So far, So good ... [Manish S]

I am so addicted to expressing my thoughts with charts, pictures and short sentences on PowerPoint slides J that writing full sentences on this blog is a strange experience. However, having urged Karthik to get the ball rolling on the “catch-up” notes, it would simply be wrong on my part to view from the side-lines, so here it goes.

Sam Pitroda started it all. His success in getting the movement to connect India going inspired me to forego the idea of studying Economics at St. Stephens … it was clear that I had to pursue a career in the Telecommunication sector …. However, things were in disarray in the Telecom sector by the time I came out of school in 1993 – Sam’s legacy had not been built on, dull monolithic uninspiring PSUs were the only places where one could get a career in Telecom and so I tried the substitute … writing code for Telecom switches at Wipro for a year … but that turned out to be boring (de-bugging millions of lines of code instead of building new stuff) and I put my Telecom dreams in abeyance for an indefinite period, took the CAT and joined all of you.

Little did I guess that the MBA would lead me back to the Telecom industry. HCL Comnet gave me the Product Management experience for building and running satellite (VSAT) services and Wide Area Networks. But my mid 1997, I was looking for my next challenge as the product line became stable at HCL and boredom started setting in …. it was at that same time that Infosys lured me and packed me off to Singapore to run a team developing a Telecom product.

1997 was also the year when Sonika and I decided to tie the knot. While I will let Sonic write her “catch-up” note at her leisure, a lot of the story since 1997 is not my story but our story and I will take the liberty of narrating it on our behalf since I am making the 1^st post at this blog.

All along I had never thought of leaving India but being in Singapore opened new vistas, infused new aspirations and it made Travel an intrinsic part of our life’s agenda. Singapore was an excellent jumping board to see different parts of the Orient. But by the end of 1998, we were ready for a taste of the Occidental way of life.

A concerted effort of a few days in the end of 1998 and Sonika had secured the passage to the West as she boarded the Ernst and Young ship in Canada. We came to Toronto in Jan 1999 hoping to be here for a couple of years before leaving for another continent. But surprisingly, the city grew on us, we dropped anchor, became Citizens and bought a house here and in 18 days, we will have been here for 8 years (it is unsettling that I feel so settled here).

Being in Canada has allowed us to fulfil our shared dreams to travel extensively (personally, Latin American destinations rank a little ahead of those in the US, Canada or Europe in terms of excitement). It also gave me the chance to work across a spectrum of roles (strategy, operations, product launches, technology & capabilities build and now sales) in the Telecommunication industry in the US and Canada. Currently, I lead IBM Canada’s efforts to work with Telecom carriers that are seeking to transform into service providers capable of providing multiple services (TV, voice, gaming, merchandising portals, Internet access ….).

What’s next? Who knows? If the fun at work or the pleasure of living in Toronto slackens even a wee bit or Sam calls ;) the bags get packed and we get to see the Sun rise in another city.