Satya's Musings

“Dey Bandi! What the hell are you doing? Get out now and don’t forget to bring along your wallet”. I quickly jumped up to open the door to find Anand, Chaks (Chakravarthy) and a few other classmates screaming in joy just outside my hostel-room door. Anand was still breathless, having run all the way from the main administration building to our dormitory, a good half-mile away on the campus of REC Warangal. Several of my MCA classmates interviewed with Ramco Systems for a campus placement earlier in the day and the news was that four of us (Banu, MRK, Thiru and myself) had been offered jobs as well as industrial training as part of our final semester course work. I was not sure if I should celebrate or suspect that I was being pranked. So I put on some formal clothes and ran back to the admin building, but the interviewers had already left the campus to catch the Charminar Express which would take them back to Chennai. But there it was; a printed announcement pinned to the Notice Bo...

Like many Indians, the news of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina’ retirement brought out some nostalgic cricketing memories for me. Dhoni may be the ideal captain for many cricket lovers but for many of our schoolmates, Gowri Sankar was the best captain who would often lead us into the YMCA grounds for a game of cricket. I was never sporty and at best was a good 12th man.  Whenever India played a test or one day match one of our classmates used to slip out of the class citing an urgent call of nature and run to Bakshi Automobiles to bring back the latest scores from the radio commentary. 23 September 1986 – On arriving at the main school building around 9 AM, like any other day, I was asked to report to Manager sir house. It was normal for us to go across to their house for classes taken by him or Meera teacher. However, I was sensing trouble as it was unusual for them to teach us the first class of the day; and I gingerly made my way there. Sir was sat on the big bench in ...

For over 30 years, the words  “For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war…” have been stuck in my head and each time I recall them, they transport me back in time to our 10th class English lesson taught by our much loved and equally feared, Manager sir (Sri Alladi Surya Narayana Garu) on the open terrace at the end of the first floor of their house in Nellore. I vividly remember him, wearing his trademark short sleeved vest, holding the textbook in his left hand at a distance and reciting this poem in a flow while waving his right hand emphasising the pronunciation of each word. Despite having never seen Scotland at the time and long before the Brave Heart movie, his narration would let me visualise the young and daring warrior charging on his horse crossing the large green pastures over undulating hills to claim the hand of the love of his life. “O young Lochinvar is come out of the west, Through all the wide Border his steed was the best; And save his good broadsword h...

Year 2020 was going to be great. The 25 th anniversary of my career was approaching; a grand reunion of my undergraduate and post-graduate classmates was scheduled, and I finally overcame my laziness and joined a gym.  My son was going to take his GCSEs and the excitement was slowly but surely building up. Then as a family we were going to have a big break. Our worldly outlook was looking good. Then news stories of coronavirus infections in China started appearing. Having lived through the 2003 SARS crisis in Singapore, and witnessed the speed and impact of the disease, I and my wife were naturally sceptical and started following the news more closely. She was pregnant during the SARS crisis and we still remember queuing up outside the hospital for temperature checks before seeing the doctor. Thermal cameras were ubiquitous - shopping malls, office buildings and airports. February brought a business trip to India. The defence mechanisms we learnt during the SARS crisis kicked ...

Since 2000, Good Friday and Easter brings me back memories of once in a lifetime visit to the holy city of Jerusalem, particularly the Church of Holy Sephulcre.  I and my colleague landed in Tel Aviv on  Thursday and immediately traveled to Gaza Strip in Palestine for a presentation to the UN Agency. We were booked to stay back in Gaza after the presentation until Sunday for our return flight.  It was afternoon by the time we finished the presentation and the UNO Staff, most them expatriates, were leaving for the weekend which is Friday and Saturday in the Middle East. They were surprised that we planned to stay back. Their Finance Director, a Sri Lankan, took pity on us, explained the challenges of staying back, drove us to Jerusalem and put us in a hotel in East Jerusalem just outside the Damascus Gate.  I will write about the travel to and from Tel Aviv later that was an adventure in itself. I was happy to just hit the bed after 4 days of stressful travel but litt...

I woke up with a start due to the constant ringing of my phone. It was 10 AM, my head was throbbing, and all my flatmates already left for work. It took me several minutes to realise where I was and remember what just happened the previous night. There was almost a dozen missed calls from the office. I hurriedly called back and was told that the Head Office was quite upset that I did not travel for this critical meeting with a prestigious client. They were trying to make alternative travel arrangements for me as it was impossible for someone else to travel at such a short notice with all the restrictions and I should get ready and await further updates. By around midday I learnt that I was booked on the Singapore-Chennai-Mumbai flight in the evening to connect to the Mumbai-Tel Aviv flight past midnight India time. The check-in was less dramatic this time around, but the flight was delayed for over an hour after boarding due to a technical problem thus setti...

 I am lucky that I got to travel to scores of cities in around 30 countries over the years on work and there was a time when I was spending more time on flights and at airports than at home or office - but the first Tel Aviv trip ranks right at the top for the  sheer adventure, stress and absurdity. By 1999, the rush to replace old software systems with the new to deal with the Y2K problem was at its peak. I was leading one such project team to implement a new payroll system at Chartered Semiconductors, Singapore in time for the new millennium. Late October Errol, my then boss, called my mobile phone (oh yeah, we had Nokia bricks by then) asking me to get to the office immediately and apply for an Israeli visa to travel to Gaza Strip, Palestine for a presentation to the UN Agency. NS, one of my senior colleagues and a pre-sales guru, couldn’t travel as his passport was under renewal. The visit to the Embassy was surreal - you required an advance appointment, get frisked at the...