Why Dharamshala?

The town is getting major fillip to its infrastructure as the government is focusing heavily on developing education and sporting facilities in this place. In the last 10 years this district has seen establishment of 3 universities, numbers of engineering and diploma colleges offering quality technical education. With English as a subject being taught from school the graduating engineers are well versed with a language required to communicate with our international clients. We hope to train and offer jobs to engineers graduating from these institutions. In terms of physical infrastructure Dharamshala offers broadband connectivity through a fibre optic backbone connected to the national grid. There are enough backup options with all major telecom operators offering connectivity solutions through DSL or 3G technology. Electricity is another major plus as the state of Himachal Pradesh is a power surplus state with number of hydro power stations setup across the state. Besides quality of supply the cost of electricity is heavily subsidized.

Facilities

With 1200 sq feet of office, we have enough room to house a team of 35 odd engineers. The office also offers a small kitchenette, meeting room and a sleeping room. Yes, we don’t mind if our engineers catching a wink every once in a while. The town offers our engineers an opportunity to live life to the maximum. With clean and green environment, this town gives additional benefits as necessitated by modern lifestyle. The town is well connected by road, railways and air with Chandigarh and Delhi. Being a tourist place there is no paucity of restaurants, resorts and picnic spots. Restaurants here serve excellent food of all delicacies be it Japanese Sushi, German bakeries, Italian pizzas and Israeli falafel. Nights can be fun with live music hangouts in Mcleodganj. With a government medical college and other private hospitals, the medical facilities are well established. Besides the famous cricket stadium the town also offers a well equipped indoor stadium with facilities like gymnasium, badminton, table tennis and an athletics running track.

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Invitation to code in heaven

We like having guests in our office. Especially the ones who come up to us and say “Hey we can do this thing together”. So if you are the kind who is keen on settling or moving to the mountains then do get in touch with us. We may just have the right work opportunity waiting for you.

We’re sure you are there on Facebook, more Dharamshala pics on our Facebook page

Job location:
Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

Perks of working in Dharamshala

Enjoy long walks & treks in the mountains and high passes almost on all weekends
Be part of a global melting pot with people converging all over the world at Mcleodganj
Get to breathe fresh air in office instead of one coming through air conditioning ducts
Spend evenings gazing at the stars with family & friends
Look at the bluest of the blue sky which is free of dust and pollution
Enjoy all the four seasons of a year and actually feel the transition from one to the other
Good sporting infrastructure for sports like TT, Badminton, Cricket, Basketball, Mountain Biking & Football
Volunteer with non-profit organisations working in the field of education, environment and healthcare

Software Engineers at the company work on

• LAMP/WAMP Engineers: Create websites, portals using Drupal, Drupal module development, jQuery, Contribute to Drupal core & new module development, Mobile Apps

• Sys Admin: Maintaining a cloud environment, server optimisation, back-up, maintain JIRA, SVN, Jenkins, Hudson, Maintain local workstation environment of both Linux & Windows.

• QA Engineers: Automated and Manual testing, UI and Functional testing, Selenium RC, Selenium IDE

Desired Skills & Experience

1. Technology

• Graduation in IT/Computer science
• Proficiency in LAMP environment
• Experience in working on any of the open source CMS like Drupal, WordPress, Joomla & CakePHP
• Believer in open source systems
• Contributions to open source projects
• Exposure to tools like Git, SVN, JIRA, Basecamp is appreciated.

2. Personality

• You should be thoroughly bored of staying in cities like Delhi / Chandigarh / Bangalore / Pune / Mumbai / Chennai / Kolkata / Hyderabad.
• Should be a nature lover and a greenie.
• Should have love for the mountains, its ecology and people.
• Understands and values the importance of start-up/entrepreneurship/bootstrapping etc.
• Once in a while be ready to cook meals for self and office colleagues.
• Should be comfortable watching the latest flick on on DVD and not in a multiplex.
• Seeking spirituality yet enough money to lead a comfortable and stress free life.
• Looking forward to adapting to a slower pace of life and slow not because of traffic jams.
• You should be ready to teach the skills honed over the years with the local community & freshers.
• Willing to learn some life skills from the community in return.
• Sees the next one to two years as a journey and not the end in itself.

Additional Information

1. Type:  Interns / Full-time

2. Experience: Freshers to Mid level

3. Functions: Software Development, Project Management, Information Technology, Engineering, Design

4. Industries: Design, e-Commerce, Computer Software, Information Technology and Services, Media & Publishing

5. Compensation: Commensurate with Experience and at par with Industry standards

If you want to discuss this opportunity speak with Varun at +91 98055 10111 or s him your CV at varun@srijan.in

Now that I am here and have lived for more than 3 years high up in the mountains I look forward to networking with like minded people who share similar beliefs such as mine.

Over these years have gained some insights about living in the mountains and I hope to connect / network / team-up with people sharing the following traits:

• You should be thoroughly bored of staying in cities like Delhi / Chandigarh / Bangalore / Pune / Mumbai / Chennai / Kolkata / Hyderabad.
• Should be a nature lover and a greenie.
• Should have love for the mountains, its ecology and people.
• Willingness to walk in wilderness for long distances is a must. (To catch up with the team when not working).
• Understands and values the importance of start-up/entrepreneurship/bootstrapping etc.
• You are comfortable working from an office little larger than a car garage but with amazing views of mountains and river flowing by.
• Once in a while be ready to cook meals for self and office colleagues.
• Should be comfortable watching the latest flick on a pirated CD and not in a multiplex.
• Seeking spirituality yet enough money to lead a comfortable and stress free life.
• Looking forward to adapting to a slower pace of life and slow not because of traffic jams.
• You should be ready to teach the skills honed over the years with the local community & freshers.
• Willing to learn some life skills from the community in return.
• Would like to spend Saturday evenings gazing at stars with family and friends.
• Enjoy the bluest of the blue sky which is free of dust and pollution.
• Sees the next one to two years as a journey and not the end in itself.

Well if you think you are so desperate that you would like to hitch the next bus/tempo or even bailgari up the serpentine roads then lets talks.  Maybe this helps you exercise a choice which you always wanted to.

The journey has been long and eventful. In this period I did loose some loved ones and met some many more loving and affectionate people. No doubt that I can now claim of have friends sitting in every nook and corner of this world. Be it micro finance practitioner in Kenya to a techie in New york or a Doodhwala in AMUL.

Over the years I had dreamt of moving back to Himachal and so I did with a IL&FS in 2007. But it is only now that I have truly started exploring my real dreams of being an entrepreneur. Last few months have been quite exciting and at the same time have tested me as well. From managing HimVani.com,one of the largest read news portals about Himachal to hosting the toughest Mountain Biking Challenge in India and helping start GreenKrafts, a handicrafts based social venture near Dharamshala. Have tried my little bit of contributing to the society in a positive manner.

More recently have been involved with few like minded entrepreneurs to start an IT initiative in Himachal Pradesh. We have some interesting plans for up-skilling the youth in the region and hope to generate employment for many. In the process we probably will end up guiding few youngsters in setting up similar initiatives.

So the task is cut out in front of us and we shall use every second of this year working towards fulfilling our dreams.

Ending this piece on a rather selfish note, I seek your blessings, support and guidance throughout the year.

So wish us luck ! Bon Voyage !

I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life… To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

When I had graduated I had no plans of doing masters. For two years I was footloose, travelling from Nasik to Delhi to Calcutta to Delhi and Himachal in-between. I was constantly trying to find an area of work which interested me. It is at this juncture that I got to know about IRMA. After a thorough research I took a decision to invest my two years in doing this course.

When I came here I already had something’s in my mind. I had to pursue my dream, no matter what happened and yet be responsible enough to take care of my family Somehow the sector vs non sector confusion was never in my mind. Probably my late father was an inspiration. He was from a very remote village in Himachal. The nearest school was 14 kms away and he used to walk every day to the school. It was in class 9 that he decided to move away from his village as my grandfather was against his education. He wanted to prove a point which he did by graduating from IIT Kharagpur ten years down the line His story always inspired me and that is why I am chasing a dream. If my father, inspite of being from poor family could dream of getting out of the village at tender age why can’t I choose a path which is less travelled After all he had provided me with every luxury which he could not get. Thanks for making me dream dad and thank you Maa for supporting my eccentricities.

It was after his sudden death that I got acquainted with the thought that we are food for worms. Life is a short journey and there are people who will meet on the way and then we will part. It is equally important for us to find relations in such people. After all it is these relations which provide us the impetus to continue with our struggle in life. It is very much possible that many people may not even be directly linked to us but still they touch our lives. Over the past two years my life has been touched by many such people. Be it the IRMA faculty, GESS workers, staff and participants from various batches of IRMA Thank you because YOU have touched me. After certain time I may not remember many names or even faces but the common thread called IRMA will keep us together.

Being Kachra Sec gave me insights into a concept called democracy. So far I had only experienced it being a silent member. Here I participated in it. I think it was a good exercise for me. The student committees are a good simulation tool of the big wild world out there. The most important learning was how important consensus is. Sometimes we get blinded by objectives and forget the very subjectivity which resides in human spaces. However there are people who in the garb of freedom do shirk responsibilities. I still don’t know how to work with the breed of activists who can only talk. There are many lessons to be learnt and probably I will be able to find some answers.

On the lighter side

• I had the privilege of officially sitting in back benches.
• I am yet to become a SUITABLE boy.
• Engineering was only a qualification and not education and I am yet again leaving one more campus with qualification but no education..

It is at IRMA that my desire to pursue my dreams got strengthened. After IRMA I will be involved in executing two dreams. HimVani is my dream of building an institution which promotes social entrepreneurship in Himachal. The other is a dream of another IRMAn. Community Friendly Movement (CFM) is an organisation which intends to bring the power of retail to support rural artisans. I will unabashedly continue to promote both the causes and many other such things which come my way at every forum where I get to place my signatures on. I will keep coming back to many of you for support. I hope I will not be disappointed. If at any point of time I can be of assistance to you call me I will be there.

Post IRMA we will all get involved in our own lives, managing jobs, families and expectations. I sincerely think that amongst us are the future leaders of our country. I will look forward to the day when I tell my children that these who’s & who’s of the country were once part of a batch called PRM 26 at the Institute of Rural Management Anand.

In the end I can only remember the lines which Steve Jobs once said. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Your brother in arms
Varun
PS: Honeymooners are welcome to stay in Himachal. Stay will be facilitated provided I am extended an invitation.

With one month over I hope the festive mood of new year is still continuing and the year is turning out to be as good as you expected.

For almost two years I have been out of loop. Number of factors I will say. If I was not travelling than it was academics or student activity at IRMA which kept me busy.I am sure with time we all get busy in mundane tasks which life has in store for us but once in a while we should renew ties with old pals.

If the benevolence of my professors continues than I will be able to finish the course by March end. Soon after that I will be moving back to Delhi to work with social enterprise based out of there. I am joining a start-up called Community Friendly Movement (http://www.whycfm.org) It will be our endeavour to build a supply chain of rural artisans all across the country and provide them market linkages.

I hope to hear from you in near future.

with warm regards

Varun Singh