This post is just for fun

My sincere apologies if anyone is offended.

Have Passion!

It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and Gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies’ hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of Science.

I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in Computer science. I had been offered scholarships from Universities in the US .. I had not thought of taking up a job in India…

One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall complex, I Saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco (now Tata Motors). It stated that the company required young, bright engineers, hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc.

At the bottom was a small line: “Lady Candidates need not apply.”

I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up against gender discrimination.

Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male peers. Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence is not enough to be successful?

After reading the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco’s management about the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco.

I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head of The Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company’s chairman then). I took the card, addressed It to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember clearly what I wrote.

“The great Tata’s have always been pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives. They have cared for higher Education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender.”

I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at Telco’s Pune facility at the company’s expense. I was taken aback by the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs 30 each from everyone who wanted a sari. When I look back, I feel like laughing at the reasons for my going, but back then they seemed good enough to make the trip.

It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with the city.

To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my life in so many ways. As directed, I went to Telco’s Pimpri office for the interview.

There were six people on the panel and I realised then that this was serious business. “This is the girl who wrote to JRD,” I heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not get the job. The realization abolished all fear from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted.

Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, “I hope this is only a technical interview.”

They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed about my attitude. The panel asked me technical questions and I answered all of them. Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, “Do you know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should work in research laboratories.”

I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a limited place. I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, “But you must start somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories.”

Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me. Never had I thought I would Take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married.

It was only after joining Telco that I realized who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay…. One day I had to show some reports to Mr. Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw “appro JRD”. Appro means “our” in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him.

I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM Introduced me nicely, “Jeh (that’s what his close associates called him), this Young woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate. She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor.” JRD looked at me … I was praying he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it).

Thankfully, he didn’t. Instead, he remarked. “It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?” “When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir,” I replied. “Now I am Sudha Murthy.” He smiled and kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room.

After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I was In awe of him.

One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard. Looking back, I realize JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me.

“Young lady, why are you here?” he asked. “Office time is over.” I said,

“Sir, I’m waiting for my husband to come and pick me up.” JRD said, “It is getting dark and there’s no one in the corridor. I’ll wait with you till your husband comes.”

I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable. I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn’t any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, “Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee.”

Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, “Young lady, Tell your husband never to make his wife wait again.” In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final when I saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused.

Gently, he said, “So what are you doing, Mrs Kulkarni?” (That was the Way he always addressed me.) “Sir, I am leaving Telco.”

“Where are you going?” he asked. “Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I’m shifting to Pune.”

“Oh! And what will you do when you are successful.”

“Sir, I don’t know whether we will be successful.” “Never start with diffidence,” he advised me. “Always start with confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society. Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the best.”

Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive. Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House, occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, “It was nice hearing about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he’s not alive to see you today.”

I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking justice. He must have received thousands of letters everyday. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn’t do that. He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and mindset forever.

Close to 50 per cent of the students in today’s engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly.

My love and respect for the House of Tata remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care he took of his employees. Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence.

(Sudha Murthy is a widely published writer and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social development initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayana Murthy is her husband.)

Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29, 2004.

Walk for Life: Stride Against Cancer.

• Date: February 10th, 2008

• Assembly Point: Central Civil Sports Ground at Vinay Marg, near Ashok Hotel, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.

• Assembly Time: 8:00am

• Duration of the walk: 9:00am to 11:00 am.

• Route: Vinay Marg to Panchsheel Marg to Shanti Path back to Vinay Marg. (Approx 5 km)

• Registration Fee:

Individual Rs. 300

Family Rs. 250 per adult (children under 12 do not pay)

Group Rs. 250 per person (min. 10 people)

• How to register:

a) Online at www.walkforlifeindia.org

b) Download the form and send it by post. Forms must be received at the office by Feb 7th.

c) Cansupport Office

d) At various registration points around Delhi (check website for details)

e) You will be able to register on February 10th from 8:00 to 9:00 am

• Kit pick-up: after Feb 1st at the Cansupport Offices (Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon) or on Feb 10th at the walk Venue

• As a participant, you can also raise pledges for a cancer organization of your choice.

WALK FOR LIFE CONTACTS

Harmala Gupta Chair harmalagupta@hotmail.com

9810606841

Rajni Arora Sponsorship rajni@walkforlifeindia.org

9811118178

Odette Clark Registration Odette@walkforlifeindia.org

9871578995

Roxana Balderrama Group Registration roxanna@walkforlifeindia.org 9871013535

ABOUT THE WALK FOR LIFE

CanSupport and members of the international community in Delhi created the Walk for Life nine months ago. The Unites States of America Ambassador Mr. Mulford and his wife, Mrs. Mulford, and the American Center in Delhi are actively supporting the Walk for Life. In addition, several companies have joined the cause as sponsors: Airtel, KPMG, Max Foundation and DLF. Many more companies, community groups, embassies, schools and colleges around Delhi are supporting the event. 5000 participants from all walks of life are expected on February 10th 2008 and the Prime Minister’s Wife, Mrs Gursharan Kaur will be flagging off the Walk.

Because cancer is a global challenge … Worldwide, approximately 11 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed every year and 7 million people die of cancer. In India, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 6.5 seconds and one in every 22 Indian women will be diagnosed with cancer. Most women are diagnosed at an incurable stage due to the lack of AWARNESS. Due to the growing presence of breast cancer amongst urban women, the walk will focus on Breast Cancer awareness this year.

No matter how much we boast about India as the largest democracy of the world, the truth still remains bitter. One rowdy can easily arouse the evil feelings of us Indians. The latest case of Raj Thackeray is an example.

Amitabh Bachchan was pulled into political spider-web by Raj Thackeray just to fulfil the interests of his party MNS (Maharashtra Nav-Nirmaan Sangathan). The result - Poor taxi wallahs and paan wallahs are getting beaten up in Maharashtra. This calls for an immediate action. What the hell is Marathi and Non-Marathi??? Marathis have to be the worst community to feel this way. I am not sure whether they are the worst in Indianism (I still believe Tamilians have the least feeling of Indianism)… So what is this all about…

I came across an interesting article on the web… Here is the link:

 http://calamur.org/gargi/2008/02/06/outsiders-insiders-others/

Thackeray insulting Chhath Pooja:

When a lot is happenning in the world, our news channel find this great news to be breaking.. Thanks Rajeev for the post…

Twenty-five thousand years ago, haplogroup R2 characterized by genetic
marker M124 arose in southern Central Asia. Then began a major wave of
human migration whereby members migrated southward to present-day
India and Pakistan (Genographic Project by the National Geographic
Society; http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ ). Indians and Pakistanis
have the same ancestry and share the same DNA sequence. Here’s what is
happening in India:

The two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed on
the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and would still be left with $30
billion to spare. The four richest Indians can buy up all goods and
services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be
left with $60 billion to spare. The four richest Indians are now
richer than the forty richest Chinese.

In November, Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex flirted with
20,000 points. As a consequence, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries
became a $100 billion company (the entire KSE is capitalized at $65
billion). Mukesh owns 48 percent of Reliance.

In November, comes Neeta’s birthday. Neeta turned forty-four three
weeks ago. Look what she got from her husband as her birthday present:
A sixty-million dollar jet with a custom fitted master bedroom,
bathroom with mood lighting, a sky bar, entertainment cabins,
satellite television, wireless communication and a separate cabin with
game consoles. Neeta is Mukesh Ambani’s wife, and Mukesh is not
India’s richest but the second richest.

Mukesh is now building his new home, Residence Antillia (after a
mythical, phantom island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean). At a cost
of $1 billion this would be the most expensive home on the face of the
planet. At 173 meters tall Mukesh’s new family residence, for a family
of six, will be the equivalent of a 60-storeyed building. The first
six floors are reserved for parking. The seventh floor is for car
servicing and maintenance. The eighth floor houses a mini-theatre.
Then there’s a health club, a gym and a swimming pool. Two floors are
reserved for Ambani family’s guests. Four floors above the guest
floors are family floors all with a superb view of the Arabian Sea. On
top of everything are three helipads. A staff of 600 is expected to
care for the family and their family home.

In 2004, India became the 3rd most attractive foreign direct
investment destination. Pakistan wasn’t even in the top 25 countries.
In 2004, the United Nations, the representative body of 192 sovereign
member states, had requested the Election Commission of India to
assist the UN in the holding of elections in Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah
and Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan. Why the Election Commission of
India and not the Election Commission of Pakistan? After all,
Islamabad is closer to Kabul than is Delhi.

Imagine, 12 percent of all American scientists are of Indian origin;
38 percent of doctors in America are Indian; 36 percent of NASA
scientists are Indians; 34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians;
and 28 percent of IBM employees are Indians.

For the record: Sabeer Bhatia created and founded Hotmail. Sun
Microsystems was founded by Vinod Khosla. The Intel Pentium processor,
that runs 90 percent of all computers, was fathered by Vinod Dham.
Rajiv Gupta co-invented Hewlett Packard’s E-speak project. Four out of
ten Silicon Valley start-ups are run by Indians. Bollywood produces
800 movies per year and six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss
World titles over the past 10 years.

For the record: Azim Premji, the richest Muslim entrepreneur on the
face of the planet, was born in Bombay and now lives in Bangalore.
India now has more than three dozen billionaires; Pakistan has none
(not a single dollar billionaire).

The other amazing aspect is the rapid pace at which India is creating
wealth. In 2002, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh and Anil Ambani’s father,
left his two sons a fortune worth $2.8 billion. In 2007, their
combined wealth stood at $94 billion. On 29 October 2007, as a result
of the stock market rally and the appreciation of the Indian rupee,
Mukesh became the richest person in the world, with net worth climbing
to US$63.2 billion (Bill Gates, the richest American, stands at around
$56 billion).

Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup. We have
the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker (namely: M124).
We have the same DNA molecule, the same DNA sequence. Our culture, our
traditions and our cuisine are all the same. We watch the same movies
and sing the same songs. What is it that Indians do and we don’t:
Indians elect their leaders.

Dear Friends,

Wish you a very happy Diwali.

Himanshu

Please pass on this link to as many Indians as possible. This website contains the link for all the government bodies:

http://indiaimage.nic.in/

You know where did I reach from this page:

http://presidentofindia.nic.in/

It contains a HUGE amount of information which should be known to us. So it is a humble request to you all to pass this on.

Regards,

Himanshu

Just see the humour in this picture. This is one thing that Web has to overcome

Rajeev sent me this wonderful poem:

hai liye hathiyaar dushman taak mein baitha udhar
aur hum taiyyaar hain seena liye apna idhar
khoon se khelenge holi gar vatan muskhil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se
sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se
haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se
sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se
aur bhadkega jo shola-sa humaare dil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
hum to ghar se nikle hi the baandhkar sar pe qafan
chaahatein liin bhar liye lo bhar chale hain ye qadam
zindagi to apni mehmaan maut ki mehfil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai
dil mein tuufaanon ki toli aur nason mein inquilaab
hosh dushman ke udaa denge humein roko na aa
duur reh paaye jo humse dam kahaan manzil mein hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai - 2

JAI HIND