Erase eSign Presentation Secure

Originally answered - Shilpi Roy's answer to Should I choose signNow or Goldman Sachs (India)?The answer is gonna be really long. Grab some snacks as it could take a while.I was the happiest person the day I was selected as a FTE (tech analyst position) at GS - a reputed fin-tech company which mostly hires tier-1 students, a dream for many. I heard from many people that GS offers package as high as 32lpa which was quite a big deal for me - or for anyone who might have been at my place.Then came the HR’s call. She offered me semester long internship in GS! I was glad that I don’t have to spend my last semester in college and will also earn some money. With the stipend as high as 75k and stay at Hilton hotel during intern, anybody is likely to go crazy and say “YES”.And so I did.The beginning (GS-Bengaluru office)Soon came 7th January. Day started off with amazing orientation and office visit. Then came the lunch buddy - GS assigns a buddy from your department to have lunch with you the day you join, let’s say he was Raghav (name changed).Raghav seemed to be a really smart guy. I asked him a few questions about GS being a fin-tech, is it easy to switch and other questions. He seemed to be out of place, not interested. A guy came who was an intern in a team in which Raghav used to work. He kept talking and giggling with him, completely ignoring my presence. Cool, maybe Raghav is a bad guy - who cares?Met with my manager and two other interns who were in the same department - GIR. He seemed like a chilled-out and thoughtful person. Let’s call him Rudra.Our whole department used to sit in a middle sized cabin which accommodated around 32–35 employees of GIR. My happiness knew no bounds! Great team, small cabin and friendly manager - what else could I ask for?Then came the next day. We were introduced to our team and had a lunch together. Oh no! Lunch here was not free - no big deal. Only 80rs/- per plate is affordable when you earn 75k per month, I thought.After having lunch, we began installing softwares required. Wait, you can’t install some softwares without manager’s permission. Fine! I messaged my manager and he granted the permission. He came later in the evening and gave 3 of us an interesting machine learning problem to solve - in a week, till we get our projects.He had three projects in mind, and he left it for us to decide which one we want to take. I took the one which I thought was more impactful and cool, also because we had a member of our team working for the project. My task was to integrate the backend stuff he wrote with the UI I was going to create. Also to help him with some of those backend stuffs later on.“You can take help from Varun, in case you need” said Rudra.So it began!1st MonthI started learning React.js for the UI I was going to implement from various websites. There were tons of tutorial there. After understanding some theory, I clicked on ‘try it on codepen’ - online editor.“You are restricted from using an external website - no permissions”What? I can’t even use some online editor. Okay that’s fine - we have pretty sensitive data in GS. Since it’s a finance based company, we have client data with us and user may copy and paste it online - someone might steal the data! All this made sense. ‘It’s fine, I’ll bring my own laptop tommorow’, I thought before leaving.I could see two teammates standing behind me from my peripheral vision. One who was writing the backend stuff for the project I was working upon, let’s call him Varun.Varun was a silent and sober guy - a hardworking one who speaks only when required. Another guy standing beside him was Raghav.“Hey!” I said in a low tone.“Did I do some crime? Why are these two here?” I wondered.“You brought your personal laptop, is everything fine here?” they asked.I told them about the restrictions. Raghav took my work PC and sent Rudra, my manager a request to approve codepen.I waited. One hour. Two hours. Codepen still not working. Fine for me since I have my own laptop. No worries.After 2 weeks Varun called me and started assigning tasks to do for the UI. I was full of enthusiasm and paid full attention to what he wanted. I started looking out for the cool libraries out there and found - material-ui.‘Perfect!’ I exclaimed.Started with the tasks, and was able to achieve the target next evening. It looked damn good! Varun will be happy. And so, I showed it to him.“Okay, font-size is a bit huge. And please change the app’s name - ELEGANT USER’S APP” (name changed). And so I did.“E-L-E-G-E-N-T U-S-E-R—S A-P-P”What a funny name, I thought. (The real one was funnier than the changed one)So days went, 1..2…3 and I completed 5–6 tasks. The basic UI (20%) was done. Then came Varun -“Shilpi, you did this using which library?”“Material-ui! It’s really good and..”“Okay, but make sure you can use it. Only specific libraries can be used at GS. Search xyz site and ensure if we can use it. If yes, proceed. Else use GS UI library”What did he just say. I worked on the UI for 2 weeks, and he is telling me now that I may not be able to use the material-ui library! No way..With my heart beating fast, I typed..X..Y….Z …..gs..comCtrl+F“M-A——T-E—-R—I—A”Boom! It’s there. I was delighted :)The next day I was late. I saw a message pop up. It was from Raghav.“Hey” it said.“Hey” I replied.“Please try to attend the daily standup. If you don’t, mail Rudra about your update :)” He replied.There hasn’t been a single day I was late. But okay, FINE.Then came the 5th day - friday. I got a message from Varun.‘Hi Shilpi, can you make another UI using GS-UI?’Oh No!. Again?.‘Just for the feel…we’ll show it to Rudra next week, he’ll choose which one we can use’*Slow Claps*Well played Varun. Why did he approve the material-ui one if he wanted it in GS-UI - I wondered.It’s fine, I can do it. I encouraged myself and went to the internal site - gs-ui-library. (name changed)Okay, fine. This looks good. Okay. Cool. Documentation.. documentation….uhmm.I searched for the whole day, no documentation. Just few codes and examples to understand how to display some component.Way uglier than material-ui - I thought. And a minute later, an evil idea came to my mind..“What if I make the UI using gs-ui-library so ugly that Rudra and Varun both reject! That would be great!”The next week on friday, I was done with gs-ui-library. My code was asked to be removed from codesandbox by Varun - it’s illegal to put GS’s internal code there. I could hear Rudra laughing about how he is afraid of the interns bringing personal laptops here, and what will happen if someone names a variable as “GIR” and put it on github.I showed Rudra the material-ui one. He was impressed.“This looks good! But don’t keep the name as ‘ ELEGANT USERS APP’, instead keep it as ‘THE USERS SEARCH APP’ ” (name changed)“But Rudra, Varun has asked me to..”“I will ask him. We will decide and tell you”Fine. Keep the name as ‘The bla-bla app’. I don’t care.Varun was already gone by the time.I smirked. I won’t show the UI I made using gs-ui-library to Rudra!Next day Varun was on my desk. He asked whether I showed both the UI’s.“No, actually I forgot to show the other..”“See, the people above us will probably ask why we didn’t use GS-UI. That’s why I am saying so. I have no problem with material-ui. Just ask Rudra if he is fine with it. Rudra…”“Yes, Varun” replied Rudra.And then he showed both the UI’s to him. The ugly one. The good one.“I think it looks great - the ‘gs-ui-library’ one!” Rudra exclaimed.I shouted in my mind - “How can he..!”“See Shilpi, we don’t have any problem using material-ui one but the people for whom we are making the app will ask why we didn’t use the internal-gs library. Okay, tell me one thing - it does have all the components you require, right?”“Yes, Rudra” I sighed.“Seems like Shilpi wanted to use material-ui, haha” Rudra giggled and looked at Varun. I could hear the giggling from one if the two interns from behind - Tejas (name changed).He was also working on a UI, along with some backend stuff. He was using ‘gs-ui-library’ from day one. And so, he giggled.Rudra -1 .. Shilpi - 0This was the first time I went home feeling sad. Why didn’t they tell me 2 weeks ago? Now I will have to work on the other one. And the library has no documentation.Next week , Varun decided to keep the name as “ELEGENT-USERS-APP”. He refused Rudra.Varun -1.. Rudra- 0So I went back to my desk and began.“g-s-u-i-l-i-b-r-a-r-y” I typed.Gs-ui-library was a really terrible library. No documentation, made by mixture of other available libraries online. It was like an accidental product of some cross-breeding. A scientific failure.Anyways, I somehow learnt basic features which I could implement using the library. On the other hand, my machine was damn slow - for a reason I didn’t know.“Why are you using vs code? How did you get it!” asked Rudra who saw me coding on vscode.“I like it- it’s really good for react. Installed it from the store.”“Haha, use intellij, okay!” Rudra said in a serious tone.Wow. After making me work with the gs-ui-library, now he is snatching away the editor I love. Cool.I still continued with vs code. Varun was totally fine with it.I went to drink a glass of water. Didn’t bring my bottle that day. So took a ‘visitor’s cup’ from inside the drawers.“Ma’am, you can’t drink in that. It’s only for visitors” said a staff guy who saw that I was about to drink water from the visitor’s cup.I looked at him in shock.“Oh, it’s ok for today you can use it..Ma’am” he replied.Great. Block websites - facebook, gmail, codepen. Take my material-ui away. Don’t allow me to use vs-code. And also, don’t let me drink water at peace!I was pissed off. Huh!2nd MonthSo I started working on the integration part. Meanwhile we used to have meetings in which we were told about GIR and it’s functions. Rudra used to tell us about how fun the NAPA training is going to be, and how we will start hiding our id cards after the event.I completed the integration part in a week or so. Gave a weekly demo to Rudra.Next week was going to be a demo with Monica’s team (name changed). The finance guys for whom we were building the ‘ELEGANT USERS APP’. Varun was happy that I had completed the integration part and added 2 more features to implement.- feature1 & feature2Before the demo, we had a meeting with Monica just a week before. Rudra, Varun and I gathered in a room.“So Shilpi, how’s the work going? Are you liking it - the UI stuff? Aren’t you bored?” Rudra asked.“Hehe.. Actually yeah it’s a little boring. I hope backend stuff starts soon!” I honestly replied.“You know UI people make the most money.” Rudra smirked.“No, that’s a lie. Backend people make more money.” I replied.“Shilpi, that’s the case of technical firms. In financial firms like us, UI people earn more bonus.” said Varun.Soon came Monica. Varun and Monica proceeded on what she wants and what actually we have. It was a debate between them and I listened.Since the lunch time was over, Rudra and I went to the food-court outside to have one.“Shilpi, you know I was like you. The silent guy in the room. If someone else was at your place he would have asked a lot of questions! ”“I think it’s better to listen Rudra, than argue. I didn’t have much idea about what they were talking and the talk was mostly concerning Varun.”“See..it’s good very good. But to be at a place like GS…you know! The world is very mean, Shilpi. You need to speak more than you do work here! Many people don’t know much but they’ll get ahead of you because they speak. I was like you when I joined GS. In the group discussion round, when everyone was debating.. I just sat at the corner. HR came and asked each of us individually. If she hadn’t done that, I mayn’t be sitting here today”I gave it some thought. He was right.Some days later feature1 stopped working. I had no idea why, I was using an excellent library for feature1, of-course an external one. Varun himself has asked me to use an external for that case since we don’t have a gs library for that.But now. It wasn’t working.It took me a week to include the library - react-bootstrap-table2 with the project along with the features it had, and use it. And some magic happened. Now feature1 stops working. Damn!I woke up the whole night - till 4 am to make the feature1 work. The remote desktop worked very slow. In GS, we are not given laptops for security purposes. So we have to use remote desktop.It was damn slow but I was patient. I kept on trying and trying till I fell asleep early in the morning. Woke up around 12.An hour before demo with Monica’s team, I told Varun about it. He said it’s fine, we will show the demo without it.Tik…tikk….I wasn’t satisfied. I worked damn hard for 45 min and was able to make feature1 work!We went to give the demo. Varun pulled out a chair and sat before a PC.“Hi Monica!”“Hey Varun!”And so it started. The demo. The UI I made. The features I implemented. The integration. My two month’s hard work.All of them was presented by our VP, Mr.Varun!“Uhm…but we don’t need feature 1 and 2, Varun. You can remove it” said Monica.W-H-A-T! What did she just say. I went an hour back in time.I am sweating. I can feel I am nervous. This has to go good. I know well about the project, and I will make the feature-1 work! I will!Yes, I did. Only to lose the presentation as well as the feature.I rushed out of the room with the unhappy face which no one bothered about in the meeting room. I was silent and in hurry, it was weekly demo too today.“Haashh.. It went great!” exclaimed Varun who barely ever talked to me. Since like 1962!“Okay, but we have a weekly demo too!”The weekly demo got cancelled. Varun proceeded to tell me how we don’t need feature-1 and all the new features which Monica wanted. I remembered them all. One of them was a feature-X which was not possible technically. I tried making Varun understand and he did, after quite a while.Then came the mid-semester exam and I finally got a break!3rd MonthI went to my home after holidays. After 2 months, 1,40,000 was credited to my account. I bought clothes for mom and dad. I was delighted and ready to go back!Came back to office happily. Compiled the code.React-bootstrap-table2 library code - gone. Whole UI code changed in a week. My 2 week’s effort - 1 week for the library and 2 nd for other features went to ashes.Just in ONE SINGLE WEEK.~Varun committed the code 2 hours ago~~Varun committed the code yesterday~~Varun….~And so on.Varun started using an internal gs-ui-library library instead of react-bootstrap-table2. Instead of giving proper review comments, he changed my code by himself. Some backend stuff also came to me.I fetched the code from repo, the one Varun had implemented. And tried to understand.“You just have to implement feature-b-xyz, no need to go through whole code” he said.Fine.I added a new feature. Compiled and checked. Everything was working fine. Committed the code.Next day I came. Compiled the code.‘EXCEPTION THROWN’‘FAILED’And my PC hangs. For no reason why.I checked the code - it was changed. The integration part was changed. Feature XYZ was changed. And it stopped working.~Varun committed the code an hour ago~Why did he commit a code that fails? I wondered.This started happening daily. I had no idea why was this happening.The next series of days started with me coming late - 11:50, 12 or later than that. I used to mail Rudra about the update. Sometimes I was able to attend standup, sometime I wasn’t able to. My health started deteriorating.Everyday, Varun used to commit some changes. And it took a hell lot of time to update the project in intellij, go through his changes and do other changes. I was pretty much frustrated.Took 2 wfhs in 2 weeks. Logged in late many times. Had to push myself from bed everyday. Devoted my time to video games than gs work. Lost interest.Then I was given some backend part. I took WFH a day I wasn’t feeling well and learnt about apis stuff. Still some part of me wanted to do well and take interest in the work genuinely.We - all 3 interns received a mail from Rudra which we could never forget. Rudra had showed his ‘Rudra’ roop. The mail said -“You guys are not taking the work seriously. WFHs are not to be taken for granted. So many WFHs and late loggings. Not at all serious about your work. You guys need to have deliverables by the end of this month.I don’t care, work for your career not mine.”I was shocked. The friendly, giggling Rudra! I remembered the first time I met him. And the mail was quite a shock to all of us.Late loggings were targeted at me.WFHs for another one.But… Tejas? What did he do?As far as I remember, he was a hard working guy. Always on time. Never missed a standup. What did he do to receive the mail?Days after that, Varun took four wfhs in a row. Rudra was quiet. Nisha only came like twice in a week, Rudra said nothing.Why us? Why the interns? I wondered.One day I stayed at office till 8pm. I could hear Rudra talking about ‘The Elegant User’s App’ over a phone call.“We are building it again since the last UI was in angular. We wanted it in React.” he said to somebody over the call.Throughout my whole intern, I had one doubt in my mind.The app on which I was working upon was already built by someone and was functional too. But my manager wanted it to be built again since he wanted us to use a new technology.What’s the difference even if angular was used? What’s the need of rebuilding the app again from scratch? I wondered.And the next words I heard shattered me.“Yeah, Varun is working with some intern on ‘The Elegant User’s App’.”What did he say?The last two months were fully devoted to the UI. I went back in time.“Shilpi, if you want any help - Varun would be able to for this project.I was made to believe that it was an independent project, which it never was. I worked my ass off for three months only to hear that I am ‘some intern’ working under Varun and helping him building the UI.I got depressed.It was Holi’s festival - the festival of colours. I never really celebrated holi, hated to be coloured all over. We had a group for our department, and I wished everyone a “Happy Holi!”.Tejas replied with a “Happy holi” too.“Happy Forest Day” - stated an image I received on whatsapp. It was from Rudra. On the whatsapp group. This was his reply for “Happy Holi”.It's okay, don't respect our festival. But atleast don't disrespect it. Why was there even a need for reply?Needless to say, I didn’t go to office that day as sign of rebel (we didn’t have holiday on holi). Varun was already doing WFH. The “Happy Forest Day” frustrated me.Why Rudra why. You are better than that.“Niharika (name changed) is leaving GS” somebody whispered.Niharika, a very smart lady was in our department. She was mentoring an intern and sounded quite knowledgeable. Her sudden decision of leaving GS came as a shock to everyone.I had a last chat with her only when everyone was away for lunch. She had refused her farewell too I guess. She came to me and we had a decent chat. I asked her the reason of leaving. She wanted to switch the team maybe but it was taking a long time. Sweet and smart is all I could say for her. She had done work with JPMC & Morgan Stanley (US) and held a green card. A dedicated worker.After the lunch, she had a long meeting with Rudra. She was too firm with her decision.After she left, someone told me she bitched about many people in the team - specially Rudra. I was really sad. GS lost a good employee that day. And maybe, due to politics.Next day, GS was having an orientation for all new campus hires. It was one hell of a day. World-class hotel stay and world-class orientation.Varun was going out to the new office for 2 weeks. For some work.4th monthBefore Varun had left for the new office, he had asked me to attend telephonic standups for our team from 3–3:30. Now I used to attend 2 standups - the department one, and the team one. Full time waste activities!He had also asked me to get details of a task from Raghav and get it completed. I messaged him and he said he will be there at my desk in 5 min. Well, he never came. I asked him 2–3 times more to which he sent me a random link. I was disheartened and had nothing to do for 2 weeks.One day Rudra called me to fix some errors which he wasn’t able to fix by himself. He said he spent the whole night trying to fix those but didn’t know how to.I came to his desk. Those were linting errors!After having 10 years of experience, and you don’t even know what they are! Even if you know, please try to google. He was not getting what those line numbers represent. I explained him everything and fixed those.Soon, we got mails from hr regarding our joining dates and NAPA training, which is held in New York. I told the HR about my case, that I have courses left in college and I won’t be able to join on 3rd june.“Can I go to the training and join later after 12th july - when my courses are done” I asked.“No, you need to join as FTE. We will process your visa in june and you’ll go during july first week”“Okay” I replied.“Try to make your college understand, it’s important” is all she said.Next day, I refused. My college will never agree for me to take 2 week vacation during summer term.Rudra received a call from HR. I knew it was regarding me.He took me outside the cabin and asked why did I opted out of NAPA training. I told him everything - how my degree would be affected. He was ready to give WFH for 2 months. I was shocked. Again.Rudra was the most unpredictable mysterious guy I ever met. He was good and bad, at the same time. 2 months is a long time - and he agreed to give me WFH! He earned my respect.Then there was second meeting with Rudra. He told me everything - the work I’ll do as an FTE. Also, he never left a single moment he could get to brag about himself.“You will be working under Varun. He will be the team lead. Your work is XYZ-AHSH-PPOS…..”“Be as mature as me. I can make complex things simple easily. Learn it from me.” he said.Varun. No!!The silent guy. Who took away all the presentations. Even during our team standups over calls, he used to answer when some guy asked me about the project. My code was changed everyday. All the torture I faced last month. And now- I’ll be working under him. Wow.I told Rudra - how my code was changed everyday, how I was not told about the changes Varun did in the backend and still expected my code would run successfully. He listened to me for a while and then said -“When I was a NAPA, I used to ensure that I get 0 review comments”“I don’t get review comments, Rudra. My code gets changed, and it’s hard to understand it everyday without help of Varun.”“It’s a good thing, right? You will learn something from what the change he does. It’s good for you.”Cool. I have to look at the new code and somehow “learn without doing”. Interesting.I worked till 9 pm that day. Before Rudra left, he smiled at me sarcastically.“Shilpi, still working?”“Yeah Rudra, I came little late today.”“Varun changing your code and you changing his code.!”“Yes. That’s what is happening.”And then, he laughed maniacally.This was not the first time he did this. He used to laugh at me sarcastically many times after giving me the UI project.Next week, Varun was here. My virtual desktop was not working and I had no idea why. Called help-desk 5 times that day.“REBOOT!”“TRY IT FROM A DIFFERENT MACHINE!”“IT SHOWS ‘AVAILABLE’ ON MY MACHINE!”was all the response I got from 5 different help-desk-assistants.Took a day off the next day. Saw a mail. Varun had given presentation to our MD that day. UI presentation, which was supposed to be given by me.Next week, same schedule. Help-desk people failed miserably.I tried remote desktop and was able to open my outlook. My inbox was full of -“DISK CAPACITY OVER 95%! CLEAN IT!”I got it. But in order to clean it, I had to login to the virtual computer which I wasn’t able to. It was a deadlock.Soon I was assigned a new virtual computer. My whole local setup - was erased.My whole enthusiasm had turned to ashes at that point. Came late, went early. Stopped attending stand-ups. Late Loggings. WFHs. OOO. No updates. No weekly updates. Nothing to do next since Raghav didn’t help. Frustrated as hell.Our department was hiring more and more people. I had nowhere to sit. No one to talk to.The only friend I had in bengaluru left 2 weeks ago.Please note that I’ve nothing against GS. The management there is really good, they care about their employees. I don’t think any company could’ve given me 2 months WFH and I do respect Rudra a lot for that!The experience may vary from person to person, someone may find GS a very good place, based on the traits he/she has or the team he is working with. But for a shy person like me, who loves to code sitting at the corner of the room - GS is not the place. It was me who was not able to adapt to the culture there.This answer was written by me when I was still an intern. I had no idea what this could do to my life.Next day after I wrote this, I was called by the Head HR of Employee Relations in GS - Devika. I thought she had called me in order to discuss why am I choosing signNow over Goldman but this wasn’t the case.“I read your answer on Quora about Goldman..”“I’ll remove it!” I replied with the speed of light.“No..I don’t want you to take it down, Just tell me the issues you had”And she pretended to listen. Both of us knew why she called me here - to take the answer down.“See, these days many people are on social media and it is affecting how people see us. Probably, some interns wouldn’t want to work with us after reading the answer. Therefore I want you to remove it”“Also, please remember this meeting is confidential. DO NOT tell anyone from your team about it!” she said just before I left.And that was it. I deleted this answer.I saw Rudra’s text on my whatsapp. He asked whether I have a desk to sit, and when will I signNow on my desk. I knew something was fishy since he never ever bothered about.I finished the work and went home.The next day, I woke up to 10 calls from the HR and lots of messages. I asked what happened.I told her I have already deleted the answer, but there was something else. I wasn’t able to login from home. My remote desktop was taken away from me and I had no idea why.And then, came Monday.13th May 2019The day started off with my phone full of Devika’s texts. She insisted that I directly come to the meeting room first instead of going to the GIR cabin.I went to her cabin where she was sitting. And soon the harassment started.“What was your motive behind putting such kind of answers on quora, tell me what was in your mind”“I am sorry, Devika. I’ve already taken them down.”“Didn’t you knew about the firm’s policy? You knew it very well right? Still you put the experience on Quora?”“I was frustrated. So much that it didn’t occur to me at that time. But yes, I knew it.”She wrote it down on a paper.“You put it on social media, and don’t expect your manager to read it? Wake up! Everyone in your dept knows what you did okay! You are always saying that ‘don’t inform my manager about it’.. you know what, infact Rudra only informed us about this. He was the one who forwarded the answer.”I sighed. He knew about it the whole time. Still acted as friendly on thursday.“You can take action against me if you want to. I can’t say anything else.”“We are a very big firm. Many people are there writing these kind of negative - one sided answers. We don’t care”If she didn’t care, why was I sitting here?“I have talked to both Rudra and Varun. Now I know about their perspectives too. Did you inform your manager that you were on leave? No, you didn’t.”“Yes, I was really depressed and woke up at 5 eve..”“You were completely one-sided in your answer. Such a judgemental answer it was! You never wrote what you did!” she exclaimed.“Devika, I did. I wrote I was depressed and was late for standups. I wrote that I took WFH and..”“That was completely in another way!” she interrupted.And then she gave me a tough look.“I have tracked down your whole information, when do you come and leave, wfh etc. I don’t think it’s too much. You were also 1 hour late on the GS event, I heard”I wasn’t. What was she saying?“No, I was a minute late. You can ask my friend who was sitting there.”“Also, you were absent on 4 presentations Varun gave, right?”I was shocked. What did she just say? I was present in 3 of them, I remembered. Now I felt something was really wrong. Varun probably gave her false information about me.“No, I was there for 3 of them” I replied in a low voice.“And you weren’t allowed to give?” She raised her eyebrows.“I didn’t ask him, neither did he offer.. he just took the chair and..Did Varun said I was absent? I wasn’t!” I defended myself.“Oh yes you weren’t, I know. When did I say you were absent? You are just misunderstanding me” she replied and wrote down some points.And now she started lying too about things she said earlier! I was shocked to the core.“They said bad things about me, didn’t they.” I asked.“No, infact they praised you for technical aspects. ‘She did all her tasks which we assigned.’ ‘Used to find solutions of the problem till the very end.’” she read it from the paper she had.But what about the other aspects? I was sure they had said something worse about me. I wondered what was that except me coming late.“GS-UI-LIBRARY!!” she exclaimed.“This is what you wrote about the library. Seriously!”I looked down. I couldn’t say anything except sorry.“Rudra even let you choose jersey for cricket match, didn’t he?”“Yes he did.” I sighed.“What you think what made your experience bad? Was it yourself? Why put it on social media, and didn’t contact us. What about the HCM?”I was late and silent. The only faults.“Does anybody in your team knows about it?” she asked hoping that nobody knows.“No, just me and the interns.” I replied.“And what did you write? Niharika left because of politics..? Did you talk to her? Who told you?” she almost shouted.“I got to know that from a teammate.” I replied in low tone.“So you will put anything you hear on social media??” she tried to overpower me.“If I were your signNow HR and I read this answer on Quora.. you know I’d have..” Devika scolded in a rude tone.She would have taken my offer back. That’s what she meant.“I have already deleted it , Devika. I said sorry, what else can I do? ” I almost cried.“These things never happened with me at signNow. But people here..”I broke down. Couldn’t speak much.“What even if you deleted? 1000s of people saw it. All the people on your floor saw it. They may have copied it, downloaded it. It had so confidential information!”“And yeah, put this conversation there too!!” She said in a very rude tone.“I won’t. You know I won’t.” I whispered.“Anyways Shilpi, now it’d be too awkward for you to go there. We have already stopped your remote access. We don’t want you to work anymore. Since you’ve already rejected the offer too, no discussion related to it. You can submit the id card to me.”“Okay.”I cried a lot in the cab. Rudra knew it all the time. Why didn’t he himself fire me instead of sending a rude HR. And those two also lied a lot about me. The tone of HR was totally different when I met her on Thursday. And today she was really harassing me.It took me a while to understand - all this was planned by Rudra. He choose the rudest and senior-most HR to deal with my case and harass me, just to get back at me.2 interns were joining today and space was very less in the small GIR cabin. And he knew very well I completed all my work the last week itself. Win-Win situation for Rudra!Varun and Rudra lied to HR. It was evident from the way she treated me. I was made to be feel like a garbage - just because I was late at the office!I cried for an hour. And then, I edited and restored this answer.Next day I came to know none of the interns or people in my team knew about this! I was fired secretly. The HR lied the whole time.All because Rudra didn’t want to see my face in GIR!Do I fear them? Not at all.“I will survive, Tracy thought. I face mine enemies naked, and my courage is my shield.” ― Sidney Sheldon (if tomorrow comes)Many people want me to take this answer down or go anonymous. I have done nothing wrong. Those who have, they should hide their faces behind “anonymous” mask.If GS has some problem with the answer, they are free to take action against me. I am not bonded by any legal agreement and atleast deserved decent exit process.

P.N.Oak is infamous for his revisionist theories about Indian History, which have gained wide support among staunch nationalists.And the most upvoted answer to this question is also based on the “facts” mentioned by P.N.Oak in his book Tajmahal : The True Story.But I don’t understand how someone can even think that a Shiva temple would look like this—[WARNING : Extremely lengthy answer ahead. But you can skip to the TL;DR.]There are many claims that P.N.Oak makes in his book, and provides “evidences” which are not too difficult to debunk.An article titled Reclaim Temples and kick out the fraud in a website called Agniveer (which describes itself as a “Leading site for real Hinduism, untold history, genuine human rights, honest social change, fight against terror, and sincere humanism”) has a compilation of Oak’s “evidences”.It states :Why is the name Mahal added to Mumtaz Mahal, where “Mahal” means “Mansion” in Hindi and “Mahail” in Arabic means “place”? Her actual names recorded in muslim sources is Mumtaz-ul Zamani or Aliya Begum. So where did ‘Mahal’ come from?The answer can be found on Page 212 of The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia.Peter Mundy who visited Agra between 1631 and 1633 writes :This Kinge is now buildinge a Sepulchre for his late deceased Oueene Tage Moholl [TajMahal] (as much to say att the brightnes of the Moholl), whome hee dearely affected,He refers to the deceased Queen as “Taj Mahal”.From a footnote on the same page :So it is clear that Shah Jahan’s wife Arjumand Banu Begum was known as Mumtaz Mahal (“Pride of the Palace”) and Taj Mahal (“Crown of the Palace”).P.N.Oak and others questioning the origin of Taj Mahal mention the discrepancies in the accounts of the European travellers who visited Agra during Shah Jahan’s reign; but almost all of those accounts do mention the Taj Mahal being constructed.There are also official records from Shah Jahan’s time which mention the arragements made for the construction of the Taj Mahal. From E.B.Havell’s book Indian architecture, its psychology, structure, and history from the first Muhammadan invasion to the present day (page 31) :Court historian of Shah Jahan, Abdul Hamid Lahori gives a poetic description of the building of the Taj Mahal’s foundation (which according to him began in January 1632) — “And when the spade-wielders with robust arms and hands strong as steel, had with unceasing effort excavated down to the water table, the ingenious masons and architects of astonishing achievements most firmly built the foundation with stone and mortar up to the level of the ground.”(The Taj Mahal by Lesley A. DuTemple, Page 34)After the foundation, the main plinth (the base on which the Taj Mahal sits) was constructed; and it was probably finished on the first urs (death anniversary) of Mumtaz Mahal in June 1632. Thousands of people— nobles, scholars, holy men, rich and poor alike— attended the event. A lavish feast was served. For several days, the atmosphere around the Taj Mahal resembled that of a festive bazar.(The Taj Mahal by Lesley A. DuTemple, Page 37)Peter Mundy mentioned the Taj Mahal to be one of the notable sites in Agra (Page 209) even before it was finished :Places of noate [in and about it] are the Castle, King Ecbars [Akbar's] Tombe, Tage Moholls [TajMahal's] Tombe, Gardens and Bazare.While it can’t be said with certainty how many workers built the Taj Mahal or what was the total expenditure, another discovery supports the fact the Taj Mahal was in fact constructed during Shah Jahan’s reign.In 2004, a list of 671 names was found engraved in a sandstone wall in the complex that surrounds the mausoleum. The list, found on the north side facing the river, is believed to have been inscribed by the same hands that fashioned the extraordinary decorative work of the building. If the archaeologists are right, it is the craftsmen's own attempt to preserve their memory down the centuries.(Image credit : Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)The chief architect is known to have been Ustad - or Master - Ahmad Lahori. Shah Jahan is said to have had his eyes put out on the Taj's completion so nothing could ever be built to rival it. Amanat Khan Shirazi was in charge of the calligraphy that adorns the Taj. Ismail Khan Afridi was in charge of building the dome, and Mohammed Hanif was superintendent of the masons.The inscriptions reflect the diversity of those who built the Taj Mahal. Most are in Arabic and Persian, which would reflect the Islamic nature of Shah Jahan's court, but some are in the Devanagari script used by Hindi and other Indian languages. There are also traditional Indian symbols, such as swastikas, and geometrical patterns believed to have been used by illiterate artisans.D Dayalan, leader of the team of archaeologists who found the list, told The Asian Age that experts were working to decipher the epigraphs and names engraved in the stones."Since many of them were illiterate, they denoted symbols as a mark of their identity. We call these guilt marks. We already have a team working to decipher the epigraphs and the names.”"The names have been meticulously divided into sections like dome makers, garden development department, furnishing workers and inlay artists.”[1]A letter written by Aurangzeb to Shah Jahan about the Taj Mahal needing repairs, is used as an “evidence” that by the time Shah Jahan “altered” the original structure of the Taj Mahal it was already a few hundred years old, hence it was showing signs of wear.Aurangzeb writes :On Friday [4th] he circumambulated the most luminous shrine (ba tawaf-i-rauza-i-munawwara rafta) and earned the blessings [appropriate to such a] visit, prompted by the purest spirit of submission. The sacred structure (hazlra-i-qudsl asas, "holy hovel") still stands just as firmly as it did when it was completed under Your Majesty's eye.However, the following repairs are required: The dome covering the most sanctified sepulchre (marqad-i-mutahhar) leaks (tarawash mlkunad) in two places, on the northern side, during the rains. The four great arches, most of the balconies on the second storey, the four small domes, the chamber on the northern side [of the tomb] and the basement rooms in the pluith all need attention.The [marble] panels of the outer covering of the great dome (bam-i-jam posh-i-gumbaz-i-kalan [had lifted off] in two or three places, and let the water in (chaklda bud) during these [rains]; (dar in fasl) they have [now] been repaired. One can only guess what will happen in the next rains (dar barishkal-i-ayinda chi rul dahad?)The domes of the mosque and of the Jama'at Khana [opposite] also leaked during the rains, and have also been repaired. The builders claim that if they were to break up (wà karda) the floor above the roof of the second storey, plaster [the roof from above] (rekhta sâzand), and lay over it eighteen inches' thickness of tahkârl work, the pavilions, balconies, and smaller domes might perhaps be made sound.They profess themselves unable to do anything about the main dome.(A Drawing of the Taj Mahal under construction by Kunihiko Aoyama)The above excerpt is from the Letter 45 (pages 171–173) in the English translation Adab-i-Alamgiri, which has the collection of letters written by Aurangzeb to Shah Jahan, translated by Vincent John Adams Flynn.Vincent Flynn explains in the footnotes :The common feature of all these parts of the building is, that they had a flat outer surface permeable by water. The cement originally spread over the vaults of their floors or ceilings must have lacked hydraulic quality. Water will readily penetrate inferior cement, even when covered by thick slabs of stone or marble; but domes and flat roofs all over India have survived many hundreds of years without ever being re-surfaced, and the interiors are not stained by a drop of water.Unfortunately, Aurangzïb has not used exact language; the parts/"dar ham kashïda" (B.M. has dar nlm kashlda, "broken in half", which I, with Ch., reject). He could mean anything between "utterly ruined" and "need to be tidied up". In view of the phenomenal rains of 1652, and the nature of the damage to the principal dome, it is permissible to assert that water penetrated the cement lying above the brick-built vaults.P.N.Oak provided a line-by-line translation of the pages of Badshahnama, which deal with the burial of Mumtaz in his book published in 1966. The following passages are quoted from that source :(On) "Friday--15th Jamadi-ul Awwal, the sacred dead body of the traveller to the kingdom of Holiness, hazrat Mumtaz-ul Zamani--who was buried temporarily.... was brought to the capital Akbarabad (Agra)...The site covered with magnificent lush garden, to the south of that great city and amidst which (garden) the building known as the palace of Raja Mansingh, at present owned by Raja Jaisingh (Pesh az ein Manzil-e Rajan Mansingh bood Wadaree Waqt ba Raja Jaisingh), grandson (of Mansingh) was selected for the burial of the queen whose abode is in heaven.According to this translaton, there was only a palace and not a temple.So, by Oak’s own admission, the Taj Mahal was never a temple.But the question still remains— was the Taj Mahal a Rajput palace, which had a Shiv ling in the place where the cenotaphs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan lie?Eminent historian E.B.Havell in his book A Handbook to Agra and the Taj, Sikandra, Fathepur-Sikri, and the Neighbourhood (page 73) writes :According to the old Tartar custom, a garden was chosen as a site for the tomb—a garden planted with flowers and flowering shrubs, the emblems of life,and solemncy press, the emblem of death and eternity. Such a garden, in the Mogul days, was kept up as a pleasure-ground during the owner's lifetime, and used as his last resting-place after his death. The old tradition laid down that it must be acquired by fair means, and not by force or fraud. So Rajah Jey Singh, to whom the garden belonged, was compensated by the gift of another property from the Emperor's private estate.Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb by WE Begley and ZA Desai has a compilation of an anthology of contemporary accounts of Shah Jahan’s reign.Two books give details and a translation of the royal "farman" giving four "havelis" in lieu of Raja Jai Singh’s haveli (mansion).Padshah Nama by Qazwini describes the tract of land on the southern side of Agra that had the qualities needed to be the final resting place of the one whose residence was paradise. Qazwini says it was formerly the word "khana", or house of Raja Jai Singh.He also mentions that though the Raja was willing to give it for free, Shah Jahan gave him a lofty house in lieu of it.Lahori also describes a tract of land south of the city as being suitable for the queen’s resting place, and uses the word "manzil" or mansion of Raja Jai Singh. He also mentions the fact that though Raja Jai Singh was willing to give it for free, Shah Jahan gave a lofty mansion from the crown lands in exchange.Muhammad Salih Kanbo writes that the emperor acquired a "heaven-like tract of land (sarzamin e bihist-ain)" which was situated on the south side of Agra and belonged to Raja Man Singh. Once again, the word manzil is used.Though the mansion was gifted immediately after the decision to bury Mumtaz Mahal in Agra was taken in 1631, the exchange of the additional/replacement four "havelis" took two years to affect, as the royal "farman" is dated December 28, 1633.A certified contemporary copy of the "farman" dated 26 Jumada II 1043 AH, sixth regnal year [corresponding to December 28, 1633], is available in the Kapad Dwara collection in Jaipur City palace. The word used in the "farman" too is "haveli" (mansion).“Be it known through this glorious farman marked by happiness, which has received the honor of issuance and the dignity of proclamation, that the mansions (haveli) detailed in the endorsement, together with their dependencies, which belong to the august crown property, have been offered to that pride of peers and vassal of the monarch of Islam, Raja Jai Singh, and are hereby handed over and transferred to his ownership- in exchange of the mansion (haveli) formerly belonging to Raja Man Singh, which that pride of the grandees willingly and voluntarily donated for the mausoleum of that Queen of the ladies of the world ….. Mumtaz Mahal Begum.”[Translation Begley and Desai][2]To give you an idea of what the haveli must have looked like; here is a photograph of a haveli in the heritage village of Holipura in Agra which has charming havelis and rustic buildings, some dating back 350 years.[3]Now obviously, the Taj Mahal is not a haveli; so the structure that existed on the land owned by Raja Jai Singh, and which was probably built by Raja Man Singh, could not have been the Taj Mahal.P.N.Oak also claims about the existance of a Sanskrit inscription called the “Bateshwar inscription” (or as Oak calls it, the “Tejo Mahalaya inscription”) which allegedly refers to the raising of a "crystal white Shiva temple so alluring that Lord Shiva once enshrined in it decided never to return to Mount Kailash his usual abode". According to Oak, the inscription dated 1155 A.D. and was removed from the Taj Mahal garden at Shah Jahan's orders.But the part of the Archaeological Survey of India’s Report for the year 1871–1872 (which was published in 1874) which talks about the archaeological findings in Agra, which was written by A.C.L.Carlleyle under the superintendence of Alexander Cunningham,Director General of ASI , does not mention any such inscription.The report also talks about the etymology of Agra (pages 94–95) and Bhateswar (or Bateshwar) (pages 221–239) and then mentions the remains discovered near Bhateswar (pages 240–247) but there’s no mention of “Agreshwar Dham” (the holy shrine that Oak claims the Taj Mahal to be); even though it mentions the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist sites in and around Agra.(Bateshwar Temples; Uttar Pradesh Tourism | India Tourism Guide)In an article titled The Question of the Taj Mahal written by P. S. Bhat and A. L. Athawale which was published in the Itihas Patrika, Vol. 5, pp 98-111, 1985; they mention Marvin Mills of New York who allegedly reported about the Carbon-14 dating of the Taj Mahal : "Another item of evidence concerning the alleged date of the Taj is adduced from a radiocarbon date from a piece of wood from a door on the north facade of the Jumuna River's bank. The sample was tested by Dr. Even Williams, director of the Brooklyn College Radiocarbon Laboratory. The date came to 1359 AD with a spread of 89 years on either side and 67% probability, Masca corrected."Marvin Mills, now a faculty at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Ringling College, was a professor at Pratt Institute in New York when he wrote a document titled ‘AN ARCHITECT LOOKS AT THE TAJ MAHAL LEGEND’ (which is available on his website — Marvin H. Mills, AIA History of Islamic Architecture).In his article, he mentioned some “key problems” with the Taj Mahal :1. Consider the identical character of the two buildings on either side of the Taj main building. If they had different functions-one a mosque, the other a guest residence-then, they should have been designed differently to reflect their individual functions.(Image source : Aerial Shots From Around The World)But the Mihman Khana (the guest house) which is the second building on the terrace and east of the mausoleum, does differ from the mosque in small details. It is devoid of Mihrab and Minbar, and the floor is made of simple slabs of red sandstone. Moreover, it does not have the small room that welcomed the remains of Mumtaz Mahal, as on the mosque. But it has the same basin for ablutions, although in its case it is only decorative. [4]Also, the floors of the jawab (another name of the Mihman Khana, which is a “jawab” i.e. “answer” to the mosque; as a form of architectural balance) have a geometric design, while the mosque floor was laid out the outlines of 569 prayer rugs in black marble. [5]2. Why does the perimeter wall of the complex have a Medieval, pre-artillery, defense character when artillery (cannons) was already in use in the Mughal invasions of India? [Why does a mausoleum need a protective wall in the first place? For a palace it is understandable.]Probably because the Taj Mahal was decorated with gold, silver and gems.3. Why are there some twenty rooms below the terrace level on the north side of the Taj facing the Jumna River? Why does a mausoleum need these rooms? A palace could put them to good use. The authors do not even mention their existence.4. What is in the sealed-up rooms on the south side of the long corridor opposite the twenty contiguous rooms? Who filled in the doorway with masonry? Why are scholars not allowed to enter and study whatever objects or decor are within?A website dedicated to the Taj Mahal [6]has an interesting theory about it :If we go by the Turkish Mughal tradition of providing a mausoleum with three set of graves, a tradition that has been followed in the tomb of Akbar, tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah, and Chini-ka-rauza at Agra, Taj Mahal too should have a third set of graves, with the actual bodies of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan inside them. This is the myth of the "third graves" of Taj Mahal.[…]It is believed that these real set of graves must be somewhere inside the underground vaults that exist below the red sandstone platform of the Taj Mahal. And on the northern side of this red sandstone platform, lies two staircases that lead straight to the basement chambers which are seventeen in number and have been laid out in a line on the riverside. However, the doors on the extreme points on both the sides have been permanently blocked for some calculated purpose. A purpose that many believe is to conceal the presence of real graves of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. According to the Muslim tradition, the real graves are always placed underground so that they remain undisturbed and the dead person could wait till the Day of Judgment and the graves that are visited by people are made in the likeness of the real graves.Another website also supports this theory and says :It is only in these underground vaults that the third set could have been placed. The doors in the basement corridor no doubt exist and must have originally given entry to some underground arrangement of chambers and corridors. Though they are now blocked, their existence lends weights to the legendary version. At least, we have figures,in the Persian manuscripts which contain the account of `third grave, expenditure on the Taj Mahal, of costs of three sets of tombstones. While the two are open to us, the third one is still a mystery. It is possible that the crypt and the passages were closed down in 1652 by Aurangzeb to give additional strength to the base which supported such a huge load above.[7]But of course, this is only just a speculation.Returning to Mills’ list of “key problems” :5. Why does the "mosque" face due west instead of facing Meccah? Certainly, by the seventeenth century there was no problem in orienting a building precisely!I don’t think this proves that the mosque was meant to be something else.6. Why has the Archaeological Survey of India blocked any dating of the Taj by means of Carbon-14 or thermo-luminiscnece? Any controversy over which century the Taj was built could easily be resolved. [Radiocarbon dating of a piece of wood surreptiously taken from one of the doors gave 13th century as a possible date. But more data is needed.]In a presentation (Taj Mahal: Not a Muslim Masterpiece (2007)) about his arguments and findings, he showed a document signed by Evan T. Williams which allegedly states that a sample of wood that Mills procured from the Taj Mahal is about 300 years older than the Taj Mahal itself.But he neither mentions those findings in his article on his website, nor in a letter he wrote to the editor of The New York Times on December 20, 1991 in which he objected to them calling the Taj Mahal "one of the most remarkable monuments of Mogul architecture" and "the tomb of Shah Jahan's beloved Mumtaz Mahal." [8]In his book, History's Mysteries: People, Places and Oddities Lost in the Sands of Time (page 75), Brian Haughton writes :The results of the radiocarbon dating of the wood were allegedly published in the academic journal Radiocarbon (Volume 19; 1977). However, although an examination of back issues of Radiocarbon for 1977 (available at www.radiocarbon.org) does indeed show an article by Dr. Evan Williams (“Brooklyn College Radiocarbon Dates I,” Volume 19, Number 1, 1977), nowhere in this article is there a mention of the dating of a piece of wood from the Taj Mahal.Some people say that the Taj Mahal could not have been constructed by a Muslim emperor, since its very existence is unislamic, (it is more or less a matter of debate whether constructing a tomb is permitted in Islam or not). But it is also a fact that the Mughal emperors before Aurangzeb weren’t staunchly religious in their personal lives.And Aurangzeb, on grounds of both economy and fidelity to the Islamic law criticized the Taj Mahal,the tomb of his mother, remarking: "The lawfulness of a solid construction over a grave is doubtful, and there can be no doubt about the extravagance involved." [9](Although Aurangzeb too commissioned a tomb for his first and chief wife Dilras Banu Begum, posthumously known as Rabia-ud-Daurani; in Aurangabad, which is known as Bibi Ka Maqbara and bears a striking resemblance to the Taj Mahal.)P.N.Oak claims that the interior of the dome rising over Mumtaz's centotaph has a representation of Sun and cobras drawn in gold; and Hindu warriors trace their origin to the Sun while cobras are always associated with Lord Shiva.This is the design he was talking about.While a solar motif is definitely there, there are no cobras— just an artistic representation of the rays of the sun. It’s another example of the brain seeing what it wants to see.[10]Oak also claims that the pinnacle of the Taj Mahal depicts a "Kalash" (sacred pot) holding two bent mango leaves and a coconut, which is a sacred Hindu motif.It is likely that the the architectural design of the Tamga of the Mughal Empire (see above) on the finial of the Taj Mahal, which by the way has “Allah” inscribed on it (see below) was inspired by the kalash on top of Hindu temples.But it is reasonable to assume that if the Taj Mahal were actually a temple, it would have a proper kalash and not a flattened one.Something like these —Image source : Hindu temple architectureAn argument is also made that since the Taj Mahal seems to have a lot of Hindu symbols, it cannot be an Islamic mausoleum; and it must have been a temple or a structure constructed by Hindu rulers.What they seem to forget is that Mughal architecture is an amalgam of Persian, Turkish, and Indian architecture — the former two being “Islamic” and the latter being “Hindu”. So it is not surprising that Mughal structures have Hindu symbols on them too, such as the lotus canopy on the central dome of the Taj Mahal.The Taj Mahal is the culmination of Mughal architecture. It draws inspiration from previous Mughal monuments and perfects their art.Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi seems to be the prototype, from which the central structure of the Taj Mahal was inspired.(Image source : Tourist places | 21th Congress of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology)Akbar’s Tomb in Sikandra was the source of inspiration for the design of the minars of the Taj Mahal.(Image source : Agra 83 - Akbar's tomb)And Tomb of Jahangir in Lahore seems to have inspired the idea of minars surrounding the central structure.(Image source : Jahangir's Tomb Located In Shahdara, Punjab Pakistan)(Image source : Interesting Facts About the Tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah Agra)Tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah (I'timād-ud-Daulah Maqbara), described as a "jewel box", and sometimes called the "Bachcha Taj" (“Baby Taj”), is often regarded as a draft of the Taj Mahal.The tomb, built between 1622 and 1628 represents a transition between the first phase of monumental Mughal architecture – primarily built from red sandstone with marble decorations, as in Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi and Akbar’s tomb in Sikandra – to its second phase, based on white marble and pietra dura (floral design made up of semiprecious stone) inlay, most elegantly realized in the Taj Mahal.The mausoleum was commissioned by Nur Jahan, the wife of Jahangir, for her father Mirza Ghiyas Beg, who had been given the title of I'timād-ud-Daulah, “pillar of the state”; and was also the grandfather of Mumtaz Mahal. Nur Jahan was also responsible for the construction of Tomb of Jahangir in Lahore.The tomb situated on the eastern banks of the river Yamuna, is planned in the centre of a Char-Bagh(Four quartered garden), with the usual enclosing walls and side buildings. The main tomb of white marble is marvelously set in the centre of the garden. It stands on a plinth of red stone having in the middle of each side, facing the central arch, a lotus tank with fountain.The tomb is square in plan with octagonal towers, surmounted by chhatris, attached to its corners.There is no dome ; instead the building is roofed by a square 'Barahdari' having three arched openings on each side which are closed by jalis except in the middle of the north and south sides. It is protected by a chhajja above which is the chaukhandi(pyramidal) roof, crowned by lotus petals and kalash finials.The only asymmetrical element of the entire complex is that the cenotaphs of Nur Jahan’s father and mother have been set side-by-side, a formation replicated in the Taj Mahal.[11]With all these similarities in design, there remains little doubt that the Taj Mahal is a product of Mughal architecture— which is an amalgamation of Hindu and Islamic architecture.But since P.N.Oak was in denial, he claimed that that “all dead muslim courtiers and royalty including Humayun, Akbar, Mumtaz, Etmad-ud-Daula and Safdarjang have been buried in capture Hindu mansions and temples” (as mentioned in Stephen Knapp’s website).The myth that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple probably originated from E.B.Havell’s book Indian architecture, its psychology, structure, and history from the first Muhammadan invasion to the present day (pages 21–24) where he wrote that Chandi Sewa at Prambanam inJava, which has an arrangement of domes strikingly similar to that of the Taj, supplies the true prototype of the Taj mausoleum; and not Humayun’s tomb.(Image source : Candi Sewu, Part Of Prambanan Hindu Temple, Indonesia)On page 27, Havell further writes :But (on pages 29–30) he also makes it clear that he is not trying to “erase” the legacy of Mughal architecture (Oak should’ve read this part) :[12]It is a fact that the Taj Mahal was heavily influenced by Humayun’s Tomb, and the Quincunx ( a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center) design which the Taj Mahal employs with the central dome and four smaller domes surrounding it, is not only reminiscent of the Candi Sewu temple and of a Panchayatana (when in a temple the main shrine is surrounded by four subsidiary shrines— a similar design is the quincunx of Angkor Wat), but also of Roman, Byzantine and Persian architecture.(St. Mark’s, Venice : Photo by Dave Curtis)(St. Michael’s Monastery in Kiev. Domes over side chapels are here added to the quincunx which defines the central mass of the church. [Image Source])In pagan antiquity, the quincunx pattern was understood to be a geometric emblem of an ordered world. And after the Christian revelation, a summary of a sanctified universe.[13]The design proposed for St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican by Donato Bramante was a quincunx as well (below). The dome even had a Fleur-de-lis on top.So the Taj Mahal (like other monuments built by the Mughals) is a product of the architectural traditions from different parts of the world.One of the structures which directly influenced the Taj Mahal (and Humayun’s Tomb too) is the Gur-e-Amir (“Tomb of the King”) in Uzbekistan; where an ancestor of the Mughals, Timur (or Tamerlane) is buried.Gur-e-Amir is a one-cupola building, which is famous for its simplicity of construction and for its solemn monumentality of appearance. It is an octahedral building crowned by an azure fluted dome. The exterior decoration of the walls consists of the blue, light-blue and white tiles organized into geometrical and epigraphic ornaments against a background of terracotta bricks. [14](Image source : Gur-e-Amir - Mausoleum in Samarkand - Thousand Wonders)Mughal architecture is a synthesis of of Persian, Turkic, Timurid Iranian, Central Asian, and Indian Hindu and Muslim styles. [15]E.B.Havell in his book A Handbook of Indian Art (page 142) writes how the Taj Mahal is an Islamic structure built in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions :E.B.Havell quotes a line from W.R.Lethaby’s Architecture (page 207) in his book Indian architecture, its psychology, structure, and history from the first Muhammadan invasion to the present day (page 31) to describe Mughal architecture. He says that like all true architeture, it was “not a thing of will, of design,or of scholarship, but a discovery of the nature of things in building, a continuous development along the same line of direction imposed by needs, desires, and traditions”.And that Mughal architecture is “Indian in body and soul” :Up until the 20th century, the Taj Mahal was considered a “symbol of love”, that the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan constructed for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.But after it was finished, Shah Jahan visited the Taj only twice.There is a letter from Aurangzeb to him after a visit, reporting that the dome was leaking and needed to be fixed (mentioned in this answer previously). Shah Jahan wasn't bothered: He had moved on to designing his next project, Shahjahanabad, shifting the Mughal capital from Agra.That is why Aakar Patel in an article writes that Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal in gratitude :Shah Jahan became emperor because of his wife. Her relatives used the uncertainty around Jahangir's illness and death, to secure power for him.By the time he arrived in Agra, his brothers had all been blinded. This left the throne open for Khurram (as Shah Jahan was named) and without his wife, he would not have been emperor.[…]Absent the quick actions of his wife, Khurram would likely have been blinded or executed by one of his brothers, instead of going on to become a name famous in history.And so the Taj was likely an act of Shah Jahan showing gratitude and it explains why, having done this, he moved on without a qualm.[16]Recent studies have found out that the Taj Mahal is a representation of Paradise associated with the notion of Last Judgment.This vision is due to Wayne Ernest Begley, who published a comprehensive study on the subject. If contemporary texts of the creation of the Taj Mahal specify it, it is essentially the works of Begley which confirms it: The plans of the monument were made compared to the "Plain of the Assembly" (Ard al-Hashr), the eschatological place of the Last Judgment.The layout of the buildings is similar to the plan which is described in the manuscripts of the Illuminations of Mecca by Ibn Arabi :Hence, the Taj Mahal represents a spiritual journey. The complex is divided into 4 parts, all aligned from South to North. Each passage from one to the other corresponds to a symbolic passage, from the most terrestrial to the most celestial.The inner courtyard, named Jilaukhana, is a place of preparation for spiritual life. Symbolically this is the place where people from outside prepare to enter the holiest places of the monument, a place where are the graves of the first two wives of Emperor Shah Jahan and where the officiant resided religious, at the time.The garden (“charbagh”) is a representation of Paradise; and the 4 channels symbolize the 4 rivers of Paradise according to Muslims, namely the river of water, that of milk, that of wine and that of honey.The mausoleum, octagonal, is on a square base, a geometric form associated with the earth. We must know that according to Muslims, we speak not of one but of 8 paradises. It is easy to get between these 8 paradises and the octagon of the mausoleum, and we have a chain: Square to octagon to dome, which symbolically represents the passage from the earth to Paradise. And the 4 minarets are a direct reference to the ascension of souls to the sky.[17](Image source : Taj Mahal from the sky — Wikimedia Commons)In his answer to this question, Puneetchandra Sharma mentions a portion of the English translation of Ain-i-Akbari by Henry Blochmann (Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl, tr by H. Blochmann, Vol I, page 341, No. 30), which reads :Man Singh died a natural death in the 9th year of Jahangir's reign whilst in the Dak'hin. Sixty of his fifteen hundred wives burned themselves on the funeral pile. At the time of his death, only one of his numerous sons was alive, Bhao Singh, regarding whose succession to the title vide Tuzuk i Jahinngiri,“The ground on which the Taj at A'grah stands, belonged to Man Singh.”Mr Sharma argues that “very fact that the Taj Mahal was there before Mumtaz died, falsifies the the present historians claim that it was built by Shah Jahan.”Except it doesn’t.In the beginning of A’i’n 30, which is titled Grandees of the Empire (where the aforementioned excerpt is from); Abul Fazl, referring to the Grandees of the Court, writes that he shall “merely record, in form of a table, their names and the titles which have been conferred upon them” (page 308) :But we find that in the Blochmann translation, there isn’t a mere table but a list of 415 Grandees of the Mughal Empire along with their biographies (from page 308 to page 526).In the footnote on page 308, the translator has written :The fact that these biographies are not there in Francis Gladwin’s translation of Ain-i-Akbari proves that they were not there in the original text, and were only included by Henry Blochmann in his translation.That is why Blochmann has written “The ground on which the Taj at A'grah stands, belonged to Man Singh.”; because he was aware of the history of the Taj.Abul Fazl could not have written this, because he died in 1602 and the construction of the Taj Mahal did not even begin till 1632.TL;DR — NO.The Taj Mahal is not a temple of Lord Shiva.It was commissioned by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his deceased wife Mumtaz Mahal. And while it can be argued if it is actually a “symbol of love”, it was certainly never a temple.Also read : What are your views of P.N. Oak’s theory that the Taj Mahal was not built by Shah Jahan and 'Tejo Mahalaya'? by Mayur KanaiyaReferencesThe True Story of the Taj Mahal by Stephen Knapp (a summary of P.N. Oak’s book Tajmahal : The True Story)The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and AsiaIndian architecture, its psychology, structure, and history from the first Muhammadan invasion to the present day by E. B. HavellArchaeological Survey of India’s Report for the year 1871–1872The Taj Mahal by Lesley A. DuTempleAn English Translation of the Adab-i-'Alamgiri : The Period Before the War of Succession being The Letters of Prince Muhammad Aurangzib Bahadur to Muhammad Shihabu'd-din Shah Jahan Sahib-i-Qiran-i-Sani, Emperor of Hindustan by Vincent John Adams FlynnA Handbook to Agra and the Taj, Sikandra, Fathepur-Sikri, and the Neighbourhood by E. B. HavellThe Question of the Taj Mahal by P. S. Bhat and A. L. AthawaleAN ARCHITECT LOOKS AT THE TAJ MAHAL LEGEND by Marvin H. MillsHistory's Mysteries: People, Places and Oddities Lost in the Sands of Time by Brian HaughtonRadiocarbon, 1977 ; BROOKLYN COLLEGE RADIOCARBON DATES I by Evan T. WilliamsA Handbook of Indian Art by E. B. HavellThe Ain i Akbari by Abul Fazl ‘Allami, translated from the original Persian, by H. BlochmannAyeen Akbery; or, The Institutes of the Emperor Akber. Translated from the Original Persian by Francis GladwinFootnotes[1] Craftsmen who built Taj Mahal preserved their names in stone[2] The real story of how Taj Mahal was built[3] Discovering the soul of Agra … not at the Taj Mahal - Breathedreamgo[4] Mosque of the Taj Mahal[5] Taj Mahal[6] Is There a Third Set of Graves in Taj[7] Information About Third Grave at Taj[8] Opinion | Separating the Taj Mahal From Legend[9] part2_15[10] The Interior of the Main Dome[11] Tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah - Wikipedia[12] Taj Mahal Architecture: Origins in Humayun's Tomb (Video) • Approach Guides[13] The Quincunx: Queen of Symbols[14] Gur-e-Amir - Wikipedia[15] Boundless Art History[16] Shah Jahan built the Taj in gratitude[17] Symbolism of the Taj Mahal

The answer is gonna be really long. Grab some snacks as it could take a while.After interning at both signNow and Goldman, without a blink of an eye I can say - choose signNow.Going back a year before, my answer was different. Probably because I was unaware of how Goldman would turn out to be.I was the happiest person the day I was selected as an FTE at GS - a reputed fin-tech company which mostly hires tier-1 students, a dream for many. I had heard from many people that GS offers package as high as 32lpa which was quite a big deal for me - or for anyone who might have been at my place.As for signNow, I wanted a PPO since I really worked my ass off there - and was given one 6 days after I got offer from GS. I couldn’t be any happier.Soon came the phase of deciding - what should I choose? I didn’t know about the salary of GS but I had an idea that it definitely pays more than signNow. And that was enough for me - a reputed firm with lots of money!Then came the HR’s call. She offered me semester long internship in GS! I was glad that I don’t have to spend my last semester in college and will also earn some money. With the stipend as high as 75k and stay at Hilton hotel during intern, anybody is likely to go crazy and say “YES”.And so I did.I decided to take my decision after completing the semester long internship there, whether to go with signNow or continue with Goldman.The beginningSoon came 7th January. Day started off with amazing orientation and a beautiful office visit. Then came the lunch buddy - GS assigns a buddy from your department to have lunch with you the day you join, let’s say he was Raghav (name changed).Raghav seemed to be a really smart guy. I asked him a few questions about GS being a fin-tech, is it easy to switch and other questions. He seemed to be out of place, not interested. A guy came who was an intern in a team in which Raghav used to work. He kept talking and giggling with him, completely ignoring my presence. Cool, maybe Raghav is a badass - who cares?Met with my manager and two other interns who were in the same department - ZIR(changed). He seemed like a chilled-out and thoughtful person. Let’s call him Rudra.Our whole department used to sit in a middle sized cabin which accommodated around 32–35 employees of ZIR. My happiness knew no bounds! Great team, small cabin and friendly manager - what else could I ask for?Then came the next day. We were introduced to our team and had a lunch together. Oh no! Lunch here was not free - no big deal. Only 80rs/- per plate is affordable when you earn 75k per month, I thought.After having lunch, we began installing softwares required. Wait, you can’t install some softwares without manager’s permission. Fine! I messaged my manager and he granted the permission. He came later in the evening and gave 3 of us an interesting machine learning problem to solve - in a week, till we get our projects.He had three projects in mind, and he left it for us to decide which one we wan’t to take. I took the one which I thought was more impactful and cool, also because we had a member of our team working for the project. My task was to integrate the backend stuff he wrote with the UI I was going to create. Also to help him with some of those backend stuffs later on.“You can take help from Varun, in case you need” said Rudra.So it began!1st MonthI started learning React.js for the UI I was going to implement from various websites. There were tons of tutorial there. After understanding some theory, I clicked on ‘try it on codepen’ - online editor.“You are restricted from using an external website - no permissions”What? I can’t even use some online editor. Okay that’s fine - we have pretty sensitive data in GS. Since it’s a finance based company, we have client data with us and user may copy and paste it online - someone might steal the data! All this made sense. ‘It’s fine, I’ll bring my own laptop tommorow’, I thought before leaving.I could see two teammates standing behind me from my peripheral vision. One who was writing the backend stuff for the project I was working upon, let’s call him Varun.Varun was a silent and sober guy - a hardworking one who speaks only when required. Another guy standing beside him was Raghav.“Hey!” I said in a low tone. Did I do some crime? Why are these two here.. I wondered.“You brought your personal laptop, is everything fine here?” they asked.I told them about the restrictions. Raghav took my work PC and sent Rudra, my manager a request to approve codepen.I waited. One hour. Two hours. Codepen still not working. Fine for me since I have my own laptop. No worries.After 2 weeks Varun called me and started assigning tasks to do for the UI. I was full of enthusiasm and paid full attention to what he wanted. I started looking out for the cool libraries out there and found - material-ui.‘Perfect!’ I exclaimed.Started with the tasks, and was able to achieve the target next evening. It looked damn good! Varun will be happy. And so, I showed it to him.“Okay, font-size is a bit huge. And please change the app’s name - ELEGANT USER’S APP” (name changed). And so I did.“E-L-E-G-E-N-T U-S-E-R—S A-P-P”What a funny name, I thought. (The real one was funnier than the changed one)So days went, 1..2…3 and I completed 5–6 tasks. The basic UI (20%) was done. Then came Varun -“Shilpi, you did this using which library?”“Material-ui! It’s really good and..”“Okay, but make sure you can use it. Only specific libraries can be used at GS. Search xyz site and ensure if we can use it. If yes, proceed. Else use GS UI library”What did he just say. I worked on the UI for 2 weeks, and he is telling me now that I may not be able to use the material-ui library! No way..With my heart beating fast, I typed..X…Y….Z….gs..comCtrl+F“M-A——T-E—-R—I—A”Boom! It’s there. I was delighted :)The next day I was late. I saw a message pop up. It was from Raghav.“Hey” it said.“Hey” I replied.’“Please try to attend the daily standup. If you do, mail Rudra about your update :)” He replied.There hasn’t been a single day I was late. But okay, FINE.Then came the 5th day - friday. I got a message from Varun.‘Hi Shilpi, can you make another UI using GS-UI?’OH NO!. Again?.‘Just for the feel…we’ll show it to Rudra next week, he’ll choose which one we can use’*Slow Claps*. Well played Varun. Why did he approve the material-ui one if he wanted it in GS-UI - I wondered.It’s fine, I can do it. I encouraged myself and went to the internal site - gs-ui-library. (name changed)Okay, fine. This looks good. Okay. Cool. Documentation.. documentation….uhmm.I searched for the whole day, no documentation. Just few codes and examples to understand how to display some component.Way uglier than material-ui - I thought. And a minute later, an evil idea came to my mind..“What if I make the UI using gs-ui-library so ugly that Rudra and Varun both reject!” That would be great!The next week on friday, I was done with gs-ui-library. My code was asked to be removed from codesandbox by Varun - it’s illegal to put GS’s internal code there. I could hear Rudra laughing about how he is afraid of the interns bringing personal laptops here, and what will happen if someone names a variable as “ZIR” and put it on github.I showed Rudra the material-ui one. He was impressed.“This looks good! But don’t keep the name as ‘ ELEGANT USERS APP’, instead keep it as ‘THE USERS SEARCH APP’ ” (name changed)“But Rudra, Varun has asked me to..”“I will ask him. We will decide and tell you”Fine. Keep the name as ‘The bla bla app”. I don’t care.Varun was already gone by the time. I smirked. I won’t show the UI I made using gs-ui-library to Rudra!Next day Varun was on my desk. He asked whether I showed both the UI’s.“No, actually I forgot to show the other..”“See, the people above us will probably ask why we didn’t use GS-UI. That’s why I am saying so. I have no problem with material-ui. Just ask Rudra if he is fine with it. Rudra…”“Yes, Varun” replied Rudra.And then he showed both the UI’s to him. The ugly one. The good one.“I think it looks great - the ‘gs-ui-library’ one!” Rudra exclaimed.I shouted in my mind - “How can he..!”“See Shilpi, we don’t have any problem using material-ui one but the people for whom we are making the app will ask why we didn’t use the internal-gs library. Okay, tell me one thing - it does have all the components you require, right?”“Yes, Rudra” I sighed.“Seems like Shilpi wanted to use material-ui, haha” Rudra giggled and looked at Varun. I could hear the giggling from one of the two interns from behind - Tejas (name changed).He was also working on a UI, along with some backend stuff. He was using ‘gs-ui-library’ from day one. And so, he giggled.Rudra -1 .. Shilpi- 0This was the first time I went home feeling sad. Why didn’t they tell me 2 weeks ago? Now I will have to work on the other one. And the library has no documentation.“g-s-u-i-l-i-b-r-a-r-y” I typed.Gs-ui-library was a really terrible library. No documentation, made by mixture of other available libraries online. It was like an accidental product of some cross-breeding. A scientific failure.Anyways, I somehow learnt basic features which I could implement using the library. On the other hand, my machine was damn slow - for a reason I didn’t know.“Why are you using vs code? How did you get it!” asked Rudra who saw me coding on vscode.“I like it- it’s really good for react. Installed it from the store.”“Haha, use intellij, okay!” Rudra said in a serious tone.Wow. After making me work with the gs-ui-library, now he is snatching away the editor I love. Cool.I still continued with vs code. Varun was totally fine with it.I went to drink a glass of water. Didn’t bring my bottle that day. So took a ‘visitor’s cup’ from inside the drawers.“Ma’am, you can’t drink in that. It’s only for visitors” said a guy who saw I was about to drink water.“Oh, it’s ok for today you can use it..Ma’am”Great. Block websites - facebook, gmail, codepen. Take my material-ui away. Don’t allow me to use vs-code. And also, don’t let me drink water at peace!I was pissed off. Huh!2nd MonthWe were having a cricket match on saturday! Rudra asked me if I want to play - since he wanted a female player as per the rules. He just wanted me to throw the ball for an over or so since it was the rule. I agreed - afterall he was my manager.I came back home, exhausted. Wasn’t allowed to bat :( even when the guy players were noob too. Whatever, I don’t care. I said to myself.So I started working on the integration part. Meanwhile we used to have meetings in which we were told about ZIR and it’s functions. Rudra used to tell us about how fun the NAPA training is going to be, and how we will start hiding our id cards after the event.I completed the integration part in a week or so. Gave a weekly demo to Rudra.Next week was going to be a demo with Monica’s team (name changed). The finance guys for whom we were building the ‘ELEGANT USERS APP’. Varun was happy that I had completed the integration part and added 2 more features to implement.- feature1 & feature2Before the demo, we had a meeting with Monica just a week before. Rudra, Varun and I gathered in a room. Varun and Monica proceeded on what she wants and what actually we have. It was a debate between them and I listened.Since the lunch time was over, Rudra and I went to the food-court outside to have one.“Shilpi, you know I was like you. The silent guy in the room. If someone else was at your place he would have asked a lot of questions! ”“I think it’s better to listen Rudra, than argue. I didn’t have much idea about what they were talking and the talk was mostly concerning Varun.”“See..it’s good very good. But to be at a place like GS…you know! The world is very mean,Shilpi. You need to speak more than you do work here! Many people don’t know much but they’ll get ahead of you because they speak. I was like you when I joined GS. In the group discussion round, when everyone was debating.. I just sat at the corner. HR came and asked each of us individually. If she hadn’t done that, I mayn’t be sitting here today”I gave it some thought. He was right.Some days later feature1 stopped working. I had no idea why, I was using an excellent library for feature1, off-course an external one. Varun himself has asked me to use an external for that case since we don’t have a gs library for that.But now. It wasn’t working.It took me a week to include the library - react-bootstrap-table2 with the project along with the features it had, and use it. And some magic happened. Now feature1 stops working. Damn!I woke up the whole night - till 4 am to make the feature1 work. The remote desktop worked very slow. In GS, we are not given laptops for security purposes. So we have to use remote desktop.It was damn slow but I was patient. I kept on trying and trying till I fell asleep early in the morning. Woke up around 12.An hour before demo with Monica’s team, I told Varun about it. He said it’s fine, we will show the demo without it.Tik…tikk….I wasn’t satisfied. I worked damn hard for 45 min and was able to make feature1 work!We went to give the demo. Varun pulled out a chair and sat before a PC.“Hi Monica!”“Hey Varun!”And so it started. The demo. The UI I made. The features I implemented. The integration. My two month’s hard work.All of them was presented by our VP, Mr.Varun!“Uhm…but we don’t need feature 1 and 2, Varun. You can remove it” said Monica.W-H-A-T! What did she just say. I went an hour back in time.I am sweating. I can feel I am nervous. This has to go good. I know well about the project, and I will make the feature-1 work! I will!Yes, I did. Only to loose the presentation as well as the feature.I rushed out of the room with the unhappy face which no one bothered about in the meeting room. I was silent and in hurry, it was weekly demo too today.“Haashh.. It went great!” exclaimed Varun who barely ever talked to me. Since like 1962!“Okay, but we have a weekly demo too!”The weekly demo got cancelled. Varun proceeded to tell me how we don’t need feature-1 and all the new features which Monica wanted. I remembered them all. One of them was a feature-X which was not possible technically. I tried making Varun understand and he did, after quite a while.Then came the mid-semester exam and I finally got a break!3rd MonthI went to my home after holidays. After 2 months, 1,40,000 was credited to my account. I buyed clothes for mom and dad. I was delighted and ready to go back!Meanwhile, an acquaintance of mine who did intern at signNow called me. She also had an offer from both the companies but was unable to decide. I told her all pros and cons, and how I was going to join GS. Being a Delhite, she wanted to join signNow.After a while, I thought. I should maybe negotiate!It was a disaster. The HR told me clearly that they pay all the FTE’s equally regardless of how many offers they had. I asked him about the work I’d be given but he didn’t tell.After 8 days, I refused. Probably the biggest mistake I did.Came back to office happily. Compiled the code.React-bootstrap-table2 library code - gone. Whole UI code changed in a week. My 2 week’s effort - 1 week for the library and 2 nd for other features went to ashes.Just in ONE SINGLE WEEK.~Varun committed the code 2 hours ago~~Varun committed the code yesterday~~Varun….~And so on.Varun started using an internal gs-ui-library library instead of react-bootstrap-table2. Instead of giving proper review comments, he changed my code by himself. Some backend stuff also came to me.I fetched the code from repo, the one Varun had implemented. And tried to understand.“You just have to implement feature-b-xyz, no need to go through whole code” he said.Fine.The next series of days started with me coming late - 11:50, 12 or later than that. I used to mail Rudra about the update. Sometimes I was able to attend standup, sometime I wasn’t able to. My health started detoriating.Everyday, Varun used to commit some changes. And it took a hell lot of time to update the project in intellij, go through his changes and do other changes. I was pretty much frustrated.Took 2 wfhs in 2 weeks. Logged in late many times. Had to push myself from bed everyday. Devoted my time to video games than gs work. Lost interest.Then I was given some backend part. I took WFH a day I wasn’t feeling well and learnt about apis stuff. Still some part of me wanted to do well and take interest in the work genuinely.We - all 3 interns received a mail from Rudra which we could never forget. Rudra had showed his ‘Rudra’ roop. The mail said -“You guys are not taking the work seriously. WFHs are not to be taken for granted. So many WFHs and late loggings. Not at all serious about your work. You guys need to have deliverables by the end of this month.I don’t care, work for your career not mine.”I was shocked. The friendly, giggling Rudra! I remembered the first time I met him. And the mail was quite a shock to all of us.Late loggings & WFHs were targeted at me.But… Tejas? What did he do?As far as I remember, he was a hard working guy. Always on time. Never missed a standup. What did he do to receive the mail?Days after that, Varun took 4WFHs in a row. Rudra was quiet. Nisha only came like twice in a week, Rudra said nothing. Why us? Why the interns? I wondered.One day I stayed at office till 8pm. I could hear Rudra talking about ‘The Elegant User’s App’ over a phone call.“We are building it again since the last UI was in angular. We wanted it in React.” he said to somebody over the call.Throughout my whole intern, I had one doubt in my mind.The app on which I was working upon was already built by someone and was functional too. But my manager wanted it to be built again since he wanted us to use a new technology.What’s the difference even if angular was used? What’s the need of rebuilding the app again from scratch? I wondered.And the next words I heard shattered me.“Yeah, Varun is working with some intern on ‘The Elegant User’s App’.”What did he say?The last two months were fully devoted to the UI. I went back in time.“Shilpi, if you want any help - Varun would be able to for this project.I was made to believe that it was an independent project, which it never was. I worked my ass off for three months only to hear that I am ‘some intern’ working under Varun and helping him building the UI.I got depressed.It was Holi’s festival - the festival of colours. I never really celebrated holi, hated to be coloured all over. We had a group for our department, and I wished everyone a “Happy Holi!”.Tejas replied with a “Happy holi” too.“Happy Forest Day” - stated an image I received on whatsapp. It was from Rudra. On the whatsapp group. This was his reply for “Happy Holi”.Needless to say, I didn’t go to office that day as sign of rebel ( we didn’t have holiday on holi). Varun was already doing WFH. The “Happy Forest Day” frustrated me. Why Rudra why. You are better than that.“Niharika (name changed) is leaving GS” somebody whisphered.Niharika, a very smart lady was in our department. She was mentoring an intern and sounded quite knowledgable. Her sudden decision of leaving GS came as a shock to everyone.I had a last chat with her only when everyone was away for lunch. She had refused her farewell too I guess. She came to me and we had a decent chat. I asked her the reason of leaving. She wanted to switch the team maybe but it was taking a long time. Sweet and smart is all I could say for her. She had done work with JPMC & Morgan Stanely (US) and held a green card. A dedicated worker.After the lunch, she had a long meeting with Rudra. She was too firm with her decision.After she left, someone told me she bitched about many people in the team - specially Rudra. I was really sad. GS lost a good employee that day. And maybe, due to politics.Next day, GS was having an orientation for all new campus hires. It was one hell of a day. World-class hotel stay and world-class orientation.Varun was going out to the new office for 2 weeks. For some work.4th monthBefore Varun had left for the new office, he had asked me to attend telephonic standups for our team from 3–3:30. Now I used to attend 2 standups - the department one, and the team one. Full time waste activities!He had also asked me to get details of a task from Raghav and get it completed. I messaged him and he said he will be there at my desk in 5 min. Well, he never came. I asked him 2–3 times more to which he sent me a random link. I was disheartened and had nothing to do for 2 weeks.I mailed the tpo of my college, he was ready to talk to signNow’s HR and get my offer back. I was relieved.Soon, we got mails from hr regarding our joining dates and NAPA training, which is held in New York. I told the HR about my case, that I have courses left in college and I won’t be able to join on 3rd june.“Can I go to the training and join later after 12th july - when my courses are done” I asked.“No, you need to join as FTE. We will process your visa in june and you’ll go during july first week”“Okay” I replied.“Try to make your college understand, it’s important” is all she said.Next day, I refused. My college will never agree for me to take 2 week vacation during summer term.Rudra received a call from HR. I knew it was regarding me.He took me outside the cabin and asked why did I opted out of NAPA training. I told him everything - how my degree would be affected. He was ready to give WFH for 2 months. I was shocked. Again.What will I do now! Rudra was the most unpredictable mysterious guy I ever met. He was good and bad, at the same time. 2 months is a long time - and he agreed to give me WFH! He earned my respect.Now I was in dilemma. signNow. GS. signNow. GS.What to do?On the other hand, I made my tpo talk to signNow’s HR. And now, Rudra is turning to be a nice guy. I will choose GS. I was firm this time.Then there was second meeting with Rudra. He told me everything - the work I’ll do as an FTE. Also, he never left a single moment he could get to brag about himself.“You will be working under Varun. He will be the team lead. Your work is XYZ-AHSH-PPOS…..”“Be as mature as me. I can make complex things simple easily. Learn it from me.” he said.Varun. No!!The simple guy. Who took away all the presentations. Even during our team standups, he used to answer when some guy asked me about the project. My code was changed everyday. All the torture I faced last month. And now- I’ll be working under him. Wow.I told Rudra - how my code was changed everyday, how I was not told about the changes Varun did in the backend and still expected my code would run successfully. He listened to me for a while and then said -“When I was a NAPA, I used to ensure that I get 0 review comments”“I don’t get review comments, Rudra. My code gets changed, and it’s hard to understand it everyday without help of Varun.”“It’s a good thing, right? You will learn something from what the change he does. It’s good for you.”Cool. I have to look at the new code and somehow “learn without doing”. Interesting.I worked till 9 pm that day. Before Rudra left, he smiled at me sarcastically.“Shilpi, still working?”“Yeah Rudra, I came little late today.”“Varun changing your code and you changing his code.!”“Yes. That’s what is happening.”And then, he laughed maniacally.This was not the first time he did this. He used to laugh at me sarcastically many times after giving me the UI project.Next week, Varun was here. My virtual desktop was not working and I had no idea why. Called help-desk 5 times that day.“REBOOT!”“TRY IT FROM A DIFFERENT MACHINE!”“IT SHOWS ‘AVAILABLE’ ON MY MACHINE!”was all the response I got from 5 different help-desk-assistants.Took a day off the next day. Saw a mail. Varun had given presentation to our MD that day. UI presentation, which was supposed to be given by me.Next week, same schedule. Help-desk people failed miserably.I tried remote desktop and was able to open my outlook. My inbox was full of -“DISK CAPACITY OVER 95%! CLEAN IT!”I got it. But in order to clean it, I had to login to the virtual computer which I wasn’t able to. It was a deadlock.Soon I was assigned a new virtual computer. My whole local setup - was erased.My whole enthusiasm had turned to ashes at that point. Came late, went early. Stopped attending standups. Late Loggings. WFHs. OOO. No updates. No weekly updates. Nothing to do next since Raghav didn’t help. Frustrated as hell.Our department was hiring more and more people. I had nowhere to sit. No one to talk to. The only friend I had in bangalore left 2 weeks ago.And then came end-term exams.5th monthStill no mail from signNow. What do I do.I mailed the HR.I don’t care about my ego now. I just can’t work like this. A place where I am depressed everyday.And I got a positive response.I’ll be joining signNow in july. I don’t care about NAPA training. I just don’t.I am happy with less base salary.Why did I write the whole story? What’s the point of writing the whole experience when I could have just compared both the companies?Because I wanted you to feel the way I felt at each moment during my intern, why did I take the decision I took. Why did I take a rejected offer back.From my story you are well aware that -GS is a company for people who are confident, who may lack in technical terms but if they speak about their work just like Rudra told me, they will be successful in long run. You can’t sit at a corner desk everyday without networking and grow in GS but you can, at signNow. One of the main reasons of me leaving.Tejas was working on unapproved project. The project may not be approved by the MD and his struggle for 4 months could turn to ashes. This could never happen in a tech company like signNow where we have approved projects.Forget free food, they don’t even provide glasses to drink coffee/water. On the other hand, signNow has free food and glasses too.People focus on deliverables, no learning in my case. During my intern at signNow, more focus was on learning.You won’t receive appreciation. Tejas worked his ass off only to get scoldings from Rudra. While at signNow, I was really appreciated for the work I did by both - my mentor & manager.People focus on stupidest things - “ELEGANT USERS APP” v/s “THE USERS SEARCH APP” is more important here. Whereas at signNow people devote their time to efficiency and readability.Meetings, meetings and more meetings! A signNow part of the day goes in meetings at GS. Not the case in signNow, they respect developer’s time.Strats position -32lpa. Tech analyst-22lpa. No more words! At signNow, we get equal salary - 22lpa as fresher no matter whether we are an iitian or not.Varun, a person totally noob in react used to review my code. Sometimes it was really hard to make him understand. Never happened at signNow where my mentor knew Javascript & C++ in depth.No help from peers - everyone busy in their own world. Raghav was the smartest person in my team. He could’ve helped me but he didn’t. Never happened with me in signNow - people were more approachable and ever-ready to help.Features changing - worked my ass off on feature1 only to get it removed later on. Only if Monica had told earlier she doesn’t want one. In signNow, it rarely happened that a feature which we don’t need is implemented.Too much into internal code - “use gs-ui-library” “use intellij”. I want freedom. Which is there at signNow.Restrictions - can’t do much without manager’s permission. Not the case at signNow.No recognition - all the work I did was presented by Varun at last. While at signNow, I gave 2 badass presentations and was much appreciated by manager.Blocked sites - gmail, facebook and some coding sites are blocked.The only pros were - less working hours & luxurious hotel stay. And of course the huge stipend of 75k!Please note that I’ve nothing against GS. The management there is really good, they care about their employees. I don’t think any company could’ve given me 2 months WFH and I do respect Rudra a lot for that!The experience may vary from person to person, someone may find GS a very good place, based on the traits he/she has or the team he is working with. But for a shy person like me, who loves to code sitting at the corner of the room - GS is not the place. It was me who was not able to adapt to the culture there. The reason being - having a previous internship experience at signNow, which taught me what freedom is. If I didn’t have any previous experience, maybe I could’ve adjusted there assuming - “This is how it is everywhere, and this is how it works!”Irony is, the question was asked by me about a year ago. And today, I have appropriate answer to it!This answer was written by me when I was still an intern. I had no idea what this could do to my life.Next day after I wrote this, I was called by the Vice-president HR of GS - Devika. I thought she had called me in order to discuss why am I choosing signNow over Goldman but this wasn’t the case.“I read your answer on quora about goldman..”“I’ll remove it!” I replied with the speed of light.“No..I don’t want you to take it down, Just tell me the issues you had”And she pretended to listen. Both of us knew why she called me here - to take the answer down.“See, these days many people are on social media and it is affecting how people see us. Probably, some interns wouldn’t want to work with us after reading the answer. Therefore I want you to remove it”“Also, please remember this meeting is confidential. DO NOT tell anyone from your team about it!” she said just before I left.And that was it. I deleted this answer.I saw Rudra’s text on my whatsapp. He asked whether I have a desk to sit, and when will I signNow on my desk.I finished the work and went home.The next day, I woke up to 10 calls from the HR and lots of messages. I asked what happened.I told her I have already deleted the answer, but there was something else. I wasn’t able to login from home. My remote desktop was taken away from me and I had no idea why.And then, came Monday.I went to her cabin where she was sitting. And soon the harassment started.“What was your motive behind putting such kind of answers on quora, tell me what was in your mind”“I am sorry, Devika. I’ve already taken them down.”“Didn’t you knew about the firm’s policy? You knew it very well right? Still you put the experience on quora?”“I was frustrated. So much that it didn’t occur to me at that time. But yes, I knew it.”She wrote it down on a paper.“You put it on social media, and don’t expect your manager to read it? Wake up! Everyone in your dept knows what you did okay! You are always saying that ‘don’t inform my manager about it’.. you know what, infact Rudra only told me about this. He was the one who forwarded the answer.”I sighed. He knew about it the whole time. Still acted as friendly.“We are a very big firm. Many people are there writing these kind of negative - one sided answers. We don’t care”If she didn’t care, why was I sitting here.“I have talked to both Rudra and Varun. Now I know about their perspectives too. Did you inform your manager that you were on leave? No, you didn’t.”“Yes, I was really depressed and woke up at 5 eve..”“And what did you wrote? Niharika left because of politics..? Did you talk to her? Who told you?”“The intern who knew her told me”“And you put it on social media??”She gave me a tough look.“I have tracked down your whole information, when do you come and leave, wfh etc. I don’t think it’s too much. You were also 1 hour late on the GS event, I heard”I wasn’t. What was she saying?“No, I was a minute late. You can ask my friend who was sitting there.”“Also, you were absent on 4 presentations Varun gave, right?”“No, I was there for 3 of them”“And you weren’t allowed to give?”“I didn’t ask him, neither did he offer.. he just took the chair and..Did Varun said I was absent? I wasn’t!”“Oh yes you weren’t, I know. When did I say you were absent? You are just misunderstanding me” she replied and wrote down some points.“GS-UI-LIBRARY!!” she excalimed.“This is what you wrote about the library.Seriously!”I looked down. I couldn’t say anything except sorry.“You didn’t write about any wrong you did, completely one-sided answer. I got to know about other people’s perspective after talking to them.”“Yes I was late sometimes, and didn’t confront anyone.”“Rudra even let you choose jersey for cricket match, didn’t he”“Yes he did.”“What you think what made your experience bad? Was it yourself? Why put it on social media, and didn’t contact us”I was late and silent. The only faults.“If I were your signNow HR and I read this answer on quora.. you know I’d have..” Devika scolded in a rude tone.She would have taken my offer back. That’s what she meant.“I have already deleted it , Devika” I almost cried.“These things never happened with me at signNow. But people here..”I broke down. Couldn’t speak much.“What even if you deleted? 1000s of people saw it. All the people on your floor saw it. They may have copied it, downloaded it. It had so confidential information!”“And yeah, put this conversation there too!!” She said in a very rude tone.“I won’t. You know I won’t. ” I whispered.“Anyways Shilpi, now it’d be too awkward for you to go there. We have already stopped your remote access. You can submit the id card to me.”“Okay.”I cried a lot in the cab. Rudra knew it all the time. Why didn’t he himself fire me instead of sending a rude HR. And those two also lied a lot about me. The tone of HR was totally different when I met her on thursday. And today she was really harassing me.It took me a while to understand - all this was planned by Rudra. He choose the rudest and senior-most HR to deal with my case and harass me, just to get back at me., 2 interns were joining today and space was very less in the little cabin. And he knew very well I completed all my work the last week itself. Win-Win situation for Rudra!Varun and Rudra lied to HR. It was evident from the way she treated me. I was made to be feel like a garbage - just because I was late at the office!I cried for an hour. And then, I edited and restored this answer.Do I fear them? Not at all.“I will survive, Tracy thought. I face mine enemies naked, and my courage is my shield.” ― Sidney Sheldon (if tomorrow comes)

Short Answer: THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT KNOWS IT HAS BEEN VIOLATING INTERNATIONAL LAW FOR YEARS. Hence the cover-up.Before we get into that, first I want to take issue with another answer to this question.I think some people do not know what concentration camps are, example:“the crucial difference: concentration camps and internment camps put in every member of the target group the government can find. “wrong.In the Boer War, the British did not put all Boers (South African Dutch Speakers) in camps, nor try to.Concentration camps in the South African War? Here are the real factsAlso Germans did not put all Polish people, all Catholics in camps…just trouble makers within those groups…Jews were the primary example and so also a extreme example, because all Jews were declared enemies of Nazi Germany, however everyone in the camps were not Jews, and besides Gypsies, no other ethnic or religious group were considered, in total, enemies of the state…but there were groups considered “more problematic” that got more scrutiny.Nazi concentration camps - WikipediaThese are not just “education camps” or laogai [劳改] (gulags in Russian) .These are concentration camps and the purpose is to house Uighur people who have been identified practicing Uighur culture in public. These people are rarely ever charged with a crime (which was stated in this video by Chinese government officials). No, they are simply “acting too Uighur” and put in a camp so they can try to erase their culture.This is exactly what is happen:"Alongside a professor from Tsinghua University called Hu Angang — the two are not related — Hu Lianhe suggested that attempts to promote multi-ethnic states elsewhere in the world had failed and China should push different ethnicities to “blend together” into a single “state-race”. “Any nation’s long-term peace and stability is founded upon building a system with a unified race (a state-race) that strengthens the state-race identity and dilutes ethnic group identity,” the two wrote in a 2012 paper."Subscribe to read | Financial TimesThe problem is that this violates a UN treaty China signed.Colloquially we have a term for this: CULTURAL GENOCIDEAlso from the UN’s United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)Article 7Indigenous peoples have the collective right to live in freedom, peace and security as distinct peoples and shall not be subjected to any act of genocide or any other act of violence, including forcibly removing children of the group to another group.Article 81. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture.2. States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for:(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnicidentities;(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources;(c) Any form of forced population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights;(d) Any form of forced assimilation or integration;(e) Any form of propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination directed against them.11Article 9Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right to belong to an indigenous community or nation, in accordance with the traditions and customs of the community or nation concerned. No discrimination of any kind may arise from the exercise of such a right.Article 10Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option of return.Article 111. Indigenous peoples have the right to practise and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of their cultures, such as archaeological and historical sites, artifacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature.United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (English Version); 汉语 (Chinese Version)So lets see who voted for this…Yes, China approved the UNDRIP and they have been in violation for years. In fact China signed this in 2007 and began to violate it two years later after the Ürümqi riots.Addendum ————————————————————————-A Note it is also interesting, in official documents China started to use the term Guoyu （国语）= the national language and not Hanyu (汉语) = the language of Han Chinese. This obviously is more reinforcement of the idea that all ethnic languages in China are not equal, so less weight should be given to teaching ethnic minority languages and more toward the “national language”. Although this term is routinely used in Hong Kong and Taiwan, it has not been used by the CCP.Convicted criminals are treated worse though…More: China is harvesting thousands of human organs from its Uighur Muslim minority, UN human-rights body hears

How about elements that movies never mention?Immediately following the end of the war, Allied nations initiated a series of moves that sought to redraw the ethnic makeup of Eastern Europe and exploit "free labour" as reparations for the war. Series of moves that ended with some scholars calling the episode a genocide… of the German people. Yes, you read that correct. One particular scholar, R.J. Rummel -who happens to be quite the authority on this subject- actually calls the treatment of ethnic German people in the immediate post-war era a democide, which is a wider term than and includes genocide.12 million German civilians have been forcibly removed from Poland, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and other Eastern European countries in what is still the largest forced migration and the largest geographical ethnic cleansing in history.Official German government estimates put the number of losses between 2–2.5 million during these removals, though some scholars put the numbers lower than that. Most dying as a result of exposure, exhaustion and starvation.The US has opted to call German POWs not POWs, but DEFs (Disarmed Enemy Forces), thereby no longer obligated to abide by the Geneva Convention’s rules regarding the treatment of captured enemy combatants. In the 19 Rheinwiesenlager (prison camps in the Rhein area) built to contain well over 3 million German captured soldiers, thousands died due to exposure and malnutrition, as there was little to no shelter to house the prisoners and little food to sustain them, with the average daily intake hovering between 1200–1500kcal (compared to 4000kcal for a US soldier, which the US would have been obligated to provide for the Germans as well had they called their prisoners POWs). Over a million of these prisoners had been transferred to France and the UK to be used as forced labour.The International Commitee of the Red Cross was prevented from visiting any of the Rheinwiesenlager while they were in full operation and was only allowed entry after most of the camps had been closed or were in the process of closing. When the ICRC finally gained access to the camps, the delegates described the conditions the prisoners were kept in as “appalling”.Several million German POWs, as well as German civilians were used as forced labour in countries such as the US, the UK, France, the Soviet Union, Poland, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and Czechoslovakia. Estimates for German casualties as a result of forced labour go as high as 1 million, with another 1.3 million still listed as missing, their fate unknown.A considerable number in the US government, including the President, Franklin Roosevelt, who had convinced himself that it wasn’t just the Nazi government, but the entire German people that was to blame for “engaging in a lawless conspiracy against the decencies of modern civilization”, wanted to punish the German people with measures harsher than what was in the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty that single-handedly assured German economic and political destruction and facilitated Hitler’s rise to power I should remind you. The result was the Morgenthau Plan; a wide-ranging set of provisions that sought to decrease the standards of living and effectively destroy all industry in occupied Germany so as to cripple Germany’s war waging capabilities indefinitely and turn it into an entirely agricultural country.The plan asked for the complete demilitarisation of Germany, complete disarmament of the army and the people, complete destruction of the armaments industries and complete destruction of industries that are basic to military strenght (it doesn’t say it, but this would include, amongst everything else, agricultural equipment like tractors and fertilisers; practically sending Germany back into the pre-industrial age with no way to feed the entirety of its own population). Furthermore, the plan also proposed the partition of Germany between Poland, France and North and South German States, with the Ruhr area becoming an international zone policed by the UN and weakened and controlled to such an extent that it can never become an industrial area again.The plan was so harsh and devastating that Cordell Hull, the US Secretary of State, argued nothing would be left for the Germans and only 60% of the population could live off the land and the remaining 40% would die (roughly 26 million people). With nothing but complete destruction awaiting them if they lost the war, the Germans used the plan as a propaganda tool to fire up the fighting force, General Marshall complained that the resistance by the German forces grew stronger as a result of the plan. President Roosevelt’s son-in-law Lt. Colonel John Boettiger explained to Morgenthau how the US troops fighting in Germany complained to him that the Morgenthau Plan was worth 30 divisions to the Germans. News organisations like the NYT, the WSJ and the Washington Post ran critical editorials of the Plan and asked a stop to helping Goebbels in his propaganda campaign. Neue Zürcher Zeitung published this in an article about the Morgenthau Plan:“So far, the Allies have not offered the opposition any serious encouragement. On the contrary, they have again and again welded together the people and the Nazis by statements published, either out of indifference or with a purpose. To take a recent example, the Morgenthau plan gave Dr. Goebbels the best possible chance. He was able to prove to his countrymen, in black and white, that the enemy planned the enslavement of Germany. The conviction that Germany had nothing to expect from defeat but oppression and exploitation still prevails, and that accounts for the fact that the Germans continue to fight. It is not a question of a regime, but of the homeland itself, and to save that, every German is bound to obey the call, whether he be Nazi or member of the opposition.”Effectively saying that the German people were compelled to help defend their homeland even if they were against the Nazis, directly as a consequence of the Allied leaders’ statements and the Morgenthau Plan. Puts the whole “all Germans are to blame” thing into perspective.Due in part to the media outrage and in part to the British opposition, the plan was eventually rejected. However, in the immediate aftermath of the German surrender, parts of the plan were put into action under Joint Chiefs of Staff directive 1067 (JCS 1067) after it was signed by President Truman and into the Potsdam Agreement. Henry Morgenthau reportedly received this as a success and told his staff that he hoped “no one recognises it as the Morgenthau Plan”.Treasury officals loaned to the Military Government in Germany, known internally as the “Morgenthau boys” ensured that the directive was interpreted as strictly as possible. Under their supervision, production of oil, tractors, steel and fertiliser had been slashed. A large percentage of young male workers were kept in forced-labour camps for years. Germany was prevented from trading goods internationally, including food and medicine. Apart from stifling reconstruction efforts of (allied) neighbouring countries because they couldn’t buy German coal and steel in exchange for food, all this also resulted in a man-made famine in Germany. With millions of young Germans in labour camps or in prisons, with no fertiliser to go around and with no equipment manufacturing, German agricultural production crashed and 65 million people began to starve. The average German civilian’s daily calorie intake dropped to around 1200kcal, infant and child mortality rates had shot up due to malnutrition and disease. Declassifed Robert Murphy and Robert Patterson papers, as well as documents in Canadian records show the actual death rate among German civilians due to starvation was 2-to-3 times higher than the numbers reported by Allied Military Governments. General Lucius Clay, who served as deputy to General Eisenhower, as deputy military governor of the US occupied zone and later as Commander in Chief of the US Forces in Europe and military governor of the U.S. Zone, becoming increasingly concerned with the humanitarian and political situation in the area under his responsibility stated; "There is no choice between being a communist on 1500 calories a day and a believer in democracy on 1000 calories".US military personnel and their families (wives and children of officers that relocated to Germany as part of the Military Government) were instructed to destroy or make inedible their leftovers so as to deny them to the starving Germans for fears of a popular rising.The consequences of the directive was not lost on some in the military. One of the most prominent opposers of the policy was General Lucius Clay, who in his 1950 book wrote;"It seemed obvious to us even then that Germany would starve unless it could produce for export and that immediate steps would have to be taken to revive industrial production."His Chief Adviser Lewis Douglas denounced JCS Directive 1067 saying;"This thing was assembled by economic idiots. It makes no sense to forbid the most skilled workers in Europe from producing as much as they can in a continent that is desperately short of everything."The JCS 1067 was replaced with the JCS 1779, more than two years after the former had been enacted. Upon its approval, the “Morgenthau boys” all resigned en masse and the JCS 1779 “was purged of the most important elements of the Morgenthau plan". However before they went, the “boys”, as their final act, accomplished the destruction of the German banking system, thereby “preventing the rehabilitation of German industry and with immediate adverse effects on the economy in the US occupation zone.”The replacement of JCS 1067 with the JCS 1779 however, was not done out of humanitarian concerns, but out of realisation that Europe as a whole cannot rebuild without Germany providing the engine of the European industrial basis. As fears over Communism grew ever greater amongst the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it was deemed essential that Germany be rebuilt so as to facilitate the reconstruction of other European countries. It was with this view that George Marshall, citing national security grounds, convinced Truman to replace JCS 1067 with JCS 1779.The Marshall Plan came as a result of the change in policy brought about by the JCS 1779. It is entirely wrong however, to suggest that the Marshall Plan -as too many people often do- was an altruistic initiative by the US to help rebuild Europe. The Marshall Plan was built entirely on the self-interests of the United States, which depended on rapid European economic recovery. One aspect of this dependency was that at this point in time, the US produced nearly half of all consumer goods produced in the world and it needed Europe to recover as quickly as possible to start buying those goods. The other aspect was to counter the growing Soviet power with a stable and prosperous Europe and contain Communism from spreading to Western Europe. In fact, the aid European countries hoped to receive from the Marshall Plan depended on those countries agreeing to a set of terms and conditions that effectively removed trade barriers and ensured the integration of Europe to stand against the Soviet Union. Which is why a number of non-combatant countries like Turkey, Sweden and Portugal also received aid.All told, approximately 4 million German civilians had died after the war as a result of forced labour, forced migration, starvation, exposure and inadequate access to medicine. These atrocities have come about due entirely to a strong sense of revenge for the things the Nazis have done. Authorities in France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, the US and others actively sought to enact as much suffering as they could on the German civilians as revenge for Nazi brutalities. The President of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš, went so far as to publicly blame all Germans for the actions of the German state, a notion though not admitted, entirely shared amongst most of the Allies. Karol Świerczewski, commander of the Second Polish Army told his soldiers to "exact on the Germans what they enacted on us, so they will flee on their own and thank God they saved their lives." Take note that the “Germans” in his speech refers to German civilians, not the soldiers.Sidenotes:These facts and stories have largely gone untold for the last 70~ years. Unsurprising, as it is seen “suitable to no one; Not the Allies, because it placed them near the moral nadir of the Nazis; nor the Germans, because they did not wish to be accused of whitewashing Hitler by highlighting what was, by any standard, a war crime.”I personally take no pleasure in writing about these horrendous episodes of history, partly because there unmistakably comes an individual who is utterly devoid of historical understanding blaming me of being a Nazi fanboy, but mostly because it is an ugly, ugly reminder of how low human beings can stoop to, no matter how noble they think their motivations are, regardless of the side they fought for.Still, I feel it is important to challenge the narrative that’s been woven in the popular culture for the last 80 years that puts the entire German population as the “bad guys” and the Allies as the “good”. Whereas the Germans have deserved a fair amount of that narrative, I reject the notion that the entire population is to blame for the actions of their government and deserve the worst of treatments and eternal condemnation as a result.And if you come into the comments with your highfalutin, clichéd arguments about how the Germans were bad because they did the Holocaust and the Americans (it’s always the Americans in these rhetorics) were good because they simply were, I will promptly delete your comment.I have no tolerance for those who will so easily condemn an entire people while putting themselves up on a moral pedestal then hide behind and be proud of their ignorance. I have grown weary of reading comments and spotting the vast, bottomless chasm of understanding between what actually happened and what some people believe happened. I will delete your comment if your argument is ignorant of some of the most easily googleable facts. I will delete your comment if you defend your position by saying “Stalin was not as bad as Hitler because he didn’t do the Holocaust”. I will delete your comment if your argument devolves into “this is bad, but their’s is worse bad”. I will not stoop so low as to discussing which atrocity is the worse atrocity. The nuances of whether millions of people killed through gassing in concentration camps or through forced migrations and starvations is better than the other, is a philosophical discussion I am not pathetic enough to take part in. Take that shit to somewhere else.For the record; I abhore all sorts of nationalism and right wing politics, obviously including Nazism. Yes, the Holocaust is one of the most horrendous, unspeakable human tragedies in history. No, I still think the Allies were as bad as the Nazis for everything they’ve done during and after the war despite running propaganda on shaping the narrative of the conflict as THE battle between “good vs evil”. Some of the high ranking American leaders themselves -like Curtis LeMay- have later admitted that they’d be trialled for war crimes had they lost the war.Just because the winning side gets to write the history does not erase the crimes they’ve committed or make them “good” by default. Your ignorance on that front does not justify me to stop writing about it.Sources:Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945: Amazon.co.uk: Michael R. Beschloss: BooksFull text of "Crimes And Mercies - The Fate Of German Civilians Under Allied OccupationHow three million Germans died after VE DayDefinitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung: "Ethnische Säuberungen" im östlichen Europa des 20. Jahrhunderts: NA: 9783825880330: Amazon.com: BooksThe Road Ahead: Lessons in Nation Building from Japan, Germany, and Afghanistan for Postwar IraqAmazon.com: An Economic and Social History of Western Europe since 1945 (9780582236455): Anthony Sutcliffe: BooksPolitical Migrations in Poland 1939-1948Political Migrations On Polish Territories (1939-1950)The Expulsion of the German Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World WarGermany: 2000 Years, Volume III: From the Nazi Era to the Present (Volume 3): Gerhart Hoffmeister, Frederic C. Tubach: Amazon.com: BooksAmazon.com: Population Resettlement in International Conflicts: A Comparative Study (9780739116074): Arie M. Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski: BooksHarvard University Press - Fires of Hatred, Norman M. NaimarkAmazon.com: Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing In East-Central Europe, 1944-1948 (The Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series) (9780742510944): Philipp Ther, Ana Siljak: BooksThe University of Chicago Press - The Treatment of Prisoners of War in World War II, S. P. MacKenzieICRC in WW II: German prisoners of war in Allied handsAmazon.com: The Death and Life of Germany: An Account of the American Occupation (9780826212498): Eugene Davidson: BooksThe President's Economic Mission to Germany and AustriaJCS 1067Turmoil and Tradition: A Study of the Life and Times of Henry L. Stimson (Francis Parkman Prize Edition): Elting E. Morrison: 9780965651967: Amazon.com: BooksThe Memoirs Of Cordell Hull Vol-2 : Max LernerAddendum: One final note for those who still believe the entire German population is to blame for enabling the Nazis.First, that is a fallacy. The Allied governments did more to enable the rise and establishment of Nazism in Germany with the Treaty of Versailles and their policies in the interwar decades, than any German could ever hope to do.Second, the Allied rhetoric that they would only accept German peace upon complete and unconditional surrender of Germany to fire up their populations and fuel sales of war bonds, also fueled the propaganda machine in Germany. German people rallied around the Nazis to continue the fight not because they believed in Nazism, but because they didn't want to live through the same two-decade misery and destitution they lived through at the end of WWI that came as a result of Allied nations exacting revenge. The misery and destitution that only ended 5 years before the start of the war. Faced with the utter destruction of everything around them and with the conduct of the Allies at the end of WWI so fresh in their memories, German people did the only thing they could do under the circumstances, they fought on. With every statement and post-war plan the Allied leaders made public, the grim reality that they'd be lucky to get even the post-WWI conditions became more and more true for the Germans. It wasn't about Nazism for most German people, it was about survival. To the point, the Allies proved the Nazi war propaganda correct by the way they treated Germany and German people in the aftermath of the war. The Allies betrayed their righteous cause with their treatment of the defeated in the two years after the end of hostilities and lost the moral high ground to call themselves "the good guys".We can and should condemn the Nazis as hard and as often as we can. But we should think twice before attributing Nazism to an entire people and non-chalantly calling it mercy that they were even allowed to exist after the war (as someone in the comments so chillingly did).

Being the OS that dominates supercomputing and used by companies like Google, Facebook definately makes Linux sexiest of the lot. And dual booting widely-used Linux distribution Ubuntu is the wisest decision you can make until you decide to get rid of Windows completely.Prerequisites-Download Ubuntu ISO fileDownload and install Rufus (First link below download)[OPTIONAL] Windows backup or ISO file itself if anything goes wrong (strongly recommended).Let’s get started-1) Users with preinstalled Windows (like you) need to turn off Fast boot and Secure boot first before proceeding further (Head to comments on this answer to see how it’s done).2) Open Rufus and browse the downloaded Ubuntu ISO file by clicking the "Select" button.3) Now click Start and wait till the status is "Ready". Your bootable USB is ready for installation.4) Now restart your PC and press ESC, F2, F8 or F10 during the initial startup screen.5) Now choose to boot from USB and select install Ubuntu.6) The following installation process is easy, just be careful when the "Installation type" comes. This is where things can go wrong. As you may end up formatting your C drive. Don’t worry and just follow the steps.Choose something else here.Now click on the add button to create a new partition where the installation will be taking place.Increase size to 30,000 MB (i.e. 30 GB), this would be sufficient for the installation.8) We have almost finished and you can proceed from here on your own.7) After the installation is completed restart your PC.Congratulations you won the battle and don’t forget, All hail the geek god, Linus Torvalds.

9The performance of the present NDA government is very nice .Yes.They managed to keep their promises they made during their election manifesto 2014.In its 2014 manifesto, the BJP listed a 50-point promise detailing more than 600 sub-promises.Some of the major political promises including those relating to building the Ram temple in Ayodhya, repealing Article 370 and introducing Uniform Civil Code remain unfulfilled due to coalition government and are most likely to find a place in the 2019 manifesto of the party as well.The all promises that the Modi government fulfilled -- partially or fully -- in 4.5 years of rule are described as below :1.Building IndiaThe BJP promised to build 100 new cities, enabled with the latest in technology and infrastructure."Developing 100 most backward districts of the country to bring them at par with other districts through prioritized and integrated development" was the promise made by the BJP.Status - Smart City project was launched when Venkaiah Naidu was the urban development minister before becoming the Vice-President. But the cities chosen by the Narendra Modi government are not from the most backward districts of the country.2.Home For AllThe BJP promised to ensure shelter to everybody equipped with electricity, water and toilets.Status - The Modi government recently claimed to have achieved 100 per cent village electrification.The household signNow, electrification work is being completed soon.Access to clean drinking water and sanitary toilets to everybody has also beeing achieved.3.Energy PolicyThe BJP promised to formuate a responsible and comprehensive 'National Energy Policy'.Status - Niti Aayog has framed a draft policy. .The Modi government has discussed it at ministerial level. But final approval of the National Energy Policy is still awaited.The Ujwala and DinDayal Yojana are executed well.4.Bullet TrainsThe BJP promised to launch "Diamond quadrilateral project of high-speed train network (bullet train)".Status - Partially met. The diamond quadrilateral project of bullet train network is nowhere to be seen anytime soon.But India and Japan have signed an agreement for running a bullet train on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor. The work is in progress at the design level at present on this $17 billion project.Train 18 and clean railway station with new train and tracks have been started.5.Checking Price RiseThe BJP promised setting up a price stabilisation fund. Rising prices were one of the major issues against the then Manmohan Singh government. The BJP further promised strict measures and special courts to stop hoarding and black marketing.Status - Even though the prices of commodities have not come down, the inflation rate has been kept under control by the Narendra Modi government. The average inflation rate is undereally 3 percent in January 2019.A Price Stabilisation Fund was set up in 2014-15 under Department of Agriculture but later transferred to the Department of Consumer Affairs in 2016.7.Fighting CorruptionThe BJP promised to establish a system, which eliminates the scope for corruption, promote technology-enabled e-governance -- minimising the discretion in the citizen-government interface.The Narendra Modi government seems to have scored well on this point.There has been no serious corruption charge against the ministers of the government. Scams in the allocation of government contracts have not been reported in the last four years. E-auctioning has been implemented.However, the government has not appointed a Lokpal as promised in the BJP's manifesto.8.Save Girl ChildThe BJP promised to launch a national campaign for saving the girl child and educating her -- Beti Bachao, Beti PadhaoStatus - The campaign was launched. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ministers have aggressively promoted Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign.9.Acid Attack VictimsThe BJP had promised setting up an Acid Attack Victims Welfare Fund to take care of the medical costs related to treatment and cosmetic reconstructive surgeries of such victims.Status - Welfare fund was set up but not with the promised name. The Central Victim Compensation Fund (CVCF) was set up in 2014 by the Modi government with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore from the 'Nirbhaya' fund.The CVCF supports victims of rape, acid attacks, human trafficking and women killed or injured in the cross-border firing. An additional financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh from the Prime Minister National Relief Fund (PMNRF) was also approved last year.10.Madrasa ModernisationThe BJP promised a National madrasa modernization programme in its 2014-manifest to strengthen and modernize minority educational systems and institutions.Status - The madrasa modernization programme was launched in 2014 when Smriti Irani was the Human Resource Development minister.11 More AIIMS , IITs. IIMs etc.The BJP promised to set up an AIIMS-like institute in every state.Status - New AIIMS IITs. IIMs announced for most of the states.Every two district got a medical college.The work is in progress at many places.13.Making India CleanThe BJP said in its manifesto that the government would ensure a 'Swachh Bharat' by Gandhiji's 150th birth anniversary in 2019.Status - Programme launched. But cleanliness is still a dream.14 Simplified Tax RegimeThe BJP promised to provide a non-adversarial and conducive tax environment and rationalised and simplified tax regime.Status - The Narendra Modi government introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that had been in the works since the early 2000s.15 Equal Pension For Ex-ServicemenThe BJP had promised to implement one rank one pension (OROP) for the retired army personnel and also appoint a Veterans Commission to address the grievances of veterans.Status - The Modi government implemented OROP but Veterans Commission is yet to take shape.Now, a look at the promises that were not kept by the Modi government.16 More Income For FarmersThe BJP had promised a minimum of 50 per cent profits over the cost of production for the farmersStatus - Partially fulfilled. The government increased MSP of crops .17.Empowering WomenThe BJP promised to give women the role of "Nation Builder". The party committed to 33 per cent reservation in parliamentary and state assemblies through a constitutional amendmentStatus - Not fulfilled due to demand of reservation for OBC women.19 Kashmiri PanditsThe BJP promised to ensure the return of Kashmiri Pandits to Jammu and Kashmir and abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution.Status - Not fulfilled due to not having majority in Rajya Sabha.20.Zero Tolerance on TerrorismThe BJP promised zero tolerance on terrorism, to revive the anti-terror mechanism, strengthen the role of NIA and put a system in place for swift and fair trial of terror-related cases.Status - The country witnessed some of worst terror attacks since 2014 - particularly at Uri and Pathankot.On the basis of evidence, the Modi government said to have kept the promises made by the BJP in its manifesto with regard to fighting terrorism and trial of terror-related cases.21.FDI In Multi-brand RetailThe BJP promised to bar FDI in the multi-brand retail sector.Status - The Manmohan Singh government allowed 51 per cent FDI in the multi-brand retail sector in 2012. The BJP promised to put an end to this rule. The Modi did not allow further FDI in multi-brand retail but did not scrap the existing policy.22.Doubling the number of courts and judges in the subordinate judiciary and extend fast-track courts to all layers of the judiciary.Status - Not fulfilled.23 JOBSThis is the most debated issue in the last four years. There are conflicting reports and claims about the record of the Modi government on the job front.The latest payroll data released by the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the National Pension System (NPS) show that around 22 lakh jobs have been created in the country in the last six months (up to February 2018). This gives the Modi government a major boost.Amit Shah has maintained that all the 125 crore Indians cannot get jobs. He has said the answer to the issue of unemployment is self-employment. He claimed 9 crore people had got self-employment through the Mudra scheme and other government schemes such as Stand Up India and Startup India.In a different interpretation of employment, both PM Modi and Amit Shah have reiterated that even selling 'pakodas' is also employment. It is better to sell 'pakodas' or be a labourer than to be unemployed, they maintain.24. PRICE RISEThe BJP manifesto said its government would take strict measures to check price rise and would set up special courts to stop hoarding and black marketing. However, no special courts have been set up so far.The BJP-led NDA government has failed to control the prices of petroleum products as well. The country is reeling under highest ever petrol and diesel prices.Besides the petroleum products, the prices of other commodities are also hovering on the higher side.25. BASIC NECESSITIESUnder the sub-head 'Building India', the BJP manifesto mentioned that its government would ensure shelter equipped with electricity, water, toilets and access to everybody. However, this is far from the reality in most parts of the country.26. BULLET TRAINThe BJP had promised to launch 'Diamond Quadrilateral' bullet train network project. However, it has made only a marginal headway on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai stretch.The ground-breaking ceremony was held for this stretch before the Gujarat Assembly election last year. Besides that, there has been no development for other stretches.27. BLACK MONEYThe BJP leaders had promised to bring back black money stashed in overseas banks.They brought many ru pees back by implementing insolvency and Bankruptcy law (IBC) law.The denomitization erased black money circulating in India.Every rupees is surveillance under banking sector so tax collection has been increased.28.WOMENThe manifesto said the government was committed to 33 per cent reservation in parliamentary and state assemblies through a constitutional amendment.The Women's Reservation Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha in March 2010 when the Congress-led UPA government was in power. The Bill is pending in the Lok Sabha.Despite enjoying a majority in the Lok Sabha, the Modi government has not brought the Bill for passage in the lower house.The Janata Dal is opposing it for including reservation for OBC women.The toilet construction and gas connection are being done in every home .29. AGRICULTUREAmong other promises, the manifesto talked about ensuring a minimum of 50 per cent profits over the cost of production for the farmers, reforming Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act 2003, implementing farm insurance and adopting a 'National Land Use Policy'.The APMC Act reforms and 50 per cent profit over production costs have not been implemented.The Agriculture ministry has released a law for Model Contract Farming Act, 2018 to create a regulatory and policy framework for contract farming.The BJP had also promised Agri-rail network .The reverberated rail has started.30. LOKPALDespite the passage of four years, the Modi government has not appointed a Lokpal.The Supreme Court judge and opposition party leader with Prime Minister has made advertisement for appointment for Lokpal.31. ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMSDiscussing administration, the manifesto said the hallmarks of BJP's governance model would be it being people-centric, policy-driven, time bound delivery and 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance'.The government is doing well in their timely executive strength.However, the size of Modi's council of ministers negates the hallmarks. At present, there are 73 ministers, excluding the prime minister. The PM can add only eight more ministers as the total number of the council of ministers, excluding him, cannot exceed 81, which is 15 per cent of the Lok Sabha's strength of 543 MPs, as per the Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act, 2004.After the second reshuffle of the Modi Cabinet on July 5, 2016, the size of his council of ministers grew to 78.It touched the same number as Manmohan Singh's council of ministers after last reshuffle.Thus NDA government has fulfilled 90 percent of their promises.Due to their government development works and strong national security measures this government will certainty come again in next general election.Thanks for appreciaction.