Indian IT Industry

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 26 Jun 2014 08:41

^ Thanks SRoy.

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I came up with this list.

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How to be seen as "cool" in IT industry in India in ten easy steps. Become the cool dudes among your colleagues and leave the old fashioned Vibhootied guys behind.

1. Get a pony tail, this is the heights of coolness. Venture capitalists love programmers with pony tails (inspired by some old Dilbert cartoon).
2. Watch European league football and act like an European. Put up a flag of some western country or club in your cube.
3. Watch European football but get an American accent.
4. Never wear traditional clothing. God forbid! Wear a t-shirt with a nice western cool slang typed on it. Jeans forever!!
5. Live and die by Apple . Act like Steve Jobs's guardian angel at all times. Look down upon all things non-Apple and non-western.
6. Get a cool hippie western name. Indian names suck. Bring some western instrument to office like a Guitar and swear by Brahms.
7. Avoid any association with religion especially if its Hinduism. Its too old fashioned a religion after all. Avoid Indian foods at all costs before colleagues. Always suggest Subway or McDonalds or KFC, never Saravana Bhavan or Ram Bhavan. They "suck" man!!
8. Learn a bunch of cool words like "strategic management" and "synchronized cohesion" and flout it around.
9. Its cool to use swear words. The four letter words are God's gift to the programmer. Use in meetings makes it all the more cooler.
10. Force listen to western music even if you don't understand a damndest word of it. It gets even better if you can have the name of the "band" typed on your tees (cool equivalent of t-shirts)

SRoy · Post by **SRoy** » 26 Jun 2014 12:37

^^

The BPO dudes and gals are already in such "coolness".

Rishirishi · Post by **Rishirishi** » 26 Jun 2014 14:33

Yogi_G wrote:
Javee wrote:On the topic of interviews, we are actively recruiting for the last couple months and I have had to take quite a bit of interviews. There was this one guy, (currently in TCS Analytics practice) easily one of the worst guy that I ever interviewed, in attitude.His resume had this funny flow where in he had every single analytical model that he built. There was no explanation on why the said model was chosen, just a block of text on models, looked like a condensed guide. We started talking about the domain, and questioned him on why a certain model was used; he started questioning back at us. The panel, me and my colleague have about 14 years each in our domain, we both worked in the industry as business consultants (not just IT). We were so irritated with the attitude and wanted to disconnect the call, but it was Friday 3PM and had Thalapakatti biriyani for lunch, so we just prolonged our/his misery by asking some random stuff in his resume and made him go in circles for about a hour. It is not always the interviewer's fault, I just get irritated when they start spouting things that questions my intelligence.
Why did you waste your time with this chap? Attitude problem is immediate red flag for me and I immediately discontinue the interview after informing the candidate. I have conducted some 300-400 interviews thus far and I have run into such candidates at least some 10-15% of the time.

The asking back of questions and talking around the subject seems to to be the new trick in the book. Basically there are not sufficient exp. people in India and the managers have to do with what ever they have.

I start with tell me about your self. Your favorite project etc. then start to dig in on the stuff they claim to have done. Do not accept "that is a good question". I respond, thank you very much, please let me know why you think it is a good question.

Within 10-15 min it will be clear if they are bullshitting or not.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 26 Jun 2014 16:57

11. for women get a tattoo near shoulder blades or ankles and flaunt it. for men get a bicep or nape of neck tattoo.

Rishirishi · Post by **Rishirishi** » 26 Jun 2014 17:13

Singha wrote:11. for women get a tattoo near shoulder blades or ankles and flaunt it. for men get a bicep or nape of neck tattoo.

Add an earing for dudes. nose ring for girls.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Jun 2014 07:14

12. pretend to be a coffee snob and talk down basic indian coffee, instead ask by name for some exotic javanese or brazilian blend, triple filtered in some expensive machine before 1% skim milk precisely heated to 92.3C is poured in a particular pattern into it. seriously the goras have a whole industry in exotic coffee making machines for commercial and home use. absolutely refuse tea, another drink of the hoi polloi.

Prasad · Post by **Prasad** » 27 Jun 2014 08:02

Anyone talking down the filer coffee in eversilver tumbler+dabara is getting a swift kick in the nuts followed by a punch to the nose.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 27 Jun 2014 08:16

Ahh reminds me of my maternal uncle who drove an extra 100 kms to the first original joint which made the kumbakonam degree coffee brand famous. My paternal relative got a fan in him when she prepared for him what he called his best cup of coffee ever... She got coffee powder from her home town boiled milk and decoction to exact heat ... mixed them and got the foam of milk and added a layer of raw coffee powder on top... Its like the after burner of coffee taste...

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 27 Jun 2014 11:49

Rishirishi wrote:
Singha wrote:11. for women get a tattoo near shoulder blades or ankles and flaunt it. for men get a bicep or nape of neck tattoo.
Add an earing for dudes. nose ring for girls.

Ear rings??? Heh even I have one. Big deal.

These things are inevitable as young people have money and want to attract attention. I don't see anything wrong.

Are you of the impression that vibhuthi folks are not pretentious ?

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 27 Jun 2014 12:38

Gus wrote: Ear rings??? Heh even I have one. Big deal.

These things are inevitable as young people have money and want to attract attention. I don't see anything wrong.

Are you of the impression that vibhuthi folks are not pretentious ?

Sounds like some people aren't accepting of people that look and act different from them.

From YogiG's list, looks like I'd fit most of it, except for a couple:

Yogi_G wrote: I came up with this list.
--------------------------------

How to be seen as "cool" in IT industry in India in ten easy steps. Become the cool dudes among your colleagues and leave the old fashioned Vibhootied guys behind.

1. Get a pony tail, this is the heights of coolness. Venture capitalists love programmers with pony tails (inspired by some old Dilbert cartoon).
Not any more, but I did have really long hair for a while. Had it loose though, rather than in a pony tail. The pony-tail look was only when I was wearing a full suit and meeting important people -- had to look presentable. Lost the long hair a few years ago, as it was taking too much maintenance. Maybe I'll go for that look again, who knows. Hey, it attracts women, for one thing.
2. Watch European league football and act like an European. Put up a flag of some western country or club in your cube.
Arsenal! I own a few t-shirts. Oh and Germany shirts as well.
3. Watch European football but get an American accent.
So do some of my American colleagues.
4. Never wear traditional clothing. God forbid! Wear a t-shirt with a nice western cool slang typed on it. Jeans forever!!
Yes, I'm dead scared of a wardrobe malfunction in a lungi or dhoti. Wore one only once in my life for a ceremony and never again (luckily, uncle tied it real tight and added a belt for extra safety). As for t-shirts/jeans, it was pretty much the standard in the neighborhood I grew up in Chennai (along with hawaii chappals). Wot to do onlee saar. I'm like this onlee
5. Live and die by Apple . Act like Steve Jobs's guardian angel at all times. Look down upon all things non-Apple and non-western.
This is one that I'm iffy about. I bought a mac because I got SHQ one first and liked the features it had (its battery life was way more than PCs of that time + it had a backlit keyboard and a remote control for presentations) and I wanted one to do some development by myself. I liked it because it was a *nix with a GUI that actually worked out of the box (stuff like perl, python and ruby were already installed -- actually looked into buying the mac because two different well known perl experts of my acquaintance were really enthusiastically describing their laptops and neither was a mac fanboy before either). Then SHQ's mac died and I gave her mine and I haven't got it back yet . Actually I live and die by Linux mostly. Oh, and OpenBSD as well. Call me elitist all you like, but at least I get my work done a lot faster.
6. Get a cool hippie western name. Indian names suck. Bring some western instrument to office like a Guitar and swear by Brahms.
My hippie western name was given to me by Tamils saar, when I was a child. Blame them for picking the nickname I guess. Pretty much everyone had a nickname in my neighborhood, so nothing unusual there. In any case, none of them could pronounce the name given to me by my parents correctly.
I own several guitars and like to play them once in a while (relaxes fingers which are typing all day long). Brahms?? Not my thing really. J.S. Bach or Mozart, now we're talking.
7. Avoid any association with religion especially if its Hinduism. Its too old fashioned a religion after all. Avoid Indian foods at all costs before colleagues. Always suggest Subway or McDonalds or KFC, never Saravana Bhavan or Ram Bhavan. They "suck" man!!
I'm agnostic. Take after my father that way. I avoid a lot of Indian food mainly because I ate a lot of it growing up and I can't stand most Bengali food any more (sorry, that's just the way it is). I'd kill for a good dosa any day though, as for me, it was kind of a "foreign" food that my friends ate.
8. Learn a bunch of cool words like "strategic management" and "synchronized cohesion" and flout it around.
Never. I'm avoiding turning into a management droid as much as I can.
9. Its cool to use swear words. The four letter words are God's gift to the programmer. Use in meetings makes it all the more cooler.
Normally, I'm the polite one in the office. I'll admit to letting off a few 4 letter words a few days ago, when I discovered that some uptight dude in another division had ended up screwing up an entire cluster of my servers and that was why I was up firefighting all weekend. My outburst was heard by the CTO walking outside my office and he was very surprised because this is the first time he's heard me swear in about 10 years . He actually came by later to offer his commiserations and make sure that I was OK, because he said he'd never heard me swear until then.

Guy that swears the most is actually a pukka vibuthi SDRE type. Only, he doesn't swear in English and he thinks I can't understand him.

10. Force listen to western music even if you don't understand a damndest word of it. It gets even better if you can have the name of the "band" typed on your tees (cool equivalent of t-shirts)
I listen to music that *I* like, who cares what other people think. Just because I'm SDRE doesn't mean I have to listen to robindro-sangeet or bollywood music. As for listening to music I don't quite understand, yes, I do listen to some Spanish and Scandinavian bands that sing in their own languages. In fact, last concert that I saw, I ended up purchasing a t-shirt from one of the bands that played in the gig, a band called Kvelertak that sings in Norwegian (check them out on youtube guys, they do a great combo of melodic heavy metal and punk rock. Really nice polite guys too). Incidentally, one of the other guys that went to the show with me is a pure veg. kannadiga guy.

So there you have it. Do I care what other people think? Not one bit. I'm not harming anyone and if they have a problem, I figure they can learn to deal with it.

SanjayC · Post by **SanjayC** » 27 Jun 2014 13:17

^^^ Most of the people who go for these fashions are not doing it due to genuine tastes, but putting up a show to exhibit their "coolness." There is a lot of "Yo man Yo!" kind of behaviour. It is all fake. Is it just a coincidence that all such people only follow whatever is fashionable at that time among Western teenagers, and won't touch any element of Indian culture with a barge pole?

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 27 Jun 2014 15:06

^ Well said.

I listen to Smooth jazz and lounge jazz all the time and have recently gotten into German industrial metal (exploring the neo-nazi types). I am Vibhootied yes. Are all vibhootied types super Sati? No!

I came up with that post after I saw lots of "cool dudes" taking up funny stuff just for the sake of being "cool". Its disgusting this, actually. Someone does things of genuine interest, good, fine none of my business, I dont compile lists! For the ones who don't do I have the right to compile my observations and clearly put them in a list mentioning that most of them are done out of compulsion to look "cool"? Very much yes!

And do I care if anyone is offended by my lists? Hell no (said in cool it dude style with Madras Tamil accent

)!

Long live genuine tastes, forced tastes murdaabaad!

Javee · Post by **Javee** » 27 Jun 2014 15:20

Yogi,
Ate Thalapakatti Biryani for lunch, couldnt get anything productive done, so prolonged the interview

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Jun 2014 15:21

do tambrahm and coorgi plantation purists drink straight coffee or coffee mixed with chicory powder?
does anyone in india drink black coffee?(it seems more a arabi and north african original idea?)

Javee · Post by **Javee** » 27 Jun 2014 15:37

All of our coffee powders have chicory mix in it. I have seen the older generation drinking black coffee (Karupatti Coffee), but that practice is almost dead now. I think because we add chicory, drinking black has not picked up here. I got some Colombian and Guatemalan stuff from UK, the coffee is rated "3", and it is smooth as silk.

vina · Post by **vina** » 27 Jun 2014 15:45

Singha wrote:do tambrahm and coorgi plantation purists drink straight coffee or coffee mixed with chicory powder?
does anyone in india drink black coffee?(it seems more a arabi and north african original idea?)

Dont know about Coorgis . For the other specimens, it is like this.

1) Kaapi Kottai (ie Coffee Seeds) have to be roasted
2) There is a hand operated Kapee Grinder, the kind that attaches to a ledge, and you turn a handle to crank it,and you grind the Kaapi.
3) The water has to be boiling, then you make Kaapi decoction, with the freshly ground coffee with some chicory added.
4) The milk has to be freshly milked from the cow and the milk boiling (purity checked with lactometer)
5) You mix the Kaapi and milk and toss it, until there is froth on top.

Only if you do all this, you get the apellation the Kumbakonam Degree Coffee. Strangely in Kumbakonam the last two time we visited, most places were serving tea and Coffee was Bru Coffee

. What sacrilege. With the Tam Brahms moving out en masse, the Kaapi culture too moved out I guess.

Kumbakonam Degree Coffee

Javee · Post by **Javee** » 27 Jun 2014 16:50

Degree coffee is now sold on the highways, some entrepreneurial guy has started a chain of coffee shops on the highways and some of them do serve the real deal in earthenware.

Rishirishi · Post by **Rishirishi** » 27 Jun 2014 17:08

Give the young dudes a break.

. Was like that my self at that age. One has to be cool, accepted in the group, attract the opposite sex and be "global" etc etc.

Once you have a wife, kids, and belly, all goes out the window

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 27 Jun 2014 17:14

SanjayC wrote:^^^ Most of the people who go for these fashions are not doing it due to genuine tastes, but putting up a show to exhibit their "coolness." There is a lot of "Yo man Yo!" kind of behaviour. It is all fake. Is it just a coincidence that all such people only follow whatever is fashionable at that time among Western teenagers, and won't touch any element of Indian culture with a barge pole?

Where do they learn all of this?

Another thing is many in India say "anyways" now.

It was never used in India till 1995.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 27 Jun 2014 17:17

KJoishy wrote:
SanjayC wrote:^^^ Most of the people who go for these fashions are not doing it due to genuine tastes, but putting up a show to exhibit their "coolness." There is a lot of "Yo man Yo!" kind of behaviour. It is all fake. Is it just a coincidence that all such people only follow whatever is fashionable at that time among Western teenagers, and won't touch any element of Indian culture with a barge pole?
Where do they learn all of this?

Another thing is many in India say "anyways" now. It was never used in India till 1995.

Add to the list the following words,

1. Whatever
2. OMG!
3. Yikes!
4. doooood

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One more to the list.

13. When in break room change the channel to star world and see "Big Bang theory" and keep laughing even if you dont understand a thing.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 27 Jun 2014 17:18

Singha wrote:do tambrahm and coorgi plantation purists drink straight coffee or coffee mixed with chicory powder?
does anyone in india drink black coffee?(it seems more a arabi and north african original idea?)

Coffee without chicory is sacrilege in my paternal side. 20% is ideal. Funny given that chicory is actually a adulterant but then its flavour became a staple and then a live-without ingredient.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 27 Jun 2014 17:29

My uncle, one of the greatest coffee connoisseurs I have known told me that never mix the milk and decoction and heat them together. It spoils the entire taste. Heat them separate and then mix them for the right warmth. Mix it quickly, get the foam in the milk and then consume quickly. Sugar needs to be in the "davara" and not in the cup, he says. He absolutely hates starbucks/cafe coffee day coffee. Strangely enough he procures the coffee powder from coffee day. Three places where I found coffee powder good were, all ratings by my uncle and self.

1. Vivekananda coffee powder in T.Nagar Chennai. Above average.
2. One beaten down shop in Indira Nagar Adyar which interestingly has a coffee day not far from it. Above average.
3. A shop near the clock tower at the beginning of Devraj Urs road in Mysore. Excellent.
----
4. I forget the name but this shops sits in the intersection point between bazullah road and panagal road. A relative used to get from there, rating not known.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 27 Jun 2014 17:32

Javee wrote:Degree coffee is now sold on the highways, some entrepreneurial guy has started a chain of coffee shops on the highways and some of them do serve the real deal in earthenware.

Most of them impersonators, fake and not the real deal. My Uncle went in search of the original place.

--------------

The fellow in Saravana Bhavan Lexington Avenue NY cheated me by giving me instant coffee and claimed it was filter coffee. On questioning if it was instant coffee he said since the chicory is more it feels like instant coffee

. My Mom gave him a piece of her mind.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 27 Jun 2014 20:29

i am a convert to black coffee and now i can never take coffee or tea with any sugar/milk/cream in it. no, i don't go to starbucks type shops either. just a bag from costco and a coffee maker at home is good enough to keep me coffee happy.

at work, it is usually green tea.

---

reg this coolness discussion.

i am pretty sure our dads were saying the same stuff about us and their dads about them etc. everyone goes through that phase of acting up to get attention. many grow out of it and then go on and get into some other pretentious stuff even into 30s. if a person can carry it well and is happy doing it - then that's all that matters.

during my time at india office, there were a lot of stuff what singha and yogi talk about...smile and move on onlee..

Comer · Post by **Comer** » 27 Jun 2014 20:32

I don't know what agile is, how is it different from prototyping? Prototyping helps to keep feet firmly on the ground.

Yogi_g is 20% standard? We too use the same ratio.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 27 Jun 2014 20:45

Nothing can bear awesome Mysore Filter Kaapi. Wah wah, this cappuccino, mocha, nonsense can't hold a candle to this.
This also reminds me of the By2Chaai we used to drink in the college canteen.

Comer · Post by **Comer** » 27 Jun 2014 21:17

^^ thanks for the explanation. Easier for me to understand since it is coming from someone who is passionate about it.

Javee · Post by **Javee** » 27 Jun 2014 23:17

Yogi_G wrote:
Javee wrote:Degree coffee is now sold on the highways, some entrepreneurial guy has started a chain of coffee shops on the highways and some of them do serve the real deal in earthenware.
Most of them impersonators, fake and not the real deal. My Uncle went in search of the original place.

--------------

The fellow in Saravana Bhavan Lexington Avenue NY cheated me by giving me instant coffee and claimed it was filter coffee. On questioning if it was instant coffee he said since the chicory is more it feels like instant coffee . My Mom gave him a piece of her mind.

There was this one place I tried on the NH-45 and it tasted good.

Saravana Bhavan coffee (in India) is not exactly instant coffee, they have pre made decotion that's in hot water, they will add it to sugar and milk. We used to get Mani's Coffee at work for free (same as above), plenty acidic, some number cruncher in the facilities decided that machine crap is good enough and they stopped giving us free filter coffee.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Jun 2014 08:46

We have free ccday machines at work and loose instant powder also.
somehow unable to stomach both.
the paid hatti kapi tastes better as they mix coffee soln and milk in the glass only in traditional style.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 28 Jun 2014 09:19

ArmenT dood. You are l33t man. Do some neck beard l33t speak from 1970-80 bell labs. That would be fun.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 28 Jun 2014 09:23

Gus I am thinking of getting diamond ear studs. Haven't told my spouse yet. I don't want I make any sudden moves lest her blood pressure goes up too much.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 28 Jun 2014 09:27

why this ear buds, nose picks and all onleee? Try vibhooti ambi, very good onlee.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 28 Jun 2014 09:49

I regularly meet this prof emeritus who is into his mid 70s, who sports ear studs, at the local temple. Fearless man with nary a "log Kay kahenge" thought. I do not agree with him on several things but respect his scholarship.

Javee · Post by **Javee** » 28 Jun 2014 13:47

You could try Anniyan style kudumi and stud, easy to change according to the situation.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 28 Jun 2014 16:24

Coffee powder in Chennai at least made up of the following

1) 50% Pea Berry roasted seeds
2) 50% Plantation A grade or Plantation B grade roasted seeds

The powder is grounded, some patrons add 25g chickory to it.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 28 Jun 2014 16:50

matrimc wrote:Gus I am thinking of getting diamond ear studs. Haven't told my spouse yet. I don't want I make any sudden moves lest her blood pressure goes up too much.

Go for it. But get a knockoff first and see if you like it and then buy diamond. Personally - I am against diamonds because of the cartel and exploitation in africa. Had to weather a lot of fights and whining from wife initially, but now she too understands and accepts.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 28 Jun 2014 22:05

Infosys Loses Another Top Executive as K Murali Krishna Quits

"We can confirm that he has moved on to pursue his aspirations," Infosys said in response to a query by PTI.

Picklu · Post by **Picklu** » 01 Jul 2014 01:13

On Coffee, I am with Yogi_G, anything less than 20% Chicory is not worth drinking.

That tattoo on my right arm is mostly mid life crisis though ... sala, Harley costs too much

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 04 Jul 2014 11:45

Some one had posted a link which talks about many IT-Vity project managers now going for re-skilling and going back to coding. Can any one share that link again please?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 04 Jul 2014 14:34

I did
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... 170497.cms