SIPCOT survey: by Vipul

From Cmi Spark

Revision as of 13:54, 20 January 2007

On January 14, Anirbit and I (Vipul) conducted a survey of SIPCOT IT Park. The idea was to go to construction sites and determine which of them could make use of Spark's services.

The long-planeed second half the survey hasn't happened so far. Bodhayan has taken over responsibility for the survey and he plans to conduct it tomorrow.

January14

Getting people to go

Anirbit had initially planned to get along with him Ravitej, Bhanukiran and some others who knew a modicum of Tamil and could act as interpreters. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, Anirbit could not enlist any volunteers other than himself or me.

SIPCOT Project Office

Anirbit's first planned stop was the SIPCOT Project Office, from where he hoped to get a complete map of the area and details of individual construction sites. Unfortunately (though as could be expected) the SIPCOT Project Office was closed (probably on account of Sunday).

CC Airtel

Anirbit and I next ventured into the Airtel Data Center Office under construction (being made by Consolidated Construction Consortium Limited). The security guard did not know Hindi, and after some failed attempts to communicate with him, Anirbit talked to a person with the security guard who knew English. It transpired that none of the construction workers lived on the construction site, and that their homes were in Sholinganallur.

TCS

We next went to the TCS site being constructed by Larsen and Toubro. After talking to the security guards at two of the gates, we discovered that none of the workers actually live in the area, and most of them come from neighbouring villages.

CCCL site beyond Hexaware

Anirbit then walked to the CCCL area beyond the Hexaware consturction site (opposite Cognizant) and talked to some of the people staying there. Some of the people working there knew Hindi, and we talked to them for some time. They told us the following:

• There are around 20 children upto the age of 10-12
• Most of them are not around today
• The children do not go to school
• The children should be around after 8 a.m. tomorrow

Anirbit explained that CMI is taking an initiative to educate the children. The general response was skeptical but polite.

After this, we walked around a bit more and decided to call it a day.

Plans for a next round

Weekdays are ruled out

Although Anirbit and I had been informed that the children would be back by 8 a.m., we did not make any plan to go back and meet the children at that time. There was a general feeling that the survey should be picked up again soon, but the hectic weekday schedule prevented us from going.

On Friday, in a casual dinner discussion, Bodhayan and I, while contemplating the next step for Spark, started discussing the survey. We realized that the information we have collected so far is woefully inadequate to chalk out a course of action. It transpired that Anirbit plans to conduct the next stage of hi survey on Saturday (January 20th). Heartened by this piece of news, we decided to keep our fingers crossed till Saturday.

Saturday drama

On Saturday, I had gone out in the morning for some personal work. After I returned and had a relaxed lunch, I strolled into the lab and started on some miscellaneous catching-up with mails. Suddenly Bodhayan turned up at my shoulder and commandd that I lead an expedition for further information-gathering for Spark. Nonplussed, I asked him why Anirbit, who had led the survey and assumed overall responsibility for it, was unable to lead. Since Anirbit was also in the lab, I decided to pose this question directly to him. Anirbit said he had to complete his VSRP discussion (important work). Possible other volunteers such as Jayanth, Ravitej and Bhanukiran were considered. Bhanukiran and Ravitej were also doing important work (watching movies). My eyes naturally fell on Belliappa who promptly turned to his important work -- a story he was reading. Bodhayan remembered that he too had some Tintin comics to read. Afraid of acquiring the status of the only person jobless enough to conduct the survey, I tried to summon the energy to assert that my own work was also important.

Anirbit then suddenly got angry and said that it is amazing that of 11 people in Spark, nobody was willing to go for a SIPCOT survey. I pointed out that he himself was not going. The coming exchange can best be represented by a dialogue:

(the dialogue captures the spirit of the conversation but may not be literally correct)

A: I have to complete my VSRP application V: When do you have to submit the application? A: I will be posting it on Monday V: Monday? Then you can do it tomorrow. Or tonight. You could work on the application at night -- but you can't do the survey at night, so it makes sense to do the survey right now. A: Nonsense. Some things have a schedule and I want to do them according to schedule. Why don't you catch the others? They are sleeping, watching movies etc. V: You were the one who wanted this survey, you are the one assuming responsibility for it, it's your job to find volunteers Bodhayan (stepping in): I take over responsibility for the survey. V: Anirbit, if you make a list of the questions to be asked, I can go with Bodhayan and ask them B: I will make the list of questions and take Vipul along when I am ready V: Sure; no problem

This was around 3:30 p.m. Needless to say, the survey was not conducted.

Sunday: the current plan

On Saturday night, at dinner-time, the topic of the survey again came up. I pointed out that some of the workers may be going out on Sunday as it was their off-day, so we could try checking out early in the morning for them. Bodhayan suggested that he, Jayanth and I go to meet the workers at 10 a.m. This was later changed to 11:30 a.m.