But it is what we are supposed to stand for.

All these things didn't go through my mind right then. I was thinking about the rain which was falling outside (wishing it to end). But later on I realised that we as Indian now represent something. Whenever we step out we show the world what India is about. Whether we get a good or bad reputation as world travellers... that is up to you and me. So I may have been the first Indian tourist there. Whatever the case may be.. I know one thing, I did give out an image of India. I just hope it was the correct one..

Canada ...

Sea to Sky Highway (from Vancouver to Whistler)