Friday, April 22, 2005

Story Of An IIT KGP Computer Science Graduate

This definitely sounds like a story,at least to me.It's a story of an IIT Computer Science graduate.I don't know how fascinating this story will be to read.I leave the decision to the readers.Please let me know through your comments.Enough of the prologue part...Let me get started and introduce "the" individual.

This guy is claimed to be a genius by his poor school friends(Among the blinds one-eyed man is the king) and his parents(sounds familiar,right..every child is termed as brilliant by his parents.So nothing new in that).Further, this poor chap has his 10 and 12 standard marks barely above the first class barrier 60%(My guess is this Bihar Board thing has more to do with that than the talent he possessed.He still has only 4(four) marks out of 75 in Intermediate Chemistry II paper,thanks to a computer mistake engineered by a "responsible" Inter Council Employee). So you can count him as just another average student.But somehow or other he manages an All India JEE Rank of 198 and that too on his first attempt!!!!. Was it a fluke?? Only God knows. He has not even touched a computer till the date he cleared JEE but going by his parents' and friends' words he "decided" to take computer science as his graduate subject.

He candidly accepts that he is a highly confused person.The only time he didn't get confused in his life was while taking the decision to go for IIT JEE preparation which was then and is still now considered as a "dead end" by many of his "well-wishers".And he gets even more confused the moment he enters his college by the happenings around him. He had a torrid first year, where he finds his feet completely at sea probably due to lack of communication skills(This guy had done everything upto +2 in HINDI medium and the first time he spoke english was on the first day in Electrical Lab!!!!). But somehow he manages to survive thanks in no small parts to his best chum in college days RK who happens to be an even more suffering soul(at least during his graduate studies).But he always believed and still believes that had it not been RK he would not have been able to complete his graduate studies.For without RK's constant support through thicks(which were indeed rare) and thins(which were aplenty) he definitely might have struggled to get going in this fast track IIT system.May God bless RK with all his blessings and help him achieve the goals that he had set for himself.This guy along with RK and few other friends struggled a lot to "pass" in the Programming course but he somehow manages to come out of this course with a D(which is just above P-Pass). What a debut?? A wannabe CS graduate scoring D in his first departmental subject!!! But he personally feels he has not done too badly , after all he passed!!!

Then comes second year.Unfortunately he had no seniors in any IIT anywhere who could tell him anything abt the (gruelling/torturing) incoming years. So he goes back home,thanks his God,rests in peace that no more programming business for now,enjoys,comes back and finds that this 2nd year is even more difficult,more and more programming jobs in queue!!! He could do nothing about it other than being "victimised" by the IIT system and prepared to get thrashed by the so called world-class faculties.History repeats itself and he again registers a D in another programming subject Algorithm. And since after 2nd year first sem there was almost no programming work(at least for him as he "decided" not to submit any assignment in any of the courses after 2nd year first sem) he relaxes quite comfortably.And the most familiar site in the lab classes was this guy receiving some tongue lashings from the faculties!!! But somehow either by hook or crook(To be honest this guy was very honest in whatever he used to do and is still very much the same person.He never asked anyone for help in his exams/class-tests/projects so while some of his batch mates could easily muster up A/B grades without doing anything extra he consistently clocked a C/D or an even more embarrassing P in nearly all the subjects) he manages to complete all his courses/labs within the stipulated four years and pass-out of his college gracefully.One more serious problem with this guy was that he was unable to work in a group(which is defined as TEAM-Working).So my guess is he can definitely be declared unfit/unsuitable for most of the IT companies(Especially the services firms) where we have a "TEAM" for doing almost everything ranging from analysis/design/developement/testing. And that's exactly what happened in his First job!!!

This guy always hated C(he didn't know java then and still doesn't know , even after undergoing 8-weeks "Intensive Java Training/Work-Shop" during his stay at his first employer!!!!) programming in his college days.In fact after second year first semester no body had even seen him writing a code in C.To top it all one interviewer(Unfortunately his first employer) asked whether he knew anything abt C or not after listening to his cryptographic and hardware relatd fundaes for half an hour (which were of no use to him/his company,Alas)?Even one of his friend told him in his final semester that i have never seen you doing any programming exercises till date and very soon you are passing out as a CS grad from IIT!!!! He was correct in doing an "honest" assessment of this CS grad. No body either had seen him doing any programming exercises throught his stay for 4 years.A familiar site in his room is like this...Two-three windows open on his system with very-2 small resolution n even smaller font size so that no body could see anything(He was smart in copying!!). All they could see on his room PC is that he has just now copied someone else's code and is "busy" typing Cntrl-F Cntrl-R.So i think we can safely categorize this guy as a bigtime programming bunny.
Although I still believe that he was good in patches and he could have done much better. Here are few examples to prove the above stated claims:--

This guy was a real maniac towards Mathematics. Even in IITs, supposedly the beehive of talented individuals,People used to distance themselves miles away from any subject involving maths but he always believed(And still holds the same belief) that Maths is the easiest subject on this planet (ohh really!!!) and programming(especially in C) is the toughest task.He proved that to some extent in his first year where he was struggling with almost all the subjects barring one and that was Maths where he scored a rare A and an even rarer B in consecutive sems.And following this notion of himself in his 3rd year he went on to take an elective in electrical engineering department dropping his own Computer Sc elective, in other words he preferred to write meaningless electrical lab records rather than doing Java coding for software engineering, simply because he felt at that time that the Electrical engineering subject will involve more math that software engineering!!! I fully agree that being strong in maths doesn't mean u should be good in programming too. But at least one of his wingmate VB always used to wonder how come he is weak in programming despite being so strong in maths related stuffs. Only God knew the answer at that time, although he also found an answer to the same although a touch too late.But believe it or not this "self-realisation" couldn't have come at a better time than his first job!!!.So it went simply otherway round when he joined his first company a software firm in chennai (the name of his first company is too long that's one reason and the other is he really hates this company like anything and he doesn't want to criticise any company in open.So....But the clue is..the company name starts with letter C. But in chennai you won't find many "long-named" companies starting with letter C!!! So you can easily guess)and underwent a training in JAVA!! His choices took a complete U turn while being in chennai.He was decent at Verilog,another language which he used to like in his college days and he still likes the most. And believe it or not Verilog is just C with POINTERS dropped(ohh no POINTERS.......that gives us huge relief..but if u drop pointers then what is there in C!!!). So this guy started taking C seriously turning a complete blind eye to the Java training he was going through...(although he was smart enough to clear an Oracle interview during his training days solely on the basis of Java!!!)So somehow or the other he was just repeating the same mistakes that he had commited earlier.Always doing the right thing at the wrong time.So he was destined to suffer in the IT industry if he was to be in Java based business so he decided that he had had enough.He thought that let me stick to C only.He realised(which he had never done before) that he is "strong" in Verilog so automatically he should do well in C and given the disliking towards Java shown by him during his training days his friends also suggested the same.So he started taking C more seriously than ever. He could see that some of his colleagues at the same company were getting paid a handsome salary just for reading newspapers and forwarding mails(It still holds true in case of some of my colleagues). But he was supposed to do some White-box testing(although he used to do it half-heartedly) for his job(Read survival/living) and apart from that he was "mastering" C.But the best was yet to come. By divine's intervention after being overlooked for nearly 1 and half months by the same company he gets shortlisted for Oracle.This guy has not written a single C code for past 2 and half years or so(and is equally bad in Java too) but somehow or the other he finds a lot of confidence going into the interview..So when the interviewer(who happens to be his current manager) asks him that Which language you would like to prefer/work for when u join our company if at all you get through our selection process, he doesn't even think twice and says confidently "off-course" C. And rest is history. He cracks at the interview answering most of the questions(At least questions regarding C) gets selected in a position where his "team" consists of only one individual and that is himself, an ideal scenario for him given that he was not good at teamworks.He comes at Oracle,is still at Oracle only and as proclaimed by him has learnt hell lot of things in the past 4-5 months(may be more than what he "learnt" during his 4 years stay in IIT KGP),has improved by leaps and bounds and in his words he has become a "STUD"(A jargon frequently used in IITs, genrally pronounced as Eshtudddd) in C.

This guy had a strong liking for the VLSI,EDA and Hardware related stuffs. He did all the courses related to hardware/vlsi/eda during his undergraduate days.He went on to do so many courses on hardware that in one of the MNC's written tests he scored 9 out of 10 in Hardware and 3 out of 10 in Software!!!! Needless to say that he was thrown out of the selection process as the opening was for the software stream not for hardware!!!!So we can safely say that his strength is not computer science, his real strength was electronics which was what he always wanted to be(He had a brief spat with his parents on this issue of taking Computer Sc or Electronics Engg on his JEE counselling days also).

Finally one word or two about this guy's communication skill.This guy is being interviewed in the same company mentioned above,where he gets 9 out of 10 and is still thrown out like a bee out of a tea cup.The interviewer asks few questions and he answers.Finally towards the end the interviewer is "impressed" with him and asks what is his native state.He answers Bihar.BIHAAAAAAR...The interviewer got really excited and says....ohh u are from BIHAR.I can't believe this.You speak english pretty fast(He got almost the same compliments from his current employer also in his second interview).How did u do that??I thought u are from south!!!!Then he jokingly asks the interviewer that Whether this statement was a fact or just a compliment??The interviewer tells no man it's indeed a fact.You must be proud of your background. He comes out of the interview room with a winning smile on his face only to know later on that his services are not required by the company!! But he has taken this defeat in his stride and is planning to "avenge" this "loss" sonner than later.This guy strongly believes in God and time and again insists that Bhagwan Jo Karte Hain Bhale Ke Liye Hin Karte Hain(Whatever God does with u, it's always for the betterment of ur self) and since everything happens for a reason, by "rejecting" him for this job at that time God had done a lot of favour.Now he is in a much better position than he would have been had he been selected at that point of time.He feels that he has become a lot more "mature" and "experienced" ,had understood lots and lots of things regarding the business/market/industry, is more confident and is now ready to take up the same position once again with gusto.We just hope that this guy finds his destination sooner than later so that at least for once he can get something right,which he has failed to achieve throughout his entire career and that is "Doing the right thing at the right time".

One more (rare to find and not so prevalent, at least in this materialistic world) quality of this guy i missed out to mention is his "generousness" and i still remember AD(one of his wingmate) heaping praise onto him on being so honest,helping,down-to-earth and not being opportunist by any means.He doesn't mind spending money on his friends and donating his money nearly at will to the under-previleged persons.And on being asked by one of his close friends SS he explains plainly, Because i don't drink neither I smoke,So i should find some way to spend my money!!! Nice Excuse for spending your money, Right??

We wish all good luck to this proud soul from Supaul to scale new heights in whichever field he chooses to persue and make his native Supaul even prouder for himself.

Job Satisfaction Continued

Continuing from the point where I left off let me introduce one more individual Mr R.I think I have already introduced this person in my first post.Remember "the" guy for whom Mr M had commented out that he is best suited for a governmental job(I also fully agree with M on this).But in case of M, the reasons for having such an opinion might be different. May be due to his "peaceful" job n life-style,a balance between work and personal life(read masti) tilted more and more towards the later and still earning more than him despite hailing from almost the same academic/technical background ,Mr M might be feeling jealous of him. But in my case I really doubt whether anyone can be in a better position to understand Mr R's "job satisfaction" other than me, the obvious reason is that I am sharing virtually everything with him (Apart from my undergarments ha ha ha ha ha....Courtesy Munna Bhai MBBS!!) right from the day one I landed in bangalore.

My school of thought suggests that Mr R is a very good "planner".On a scale of 10 I would be more than happy to give him 9.5 or may be even 10.But more often that not he "forgets"(He honestly accepts in public that his memory is embarrassingly weak) that in order to achieve the desired results you need to "execute" the plans also(Ohh really!!!). So that's the introduction abt this guy. Let's now list out his "job-experiences".

R leaves his native place with an "idea" of a job switch over(His first employer is paying him very less although as proclaimed by his employer it's at par with the "average" compensation offered by the IT giants!!! No pun intended, I leave the decision to readers how do u compute the "average" compensation in IT industry by counting some of the popular Indian IT forms or taking out the average of the salaries in some of the MNCs,the true giants in S/W industry) . But after landing in bangalore he gets "lost" in the limelight and the flashy world around him and "forgets" his ideas and starts his journey in his not-so-preferred company.R is very happy undergoing "Entry Level Training" in his company where he did everything other than getting "trained". He was smart enough to realize that these "trainings" don't help you at all at least for ur project works(It's useful only when u update ur resume,adding one line in ur resume like this-- I have undergone a training in this this field from this date to this date where as a part of my training I did so and so...bla bla). He "completes" his training successfully and is now "project-ready"(This was a jargon I learnt during my training days in chennai) . He is allocated into some project. But here he sees no correspondence between the work assigned to him and the training he underwent. In training he had "learnt" almost everything ranging from C/C++/Java/.NET/VB/VC, Algorithms, HTML,XSL within a span of 2 months and that too accompanied with real-world examples!!! My guess is U gotta be a superman to undergo such a training!!! And here he sees something totally new to him, the work,the platform everything.Here he finds the going really tough as there is no such training available for the product he is working on. He finds the users' manual very difficult to follow and he is forced to rely on "chance" and his seniors/co-workers(I will explain this word "chance" in detail later on). Somehow he manages to survive in his job thanks to few good and helping souls around him.

One more enviable "virtue" of Mr R is his "extreme" laziness.You can call it as Neighbours'(read his room partners') envy,Owners' pride!! Me along with one of my close friend reckon he must be the "laziest" around(In fact we openly challenge you to find out a lazier chap and we assure you of a treat in Leela Palace!! Hurry up guys,Offer closes down very soon). There is an old day adage stating that "Alasyam Hin Manushyanaam Sharirashtho Mahan Ripuh" (Laziness is the worst enemy of a human being) and this adage applies word-by-word in case of Mr R. He is so lazy that at times he finds out the details regarding the openings in any company in bangalore from one of his friends(which is me only!!) sitting in chennai. So quite naturally the guy sitting in chennai successfully did a job-change before he did so and he still ends up in the same company.

The most frequent answer/excuse u will be getting from this poor soul is "Yaar Man Nahin Kar Raha Hai/Tha" (I don't/didn't feel like doing/going for that). This guy was "enjoying" and "suffering" at the same time in his job and he also used to complain quite often abt the mismanagement prevailing in the company, the treatment handed out to the novices etc etc. But he is not finding it enough to go for a switch over!!! He "decides" that he should "accumulate" some "experience" before switching his job!! But I constantly reminded him abt the experience he is gaining from his job(which is almost next to nothing,u can safely say so because my guess is inside the company everything runs by chance, some of the bugs reported by the customers using the company products are closed automatically after being left untouched by developers for few days!!!LOL..Apart from that we have an attrition rate closing towards 100 %.On paper it may be only 10-15 % but who ever u talk to inside the comapny he is planning to leave this company sooner than later.U won't find even a single soul who is "satisfied" with his job and is not planning to leave). I thought let me do something for R. So I did some favours to him like finding out the details regarding the consultants,companies,references n all those things u need to know/do before going for a switch over, apart from constantly motivating him(read kicking his a***) to quit his job. He gets a call from one of the start ups in Networking(His current employer which is not so well known in public). On the interview days he feels "lazy"(nothing new!!) and thinks a lot whether to go for the interview or not.Finally he comes up with his "decision" and thinks of letting his friend know of the same. He calls his friend and gives an excuse like this Are Yaar Interview Dene Jaane Ka Man Nahin Kar Raha Hai.Bahut Door Hai..Bus Bhee Nahin Milegee!!!(I don't feel like going for the interview..It's too far man..I won't even get a bus for the purpose) and for good measure the interview location was hardly 2 KMs from his place!!!!. His friend gets angry,blasts him and virtually orders him to go for the interview.This guy decides to take up the interview albeit half-heartedly.And believe it or not he cracks at the interview.In fact he was so confident that he confused the interviewer on a question relating to local and global variable!!!He gets selected by the company and is still in the same company "enjoying" his job. And he "enjoyed" his new company to such an extent that he managed to see a hike of 17% in his salary in the first one month without doing anything extra!!!!

But now at times I "regret" my decision to "motivate" him for a job switch-over. I think I did it just a touch too many times. Now you can see his resume floating in almost every second company having an opening!!! LOL....
Talking abt his present job Mr R always looks pretty "satisfied" with his job(although he still finds at least thousand reasons for being disappointed and changing his company!!!). But even then at times he "thinks" seriously of a switch over. The reason he gives is like this "Yaar Company ka kisi ne naam hin nahin hai" (No body has heard of this company!!!).Do u think you should work for a company which is there on the lips of everyone,take for example Infosys!! Given a chance i am more than sure u won't join infy!!! But R thinks so. Freedom of Speech/Thought Man.....He further argues Yaar MicroSoft mein jaaoge to naam hoga(Microsoft has got a name,so if you work for microsoft,no matter what job you do inside, then only it will be good). Sometimes he whines about his job.He is in Network Testing Team, but if u say testing he will take it on his chin and strongly protest, it's not testing man it's SQA,Software Quality Assurance!!! (I am also in QA only and I also hate being dubbed as a "TESTER"!! So R is no exception to that psyche).He complains that He "decided" to join this company only after being "promised" by the company that he has been taken for development and now he is "forced" to continue doing Testing and this gonna continue for next 3-4 months or so!!!!But pretty recently just 2-3 days ago R finds out that the way to development has too many ladders to cross.....You gotta know lots and lots of things before u start "developing". He sees developer spending hell lot of time trying to understand what needs to be "developed", discussing strategies how to proceed and things like that,unlike himself who is done with his job in a flash!!!(Sometimes he goes to office at around 11 am or so and comes back at 4 pm only!!! One possible reason could be either R is too smart for the job or the job he is assigned to is not that testing and taxing given the skill set he possesses!!). He gets terrified by the schedule the developers usually follow which is in stark contrast to his peaceful,comfortable whatever u say for that matter,schedule. So now his opinion takes a U-turn and he starts liking "Testing" and has "decided" to stick with testing only,at least for now!!!

This guy possesses some of the virtues that has a striking resemblence with those i possess. Take for example his special knack for doing right thing at the wrong time and vice-versa.If this guy has an interview tomorrow morning, where he is expected to be asked on C and Data Structure then on the last night he will read almost everything but C and Data Structure!!!(Although still he comes out on top after the interview and even manages to confuse the interviewer with his technical fundaes!!!). I also find myself in the same category but then R beats me on this frontier. Previously i used to believe that this is the worst any1's attitude can be but then God is great. He "created" R thereby ensuring the correctness of the long-said theorem on integers-arithmetic(There is at least one integer less than and at least one integer greater than any given number!!) .So given Mr S there exists Mr R such that Prop(R) > Prop(S).

In the end all I have to say abt R is he doesn't know what he wants from his job. I mean whichever job he joins he will always find some reason to be dissatisfied. Be it Microsoft/Intel or for that matter whatever company. But one thing is sure this guy is a genius and whichever stream he chooses to continue his job, he will be equally good in that and is bound to excel in every domain, if he manages to overcome his lethargic attitude.I wish all good luck and success to this Dhanbaadi n Dukhi Aatma(poor soul)(Although he never looks frustated at any point of time but then looks might be deceptive as well, so he might be forgiven for that and this nick name "Dukhi Aatma" was proudly coined by one of our highly adored :):) depmate Mr Tikli).

And finally I pray to the God that he does something to increase his calorie levels(R always envies guys with high calorie contents, that includes me as well :):) in their bodies!!)thereby ensuring more energy exuded by him, stop making his hair gray, sends a good girl-friend for her, gives him money in abundance and the list goes on and on.
Message from /local/bin/God_Prayers_Granter.exe
Sorry Argument List Too Long!!!! Command Failed.....None of the requests granted!!!! :(:( I feel sorry for R.

Job Satisfaction

I usually talk with lots and lots of my friends regarding their job(more than their life) and somehow or the other I have a special penchant for knowing whether they are 'satisfied' with their job or not.So I thought why don't i share my 'experiences' regarding their job experiences!!
Here are few samples..

Hi Mr. M how are u doing in ur job.M says that as usual he is doing some sort of regress testing and some customer's case handling business(He is in bug-fixing and support division).And more often that not he pronounces these words as if these are some four lettered words!!!!!

So it goes without saying that he is not happy with his job.My guess is the prime reason for being dissatisfied with his job is his salary which is close to 50 % of one of his college day friends of the same branch(for whom he feels like he is best suited for a governmental job!!No pun intended,Reasons i will explain later on).Although one of my close friend draws even less salary(less to such an extent that he is exempted off all the taxes by the Indian government...lucky tax non-paying guys!!!!).To add insult to injury one of M's depmate has got through one of the giant companies in software industry causing him to go through an ic(inferiority complex) although i don't think it's just an ic alone, may be mixed with jealousy as well, who knows!!!! But one thing is sure he feels down abt himself just due to his job(read salary).

Sometimes he does gets (over)optimistic over his salary which is due to go through a hike in May.And says like this "Are pata hai salary double bhee ho saktee hai"(Salary might be doubled as well!!!) but then suddenly he realises his mistake,puts his feet firmly on ground and says nahin yaar 30-40 % se jyada nahin badhega kisi bhee haal mein(No man this f***ing salary is not gonna increase more than 30-40 % in any case).

Sometimes he consoles himself by looking at one of his colleagues in the same company who happens to be 'serving' the company for past 7 years and as proclaimed by Mr. M he draws somewhere around 1 Lakh or so per month as his salary.So sometimes Mr M also thinks "seriously" abt amassing so much "work experience" and finally start enjoying his life after 10 years or so. But At times Mr. M is pissed off to such an extent by the same colleague mentioned before and some of the other guys around him,who also claim to be having so called "2 and half/3 years of industry relevant work experience", that he says ye company na ch***** logon se bhadee pade hai..This f***ing company is full of a**h***s.No body knows anything..Everything happens by chance only...I really don't know how does this company make so much money?? Public wisdom suggests that the CEO of the company will hold an answer to M's query.After all he is the person who runs the show,doesn't he??

This "experience word has also got lots and lots of meanings behind it, at least my personal feelings say so. Believe me or not i have seen guys with 4 years of "industry relvant work experience" who hardly knows anything abt pointers and operating systems!! I guess u need to read between the lines.I will explain this word 'work experience' later on in detail. Although M also aggress with me on this frontier that this IT industry is full of a**h***s and incompetent individuals..And M goes on to add that even Microsoft and Intel has these kind of people, who were just "lucky" to get through.And within a flash he cites an example also,involving one of his colleagues,who has just got through Microsoft pretty recently.

Sometimes we all are talking abt the big guns in the industry and some of our fortunate n previlaged friends working in these companies(off course this list includes me as well!!!).This guy turns philosophical and says like this Sab Moh Maya Hai(everything is delusion only)while trying to put up a brave face in front of us!!!! Although he does "love" his job n company and seems pretty perturbed when we jointly 'criticize' n 'abuse' his company and says like this(with his eyes wide open and hands thrown in air) "Tumko pata hai( Do you know) in storage our company is among the best and there is a "dearth" of good "experienced" guys in this field so better you stay quite and see me after 4 or 5 years!!!!!".

I think one more point i missed out is that due to his fortune/misfortune(which ever is applicable, i leave the decision to the readers) he meets only those guys who are above him(read draw more salary than him). Take for example he met one call centre employee.(I think now a days it's a crime n an offence to pronounce call centres as call centres,Come on guys.......call centre sounds cheap, doesn't it?U gotta pay some respect to the "ITES" industry!!!!And believe me the guys working in these "call centres" take it on their chin and protest strongly that this is NOT call centre this is BPO, Business Process Outsourcing,u a***h***!!!!!!) .Unfortuantely this call center employee happens to be (again) an "experienced" guy working as a senior manager in one of the BPO firms. This BPO guy draws around 10 Lakh per annum as his salary.M is hugely impressed by his life style and we can see sometimes Mr M fantasizing himself working full time in a BPO firm having a microphone strapped around his ears ansewering the phone-calls.He even tries to "impress/bully" we guys that what are u guys doing in the software industry..Call centre mein jaao..kya mast job hai...No mundane n boring Coding job..nothing...Code likhke kya karoge...etc..etc..just answer few calls and come back....Enjoy!!!But no prize for guessing that these arguments don't cut any ice on us.

Finally in the end all i have to say is that this guy is not worried at all about the kind of job he is gonna/wanna do , the only thing that worries him is 'the' salary so whichever stream/industry pays him the higher salary he will blindly join the same. And he has already put his best foot forward for this.Just nearly one month ago He has become a CAT aspirant and now he is seriously preparing hard for the ultimate test which will help his salary go through "a massive increase". We wish all good luck and success to this frustated soul from IIT KGP presently working in HP and hope that he comes out of CAT 2005 with flying colours.
So that's the story as far as Mr M is concerned.
About others(including myself) in the next blog,
Suman

PS: Just 2-3 days ago the highly awaited salary hike has come and despite the (over)optimism shown by M, his employer shows no mercy onto him. But then something is better than nothing and taking this with a touch of philosophy M is happy(at least he pretends to be happy) that his salary has seen a hike of 25%!!!(which is not too less that the maximum hike offered to anyone).