January 29, 2009

Joke!

An Israeli doctor says, 'Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and has him looking for work in six weeks.

A German doctor says that is nothing; we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks.

The Russian doctor says, 'In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks.

An American Texas doctor, not to be outdone, says 'You guys are way behind, we took a man with no brains out of Texas, put him in the White House for eight years, and now half the country is looking for work.

January 27, 2009

Ten trends Indian IT services cos must catch

Ten trends Indian IT services cos must catch

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The last ten years were years of numbers and figures for the Indian IT services industry. And as the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) President Som Mittal will tell you, they were years to project numbers and weave a strategy to get to those numbers.

“But the next decade will be structurally different. It will be more about making a change rather than following a change,” he says. With the change in business and economic landscape, IT companies will need a different tool-kit to retain the edge from here on.

Indian players can never forget that out of the total addressable offshoring market of $380 billion, less than 15 per cent has been penetrated. What are the trends that the Indian IT industry needs to catch in order to ride the next decade of growth for the software services market? Read on

 

Rogue rupee and currency fluctuation

The recent yo-yoing Re-$ relationship has been giving the Indian IT industry sleepless nights. But, it has brought with it newer learning as well.

Companies for the first time, have started talking about reducing inefficiencies from the system and increasing employee productivity. The era of mind-boggling recruitment numbers is passe.

Companies are handing out pink slips to non-performers and more efficiencies are being built into the system.

The likes of TCS and Patni have come out into the open and said that non-productive resources are not welcome into the chain. The lessons in hedging currency risks, if learned, now will stand the sector a lot of good in future.

Companies will always try to stretch their dollar

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Irrespective of the outcome of the forthcoming US elections, outsourcing will always find favour there as the dollar is already stretched and for every company it makes sense to get more from each dollar invested.

Even though the economic slump may put pressures on fresh investments which constitute only 30 per cent of an average company’s technology budget, the other 70 per cent will always be open to outsourcing for better utilization of resources.

The argument is substantiated by the fact that even in these times of depression; multi-million dollar deals are being signed.

Also, while the expected tech-spent in sectors like financial services and banking will wane, other sectors like manufacturing and healthcare will

India is on the right side of the demographic divide

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According to US Census Bureau International Data, out of a total projected population of 90 million people in the younger working ages (15-29) population between 2005-25, India will contribute nearly 30 million people.

So there is little doubt that India will continue to be the hub of global human resource activity and will have enough people to fill in the demand supply mis-match.

There will be a structural shifts in demographies and this will reflect more importantly in international trade and economics. Is India ready to ride the wave?

Wage inflation & attrition

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The economic slowdown has been good for the Indian IT industry in more ways than one way.

It may eventually lead to more business being outsourced but more importantly, it has lead to moderation of the salary inflation and attrition woes.

With fresh recruitments slowing down, it has already become impossible for employees to hop between jobs for a better remuneration. But the trend may reverse with time.

It is for Indian companies to make the most of this downturn and stabilize their processes and bring in efficiencies into their working.

 

All the low-end processes will eventually get automated

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The trend has already begun. Some of the low-end work that was flowing into India is being automated to accomplish cost cutting.

But that in itself has thrown up a new opportunity where the country can take a lead in automating such processes for companies.

Technology evolution and adoption will witness some disruptive changes as the internet generation takes over the workforce.

India can leapfrog technologies to play leadership role in the next technological lifestyle wave

Technology adoption in domestic market will fuel demand

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The increasing demand in the domestic markets will put further pressure on the supply of skilled manpower.

Though on a smaller base, the domestic market has continued to gain momentum.

It has grown 26 per cent in INR terms in FY08.

Other countries have aspirations too

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As India moves, others are moving too. There are countries that have better competencies to service certain markets due to language skills and accessibility.

India can lose major markets to budding ITES powers like China.

Indian revenues from Europe have grown by 30 per cent but there are a larger number of contenders for pies like Continental Europe and Japan.

 

Language skills will decide who walks away with biz

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English is only a means to the end and not the end.

Indian IT services companies cannot enter new markets and crack markets like Japan and Continental Europe, Germany or Japan if the language skills do not match the demands in these nations.

So the sector has to gear up its language competencies.

 

Demand will not be a constraint, but supply will

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Does India have enough people to service global demand? The industry is fanatically trying to reduce the 16 week training period that companies have to factor in while recruiting new people by including it in course curricula of various colleges. This would make the candidates directly employable.

The industry is employing 2 million people directly, with over 1.5 million people in the export sector. While the IT services exports grew 28 per cent in 07-08, the employment grew by an average of 26 per cent.

Extrapolating the figure into the future, the manpower requirement will be huge both for direct as well as indirect employment.

Demand for offshore delivery will remain strong; 1 in 4 CIOs expect to increase their offshore spending over the next year, while 70 per cent expect to maintain thir current levels, according to a recent survey. So

 

Second and third tier cities need to catch the IT fever

Presently 85 per cent of software services activity is happening out of the top seven centres in India.

But Nasscom has now identified 50 centres in total which can be beefed up to match the growing demand.

The focus is on shifting the urban pressures in the existing centres and catalyzing development of social infrastructure in other deserving cities.

This is also a necessity to keep cost overheads under control given the rising real estate costs and salary inflation.

 

 

 

January 22, 2009

HOW TO KILL A LION!! THE IT WAY!!

T O KILL A LION COMPANIES FOLLOW THE FOLLOWING METHODS:



Cognizant Method:
hire a lion... ask him to stay for late nights but give him no work to do.
give him gobi 65 to eat again and again.
hire 100 more lions but do not increase the space to sit
give them same gobi 65 to eat
hire 200 more....... and more ......

TCS method:

hire a lion
give him hell a lot of work and pay him government salary
lion dies of hunger and frustration


IBM's metbod:

hire a lion, give him a pink slip in an hour ...
he dies of unemployment...

Syntel Method:-

Hire a Cat ..
assure him that he will eventually become a Lion once he reaches onsite and
make sure that he never reaches onsite.
Cat dies in hope of becoming a Lion....

MBT method:

hire the lion, make him take 14 tests and tell him that if he doesn't score 60% he will lose the job.
lion dies of the strain?

i-Flex method:

hire a lion???.oops cow, tell him he is a lion, send him in African safari
for implementing flexcube in god forbidden territories, tell him if he comes
alive he will get band movement (promotion)
holy cow dies in fear of the real lion

COSL Method:

hire a lion .
tell him to merge with Goats (polaris) and reduce his allowance...
lion dies from fear that tommorrow he might become a goat....

Polaris Method :

hire ..sorry....purchase a lion(COSL) ..
change his timings...(instead of 9 AM ...change it to 8:30 AM )
cut down his allowance (coupons etc)
lion dies from fear of becoming CAT.....


Patni method:

hire a lion, give him a salary of a cat...
the lion dies before joining....


Wipro Method:

Hire a Lion,
give him a mail Id.
he will die recieving stupid mails all day........!!!!

Accenture Method:


Hire a lion....
Send him to chennai

Ask him to stay on bench for a long time
Ask him to eat idli,Dosa and Vada

No hindi, kannada or no other languages speaking ppl other than TAMIL...
No good food, No water..and specially No Beautiful girls
And say him "Go Ahead be a Tiger".

Lion dies in confusion he is Tiger or lion......


HUAWEI
Method:

Hire a Cat; give him a salary of a Lion...
Give him work of 3 Lions
Tell him to work late and even on weekends...
No time for food and family, automatically die

Satyam way :


hire a cat....Treat him as a Lion
send him to hyderabad to show the empire .
give him hell a lot of work and pay him peanuts.
later ..come to know company is fraud..
CEO sacked....got arrested..company got blacklisted
lion dies from shock and trauma.....




THE LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST

INFOSYS METHOD:

HIRE A LION.....

SEND HIM FOR TRAINING IN MYSORE AND MAKE HIM FEEL LIKE

...................................................KING OF THE JUNGLE!
J
MAKE HIM TAKE GENERIC COMPREE EXAM
............................................LION TURNS INTO CAT

MAKE HIM TAKE STREAM COMPREE EXAM
..................................................CAT TURNS INTO A MOUSE

SEND HIM INTO PRODUCTION WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WID HE LEARNED IN TRNG

..........................................MOUSE RUNS HERE AND THERE FOR HELP!!!

SEND HIM MAILS TELLING ABOUT MANDATORY CERTIFICATIONS

................................................MOUSE COMMITS SUICIDE
... :-) :-) :-)



ForwardSourceID:NT00001942


ForwardSourceID:NT00001F32

ForwardSourceID:NT00000FBE    
ForwardSourceID:NT00003112    

 

January 21, 2009

ATM Alertings

FYI (Not sure if this is true…… but cool approach…)

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

 

If you are ever forced by a thief or  someone to take money out of an ATM machine, enter your pin number  reversed.

So if your number is 1254 mark 4521.

The ATM machine will give  you your money, but will automatically recognize this as a plea for help and  will alert the police unknown to the thief.

This option is in all ATM  machines, but not many people know this.

Please pass this information on to  others. No harm in keeping this in mind!!

A Small Story - an excellent Moral

A Small Story…

A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The girl had some sweets with her. The boy told the girl that he will give her all his marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed.

The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised.

That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble.

 

Moral of the story: If you don’t give your hundred percent in a relationship, you’ll always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her hundred percent.. This is applicable for any relationship like love, employer-employee relationship etc., Give your hundred percent to everything you do and sleep peacefully Smile

January 16, 2009

Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Mistakes

Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Mistakes

I don't usually do news and current events here, but I'm making an exception for the CWE/SANS Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors list. This one is important, and deserves a wide audience, so I'm repeating it here -- along with a brief hand-edited summary of each error.

If you work on software in any capacity, at least skim this list. I encourage you to click through for greater detail on anything you're not familiar with, or that piques your interest.

  1. Improper Input Validation
    Ensure that your input is valid. If you're expecting a number, it shouldn't contain letters. Nor should the price of a new car be allowed to be a dollar. Incorrect input validation can lead to vulnerabilities when attackers can modify their inputs in unexpected ways. Many of today's most common vulnerabilities can be eliminated, or at least reduced, with strict input validation.
  2. Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output
    Insufficient output encoding is at the root of most injection-based attacks. An attacker can modify the commands that you intend to send to other components, possibly leading to a complete compromise of your application - not to mention exposing the other components to exploits that the attacker would not be able to launch directly. When your program generates outputs to other components in the form of structured messages such as queries or requests, be sure to separate control information and metadata from the actual data.
  3. Failure to Preserve SQL Query Structure (aka 'SQL Injection')
    If attackers can influence the SQL that you send to your database, they can modify the queries to steal, corrupt, or otherwise change your underlying data. If you use SQL queries in security controls such as authentication, attackers could alter the logic of those queries to bypass security.
  4. Failure to Preserve Web Page Structure (aka 'Cross-site Scripting')
    Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a result of combining the stateless nature of HTTP, the mixture of data and script in HTML, lots of data passing between web sites, diverse encoding schemes, and feature-rich web browsers. If you're not careful, attackers can inject Javascript or other browser-executable content into a web page that your application generates. Your web page is then accessed by other users, whose browsers execute that malicious script as if it came from you -- because, after all, it did come from you! Suddenly, your web site is serving code that you didn't write. The attacker can use a variety of techniques to get the input directly into your server, or use an unwitting victim as the middle man.
  5. Failure to Preserve OS Command Structure (aka 'OS Command Injection')
    Your software acts as a bridge between an outsider on the network and the internals of your operating system. When you invoke another program on the operating system, and you allow untrusted inputs to be fed into the command string, you are inviting attackers into your operating system.
  6. Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information
    Information sent across a network crosses many different nodes in transit to its final destination. If your software sends sensitive, private data or authentication credentials, beware: attackers could sniff them right off the wire. All they need to do is control one node along the path to the final destination, any node within the same networks of those transit nodes, or plug into an available interface. Obfuscating traffic using schemes like Base64 and URL encoding offers no protection.
  7. Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
    Cross-site request forgery is like accepting a package from a stranger -- except the attacker tricks a user into activating a HTTP request "package" that goes to your site. The user might not even be aware that the request is being sent, but once the request gets to your server, it looks as if it came from the user -- not the attacker. The attacker has masqueraded as a legitimate user and gained all the potential access that the user has. This is especially handy when the user has administrator privileges, resulting in a complete compromise of your application's functionality.
  8. Race Condition
    A race condition involves multiple processes in which the attacker has full control over one process; the attacker exploits the process to create chaos, collisions, or errors. Data corruption and denial of service are the norm. The impact can be local or global, depending on what the race condition affects - such as state variables or security logic - and whether it occurs within multiple threads, processes, or systems.
  9. Error Message Information Leak
    Chatty error messages can disclose secrets to any attacker who misuses your software. The secrets could cover a wide range of valuable data, including personally identifiable information (PII), authentication credentials, and server configuration. They might seem like harmless secrets useful to your users and admins, such as the full installation path of your software -- but even these little secrets can greatly simplify a more concerted attack.
  10. Failure to Constrain Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer
    The scourge of C applications for decades, buffer overflows have been remarkably resistant to elimination. Attack and detection techniques continue to improve, and today's buffer overflow variants aren't always obvious at first or even second glance. You may think that you're completely immune to buffer overflows because you write your code in higher-level languages instead of C. But what is your favorite "safe" language's interpreter written in? What about the native code you call? What languages are the operating system API's written in? How about the software that runs Internet infrastructure?
  11. External Control of Critical State Data
    If you store user state data in a place where an attacker can modify it, this reduces the overhead for a successful compromise. Data could be stored in configuration files, profiles, cookies, hidden form fields, environment variables, registry keys, or other locations, all of which can be modified by an attacker. In stateless protocols such as HTTP, some form of user state information must be captured in each request, so it is exposed to an attacker out of necessity. If you perform any security-critical operations based on this data (such as stating that the user is an administrator), then you can bet that somebody will modify the data in order to trick your application.
  12. External Control of File Name or Path
    When you use an outsider's input while constructing a filename, the resulting path could point outside of the intended directory. An attacker could combine multiple ".." or similar sequences to cause the operating system to navigate out of the restricted directory. Other file-related attacks are simplified by external control of a filename, such as symbolic link following, which causes your application to read or modify files that the attacker can't access directly. The same applies if your program is running with raised privileges and it accepts filenames as input. Similar rules apply to URLs and allowing an outsider to specify arbitrary URLs.
  13. Untrusted Search Path
    Your software depends on you, or its environment, to provide a search path (or working path) to find critical resources like code libraries or configuration files. If the search path is under attacker control, then the attacker can modify it to point to resources of the attacker's choosing.
  14. Failure to Control Generation of Code (aka 'Code Injection')
    While it's tough to deny the sexiness of dynamically-generated code, attackers find it equally appealing. It becomes a serious vulnerability when your code is directly callable by unauthorized parties, if external inputs can affect which code gets executed, or if those inputs are fed directly into the code itself.
  15. Download of Code Without Integrity Check
    If you download code and execute it, you're trusting that the source of that code isn't malicious. But attackers can modify that code before it reaches you. They can hack the download site, impersonate it with DNS spoofing or cache poisoning, convince the system to redirect to a different site, or even modify the code in transit as it crosses the network. This scenario even applies to cases in which your own product downloads and installs updates.
  16. Improper Resource Shutdown or Release
    When your system resources have reached their end-of-life, you dispose of them: memory, files, cookies, data structures, sessions, communication pipes, and so on. Attackers can exploit improper shutdown to maintain control over those resources well after you thought you got rid of them. Attackers may sift through the disposted items, looking for sensitive data. They could also potentially reuse those resources.
  17. Improper Initialization
    If you don't properly initialize your data and variables, an attacker might be able to do the initialization for you, or extract sensitive information that remains from previous sessions. If those variables are used in security-critical operations, such as making an authentication decision, they could be modified to bypass your security. This is most prevalent in obscure errors or conditions that cause your code to inadvertently skip initialization.
  18. Incorrect Calculation
    When attackers have control over inputs to numeric calculations, math errors can have security consequences. It might cause you to allocate far more resources than you intended - or far fewer. It could violate business logic (a calculation that produces a negative price), or cause denial of service (a divide-by-zero that triggers a program crash).
  19. Improper Access Control (Authorization)
    If you don't ensure that your software's users are only doing what they're allowed to, then attackers will try to exploit your improper authorization and exercise that unauthorized functionality.
  20. Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic Algorithm
    Grow-your-own cryptography is a welcome sight to attackers. Cryptography is hard. If brilliant mathematicians and computer scientists worldwide can't get it right -- and they're regularly obsoleting their own techniques -- then neither can you.
  21. Hard-Coded Password
    Hard-coding a secret account and password into your software is extremely convenient -- for skilled reverse engineers. If the password is the same across all your software, then every customer becomes vulnerable when that password inevitably becomes known. And because it's hard-coded, it's a huge pain to fix.
  22. Insecure Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
    Beware critical programs, data stores, or configuration files with default world-readable permissions. While this issue might not be considered during implementation or design, it should be. Don't require your customers to secure your software for you! Try to be secure by default, out of the box.
  23. Use of Insufficiently Random Values
    You may depend on randomness without even knowing it, such as when generating session IDs or temporary filenames. Pseudo-Random Number Generators (PRNG) are commonly used, but a variety of things can go wrong. Once an attacker can determine which algorithm is being used, he can guess the next random number often enough to launch a successful attack after a relatively small number of tries.
  24. Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
    Your software may need special privileges to perform certain operations; wielding those privileges longer than necessary is risky. When running with extra privileges, your application has access to resources that the application's user can't directly reach. Whenever you launch a separate program with elevated privileges, attackers can potentially exploit those privileges.
  25. Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security
    Don't trust the client to perform security checks on behalf of your server. Attackers can reverse engineer your client and write their own custom clients. The consequences will vary depending on what your security checks are protecting, but some of the more common targets are authentication, authorization, and input validation.

Of course there's nothing truly new here; I essentially went over the same basic list in Sins of Software Security almost two years ago. The only difference is the relative priorities, as web applications start to dominate mainstream computing.

This list of software security mistakes serves the same purpose as McConnell's list of classic development mistakes: to raise awareness. A surprisingly large part of success is recognizing the most common mistakes and failure modes. So you can -- at least in theory -- realize when your project is slipping into one of them. Ignorance is the biggest software project killer of them all.

Heck, even if you are aware of these security mistakes, you might end up committing them anyway. I know I have.

Have you?

Pig and the index finger

First-year students at Texas A & M's Vet school were attending their first Anatomy class, with a real dead pig.

They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered with a White sheet. The professor started the class by telling them, 'In Veterinary Medicine it is necessary to have two important qualities as a Doctor: The first is that you not be disgusted by anything involving the Animal body'. For an example, the Professor pulled back the sheet, touched his finger in the mouth of the dead pig, withdrew it and put his Finger in his mouth. 'Go ahead and do the same thing,' he told his students.

The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes. But eventually took turns putting their finger in the mouth of the dead pig and tasted in their mouth.

When everyone finished, the Professor looked at them and said, 'The Second most important quality is observation. I touched with my middle Finger and tasted on my index finger. Now learn to pay attention…

Moral of the story:

Life is tough, but it’s a lot tougher when you’re stupid. – John wayne

 
 

 

Working Late...?...Must Read

Am not sure whether this is sent by Narayan Murthy or not… but the content is good… J

 

Mail sent by Narayan Murthy to all Infosys staff:

It's half past 8 in the office but the lights are still on...
PCs still running, coffee machines still buzzing...
And who's at work? Most of them ??? Take a closer look...

All or most specimens are ??
Something male species of the human race...

Look closer... again all or most of them are bachelors...

And why are they sitting late? Working hard? No way!!!
Any guesses???
Let's ask one of them...
Here's what he says... "What's there 2 do after going home...Here we get to surf, AC, phone, food, coffee that is why I am working late...Importantly no bossssssss!!!!!!!!!!!"

This is the scene in most research centers and software companies and other off-shore offices.

Bachelors "Time-passing" during late hours in the office just bcoz they say they've nothing else to do...
Now what r the consequences...

"Working" (for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the institute or company culture.

With bosses more than eager to provide support to those "working" late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good feedback, (oh, he's a hard worker... goes home only to change...!!).
They aren't helping things too...

To hell with bosses who don't understand the difference between "sitting" late and "working" late!!!

Very soon, the boss start expecting all employees to put in extra working hours.

So, My dear Bachelors let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family... office is no longer a priority, family is... and
That's when the problem starts... b'coz u start having commitments at home too.

For your boss, the earlier "hardworking" guy suddenly seems to become a "early leaver" even if u leave an hour after regular time... after doing the same amount of work.

People leaving on time after doing their tasks for the day are labelled as work-shirkers...

Girls who thankfully always (its changing nowadays... though) leave on time are labelled as "not up to it". All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on "working" not realizing that they r spoiling the work culture at their own place and never realize that they would have to regret at one point of time.

So what's the moral of the story??  
* Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!!
* Never put in extra time " unless really needed "
* Don't stay back unnecessarily and spoil your company work culture which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues.

There are hundred other things to do in the evening..

Learn music...

Learn a foreign language...

Try a sport... TT, cricket.........

Importantly,get a girl friend or boy friend, take him/her around town...

* And for heaven's sake, net cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low (plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change.

Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: *"Life's calling, where are you??"*

Please pass on this message to all those colleagues and please do it before leaving time, don't stay back till midnight to forward this!!!

IT'S A TYPICAL INDIAN MENTALITY THAT WORKING FOR LONG HOURS MEANS VERY HARD WORKING & 100% COMMITMENT ETC.

PEOPLE WHO REGULARLY SIT LATE IN THE OFFICE DON'T KNOW TO MANAGE THEIR TIME. SIMPLE !

Regards,
NARAYAN MURTHY.

 

January 12, 2009

Thought for the Day

Don’t be disappointed if the world refuses to help you. Because Einstein once said - 'I'm thankful to all those  who said 'NO'. Its because of them I did it myself.

January 9, 2009

A very nice article ( Life)--abt JRD - pls DO READ IT, wonderfull

HI,

It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and
Gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in
my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies' hostel.
Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of
Science.

I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in
Computer science. I had been offered scholarships from Universities
in the US. I had not thought of taking up a job in India .

One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall
complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a
standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile companyTelco (now Tata Motors).
It stated that the company required young, bright engineers,
hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc.

At the bottom was a small line: "Lady candidates need not apply."

I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up
against gender discrimination.

Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a challenge.
I Had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male
peers. Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence
is not enough to be successful.

After reading the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to
inform the topmost person in Telco's management about the injustice
the company was perpetrating.
I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a
problem: I did not know who headed Telco.

I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head
of The Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually,
Sumant Moolgaokar was the company's chairman then). I took the card,
addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember
clearly what I wrote.

"The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people who
started the basic infrastructure industries in India , such as iron
and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives. They have cared for
higher Education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for
the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I
study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is
discriminating on the basis of gender."

I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I
received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at
Telco's Pune facility at the company's expense. I was taken aback by
the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the opportunity to
go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for
cheap!
I collected Rs 30 each from everyone who wanted a sari. When I look
back, I feel like laughing at the reasons for my going, but back
then they seemed good enough to make the trip.

It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with
the city.

To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as
I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my life in so many
ways. As directed, I went to Telco's Pimpri office for the
interview.

There were six people on the panel and I realised then that this was
serious business.

"This is the girl who wrote to JRD," I heard somebody whisper as
soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not
get the job. The realisation abolished all fear from my mind, so I
was rather cool while The interview was being conducted.

Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased,
so I told them, rather impolitely, "I hope this is only a technical
interview."

They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed
about My attitude. The panel asked me technical questions and I
answered all of them.

Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, "Do
you Know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is
that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is
not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics,
you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people
like you should work in research laboratories. "

I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a
limited place. I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and
their difficulties, so I answered, "But you must start somewhere,
otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories."

Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful.
So This was what the future had in store for me. Never had I thought
I would Take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from Karnataka
there, we became good friends and we got married.

It was only after joining Telco that I realized who JRD was: the
Uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not
get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay ..
One day I had to show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman,
who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on The first floor of
Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in.
That was the first time I saw "appro JRD". Appro means "our" in
Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay
House called him.

I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM
Introduced me nicely, "Jeh (that's what his close associates called
him), this Young woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate.
She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor." JRD looked
at me . I was praying he would not ask me any questions about my
interview (or the postcard that preceded it).

Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he remarked. "It is nice that girls
are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is
your name?"

"When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir," I replied. "Now I
am Sudha Murthy." He smiled and kindly smile and started a
discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room.

After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group
chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had
in common. I was In awe of him.

One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after
office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did
not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that
postcard. Looking back, I realise JRD had forgotten about it. It
must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me.

"Young lady, why are you here?" he asked. "Office time is over." I
said, "Sir, I'm waiting for my husband to come and pick me up." JRD
said, "It Is getting dark and there's no one in the corridor. I'll
wait with you till your husband comes."

I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting
alongside made me extremely uncomfortable.

I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore
a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing.
There wasn't any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, "Look
at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our
country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee."

Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, "Young
lady, Tell your husband never to make his wife wait again."
In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go,
but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of
Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw JRD
coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to
him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused.

Gently, he said, "So what are you doing, Mrs Kulkarni?" (That was
the Way he always addressed me.) "Sir, I am leaving Telco."

"Where are you going?" he asked. "Pune, Sir. My husband is starting
a company called Infosys and I'm shifting to Pune."

"Oh! And what will you do when you are successful."

"Sir, I don't know whether we will be successful."
"Never start with diffidence," he advised me. "Always start with
confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society.
Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the
best."

Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what
seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive.
Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House,
occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet
memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, "It was nice
hearing about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he's not alive to
see you today."

I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy
person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking
justice. He must have received thousands of letters everyday. He
could have thrown mine away, but he didn't do that. He respected the
intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor
money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely
give her a job; he changed her life and
mindset forever.

Close to 50 per cent of the students in today's engineering colleges
are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry
segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time
stops and asks me What I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were
alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would
have enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

My love and respect for the House of Tata remains undiminished by
the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role
model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care
he took of his employees. Those blue eyes always reminded me of the
sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence.

(Sudha Murthy is a widely published writer and chairperson of the
Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social development
initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy is her husband.)

Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special
Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to
commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29,
2004.

 

 

January 7, 2009

Handbook 2009

Health:


1.       Drink plenty of water.
2.       Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3.       Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4.       Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5.       Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer.
6.       Play more games.
7.       Read more books than you did in 2008.
8.       Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9.       Sleep for 7 hours.
10.    Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:


11.    Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12.    Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13.    Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14.    Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15.    Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16.    Dream more while you are awake.
17.    Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18.    Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19.    Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20.    Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21.    No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22.    Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23.    Smile and laugh more.
24.    You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:


25.    Call your family often.
26.    Each day give something good to others.
27.    Forgive everyone for everything.
28.    Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29.    Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30.    What other people think of you is none of your business.
31.    Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:


32.    Do the right thing!
33.    Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34.    GOD heals everything.
35.    However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36.    No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37.    The best is yet to come.
38.    When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39.    Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.


Last but not the least:


40.    Please Forward this to everyone you care about
.

January 6, 2009

Really heart toching

Dear All
 
While a man was polishing his new car, his 4 yr old son picked stone  & scratched lines on the side of the car.
In anger, the man took the child's hand & hit it  many times, not realizing he was using a wrench.
At the hospital, the child lost all his fingers due  to multiple fractures. When the child saw his father....with painful eyes he  asked 'Dad when will my fingers grow back?'
Man was so hurt and speechless. He went back to car and kicked it a lot  of times. Devastated by his own actions...... sitting in front of that car he  looked at the scratches, child had written 'LOVE YOU DAD'. The next day that man  committed suicide. . .
Anger and  Love have no limits, Choose the latter to have a beautiful & lovely life  ....
 
 
Always remember that:
 
Things are  to be used and people are to be loved,
 
but the problem in today's world is that, People are used and things are  loved.......

January 2, 2009

Can u read this

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid, too. 
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe tuo fo 100 anc.
 
 


i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.
 
 
 
 
If you can read this, your brain is 50% faster than those who can't
 

Effects of handphones on infants and adults

True  Story


This morning I  heard a true and sad story from a colleague of  mine. She told me one of her  friends is always having abortions.

 

When the  foetus gets to be 2-3 months old she loses it. This happened several times over.  The couple went to check with many doctors and at last one of the doctors  examined the dead baby and found that the baby's body cells kept dying as the  baby was growing in the womb until he/she could not survive. This was because  her uterus was affected by Handphone Radiation.

The doctor told her, she  now has no chance to give birth to a healthy baby because the radiation has  affected her uterus so that the major portion of the cells in her uterus have  already died.

This happened because she has been keeping her hand phone  in her working jacket so that the phone rested against just on the right spot of  the uterus. She had been wearing it like this for a few years.

 

                                                                   
Please beware  of this and take note if you don't want what has happened to this woman to  happen to you.

Dearest  friends & family members,

Please do not ignore hand phone radiation which will  damage our health or body organs. Please put away your hand phone whenever you  don't need it much.

Guys,  Please do not keep your hand phone near to the kidney position and pants pocket  as this will damage your genital area and affect your ability to father a  baby.

The other doctor also  advised another friend to keep her hand phone away from her new born baby to  avoid radiation damage to the baby's brain cells.

Do not let the baby or toddler play with the hand  phone. This is because the small young baby or toddler is still very fragile and  growing, so he/she is much more vulnerable to radiation  damage.

 

Please  remember not to sleep together with your hand phone or put it next to your  bed.

 

 Keep any  other electronic goods (such as tvs) which also give off radiation away from  your bedroom to reduce risk as we have to sleep a few hours every day in our  bedroom at night.


     Further, do not imagine that if you switch off the TV there will be no  radiation. Actually it is still around in your room.

        It is not  advisable to have even a small digital alarm clock close to your head while  sleeping.

                               Take  Care of yourself and your loved ones.

 

 

PERFORMANCE & not POSITION

Position or Performance?


A Priest dies & is awaiting his turn in line at the Heaven's Gates. Ahead of him is a guy, nattily dressed, in dark sun glasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket & jeans.

God asks him: Please tell me who are you, so that I may know whether to admit you into the kingdom of Heaven or not?

The guy replies: I am Johhny J., taxi driver from New York !

God consults his ledger, smiles & says to Johhny J.: Please take this silken robe & gold scarf & enter the Kingdom of Heaven ..

Now it is the priest's turn. He stands erect and speaks out in a booming voice: I am Pope's Assistant so & so, Head Priest of the so & so Church for the last 40 years.

God consults his ledger & says to the Priest: Please take this cotton robe & enter the Kingdom of Heaven ...

'Just a minute,' says the agonized Priest. 'How is it that a foul mouthed, rash driving Taxi Driver is given a Silken robe & a Golden scarf and me, a Priest, who's spent his whole life preaching your Name & goodness has to make do with a Cotton robe?'



'Results my friend, results,' shrugs God.



'While you preached, people SLEPT; but when he drove his taxi, people PRAYED.' J J


Moral of the story: It's PERFORMANCE & not POSITION that ultimately counts.

 

 

 

Good one!!!!!

While visiting India, George Bush is invited to tea with Abdul Kalam. He

Asks Kalam what his leadership philosophy is. He says that, it is to

Surround him with intelligent people.



Bush asks how he knows if they're intelligent. "I do so by asking them the

right questions," says the Kalam. "Allow me to demonstrate. "



Bush watches as Kalam phones Manmohan Singh and says, "Mr. Prime Minister,

please answer this question:



Your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not

your brother or sister. Who is it?"



-



-



-



-



-



-



-



-





Scroll down



-




-



-



-



-



-



-



-



-





- Manmohan immediately responds, "It's me, Sir!"



"Correct. Thank you and good-bye, sir," says Kalam.



He hangs up and says, "Did you get that, Mr. Bush?"



Bush nods: "Yes Mr. President. Thanks a lot. I'll definitely be using

that!"



Bush, upon returning to Washington, decides he'd better put Condoleezza

Rice

to the test.



Bush summons her to the White House and says, "Condoleezza, I wonder if you

can answer a question for me."



"Why, of course, sir. What's on your mind?"



Bush poses the question: "Uhh, your mother has a child, and your father has

a child, and this child is not your brother or your sister. Who is it?"



Rice was puzzled and finally asks, "Can I think about it and get back to

you?" Bush agrees, and Rice leaves.



Rice immediately calls a meeting of senior senators, and they puzzle over

the question for several hours, but nobody can come up with an answer.



Finally, in desperation, Rice calls Colin Powell and explains the problem.



"Mr. Powell, your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this

child is not your brother or your sister.



Who is it?"



Powell answers immediately, "It's me, of course."



Much relieved Rice rushes back to the White House, finds George Bush, and

exclaims, "I know the answer, sir! I know who it is! It's







-







our Colin Powell !"



And Bush replies in disgust, "Wrong, it's



-Manmohan Singh!"

 

 

 

WeddingQuery........ ........ (SQL Style)

HUSBANDS QUERY

CREATE PROCEDURE
Marriage (
Bridegroom Male (25) ,
Bride Female(20) )

AS
BEGIN


SELECT
Bride FROM india_ Brides
WHERE FatherInLaw = 'Millionaire'

AND Count(Car) > 20 AND HouseStatus ='ThreeStoreyed'
AND BrideEduStatus IN (B.TECH ,BE ,Degree ,MCA ,MBA) AND Having Brothers= Null

AND Sisters =Null



SELECT Gold ,Cash,Car,BankBalance

FROM FatherInLaw

UPDATE MyBankAccout

SET MyBal = MyBal + FatherInLawBal


UPDATE MyLocker

SET MyLockerContents = MyLockerContents + FatherInLawGold


INSERT INTO MyCarShed VALUES('BMW')


END
GO

Then the wife writes the below query:

DROP HUSBAND;
Commit;

 

January 1, 2009

Wish you Happy New Year

Hi,

Oh my Dear, Forget ur Fear,
Let all ur Dreams be Clear,
Never put Tear, Please Hear,
I want to tell one thing in ur Ear
Wishing u a very "Happy NEW YEAR"!

Like birds, let us,
leave behind what we don't need to carry...
GRUDGES SADNESS PAIN FEAR and REGRETS.
Life is beautiful, Enjoy it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
Happy New Year 2009

Before the golden sun sets,
2008's calender is destroyed,
And mobile networks get jammed,
I wish in 2009 every moment is enjoyed

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