Friday, January 30, 2009

I Feel Proud

Today is Saraswati Puja. Saraswati is the goddess of learning. Being in a premier institutions like ours, everyday is a Puja day, of offering service. But this day reminds us that our job is more than routine.

Yesterday I got united with one of our ex-student, Panka..,, IITkgp 2004 batch through this blog space. He did his BTP with our group and has a good conference paper. After working with two companies he is now completing his MBA from IIM Bangalore. I went through several posts of his blog http://iami.wordpress.com this morning. I must say, there are enough reasons to feel proud about being a faculty member here, to work with students like Pankaj. The posts are funny, insightful and extraordinary in many sense. I particularly liked the one
http://iami.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/first-step

I cannot help but quoting few lines from that
"All Facts were plain and I knew them beforehand but meeting them face to face was quite painful, embarrassing and that filled me with guilt. Painful because almost everyone who was suffering belonged to My village, embarrassing because now and then I will be introduced as one who has many places in world and guilt was obvious – Have I done any single thing to make a difference in anyone’s life?"
I wish everyone, specially the IITians feel like him and come forward to rebuild India.

Closer home, in the IITkgp campus and around it, the NSS volunteers have started a program of reaching out to underprivileged kids. It feels my heart with joy and I feel proud about this IIT students owning up responsibilities like these. Excerpts from some of their feedbacks are given below.
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Yesterday( On Sunday 18/1 ), we taught two boys working in the .... Their names are Samrat Singh and Bisu Singh. They got a very pleasant surprise when we presented to them the folder, the stationery and the toffees. It was heartening to see the smiles on their faces and to know that they liked the gift.
Then, we asked them about their daily routine, their families and their pastime activities. Their homes are in Midnapur but they stay with their master in his residence and go to their homes once a month. Samrat had attended school for a month while Bisu hadn't gone to school. As it was the first day, we taught them how to write their names. Samrat just needed some brushing up as he had learnt it earlier. He knows to write his name in Bengali too. We have asked them to write their names five times by next week.
Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the boys and us are looking forward to next week's meeting.

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We had a little bit of interaction with 2 boys of ..... One of them was of age 8 and had done his schooling upto class 3rd, while the other one was of age 11 yrs but had no preliminary education. so the latter didn't show any interest in our program even after repeated advice. we had a brief interaction with former who showed a great interest in learning from us. we gave things that we got with us,and taught the basic essentials of reading and writing. He could very well write his name. since there was alphabetic books with us which could help him more with natural pictures, we could only teach him bit of basic mathematical work of addition and subtraction. The boy thoroughly enjoyed the experience with us and was even willing to come us on regular basis, perhaps he got this belief that there are some people still out there who are willing to help him to gain that preliminary education which he so dearly missed in his childhood due dire poverty and child labour.
It was great experience for me to interact with boy of such tender age and was overwhelmed seeing the joy in his face which speaks of volumes of happiness he gained
for having education which was only a dream for him. We are positively looking forward for our next interaction with him.

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Today we visited the milkmen area outside the campus near prembazar....i took care of the madhyaik student..he had some problems in trigonometry...i tried to solve them and make him understand...and nave.. helped him in english,specially in the grammar and writing portions....his exam is also knocking...it'll start from 25th...so i told him to come to my room if he has any problem...oderwise i will go next sunday.....
Suja.. and Pratee.. were looking after the smaller kids (alphabets and numerals)...

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I along with my team-mates had visited the ... last Wednesday. In our 3rd attempt we finally got 2 students. None of them have never gone to school. It was a great experience of spending 1 hr with these kids. They have already shown their talent on painting. Looking forwards to our next meeting with lots of enthusiasm.
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I along with my other group members started our job to teach child labors on last Wednesday,21st Jan. they were two- Shahrukh Khan & Biswajit Dolai. They did not attend any school. For the first day we have started with little bit of drawing. They both enjoyed it. We are eagerly waiting for next meeting.
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We went to the .... on Sunday to teach the boys. The ... master was ready for their education but the children were not ready to read. First they were not coming. Then we gave them the greed of chocolate that we were carrying with ourself. Then first one boy of the age approx 13 yrs came then 3 more students came out.
The eldest one told us that he has read till 6th and he wants to read English. He is able to write his name in English. But the problem was that he didn't know Hindi. Whatever he has read he has read in Bengali. I wish to teach him translation but I can only teach him how to translate in to English from Hindi.
So, I started Grammer. Yesterday I taught him and an another boy parts of speech starting with Noun. The another boy has also studied till 5th and belong to the same group but has forgot everything. He doesn't even understand Hindi so well. But I managed him with the help of first one.
Vika.. taught an another boy the alphabet. There was a child who knows Telugu. Another student ... who knows telugu taught him.

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And this is the blinder

Today,i bought the study kit and presented it to the
kid who works at a tea stall near the BC Roy hospital.He told me that
he works from 7 in the morning till 11 at night and is paid a derisory
salary of Rs 500 a month.He has a mother and a little sister to
feed.His mother has a permanently crippled hand as a result of a
fracture,and they could not provide her with good enough treatment.He
has never been to school.He is 12,and his name is Hariom Patra.He has
a lot of friends of his age who have indulged in activities like
stealing,pickpocketing,etc.And they jump over a wall to enter the
campus for stealing.But,Hariom says he would never steal in his
life,though his friends often provoke him to do so.He was so ecstatic
to see me.
Since he has never been to a school before,he could
count upto 30,and did not know the alphabet.I have kickstarted the
process by teaching him English alphabet.When i tried teaching him the
Hindi alphabet,i came to know that I myself needed to revise
that.Therefore,i believe i should better have study modules or some
book to teach the Hindi alphabet.He seemed to be pretty much confused
about addition;i began with simple additions involving things like a
customer coming to his little tea stall and buying things.He quickly
learnt that;he is pretty acute.He can't even read words in Hindi,leave
aside English words.So,some very elementary things need to be taught
to him,though its a different matter that the kind of life he lives
teaches things the hard way.

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I am proud of you all. May goddess Saraswati bless you all and your superlative efforts. Pray for me that I am also blessed.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Funny Side of IITkgp

That's why we never give up hope. IITkgp ka tempo ....

The dance is infective. http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnzd5LgBsJM

These boys are at least having curtains around the toilet. In our times we did't have that too.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=BkVUwhwX8HI&NR=1

And the Saans Bahu analogy http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=gyNN2TkSt7s

Some more favourites from youtube on IITkgp

Tour http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=FJdeymaj6mk
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=snWfE6qXkUk
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=2SDrijKihbs
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=uusFF1cL2wI

Hanging Circuit http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=fsCIYwI_jaA

My Hall http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=pYf2nzeysjM
Thank God. I was in B 1st east http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=DYg4SRPKCOQ
Once a Patelian, always a Patelian http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=qrd50RKMWvA

ETMS http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=7js6Hso5Hok
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=pQWDRhrr6vQ

Kshitiz http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=-d8mVwrN4og
Smart Sushil http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=nBqjxZGO-2M
Live cricket http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=WJJbqSg50eY
Illumination http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Bn8OighZQ

Finally, a great collection http://sushilsubramanian.googlepages.com/Thok0910.html

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Treasure

The gmail catch-lines or status messages had always been an object of interest to me. The one among them that I admire most is that of Prasha.... He was with our lab. for quite some amount of time (during is Masters program) and is still very much involved. His today's status line says

- "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

How true! Not that I have seen the end. But imagine and pray, it would be one like that.

Then there was following link in status space of Vino.., a 3rd year undergrad student here. http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA There is Steve Job, addressing Stanford graduates on farewell day. The whole text can be found in http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html . Some excerpts

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
"

Steve Job at other places with unmatched clarity.

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me... Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me."

"I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates."

"I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do."

-------
More from Prasha... :

A person that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

If you do not know where you are going, then any road will take you there.

It is not what you gather but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.

Live without pretending, Love without depending, Listen without defending, Speak without offending, Give without ending, Build without rending.

Some persons make people around happy wherever they go; some whenever they go.

From Vino...

if u don't stand for something, u will fall for everything.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Disorder

It may be too late for the society not to pay any heed to the incidents like this (reported in TOI, Kolkata edition, today). What are we feeding to our kids, young population? Parents, Guardians in us should wake up. Let us make a serious attempt to imbibe values and healthy habits in younger generation through a demonstrable life - leading by example. As Obama is telling, may be in a different context to US citizen, let us sacrifice our today for a better tomorrow else there may not be any tomorrow.

The news clip says the rest.

Teen crimes may rise: Psychiatrists

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



Aweek ago, a 15-year-old boy walked into the chamber of psychiatrist Amar Nath Mullick. The teen had a peculiar problem. Whenever he got angry with anyone he tried to strangle his mother. The hapless woman had to bear the brunt of several such attacks before she and her husband realized that there was something psychologically wrong with their child.
“The boy is suffering from what is known as impulse dysfunction disorder. Whenever he is denied anything he vents his anger on his mother. She represents the forces that deny him happiness. Some 20 years ago, we got such cases very rarely. Now the number is going up. What is worrying is that in the coming decade impulse dysfunction disorder will become commonplace,” said Mullick.
Teenagers suffering from this disorder cannot control their rage. Psychiatrists contend that it is very important to learn how to channelise their anger. A child with impulse dysfunction disorder has a change in the behavioral pattern.
“Youngsters are growing up fast these days, thanks to early exposure to violence and adult material through the media. They believe violence is the solution to problems which they can’t handle or even understand fully. In this (Subhrajyoti Ghosh’s) case, the normal reaction of a 14-yearold would have been to cut himself off from his grandparents or, at worst, behave rudely with them. But this boy was obviously not happy with that. He wanted to teach them a lesson in the way heroes treat villains. He obviously has a major personality disorder,” said psychiatrist Shiladitya Ray.
Psychiatrists feel that teenagers of today are prone to behaving like young adults. “Fifty per cent of these teenagers behave like adults without realizing the responsibilities of an adult and the implications,” Ray said. “They don’t realize the consequences of their action. After they complete their act, they understand that it was something wrong. It is very important to keep watch on the teenager and realize that a change is coming up.”
Subhrajyoti, psychiatrists say, kept his grief and rage bottled up. Which is why, when he was planning the attack, he did not betray any sign of emotion or tension. Not even till the few seconds before the first strike, or after, when police arrived.
Mullick feels that 14-15 year-olds should now be treated as adults. Fifty per cent of them, he says, have grown up prematurely. “Wanting to take revenge has now become very commonplace among teenagers. They are obviously inspired by the movies which offer it as a solution. It is here that parents have a major role to play. Lack of guidance and monitoring is squarely responsible for this dangerous trend,” said Mullick.
Psychiatrist Satyabrata Kar agreed. Parents often fail to notice the behavioural changes in their wards till it is too late. “Losing temper too often, getting physical or hurling objects are the early warning signals. Parents should take note of these indications and be cautious,” said Kar.
“In the next 10-12 years, these cases will become more frequent,” Mullick feared.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Extended Family

The following news item is published today in Economic Times, India. It could be an eye opener for the young professionals/would-be-professionals. The increasingly neglected value based family system has tremendous power which we are forgetting in our material pursuit. The news item tells the rest.

AMBITIOUS, YOUNG & SUDDENLY CLUELESS

Laid-Off BPO Generation Wilts Under Depression, Anxiety

Writankar Mukherjee KOLKATA


WHEN Rahul Kher landed his first job as a foot soldier in the then unassailable Indian IT brigade some two years ago, he thought he’d made it. The 22-year-old engineering graduate from Kolkata promptly moved to Bangalore, took up his job, and started planning ahead. It was 2006, banks were chasing successful youngsters like Rahul with easy housing loans, and he bought his first asset — a twobedroom apartment in South Bangalore. In August 2008, at the age of 24, Rahul married his childhood sweetheart Ishita, who moved in with him and got her first job in a bank. Things couldn’t have been better. Both Rahul’s and Ishita’s parents, in their 50s, were still employed, and the DINK (double income-no kids) couple began in right earnest to build up its dream home.
Ishita put all her savings — Rs 60,000 — into a 42-inch plasma TV that hung on the their living room wall. Rahul didn’t blink twice before taking another bank loan — to buy a new Alto.
And then their world came crashing down.
The top-rung IT company that Rahul worked for saw its clients — mostly mid-sized US banks — vanish as a series of bankruptcies began to hit Wall Street. A due diligence was in order to identify “non-critical” functions that could be downsized. Youngsters draw strength from family
ON November 10, 2008, Rahul got a call from the HR department. He, along with 20 others, had just been laid off. Two weeks later, Ishita lost her job.
In the couple of weeks that they remained in Bangalore, Rahul and Ishita sold off their apartment, the Alto went to a friend, and the plasma TV landed in the secondhand market for Rs 27,000. The couple moved back to the extended family in Kolkata.
Today, Rahul, 24 is a shattered man, under psychiatric help for depression at his family home where he now lives with Ishita.
Ambitious, young, and suddenly clueless, Rahul represents the underbelly of India’s famed BPO generation which only saw growth but now finds itself suddenly defenceless in a slowing economy.
“These young professionals were getting used to enjoying a comfortable life and a sense of freedom. The slowdown has hit them very hard,” says Dr Jairanjan Ram, consultant psychiatrist at Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in Kolkata, who is treating Kher.
And then there are those who had just a few months at the crest of the wave. Like Richa Sharma, 25, a masters in computer application from Pune, who got her first job at a prominent IT firm in June 2008, only to be put on the bench in October, and laid off in December.
Today, recovering from a nervous breakdown, Richa may take three more months to be her normal bubbly self, says her father Sudhir Sharma, a pensioner.
Leading hospitals across the country are reporting a wave of patients like Rahul and Richa, in their 20s, suffering from anxiety, depression and sleeplessness, all induced by a declining job market in a slowing economy. India’s economic growth is expected to slip to around 7% this year from an average of 9%-plus growth seen in the preceding three years.
“In the past three months, there has been a 25% jump in the number of such patients and the most common complaints are depression and anxiety,” says Dr Murali Raj, head of department of psychiatry at Bangalore’s Manipal Hospital. The city is synonymous with India’s IT boom and is home to some of the country’s biggest IT firms.
Hospitals in Mumbai also register a lot of women patients, suffering from depression. “Many of these girls are now postponing their marriages. The economic boom had created women’s empowerment in the job market, and with the slowdown, this is beginning to disappear,” says Dr Parul Tank, consultant psychiatrist at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai.
In Delhi, doctors at Escorts Hospital say they get about 7 to 8 patients a day with symptoms of depression induced by the economy. Says Escorts’ clinical psychologist, Dr Srividya Rajaram: “Their main concerns revolve around tiding over the career uncertainties. Several of my corporate clientele also suffers from depression and many confess they are going easy on their lifestyle. Some even want expert advice on how best to cope with such economy-induced lifestyle changes.”
KPMG’s head of human capital practice, Ganesh Shermon, affirms Dr Rajaram’s view but feels that Indian youngsters are still better off than their global counterparts. “The extended family system we have here and the social milieu help in such occasions,” he says.
Rahul, Ishita and Richa will agree.
After all, as the job market went into a sudden huddle, it was their families that came to their rescue.
“To me, it all (the job phase) feels like something that happened somewhere else to some one. And I have to thank my family for helping me land on my feet,” says Ishita.
“I am just waiting for Richa to be herself again. I will reason with her to choose a more stable career like teaching,” says Sudhir Sharma, Richa’s father.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Mediocrity to Satyam Tragedy

Welcome to the new semester!

For some days was having many discussions with different group of students-mostly 2nd year, completing 3 semesters in IIT. Most of them are on their downhill journey because of the widespread 'peace maro' (take it easy) attitude - neglecting academics, leaving everything to the last two weeks before semester exam. and/or low/high level 'cheating'! It is worth reading Satyam's founder, ex-CEO, Ramalingam Raju's parting letter - "...The gap in the Balance Sheet has arisen purely on account of inflated profits over a period of last several years (limited only to Satyam standalone, books of subsidiaries reflecting true performance). What started as a marginal gap between actual operating profit and the one reflected in the books of accounts continued to grow over the years. It has attained unmanageable proportions as the size of company operations grew significantly..."

Coming back to IIT student life, not only most of the students are suffering from this disease of indulging in mediocrity themselves they are also spreading these disease being a carrier like any other person affected with a contagious disease. And this is one of the reason why others have a say in the way a student (or for that matter, anybody) leads his your life and cannot say it is entirely a personal matter. Because an individual is not a system isolated, neither one can keep everything oneself entirely. As a corrupt person wants to make other corrupt, a person even after suffering himself from 'peace maro' attitude tries to propagate that idelogy to others. Satyam's Raju continues "...Every attempt made to eliminate the gap failed. As the promoters held a small percentage of equity, the concern was that poor performance would result in a take-over, thereby exposing the gap. It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten..."

Back to IIT student life. The other issue that cannot be avoided is - a poor acad. record cannot make a student happy, however best he tries to hide this fact, often propagating false and a failed theory of mediocrity. A person cannot be happy remaining in a steady state. Life demands moving from one orbit to a higher orbit to become happy. Now, how does it matter if one chose to be not happy? An unhappy person radiates unhappiness - makes other, his family members, friends, neighbours unhappy. They in turn propagate unhappiness. And someday, after a time lag, it will reach you, me and everybody. That way each of us has a stake, has a role in seeing, making others happy. 

The point I want to make here - mediocrity make each of us operate in two modes  - as a sufferrer, as a carrier. While as a sufferer I am free to decide being a matured, adult, individual whether to continue to suffer; as a carrier I am not free in that sense and own a responsibility to the society. 

Why don't we move from this to a different culture which is more fulfilling? Let's enjoy life in its entirety. Life has many dimesions. Let's explore them. Let's divide the time appropriately among study, sports, travel (say, trekking), weekend bash, reading novels, watching movie (for some of you it could be some of that stuff too...which always made you inquisitive at this age...), social service, attending cultural evenings, visiting places of religious or social interest etc. etc. It helps you to diversify. Being unidimesional in life is like putting all your eggs in one basket. No intelligent person will do that. Without doing well in acad. can you really be at peace, forget about enjoying life?

Let's do our bit to arrest the spread of this disease called mediocrity. Let's see that the excellent input to the IIT system do not leave this place after 4 years being devalued to just ordinary. Yes, 10-15% of you really do justice to yourself and the institute in these 4 years of transformationals process. But such will happen in any probabilistic model. In any population 10-15% will be excellent. In our case, the population itself is the cream of the nation, the best of the bests. Any standard model should have generated 90-95% students as excellent products. 

The students admitted its because of the prevalent 'take it easy' culture. Senior students carry this to the juniors. IIT brand confirming a good job or only a good knowledge of programming language required for high paid job are not helping either. I hope the present recession and poor placement season of 2008-2009 will be an eye opener and bring some sanity. Still, it is not easy to change something as any new thing has to go through a phase of ridicule and then opposition before being accepted. But the IITians are among the best and the brightest in the country and they can always find a way if they want. 

Coming back to Satyam fraud (and other bubbles that put the skeletons out of the cupboard in international space in recent times) - it is worthwhile to take note of path taken by so called smart and educated people who uses dishonesty to outsmart others. 

It needs a Satyam (ironically, Satyam means the Truth) to see why we need to be honest. 

We need a Mumbai attack to make us feel patriotic. 

Why not before? Why not it is a part of our bringing up? 

This evening my daughter, studying in Class I, was going through one of her lessons which read like this. "Feel happy when your friends do well in something. If there is a running race, everyone cannot win. You will win in something else. .... Always be cheerful. When you are full of fun and cheer, you make your classmates happy too..... and so on."

But have we taken these lessons seriously or extrapolated in our day to day life?

Many students have given this feedback. The seniors have told them that having a certificate on social service work is useful for resume and gives better job opportunity. Accordingly, many of them are engaged in so called 'social work' through various groups that promises certificate. It sends a shiver down the spine to think of where mediocrity can lead to. IIT students are acknowledged as smart. But is there any limit? Isn't it riding on a tiger that Raju mentioned in his fax message.

When a big tree falls, everbody notices. But the process starts much earlier as Raju says that it started with a 'marginal gap'. Have such gaps crept in our life, our society too? Then what has happened to Satyam today can happen to me, my society tomorrow. We are today talking about corporate governance. Does it not it start from self-governance? Where is the effort to build character?

Satyam is a national tragedy. Let that not happen to you, me and anybody. Let us control our greed and lead a balanced, multi-dimensional life.

Let's not deceive ourselves. Let's act and now.
----------------------------------------------
The clippings : Satyam's Ex-Chairman's parting message and message of interim CEO immediately after assuming office

The chairman of Satyam Computer Services resigned on Wednesday, saying profits had been inflated over the last several years.

Following is the text of his letter, which was released by the Bombay Stock Exchange.

To the Board of Directors

Satyam Computer Services Ltd.

From B. Ramalinga Raju

Chairman, Satyam Computer Services Ltd. January 7, 2009

Dear Board Members,

It is with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience, that I would like to bring the following facts to your notice:

1. The Balance Sheet carries as of September 30, 2008

a. Inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances of 50.40 billion rupees ($1.04 billion) (as against 53.61 billion reflected in the books).

b. An accrued interest of 3.76 billion rupees which is non-existent.

c. An understated liability of 12.30 billion rupees on account of funds arranged by me.

d. An overstated debtors position of 4.90 billion rupees (as against 26.51 billion reflected in the books)

2. For the September quarter (Q2) we reported a revenue of 27.00 billion rupees and an operating margin of 6.49 billion rupees (24 pct of revenues) as against the actual revenues of 21.12 billion rupees and an actual operating margin of 610 million rupees (3 percent of revenues). This has resulted in artificial cash and bank balances going up by 5.88 billion rupees in Q2 alone.

The gap in the Balance Sheet has arisen purely on account of inflated profits over a period of last several years (limited only to Satyam standalone, books of subsidiaries reflecting true performance). What started as a marginal gap between actual operating profit and the one reflected in the books of accounts continued to grow over the years. It has attained unmanageable proportions as the size of company operations grew significantly (annualized revenue run rate of 112.76 billion rupees in the September quarter, 2008, and official reserves of 83.92 billion rupees). The differential in the real profits and the one reflected in the books was further accentuated by the fact that the company had to carry additional resources and assets to justify higher level of operations -- thereby significantly increasing the costs.

Every attempt made to eliminate the gap failed. As the promoters held a small percentage of equity, the concern was that poor performance would result in a take-over, thereby exposing the gap. It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.

The aborted Maytas acquisition deal was the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones. Maytas' investors were convinced that this is a good divestment opportunity and a strategic fit. Once Satyam's problem was solved, it was hoped that Maytas' payments can be delayed. But that was not to be. What followed in the last several days is common knowledge. I would like the Board to know:

1. That neither myself, nor the Managing Director (including our spouses) sold any shares in the last eight years -- excepting for a small proportion declared and sold for philanthropic purposes.

2. That in the last two years a net amount of 12.30 billion rupees was arranged to Satyam (not reflected in the books of Satyam) to keep the operations going by resorting to pledging all the promoter shares and raising funds from known sources by giving all kinds of assurances (Statement enclosed, only to the members of the board). Significant dividend payments, acquisitions, capital expenditure to provide for growth did not help matters. Every attempt was made to keep the wheel moving and to ensure prompt payment of salaries to the associates. The last straw was the selling of most of the pledged share by the lenders on account of margin triggers.

3. That neither me, nor the Managing Director took even one rupee/dollar from the company and have not benefitted in financial terms on account of the inflated results.

4. None of the board members, past or present, had any knowledge of the situation in which the company is placed. Even business leaders and senior executives in the company, such as, Ram Mynampati, Subu D, T.R. Anand, Keshab Panda, Virender Agarwal, A.S. Murthy, Hari T, S.V. Krishnan, Vijay Prasad, Manish Mehta, Murali V, Sriram Papani, Kiran Kavale, Joe Lagiola, Ravindra Penumetsa; Jayaraman and Prabhakar Gupta are unaware of the real situation as against the books of accounts. None of my or Managing Director's immediate or extended family members has any idea about these issues.

Having put these facts before you, I leave it to the wisdom of the board to take the matters forward. However, I am also taking the liberty to recommend the following steps:

1. A Task Force has been formed in the last few days to address the situation arising out of the failed Maytas acquisition attempt. This consists of some of the most accomplished leaders of Satyam:, Subu D, T.R. Anand, Keshab Panda and Virender Agarwal, representing business functions, and A.S. Murthy, Hari T and Murali V representing support functions. I suggest that Ram Mynampati be made the Chairman of this Task Force to immediately address some of the operational matters on hand. Ram can also act as an interim CEO reporting to the board.

2. Merrill Lynch can be entrusted with the task of quickly exploring some Merger opportunities.

3. You may have a restatement of accounts' prepared by the auditors in light of the facts that I have placed before you.

I have promoted and have been associated with Satyam for well over twenty years now. I have seen it grow from few people to 53,000 people, with 185 Fortune 500 companies as customers and operations in 66 countries. Satyam has established an excellent leadership and competency base at all levels. I sincerely apologize to all Satyamites and stakeholders, who have made Satyam a special organization, for the current situation. I am confident they will stand by the company in this hour of crisis.

In light of the above, I fervently appeal to the board to hold together to take some important steps. Mr. T.R. Prasad is well placed to mobilize support from the government at this crucial time. With the hope that members of the Task Force and the financial advisor, Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America) will stand by the company at this crucial hour, I am marking copies of this statement to them as well.

Under the circumstances, I am tendering my resignation as the chairman of Satyam and shall continue in this position only till such time the current board is expanded. My continuance is just to ensure enhancement of the board over the next several days or as early as possible.

l am now prepared to subject myself to the laws of the land and face consequences thereof.

(B. Ramalinga Raju)

Copies marked to:

1. Chairman SEBI

2. Stock Exchanges

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The interim CEO's damage control exercise is worth reading.

Dear colleagues,

I write this mail to update you on some critical Board and Leadership level changes in our company, effective immediately. A series of extremely unfortunate events led to this, which I am sure you have seen covered in the media over the past few hours.

A SWAT team consisting of senior leaders has been formed. Many of them are Satyam veterans with a minimum of ten years experience in our company and more than twenty years in the industry. I have been requested to play the role of an Interim CEO and this team will support me, as we steer Satyam through this challenging phase. These are the leaders on the ground and have always had the final call on most customer and associate related matters in the company, so far.

This team has committed to work together, to make it happen. The SWAT team represents all Customer Facing units, key Horizontal Competency Units and critical Support Units. Over the past twenty one years, with your passion and commitment we have built significant customer assets, formidable service offerings, excellent delivery processes and scalable support systems.

Satyam has been consistently acknowledged for our leadership bandwidth and has a demonstrated reputation for collaborative functioning. Our renowned Full Life Cycle (FLC) model encouraged ‘Distributed and Empowered’ leadership and prepared us for all situations.

This is the time when we have to apply it in real life. What we have been trained for, we will now put to work. Let us continue to handle our respective areas with total autonomy, freedom and control. This is as good a time, as any, to remind ourselves that we have been acknowledged as being amongst the top three Best Employers in India by Hewitt and Mercer in independent surveys in 2007 and American Society of Training & Development (ASTD) named us as the best globally, for our Learning practices – the first company outside USA to be ever awarded this honor. Satyam continues to have everything that is fundamentally required for its success – a strong customer base and a committed universe of approx 53,000 associates.

What we are confronted with is the challenge of continuing our business operations, seamlessly. We will need your involvement and ideas to make it happen. This might involve even more effort at every level, in the near term. This is the time to prove to the world that we are united and will succeed in overcoming the challenges.

This quarter will be tumultuous for us. Rumors will abound and it would be fair to assume that competition will try and leverage it to their advantage. As a proactive measure, we have formed fully empowered Cross Functional Teams, headed by seasoned leaders in the respective areas, to address pan-organizational issues like Delivery Excellence, Customer & Associate Retention, Pipeline Management, Cost Controls, Collections etc. You have helped to build Satyam to be what it is today - and we believe that this cannot be allowed to fail, at any cost. I am confident that I can count on your continued support as I commit to our customers that we will ensure deliverables and commitments are serviced.

On behalf of our new leadership team, I apologize to you for the uncertainty and inconvenience that this incident has caused to you and your families. I assure you that we will emerge stronger, because of this. Increased focus on transparency at all levels, integrity and ethical functioning will be ensured. I want you to stand confidently in front of your families and friends and say that we will now be a better company and that we shall soon be a successful case study of how organizations have turned over a new leaf.

We will be conducting “U Speak” (our Meet-the-Leadership sessions) in each city in India starting next week and will have numerous Webinars to address associates in various countries.

We will be meeting many of our customers in person over the next two weeks and will meet those of you onsite, at that time. In these sessions, we will explain to you what happened and articulate the actions that are being taken to retain your confidence in our company.

Let us fight this battle together. I am confident that we will emerge stronger, TOGETHER.

Ram Mynampat