What if today, you have to leave the IT field and earn your bread ?

This is something I would wish to ask everyone in the IT field. What if, today, you have to leave the IT field and earn your bread ?

It is something very relevant to the current economic situation, and also an eye opener to the labourers who toil away with their eyes, hands and brains sitting in a vegetative state for hours together, working for their IT overlords, who now have have been busy sorting them out for keeping their profit margins intact.

2001 was a preview of just how vulnerable IT was. 2008-09 has showed how resilient it has become. No more there are IT bubble bursts, even though the current situation has sent a electric jolt to those who had come into this line just for the greenbacks and a great lifetime opportunity to people who could really do something great apart from their IT skills.

Seeing the way people have come together in Bay Area after being laid off, to collaborate, to identify new ventures, new ideas and press on to initiatives which were on back burner due to various reasons. It reminds me that all we need sometimes is a gentle nudge to remind of what we are capable of.

Coming back to the title of the post. Well, my honest answer to this would be, anything to start off with to keep my home running, and then I would gradually draw up a plan to utilize my knowledge and channelize it to do something which would help to utilize IT to enable the common masses.

It could be anything from, teaching in a primary school to going back to school to empower you with the skills to really push for that goal, which you dreamt of, but never dared make an attempt at, for the fear of upsetting your routine 9 to 5 office life.

I come from a home of goldsmiths, a profession which was last practiced by my grandfather. The generation after that moved to businesses in metals, and I have a medico father. Although, it's a art which is being overwhelmed by precision machines, gold jewellery making is something, which is seeing tough times due to high prices and lack of expendable money.

Since, even I am not clear, what I would like to do apart from IT, I think it is imperative, that I give a deep thought on this and also continue to focus on my career. I hope, the reader of this post is also in the same mind frame and has a plan 'B' ready for the worst of times.

Tere bin ‘Bin Laden’ – A match fixed in Pakistan ??

Like an unexpected fall of a wicket in a boring test match, the news of assassination of the world’s most sought after men was quick to arrive amidst the end of the weekend primetime.

The elusive one had been found and put down, and not only put down, but drowned to abyss rather quickly and much to everyone’s surprise. The entire episode’s proceedings is nothing short of a script for a chain of sequels due to the number of open questions it brings into people’s mind all across the world.

For Pakistan, the feeling must be like a stumped batsmen, who did not know when the killer team came from, landed on its arguably safest zone of military academy and took out the stumps as quick as a flash and vanished. I probably would have cried “Match Fixing” on this one for sure, since I for one, cannot conceive that a nation’s defense would have been so bad that they could not detect, react, or chase the US package which came in, did its business and left, no questions asked, no rounds fired.

Further to this, whether they were secretly involved but non-committal in the open to avoid any backlash will weigh upon every citizen and lead to question their true intentions. Do they still continue to want play safe with US and the hostile elements within their country. It’s a fine line of walk keeping both sides in dark, eventually the consequences would have to borne by Pakistan only.

For the world on other hand, the post-operation activities around the quick sea burial, DNA tests being completed in matter of hours begs some serious introspection. Why is that, all the other assassinations resulted in showcasing the trophy bounty, whereas in this case, without even sharing with the allies, the physical evidence was quickly confined to the abyss of the Arabian Sea citing religious obligations. Since when have warring factions been so cognizant of the other’s religious rituals ? Did they fear retaliation from the allies, or it was a way to hush down any contradictions arising which would have questioned the legitimacy of the operation and its result ?

I hope Donald Trump definitely demands the “long form death certificate” on this from the coroner’s office, it might become his ticket to Oval office, who knows.

Conspiracy theories are like like sugar crystals, one piece of loose information or unanswered question draws a whole herd of them.

In the midst of all these events, reaction from India was pretty lame and old rhetoric. The “I told you so” line is making us look like whiners, who take every opportunity to walk up to US and whine and take no action. Would India have any guts to do such a covert operation and never ever bring it in the open ? They might, if our ministers take their hands and minds of the money they seem to be passing among themselves before their tenure runs out.

Overall, it is a symbolic ending of one of the most troubled searches in recent human history, a search which has spanned a decade, with the highest casualties for US, and dented their reputation unlike anything. Still, this can be equated to killing one snake off Medusa’s head where new ones have spawned quickly and widely.

With the US economy in doldrums due to the wild runs of unregulated markets and banks and blind eye by the Feds, a victory as this would be at the very best “Oonth ke munh mein jeera”, a fennel seed in camel’s mouth for the general American masses.