First and foremost, before I begin, I just wanna say that I am NOT a racist but what I'm about to write has a little Indian flavor to it.

I work in the IT consulting line, and my job involves jumping from one client to another where I learn about their old legacy system and 'try' to implement a better system for them. My previous project was with a beverage company, CB. It was kind of a difficult project due to the fact that the whole project was overscoped(too many things to do in too little time) but fortunately for me I was only there for a month to help out another colleague before leaving for my current project. So I wasn't entirely surprised to hear that my colleague wants to quit halfway thru the project.

Needless to say, the company was furious. How are they gonna find someone to replace him now that the project is at its crucial moment?! The company director even threatened to blacklist my colleague - that he won't be able to get a job anywhere if he leaves. My colleague was adamant, but agrees to stay for an extra month, so that the company could send a replacement to take over. So the company sends someone over to take over. An 'experienced' consultant from India. Fine. Problem solved? Not quite.

I was browing through a forum on the internet yesterday. This forum is basically a medium for people in my line of work to discuss technical matters. And also for people to get tech support. Anyways, I was randomly reading through some of the discussions when I came across an interesting question posed by someone by the name K. Interesting to me because the question was not only very fundamental, it was also irrelevant, if not nonsensical. And K also confessed he knows shit.

But more interesting was that the question asked specifically refers to a system very similar to the one company CB is using. Its highly improbable that another company would be using the same system since the system was a fully customised one, so something smells very fishy here. I later found out that K is the replacement consultant from India. The one who's supposed to replace my colleague in that highly challenging and difficult project. And he knows shit.

Now, India is a country with plenty of excellent IT human resources. Every year India exports and outsources thousands of programmers and consultants and IT engineers to work in all over the world, including Malaysia. I've worked with two; one is very good, the other one average. But my friends and peers have horror stories to tell. Mostly stories on how incredible and impressive the resume that these Indian consultants have but they actually know shit. One even didn't know how to plug in the network cable to his laptop. And some screw up the system so bad their employers actually black list all employees from India. They lie their way around work until they get caught, and then gets sent home. The better ones will actually try to get help by reading help files or reading forums like Mr K here. As one friend put it "The good ones will go to US or UK to work coz they can get better pay there. The bad ones will come to Malaysia."

I know the situation is bad in their country. I know they are desperate to earn a living and to earn a good salary but please, please don't earn a living by lying and cheating your way around. I wonder if they think us Malaysians are a stewpid lot. That they could just come here with their doctored resume and just take on any jobs. That we Malaysians are too stewpid to notice that they're just plain cheats.

I need to reiterate that I'm not a racist. Heck, my best friend's an Indian(Malaysian). For those cheats, you must know that you're tarnishing the image of your country. This is NO way to earn a living. Get your act together.

*checks last posting* 08.24.2004 Tuesday 7:22 pm. Wow, that was like about six months ago. I've not blog since last August when I found that I've really got nothing to say except about things about the breakup. Didn't really want to hear myself going on and on about something not meant to last. When I knew at the back of my head it wasn't supposed to start in the first place. Ahh fcuk, what am I doing talking about that again?! *knocks final nail to the coffin* There, that should do it. RIP.

I've actually considered writing again all the while. And I've occasionally read the blogs of those who use to frequent? my blog. People like misskendy :) (Hi!) Don't think she visits here anymore. So anyways, its decided. I want to write again, coz there've been small but funny things happen lately that I wanna write about. Happy things. Happy thoughts. And I'm also kinda inspired by Azrael's 'I Am A Japanese English Teacher'. http://omega.med.yale.edu/" title="http://omega.med.yale.edu/" target="_blank"http://omega.med.yale.edu/~pcy5/japanese/teacher.html Funny stuff.

Well, what has happened in the past six months? Lets see..the highlights are....

1. I am a certified SCUBA diver now...well, almost. I have passed the practical test, at which I did my first open water dive at Pulau Payar. First and only come to think of it. Second dive was supposed to be at Phi Phi Island and Phuket but the 26th December 2004 tsunami happened exactly a week before the dive. Sometimes I think that I'm damn lucky the dive wasn't scheduled earlier. To die in a natural disaster is not the way I wanna go.

2. More money. I've been sent to work at the Petronas Twin Towers in KLCC. Didn't want to be here, and still don't want to but the money is too good to resist. But the job is boring as hell - which just gave me another reason to blog.

3. Beautiful BAB. Thats the codename for the most beautiful girl on my floor. How could anyone be so breathtakingly pretty and fine? Its almost been two months here and the only words I've uttered to her are "Hi" and "Good morning". And that "Good morning" improvement happened only two days ago. I am such a loser. Tongue gets tied everytime BAB gets near. *turns to look at BAB* ...simply gorgeous.

4. Damian. Have not spoken to him ever since I left the island. Why must he be so arrogant? You said something insulting, something hurtful...I know it and you know it. Why can't you just apologized? Still waiting for that apology. Another lost friendship?

5. Bachelor pad. The tenancy contract to my current place is due in 1st of June. Thats about 2 months away. And I still don't have a place of my own. Now that I'm cash-rich, I can afford to buy a nice condominium for myself. The problem is I don't know where. Its so hard to find a nice place in Klang Valley. And I don't want to spend too much money on a condo when I could afford a nice landed property. And I'm so afraid of committing to something that costs hundreds of thousands. I think I'll just rent for now. I want my own bachelor pad!!!

6. My nephew Darren is almost one now. What a hyperactive little boy. And tough too, just like his dad. He likes to laugh and he likes to play. And he's very smart and sooooo cute. Looking at my brother and how loving he is towards Darren makes me wonder what kind of dad I'll become...if I ever become a dad that is. Bringing someone to this world is such a huge responsibility.

There's more I think...can't think of anymore though. Hmmm, I've written quite a lot. Not bad for the first day.