Chapter 14

There was a look of apprehension and look of conviction in his face.

“I am trying to learn 100 words a day. Still when I try the vocabulary section in Barrens’ GMAT guide I feel that I am nowhere” Arjun was venting his frustration.

“Like you said you started with a disadvantage; but you have the grit and the patience. You will manage” Joshi repeated. He knew, Arjun was looking for re-assurance.

Arjun got up and moved towards the other end of the terrace. He lit a cigarette and stood there staring for into the sky. He was deep in thoughts and had a serious look in his face.

The others remained back where they were. There was a deep silence. Everybody was looking ahead wondering what future holds for them. Chandy got up and walked towards the flower pots that were stacked near the ledge. There were many rose flowers blooming. He bent down to smell one of them.

 “My God guys we have been having too much discussion on studies and career. Now let us share some stories. Arjun, come here. Don’t be moody. You, as I have predicted, will crack it. Don’t let your confidence to drop. Tell us what is happening between you and Rohini. In the last two weekends both of you have been coming early for the Jaycee meetings.” Joshi tried to change the subject.

“Arrey Arjun, you have not shared the stories with us” Chandy poured one more drink to Arjun’s glass

“Chandy you have been making all of us drunk by pouring peg after peg. Fill your glass” Joshi shouted and he took Chandy’s glass and poured a stiff drink

“There is nothing much between Rohini and I. Ashok Kumar Rohini’s cousin told me that she is keen to get to know me. So I decided to meet her.”

“Yet another adventure for Arjun” Chandy said laughingly

“Which is the other adventure Arjun? Joshi asked

“Oh when we just finished engineering and was waiting for results, I met Anu at a party. She was so beautiful and with her short hair, she looked like Princess Diana. All guys were after her and were trying to get an ifntro. I also got introduced. There was something like a spark when we talked. “ Arjun was narrating the story

“Look what this bastard Chandy is doing” Joshi laughed

“He can’t stand his drink and he is quietly spilling it down. Now the cat is drinking it. Soon  the cat will  drunk” Joshi was freaking out.

Chandy was red in his face.

“Come on guys let us here Arjun’s story” Chandy tried to change subject

“Any way we met again when I went for the Malhar festival. I did not expect that she will be keen on me. But surprise, she came to where I was standing and started talking to me. Man I was in the seventh heaven.  After that we used to talk to each other on phone on and off. Oh it was a pain to get her on the line. She used to stay with her aunty as her mother was working abroad and father had passed away. But I used to call up and talk in girl’s voice and get her on line. But she could talk only if there was nobody in the phone room.”

“Then what happened? Macha story is exciting” Joshi was all entrenched in the story

“We met couple of times out for date, Once we even went out on a date on my bike"

“Did anything else happen” Joshi asked with a snigger

“You only have one thing in your mind.” Arjun said laughingly “Nothing else happened”

“After we took up this job with Tridevput Automobiles and moved over, we never got much chance to meet up. I tried calling her couple of times. She did not take the call. Then I sent her a Christmas card with an innocuous message. Even if the card fell in the hands of her family, they would not have suspected anything. It was just a Christmas wish from one of her old class mates. But it had the message that she could have figured out No reply. I met her again at the rock show. She just looked through me. Then I did not bother. If she things she is too hot let her go to hell. Then I heard that she got married to a fellow settled in UK. It hurt me a bit. Then that is life”

“Oh how sad. Now you have started seeing this Rohini. Where is it going?”

“Who knows where it is going. Let it go forward. At the least I have a friend.”

“Maybe  the Doon School girl has hots for you” Joshi was again being naughty

“Don’t pre-judge anything. As of now we find each other interesting”

“Joshi now it is your turn to tell us stories” Chandy was egging Joshi

“I met Rani Joseph when I had just finished junior college and joined for my engineering degree. She is niece of my cousin’s husband. Her parents were in US and she came to Tridevpur to do her junior college. She and my cousin Vinita were class mates and hostel mates. On and off she used to come home for weekends as we were the local guardians. Rani appeared a very snooty girl. Especially with her convent school background she used to have an attitude.  One day we were at home and we were sharing our stories. She was commenting about the affair that one of her friends was having. She referred to that girl as a fool”

“Then I told her that it is natural that at this age to feel fancy for the opposite sex. She said that it won’t happen to her. I challenged her and told her that if the right fellow comes, she will also fall. Initially I thought I will introduce her to one of our friends. Then I decided to flirt with her.”

“That was too much.” Chandy commented

“I wooed her for quite some time. Then I realised that she started to have feeling for me. Then one day we had a frank talk. To be honest, I also started to like her more But I did not want to get fixed up at 18. So we decided to let it pass”

“Oh what a tragedy” Arjun commented

“Just after we joined Tridevpur Auto, her brother came and met me. She had sent a letter through him. It said ‘ now that we are old enough are you ready’. Oh man I was shocked. I liked the girl. But I was not ready to marry and settle down. I wanted to study further. I send a letter through her brother explaining my plans. Next time when I went to her town, I met her and we went out for a coffee. I liked her and she knew it. But my passion to study further and see the world was more overpowering. I knew that if  I get married then, I will end up being bitter in future and end up having a screwed up family life. She understood where I came from. We know that though we liked each other so much our priorities in life were completely out of synch. So we made the sensible decision. We decided to part ways”

Chapter 13

“Wake up you lazy bum” Joshi shouted as by the time Chandy and Joshi were back Arjun had dozed off on the chair.

“Had a tiring day and the chilled beer is quite soporific” Arjun woke up and stretched his hands.

“Mr Joshi Williams, have you brought some good food” Ajun asked

“Oh yes. As tomorrow is a holiday we have decided that we could have fun the whole night” Joshi replied while he was unpacking

“See we have bought a full bottle of Mc Dowels No 1 whisky” Joshi took out the square bottle with tile like design

“Where is the soda?” Arjun asked

“No Soda. We have chilled beer and the combination is really great” Joshi replied

“I presume that you are going to sleep here tonight. “ Arjun said

“I am going to be here tonight and none of us are going to sleep. Somesh Nair will also come in another 10 mts and we will play 28 the whole night.”

“Guys, I have told you my plans, rather dreams. Tell me what are you guys cooking?” Joshi asked as he opened the whisky bottle and poured into each of the glasses.”

“Pour me a small one” Chandy interrupted

“Why small. Today is the day for large” Joshi laughed aloud as he poured half glass for each of them

“Arjun, I thought you were planning to appear for Indrapresta Civil Service” Joshi asked

“I gave it a serious thought. Last week when I went home I met Aby uncle. As you know he is senior IAS officer. He is currently the Secretary to the Government of Indraprasta”

“He is a much respected officer. He is honest and upright and not swayed by political pressure. He is also a very good administrator and a visionary. So he holds a commanding position in the Government” Arjun continued.

“I discussed with him my plans. He had an interesting take on this. He explained in this in his gentle and serious manner” Arjun went onto imitate his Aby uncle

“Son this is a very honourable profession. You are expected to do a lot for the society. But with the kind of political interference we hardly get a chance to get at least 20% of what we would love to do. But even the 20% can make a significant difference.”

“Why only 20%. Isn’t it left for you to take the initiative and get things moving?” Arjun continued his play acting

“Yes and no. On one side you get caught up with so much of administrative mess that is created by many your colleagues and political masters with their hidden agenda. On the other side the same combination will hinder and block the progress of your initiative if it doesn’t suite their purpose. It will be two steps forward, one step backward and sometimes three steps backward. There is no point in fretting about it. Get moving with what you believe.”

“That can be frustrating Uncle”

“Then as you are aware. This job does not pay. Look around. The house I stay is palatial. Courtesy GOI. But the furniture is sparse as this is all I can afford. When I retire in a couple of days, I will move to my small flat in the outskirts of Indrapuram; because that is what I could manage with my salary. I am not regretting. I am telling you the fact of life. If you are a person who loves material comforts, I suggest that you try to get into IMI. When you graduate, your starting salary could be higher than what I get as a secretary. On the other hand if you are willing to sell your soul, sky is the limit for an IAS officer.”

“Quite an interesting point of view” Chandy commented

“You don’t have to sell you soul. You can sell yourself to a rich father-in-law”  Joshi laughed as he took a deep swig.

“Oh yes. I am not in any way planning to sell myself.” Arjun replied

“I am not going to study now. I have decided to enjoy my life for some time” Chandy said and took a sip from his glass. “I have asked my uncle who is the CFO of our company to get me posted to the Computer Centre. I will have a chance for on-the-job training on Computer Applications.  If I manage this, which I am sure I can, I will stay back in this company for a few years and get some good experience. I feel IT is going to the growth area for future. Later I will try to get into a reputed IT company which offers international posting. In the meantime I will get married to a nice girl from a well to do family. As the demands of this PSU job will not be much, I will be able to have a long honey moon here.  As my uncle is the CFO I am not going to have too much trouble from my bosses” Chandy described his plan with a grin.

“You are too smart Chandy. And also connected the right way. I am sure you will get some smart girl from a well to do family to get married soon. “ Joshi replied

“I don’t have such guardian angels and ancestral assets to protect my future. I am going to work hard on getting into IMI. With the background we come from it is not going to be easy” Arjun said.

“You will manage. You are a go getter.” Joshi replied

“Remember all of us flunked royally in the admission test when we tried in our final year.”

“Oh then none of us had done any preparation at all” Joshi said with a laughter.

“I bought some study material and took some practice tests. My God! The outcome was pathetic. I could not complete even half of the maths section in which we are supposed to be good” Arjun said dejectedly

“On the other hand I could not even recognize half the words in the vocabulary section.”

“Man you need a different strategy and a lot of preparation to crack this exam” Joshi was sharing his experience on the basis of the GMAT preparation he was making

“In many of the sections, there will be few questions which may be easy to crack, but which will definitely waste lots of time. The trick to leave these questions and go forward. If you get time at the end, then you come back to these”

 “That makes sense. Let me try that idea and see how I manage” Arjun had a gleam in his eye.

“In GMAT the time for each section is 30 minutes. What I try to do is to attempt to do it in 10 minute. This stricter target will help you to be more alert” Joshi was giving further ideas.

“But getting my English Language skills, especially vocabulary up is going to be a gargantuan task. As you guys know I studied in vernacular medium in an ordinary school and hence my exposure in English is not up to the mark.” Arjun lamented

“Don’t worry, you will crack it” Joshi said in encouragingly

Chapter 12

Arjun and Udhi were classmates from Indraprasta Management Institute (IMI). They had become close friends during their term at IMI. They were almost like two bodies and one soul. It did not mean that they were alike in everything. It just meant that in spite of their differences, they had something that linked them to a common purpose and a belief.

Arjun came from a middle class family in a small town in Indraprasta called Tridevpur. He did his schooling in Tridevpur. His father was a priest in the temple. So they were not very well off. His father and mother encouraged him to learn the scriptures. He became quite proficient in these. He also read scripture of other religion and he was quite familiar with them too.  He was not deeply religious. He was comfortable at both religious and non-religious settings. He was not sure in his mind his religious position. One part of him was a believer; believer of heaven and hell. The other part could not put his faith in the concept of the immortal soul whose ticket to heaven was determined by his actions during few years on earth. However the religious background shaped his life’s values of decency, integrity and doing good to his fellow humans.

Arjun was good at studies. He came first in the school and got admission to College of Engineering Tridevpur.

He participated in extracurricular activities. He stood for college union elections and was elected as the student council secretary. He loved swimming from his school time and was a regular at Tridevpur swimming pool.

When he finished Engineering course, He wanted to do his management from an Ivy League Management school. He knew that was the only way to be catapulted to the higher echelons of corporate circle. But he know with the background he came from it was going to be difficult to get into an Ivy League school. He took up job with Tridevpur Automobiles as a Graduate Engineer Trainee (GET). They were a batch of 25 GETs Tridevpur Automobiles had taken first time as an experiment. This had created quite a shake-up in the company. The old timers who had come up from the ranks were not amused with these upstarts.

He and his close friend Chandi Varghese took up a studio apartment. This apartment was sort of an outhouse of a Bungalow owned by Mr Romeo Fernando. 

“My father has come up with a marriage proposal. He is insisting that I meet up with his girl” Chandi was pouring his heart out.

Arjun, Chandi and Joshi had got together on the terrace of their apartment. This was a regular pastime they had after their work. As usual they had their supply of chilled beer.

“But Chandi, it is too early to get married. I agree the job we have in this company is good. It pays decently. It has respectability in this community. But if we get married and settle down, our growth will be restricted. We will be like frogs in a well” Arjun remarked as he lit is cigarette.

“I agree with Arjun” Joshi added “ I plan to migrate to US. I have already started applying to schools in America.”

“You can dream about it Joshi. You are a rich man” Arjun replied with a laughter

“Fuck of. My popsy is not going to give me money to go to America. I am trying to get a scholarship” Joshi retorted.

“Oh Come on Joshi. You know it is not so easy to get Schol. Even if we get some partial schol, there is still going to be a big cost. I can’t afford that” Arjun said.

“ I have some ideas on how to improve my chance of getting into an ivy league school in US” Joshi grinned and took a sip of the beer.

“You always have many aces up your sleeve.  Tell with us your smart idea”

“Man ideas don’t come free.” Joshi replied with a wink

“Don’t act pricey. We are not trying to go to US and we won’t steal your ideas. But we are curious about your ingenuity” Chandy interjected

Joshi did not reply. His eyes were at the terrace of the neighboring building. Sheena, the neighbour's daughter was standing there with her pet Alsatian.

“Mr Joshi, Turn this side. You are getting distracted ” Chandy said

“Oh I was just looking at the beautiful bitch” Joshi replied

“The four legged or the two legged one” Arjun asked.

“Come on guys. Be a sport”  Josh replied

“Son, don’t lech at  Sheena. She has an elder brother who is a police inspector. He will help you to count your ribs and ours too” Arjun tapped Joshi’s head and said.

“Come on. I was only looking. No comments, no winks, no smile. Just enjoying nature’s beauty. Joshi said with a mock protest.

Arjun lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

“Joshi, tell us about your master plan” Chandy implored.

“Arjun pass me a fag” Joshi asked

He was getting ready for his narration.

“I am planning to join this NGO called ‘Tribal Arts’. They work among the tribes in one of the most backward regions of Indraprasta. They help to market the various artifacts made by these tribes. “ Joshi started

“That is a very great work they are doing” Arjun replied

“What are you going to do? You have no sense of art” Chandy asked laughingly.

“Oh I am going to be based in one of the villages deep into the forests” Joshi replied

“I will be teaching and helping the tribes on how to do their business better” Joshi continued.

“I have variety of roles to play. I will teach them basic arithmetic and basic language skills, help them to package the products well. Will help them in their inventory planning. Based on the feedback from the corporate office of NGO I will help them prioritize and focus their production so that they can maximize their revenue and return”

“That is a very honourable thing you are doing” Arjun said appreciatly

“I agree” Chandy added

  

“The international Ivy League schools give lot of value for such work from their prospective students. If I spent two years doing a serious job of this, I have a pretty good chance for my admission. Anyway I have a decent score for GMAT, my graduate results are pretty good and I have some good reco”

“Man you are something. You are determined. I am impressed” Arjun said

“But Joshi, how are you going to spent two years in the forest. It can be so boring”

“That is the price I have to pay for what I want to get. In the process many tribal people are going to be benefited”

“Wont it be quite boring and lonely there?” Chandy asked

“I already made a visit to the place. The forest is quite scenic. Quite a lot of trekking opportunities for my weekends. I am sure there can be some good fun with nice weed and may be there is some good mushroom there” Joshi replied

“The king’s daughter is quite a chic” Joshi continued with a wink

“Man don’t mess around with the King’s daughter. They will catch you and castrate you” Arjun replied

“Oh no. No fooling around. I will marry her” Joshi replied nonchalantly

 “Marry her?. But you are going to be there only for two years. I don’t think she will be able to adjust to city life” Arjun

“Who asked about adjusting to city life” Joshi asked

“When my objective of getting admission is met, I leave. She stays” Joshi continued

“But that is not fair” Arjun replied

“Everything is fair in love and war” Joshi laughed

“This is neither war nor love” Arjun commented

“Winning in your career advancement journey is a war and my love for admission to Ivy League School is unconditional. I am willing to pay any price for it.”

“ You can rationalise. It is still mean” Arjun commented.

“Look at this way. She gets a first class husband for two years. She is not worse of. As Barnard Shaw commented a woman would rather have a one tenth of a first class husband than full of a third class husband. She gets to have a first class husband for two years”

“You are really vain” Arjun took a swig of beer from the mug

“When you leave her and go after two years she will be devastated” Chandy said

“For some time. Then the hormones will start working and she will look for another mate.”

“You are a rascal. I hope you won’t make a baby” Arjun remarked with a serious note.

“It is a point. That way I will have no head ache. On the other side, should I not leave something for her to remember me”

“Have you told all these plans to the NGO who is sponsoring” Chandy asked

“Are you out of your mind? All these ideas about marrying the King’s daughter are just dreams” Joshi replied

“I hope your dreams don’t come true for the girl’s sake” Arjun commented.

“I was just letting my imagination run wild a bit.” Joshi suddenly changed the tone.

“One thing is sure. I am willing for a two year sojourn in a forest if that will help me the admission I want”

“Let us go and get some food” Chandy got up.

“Arjun you wait here. I will hitch a ride in Joshi’s bike and get some nice Paratha and Chicken” 

Chapter 11

With increase in volume, day to day operations became a challenge. Ramesh and his team were primarily concentrating on development of features. With more clients from all round the country, support calls were increasing. Bhishma knew that unless the users had a great experience and got their doubts clarified on a timely basis, they would lose interest.

The central computer system was also running out of capacity. With this capacity constraint more and more clients were facing problems. He asked Arjun to help 

Ramesh to make sure that the capacity is planned and upgraded to match the growth in volume. Arjun took this up seriously. He undertook a detailed evaluation of the operations. He realised that the system team as well as MSS team considered development of features their priority. Solving client problems was considered a low end job and a necessary evil.

Arjun went about addressing this problem heads on. He organised a special task team consisting of smartest kids from business, systems and MSS to address issues for service quality and redressal of grievances. To begin with there was significant resistance in being posted to this low-end job. It was considered to be punishment posting by most.

Arjun realized that the biggest challenge was changing this attitudinal issue. He decided to make sure that posting into this task team becomes a privilege posting and not a punishment posting.

He called the complete team for a brainstorming session.

“Guys, I called you all because I want your help in changing our task team performance. This task team is expected to help our clients to sort out their problems. But, today the feedback we get from our clients is that we are failing in our duties. So I decided to ask you all why we are in this stage”

“Sir I want to make a point. We are from the system team. But we are demeaned by being posted in this help desk. I don’t feel that I am part of a system team that is involved in developing an advanced solution. I feel that I am in one of the call centers.”Ranjit replied

“ I agree with Ranjit” added Rajat also of systems team. “ When the telephone rings I can almost  listen to myself saying Mam can I help you”

“OK Rajat is it shameful to help our clients? Are we not being sustained by the fee that is paid by our clients? If the clients don’t feel happy and they don’t buy our services there will be no solution development for any of us”

“I don’t say that we should not help our clients. But that is the job  of people who are selected to do that job. We can simply outsource this to a call center where ‘not so well educated’ chaps will sit and take these calls and sort out the clients stupid clarifications” Ranjit replied.

“May be the business operations team can handle it” Rajat remarked

“Do you think it is the job of BO to clean up the shit that the systems team has created” Gopan from BO who was posted to task team was fuming.

“Please stop this nonsense” Arjun raised his voice mildly. “You guys are arguing without truly understanding our role and the challenges we face”

“Listen to some facts. Do you know why I have been asked by Bhishma to take a look the task team performance? It is because we have reached a situation that there is severe backlash from our client base about the quality of our solution. The murmur that was here and there, is now become a uprising asking us to take our solution back and return their monies”

“In the last one week I analysed whatever documentation you had created relating to the customer grievances. I took help of Krishnan the MSS project head to study the root cause. 90% of the complaints are not some clarification from users on which button to press or how to start the computer or requesting help on command. They are performance issues of programs getting slow, the weekly upgrades failing to load, programs crashing, failure of some functionalities and so on.” Arjun pointed out

“These are on account of poor design, poor programming and insufficient testing. These cannot be solved by call center staff. They need help from qualified people to solve these problems. We need bright kids like you to analyse these problems deeply to understand the root causes and solve them. Then we send these upgrades to our clients so that these problems don’t continue. I don’t even know why we call these upgrades. They are nothing but bug fixes”

“Let me make a point my friends” Krishnan butted in. These problems are because all you smart guys who are involved in development and testing are focused on features and functionalities and not of performance. We only see if the functionality work. We test using few records. We don’t appreciate how our programs scale, we don’t worry about memory leaks, we don’t spent time on the algorithms. We don’t even worry about basic discipline in coding. I have seen mixing up data definitions as integer and decimal in the same program. I have seen logics in queries and searches in program that will always throw out null records because the logics are plain faulty.”

“What is required from this task team is Performance Enhancement. But we see the role of this group as help desk. Therefore we don’t respect the role that we are expected to play. Therefore we don’t play this role with our hearts in it. Therefore we don’t do justice to our role. Therefore our clients are happy and therefore we are failing as a company. It is a vicious cycle.” Arjun was almost talking to himself.

“We are going to change what we call ourselves. This group will from now on be called ‘Performance Enhancement Group’ ; PEG We are the pegs on which the growth of our company will be supported, we are the peg that we use in our climb upward”

“If we fail in this role, we will not be PEGS but PIGS that will drive our company to its doom” Arjun was getting the drift in his mind, the road ahead was getting clear.

“But sir, why should I be there in this group?” Vamsi from MSS asked. I am working on one component of the solution. ie; communication

“OK. I agree. Are you a person who understand only programming related to the communication system. In the next project you will go from MSS, will it only be in comms”

“No sir”

“That is the point. Do you think that the BO team who don’t understand any programming are better suited? Do you think that the systems team who no involved in programming are better suited? We don’t expect you to fix all bugs of all modules by PEGS. We expect smart and brilliant people like you, who have exposure to different modules will analyse the problem, solve it if you can or connect to the relevant experts from the team and help it to be solved.”

Arjun was speaking with utmost seriousness and earnestness. He was looking into the eyes of each of them. He wanted them to appreciate the import of what he was explaining. He knew it was important for them to feel and believe the importance of what they were doing and also absorb how it is going to help them in their growth. He continued

“This is a different skill than jut programming. This is a skill that requires ability to react under stress. Ability to make quick evaluation of various options under demanding circumstances and to take a call on immediate work around and on long term solution. It does not give you luxury of time that you often have when you are solving a problem as a part of your regular development. This is a different kind of training that you will get; preparing you to be a leader who can lead his troops.”

He paused for a minute and looked up as if trying to pull out an idea from the sky. His hands reached to the back of his head as if he was trying to comb his hair with his fingers.  This was a characteristic mannerism of Arjun when he is thinking seriously.

  “I want you to transform from being Karna to being Arjun” He said with a smile

“Do you know what this means?”

“No sir.” Some of them murmured

“If you remember the story from Mahabharatha, Karna was a better archer than Arjun. But he had one curse. Do you know what it was?” He stopped for an answer from the audience.

“He would forget all what he learned when it is really a matter of life and death” Gopan said

“That is true. What it meant that he was quite weak in managing stress. I’m sure many of you would have experienced this in your life too. In the examination hall, sometimes some of us forget all what we learned. For some others, it could be at the time of an interview. Even in games, a critical point some may feel frozen. All these are signs of our inability to cope with sudden stress.”

“It is not enough for us to learn skills and build knowledge. It is also important for us to be use them effectively and smartly at time of crisis. One of the most important training that PEGS will give us is this.”

“As we have a critical role to deliver; we only want as members of this team, those who possess functional skills and crisis management skills. Please keep this in mind. With this in mind together  will make PEGS the critical component of success of IES. 

Thanks guys for joining me today. Let us get going.”

All of them dispersed. Krishna and Arjun walked out to the balcony to share a smoke. Udhi also joined them.

While lighting  a cigarette Arjun said. “ I want to posting to PEGS a matter of privilege and not a matter of punishment. I want them to feel like Heroes”

Krishnan nodded his head as he took a deep drag of his cigarette.

Chapter 10

“I am happy that the launch was organized quite well. It was truly a team effort. Special thanks to Arjun and Udhi for leading from the front” Bhishma observed in their next weekly meeting.

“Sir the who’s who of the education industry was there” Gopalakrishna  said excitedly.

“Minister’s presence was really a boost.” Sajjan was beaming from ear to ear.

“Sajjan gets an orgasm if he has been with a minster.” Udhi whispered to Arjun’s ears mischievously. “He was standing behind the minster on the stage full time. In that position he looked more like a security. Black safari suite of security would have suited better than the tuxedo he wore! ”

“Keep quite” Arjun wanted Udhi to stop. He knew Udhi will go on with his wisecracks.

“Udhi how is the response to our product from the clients you have contacted?” Bhishma asked

“Sir this is a new concept and a difficult idea for the potential clients. I had discussion with many of the regular schools. None of the managements could appreciate the usefulness of this.  They thought that it was madness to spent money to establish computer labs which had weekly updates of new modules. We organised a small focus group discussion of parents from these schools. They were mostly of middle class background. They considered it as an expensive hobby. The rich and elite thought that what they bought from abroad was a better alternative.” Udhi sounded discouraged.

Udhi was very convinced of the product and was very unhappy that the potential users are not getting it. He felt frustrated at the “stupidity of the consumer”

“It means that we have a challenging task ahead” Bhishma said in a calm voice. “This is the challenge when we launch a completely new idea. We need to spent effort in shaping the market and to develop an appetite”

“Udhi, develop a plan of action in this direction. Set up a team to work with various forums, arranging for demos at schools, organising seminars for parents. Have an aggressive marketing pitch” Bhishma continued.

“Exactly sir. I was suggesting the same thing to our team the other day” Sajjan butted in.

Bhishma looked up and smiled.

***

Udhi was charged up. He went about with an education plan for the various segments of users. He was a good communicator and loved anything to do with children. He visited school after school and demonstrated the exciting stuff one could do with computers. He showed the children how to do use the product. He even took effort to teach programming to the children with an idea to get them more excited about computers. He spent time with the children to see how they responded to various new features.

He worked closely with Arjun who was responsible for product development. On the basis of the experience with the children in the field, Arjun and Udhi developed lots of ideas on computer based games that also taught children a variety of topics. He organised contests and gave away handsome prizes.

Ramaswami focused on getting more schools to sign in for the service. He enjoyed going to school after school; talking to the management and the teaching staff about how computers would change the way children are taught.

 Gopalakrishna took care of day to day operations. Documentation for each sale, delivery of kits, installation, invoicing and collection and so on.

 Vidur handled recruitment and training of staff.  With the company growing leaps and bounds, getting the right kind of people was a challenge. Once they joined they had to be trained on the various aspects of this business as this was a new field and it was not possible to get people with relevant experience. This was an area Vidur managed very well. Vidur also handled all affairs relating to finance and accounting making sure that all compliance requirements were met.

Over a five year period, the idea clicked. Moreover, the success of the IT industry in Indraprasta also acted as a stimulant. More parents wanted the kids to be familiar with computers and more kids wanted to learn computers.  Bhishma guided the team to innovate. New funky features were added very often. The learning experience was getting to be exciting. The weekly updates have become something users looked forward to. 

Chapter 9

As they dispersed Ramesh asked his team to join him at his cabin. Sajjan and his team also assembled in his cabin to plan.

“Boss has placed an enormous challenge on us” Ramesh said immediately as he and his team entered in his room.

He turned to close the door and then moved to his chair. Normally he left his room door open. But whenever he had confidential matters to discuss, he shut his door. Shashank and Mukund took their seat in front.

“But Ramesh, this target is absolutely impossible. We have to follow the Software Development Life Cycle when we release software of this complexity” Shashank gave his expert opinion. By nature he was more concerned about processes than outcome. He would rather screw up following a process than make a judgement call for a decisive outcome.

“The Classic SDLC cannot be followed in this case. We need follow a different strategy for this rapid roll out” Ramesh replied

“The business operations people will have to take equal responsibility. They cannot just sit there and say we have given the functional specification”

“I don’t know how to make Sajjan own up anything. He has no clue of anything. Vidur is his right hand. He is a bright fellow. But he is as slippery as an eel.” Ramesh said.

“But what about readiness of the data center” Mukund asked

“For the time being we could use the data center of NUPS. They have surplus space. I will ask boss to talk to Surya” Ramesh replied

***

In the meantime Sajjan was having his conclave in his room. They had this habit of assembling in Sajjan’s room after the weekly meeting to have an evening tea and gossip before closing for the weekend.

“Ramesh has been completely bowled today. He is really psyched with Boss’s aggressive schedule” Sajjan commented. He was happy to find an occasion to put down Ramesh.

“Yes sir. You are very correct.” Ramaswami chipped in with his agreement.

“Shashank wants us to take all responsibilities. He cannot own anything” Vidur added.

“The system team has to do the sign off with MSS. We have already given the specification” Vidur continued.

“They have not started coding and they want us to complete the test conditions” Ramaswami commented. He wanted to make Sajjan happy. So he did not leave any opportunity to put down the system department.

“Arjun. You should start planning for the launch. Udhi can also help. With the minster attending the inauguration, it is going to be grand show and we don’t want to fail in the arrangements.” Sajjan said

“Don’t worry Sajjan” Udhi replied in his classical nonchalant fashion. “We will put up the grandest inauguration that Indrapura has never seen before” He was mostly chilled out; except when somebody questions his integrity. Normally he had a naughty smile in his face.

“I will say that after the show is over. Not now” Sajjan commented

“We will not let you down” Arjun replied unassumingly. Arjun took up every project with full sincerity and seriousness.

***

Chapter 8

Bhishma set up IES as a company. Surya Hari and representatives from the other funding agencies joined as board members of the company.

After having set up the company, he went about building a team systematically. To support him in technology, he got Ramesh Gupta. Ramesh had outstanding academic credentials and familiarity with large IT systems. Ramesh also brought in two managers Mukund Mehta and Shashank Goudar to support him in IT.

Sajjan Kapoor joined him as head of corporate affairs. He had excellent experience as a compliance person. He was good at making sure that various compliance requirements were met, books are kept properly and the day-to-day administration was efficient. But he was bereft of any new ideas. He was good at playing politics. He knew how to play on against the other. His colleagues used to call him ‘Tuglak’ for his policy of ‘divide and rule’.

In fact this shift for him could not have come at a better time. In his previous organisation where he worked he had almost got into a scam in his role of credit assessment. Many people believed that he was not an accidental victim. He was not a shamelessly corrupt person. He did not mind some presents in kind so long as it was discreet. In this case he had given a loose definition of gift. More so he was willing to close his eyes on the potential credit risk of the borrower. The evidence was week. He went up to his boss and pleaded to let him off. His boss relented. He asked him to leave quietly. Therefore this offer by Bhishma was really a godsend opportunity for him.

  

In the second tier as operating managers, he got Udhi Srinivas, Arjun Kumar Vidur Ranavekar, Ramaswami and Gopalakrishna.

Bhishma focused on the strategic priorities and took major strategic decisions. He gave clear directions and timely decisions which the team was conscientious in implementation.

Bhishma believed in building a team and building consensus. So he established a practice of weekly meeting with his senior team. They met every Friday evening. In this meeting they discussed the progress during the past week and identified priorities for the oncoming week.

It was a month onto the project. Bhishma was ready for the product launch. He decided to discuss it in the weekly meeting. Bhishma was in few minutes early. The team members were trickling in one by one. Those who came in sat quietly.

Bhishma looked around. They were still operating out of NUPS office. So it was in the NUPS board room that they met.

“It is time to think about our own office. He thought. But let the product launch happen. Then we will decide.” He mused.

“This board room is too gaudy for my taste. When we have our office it should be sober. May be I should take some help from Surabhi” He was letting his mind wander a bit.

At exactly 4 pm and he was ready to start the meeting. All the team members were already in.

“I would like us to discuss our plan for the product launch” He moved onto the business for the day after everybody settled down and finished with their pleasantries

“Sir we are nowhere ready for the launch. The development team has just completed the solution architecture” Ramesh was quick to butt in. He sounded and appeared agitated and concerned. His large eyes were larger with excitement

“The development team from Maximus Software Services (MSS) will take at least eight months for the development of all the functionalities. Shashank is already coordinating the development and the interface with the business team” Ramesh continued.

“Sir the business team is yet to give the sign of for the details System Requirement Specification submitted by MSS.” Shashank had made his point.

“Sir we have given the full functional specification. MSS has translated this to detailed SRS which is the foundation for development. It is the systems team who should review this in details and sign off. We can also look at it whether the FS is covered adequately” Ramaswami objected.

“I don’t agree with it” Shashank was quick to retort

“I agree with Shashank. But I am willing to debate this and come to a solution that is acceptable to both teams” Ramesh commented. “But there are many more challenges. Sir after the development we need to have a full fledged testing of the software; both by business team and by the systems team” Ramesh continued.

“MSS has requested that we give them the full test conditions before they start coding. As far as I know the business team has not started this yet”

“Yes. Yes” Shashank had more to add. “Sir Test conditions...”

“Wait a second” Bhishma interjected with his stern and gentle voice. As per you Ramesh, when do think we can launch.

“Fifteen months minimum” Ramesh replied carefully

Sajjan Kapoor looked at Vidur and sniggered. Though he did not understand the import of the discussion relating to software development he pretended that he was following everything.

“We should launch IES solution in six months” Bhishma said decisively.

“Sajjan please plan the launch ceremony. Minister of Education Shwetambaran has agreed to attend our launch.”

“But sir, we cannot get the full product out in six months” Ramesh said. He sounded helpless and agitated. His eyes which were naturally large were now bulging further. His voice was developing edginess.  

“Ramesh, Don’t get agitated” Bhishma spoke gently and reassuringly. “I am not suggesting that we launch the full product in six months. I know it would not be possible to get all the features in and also launch the product soon. I am suggesting a strategy of phased Implementation. This would also help us to test the product and get feedback from the real users which could in turn help to refine the product.

“That is a fantastic idea” Ramaswami blurted out excitedly.

“Sir in that kind of a scenario we will need a little help from you to get necessary cabling from the Indraprasta Telephones for the bandwidth” Mukund had to say something to feel important.

“Yes Mukund you need to help yourself first” Bhishma replied. You go and meet the General Manager personally and explain your need. If you still have a problem let me know”

Sajjan looked at Vidur and sniggered again

They proceeded as usual to sharing the progress of the project. Meeting got dispersed by 6 pm.