Satyam Is No More! Alas!

The debacle of the much-revered home-grown IT company Satyam Computers Ltd. has brought to mind a maxim “As you sow, so you reap”! (In Hindi, it translates to “Jaisi karni waise bharni”). Mr. Ramalinga Raju’s life would come to such an appalling pass that one could never come to imagine. It's really unfortunate, to say the least.

In fact, during the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was one of the virtuous Satyam employees who has worked for more than 5 years there. I saw Satyam grow by leaps and bounds. To me, Mr. Raju always came across as an epitome of sobriety and dignity. I saw him several times at Satyam offices and his calm disposition continually pervaded his behaviour. Once, I remember, he smiled at me when I greeted him with a good day and I fell into a state of a personal coup for quite a while. I too became one of the lucky few who happened to behold him converse with the ex-Intel CEO Craig Barret when the latter came visiting Satyam’s Technology Centre (STC), a state-of-the-art technology incubation hub.

Alas! Even today it is hardly believable that Mr. Raju could ever fall from grace and likewise suffer execrable, unimaginable disrepute, such as we are witnessing almost every day of the unforgettable company where I had worked with all my heart and soul for many years. His much-cherished success story will now be wiped away for all time to come. But, like me, there are so many others who always will hold him high in esteem and respect. I, for one, still do so because of the unforgettable fact that he brought incalculable happiness to all Associates of Satyam. I am now an ex-employee of the company but I still recount those wonderful days of my life at Satyam.

Today, people are so fretfully concerned about the future of Satyam’s legacy at least; whether or not it will stay put or rather wither away. But as and when things emerge and manage a clear picture of sorts out of this perpetual haze of unlikable happenings, the much-loved much-respected brand name "Satyam" is already in the process of getting erased for good. Thankfully so; it needs a permanent reprieve which has been provided almost on a golden platter by Pune-based Indian software giant Tech Mahindra. Yet, it gives me the deepest of sympathies (and anxiety) at the same time that the exceptionally happy days of Satyam’s great heritage that it supposedly amassed from over the long and apprehensive years of hard work (only of its own ambitious employees though!) are all about to breathe its last, sooner than later. And we all know that the glory of Satyam will perhaps never return.

Thanks to Tech Mahindra, the brand image of Satyam is in vogue though. As an ex-employee of Satyam, today I am in no way concerned whether or not Satyam survives with its brand name intact, but I am more concerned about Tech Mahindra's good image and excellent management skills. Ahoy! Tech Mahindra! Great going indeed! Wish you all good luck!

I wish Tech Mahindra hadn’t used the tag ‘Satyam’ alongside its name. In fact, why the heck Mahindra is hell-bent on using a tag like ‘Satyam’ after all? In keeping up with its famed high standards of corporate governance and “unimpeachable ethics” and all, does it still have to use the word like Satyam? Under what kind of misplaced moral obligation the Mahindra or Tech Mahindra is finding itself? I for one would think they would be far better off without that poisonous word called “Satyam”. I mean, no longer would one, in his clear and present mind, think wise to relate back to that same old Satyam fiasco!

Keeping the Satyam name alive - in whatever form – only smacks of those bizarrely harrowing days all Satyamites had to suffer for no fault of theirs. I think if the time has come to cleanse Satyam of its “asatyam” fame and its corporate accounting fraud then it is now. But Mahindra chose not to heed that.

No doubt, this negative naming convention perpetrated by the great Mahindra group clearly reminds one of those miserably shameful days on the part of Satyam’s accounting fraud caused by the man of no conscience called Ramalinga Raju. I may be speaking conservatively here, but I would like to believe that I am spot on that aspect. I mean, Satyam is no longer what it used to be once.

And a respected company like Tech Mahindra continuing to identify itself with the beleaguered brand name Satyam is a ramshackle proposition, whatsoever. Is this statement irresponsible? So be it. But I want Satyam to be back on rails. It is impossible to even think about that? Yea, I think so; and expecting the former to happen is tantamount to living in a fool's paradise!

By Arindam Moulick

[This article was written on June 2009]

Class X Examination Reforms

Bravo! What a great idea, Sirji, and this is better late than never. It isn't worth seeing students writing Class 10 as board exams. 

One need not worry really, even if the question of regulating admissions into colleges after Class Xth exams comes up for discussion. 

The most important factor in abolishing the board exams is that students become unreasonably pathetic thinking about their Boards even as their overall results and confidence levels get to suffer.

Uniformity in the results will come to the fore. The school results will now vary from school to school and that, thankfully, will become a saving grace for school administrators everywhere. Children will become stern in their studies; at least they don't have to mangle their mind's peace thinking about the Boards and getting goosebumps and jitters all the way to the exam hall.

Anomalies in the form of the various School Boards' initial reactions may come up for an intense debate but they can be stubbed out for everybody's good. Let's do away with the Boards system now. I congratulate Mr. Sibal for thinking out of the box.

Alas, the state governments of our country will be ready to take this up on a war footing as this would save them a lot of money and other pointless work relating to the preparation for the Boards every year; plus, in a way students and parents will never have to face those authorities who think that they have to constantly throw worthless hardships on the student's path! 

At least, in some cases, their supposed high-handedness will die out forever.

By Arindam Moulick

[This article was written on June 2009]

Airtel Is Pathetic!

Airtel’s plan to be a most-admired brand is downright silly! 

Let me explain: I had to use Airtel’s pathetic mobile service for 8 long years of my life: for the most part, it was a professional obligation rather than personal. 

I later got my subscription with them canceled and permanently done away with it for good. I chose Vodafone’s “ZooZoo” mobile service instead, and I am one of its happy customers now: as happy as a laughing Buddha himself would be happy! I may be exaggerating here but so be it.

In my opinion, Airtel is ruthlessly conscious of the “late payment fees” (if you happen to incur any amount even if it is due to a valid reason that you couldn’t pay up) and if your mobile bill is an inflated one for the current month and you could not pay up within the last payment date then Airtel will trouble you, night and day: it’ll keep asking you to pay up, even if you are not in the station and vacationing somewhere where you are hard put to pay the amount.

I mean Airtel might have the legal right to ask for your payment, but then it adopts as if stupid gumption - which is hoary enough in every respect to push you into abject misery and irritation at the same time - with almost all its customer care executives put to use to clinch a useless argument with you as if doing us mobile users a BIG international-type favour! Apparently, they never wish to patiently wait for you to pay up whatever outstanding amount in the next billing cycle.

Resolving not to take any more bull from them, I went ahead and canceled my subscription with Airtel in the month of March ‘09. And thank God I did. Again, Airtel’s crazy-witted customer care crappies replied back “promising” that my refundable registration fee of Rs. 300 /- would be “promptly” returned back to me. (This registration fee was used by Airtel as an initial subscription starter fee.) Believe it or not, the fee was returned to me only in the month of June ’09; that too after I wrote them numerous emails! 

Taking up my case with a renewed interest, I wrote to their Appellate Authority, even to their Nodal Officer, but sadly they all chose to sit on my umpteen requests! Holy Mackerel, it took Airtel over 3 long months to return a refundable amount! I finally got my refund back and a reply too from their Appellate Team, as follows:-

"We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to you. We assure you that the necessary steps are being taken that a similar situation does not recur.

"We at Airtel, use stringent measurement and control applications to ensure that the service you receive is error-free. On rare occasions, like experienced by you, we fully recognize the shortcomings and assure you of all measures to provide you with error-free services." 
- Airtel (Appellate Authority, Hyderabad)

Utterly sickening and extremely blatant as it were on their part to keep calling me on my mobile-only in order to cuss n no. of times to press for the amount incurred, in spite of the fact that my payment records were always straight.

Look, they can ask me for all the late payment fees that might legally be their prerogative! In fact, to put your protest into the right perspective let me impart this to you: yes, if my salary gets delayed by one day or even by a month (which is what is happening with Air India/Indian Airlines presently!), never would I dart out to an Airtel counter to pay up from my nose! I might jolly well pay up the accompanying “late payment fees” that I may incur by not paying them within the stipulated time, which thankfully do not run into hundreds of rupees but something generously paltry. But the bone of contention is not about being unable to pay any “late payment charges”; it is rather about their customer servicewallas’ hard-nosed adamantine attitude that troubles you, night and day.

Even if you emphatically assure them that you are going to pay up along with the “late payment charges” in the next billing cycle, most often than not they don’t understand it and rudely disconnect their phone!

No, for 8 years I wasn’t “happy” using Airtel. I just had to officially use Airtel for 5 years; for the remaining 3 years, it was a personal choice because of the lack of other mobile operators in town. In the year 2000, one didn’t have Airtel, one had JTM Mobile, which went to Airtel’s command. IDEA and Hutch (now Vodafone) were just beginning to show up on the horizon wanting to command operations in India, but they still were not operating as full-fledged mobile operators in the country. So I was hard-pressed to use but Airtel only; even if my company stipulated Airtel for my official spending! 

Thank God I bought Vodafone for my personal use as Airtel had always managed to wage exploitation and maltreatment on his ill-fated customer base.

I say chaps, Airtel’s customer executives turn out to be such wicked fools that they relentlessly perpetrate a hoodwink-type attitude towards their own hapless customers.

By Arindam Moulick

[The repartee was written in June 2009]