Summers!

Say summer to anyone and what kind of response do you get? That time of year when Indians suffer the most.( They suffer in all seasons though!). Ask a child and he will tell you it is the best time of the year minus the holiday homework.But what does summer mean to people like me? A student to boot, that too a management one. This in itself is the highest pedestal one can hope reaching in the country. It is supposed to be the shortcut to success...multi lakhs salaries...good life & all that! At least for the decent college pass outs.

Summers is the testing ground for people like us. It can make us or it can mar us, what it doesn't do is to give us the luxury of choice. Especially this year. The sub-prime crisis was bad for people like us. One who is an admirer of globalisation processes at work need not look any further for my argument against it. Yes, I have started feeling bad about the globalisation process after my inability to find a decent company with decent pay for the summer work. Oh, I know one should be willing to work for free and all stuff like that...But in my city there is a saying that "Bhuke bhajan na hoye GOPALA!", and I have come to realize the wisdom behind it after working on the project in the sweltering heat without any allowance!

But everything is is fair in love & war and getting a place where you are willing to work is nothing short of a war. So it was a valuable experience to work for two months on a project, to see things from management's perspective. The biggest change which i found in myself was changing my view from micro management to macro management. One can not do without the other, both are necessary evils. But looking at things from a macro point of view does give you something to talk about. To give you an analogy, its like looking at planet earth from the space as the home of life... But your understanding is not complete untill you come to earth and see the other processes at work that go on to make life possible on earth... i.e. you see things micro...

Now back to summers. The experience also taught me that more the things change the more they remain the same. Just go to any company in the rural part or away from metros and you will find age old management practices at work. The Indian way of doing things is seen everywhere :"JUGAAD" is the magic word. How do these companies survive is also beyond me! Well change is happening, people have started asking questions about quality etc., but the process is very slow. By that token it would take India another 50 to 60 years to think on the same platform as the world...

It's as if two India exists side by side...one at the cutting edge of evolution like telecom... and the other part which has inbuilt inefficiencies...still provides employment to over 80% India.... It's sad and even baffling to see the two India's exist peacefully side by side...but for how long????

So now at the end of my summer trial by fire..Have I changed?...Has it brought some wisdom?....Not on the surface...but each happening does teach you somethng.. it's upto you whether you learn something from it or not...

In that way I would always remember summer of 2009...Adieu!