Corporate Blogging

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Freedom Runners

The November 29, 2004 edition of India Today has an article titled "Freedom Runners".
The introductory paragraph reads --

An increasing number of Indians are saying goodbye to fat salaries and fancy designations to pursue their dreams. For them, satisfaction and freedom are incentive enough to opt out of the daily grind.
Triggers: why people do it

1. Hobby Bug


2. Outgrowing Money


3. Seeking fulfilment


4. Office Stings


5. Self Belief


6. Being alive


7. Taking charge


8. Lending a hand


9. When love beckons


10. Gimme a break


11. VRS cushions


12. Securing the future


13. Sixty plus


14. Overcoming age

This very well written article spoke my mind. There is one difference however between the people mentioned in this article and me. They quit their high profile jobs that earned them fat salaries, for something they have always wanted to do. For example, 2 IIM A graduates quit their jobs to start a magazine called JAM.

All I know is I HATE technology and don't like introducing myself as an IT consultant (alright it sounds better than a software developer) to anyone. Call it identity crisis, name it whatever. But the fact that a 25-30 year old person from Bangalore needs no introdcuction and passes off for a s/w developer doesn't appeal much. I want to quit this profession for reason 10. But I don't know what I can do alternately - ummm probably painting that I'm very passionate about (DON'T READ as I'm good at it). Or teach in a nursery school. Well, I don't know. But atleast I'm glad that this article has awakened my boredom demon that will instigate me to explore other options. The thought of working in this field forever is intimidating.

How about you? Do you do what you like to do for a living ?

The Village

Now there is no doubt that I live in a village - ironically along the IT corridor of Bangalore. I have contacted about 4 DSL/broadband providers over the past 3 months and we still don't have a Internet connection at home. Every vendor has the same questions --

Where do you live?
How many metres away from the main road is that?

The conversation ends with a standard answer "Ma'am, we will have to do a survey of your area to see if DSL connection can be provided. This process will take 4 days. " Even if the outcome of their feasibility study is positive, we don't hear from them later for taking our order or installation. And in one case the reply was, " Ma'am you are a few feet away from where we provide service. It will take a couple of months for the service to reach your area." Thanks for telling me that. I should probably set up my machine on the road and browse now.
I've almost given up. Since I don't like having a blog that is not updated frequently, I'm toying with the idea of shutting this down. I'm going to give myself another week for "Project Broadband".

"My share of Planet Earth"

This weekend was good. We hung out with a LOT of friends. But with everyone the conversation centred around their efforts to procure a piece of land or an apartment.
Some of us already owned one and the others were trying to procure one and were bogged down by the shooting prices. It seemed as though a mental picture of the area-builder-price matrix was swimming in their head (reminded us of our plight 2 years back). Real estate market in Bangalore has seen a significant growth in the past 5 years, thanks to the IT growth and thousands of Double Income families. Real estate investment has been providing a very satisfying ROI. But if Bangalore will be able to match demand-supply ratio is something to be seen. With the kind of infrastructure that is prevalent now, it is going to be a nightmare living in this city after 2 years.