The mainstream media in India, particularly Mumbai is so obsessed with celebrities that it is disgusting. There are so many more interesting things, but the media owners cannot think of spending time and money researching it (though they have plenty of resources). Some times I really wonder why our media is so shallow.

Big companies also make mistakes, and often the mistakes are far more expensive. The news coverage in the media , especially about  the internet in India is only about big companies . Many big companies are good in their field of specialisation, but when they diversify, they often  fail.

A few years ago,  I spent a lot of time analysing the accuracy of  news stories and was surprised how easily it was manipulated.  At times  I wonder why they cannot be neutral.

I had seen first hand how big Indian companies are run, so I knew this was going to happen.  I had invested some amount in mutual funds in 2001 when I had just left my job and had some money from leave encashment. The Sensex was below 3000 then.  After that I have always invested in  my own business, you have better control over the returns unlike publicly traded companies , where you may end up sponsoring exotic foreign junkets and a lot of other “official expenses”.

I worked in L&T for several years (I left because I always wanted to start my own business ) and after interacting with  people outside, I feel it  offers the best working environment for an engineer fresh out of college.

In contrast, in the IT sector, you write code and work on a single project for months.  Unfortunately , due to media hype and high salaries, most of the better engineers today either join the IT sector or do an MBA.  You have to be really thick skinned to ignore people  who ask you what is “wrong”  with you, why you are not doing an MBA or joining an IT firm.  Software languages can be learnt at any time, I do the coding required for my websites myself, but you learn to design and manage engineering projects only from practical experience. 

  If the IT firm is developing its own products, it is OK,  but most Indian companies are  just IT sweatshops doing low end work.  And if all the good civil engineers are working as cybercoolies in IT companies, why are people so surprised that the roads are so bad?

When I had a 9-5 job, I once had to go to meeting in a North Indian city to finalise things urgently, it was supposed to end late . When I asked the manager to arrange for accomodation, I was told ,  ” Go to Karol Bagh, and check into any hotel”.   I told the admin department directly to book me the last flight to Mumbai.  I have stayed in Mumbai for long and have  managed to reach home even after midnight when flights are delayed, as it has a fairly efficient public transport system, but in a new city (especially in North India) it is an unnecessary risk.

 A few months later, a junior colleague came to me and said the manager was asking her to go to some project site / customer’s place in North India alone.  Many of the sites are in remote locations, for example LPG cylinder refilling projects were  about 25 km away from the nearest town/city as an explosion there can cause loss of  life.  She had refused citing personal safety, the manager told her ” look at N (myself) , she travels to many project sites alone. “  I should have made more noise.    

I have personally  not faced any problem since I am very conservative, but I have heard enough stories while travelling. To be fair,  at some regional offices in smaller cities, people have gone out of their way to check with me if everything is OK, but finally one incident like this puts you off. 

The newspapers are full of “news” stories about the  latest luxury  and lifestyle items , but they are not really needed . Why purchase on your credit card / take bank loans and face problems later? 

What she says is very true - there may be a lot of stories about India being a superpower , but the mainstream media in India  has no self respect.  I wonder whether in any other country so much importance is given by the media to foreigners , people who have quit India. Does the US media give front page coverage to activities of  US citizens in India?