My Onsite Team

Lets start with a clean slate, yes that was what I thought from my ONSITE's 1st step.
A totally new team, with all the new faces. Forget about new team, its new COUNTRY which had removed all my past traces.
The 1st sentence that I had spoken here searching for Santa Calra.. My shuttle driver gave a condescending look.. "Its CLARA.."
I thought here this is how I will be always smitten, But for a change when i saw my team i realized
CLIENTS and CLIENT managers are mere human like us and nothing to be frightened.

'iPhone Team' complex scenarios and numerous use cases, afraid of getting lost I started my from the basics.
1st thing that strike my mind, No matter how big the problem grew, As the name suggests, Narayan was always there to guide us through.
With pristine clear understanding and fast outburst of words from Rejo left me shattered, often made me wonder which processor does he have in his gray matter.
It was Brady, with Transaction Story Dash and BOPIS cart, believed in me and made me little worth to the team and its part.
With list of questions, we looked for Anshul asked - these are not making sense, From his finger-tips Anshul wrote the answers and used to look back - Anything else?

The iPhone room, next to Narayan's cabin was always a happening place. Saurav and Purnima moved up to the ladder, but rest of us still miss that place.
Saurav has always been more a friend than client, taught me many things which will always be asset of mine.
From making me understand Congo, to together writing splunk queries and From giving attention to details to sharing weekend stories.
Whenever I went to Saurav, got good interesting works. So, please don't forget me when the new UI change comes. :)
Team meetings are always filled with Zach's wit. And now Sabitha has to find a new person to organize SAMOSA treat.

My stint here wouldn't be so fare, if Bindu, Preeti you guys won't be here.
We all know Bindu runs the show and Preeti is our Goddess. But I will always cherish the laughs, the zamba trip and endless stories.
Vikas, Avinash brothers and Rohit, you guys will have a less person to decide lunch place and fight, because I am going out of your sight.
Latha's laugh and Pancy's rrrrunning wont get noticed,
I am pretty sure even sometimes I will also be missed.

H M Badruzzaman

End is only a New Beginning.

There are some days that DAZZLE us.
And there are some that CONFUSE.
There are some days that SADEN us.
And there are some that SOOTHE.

With each day passing, we learn a little more and grow a little more.
With every difficulty thrashing, we walk a little more and we know a little more.


With the buzzing of phone, the morning starts.
With tired eyes and iCal's tone, the whole day stares.
Gripped with Projects and its ever changing requirements.
Dipped in keyboard, eclipse and understanding of enhancements.

In the banalities of life, we always find a glimpse of surprise.
In the rat race to thrive, we always find a reason to smile.


With the memories we have build our castle.
With sheer hard work we have disputed our hassles.
Aspirations and Dreams have never left our eyes.
Always eagerly waiting for the wings, and we are ready to fly.

With every storm in the path, we went back to core (java) and secured our roots.
Well, we have understood with only secured roots we reap the life's fruits.


With one day after other, we are standing at the end of the year.
I am sure there were days with num eyes and there were days to cheer.
There must be many souls that we have touched and many feelings that we have searched.
But now when we look back, those memories are kept safe in our treasure bag.

So we bid adieu 2016.. Its end is only to a new Beginning.
So friends, pad up and lets start the new inning.


H M Badruzzaman

The SHACKLES of NOTHING...

With each passing day, we grow. We get matured and we enhance our experiences. And according to Darwin we give proof that we are the fittest as we have survived a day more. But with this ticking of clock, there is something also gets growing. And that is a SHACKLE, which unknowing started getting a grip on everything of ours. From our free legs to the untangled flow of thoughts.
Have you ever herd that story of EMPTY BAG-PACK?
Well somehow it goes like this : Lets assume everyone has a bag-pack. And yes its empty. Now at a given moment we are asked to fill the bag with everything that is important to us. It could be anything we want and it doesn't need to be a materialistic thing. And we are said that from now on, only this bag-pack will be with us, nothing else. Now try loading most important things in it without which we wont be able to survive. So, here goes the food and some clothes. Okay, now lets get little more accommodative and get a little place to stay. Now once that covered, lets try and get our loved ones in that. Because yes certainly we love to be close to our loved ones. Okay so, here goes our spouses, our parents, our siblings, our friends. Lets see. The bag-pack seems very heavy already.
We are humans right? Whats the thing that make us superior? Our ability to express. Our ability to feel. Our ability to gather emotions. Now lets try putting these things in the bag-pack as well. Lets put the expectations, expectations from the loved one to understand us. Expectation from the world to treat us fairly. Expectations from our spouses, lovers to be loving and caring.
Expectations to be IMPORTANT in someone's life. Expectations to not have to prove your loyalty and love over and again. Expectations of having LESS expectation from others. Well thats little bit more than that we have thought. Right? But again thats how Expectations are. I could see that that we have packed our bag too heavy. But I guess we are not done yet. We have to load few more things. Lets put all the amazing moments that we have lived in the past. Lets put all the tears
that we have shed for someone. Lets put all the struggles that that we fought through to reach where-ever we are. Lets not forget to load the dreams and aspirations for a better tomorrow. Now zip the bag-pack. We are ready to go. Now lets get that bag on our shoulder and start walking. What do you think..? We wont to able to take a single step.
The burden on our shoulder is too heavy to walk.?
Well the SHACKLES that I was talking about started making a little sense now. Whatever thing that I have mentioned to put it in the bag-pack, to find those or to handle those we add a new chain in our shackles. And I know, with each passing day we keep on growing the chain.
I have seen and realized that somehow we are not in control of it. And even if we want to stop it, it keeps growing. Things go out of my hand and the chain gripping me gets a little heavier. When I see a small baby giggling, smiling and playing with its own. I see a smile which came automatically to my face. Sometime I question, will our smile and happiness be ever be like a baby, which is very less dependent on others. How our life changes from giggle, sometimes to contemplate.
From calm and composed to disturbed.
From smiling and playing to sleepless nights.
From assured to Fragile.
In the fight to co-exist knowingly or unknowingly we keep on adding SHACKLES and FETTERS to our existence. And we seldom think about that.

As a human being I am very cautious. I don't like to loose my calm. But sometimes I do. Then I try to find out which is the actual me. The one who never looses calm or the one who just lost that. And in the fight of this finding I tend to add one more chain to my existing shackle. I don't want to hurt people and sometime I do hurt knowingly or unknowingly. Again a similar fight of finding and one more chain.
Mostly I want to do the right thing without thinking what the world will think of me. But then there are people who are near to me whom I want to be happy and I want to be good in their eyes. And I know the chain is growing.

There was a second part of the story as well that I was mentioning earlier. Its of trying to off load things from the bag-pack that we
have just filled with all the things.

There are times when the mundane hunt of co-existence gets a back-seat and my mind ogle out to thoughts like shackles and bag-pack.
And wish and I want to sit in quiet sea shore, with winds touching my face, and with each waves touching my feet taking away one chain at
a time. And with the setting sun, all my chains would have gone. And I would be SHACKLE free.
I just want to imagine how it would be like to have that bag-pack empty and then walk.
It seems as if I could fly. :) flying towards the horizon.



H M Badruzzaman

Life...

1,313,000 civilian died in North and South Vietnam during the period 1965–1974
6,000,000 jews died in Holocaust in Germany during 1941 to 1945
500,000 civilians were killed during the partition of India and Pakistan.
120,000 civilians were killed in Iraq war.
3,000 civilians got killed in September 11 attack on World Trade Center.
145 students were killed by Taliban in Pakistan on Dec 2014.
129 civilians got killed in Paris Attack.
14 percent died in San Bernardino of US.
1 person was lynched at Dadri in India.


Some 13.6 billion years ago with a Big Bang, our universe came into existence. Yes 13.6 billion years ago. After 10 billion years of that our earth got its first molten shape. It took another 2 billion years
for 1st multicellular organism to get a Life. And if we talk about mammals, they are just few million years old. And it wont be an exaggeration that we modern looking humans, do not have a proper place in the time chart of
Life TimeLine of Universe. As it took billions of years to get this complex, prized and precious life to craft as the most evolved form of Life. Have we ever thought why we are considered as superior form of Life in the Globe.
Is it because we have modern technology with us?
Is it because we have jumbo jets, plying across atlantic and pacific?
Is it because we have reached Moon, Mars and planning to invade further?
Is it because we have cars, which can go 0 to 100 in 3 secs?
Or is it has something to do with the concrete jungle we have made around us?

No.. its not because all of these. These certainly have its own credibility in the walk of human evolution.
But for me what makes us superior is our emotional strength.
Our heart crying out for those who are not in our blood relations.
The tears that roll out of our eyes for someone we never met.
For automatically getting urge to help someone who is in withered condition.
Our heart goes for every fellow human being.

'Co-existence'. A term which is making quite a rumbling now a days. With whom we are co-existing? With fellow Human being? We feel proud for the fact that we as a species are fighting hard to co-exist. Waoo.. Thats quite a big achievement we can boast of. We have come a long way. From the inception of the universe, to the inception of Life, to the inception of Human Beings. And after that from learning to light fires with stone to the stellar achievement mentioned
above. And then learning to co-exist.

If one can go to the extreme villages of India, where there are children who woke up with an uncertain fate whether he/she is going to get food in the plate today. There are farmers who start their day with a hope that there will be rain to his barren land today. There are mothers sitting in front of their ailing child in a hope, to somehow get some money for medicine today. But in each and every living human soul, there is hope. Their eyes are full of dreams. Their thoughts are full of aspirations. Even if Life is hard, every dream, every hope and every aspiration is ready to take it on. And that is why I believe We Humans are superior.

Every life is precious. Every breath is possible because zillions of things came into its exact place and making this unbelievable life livable. Then how come anyone can think of intentionally destroying this precious gift.There are few numbers in the top. These are a very very few example of barbaric acts that in the walk of life happened to the human race.

I often contemplate where we are heading to?
When we humans can actually think the value of every Life in this extraordinary place of universe? With my num eyes, I search for many answers and with the sleepless nights but I could not
find one.
I was not sure if the term 'civilians' made any difference to the above list. A life is a Life. Whether is civilian or a soldier. How come a man whom I have never met become my enemy. How come in the walk of evolution, we learned to make enemies. We learned to create reasons to fight others. We learned to take away something that is the most precious of all the creation.

In few days one more year will pass. We will engage ourselves to embrace the new beginning. We will start working for our new dreams. We will find our new wings. We all will become little more mature. And with all energy we will strive to be the best.
I just hope we will become more HUMAN.. I just hope we will become more Thankful to almighty for the precious LIFE....
Wish you all a very Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. And Cheers for the wonderful Life we have...

Leaving you all with the famous lines of John Lennon :

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one





H M Badruzzaman
 

TIME TO SMILE HAPPILY... :)

TIME TO SMILE HAPPILY... :)
*******************************

Dyas come and go.
With memories of many friends and few foe.
Only one thing is sure, that WE GROW.
We work, we play and we run to strive.
But at this time of year, we are full with BLISS.

Projects, Dead Lines, Lots of Code.
Everyday We learn something new and try to cope.
Tackle the unknown, with calm and without fuss,
For writing a new service, or even for a new Class.
But at this time of year, we all DAZZLE like Flowers.

Meetings, Releases and Production Support.
Vicious circle.. Nooo Nothing that sort.
For any confusion, we can always Start from Start ;)
Iphones, iPads and wars to Deploy..
Yes, they are there, but at this time of year we all are full of JOY..

Another precious year, just passed by.
Achievements to share, many dreams yet to Fly.
New promises are waiting at the door. Where is the time to be Shy.
Open your arms. Embrace the moment quietly.
Because at this time of year its time to SMILE HAPPILY..

H M Badruzzaman

AJJU....

It was a long day. And an eventful one. Starting from almost missed my flight, to the plane going into air pocket
(clear sky turbulence), to the struggle to find my missing check in baggage, to the flat tires of the auto.
It seemed I had it all. I just wanted to go to my room as soon as possible. SAFELY.. After all those events I was in the Metro.
Somehow managed to grab a seat. Holding the bag-pack on my lap with one hand and the handle of the trolley bag
with the other. Looking at the number of stops still to be crossed. I put my head back and closed my eyes.
Trying to push the metro little faster. Suddenly I realized my phone was vibrating. I struggled a little to
get that out of my pocket. It read "KIDDO calling..". I was returning from my engagement. And yes thats she..
My Kiddo... Not long back, I didn't know her. But now just a thought of her brought a bright smile on my face.
Her childlike voice took me to a different world. Her adorable way of teasing me made me feel
everything around me was so perfect. As if she was always there with me from ages. I took the call "Yes kiddo..
I will reach in an hour.. Then I will call you back." I put the phone back in my pocket. My eyes went to
that ring in my right hand. My smile became little wider. I tilted towards the side of my seat. Bolster my head
with the rod at the end of the seat. It was almost a packed coach. There were cacophony all around.
But in those incoherent sounds, I could hear a couple were talking to each other. They were standing just in front of me.

The way they had dressed anyone could make it out that they were out for celebration. The guy must be in his late twenties and the girl
in her early. With the bangles in her hand I concluded that they were a newly married couple. He was talking
in bhojpuri with her. Showing her to a construction site that came on the way, he said thats where he works.
She was little short in height. And with the crowd in the compartment it was tough for her to see that. But she
fought to get her head towards the glass widow to see. And acknowledge him back with pride in her eyes.
Even I turned my head to see that site. It was a multi story building under construction. He said he
carries bricks and cement from ground to those towers with the help of cranes. Her eyes filled with astonishment.
And I could see, with surprise she said - "ITTA UCHA..." that high..??  Don't you get scared..??
He replied her back that he never gets scared with a smile. I could see that her hand grabbed his and
pressed with assurance and then cautiously left it. With his loosely tucked in shirt, a misplaced belt in the unfit jeans, and with a
watch that seemed to be just working. I thought he was feeling little out of place. He was turing his
head quite frequently. I don't know why.? May be to make sure no body was staring towards them. But for the girl,
she was hardly bothered about the rest of the world. As if she has her world just in her hands. Whenever
she was able to find any big facade visible from the window. She would ask whats that. And he would answer them cautiously.
She was wearing a saari, yes it was new, because I could see some paper labels were still attached to it.
I was recalling an article from THE HINDU on how cheap labors from BIHAR, JHARKHAND and WEST BENGAL are exploited
in these construction sites of different cities. I thought it needs real courage to lead a life of such brutal
hardship. But when its the matter of survival. Nothing as is hard as it seems. And in-front of me, I was witnessing
one of them really not bothered about the hardships, not bothered about misery of life. I am sure he must have spent
a big part of his earning for this treat. May be it would be just a small treat. But for me, its a way of saying
life that "YOU CAN BE HARD ON ME... BUT I WILL PLAY IT WELL..." I looked at the blinking red light showing the next
stoppage. 3 more stops and I was going to arrive at my station. I saw an elderly lady struggling to stand. I asked her
"Aunty aap yahan baith jao..." and offered my seat. With a smile she said "THANK YOU BETA.." and I got off my seat
and stood just behind that couple. The metro was about to stop for the next station. And people for this station were arranging themselves
to get out of it. I could see the guy told her wife that they need to get off here. And they were also aligning
themselves with the door. But I realized that moment the metro stopped, there were two more people between the guy and his wife.
And with the door opening, wave of people rushed out of it. The guy got out of the metro. Then few more. And nervously
his wife was getting out. But before that an opposite wave of people started boarding the train. And the lady got struck.
My heartbeat started beating fast and my apprehension came to reality. The automatic sliding door got closed. She remained
inside. Her husband on the platform. Her palm pressing the glass-door. And her husband shocked standing on the platform.
The Metro started rolling. She started crying... Ajjuuuu...
Few fellow passengers said "ARE KOI BAAT NAI HAI... AGLE STATION ME UTAR JANA
TUMHARA PATI WOHI AA JAYEGA DOOSRI TRAIN SE.." (No problem, you can get off in next station, where your husband will come with the next train..").
I thought yes. That she can do. I looked at her hands. No, there were no cell phones. Tears rolling out of her eyes and looking through
the glass door as far as she can look. As if searching for "Ajju.." The Metro stopped at the next station. She quickly got out of the train.
I was watching at her. She ran towards the end of the platform in the opposite direction. And then she stopped. Looking through the lines
with her wistful eyes. Again the sliding door closed and train started moving. I kept looking at her till she got away from my sight.
There were many question in my mind.. I don't know what will happen to her.? Will she able to meet Ajju..? Should I have done something..?
What I could have done..? And the Metro stopped one more time. It was my stoppage. I got out of it. Still thinking of the couple.
Got to the auto stand. Asked who would go to "AMRAPALI ROYAL.."? A guy came and said.. "Sir.. please come to my auto.. I will take you.."
I asked how much will you take? He said Rs 70.. I replied him that its more than the usual rate... He looked at me and with
an assuring vice he said -"Ajju kabhi jyada kiraya nai leta..." (Ajju never ask unreasonable fare..). I felt little
shocked. The name hit straight to my heart. I boarded the auto. Kept my luggage and took my phone out. Dialed a number
and thinking, the way I met this Ajju.. May be till now that lady have got her AJJU... My phone got answered.. "Where are you.. You haven't
reached yet.." I said.. "I will reach in 5 mins.. And one more thing... I LOVE YOU KIDDO...."


H M Badruzzaman
  

Who are THOSE..????

It was 8 PM. Sun was still fighting hard to challenge my eye to look through it. I was sitting in the
patio of my apartment. Scrolling the pictures that I took in my last Golden Gate visit. In this west coast
of USA and in summer, days are quite long. One could see the dazzling light till 8:30 PM.
And watching the sun loosing its dazzle and get vanished in the horizon makes me little silently verbose.
My thoughts take some unusual route to reach some untouched part of my gray matter. I was literally
enjoying the calm evening after a day long meetings and long stretch of fighting with some Lines of Code.
I got a notification in fb. I looked into my iPad. It read "Yashi commented on a post you are tagged in.."
I unlocked it. Touched the fb icon. I could see a red '1' was quite purposely visible at the bottom of the screen.
But before I could touch that, my eyes were on an article which was shared by a friend of mine. It had few
random pictures and a line written in bold - "FOREIGN MEDIA NEVER SHOWS THIS INDIA TO THE WORLD..."
I opened the link. There were around 10 pictures from different part of INDIA. From Yamuna Express Way to Taj Hotels.
From sprawling sky scrapers to swanky IT campuses. From Glittering Necklace Road to Newly build International Terminals.
I stopped scrolling down. From few days I was pondering a lot on this. Its been more than a year for me in USA,
California to be precise. But in-spite of its ultra modern life style, I miss my motherland. In spite of all the
life easing amenities, life seems unattached. When I see people here, with their broad smile while crossing the road,
when I see people waiting and letting the pedestrian go before their cars, when the barber talks to you about
his understanding on economic meltdown, I suddenly feel that I am in a different world altogether.  Here people
have an opinion and they are based on facts and logics which they have explored. I try to think of India,
where still there are people fighting hard to meet their daily needs, fighting to keep the family floating in the
storm of crunching resources. For them being OPINIONATED, being able to think of GLOBAL WARMING, being EMOTIONALLY hurt are too much.
The first and last thing they can think of is - HOW TO EARN BREAD FOR THE DAY...
Now, coming back to the article. Its not that the India that was shown in that
article does not exist. Off-course it does. Off course we are among the fastest growing economy. Off course
we have come a long way. But there is one thing that come to my mind when I think of my India, and
it is - CONTRAST. I am not talking about DIVERSE, rather I am talking about CONTRAST.
We have ANTALIA, the most expensive private home in the world. And if we just move our face, there is DHARAVI,
the largest slum in the world. We have BANGALORE, which is very much comparable to the Silicon Valley here, people think big
and work hard to achieve something in the world platform. And we have BUDELKHAND, where farmers commit suicide in the
burden of poverty and atrocities.
I could remember these words of Mahatma Gandhi - "The soul of the real India Lives in its Villages". Now I am not
trying to say that INDIA of cities is not real. It is also as much real as it is of villages. But if I take
deep dive into the words said by Mahatma Gandhi, I could sense some strings that do connect the soul to
the villages of INDIA. So the question is - "SHOULDN'T WE BE PROUD OF WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED..?"
I think off course we should be. We boast to have the largest DEMOCRACY of the world. We boast to be the
bellwether in INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. We can admire our achievements in SPACE EXPLORATION. We are proud
to have the one of largest armies in the world. We are proud to excel our CULTURAL heritage and show the
world about the learnings of one of the ancient civilization.
But again, at the same time some different chords of mind stroked with few different questions -
Who are those, committing suicide because of poverty. ?
Who are those, leaving primary schools to support family income. ?
Who are those, forced to became DEVDASHIS. ?
Who are those, sleeping in the streets.?
Who are those, searching food pieces in the dustbin.?
Who are those, spending the cold nights without a roof above their head and without clothes on the their body.?
Who are those, lying on the steps of government hospitals unattended by any Doctors or nurses..?
Who are those, walking miles and miles to get a bucket of drinking water..?
Who are those, could not be even touched because of their lower caste..?

I know who all are those. Well they are our Sisters and Brothers. Our fellow countrymen. Why we need Danny Boyle to show us the
condition of our slums. Why we need FOREIGN media to make us pity on our social condition. We must not move away from these
and feel good that we have a different version of story also, which is far rosy than this, we have a different INDIA to showcase which
is not deprived of any of the world's advances. Its a challenge for us to work hard. Hard to our capacity, in whatever way we can to
contribute our part in its building. In the building of a nation where there wont be THOSE sisters are brothers.
We should just accept that the scope is too big for us as a country to grow.
We should not ignore the soul.
We should be modern in thoughts.
We should stop fighting pity battles of caste and religion.
We should broaden our acceptance level.
We should put our every effort as a country to eradicate each and every single THOSE.
We should do our part honestly how much we can do.

Before I could put some more thought on building my nation. It was quite dark and my phone blinked light "Amaa Calling....."
And my thought shifted from motherland to my mother... :)



H M Badruzzaman