Does it pay to switch jobs ?

Since March 2010, we’ve seen a lot of clients wanting work done. And unfortunately we’ve seen a lot of our colleagues putting in their papers. In other words, in 2008 and 2009, when we had all of these qualified people, there was not too much work. And when, there’s work, the people have left. Ironical, but logical. They stayed when there were no opportunities. But now that the economy is improving, companies that never offered them an opportunity, are queuing up to grab the trained talent.  But this post is not about that aspect. I’m sure our company like other companies facing these issues, will emerge stronger and healthier. This is about the people switching. Does it make sense for them ?

I believe not. And the reasons are very simple. In most cases, people are leaving for what they call “Better Opportunities”. And when asked to define these, they would have just 1 parameter. And that is “Money”. There is no doubt in my mind that money is not only an important factor, it’s the most important. But 2 things come to mind. The first is what matters ? Money in the immediate term or money in the long term. The second is whether money is the only parameter ?

Let me try and answer the 2nd question first. To my mind an extremely important parameter is job satisfaction and nature of job. As an example less than 5% of the companies in India do any development work. Most of the others do support and maintenance work. I would definitely prefer to work with a development company, simply because of the challenges in an otherwise boring job. And fortunately we mainly do development work.

And the money. Most people who reach the senior positions do so by either staying In the same company or by having just 1 or 2 changes in their career. And the difference in salaries at senior levels in humongous. So anyone who stays with the same company can expect to rise through the ranks quickly, especially when most others around them are leaving. The 2nd is longevity and other factors such as gratuity. Those who complete 3 / 4 years stand to gain a few lakhs of rupees in longevity, typically 4 -8 times the difference in their salary. And those who complete 5 years are automatically entitled to gratuity, which is not an insignificant number with 17.5 days of current basic salary per year. So the longer you hang around the higher the basic salary and so higher the multiplier.

And finally the clincher. Since you rise quickly your ability to get a senior position after 5 years is much higher than 2 stints of 2 or 3 years, totaling to greater than 5 years. So even for those who are looking for better opportunities, it makes sense to do it after a minimum of 5 – 6 years.

 So why do people leave? We’ve found that their stint at the other companies is equally short lived. And so can only conclude, that the cow who keeps jumping the fence to get the greener grass, on the other side finds out too late that actually it was the reflection of the sun. But the cow only realizes that after jumping the fence.

Special children and their very special needs

“Special child”, is a new nomenclature popularized and now standard jargon by the Aamir Khan movie, “Tare Zameen Par”.  This actually did more for special children than decades of efforts by various non profit and governmental organizations.

There are 3 types of learning disabilities that people can have. Dyslexia, Dysgrahia and Dyscalculia.

Dyslexia is a reading disability resulting from the inability to process graphic symbols.

Dysgraphia is a learning disability resulting from the difficulty in expressing thoughts in writing and graphing.

Dyscalculia or math disability is a specific learning disability or difficulty involving innate difficulty in learning or comprehending mathematics.

Some kids have all 3, and this makes it extremely difficult for them to cope with certain subjects, especially Maths and Science. Unlike what most of us would expect, the Government has an excellent program for testing and certifying these learning challenges. They have also an excellent set of guidelines for schools and boards in dealing with these challenges.

Unfortunately, the school systems have not been able to implement these. Whilst it may be easy to criticize the schools and the education system, the reality is that all of them are working under extremely trying conditions. Coping with normal children, simply because of the humongous numbers and the skewed supply and demand is a herculean task. Attempting to factor in kids of various special needs would probably be near impossible.

The various boards, State, CBSE and ICSE too have very friendly and flexible rules for such kids. The issue however is the education system. As an example, ICSE allows kids, not only special kids, but any kid to choose an alternative subject in lieu of Maths and / or Science. However, the alternative subject must be offered by the school. Not many schools in India offer the option of dropping these subjects. And this leads to special kids going through an extremely traumatic experience of dealing with what could very well be Greek or Gibberish.

The solution in my mind can only come with an improvement with the overall education system. Currently children and schools are a statistic. A small number which is a part of a much larger number, a much larger problem, of primary education for all.

In the meanwhile, it is up to those of us who are aware of the issues, to do whatever little we can to make life and school as much of a joy as we can for these special children.

Miracles do happen

It was March 30, 1997. It was also Easter Sunday. A day of celebrations for Catholics like ourselves. At around 9 in the morning, Ivy tells me, “Hey, I think my bag has burst, we need to rush to the hospital.”. We quickly dressed and took a cab to Bombay Hospital, where we went to the emergency room. There they admitted Ivy. We were kind of surprised. The baby was not due until July, and this was March. It was like just 26 weeks.

Ivy being a physician, the doctors were straightforward and told us what to expect. The probability of Reia surviving was 1 in a million. And just in case she did, her being normal was yet another 1 in a million. And since the chances of survival were low, they were more concerned about the mother. They wanted to avoid a Caesarian to reduce risk, and wanted an induced labor. Finally on April 2, they decided to go ahead. In the afternoon, all of us were surprised.

Emerged Reia, as small as a rat, and weighing in at 880 grams. She fitted in the palm of my hand. They had an incubator ready for her. And all the other gizmos that a modern hospital had to offer. But Reia was independent from Day 1, and decided she didn’t need all of this. Surprisingly, none of the modern day equipment had to be used. She scared us a little and every day was, “1 more day survived”. At one point her weight was down to 770 grams.

Through this process, there was only 1 person who seemed super confident that Reia would survive and be well. And that was Ivy. Everybody else, including me were skeptics. We thought that survival would be difficult if not impossible. And I’m thrilled that all of us were wrong.

She had a wonderful pediatrician Dr. Prem Sheth and her assistant Dr. Rahul. Rahul, coincidentally is now Reia’s cousins pediatrician. They looked after Reia so well, and did their work with a passion that is difficult to describe. And they were really good.

An example that comes to mind, is that during one of Reia’s thrice daily routine, her weight showed as 660 gms. The alarms went off, and Dr. Prem Sheth was summoned in the middle of the night. She walks in, impeccably dressed in her sari, takes 1 look at Reia, holds her in her hand and declares, the weighing machine is wrong. The doctors on duty say they’ve checked it twice and she remarks, "Doesn’t matter. Its wrong. Just get it fixed." And she was right, as usual.

8 weeks later, we walked out of Bombay Hospital with a healthier and heavier cute child. Who weighed in at an impressive 1100 grams. 13 years later, Reia is a a perfectly nice and normal kid. And as she enters her teens, we are beginning to wonder, “Are the tough times behind or ahead of us ?”

From Heaven to Earth, with a thud

Our flight from Bhutan was via Kolkata. And from heaven, we came back to earth with a thud. We were greeted with red flags all over the airport. And feared 1 more of the infamous West Bengal strikes. We were lucky. Apparently the flags were remnants of a strike from 2 days ago. How do you explain a strike called, supported and participated by the Government and its cadre. It’s bizarre. And can only happen in India.

And as we stepped out of the airport, we knew we had arrived in India. Ivy and the kids were to be spending a few days in Kolkata, whilst I was flying back to Mumbai. Fortunately, within the airport, there were pre-paid cabs and we took that option. As soon as we stepped out, we were surrounded. By people of various hues and colors. Offering, or rather forcing everything from hotels, to taxis, to carrying the luggage.

At the cab line, there were people literally grabbing the bags to put in, who would then demand money for their labor, which was neither requested nor necessary. I managed with a little screaming to get them to leave our bags alone, and to bundle Ivy and the kids into the cab.

The domestic airport that was across the road, was yet another ordeal. I was accosted more than a dozen times, with people literally trying to snatch the bags to carry. With some difficulty, I managed to get myself to the airport. And I thought that the nightmare was over.

Kolkata airport managed to surprise me. It turned out to be one of the dirtiest airports, I’ve been to. It was a complete mess. You had to jostle just to move in the direction of where you wanted to go. Actually, you needed to jostle, even if you needed to be in the same place. And apparently dustbins haven’t yet discovered Kolkata.

I guess luck needs to catch up. And finally I got lucky. My flight was after 4 hrs., but there was a flight that was delayed leaving in 45 minutes. I decided to try and make it. It took me some time to convince the staff and their manager, that downgrading could not be an issue. I was requesting to be downgraded from a full fare carrier to a no frills carrier. They kept telling me that I wouldn’t get food. The fact that I didn’t care didn’t impress them. Finally, they agreed and I was just glad they didn’t make me pay for the missing my food.

We have everything. People, Resources, Destinations, Beauty, … God has been kind and given India everything a country could ever want. Yet we do not utilize it. We choose to make it as uninviting as we can. A classic case of “God proposes, Man disposes.” I wonder when we’ll learn.

Bhutan – Gateway to Heaven

I’m returning from a holiday to Bhutan. If heaven had a gateway, then this would be it. The beauty started with the national airline of Bhutan “Druk Air’. The first surprise was a view of the amazing “Mount Everest”. An auspicious beginning to a memorable trip.

We were traveling with the Vaidyas, an extremely nice and delightful family. Interestingly the word “Vaidya” means doctor in Sankrit and the 2 senior Vaidyas had 3 doctorates between them. Both are PhD’s and Mrs. Vaidya is in addition a medical doctor.

We landed in Paro and it’s the first airport in the world that I’ve come across where people, including us, were taking a walk, absorbing the atmosphere and generally having a good time. At the airport, our driver and guide for the trip met us. We drove to our hotel in Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan. The SAARC summit was also being held during our visit and security was pretty tight.

We made several short and long trips and the most interesting fact was the cleanliness of the place and the fact that all the locals were wearing the national dress. All the places we visited were super beautiful and a feast for the eyes.

After a couple of days in Thimpu, we shifted to our second hotel a little distance from Paro. Here we were to go on a trek to a monastery carved out of a mountain with a sheer and steep vertical face. Our guide was pretty certain that none of us would be able to make the 4 – 5 hour trek to the monastery which was at over 10,000 ft. But we were determined, notwithstanding the extra baggage in terms of flab that I was carrying.

The memory of how we made it, itself is too tiring to pen. But suffice it to say that I was so tired when I made it to the top, that I couldn’t even appreciate the monastery and the view, which was the basic purpose of the trek. Thankfully coming back was downhill was a breeze, with gravity doing all the hard work.

On the flight back, I was reading the local newspaper and came across an interesting “Letter to the Editor”. It basically posed a question as to why Thimpu could not alwayd be clean and people in their national costume on a regular basis as it was now. And that left me wondering. Was what we saw real, or was it a show for the SAARC summit, which we had the privilege of witnessing. Looks like the Gateway to Heaven need a few Earth Gods to visit to make it what it is.