Dear NITIEans
My dear friends from my NITIE life,
Thanks for giving me this opportunity to tell my story.
I am not highly active in social networking, but once in a while when any of NITIE batchmate’s profile pops up in linkedin or previously in batchmates.com, I feel proud of myself to refer you guys as friend. Observing your professional growth from social networking and some of the postings over this whatsapp group, whatever I could go through, I can easily realize, you all are stars in real life. Compare to that, I could not do anything substantial in my professional life. So not sure, how can I make it interesting for this forum. Taking inspiration from PPT preparation, I am trying to bullet point my life’s journey so far …
Just to add a little bit of color and dimension along with these bullet points, I am providing few links of some of my articles, what I tried to write to capture my thoughts and feelings which crossed me on that point of the journey in my life, this may help to take an word tour along with me, if any turn of my life catches your attention.
I consider myself incredibly lucky, that I have got such an opportunity to see and work in different parts of the world, and that is also without any apparent reason. When I have got an opportunity to see the, so called, landmarks of current humanity or may be simple unknown structure at a new place or a beautiful landscape out of nowhere or got an opportunity to work in a different society and culture, I always wanted to perceive it through the eyes of a small town brought up boy, what I am originally. Hope I could express them in words in these articles…without spending any more time, let’s start….
· Mridha, my family has a very unusual Bengali root. Its rather very uncommon surname in Bengal.
o Mridha (Sanskrit मृध, meaning war) was an warrior community have some presence in South Bengal mainly in today’s Bangladesh.
· My grandparents both father and mother side were from a place name Dighali Gram of Dhaka District of present Bangladesh.
o Fabrication and distribution of brass metal products was our family business over there and back on those days we had a family owned workshop of this traditional metal work, which was source of employment for many local families. I heard Mridha family was doing quite well for generations from this business.
o But the pre independent violence i.e. arson, vandalism and massacre of East Bengal, forced my Grandparents along with my father and other siblings to abandon overnight that well-established lifestyle of Dighali to the life of extreme poverty in present West Bengal. But at least the lives were spared on the soft soil of Bengal, which is still part of India. But they started living the hard life of refugees on that soft soil, without any certain source of living.
· One section of refugees thrown out from the Dighali Gram established a little neighborhood in a small town named Bhadreswar, Hooghly at present West Bengal.
o In this newly established Dighali Palli beside Hooghly river, some of the broken, uprooted families, tried to continue their survival struggle, preserving and carrying some of their cultural heritage including dialects of their root from Dighali gram. It was a strongly interconnected ecosystem almost like a joint family, in which I grew up.
o Also my birthplace has a very interesting history which is not been celebrated much outside. ( https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/future-of-past )
· To draw a picture of my growing up days I am sharing 3 articles.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/nature-is-the-best
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/world-at-your-door-step
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/remembering-my-growing-up-days
· After my parents, people and place, the next big influence on me, what I am today, comes from my childhood gurus….. my school teachers, my art teachers, music teachers, private tutors, football / cricket coach ( don’t get confused with today’s so called sport coaches, just few seniors love to spend time in field with kids) …... list is very long…..After coming out from their shades, sometimes I wonder, how they could take passion of teaching to that level, no Maslow’s hierarchy of needs could explain it to me.
· Then my learning for earning life starts.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/study-or-job-dilemma
· My father spent his working life as an Engineer in Post & Telegraph (P&T) Department, which became DOT and finally Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
· After my schooling, I picked up Electrical Engineering as a faculty of study due to the interest I grew, listening to stories from my father about his work.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/eifle-tower
· Prior to engineering college my belief system was, result is the reflection of your knowledge and learning effort, but in engineering college I quickly became a professional student, how to optimize effort to cross the exams, tried to be expert on this
· I have stories written in Bengali to give some idea about my Engineering college life, for my Bengali friends.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/down-the-memory/bandhu-ki-khabor-bal
· The part of my Engineering College life, I really liked is, it introduced me to life beyond the aspirations of an urban youngster. This was a strictly residential college. Which gave me an opportunity to share life with friends coming from every geographical and social fabric of West Bengal and beyond, that helped me to touch the lives of common people out of my growing up circle…an article in this line.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/midnight-picnic-at-mahish-nangra-gram
· Another big part of my Engineering College life was NCC. I started it very casually but became deeply passionate about it, attended a couple of camps including All India Vayu Sainik Camp and advanced to Cadet Warrant Officer rank. One learning from those days I still try to remind myself: Duty & discipline : Following the order of god is duty. Following the order of the superior is discipline. Being part of Indian defense was a good possibility for me that time.
· When I started looking for job at the tail end of engineering, we all realized that having an MBA like certificate will help in a long way.
· That’s why, when I got the NITIE opportunity, I didn't look back. Some articles on my NITIE days :
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/what-i-learned-in-mba
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/steel-it-s-green
· I can’t forget to talk about the natural beauty of NITIE and its surrounding apart from the wonderful minds like you guys with whom I could spend some time of my life and proud to refer as friends. An article on such an important place for me close to NITIE.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/may-95-every-one-be-happy
· As you all know I have been selected by Premier Automobile from campus, where I worked till end of 2000. That started my life in Bombay outside NITIE.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/ye-hai-bombay
· Though I haven’t changed my company, but company changed itself multiple times, from Premier Automobile to FIAT finally.
· An Article on my work in FIAT : https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/it-helped
· Around 2000 management decided to move to Ranjangaon to spare the high real estate cost of Bombay, which I was not very comfortable to opt.
· So changed profession from Logistics Manager to ERP consultant, with a small IT consulting firm name Triniti Corporation, noticing a job advertisement in Time of India. Some friends including Gautam Mandal, Harihar had helped me during this transition phase.
· I got married in Aug 2002, my wife’s name is Moumita. She is from Siliguri, West Bengal. She is always my strength and support in my journey. It’s not easy to live with a husband who doesn’t have work for months.
· I was working with Triniti until mid of 2006.
· At that time there was a conflict between personal interest and company interest. When we just had our son, I didn't have much mobility which management was not agreeing.
· That time I decided to go with Independent Consulting, this is what I am doing until now.
· From the day, life has pulled me in IT industry, I never felt, I can count on it as my mean to earning my living for long, not even at least for coming couple of years. By the nature of the industry, it doesn’t have that element of sustainability which I could sense in my FIAT role.
· I kept relocating with projects, whatever I am getting from market, taking my family with me. This is not a life, I planned for but I don’t have complain about this either. It’s like watching the procession while selling fruits…..got opportunity to see the world while traveling for bread and butter.
· But it’s always not as romantic as it may appear. It doesn’t always happen that got a project immediately when previous one was over. Some time there are gaps and you don’t know when next project will come. You wake up in the morning knowing there is nowhere to go for you, name as workplace. Trust me, its hard!
· Also market rates and competitions are always a matter of concern. And of course, you have to somehow make yourself relevant for the market. Constant skill upgrade etc. is a mere fancy word, many times you feel clueless what new technology to learn. Getting a project has some uncertainty and luck which cannot be denied either.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/a-tv-commercial
· But I observed, there is always a method in this madness for everything, which I try to find and stay connected to this method and make it as core foundation of my work. This probably helps me at the time of the ERP project execution, even when playing a role in a team. An article on the method in the madness of IT Industry…
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/data-analysis-which-produce-result
· Another skill set, which I kept on using in my unusual professional journey, and which is reinforced by our academic learning from NITIE is, identify the opportunities for Business Process Improvement. This I found always stays relevant with the changes in industries. It may be found as a change management effort, ISO implementation or even an ERP implementation. The core part of these corporate exercises for which organizations are ready to spend money, is applying common sense to improve the business processes. As we all heard many times from our NITIE faculties: commonsense is very uncommon in the real world.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/why-indian-s-are-so-successful-in-it-industry
· In this journey, I got an opportunity to interact with some very nice personalities and I sincerely wish, I could make some impression of them in my own. I consider this as my biggest earning from my profession and with all its odds, that’s why still I like my profession which is still kept me rolling. It has given me an opportunity to see and work in different parts of the world in many cultures with so many great people, and that’s also without any super-special skill or talent. My Professional Chronology :
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/Home
· Life is older than the trees, Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze…… travelling along with my job, our son is in 10th standard now, he is a sincere kid in general. Just like any middle class parent sometime get tempted to advise him for something big in life then another time try to remind myself not to forget the joy of this moment in the overwhelming demand of bright future and how we end up being the “same little boxes”.
https://sites.google.com/site/psmridha/articles/education-the-most-powerful-weapon
The biggest learning from all of my travels and experiences of working at different places in the world is to observe, the true human values are eternal, it has its relevance at any society at any period of time and at any situation. May be the only meaning of this ongoing चल, भटक ले ना बावरे journey is in seeking, realizing and connecting with that शाश्वत………… सत्यमेव जयते ( Truth Truly Trumps )
Thanks for reading.......
क्यूँ, न हम-तुम
चले टेढ़े-मेढ़े से रास्तों पे नंगे पाँव रे
चल, भटक ले ना बावरे
क्यूँ, न हम तुम
फिरे जाके अलमस्त पहचानी राहों के परे
चल, भटक ले ना बावरे
इन टिमटिमाती निगाहों में
इन चमचमाती अदाओं में
लुके हुए, छुपे हुए
है क्या ख़याल बावरे
क्यूँ, न हम तुम
चले ज़िन्दगी के नशे में ही धुत सरफिरे
चल, भटक ले ना बावरे
क्यूँ, न हम तुम
तलाशें बगीचों में फुरसत भरी छाँव में
चल भटक ले ना बावरे
इन गुनगुनाती फिजाओं में
इन सरसराती हवाओं में
टुकुर-टुकुर यूँ देखे क्या
क्या तेरा हाल बावरे
ना लफ्ज़ खर्च करना तुम
ना लफ्ज़ खर्च हम करेंगे
नज़र के कंकड़ों से
खामोशियों की खिड़कियाँ यूँ तोड़ेंगे
मिला के मस्त बात फिर करेंगे
ना हर्फ़ खर्च करना तुम
ना हर्फ़ खर्च हम करेंगे
नज़र की सियाही से लिखेंगे
तुझे हज़ार चिट्ठियाँ ख़ामोशी झिडकियां
तेरे पते पे भेज देंगे
सुन, खनखनाती है ज़िन्दगी
ले, हमें बुलाती है ज़िन्दगी
जो करना है वो आज कर
ना इसको टाल बावरे
क्यूँ, न हम-तुम
चले टेढ़े-मेढ़े से रास्तों पे नंगे पाँव रे
चल, भटक ले ना बावरे
क्यूँ, न हम तुम
फिरे जाके अलमस्त पहचानी राहों के परे
चल, भटक ले ना बावरे
इन टिमटिमाती निगाहों में
इन चमचमाती अदाओं में
लुके हुए, छुपे हुए
है क्या ख़याल बावरे