Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Cricket Finally !!

I tried hard to stay away from Writing anything on cricket( the game of course) despite the eventful (aweful some will say) happenings over the last week in World of Cricket. But if you live in the country where Cricket is THE Religion ,even atheist like me cannot turn blind eye to the godly happenings around . You hear about it everywhere- the Office cafeteria, project meetings, manager's cabin, your next cubicle , resturants, the office cab and so on and so forth. And every damn body has an opinion on this great religious catastrophe which has befallen on us Indians.

But the most interesting part as far as I am concerned is the CREATIVITY the cricket lovers are showing while bashing Team India. Like we had a series of morphed pictures showing the Cricketing heros( or zeros ?) doing mundane jobs like cooking, selling coconuts and evening making Chappals( guess who) in their post Cricket World Cup life. Got another email forward which blamed the Indian's Team exit on Team Bermuda since BErmuda lost to BAngladesh despite knowing that BErmuda's loss meant India's loss as well. But the funniest and most creative was blaming Lord Hanuman for India's exit from the World cup . How ? Had Lord Hanuman destroyed Sri Lanka with his poonch( tail) while saving Sita from the clutches of Ravana( he is the mother of all Villians as per Indian Mythology) , today Sri Lanka could have been non existent and you cannot be beaten by someone who is non existent :)

But what has happened cannot be changed and so I think we should focus our life back on things other than Cricket (like for example directly discussing work at Project meeting than digressing over why India Failed._ Also use our Creativity for the better and bigger things in life rather than brooding over 11 men in Sky Blue pyjamas losing to 11 men in Navy Blue ones.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

First Impressions:SpiceJet

After the horrifying experience my parents had had while travelling in Air Deccan , the India's self aclaimed "best" low cost carrier(LCC) , I had very minimal expectations from another LCC SpiceJet which I was boarding for the first time . I had already prepared myself for a delayed flight by booking a flight at the safe time of 5 pm even though I did not have to be at the destination before 8pm .

But the journey with Spicejet was indeed a pleasure . The flight was bang on time and departed bangalore at 5 pm . Also the cabin crew was really friendly and in flight service matched the services provided by the Full Service Airlines except that Spicejet did not offer any food on board. The passengers were offered candies at the start of the flight and later were served water. Constrast this with the Air deccan flight on the same route who not only delayed the flight by an amazing 6 hours as I have already written but also did not offer any inflight services.

If a LCC can maintain timelines and provide some basic amenities, I guess it is a paisa vasool and eventhough you end up paying about 300 bucks more for than the other LCCs,I believe it is worth the salt ( and money).

Last Day Syndrome

The Public Issue Advertisement in the newspaper said : "Hurry !! Offer closes today." The MBA institute website calling for Applications for the Academic year yyyy says "Last Date for the Application to reach us : xx-mon-yyyy " and the shopping mall announces the last day of it's Annual Sale "Clearance Sale Closes Today. Last chance" . Ask the mall owner who doled out the ad about the Statistics with the respect to the Sales on the last day and the answer you get is that the LAST DAY sale exceeds the total sales in the whole clearance Sale period. The same story repeats with the number of applications received in the last week of the application deadline exceeding the total number of applications received prior to the last week of deadline.

So why this Last Day/week syndrome and why is it that we wait till the last day or moment for finishing up unfinished tasks? The syndrome implies that even though we have ample time to send the application before the deadline, we invariably tend to procastinate to the last day. This mass human pchyology is exploited by marketers alike and they dole out special "offers" for the last day shoppers. So Why do we procastinate ? Well, the majority of the hoi polloi tend to work under priority and deadlines . The sale is on till Sunday(deadline) and Sunday anyway is boring with no TV shows, why not get to home on the Weekday and watch my favorite TV show(priority). Since the application can wait till xx-mon-yyyy(deadline) , why not wait till then and in the meanwhile finish up the other chores(priority) which are more important ? ( Now it is a different matter that the important chore could be a must watch Saif-Rani flick) . And on xx-mon-yyyy or a couple of days before , you will do all you can so that the application reaches the destination on time since that is the priority for the day. ( Like for example sending the application using SpeedPost instead of ordinary mail)

So what's the bottomline ? Well manage your deadlines and priorities and you will not need to rush on the last day to the shopping mall only to realize that the best things on offer have already been taken by the early shoppers.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Rashtriya Prodyogiki Sansthan, Warangal

These words written on a large black colored arch mirroring the Kakatiya Dynasty's architecture, BLARED at me at the main gate when I visited my alma matar for the first time since it got christened to the current name of National Institute of Technology from the Old Regional Engineering College.(REC) . So the first impression was that things are changing. Noticed that the main acadamic building was getting a facelift with a new glass facade much like our corporate offices. Also saw a new "chip Design centre" had come up next our good old classrooms, department Of Met. Engineering was renamed as Department of Met. and Mat. Sci.( we , the batch of 2001/2002 must take the credit for this change) .Both the Chemical and Met. department now boasted a first floor. A hostel block was built right next to our old 4th block.

At the end of my 1 hour physical tour, I was pretty impressed with the changes happening. But one visit to the Met./Chem department and all my impressions were washed away . Here is why .The first floor extension has been done pretty decently but alas are not serving their purpose!! . They were built to facilitate the development of new Material Laboratory and an advanced centre for materials Research. The purpose they are serving now ? Classrooms for the B.Tech 2nd, 3rd and 4th students!! so that all students can stay in the Department( Straight from the mouth of the HOD) Again the state of some of the existing labs especially the Physical Met lab and the FT lab are delibilated to say the least . Also noticed that there was not a single faculty added and the same old teachers were teaching the same old subjects in the same old style. Did hear of some new subjects like Polymer Technology but these are acutally not new as these were elective subjects in our time and now have been made a core course. ( Dint actually sit in a classroom but did notice Dr.C teaching the 3rd year with half the class sleeping exactly the same way we were doing about 5 yrs back) .

Apart from departments, the laidback approach at the Acads/cash section of the administration made me yawn. When I went in to the Office at 10am, I was told to come back at 10:30 am as "saheb nahi aaye hai". And at 11am, the clerks in the acad section were off for coffee !! and Of course like a typical sarkari office nothing moves without paying our "Saarus" some chai -paani. And the pace at which the office works, it was as if the office staff had the whole world under their control . Compare this with the hectic fast pace activity at our city offices with people shouting, papers and ideas moving around and u get the complete picture. Guess some of the staff still believe it is the 1990s.........

At the end of it all, I did notice one positive happening. A graffiti pasted at the acad section on the same day with a group of Students soliciting "revolutionary ideas" from the students to make NIT the happening place. Obviously the students too realize that being among the elite of the Engineering Talent in India, they deserve something more and they indeed need to keep pace with what is happening outside of the NIT walls and not fall into the laidback trap/pattern of the college.

PS: To the Director, NITW. Just changing the name and buildings facade won't do . What needs to change is the attitude of the people hods,profs, clerks and saarus included. That is what a real "change" is and that is why "change Management" is such an important management subject.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Orkut Zindabad !!

Yesterday was the 26th Anniversary of the day I stepped into this world. The day was rather mundane with me having to work late night in the office and it probably was my first "dry" Janamdin in the last 6 years. But courtesy Orkut, the day was brightened up by the amazing number of wishes I got not only from the people I know but also from the people whom I honestly don't know (in true sense.) The latter group are the people like my school classmates who I can claim to have acquaintances with and are people whom I have actually not met/talked physically for years now . So I have an image/perception of these folks which is 10 years or older and would love to meet these folks and know their story of last 10-12 yrs or so. But alas the distances make things so difficult.

But back to the point here, it is wonderful to get birthday wishes from these friends with whom I have spent my early "Happy Birthdays". Still can remember the day in school where you were "the" someone special, for you did not have to wear the wretched White Shirt-Blue Shorts - Black shoes uniform. Instead you could be at your best wearing "wrangler" jeans trouser (No shorts here) , a colorful T-Shirt and a so called Sports shoes. The Teacher would call you near the "blackboard" and the whole class would sing "happy B'day to you" only for you. ( OK I know we all sang that song in full volume only because we would get the melody or caramel Toffee at the end of the it) . Add to that you could be at your naughtiest best on day as the teachers will not scold/beat you . (After all it is your b'day). It was a top of the world feeling.

My heartfelt thanks to sites like Orkut, facebook,myspace and now the "tagged" site for getting me connected these special friends of mine. These sites have helped us connect with our long last friends and have done their bit to make the distances irrelevant. Of course it helps that these sites have a Birthday Remainder calendar else I sure would not remember any of those birthday dates. ( I hate dates )

Monday, March 12, 2007

A Note(able) Story !!

Ever wondered what happens to the crisp shiny currency note which you get when you withdraw cash from an ATM ? and what makes it lose the sheen it is born with?? Allow me to spill the beans .........

8 am : A the bunch of crisp notes fresh out of ATM slip into one of white collared salaried person's wallet where they experience their first wrinkling experience . The saheb boards a taxi to get to his workplace. Out of comes one of these notes ( the unluckiest one I would say ) and the saheb pays for the ride. Here the note which is already a two fold becomes a 4 fold as the taxiwaala stuffs the note into his beedi/ciggi/pan/Gutkha/pan masala filled pocket. The "Note" now has to play a forced holi with his new companions and loses all the polish and make up which had been given to him by our Central bank.

10 pm:After the day-long holi-play , the t-driver gives this note to a barmen at a local wine shop and gets his daily dose of "high" feeling. Here our great note first gets to feel the liquor and liquid and tries to wash his holi color with it .But alas the color not only spreads like a spirit but also adds it's own fine touch by concocting a nice color cocktail . Thankfully,before the note is completely soaked with liquor, the wise barmen puts it into the cash Register.

11:30 pm : Time for the bar to close. ( ok this is true only in the Silicon Valley of India. ) . Out comes the note again, now completely red . Note counting and money accounting Time folks.This time it is barmen's saliva which rubs salt to the wound . Add to that our barmen puts a elastic band over our a bunch of notes and even writes something on it. ( You can buy 1o notebooks with me says our friendly note) .

10 am next day : The note is back in the bank to be deposited by the now sober barmen . In comes a Seth asking for hardcash. Out from the teller's salivation and the seth's counting machine , it is now being used by the seth to buy some expensive jewellery from a jeweller. The jeweller says this note is too soiled to be accepted. Sait's says " Bhai lelo na . Agar koi nahi laga to mujhe hee wapas karna , mein kal aayoonga phir" . and so goes our note into the cash register ( again) .

11 am : chai time in the jeweller's shop . bhai 10 cutting chai lana . Chai waala is paid for our by now unrecognizable note. Chai waala says " Saheb nahi chalega yeh note"........ Jeweller says " Bhai lelo. Agar nahi chalega to mein hee le loonga. Roz to chai deto ho" ........ and thus the story continues until one day our note gets dressed (laminated) in plastic. And a typical Gujju businessmen pays for his lunch with the same cliche line " Chalega bhai . Nahi chalega to.................."

PS : To know why I am referring to gujjus here, just visit a pan shop in Ahmedabad.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Liz-Arun Contra View

The crux or essence of life I believe should be "view" and "contra Views" . I say this because for every opinion you have on a certain thing be it a movie, a political event, a book, bang comes another opinion which does not agree fully with your view and sometimes completely negates the essence of your view ( CONTRAVIEW ). And so just as I was kicking the media's ass over Liz-Arun marriage came a rather different viewpoint from none other than our Socialist Congress Leader and Tourism Minister Ambika Soni. Make India a "Marriage Tourism" destination !! by glorifying the marriage customs of India and making it attractive to the Foreigners.

Well does sound interesting .. if Yoga and Kamasutra could be marketed to the western world, guess the Indian Marriage should be a cakewalk for us ....... given that perhaps the only place where we conservative Indians really come out of our shell ,show off ,create a huge noise( literally at that ) and even dance our way thru ( remember parents chiding teenagers for visiting a Disc) is perhaps the great Indian Weddings. The pomp and grandeur of the Indian Marriages seems justified since the brides and the grooms in India get this chance to splurge and showoff just once in Life :) . Lucky westerners :)

PS: The last line is changing now but we still have a long way to go and the line still applies to 98% of Indians.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Liz-Arun, Prince, Ash-Abhi etc ...

Tune into Aaj Tak , Times Now , CNN-IBN, xyz, abc channels over the last 2-3 days ........ the only thing u hear is that "industrialist" ARun Nayar and "Actress" Liz oops Elizabeth Hurley getting married in desi style in some Palace in Jodhpur ......I dont understand what great these two people have done to India and do they really deserve the media attention they are getting in India ??? the so called Industrialist Arun owns a non descript Software company which the software powerhouses of India are not even aware of .......

The only guys to be blamed are the Media specially the ones like Aaj tak who started this Sensationalization of news .....remember Prince ? the 5 year old who got a 48 hr celebrity pass ??.. yet another example is the ash- Abhishek marriage . on the day the marriage was announced Aaj tak followed the Big B wherever he went, went into the family history of both Ash and Abhishek, how they met blah blah ....... simple question who cares ?? I guess there must b some solid TRP data to support something like this and so the hapless people like me who want see "actual" news are left with no options !! guess WWW is a better option than the idiot box....

Saturday, March 3, 2007

But Why ?

Yesterday I landed up with something which I had never expected,never had prayed for and I dont know why I got it !!!....wont tell you what .. suffice that it was something which was good ....... but on the other hand .. there is something for which I have been praying for a long time , working hard towards that sacrificing my weekends and nites ....... and have been expecting that some day that will happen .......but somehow that one thing is not happening however hard I try !!! ......

Can someone explain this to me please???? whoever said work hard and the rewards will follow was somehow missing something .. agreed I worked hard even for the thing I landed up with ...... but I worked HARDER on this thing I did not and have not got ....... so what's the justification here ?