How many months had it been now..that I had seen you? I remember it...Its exactly 3 months and 2 days now...Isn't it enough time for someone to forget? But how can I? I see you in the digital Screen, in the late night sleep, in the frost of the day, in the freezing fingers. While at night, standing on the balcony and starring at the almost spotless sky, I can imagine what would you say for this. May be I know you so much? May be you are all that I had thought you were?

The adorable kid on my desktop solicits inquisitive questions and a muted, understood smile. That smile is a sign of playing along with the lie that I live through- just as the same lie you are living too. Isn't it hard not to look at that kid and smile to oneself- saying this is what I am missing? It is hard..mighty hard.

Every morning as I wake up and switch ON the comp, the smile, those twisted lips, those carefree childish face- that fleeting moment is what I look forward for, in a day. The last week, when this monitor wouldn't work and the laptop had to go for a service- there isn't something that I had missed so much as that face that wakes me up every day.

It's the feeling of getting back something that left you- words can't explain them.

You have 5 mails unread in the morning.
You read all of them through the day logged into another machine.
You return back and see the page opened.
You click on the "Check mail" button.
The Screen refreshes to 3 unread mails (though they had been read through the day).
You hit the button twice and you get-

Yahoo!!! for sure is a kannakku puli (Though I am tempted to ask that quintessential question that always comes with this satire! [:P]).

My father would be heartened to see his son in the care of such maths genius!

While skimming through the headlines, I got upon this particular article from Infoworld. Makes an interesting read and one that echoes what had been running in my mind ever since I joined one of those (All said and done, my employer is still perceived as an outsourcer only- though many might not agree). I have been seeing many business managers (both from my Senior batch and my batch) joining IT companies- the lure of money, the opportunities, the general "Oh, you are an IT Guy" might have been reasons for the same.

I can very well testify that there had been movements other way too, but they pale in comparison with the movement towards IT. As the later portion of the article points out,

Indian IT spending is growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.8 percent, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region, to over $36 billion by 2009, Gartner said. This increase comes from rising expectations from businesses for IT to play a larger role in growth, efficiency and competitive advantage, it added.

When we have such a big IT spender in our midst, seems like we are blissfully unaware of the market or we are blatantly ignoring them, for want of quick bucks. I am sure Indian IT companies can subsidise their Indian operations for a couple of years, so that they can gain a foothold in a fast emerging market. Consider the spate of industrial growth that has been triggered in India- take for example the retail industry alone. There are other auxiliary industries like Logistics, Packaging and Supply Chain Management etc that would grow as retail grows. If we are able to concentrate on those for the time being- I am not saying that we leave the lucrative operations in NA and Europe for India...If we can just put in some effort and are willing to wait for results in a couple of years time,we might just crack the potential here.

I understand there are issues here like Margins, Credit, Pricing etc. I would assume the same issues with any client. After all, any client would be tight on his wallet. I know we can't expect the same margin as with our European and American clients- after all, we would have to negotiate in terms of Rupees and not in Dollars :)- but that's the part of the business. I am afraid, because, if we loose out on this now, it might just be too late, later.

There might be other concerns. What would be the result of such an approach on the Psyche of the employees. Take it or not, the option of an On-site is a big factor "for" an IT job. Would it still matter if I know for sure, I wouldn't have that option as an employee with a company concentrating on domestic market and still find it luring enough? Would that lead to an increase in wages- what would happen in such a scenario, where there is already pressure on the margins and also on the expenditure? Would that be a good enough scenario for Indian companies to work in and survive? Can their overseas market subsidise domestic market for long?

These questions, I assume are being asked at the relevant offices and I hope, we see atleast a spark of an activity in this area.

I am just waiting for more Indian noises! I fail to understand the excitement over this news(purely and only from the perspective that I am ranting about here) and the tag "Indian-American". I am afraid we live in such a hypocratic world that I wonder what makes us think she is Indian anymore. I am sure Sunitha got where she got, not because of her nationality. She got there through her hard work, intellect and merits. To claim a national pride where there exists none - or at least to rejoice in such nationalistic jingoism, sucks.

I am skeptical whether Sunitha would claim herselves an Indian, anymore than Musharaff would claim himselves an Indian. I wonder how come none of our news papers ever call Musharaff an "Indian-Pakistani". In the same league, how about calling Advani, as "Pakistani-Indian"? Such stupidity!

I had never been a votary for this thing called "Nationalism"[Though I can understand there is some shred of pride in me, in the fact of being called an Indian- Old habits- die hard]- When are we going to come out of the Nation State? I think the time has come for Nation State to wither..But frankly, I am unable to see an alternative. May be just states and not Nation States would be a solution. But states can't survive without becoming a Nation State- else America would have been a province of England still.