Interesting Anecdotes

Good one,Nov

A Software Engineer's feelings.....

It was raining heavily outside. Dark clouds gathered in the sky and
nature was in its ominous best. I took a break from my work and went to
the pantry to grab a cup of coffee. I had a sip and went near the window
to see the rain pouring down heavily outside the glass structure. I was
inside our huge office building, unruffled by even the fierceness of the
nature. Through the heavy transparent glass, I could see a small girl
trying to hold on to her umbrella which the wind was snatching away from
her. I felt sorry for the girl, and was happy that I was not in a
similar pathetic situation. Yes. I take pride for the fact that I am a
software
engineer. I have everything which a common man would envy; money,
status, respect, you name it I have it. I always wanted to be software
professional and here I am, working for one of the best firms in the
world. But then, am I really happy? Now, I could see an imprint of my
palm on the other glass window, through which I reminisced my past,
basked in the warmth of the sun shine.

My childhood was so much of fun. I vividly remember those rainy days,
when I hugged my mother tightly during sleeping listening to all the
stories told by her. Now, I have a big house here, but then it is just a
house, not a home. My parents are pretty far away from me now. I have a
cell phone to talk to them everyday, but then I really miss those
dinners which I had with my family everyday. I could easily afford to
taste all the different cuisines these days, but the best of food there,
lack the love and affection which is present in the food prepared by my
mother.

I threw a lavish party for my colleagues for my birthday, but then they
would never replace the birthdays when my friends secretly brought a
cake and at the end, half of the cake would have ended up on my face.
The couple of hundred bucks that u save for a long period just to give a
treat to your friends in the road side chat shop can never give the
pleasure even after spending a few thousand bucks these days.

The scene of me crying and refusing to have dinner on the day when I
fought with my best friend came to my mind. Today, she has gone far away
from me, taking away my love and with it my life, but I am sitting and
coding here with a false smile on my face. Everyday I meet new people,
but then I long ceased to make a new friend.

It's true that I have a lot of things now. I have a nice bed, but no
time to sleep. Lots of money, but no friends to spend it with. The
latest designer clothes, but a worn out body. Quite a few to flirt, but
no one to love. Awards for technical excellence, but no reward for the
crave for peaceful ambience. A confident demeanor, but a reluctant and
apathetic mind. Full of rain, but no sunshine even in the farthest
distance.

Now, I could see the small girl on the road enjoying in the rain with
her umbrella firmly in her grip. She might not have all the comforts
which I have, but then she has the innocence and fun which I lost a long
time back. I have decided to come out of this false fantasy, even if it
is at the expense of losing the tap of the software engineer. I am going
to again enjoy my life. I am going to go out in the rain and play with
the small kid now. I removed my tie, and went near my computer to shut
it down. Just then, I saw a new mail alert in my mail box. I slowly
opened outlook and I found a message from my manager with an attachment
saying that there was a critical defect in the code and I have to fix it
soon. I convinced myself that I am not going to get bogged down again by
these pressures and stick to my decision. I ignored the mail and went to
the rest room. After a couple of minutes, the software engineer in me
came out, his shirt tucked in with the perfect tie knot, sat before the
computer, and started typing,

I am looking into the defect and will send the patch files before EOD.

Regards,
Software Engineer.

Amity Business School
SYNOPSIS OF DISCUSSIONS
BETWEEN
BILL GATES
CHAIRMAN, MICROSOFT CORPORATION
&
NARAYANA MURTHY
CHIEF MENTOR, INFOSYS
INTERVIEWED
BY
PRANNOY ROY
NDTV
DECEMBER 7, 2005
TAJ PALACE, NEW DELHI
Amity Business School

PRANNOY ROY : To me and many of us at TiE, it is a special moment. We have with
us together two icons of our times - Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Narayana Murthy. Both
iconic entrepreneurs, but in fact both much more than that. As you look into their lives
there are so many similarities. Like both started life as hardcore software guys. Mr. Bill
Gates wrote the basic compiler and Mr. Murthy, in the early 70s, also wrote the first basic
compiler. Both today have given up being CEOs and taken a step back to help with the
bigger kind of picture with bigger vision. Both of them have superb right hand people i.e:
Steve Ballmer and Nandan Nilekani. Both have huge businesses but even larger social
goals with larger hearts. Both have wives, Melinda and Sudha, who infact are even more
committed to changing society, to philanthropy and charity. As icons they have to resist
tremendous pressures, sometimes to enter politics. Both remarkable men, that come once
in a lifetime, once in a generation. Both used to travel economy class, some say they were
stingy, for some it is about principles. If it is stingy, certainly it is not visible in their
charity. Ironically both are voracious readers, books are their passion. One major
similarity - both really believe in spreading wealth among their employees through
ESOPs but now both have stopped that and the list of their similarities is endless.

PRANNOY ROY : What are the defining moments in your life?

BILL GATES : Certainly the opportunity to use a computer at young age, I was only 13
at that time and I was 16 when I first understood the magic of chips with double power
every two years. The school teacher asked me to teach computer to the class. That was
when I got fascinated and completely immersed. My decision to leave school and start a
company, that’s a nice milestone since it worked. In my case I thought the time was very
important to get in and be the very first. So this chip computer comes out and I decided to
go to Paul Allen and provide the software for the very first personal computer, which
again was incredibly limited. The willingness to take the risk before anybody else was
doing it, I think that was a big help to us. My parents thought that I was going on leave
and will come back as the company will not succeed, even Harvard was nice enough to
say that I could come back and even today they are willing to take me back.

NARAYANA MURTHY : There have been atleast three defining moments in my life.
First when I was incarcenated in Bulgaria, a communist country and without food and
water for 96 hours. Later I decided that I don’t want to be a part of this system and I will
go back to India to pursue entrepreneurship and create wealth legally and ethically.
Second was in 1990, we had started the company in 1981. It didn’t progress because
there was so much of friction in business in India. There was an offer from somebody to
acquire us for $1mn, from this offer six of my group members got excited but towards the
end I decided that I am not going to sell it off.
Amity Business School
Third was frankly getting listed on NASDAQ. In fact it was a small step for NASDAQ
but a giant leap for Infosys and Indian software industry. I would say that these were the
three defining moments in my life.

PRANNOY ROY : How do you keep yourself motivated to work on and on and on?

BILL GATES : I love my work, I get to work with smart people and it’s a field that’s
constantly changing. Every couple of year’s people say that a new company will throw
you out of the business and we get to show people “not this time”. My vision was not
about sales or profits but it was about this computer, what it could do and we don’t have
that computer yet. We cannot talk to the machine and it cannot talk to us and we are still
looking for that computer. I have a dream of having a computer in every home, in every
desk. We are not even half way in achieving that goal, here in India we are scratching the
surface. So there is still lot of work to be done as there is no finish line anywhere near.

NARAYANA MURTHY : Most passionate people in the world are held by larger goals.
At Infosys, we have a vision to become a globally respected organization, not only in
India but also in US, Japan, Germany, Australia UK and that’s still a long marathon.
Maybe 10,000 or 12,000 Infosysians have already made some money but there are 30,000
other Infosysians who still have to make that kind of money and it is our responsibility to
give our best, our commitment to make sure that they and future Infosysians can make
money.

PRANNOY ROY : Both of you started ESOPs and both of you have given it up.
Why?

BILL GATES : Microsoft shared more wealth than any other company has in the history
of capitalism. If you get to a point where industry is so hot, it almost hyped then you start
to get deviations that not only go up but they also fluctuate, so to pass the risk of those
market conditions on to the employees may not be right. But we are actually into shares
now where you get your salary and shares of stock and so we cut the variance down and
so the predictability is much greater and still plenty of personal wealth. We are still
sharing the wealth but in a different way and it wasn’t to do anything with the new
accounting principles.

NARAYANA MURTHY : I always believed that leadership does not succeed in a
vacuum, you need people who are smarter than you, who have same or higher level of
passion and energy. If you want to bring those people on board then you need some
equitable paradigm and that is why Infosys adopted the ESOPs model. We suspended it
because we have to expense it out according to US regulations and then we realized that
it is not the best model for us anymore. And then as it was pointed out, we made an
analysis and found that by creating a paper or variable performance model, we will be
able to provide a decent compensation for all.
Amity Business School

PRANNOY ROY : India has got a new energy with Democracy as its foundation.
People have started questioning. Is democracy important in taking business
decisions?

BILL GATES : Democracy means right way of looking at resources. It is the real
commitment to the future. It is a must and we, US, stand for it.

NARAYANA MURTHY : We value knowledge as the most intangible asset. However,
the important question now is, Is it really paying? There has to be a greater premium on
time. We waste lot much of it in discussions. One of my friends from Harvard aptly
quoted, “Two of my greatest challenges are – How to get my Japanese students to speak
up and Indian students to shut up”. We have to come to conclusion out of discussions and
get to execution.

PRANNOY ROY : Does a anti-American wave affect you? Lack of US sensitivity in
handling international affairs to the world issues affects your relationships with
your partners.

BILL GATES : The world depends on the US to do certain things right whether it is
funding science or whether setting a good example for free trade. I won’t say we lost
business or have some impact it is because of the US politics. Everybody resents the most
successful country and everybody loves the most successful country. It is all the love-hate
relationship. In the US there are mixed feelings about what they think the US is doing
good and not doing well. It is for the world to understand the benefits of free trade
system. The US should be imitated by others. The way we run our university system
should be learnt by everyone. We stand for – Be good in every way, innovation in
products, markets, etc. People talk of India versus China, why not India plus China. India
should learn from China and China should learn from India. I am proponent of the
combined best practices of India, China and the US.

PRANNOY ROY : Does the use of force by US in international affairs worry you?

BILL GATES : It is best to use when the stake is very dramatic. Even in US, people say
we need more evidence (in Iraq issue) but then for us it is good, for it is for the
democracy.

PRANNOY ROY : Is it love-hate relationship? Even we say “Yankee go home, but
take me with you”

NARAYANA MURTHY : I am unabashed admirer of US for their openness. I don’t
know of any other society as open as the US. It is for us to work harder to convince the
US people, decision makers, law makers, that there is good value for them (in
Amity Business School
outsourcing). If there is an outcry, dissatisfaction, I see it as our failure. ‘The day you say
market is wrong, you are finished’, this should be learnt by US.
PRANNOY ROY : Now we will take some of the questions from the

audience.

A1. My question is for Mr. Narayana Murthy. What challenges are faced by large
and small companies in attracting, keeping and retaining best talent?

NARAYANA MURTHY : It is all about creating the dream and vision and articulating
that everybody is able to take the rainbow and put in pocket. It is all about making sure
that people will get their value, people will automatically come to you.

A2. My question is for Mr. Bill Gates. After the internet, what technology will take
the world now?

BILL GATES : We need to get a device which will get us value at the low cost. Like
speech recognition, mapping devices etc. I see natural interface technology as the
important area that shall dominate the sphere.

A3. My question is for Mr. Bill Gates. What human qualities are important for
success?

BILL GATES : You need passion, intelligence and some kind of integrity to understand
what your limits are. Very strong combination of all the three shall help to achieve
success.

A4. My question is for Mr. Narayana Murthy. Very large companies are created in
US. What do we need to do to have the same in India?

NARAYANA MURTHY : We need a more competitive market. Corporations have to
realize the importance of innovation, good venture capital system, environment that
enhances the quality of education system that focuses on problem solving and good set of
mentoring who will take care of entrepreneurs’ linkages with the requisite networks.

BILL GATES : We always talk big companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, etc. We
don’t think of numerous companies that fail. It is all market economy that survives.

A5. My question is for Mr. Bill Gates. What is the fundamental difference between
managing a startup and a large corporation?

BILL GATES : The leadership styles are quite different. When the companies grow, you
acquire skill sets, create a system, take a step back, monitor the people and manage the
managers.
Amity Business School

PRANNOY ROY : The last question - Will you ever enter into politics?

BILL GATES : No

NARAYANA MURTHY : No

PRANNOY ROY: Thank you very much.

'not sure if this is the right thread to post this but came across this in one of my Y! groups:

The Euro-English

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that
English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.
The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up
konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words
like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are
possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters
which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords
kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl
riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu
understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted
in ze forst plas!

"Why is everyone so happy except for me," asked the student.

"Because they have learned to see goodness and beauty everywhere" said the master.

"Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?"

"Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside."

`Anthony de Mello

Hi folks,

I want to thank all of you who have taken the time and trouble to send me your damn chain letters over the past year.

Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of what's left of my heart for making me feel safe, secure, blessed, and wealthy. Because of your concern...

I no longer can drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer drink anything out of a can because I will get sick from the rat faeces and urine.

I no longer date the opposite sex because they will take my kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

I no longer use margarine because it's one molecule away from being plastic.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a stupid number for which I will get the phone bill from hell with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish. Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. (Geez, the BIBLE did not mention it works that way!)

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl who is about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time).

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

Yes, I want to thank all of you soooooooo much for looking out for me! I will now return the favor.

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 1200 people in the next 60 seconds, a large bird with diarrhoea will crap on your head at 5:00pm this afternoon and the fleas of a thousand camels will infest your armpits. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of my next door neighbour's ex-mother-in-law's 8th husband's 2nd cousin's 3rd husband's ex-wife's mother's beautician!

Ruminations on love and relationships

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
( Mother Theresa )


Men always want to be a woman's first love, women like to be a man's last romance.
( Oscar Wilde)

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strenght ; lovign someone deeply gives you courage.
( Lao-Tzu )

Tell me who admires you and loves you, and I will tell you who you are .
( Charles Augistin Sainte-Beauve )

Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other,. Perhaps they shoud live next door and just visit now and then.
( Katherine Hepburn )

Malsi, 1 & 4 i think are awesome.

thanks Phil

Nov,

You have beautifully and eloquently expressed my exact feelings!!! :clap: :clap:
(and feelings of many many like me!!)