shades of Glasses

A hundred years back, if there was an idea of a machine that would produce cold air, and said that I would have to pay for it, I probably would told that person that he needed a bath and would have tossed the idea aside. Today however there is a premium on the very same cool air that is produced by a machine.

Today, we see some ideas as being stupid, idiotic, or ridiculous, but have we ever thought that somewhere we are looking at that idea through a colored glass. A glass that has been colored by our experiences and ideas in their life;

Each one of us have a colored glass in front of us, through which we look at the world, the glass could have been colored through our experiences, emotions, and day to day lives that we live.

What-o-what could help us clean these glasses, leaving it clear and clean.

IT Karmchari

Yeah…..Work and More!!!

How many times have we said this to people who ask us the quintessential question – How is Life?

Well, I have been thinking about what life should hold for an Aam Hindusthani IT Worker.

Let’s first get the ideal scenario in perspective:

Mon – Fri: Pretty Routine,
Get Up, Exercise (Maybe), Travel to office, work, work, work, evening work, late evening traffic, home, shower, dinner, TV, sleep.

Hmmm… not too interesting, but, there’s nothing much that can be done on this front; except philosophically give in or start enjoying work more!

Sat-Sun: Sleep, Movie, Dinner out with the family, or maybe have a drink in some horribly expensive pub with jarring music, and badly dressed page 3 people,
Clean house, do up wardrobe etc, etc, etc….

Hey, By no means is this BAD, its great, we are lucky to be the .01% of the financial Diaspora of this great democratic country.

Anyway, what to do?

I m stuck…. I don’t really know.

To be able to do anything that is uncommon seems to be too much effort, or that there is no availability for any of this stuff, or is too expensive.

i was driving through one of the villages on the Medchal Highway, it was a Saturday, and I saw in an open ground, what they would call in telugu “ Santa” as in a bi-weekely market. Where you get to shop, barter cows, socialize, network and maybe check out the cute village bells from the neighboring villages.. heh!

Now, that was something to look forward to, to me, if I was a villager I would have looked forward to that,

Now, except for the occasional movie, I don’t know what else to look forward to….

I will keep my eyes open this week, to see what else can be done, within budget, and sure will be fun… and report back in a week….

What's the Greatest Motivator

I have always wondered, what’s the greatest motivator?

Is it …God as an entity, the devil, hell, pain, fear, religion, heaven, bliss,….what it is?

At a philosophical level – it could be anything; I guess it varies from individual to individual…

From a corporate standpoint, I believe its fear that works wonders….

I would like to clarify something here; fear need not always be bad, sometimes it is also good to be afraid;

As they say, the only thing that keeps you alive in a tough situation apart from hope is the fear of death; I m not saying that it ever has to get that extreme, however it’s a thought.

I say, fear is the greatest motivator, fear makes you a better worker, it makes you more alert, less lethargic, keeps you from drowning.

Now, the question is… how do we use this very powerful motivator and channel it in a positive way, into areas where required. An analogy I would like to use here is like; gasoline –is extremely volatile, flammable, however when used to fuel an engine, it becomes the very life and essence of it.

Just a thought….

I still oppose dictatorship and communism….

Cognizentian

Hello World!!!

Let us assume, you are sitting in a restaurant where, information is your food.

For the Starters & Main course:

Its that time of the year when, every associate who has worked his behind off and/or lazed it through the year start to show sudden bursts of energy, enthusiasm and try to stalk out their manager's (what i would like to call) AIR TIME.
Weather you have worked or not, weather you have spent time doing justice to the money that is being paid to you, mostly goes all out the window. Somehow all you want is a great review with an ever better raise.

hmmmm... unfair?

Absolutely!

Per Me, its a simple philosophy, all you have to do is do the work that you are supposed to do, a little more or a little less is acceptable... after all you are human. When i say this i do not mean that its only work and no FUN. The fun side if most definitely what should be done, its also part of your JOB.

All i would like to say is, stay calm, stay cool. You will get what you deserve, if not today tomorrow. I am not overly religious, but i would like to take assimilate and impart some of the Awesome pearls of wisdom that has come down to us through the channel called Religion.
Here i quote Sai Baba, he says that every person has to have two Qualities, and they are "Shraddha" and "saburi". What is means is "Respect" (in General for everything) and "Patience" (Towards Anything). I for one believe that these two qualities and a summation of them encompass most of what is agreed to in society as being "Good".

Coming back to the point of People getting reviewed - The point to take away here is firstly, respect what you have, there are crores of People out there who would give their left arm for what you have, yet you disrespect the entire function and look for something better. Secondly, Patience - You will get what you deserve, if not today tomorrow. Rome was not built in a day; Caesar did not become Caesar with one fist fight. I m sure you will know what I m speaking about....

Dessert:

I overheard someone say, "I wish we had a campus where everyone could work, we can have so much fun, NA ", to that I thought - Yea Right! Agreed!
If you are reading the blog, Friend, I’ll say; Try reading the Main sheet of the paper, not the last page of the supplement where they show ample stretches of skin partially covered by something worse, badly designed, designer wear.

Fun my Friend Is here and NOW!

to blog or not..

ok, i m officially psyched,
i seem to have writer's block, which i don't think i have ever had before.
can't seem to write anything, or think of anything.
what's wrong with me....

maybe i need some inspiration, positive inspiration....

i'll get back to ya all once i get that inspiration,

I am my own GrandFather

" I married a widow who had a grown-updaughter. my father, who visited us quite often, fell in love with mystep daughter and married her. hence, my father became my son-in-law,and my step-daughter became my mother. some months later, my wife gavebirth to a son, who became the brother in law of my father as well asmy uncle.

The wife of my father, that is my step daughter, also had a son.
thereby,i got a brother and at the same time a grandson. my wife is mygrandmother, since she is my mother's mother. hence, as i am my wife's husband and at the same time her step-grandson; in other words, i am my own grandfather. "

After a tough day's crappy work, this is the best one i have read...

WOW! its a Tuesday....

Its finally a tuesday, after a gruelling monday living through a party on sunday night. well the biggest of surprises was that "THE BOSS" came home for the first time.. did not think he would.... le me give you a small intro, Rajneet Kumar... he was my first manager, awsome person, probably the best manager in the world and learnt a lot from him.. total bindass character, get's cranky once in a while, but, hey, he's also human....bottom line, i'm a FAN!


some tips at work....

Be pally with the Boss!!!IT helps


hehe.. nice one ..i like it....

well,
if you are reading this, i m sure you know about the food chain, well there are not too many animals that end up at the end of the natural food chain ( i'm saying natural cause humans do it the unnatural way) well sharks as you all konw are at the end of the food chain, they do not get humted, there is no animal in the natural animal kingdom that is the shark's enemy....or predator

taking up from there, comparing it to the IT industry, who is the shark!!! think about it...
is it the CEO, but the CEO is also part of a pecking order, who is it, or is there no one at all....

Where's the real money!!!

have any of you thought about art, i mean this world is full of hungry people, people dying due to wars and the stuppidity of some of our world leaders, especially like the one ruling the most powerful country.
yet, there are people out there investing in art, investing billions of dollars. this got me thinking, why do they do this???
cant they go buy a car, or buy a plane or something, why ART?

so here i am looking at some real nice renissance paintings, and wait.. see the paintings yourself, and then think




here's another one


and another one

anyway, as i sit here and try and figure out how to save my taxes and have enough money to buy a nice car for my kid when and if i have one.... i fugure, if there is some jackass who is willing to pay a fortune for a painting, why not invest...

Join the Dark Side

that's me on the right corner, its just the starting. I m moving into the dark side. Bad guys have all the fun!!! so why the hell can't i be the bad guy. why should everyone want to be the good guy.

anyway, the picture here has my whole BA team

Starting from the left : Samana (Ali's Little Sister), Ali (BA with Cogni), Sarabjeet (BA with Cognizant), Sarabjeet's wife.
now the right file ME in front, rajas, his girlfriend, neelam, and pradeep.

Scary Shit

your in the middle of a war, in one of the battles, you seem to be on the backfoot, loose some men here and there and basically make some tactical mistakes. well that's ok. but what happenes when you are faced with what you think will be the battle that can win you the war, and know that your chances of winning are not great.

what do you do then, where do you pull the strength and the courage to go on, how do you get it...
and then we have to move to spirituality.. to keep ourselves sane.

but what if there was no spirituality, and only logic prevailed. do what makes sence and only what's right. IMAGINE.

the abstract painting that i have included at the top speaks of a sinking ship, in seas of blood.

Survival is a MUST, yet losing seems inavitable

The Long Walk

I was thinking about the "quintessential" question, the question about GOD and his existance.
what intreagues me here is that almost everyone believes that this supernatural power exists, and we pray to that existance, pray that we be happy, and that we see no pain and no dificulties.
yet there is pain and difficulty, some have it easy, and some have it very tough.
when some kid dies in the earthquake, it makes me wonder what wrong that child has done to deserve the punishment of death. when Lawers using the flawed laws, by our forefathers, destroy someone's life, have fun doing it, and thank god for alloving them to do it......makes me feel sick.
the argument of "Karma" and "Prarabdham" seem to keep popping up every time i look in this direction. yet i do not see any proof. people get what they strive for, and strive hard enough.

there is an interesting story, which i think will always remember, it goes like this...

Plato's student walks up to plato one day and tells him that he wants to be successful, and wanted to understand success.
This student was callous in his attitude, in other words, very lazy; and was not motivated.
Plato saw this in him, asked the student to follow him to the river. waded into the river with the student following him till they were waist deep.
PLato then asked the student to take a deep breath, go into the water and then hold his breath; the student did so.
just as the student was about to come out of water, Plato pushed him back, submerging him, not alloving him to come up to take a breath of air. The student started trashing around, a minute later he pulled the Student out of the water and asked him... " when you were in the water, what was the only thought in your mind", the student replied "all i could think of was to take a breath".
Plato then told him that, if you want success as badly as you wanted air, then success will be yours"

First Day at Work - feel Like a Rock Star

today after a long time i again felt like updating my blog, its my first day at work, in Cognizant Hyderabad. Really liked the place and the people. my team is awsome, surprisingly where ever i go "SNIST" alumni keep popping up, and surprisingly enough they all know me, my current team of BA for the health care vertical also has one of my juniors from "SNIST". imagine juniors, i m a senior now, makes me feel old in more than one way.

my induction in chennai was quite eventful, with most of my "buddies" up to their usual ways, old habbits die hard huh??? anyway learnt a lot about the company and about the culture of the company.

well, that's that for now...

i-LIFE

This is one of my favourete calvin and hobbes cartoon, its normally calvin that gets picked by hobbes, but in this one its the other way round, maybe bill waterson wanted to give calvin a chance to get the upper hand for once.

i cant help but feel nostalgic about college, its going to get over in the next 19 days, after which each one of us sails of in our own boats to live our life, the one year that i have spent here, the emotions you go through, the amount you mature, the things you see, the people you meet, and then there is the parties, movies, ups and downs, exams and assignments et al.

i actually want to write a book about my experiences in college, but i dont know when that will materialize, i am planning to write at least one page for every month that i spent in college ... for a start.

i got placed in hyderabad Cognizant
so should be heading back home for work, its going to be good fun hopefully....





i dont yet know what vertical i will be assigned to, let's wait and see.

Being Cyrus or Being Nischal

I just saw Being Cyrus, i Liked it, though my cousen Divya who i saw the movie with thought that it was crappy and that Maalamaal weekly would have been a better choice, yet, butthen, it was a good movie, predictable however well made,

its movies like this that that help you see the real world, the world we chose to ignore just because its not in front of us, or that we chose to only see what we like to see, i call it "selective memories", to make sure that you are happy, keep the happy thought of the shahrukh-rani poster in front of you and forget the beggar boy/girl's eyes that are calling out for your attention, where we fail to realize the void that they have in their hearts, it shows through their eyes.



life has been a roler coaster ride the last month or so, its that part of the ride where your going down the huge slope with tremondus speeds, when you suddenly get scared when you imagine the cart shooting off the tracks because its going too fast..... FEAR of the uncertain.... Does that ever Eat you up.

I am starting to sound ominous, so i'll close on a note of HOPE, which is that FAITH is the only thing that keeps us sane, it keeps us in touch with the good lord,

then again, is it FAITH or is it FEAR.............

"DEEP FAITH ELIMINATES FEAR"

HOPE

hope is the greatest gift that god has given us,
hope is what keeps us going, the hope of a better day, the hope of a happier moment, the hope of sorting things that have gone wrong.
HOPE... i think is the greatest gift to mankind.

someone once asked me,
what's the one thing... anything it can be that you would want, and franlkly i did not have an answer, i was looking at something material, but today if i was asked the same question i would say, "Peace of mind".... absoloutely would be the one thing that i would desire more than anything else, peace of mind for me and peace of mind for my family, and for my friends.

The Worlds a scary place

The world is a scary place,
for we don't know the future,
how i wish we all knew what was comming and were tiold that it was inavitable,
and then we would make sure that we live in that time that we have to the fullest.

The Worlds a scary place

The world is a scary place,
for we don't know the future,
how i wish we all knew what was comming and were tiold that it was inavitable,
and then we would make sure that we live in that tieme that we have to the fullest.

Please Please Please

the world goes around the sun, the sun's a spot in the milkey way, and the milkey way's a spot in the universe.
in contrast we are nothing, yet, our peoblems seem to bring our world to a halt in front of us.
selfish, Yes, but its still what one calls their world, its everything we stand for, and everything we hope to have.
i had attended a speech by swami Sukhbodhananda in hyderabad, where he spoke about each and every individual having a colored glass in front of them, through which they see the world.
Does the glass keep changing, or are there more and more layers added, emotional layers, layers that affect what way we think and also change our perspective of the world around us.
how simple it would have been if we could choose the glass through which we can see the world, and if the world changed just because the of the colored glass that's changed, in the name of humanity.

reflecting back on the "ET in the Classroom" Quiz, i guess we just got lucky and were able to answer the crucial questions to win the quiz. but its going to take lot's of hardwork here on to be able to actually keep the winning streak going.

Life's Playing a game, i don't know if its just mental or emotional toughness that counts, Mind games through and through. The way out as i see it, LOGIC.
the more the stress, the cooler your head has to become, that i think is the only way out.

A lot like "Don" Corleone in the movie " Godfather", cool as hell, and dangerously strategic, i actually love that charecter.

I Won the" ET in the Classroom for 2006" quiz

i won the ET in the classroom quiz, pretty exhilerating!
am on top of the world right now.
coming out on top of all the other B-shools in chennai does feel good, sadly this year ET does not have a national Round, i would have loved to compete against some of the other B-school Quizzing teams out there.
NO CASH, sad, but here's what i won,
an I-pod,
7 days&nights all paid trip to GOA,
SWATCH
and some coupons from Lifestyle, Mysicworld, etc etc.

what i'm happiest about is the branding this is going to give my College , Great Lakes Institute of Management.

And for the finalle - i met some of the top cognizant folks there, and have got some awsome visibility there, they were all happy to see me win, and also see that i was to joing cogni soon.
here's what's better, my Project Guide from Times of India, was in the audience, he was probably more exited about my win than i was at that time. "cherry on the pie"

the win is good, but i m going through some pretty stressful time here, hopefully it should all dissapear, and normality to life should be restored.

What's the Motive of Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti if probably the most dangerous movie i have ever seen,
the motive of the movie as i see it was to bring to the spotlight the crap the defence ministry is buying from the Russians and Eastern Europe just to fill some swiss bank account somewhere.

But think about it like this: politician does wrong -> someone gets killed->mistake not analyzed-> people get paranoid->kill politician->his people kill more people-> the government starts panicking-> the police are brought in-> the army is brought in-> money is spent-> media has a hay day->net net->root of the problem not solved->one more politician is doing the same mistake somewhere, and is innocent till brought to light...

ok i'm was speaking about what could happen, but the thought that solving a problem by killing someone is wrong, who ever it may be.

I appreciate Aamir Khan to have the courage to come out with a movie like this;

i really hope and pray that the audience interprets the movie the way it was intended to be, and not in a skewed up barbaric way.

Yeah, and today is probably the most jobless day in college, no classes scheduled, no assignments to be submitted. so i think i'l go and play some cricket today.

i had gone to the Brand Equity quiz in Chennai; yesterday, by Derek o'Brian, this time his charecter was a bad mouthing Gen.Rumdi, one of his dialogues to his female assistants and i quote it " dont turn your ass to the audience" apalling... hell yeah.

The quiz content was not all that great, the questions were way too eazy for a quiz of that level, and i won an audience prize, a t-shirt, with the Times Now LOGO. Next year i plan to win the quiz.

55 more days to go

Its now been ten and a half months at Great Lakes Institute of Management,
another 55 days to go,
i have decided to try and update my blog as much as possible today on.
which brings me to the primary question:
why blog?
This got me thinking, psychologists say that the best way to get sane is to speak/write or type your mind out. i believe that blogging in a large way is a portal to vent out thoughts, making a lot of people more and more normal everyday.
enough of my venting my thoughts out, people of planet earth, i am very pleased to tell you that as i mentioned i attempted moving to redhat linix a few days back, well, i have moved to linux but the flavor is UBUNTU. and now i m completely on linux, wifi, e-mail, and chat. i still have to get those damn Mp3's to work of course. but otherwise, i am converted. not that i hate windows or anything, but its just that working on linux is kind of exhilerating.

i m going to go to the Brand Equity quiz today, as a participant, hopeful of winning a audience prize.
that's about it from me.
beam me up scotty!!!!

Just a Pretty Face

there was a survey in MIT recently, which said that when there is a picture of a pretty women on your advertisement or sheet, people seem to recognise or respond to it more. here i have tried the exact same thing. its for your eyes , so you can see a few pretty faces, will make you feel better and nicer, and make the world a smaller place. " one image for my blog, one thought to make the world a better place"

This is ME

This is ME, this picture was taken during the placement season of college (Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai) , between september 2005 to january 2006. i actually like this pic, i m not normally photogenic and don't like to look at myself on film or camera, however this is one of my nicer pictures which i would like the world to see. you see.

RedHat Fedora Core 2 Linux

I have now partially moved to Linux, its an acheivement of sorts for me since i have not had too much exposure to this universe.

Installed the Linux onto my IBM R51 ThinkPad, i am currently using both windowsXP and Linux FC2, dual booting it.

I really like the interface, and the way it works, the awsome power that the operating system provides, and what's most amazing is the online support that the LINUX community provides.

The only issue i have had is that i have not been able to configure my laptop to use the WiFi card. I have a inbulit Intel 2100 2B pro/Wireless card, though i have downloaded the drivers, i m finding it tough to install it, but i think i should be able to do it soon thanks to the awsome community out there.

baba and baby 

Datta's Adventure

How the hospitals of inda saved a good man’s life…

Here is the story of Datta, a man who has been through the fleecing sessions of the corporate hospitals of Chennai., he was locked in the ICCU … intensive cardiac care unit…for eating a pastry… stripped naked in public, given paper to wear, punctured with needles, put though an MRI, ECG, CT Scan, and every conceieveble type of medical test….now, the question to ask is..why did this happen,  just because his face was a little puffed up… my first thought was c’mon….. an avil can do what all this has done at one thousandth the rate.

It was another night in chennai, when datta, Samhita and Pooja went on a mega food date ,  to hot breads, not really the most romantical place… but has a lot of bread,

The mystery is still what did they eat… bread was definitelyon my mind when I heard where they went. But the fact is he ended  up in mallar hospitals, and was pushed into the ICCU..

When Varun, Girish, and Me went there the next day… and waltzed into the hospital.. we found adi flirting with the nurse at the reception, not realy pretty but maby it is the mallu link I think.. so we grabbed adi before he made any more cassanova moves at the nurse who was as perplexed as a caged giant panda in  a Chinese zoo.

We went up to the ICCU on the third floor…. In that rickety lift…  which I think was the most stressful part of being in the hospital, not knowing when the damn thing will just snap off the ropes and fall….

Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity, nurses waking up and down, attenders running helter scelter,  and the huge doors of the ICCU opend, and there emerged Datta,
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Like a tortured man from a natzi concentration camp… but still strong,
like a reed in the nile  river…surviving, and trying to smile through the pain….

But it was not over, they were not done with him yet, they still wanted to observe him, try and figure out where they could fleece more out of…

Then he was taken to a room, and was put on a bed, it then dawned on us there what to tell datta about the bill… we were all scared about him getting a heart attack when he found out the bill…. Which was a hefty sum considering he was there only for a face swelling….
And it was all there to see.. we decided to come up with a way to tell it to him…

Varun, came up with the psychological strategy of putting it across to him…. In this picture you can see varun deep in thought .










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Adi and Sam, contemplating on datta’s reaction to the bill…

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Girish waiting to see his reaction …..

But, it did not turn out all that bad, they did fleece him, but not as much as was thought. He did not get a heart attack, but a heart burn from the crappy hospital food. He is now in Bangalore, eating bisibelebath and tomato curd.. hoping to full facial recovery.