Day after the Anti-Reservation rally...

The 20th Day of May, 2006 was planned to be marked as solidarity day with protesters against the governments reservation policy supposed to carry out a massive rally in the capital and also in other parts of the country.
All geared up, we waited for the Saturday morning to make a historic trip to Jantar-Mantar and be a part of this rally. The day's temperature was pretty cool and probably supportive of our noble cause. Puneet Poddar ( a new found friend/ally in this drive) and myself reached CP at 9:10a.m. We were soon joined by another guy from Flextronics. Within the next 10-15 minutes, Ramesh, Prabhakar and Swapnil along with some of his other friends had arrived. By 9:25a.m. or thereabouts, we started towards Jantar-Mantar (very near to CP). There, Kaushik was waiting along with his friends & room-mates (after having watched Rang-de-Basanti the night before). Soon more and more people started pouring in, not only from our company but from various organisations like TCS, CSC, Siemens and many others.
The atmosphere was charging up. With more people came the banners as well, written - "Pukar - A corporate initiative". That was our corporate banner to show that the corporates were not be left behind. A cop came over to give us a few guidelines and also instructed us not to get provoked by the pro-reservationists.
The gathering got into shape around 10:00a.m. with the banners flying high and the protesters getting into a queue. The media people were there to cover the issue. The students from the DU, CAs, Lawyers and various people from other professions were also there. There was some in-decision as to whether we should march towards MAMC to meet the other rally (which had started from MAMC) and then march back along with them to Jantar-Mantar. However, we finally decided to stay put and wait for the other group to join us.
The protests started off with the singing of the National-Anthem, followed by chanting of various slogans against the governemnt policy, in general and Arjun Singh, in particular. Pamphlets were also distributed to the passengers of the vehicles passing by.
While these continued, the media got active to get a word or two about the agenda of the various groups that had assembled out there. So I was called upon by the CNN-IBN team, A BBC journalist and the ETV to speak on this issue on behalf of the corporates joining this protest. Questions ranged from why do you want to join, to whether this is going to be a one-off incident and even asking as to whether the violent means applied by some pro-reservationists in Patna and JNU, a day earlier, was justified.
Soon after, we were joined by the other rally that had started from MAMC. From Jantar-Mantar, we proceeded towards Parliament Street. A podium was set up a few 100 meters from Jantar-Mantar. With the members from the other rally joining in, the numbers soon swelled to a few thousands.
Immediately afterwards, we saw Navjot Singh Sidhu (in his conventional style) and Shiv Khera walking towards the podium. Sidhu started off with his big booming pledges in his own inimitable style with the crowd liking every bit of it. Once he stopped after about half-an-hour of speech, the podium was taken over by Shiv Khera.
Around 12:30p.m., the rally got over with the observation of a minute silence to mark this protest.
The whole thing went of peacefully. A Pan-Indian face was visible in this agitation with people from different professions and also from different parts of the country chipping in, in their own capacity. We left with a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment to have been a part of this drive. A special mention for Amit Jain from our HR dept. who was an active supporter and handled the media issues very adeptly. We have to continue with our fight from hereon, to show further solidarity with the protesters, if required, and in our own endeavour to create a new awakening in this nation.

"....The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering
his attitudes of mind...."

CNN-IBN on corporate participation in Anti-Reservation...

Corporates fear quota will sting them

Shreya Dhoundial

CNN-IBN

Posted Saturday , May 20, 2006 at 23:27

New Delhi: Thousands of anti-reservation protesters marched down the Parliament Street in the Capital on Saturday.

One of them - Saikat Chaudhary, an IT professional - is angry. Almost as angry as the medical students, he's supporting.

He fears after the 27 per cent quota is implemented in educational insitutions, the private sector will be next be on the government's hit list.

"Today, if it happens in the education sector, it may spill over to the corporate sector tomorrow. There will be a depletion of knowledge and no industry will come here," says Saikat.

Another demonstrator, Vivek Singh, a Banker says, "Politicians are doing nothing for the country, but they are dividing it on the basis of caste."

Saikat and Vivek are not lone voices. Almost 100 IT professionals from Wipro, TCS and Freescale have joined the anti quota stir.

Corporates feel strongly against the issue as reservations in the private sector are on the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA governement.

"Because of this, the MNCs are moving out. MNCs are only here because of our talent and if you ruin our talent, no MNCs would be here," says Sajwal Mathur, an IT Professional, Semiens.

The decibel levels are rising. But is emotion rather than understanding fuelling these raised voices? Ater all, the 27 per cent education quota is still not final, nor are reservations in the private sector.

As the corporates join the reservation debate the question that need's to be asked is are rallies like these moving away from reality and spiralling towards rhetoric?

Are the pro reservation voices fuelling a paranoia of things that might not happen?

It's probably now time for people on both side's of the reserrvation debate to pause for a moment, look at existing realities ane then work out a middle path - Buddha didn't preach it for nothing.

The night before the Anti-Reservation rally...

Perhaps this episode marks a new chapter in my life. I have always believed that once i set on a goal whole-heartedly, i will achieve it 99/100 times. While there have been several such mile-stones in my career in the past, but probably, all that will fade in the face of what I had set to achieve as being part of this Anti-Reservation campaign and what I have actually achieved till date.
The country is on tenter-hooks on this issue of almost 50% reservation for the minorities. It will spell doom for the brains in India and also for the Industry, over a period of time. And moreover, the moot question is where are we heading to? A 69% quota in a state like Tamil-Nadu is already in place and who knows that this might be the case for the central universities also, infuture!!!. We got to stop this governtment on their tracks. And for that, if we can make a small contribution towards that end, it will be a huge plus.
Keeping this motive in mind, we(the people from the corporate sector) joined in so as to make an impact in our own way. Probably hundreds of mails were exchanged to encourage people to be a part of the rally on Saturday. With two different rallies slated, it added to the confusion. Finally we settled for the one @10am @Jantar Mantar on 20th May,2006(tomorrow). We held meetings for half an hour with the other interested colleagues in our company. Although the number wasn't huge, it was significant and those who participated, did it with their whole heart and sole.

Its 11:15pm and I just got a call from Ritu stating that there has been some commotion @JNU. So got to check the News. Will update after the march tomorrow.

More about me....

I always felt that I should keep a note of my happenings in life. U know, its a great feeling to read about your past life as they have passed by. So here I go...

Since this is my first post, I would like to make a brief introduction to my past.
Born in Kolkata, I was brought up in Jamshedpur. Father used to work with TISCO. And wasn't it a great pleasure to have spent my childhood in the Steel City!!! Did my schooling from Loyola, Jamshedpur - More than my schooling, it is my association with the Institution that I cherish the most. After having passed out in 1997, joined Presidency, Kolkata to further my graduation. Post graduation, MBA was a dream for me but I always wanted to have some work-ex before going for MBA. And so I started my MCA preparations, in parallel with my graduation. After graduation, got through MCA after clearing UPMCAT. Took up MCA in HBTI, Kanpur - passed out in 2003. Years 2001-2002 were the dark years for the industry with slow-down setting in. It was by sheer God's grace that I was amongst the chosen few who grabbed a campus placement, inspite of the Industrial downturn. And, by jove!, I was placed on the 13th of August, 2002 - Lucky 13???

Took up my first job with Newgen Software Systems, New Delhi. Joined co-incidentally on the 13th of Jan, 2003 - 13 Again????

The first few months in my job was a mix of ecstacy and tension. Still remember the first stipend that I received (Jan - Jun, 2003 was my training period). However, there were days when I used to tirelessly work for long hours, apprehensive of what would happen if I were to miss out on the committed deadlines. And in the process, I took up some very stiff deadlines as well. In parallel, I started my MBA preparations after borrowing some amount from my senior. But preparing for MBA in parallel with the tremendous work-load in office was a very demanding task indeed. Somehow, prepared for the exams and appeared for the same. But by the time I was home from the exam center, I got to know that the paper got leaked and exams were to conducted afresh. And wasn't I crestfallen!!! During the period of my preps, I had a one point agenda to study for MBA while many of my colleagues left my company for greener pastures. I grew envious of them but never had the bandwidth to prepare for an of-campus placement. But after the cancelled exams in Nov, 2003, I got a lucky break with an interview call in Hughes Software Systems (currently Flextronics Software Systems), Gurgaon. Converted it impromptu. And guess what was my interview date - 13th of Jan, 2004 - i need not point out anything this time. So I left my previous company and joined Hughes on 27th of Jan, 2004. Hughes was a much bigger and better company than Newgen. It had a corporate look and feel and I felt privileged to be a part of this organisation.

But soon things would not be the same for me anymore. On the fateful day - 9th of Feb, 2004, I was in the midst of a project meeting when I received a call on my mobile. I rejected the call, not to be disturbed in between the meeting. But the cell phone rang again and when I picked it up, I got the shock of my life.... My uncle (mamu - maternal uncle) had rung up with an urgent tone asking me to take a flight for home asap since my father was very ill. The scenario was not alien to me since I had heard of some of my class-mates getting similar calls from home, only to find out later that one of their near and dear ones had passed away.

Somehow managed to take a Jet back home. Reached home at around 8p.m. in the evening only to face the inevitable. Held back my tears so as to lend moral strength to my grieving mother and brother. My heart cried but I did not let my tears come out. Soon left for the crematorium to perform the last-rites. It is there that I wept my heart out. One of the important chapters in my life had come to an end.

However, life had to go on and it was definitely going to be very different for me from then on. During my stay, I had to go through all the documents in the house, separate the important ones from the others. And then I realised how helpful were my father's meticuluous ways of maintaining all records. The Herculean task was made lot easier for me.

I departed for my work place on the 23rd of Feb, 2004, leaving my mother and brother behind with my relatives to look after them.

It has been a long and eventful journey since then. I had missed out on my MBA re-exams that were scheduled in Feb, 2004 because of this mis-hap. So I started all over again for my preparations. Work at Hughes was not as hectic as in Newgen. I found a new way of life at Hughes and made some very close friends as well. The company changed hands in May, 2004 and soon it became Flextronics Software Systems.

Another good thing that happened with me at Flextronics was that I found quite a few Bengali friends of round about similar age-group. We formed a small bong group in FSS. And how did we come together is 'Junk' - which probably a fellow FSS'ian can only understand. Its been a real pleasure to have spent time with them and have enjoyed every outing in their company - The trip to Manali is still fresh in my memory.

Meanwhile, my MBA preps continued until it was exam time again. The CAT had a surprise in store and the unsuspecting mouse(myself) fell for it - scored 92 percentile - looks good on paper but not enough to give you a place in the top notch colleges. I had serious thoughts about further attempts but (may be its just an excuse) I always felt that for such preparations, you always need a calm n quiet atmosphere around you. That was just not possible staying in a shared accomodatio0n with collegues. Plan to do an 'Executive MBA' but that too is on hold because I am not sure where I will be for the next 3 years. Would have preferred to go back to Kolkata but that is only possible when more companies come up and the job situation stabilises out there.

With the Left scoring an out-right victory in the current assembly ellections and with the reformist 'Buddha" @ the helm of affairs, I have plenty of expectations for the state of WB.

In the last couple of years, I feel that I have matured a lot with more responsibilities on my shoulders. I have had to curtail my ambitions to a certain extent but I have no regrets. After all the fruits of your labour is directly proportional to the happiness that you give to your family. And to keep my family happy, that's a small sacrifice from my side.

Thats quite a big summary, I guess. So thats it for this psoting. More to come on specific events later on.

So long till then....

A brief intro...

Name: Saikat Chaudhuri
Age: 32 years
Location: New Delhi
Permanent Address: HB-230, Saltlake, Kolkata-106
Profession:Software Engineer
Comapny: Tata Consultancy Services
Worked with:
Alcatel-Lucent
Aricent (Formerly Hughes)
Newgen


Photo Location: Mt. Abu, Rajasthan (Nakki Lake)