[padmrajravi]

Just before the second wave hit, somewhere in mid-March, the IT job market exploded. Many of us were getting job offers promising 40-50 % hikes without even hard interviews. I seriously contemplated moving from my current company since the money was becoming hard to resist. But somewhere I felt, there was something wrong in the ways numbers were thrown around and that this was not scalable. I talked to my present management and took a small hike instead of moving out. Even though a smaller company, my company is financially stable and was not affected by the pandemic. I felt it was a big risk if I leave chasing money and if the new company suddenly get affected by some change.

I don't know yet that if my decision to let go of those hikes were wrong. In my opinion, most companies who are offering insane salaries are the ones who laid off people on the first signal of trouble and they are just trying to get back their people thinking that situation was about to improve. What I thought then was that the situation has not improved and all of us are being tricked by the government into believing everything is all right through some cooked-up numbers. This applies to both central and state governments. And now the reality has gone beyond what can be suppressed. I have a feeling, IT folks will also get affected big time in the coming months. Every other country recovering and only us getting stuck with travel bans is a nightmare situation for Indian IT service industry.

[aniyo]

I feel we are not taking one thing into account here.
Jobs will be lost, business will be closed adn lot of pain will be borne. Question what is the consequence.

I fear that the crime rate is going to shoot up. Armed robbery, chain snatching etc will rise.
Anger on the system will come out on whom ever people can show (weaker than thou)

Mental health will be impacted badly. The scar of this will ensure that at least for next few years the consumption will be muted (barring a few metros)

I was actually thanking my wife over the weekend. I had all the wrong idea and her sensible decisions saved us.

1. I wanted to buy a 3BHK she was dead against it. She forced into buying a 2BHK

2. I wanted to buy in Bangalore, she was hell bent against it. Finally we bought in Hyderabad at a price 15-16L cheaper is similar society thus saving on EMI and outflow.
Also this was ready to move in so our rental income started same month as EMI

3. I wanted to buy the Harrier XZ, she nearly kicked me out. She wanted to hold onto Brio but relented and we got the Nexon (good decision)

The only thing I did wiser than her was not to stay in an expensive rental home which she wanted to (though that was more of 6k/month diff)

In India unlike other countries, one's social structure and cash in hand is the main savior. Politicians and all the middlemen are there for their own sake.

How much ever we wish for a clean government, it is we who have voted them to power. They know elections are won on Caste, Religion, Language, freebies.. all other politicians who have focused on economy have lost power. That's the sad reality of our nation

[sunishsamuel]

Making hay while sun shines ? If this report/news is true can someone remind them that fleecing grieving families is a crime ?

Crematoria, ambulance drivers make a killing?

Read more at:
https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.c...campaign=cppst

[pkk077]

Originally Posted by Slipstream11

Can the EC not postpone the elections for later

Will that really help though? I was seeing a report on a Hindi TV channel just 5 minutes back where a TV correspondent was talking to people in a market in Bengal about the elections. Neither the TV guy nor anyone in general public was wearing masks.

[comfortablynumb]

This has to be one of the most somber threads I have read since joining this forum. Don't have anything to say, that hasn't already been eloquently expressed by other members.

However, I will say this. If you are lucky enough to be in a position to support someone financially, please do not hesitate. It can be paying their grocery bills/medicines/rent/school fees for their child/anything else. It can be the difference between life and death for them.

The politicians and bureaucrats have thrown us to the dogs. It's up to us to help each other and overcome this crisis. Will end this post with this beautiful rendition of one of my favourite songs, dedicated to everyone who has fought, and continues to fight with Covid-19 and its fallout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUiTOSzhaNA

[pkk077]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Unfortunately our political class remain focussed on grandiose buildings.

While we must target politicians of the ruling party in Centre, please don't forget the public discourse just 3 months back when, the same political parties begging for help from centre now, were raising doubts over the efficacy of the vaccines.

January 11th.
PM Modi should take COVID-19 vaccine first to allay doubts: NCP's Nawab Malik
https://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...le33551327.ece

January 10th.
Chhattisgarh says no to Covaxin till it completes third phase of the trial.
https://www.thestatesman.com/india/c...502945653.html

January 4th.
A hurried gamble: On vaccines and transparency
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/edi...le33488169.ece

January 5th.
Scientists criticize ‘rushed’ approval of Indian COVID-19 vaccine without efficacy data
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021...-efficacy-data

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by pkk077

While we must target politicians of the ruling party in Centre, please don't forget the public discourse just 3 months back when, the same political parties begging for help from centre now, were raising doubts over the efficacy of the vaccines.

January 11th.
PM Modi should take COVID-19 vaccine first to allay doubts: NCP's Nawab Malik
https://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...le33551327.ece

January 10th.
Chhattisgarh says no to Covaxin till it completes third phase of the trial.
https://www.thestatesman.com/india/c...502945653.html

January 4th.
A hurried gamble: On vaccines and transparency
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/edi...le33488169.ece

January 5th.
Scientists criticize ‘rushed’ approval of Indian COVID-19 vaccine without efficacy data
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021...-efficacy-data

Arent we mixing things here? I am not sure if the scientists, doctors and political parties were opposing Covaxin for the sake of it. They had asked to wait till the phase 3 trial results are out. Once the results were out in the 1st week of March, the opposition to it died.

Just telling "they opposed" by missing out the context (delay in the results ) is not right and brings in a false narrative.

[su1978]

Originally Posted by srishiva

I dont know how many more months this agony is going to last. For now, there are jobs that still are dependent on developed countries' economies and we dont see that much of an impact in IT.

Some of my friends who started their companies a year before the pandemic and were just stabilizing had a hard hit. The first thing was the building rents. Now they are trying to do something working from home. There is no support from govt as usual.

This is one of the positives of Covid. The lockdown has forced organizations to rethink their strategy on real estate and the human capital. My organization incurs a per seat cost of 45000 per month. There are 300+ seats. With the lockdown and covid around everywhere, this cost has reduced drastically. Working from home has in-fact increased my productivity although the productivity of my boss has reduced to a great extent simply due to the fact that now he does not get into useless discussions with me and he is unable to justify his time in office.

If one recalls, we had read about a term called "decentralization of industries" in economics. Covid is giving us a golden opportunity to do it. Regional imbalances can be eliminated. We understand that some sectors cannot move to other places but many can. if we note a trend, we will find that the places where density of population is more, has more corona cases compared to the ones where density of population is thin. Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore etc have huge manpower/human population who are concentrated everywhere. Hence the cases are more out there.

Give the employees/workforce a liberty to work from home and kill the attitude of adamant managers who just have their egos to satisfy. One of my friend works with a leading IT integrator company in Delhi/Ncr. His boss who has recently joined from some third grade company, over buoyed by his new found powers, keeps on calling him to one of the most populated areas in Delhi for office. God forbid, if something untoward happens to him, who will take the responsibility. They may pay 20 lakhs or 30 lakhs to him as compensation. But is that enough for his family of 5 for entire life?

[bsdbsd]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

The NYTimes article might be behind a paywall for some. The same article is available on Economic Times here:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/82112290.cms

Tip: If any article on a news site is behind a paywall, just google search the article title. Very likely that such an article will be syndicated to another news website, and available for viewing.

Another workaround. Save the link to pocket. You didnt hear it from me!

[pkk077]

Originally Posted by m8002?

Just telling "they opposed" by missing out the context (delay in the results ) is not right and brings in a false narrative.

Fair point. But then vaccinating about 10% of our population in such a short time actually should be considered a reasonable success than a failure.

[Slipstream11]

Originally Posted by pkk077

Will that really help though? I was seeing a report on a Hindi TV channel just 5 minutes back where a TV correspondent was talking to people in a market in Bengal about the elections. Neither the TV guy nor anyone in general public was wearing masks.

The common masses have been driven to the brink of "either I die of hunger or I die of Covid" - where the former is a certainty and the later, maybe (or maybe not), is still considered as a matter of probability.

The hoards of people we see attending these political rallies don't know/don't care who gets elected at the helm. What they care for is a meal to see them through the day. And that's what they get after spending the entire day squatting under the scorching sun, clapping away to glory - that's what they get to take back home.

We are in a position of damage control. We obviously cannot fend off Covid - what we can do is minimize the damage and casualty. Hence the vaccination, hence the postponement of examinations, imposition of lockdowns, containment zones, etc. - then why not the elections - what is going to materially change with the elections!!

In one instance the law states that you cannot be seen in groups of 5 people and then on the other hand you allow political rallies - that's hideous governance to say the least.

[ZenMaster]

Originally Posted by pkk077

While we must target politicians of the ruling party in Centre, please don't forget the public discourse just 3 months back when, the same political parties begging for help from centre now, were raising doubts over the efficacy of the vaccines.

January 11th.
PM Modi should take COVID-19 vaccine first to allay doubts: NCP's Nawab Malik
https://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...le33551327.ece

January 10th.
Chhattisgarh says no to Covaxin till it completes third phase of the trial.
https://www.thestatesman.com/india/c...502945653.html

January 4th.
A hurried gamble: On vaccines and transparency
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/edi...le33488169.ece

January 5th.
Scientists criticize ‘rushed’ approval of Indian COVID-19 vaccine without efficacy data
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021...-efficacy-data

While I do agree with you partially, on certain polticians blowing things out of proportion, we mustn't generalise anything. Most doctors shied away from Covaxin dure to lack of proper 3rd phase trial results.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

We mustn't forget that it was our lack of planning and jumping the gun that had a big part in landing the entire country in the soup we are in.

Shortcomings have occurred on everybody's side, but we must differentiate between being cautious and being ignorant.

Lack of Proper planning and vision is more detrimental than being cautious.

It might be interesting to note that India's Oxygen Export grew 7 to 9 folds in Dec'20 and Jan'21 compared to same months in previous year.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/indi...ndemic-2418461

Again in hindsight, the government should have listened to experts and foreseen the spike and taken measure to ensure that sufficient Oxygen supply would we available at the right time.

Is the govt. 100% to blame? - NO,

But it sure did not play its part well - Because the entire political machinery (Both in power as well as in opposition) was Tunnel visioned on bringing down their political adversaries in certain states and forgot/flouted their own rules when they saw that it benefitted them.
Meaning, at no point of time were they willing to look at their own deficiencies or accept where they went wrong. Instead politicians fought tooth and nail to make sure that no criticism gained traction when their "POWER was at stake"

Accepting mistakes or shortcoming is the 1st step towards correcting them or taking the right actions. The elections meant that political parties ensured that this didn't happen at any cost.

All this at the expense of the lives and livelihood of the same people whom they claim to serve.

[svsantosh]

2005 :
15 years ago I had invested in a small apartment (and enjoyed the rental income) all along.

2015:
6 years ago I built and moved into a duplex villa to see my son (then aged 3) run on a green grass lawn and we could live in a bigger and better locality.

2019 Oct:
My lil girl joined the fun, 6 months before the chaos ensued. Son was aged 8, and was in 2nd grade. Missus was working in the same school as sons. We had hired a babysitter all day to take care of the lil girl. Retired dad kept company and was enjoying the new gran'girl.

2020 Mar:
Chaos! My job was steady, schools shut, wifey was working Pro-Bono like all the other staff in her school. Son was online, best thing was playing with his sis.

2020 Sep:
My company makes its first sale (we make large mechanical industry related machinery). It was crazy period but somehow the management paid salaries through their noses.

2021 Jan:
Officially wife leaves her job (no salaries paid till date, one by one all the staff moved on).

2021 Feb - Miracle offer:
I was approached by a complete stranger who lived across the street from my apartment. Seems he knew my apartment for 15 years (for the view; Lol) and he wanted his son, a techie, to invest in his first property. He made an offer that I couldnt refuse, convinced my wife that things will only get worse, disposed off one property and closed the mortgage on the current home. I just couldnt live every day thinking "WHAT IF?" I too loose my job, and I cannot pay the EMIs, School fees, Babyfood, diapers, etc etc!!!

If things improve, God knows when, I will think of one more investment or a new car, etc... I (and my coworkers) are a million times better than most of the affected people in India (& worldwide) and we cannot thank our Management (it is a one man show, family business) and our Gods enough.

For now, I have postponed a new car (was the most idiotic thing in my to-do list), no vacation (duh!), no big ticket expenses. Just put aside excess funds for the rainy day and stay quiet with some quality family time and see the kids grow up.

Edit

PS - My (Blore HQ) Company didnt fire any employee till now, Actually I flew to Ahmedabad and hired 3 youngsters in Jan21. Maybe their 'blessings' got me off the mortgage!

PPS - I havent fired my babysitter too, my lil'girl is pampered by the whole gang back home! babysitter, wife, bro, grampa...

[yd_gli]

I have a slightly different perspective that might turn out to be unpopular on this thread.

While it might not be right to paint everyone with the same brush, a majority of the business owners, traders, migrants and the middle class folks threw caution to the wind over the last few months. Most restaurants started off with some distancing and by December all were running at full capacity with no masks and hygiene been enforced. Most small shop owners would laugh when a customer would ask them to wear a mask inside the shop. Most migrants were not interested in wearing a mask and would spit and urinate on public spaces. The middle class was busy holidaying in Goa all through November and December. None of them bothered to question the restaurant owner on why masks were not enforced.

So, I don't understand why we complain now, no? We all partied and made merry over the last few months with the govt thumping its chest on having defeated the virus. I'll actually cut the govt some slack here since I don't think they are qualified to handle a crisis like Covid. They lack the scientific know-how and the best they can conjure up is lockdowns. But what about the educated class? Did they really think they could outsmart Covid by wearing a mask on their chin while in a restaurant? Most still believe that the reduction of cases with a lockdown is a sign that we are defeating the virus and that the vaccine is the end game. When will we learn? Sure, a few took precautions and made sure they didn't add to the problem but in India such people are called fools.

Maharashtra is set to go into a full lockdown anytime now and I fear the entire country will head that way soon. This will serve no purpose and hardly a small number will get vaccinated during the lockdown. When things open it will be back to the usual and we'll set the stage for another surge/lockdown in 6-8 months. This assumes that the current crop of virus variants are neutralized to some extent by the available vaccines.

Meanwhile the govt will continue to fudge death numbers and be opaque on statistics regarding re-infections, vaccinated people ending up in the hospital, vaccine effectivity against all currently active variants. Price gouging and looting is rampant in all sectors and this now is beyond our control.

[fhdowntheline]

To be honest, almost none of the countries and their political leadership have the fullest extent on this pandemic thus far. And none of their citizens too have been 100 % compliant.

There were protests in Europe over re-lockdown, people in the US openly defying the local directives and guidance. Even a country like South Korea is seeing a resurgence.

People are in a hurry to resume normal lives, they are fully dependent on technology at this time.