The Fall of House of Cards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like most people I had heard the phrase “House of Cards” but never quite comprehended the abyss of this phrase before now. Eight months back my company was ramping and gearing up for an unprecedented growth. There were record backlogs and business was growing at a pace so fast that it almost looked too good to be true. Shares of my company reached at an all time high. Then came the infamous credit crunch and if that was not enough to deeply bruise this industry President Obama made sure that the Business Jet industry is killed. It is so ironical that a visionary leader like him could not look beyond petty politics and see the impact his stand will have on this industry. General Aviation is one of the last few all American Industries left in USA and Obama is killing it in the name of progress and equality. The reasons for the fall can be debated but what has left me flabbergasted is the pace at which this fall took place. From 13,000 workforce last October it is coming down to 2300-2600 this July and that is unfathomable, quite like the growth. Last year around this time we were overwhelmed by the unprecedented growth and this year we are overwhelmed by the unprecedented fall. This is an experience I am faced quite early on in my career and this is making me even more cautious. With god's grace and my parents blessings I still have a good job, will still pursue my PhD and also got very well compensated for leaving this company. I love VLP, companies pay you to leave them but it is good only till you have an alternative.

I have this gut wrenching feeling looking around me and hearing the stories. There are immigrants who will be forced to go back to India because their visa is expiring. There are people who are forced to make the arduous decision of uprooting from their home towns and move to a new land, an uncertain life. There are families where kids are just born and they will be loosing their medical insurance. People will loose homes and everything is just so hard. Media makes such a big fuss about Detroit, they should visit Wichita now. I have been reading these stories for months now but it really effects you personally when you see it so closely. I thank god every second for blessing me but at the same time can't stop feeling lugubrious for the people whom this is effecting. What effect can the fall of house of cards have is what has left me in complete shock. All my life I have seen my parents saving and spending only within limits. I was taught to spend within my limits and somehow that concept is so deep rooted in me that the American Capitalism always made me uncomfortable. I use to always wonder that how are all these people able to live the life they were living and for me it was always important to have savings before I spend. I was never a huge fan of credit card spending infact I only have 1 card which I use rarely. Not a very American thing but my Indian upbringing is what has served me well. This experience has affirmed my believe that anything that sounds too good to be true is indeed too good to be true. This is not the end of American capitalism but I am hoping that it is the fall of house of cards. The effect that a fall of house of cards has on people's life is far more gut wrenching than the ephemeral boon.

Fake

Fake people, fake emotion infact everything fake is so exasperating. I had met fake people in life but always managed to keep them at an arms distance but now I am forced to be around fake people. I have always been able to only respect people who have earned it and just because somebody is elder and I am supposed to “respect” concept never worked with me. I have never shown disrespect but also made sure that I keep them at arms distance. This philosophy has served me well all these years so why should I change it now. Should I also “fake” respect? I have ruminated over this for months now and I think I have finally been able to get the answer I was searching for. Fake is bad and there is no justification for anybody to be fake. I don't need to fake anything and all my life I have never cared about people's opinion and the one's that really matter don't judge. Unconditional support and love in any relationship is hard to achieve but the one where we can are the only relationships that are worth caring for and for the rest... who cares!

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When I was small I use to dream big and believed that if I have determination and worked hard I will get there. With age, the daunting reality of life hits. I still believe that if I have determination and if I work hard I will reach there but I am also aware of the constraints and how hard it is but with each stumbling stone my determination and dream grows. Now I know that it is not just about having the right skills, brains, hardwork but also the right cards. I have always believed in playing the cards that I am handed to the best of my capability and not crib about circumstances. Testing times are important; they test the strength of my character and determination. But all said, at times these testing times also shake us to core, our believes and sometimes even faith. Standing alone at the crossroads I question myself, which way to go. I know the answer, I know which way I am going to go but I am just hoping for a miracle, just one. I have never believed in miracles so from inside I am not that hopeful. I have been tested lot of times but as I grow older, tests are getting tougher. I am not a quitter is all I keep telling myself. Life is not always fair but I do believe that there is a better tomorrow waiting after every dark night. It is that hope that keeps me going, that hope of tomorrow, that dream that becomes even more strong and real with every stumbling stone. I just keep telling myself…

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
-Robert Frost.

Satyam: One Big Jhooth

Few weeks back I read that World Bank has banned Satyam for 8years because Satyam had installed some spy softwares on workstations inside tha banks Washington headquaters. I was surprised and thought that how can a company like Satyam do something so unscrupulous. Hindsight I can comprehend now how they as a company could do that, as that was nothing compared to what that company has been cooking for years.

I know of a fresh graduate who got thru campus interview in satyam and when she heard of Satyam scandal, she knew that the much-awaited joining letter was never going to arrive. I know my seniors who have worked at Satyam for 7-8 years and are now wondering what will happen to them. They have given their best, worked very hard and lot of times even sacrificed their personnel life and happiness for the sake of company. They did not do anything unique as we all do that but what their boss did in return is abysmal. Its not just people directly effected who are traumatized but Satyam news has left most Indians flabbergasted. The largest corporate scam in the history of India; I have read endless news related to this issue. Everytime I see Ramalinga Raju’s picture I am outraged and wonder what is going through this man’s crooked mind. His quote, “It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten” completely threw me off and made me abhor him thinking this man is too self-obsessed to think about anything or anybody around him. Was he doing all this for money and power or just for kick? It must be a different kind of high knowing how much power and cachet he enjoyed. I have wondered innumerable times that does that man feel any remorse for what he has done? Then I wonder, is he rueful because his house of cards fell apart or because he is loosing all his money or that, he will be remembered as con and rogue instead of an extremely successful entrepreneur and leader? Has he ever felt contrite for obliterating the lives of so many families? I am sure I am not the only one who is wondering all this.

Raju and his coconspirators played with the lives of satyam’s 50,000 employees and in turn their family members. What makes me most angry is the fact that the auditing company whose job was to stop the fraud were party to all this. It is startling how synchronized were their efforts to deceive and bamboozle people. Was there not a single person who could stand up and protest all this chaos? We all are ambitious but I do not think most of us can cheat and play with the lives of so many people. Was Raju really convinced that he could get away with a fraud of this enormity? Was everybody involved in this living in denial that they thought they could get away with all this? Even if all these people are send to jail, it will never solve the mess this situation has created in the lives of so many people.

When satyam says it will not pay its employees salary for 2months is it even thinking of the consequences? How can any family survive without pay for 2 months and what are they supposed to do? Infosys or other IT companies cannot all of a sudden hire 50,000 or even a fraction of Satyam's employees, not atleast in these uncertain financial environments. Economy all over the world is contracting and it seems like times that are more difficult lie ahead of us.

Therefore, what should be done with criminals of this sort who not only cheat but because of their actions lives of endless people are ruined? Sometimes I wonder that are we too laid back as a nation, we are outraged with anger when terrorists bomb blast in Mumbai but within few days we are back to normal. We will hear about Satyam for few days and then forget it and the rest of us will get used to the fact that this also happened and leave those affected to fight and live or die through their struggle. I am angry and outraged but I will most certainly not do anything about the situation like most of us. I will fight for my own survival in these uncertain times and leave the rest to god and our judiciary, which very well might pronounce some sentence to him. Raju and his coconspirators will appeal and then they will be bailed out and their case will continue for 10yrs in our judiciary and some day he might actually go to jail.

Who is planning to help those affected? I read that government may bail Satyam out of this mess. If government bails Satyam out and Satyam somehow sails through this crisis then what role will government plays in Satyam’s future. Will the size of the company shrink? How much of its work force will be reduced? Most importantly, if government bails out Satyam then it will be the taxpayers of India who save Satyam. Before spending so much taxpayer money on a tarnished company government should think if it is worth. Can Satyam retain its customers and compete with giants like Infosys and TCS to draw new customers. Should government provide incentives to other companies to hire Satyam employees? Whatever may turn out in the end their will be still many nameless faces who in reality will pay the price of this con, marriages will break, people will struggle to earn basics, and many criminals will be born because of this muddle. The bottom line always is that the common man is the only one who actually pays the price.

At times, my elitism irritates me; sitting in my comfortable couch, centrally heated apartment in America drinking my evening tea I am outraged and all I am doing is writing a blog and I want to convince myself that I am indeed outraged. Maybe we have redefined the word outrage and it is because of people like us that hooligans like Raju, Madoff have the nerve to play with the lives of so many people. After all, we all are herd of sheep and cow who never actually get “outraged.” As a society, we have become so self indulgent and selfish that we never do anything until it affects us and even then, we rarely have the courage to stand up against the wrong doers and demand justice in a timely manner. All we will ever do is to discuss it over a cup of tea or coffee or write a blog.

Diamonds...................

Today afternoon while doing my regular work at my job I once again glanced at my diamond ring. It did make me smile. Like most of the girls, I also yearned of getting a solitaire diamond ring for my wedding. Vikram went a step ahead and bought me a princess cut ring, which have one big piece similar to that in solitaire in the center and three small pieces on each side of the centerpiece. I fell in love with the ring the moment I saw it. After my feminine zest was satisfied, my inquisitive facet wondered as to what it is in diamond that makes us love it and yearn for it. I am most certainly not someone who is into buying gold ornaments or buying real stones. I prefer buying matching costume jewelry with my dresses and I have a colossal collection of it. Then what is different about diamond? Is it the idea of love and romance that the diamond industry has associated with it? Most certainly, diamond is a stunning stone but there are other gorgeous stones too like Emerald, Sapphire etc. This time during our trip to Jaipur I went to the showroom where they had real Emerald, Sapphire etc stones. I liked them but did not feel that je ne sais quoi which I felt for my diamond ring. I love it;I play with my ring in sunlight and gaze at it at night. For some bizarre reason it makes me believe that perhaps I am this treasured after all for coal to become diamond it needs a very precise temperature, pressure and environmental condition and it takes lot of care and hardwork to get good cut, color and clarity. Then I laugh off this deliberation thinking I am getting too chimerical and it is just not me. Diamond industry has done a splendid job in marketing their product. Maybe it is true that this industry has really been successful in attaching the idea of being in love with owning a diamond. Even after giving it a lot of thought I could not think of any convincing reason as to why I adore diamonds, all I know is that I love diamonds! Ladies enjoy your moment and cherish your diamonds.