Back to business after a long gap of 7 months .Feels like I m a stranger to my own blog ;-)
Not long ago i had posted something onmy two yearstint with this industry and I don’t believe that was a year ago.Today I enter into the fourth year of my career, with new dreams carrying forward and letting loose other aspirations.
Anyways after an eventful first half of the year, I finally felt of writing something. All these months have been filled with emotions with some very good friends leaving the firm, few challenges with new responsibilities creeping in and also had some disturbing thoughts which might/would have played a big role in my future.
Although I am happy to be sticking with one of the greatest firms of the world in terms of innovation and its social responsibility, I feel like looking beyond the obvious, (Yeah!!The grass always looks greener on the other side),
Life has not been mundane in these three years. Few changes I noticed this year are…I started sleeping a lot..(bade bade sapney dekhne ke liye jyaada soona padta hai)…reading a bit….cursing the manager…and of course a new Citibank ATM in the cafeteria
Its quite bizarre how few words that are used in practical life keep us bolted to our work @ office, Few years ago whenever i heard the word "Sev", the first thing that struck my mind was "bhujiya Sev”, but now I ask .Sev1 or Sev2??...’Ticket ‘was something which is bought, here it’s something which should be resolved.. Being accustomed to some phrases like “fix it:” “debug” “open a ticket” “do it by EOD” “update the status”…I have almost forgotten to say “miss you”...” good night” and “ Keep smiling”..
With the thought of higher studies luring me each day, I am on a voyage with my feet on two boats. The worst part is …..I can’t swim!!
I have been working on weekends for a month now and I don’t know how much of it is worthy. But last weekend I came to the office in an intention to work…but before starting my work I was just randomly going through the Wikipedia (which I usually do in the office hours) I looked at the profile of a noted commentator- Harsha Bhogle.
I knew Harsha as a Hyderabadi, an IIM-A graduate, a noted Cricket commentator, but to my surprise I found him as a very good speaker on “Path to Excellence”.
I happened to follow the link where I found Harsha take a session for IIM A students.
This is a 60min video which I would suggest everyone to watch.
I have heard many Saints/Gurus in the early morning TV shows but everything went over my head. but I feel what Harsha said stays in my head for some time as he explained through Sports and his personal experience...
Till today I watched cricket as just a game .and after watching this video, I found what the Game Cricket could actually teach you.
He explains about luck and hard work in cricketing terms and that’s an awesome comparison.
“The harder u try the luckier u get”…
This is something which enlightens!!!
Please look at the following link to visit the video.
Its appraisal time and we get lots of funny things to hear from our managers. We work day in and out for the entire year and yet we find ourselves responsible for our ratings..
Well I m done with my appraisal discussion and my firm asks not to disclose the discussion as it is confidential…Well who cares!! I would like to present the funny version of my discussion with my manager…
I was busy organizing the playlist for my windows media player, the dude enters and asks me “Santosh, If you are not busy could we have a 1-1 discussion”…
No! I wish I said that...”Yes!! Of course!! Let’s pass time...
Mgr: Please sit Santosh!!
Me: …… (I should have said thanks, rude!! Ah it’s ok!)
Mgr: So, You must know why we are here…
Me: Yes, so shall we conclude and get out?
Mgr: How is your work?
Me:It sucks!
Mgr: Well...gr8...So you got a clear idea what u are doing..Gud
Mgr: Coming to your appraisal…
Me: (smiles.. rather laughter)
Mgr: Santosh, what have you done different in this year other than your regular work... you know. Something different
Me: Mmmmm….different matlab..I downloaded all the latest audio within the timelines,
Responded quickly to my friends who pinged me on gtalk. wrote some meaningless blogs,
Practiced flirting with gals of other teams….and attended many interviews for other
companies : -)
Mgr: I meant innovation….
Me: (WTF…I thought)…mmmmm…..naa
Mgr: Any organizational givebacks?
Me: What do u mean?
Mgr: I mean how this company is benefited by u?
Me: Oh yeah!,I buy two Smart cards (Coffee cards) every month..
Mgr: Ok. Do you have any problems.. or something you want to discuss and sort out?
Me: (You!)Yes. Sometimes when I select option 4 in the vending machine for Badam milk ,the badam nuts get stuck and I hardly get half a cup of milk…
Mgr: Come on Santosh be serious!!
Me: (Should I slap you?)...Ok,
Mgr: I have received your feedback from the team and it was pretty good..
Me: Thanks. (They send the same feedback every year…)
Mgr: Any more questions?
Me: Do u have any friends in banking companies. ?
Mgr: Yes. .I have friends in CBSH, XEMA,
Me: I will send my resume by EOD...Please review and send it across. Thanks.
Mgr: Questions related to our firm. Your future in this company….
Me: Stopped him. Did u get ur rating ?
Mgr: So I found you as as good resource and your rating is .. ? Are u satisfied..?
Me: Satisfied..? I m overwhelmed..(p****d off !! ) I can’t express my feeling in words…(Come out.. I will see you).....I did not expect such a good rating… You are god (bloody dog!!)..
Mgr: Thanks Santosh..for your valuable time
Me: Yeah..that was fun…!!
And now...If you found foul words used or something disgusting….then
“I believe your appraisal meeting is not yet over!!! Hahahaa “
India, the biggest democracy of the world, one of the most balanced economies and the richest in cultural heritage has truly been a land of balanced features. Hence could be aptly compared to a beautiful flower pot with colorful flowers.
However in the recent past, this flower pot has been facing severe threats from inside the country, along the border and from the other side of the border, thus ruining the balance to some extent.
The 26/11 Bombay attack is just a testimony .A lot happened before that and few still happening after that.
In the name of judicial trial we are just feeding terrorists, be it Azmal Kasab or Afzal Guru. Everyone is evident that they would be hanged till death.
It’s been 8 years since the parliament attack took place...Yet Afzal guru, the main culprit is not punished. Leave about Kasab.It’s just over a year for him.
Though in this year long judicial trial we have earned evidence about the involvement of Pakistan based terrorists, what did we really gain.Atleast did we console the families of the 174 people who lost their lives. Does paying a mere 2 lakh for the dead would help the cause?? The families would have been happier had kasab been hanged some 10 months ago.
Let’s assume that Pak acts on it and punishes the responsible ones. But does it end there?
It would be interesting then to see what does our politicians (so called Leaders) do…Will they keep quite and satisfied? If they do, it depicts that our EGO has satisfied and which resembles that the peaceful fight we are putting across is just to satisfy our ego…Hope it doesn’t turn out this way.
Terrorism and Naxalism are hurting a lot not only to life and property but also to the public relations and
Social development... How?
Reports suggest that Rs.31 crore has been spent on Kasab in the past year. The money could have been used to save over 600 children who died of heart diseases.
It is estimated that 6000 people have been killed by Naxals in the last 2 decades. .and over 240 in chattisgarh in 2009 alone. This number is much more than the victims of Bombay attacks.
What did we do if a political party attacks Bihar/UP students in Maharashtra, burnt buses and other public property? Who took action against ‘Raj’ when a Bihar boy died in the attack…?
We keep quiet when maoists blast our schools, buses, Police stations, yet we expect them to change, we provide employment and forgive them once surrendered!! Isn’t this a brilliant strategy for the unemployed… huh?
Can you name a naxal who was hanged? If a foreigner attacks us, then it’s a national issue and it’s taken as a stain in the Indian Security System…and if one of us attacks…its just NEWS!!
Why is this difference in approach? A culprit is a culprit and he deserves to be punished.
It’s time to act tough .Its not just enough to pay homage to the three top cops or the other innocent killed in Bombay , its not just enough to build a memorial or lit candles around it on every anniversary. Its time to control rather act on it on a serious note...
Corruption and injustice will help these anti social elements flourish. It’s never late and we could make the system blossom again by taking few effective steps
Do we have solution for this? Who should take charge? Police?
Yes.Police… He is the one in my view will be the key in this change.
Just physical fitness and an average of 50-55% in education isn’t just sufficient .Moreover being a police is not doing a job for money. It’s social service.
We bribe a traffic Police (with a 50 rupee bill) who charges 1000 bucks for not having a PUC.
Will we bribe if the fine itself is 50? And most importantly the sum goes to the Govt.
How many of us pay the tax without deceiving (duplicate medical bills, rental agreements etc.,) the Govt? Will we do the same thing if the tax is low?
Instead, a mandatory tax cut (no exemptions) should be made based on the salary for all employees and this is for providing proper wages/technology/weapons for the Police.
I may not be an economist, I may not have sufficient knowledge about the tax systems and I may not understand the serious aspects of police or military recruitment systems. .but I am educated enough to understand its failures and consequences, I m sensitive enough to understand the emotions of the society. All the above questions are raised by a helpless Indian in me.
P.S: I have used the word “Bombay” 3 times…Is there someone here to object this and ask me to say Mumbai ;-)
Winter started in Gurgaon and I could have a pleasant sleep as the noisy ceiling fan in my bedroom had to rest. It’s October and a not a bad time to visit a hill station…
We (office friends. I hate the word ‘colleague’, don’t know y) had planned to visit ‘Nainital’ .After several discussions and plans we finalized a long weekend for a comfortable 3 day trip.
After ‘Bhai’ dropped himself at the last moment, Saurabh, Nilesh, Thrinath and I booked a Tata Indica, and started our journey on a Friday night. Saurabh sat next to the driver as I could not sacrifice my sleep.
It was a wonderful journey from Delhi with winter winds and fog travelling together.
The road was hardly visible and the drowsy driver made sure to steal our sleep.
We reached Nainital the next morning.
After visiting few of the local places we had to travel some distance on a scenic ghat road The driver assuming himself a Michael Schumacher drove as fast as he can overtaking every other vehicle on the road. It reminded me of the climax scene of “Tokyo drift”.
Our frequent efforts in reminding him, that the Ferrari hez driving is actually a Tata Product, went in vain. This bloke was very good with his steering, but how many times have we seen cars crashing on a well built F1 tracks? And this after all was a stone studded tar road…
We had a break to have Chai and it was my turn to sit next to the driver.
A Toyota Innova was coming in the opposite direction .This foreign branded car with a couple of newly married couples was speeding towards us. Within no time our car and theirs collided!! Banggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!
All the mountains and the long trees watched this collision silently. Silence prevailed in both the vehicles for the next one minute…
My head struck to the windshield which eventually cracked. I got down the car and had spit a spoonful of blood. For a moment I thought that my head broke into two.
Obviously it wasn’t!!
The radiators of both the cars were blown out and the jaws of both the drivers hammered.
The guys sitting behind were safe (enough to take a photograph of the wreckage) and had minor scratches.I could hardly speak…
The couples in the other vehicles were also injured. What a Honeymoon!!
That day could have been my last day had our Desi car’s strong body and trust worthy brakes failed! Thanks Tata.
This accident of mine did not find a place in the next day’s NEWS. May be because Rahul Gandhi wasn’t travelling with us or may be because it wasn't a BMW. !!!
It’s been 6 months since I came out of Gurgaon and now I feel like writing something about this city, a so called “Super Metro” or “MillenniumCity”
The resplendent express way with sky scrappers on either sides, fantabulous malls and not to mention beautiful and hot professionals (read as “*****”...well u know what to read).
Gurgaon, a super metro in the making welcomes you with the Asia’s longest toll plaza and “The Ambience”, India’s biggest mall (with 1 km shopping on each floor).
The city is mostly owned by Real estate giant DLF owning about a property of 50 thousand crores…there’s is no wonder if some one calls this city as “DLF-Gurgaon”.
I started my IT career from this city. I met surprises from day One. The peddling rickshaws,
September’s heat (42 deg), Power supply lasting just 6 hrs a day, and daily headlines about robbery/rape/murder … Staying in “The Vikram Lodge” for 2 days was the worst experience of all.
One can imagine what the situation of a guy who travelled 1000 miles to stay there cud have had.
As time went by, nothing but I changed..... New friends, fun at work and the mall culture helped in getting along with the city.
I still remember the movie “Chak de India” as my first movie in Gurgaon, rather than a shahrukh starrer. Walking 5 km @ midnight enjoying the December cold (2 deg) from “Sahara mall” to “Jalvayu vihar” after watching “Taare Zameen Par” with Krishna was a thrilling (rather chilling) experience.
My weekend travel to Delhi, passing time at CP, Sarojiini market,waiting for a bus in Dhuala-kuan and adjusting in an auto-rikchaw at IFFCO Chowk…….kya mazedar lyf tha….
Woh Gobi ke paranthe @ Sec-41 Mkt, Veg Momos, OM sweets ...…..Metropolitan, City Centre, Grand, Ambience, MGF…and finally.. DLF Silokhera :)
Don’t think ki …”yeh saaala gurgaon kaam karne gaya tha ya…khane peene aur maza karne....” ..nahi..maine kuch khela bhi hai
The practice sessions for the Cricket Tournament, Tasty snacks at Jitin’s residence and a Man of the match award….and many more moments to cherish..,
Well I don’t miss all these things …but I definitely will never forget them.
