Monday, September 30, 2013

Few dumb managers

Once an announcement made in our office that a team of UK operator is going to visit us and if we are able to please them, we will be able to grab the project .The managers were given the responsibility to prepare the presentation by top management and managers passed on to us .:)
We were a team of 4 to prepare the same and were asked to present them after 2 days.

We shared our ideas about how we work , how we handle the operations in our current assignment etc. and made a power point with bullet points showing every aspect we had encountered till then.The day came and we had to give the demo ,2 managers were supposed to evaluate the same.We presented our part individually and very briefly .If I were the manager then I would have approach the top management to assign the responsibility to these engineers because the presentation was so well structured and precise and also would have appreciated the hours they have putted in to prepare it .But I couldn't be more wrong because once the presentation was over

one Manager turns to another and laughs
.....
"Isn't the presentation just like an engineer thing?  We are looking for business proposal  and you are showing us what you are currently doing ? "

Our part - silence .. and standing like an.....  ( You can think of any word for fill in the blank which you can relate to the scenario )

The more recent incident is just a week old .I applied for a specific role and the interviewers ( All managers) shortlisted my CV .I went there at 8:30 AM accurate and submitted my CV ,Waited there for about 3 hours then the got a call to come in a meeting room where 3 managers were waiting .
Interview started with general greetings .

One of them asked :-  So give me your brief intro and what have you done till now in your professional career ?

Me - Blah bah .....

Interviewer :- We do this n that.... ( elaborated his work)
Interviewer :-  Do you know someone from our dept ?
Me             :-  Yes, One of my colleague from previous organization works here.
Interview    : - Your profile is good but it doesn't fulfill our requirement. Thanks for coming.
Me            :-  Again went blank.

I came out thinking what was that ? My colleague and I had the same profile with almost same experience of domain then what went wrong ? If I don't fit for the role then what was the purpose to call me for interview , CV shortlisting and making me wait for 3 hours just to say this crap ? As if it was pre decided not to ask anything for the role.
The interview lasted about 8 minutes.  
The managers seating there proved the subject line of this blog .
 
Moral :- No matter what you do , Some manager can always find faults in you.

Is your manager  /boss  does the same ? If yes then you can anonymously curse him/her on the comments section below. :)


Saturday, September 28, 2013

Is everything has a temporary effect ?

There are so many things which comes in our life and leave their effects forever or temporary. But can you differentiate them by their outcome ? Well I have been struggling with the same question since past 1.5 year and I can conclude that yes only the sad ones remain with us forever and good ones gets disappear with the time because we never give the credits to good memories . The sad ones makes a space in our life because I know how it feels to loose a person you love the most in the world ,without whom you can't pass a single day just to listen his/her voice.  It destroys our life forever but there is no solution for that.You have to move on with the fact and there is no point living in denial , if you don't than it's not healthy .But the step to move on is not that easy .It's easy to be said than done.
What about the good memories  ? Do you still remember your school/college days ?Do you remember the golden moments you have spent with your loved ones ? Have you ever sat and thought about it ? I would suggest to give it a try as there is nothing to loose.Seat alone and close your eyes and move to flashback . I tried this therapy few times and believe me it brings you more closer to your loved ones.I heard this saying from a spiritual guru (though I am not a big fan of any of them and not against either) and as I said there is nothing to loose if you give it a try and we should welcome and incorporate different opinions in our lives because overall it will make you a better person .

But I think as we age ,as we grow with our experiences ,life gives you another challenges and we keep on playing the characters .
Fame ,money or any materialistic things we aspire for are just temporary ,they are not going to be with us forever because remember ,our stay on this earth is temporary !     


Friday, September 27, 2013

Dream part-2

Well this is just the continuation of my previous blog on Dream. I thought to elaborate it with an example. A month ago I was studying in a library where a guy in his 30s was seating besides me.A moment later conversation started between us about GMAT , MBA etc .stuff.Though he was at a executive level and earning a decent amount in an MNC, he quit his job ,surprised me asked him 'why' ? He said he was always fascinated by art objects since childhood and always wanted a flourishing career in it but as I said earlier as we grow the external pressure on us makes us lock our dreams and prepare our-self to choose the path where everybody is just running or I would say 'Bhed chal ' in Hindi.I noticed he got a diary and a pen which seemed quite different from what we generally get at a store .The pen was made of wooden and it was very light in weight and smooth.I said nice pen & diary, he said ' thanks , I made them'.Well I was quite surprised with this one because I've never met an engineer who makes pen , diary etc.He said that he and his wife  started this business.He showed me the pictures of other art objects he made and the entire process.He collects the raw material such as wooden , news papers , metals etc and has special tools to shape them and puts a coating on it .Seems quite tedious process but that's how art objects are made.He said that now his work is getting a recognition and receiving orders for corporate gifts,for exhibition in trade fairs.
 How awesome is that? For me it was inspiring.
   This is how a hobby converted into business and I suppose that's what you love doing.That's why many successful people say ' Do what you love and love what you do'.

Amazing!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Dreams

We always hear that always follow your dreams, do what you want and like and make your own ways.As kids we are encouraged to dream about what we may want to be when we grow up writers,actors or anything which seems fancy.A few years later the same people tell us to be practical and become doctor, engineer or a govt. officer.We follow the same and heads towards to crack the exam,make it through college ,now to fight for best package ,settled down, get married and have kids and when you reach at the age of 40 ,nobody cares how much you studied in your school/college and how much you have scored .Well I agree to follow the suit and anybody from middle class aspire to be in an upper class.
I read stories about people who have quit their jobs to follow their dream such as  travel the world ,
Start your own venture etc and I appreciate this fact.But one should have a decent bank balance because we have to face the reality once it's over.I support people following their passion but know the consequences of what you are going to face. The Reality.Plan for how you are going to handle increasingly difficult situations, as they come. Because they will come.

Just remember that when the going gets tough, the tough doesn’t automatically get going. You’ll have to push it hard. As if your life depends on it. And that’s going to be no fun.  :)

When life gives you lemon..

Few days back I met a guy studying for GMAT and working with a big MNC. So this friend of mine – an extremely bright, intelligent and hardworking student from back in college joined this firm  thinking that its a big company with thousands of people – and he’ll have every opportunity to grow and learn there.

He couldn't be more wrong .He was suffering from something I call – “The Big Company Syndrome”.I could relate the same to my experience that in bigger service based companies people
get treated only as resource  ,a machine which works on instruction where superiors don’t give a crap about you and you end up being the extreme end of the tail in which everyone above you is trying to please everyone else with boot licking above them and as such, don’t bother with those below them.
A very common occurrence in companies such as these – is having no work and ending up on bench for a long, long time.When you have been hired to work, it hurts not getting any responsibilities …
But the really sad thing is that in such large companies, nobody really cares …
Unless you have a terrific team leader or project manager, you are going to be in the same predicament.
And chances of getting a great superior are very, very low. If you stuck in a similar situation
I would suggest two options :-

Option A  : - 1.  Type a resignation.
                     2.  Delete all important files or necessary docs from your computer.
                     3. Walk up to your manager when he is surrounded by co-workers.
                     4. Tell him what do you think about him.
                     5. Put the letter in his pocket.
                     6. Storm out.


Option B  : - 1. Stop asking for work.  
                     2.Do the work they give to you – but don’t be too enthusiastic about it – because  honestly, nobody cares.
                     3.In your spare time you have so many things to do such as reading ,blogging and share it  for others to use and grow yourself.

I have heard people doing free lancing project while working or blogging and making money out of it.
 This is how most large Indian IT firms work and you just have to learn how to work in this system.If you can't adapt to these situation you would end up with all the tension or screw up with your health.
I think bad experiences makes you a better and wiser person than living just  a monotonous life.

So when life gives you lemons, just make lemonade yaar!!! :) 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

IRCTC vs Facebook vs Google

I have been an engineering student and can understand few technical aspects of a large consumer
website. Well to be more precise here I am talking about our Indian railway website
www.irctc.co.in  . I accept that our itinerary has become more smooth since the launch of this website but one thing I am not able to get is that why it never loads fast, never lets you transact correctly, fails completely doing tatkal booking ?

I can understand that this is one of the web site which needs to handle massive amount of requests per second but how  other website like facebook, google etc which also handles such a massive amount of requests, but those works perfectly fine ?

This reminds me above fundamental epics which  I was thinking to master during my undergraduate days and suggest the same to our Indian railway system to read it cover to cover for the enhancement of services .:)




BJP Overconfidence

Well I am not against the Namo campaign but BJP workers are celebrating as if Narendra modi has already become PM. Too much over confidence. .But what are the future plans for our economy ? what's the possibility of bringing back the Black money ?
We have the right to ask these questions . Although he has done much for Gujarat and on the basis of this parameter we are hoping for the same he does for India .But there is difference between handling a state with 6 crore  population and handling a nation with 125 crore people.

I hope he does but even if he does, it may take years to recover from the humongous scams/misgovernance that are left behind by our current govt

Five Balls

Do you agree with this one ?

Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you're keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls— family, health, friends, integrity—are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginnings of balance in your life.

Source :-  Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson (Haven't read this book though...found it on the internet)

What are we up to ?

We are busy making plans for the next day ,We think about a number of things.
How our parents expected us to turn out a person they thought us to be and how we have disappointed them.

  We are always running for others, isn't? We got that job just to see our parents happy. We  kept saving money to have  a dream home, a good car, a good retirement. We kept getting more degrees, certificates and somewhere along the line, the person behind the degrees got lost. And then, between pleasing others and fulfilling their expectations, We died.
It's the time to change the equation.It's time to get our life back on track.It's time to remove those who expect us to make them happy at the cost of our happiness. 
Keep expectation out of the equation. You will start feeling light, feeling alive and remember we have got only one life . 
 

Those were the days

Isn't it amazing that there is a possibility that someone somewhere out there is thinking about you right at this moment of time?

Do you still remember your childhood, when the only problem that you had was your Mother not loving you enough? Do you still remember your school days, when life happened in those games periods and friendships that formed all along the way? These thoughts, you hold them close to your heart to this day, don't you?

I thinks once in a while we should give these memories their due credits and I am sure 
these memories will bring a smile on your face.

What are we doing now is living a life according to the guidelines laid down by other people. This is the only way we can lead an impossibly ordinary life. Why live it when we are here to make a difference? 

Learn a new language, meet new people, fall in love. Because 4 decades down the line, when you are in your bed, contemplating on the life gone by, you should be up for something that makes you go - "Man! That was an amazing ride!"  

Is having an Iphone is a burden or an aid ?

Last week one of my friend got an I phone 4 and was very happy and thought of spending few quick minutes to understand its functioning.But even after spending time till 11 in the night, all he could understand was how to switch the phone on and off.He realized it was not going to be that easy a task for him and happily thought of spending the weekend learning more about the phone
   But his happiness was short-lived as even after spending 3 full days he failed to understand how the phone works.His boss further informed that Guarav failed to take some important calls and couldn’t reply to his mails. Not only that, he ended up forwarding a few mails from Adult Friend Finder and pornographic sites to everyone in office while trying to swipe the screen.
It came with a manual , oops manual would not be a right word ,it should be called a 'Novel ' and for me it would take around 6 months to understand the feature ( Considering the fact that I would devote enormous amount of my time to swipe around the screen .According to my friend his life without this phone was much simpler and ever since he have got it, his efficiency has gone to dogs. Half of the  day goes in unlocking it and other half in charging it.
Well it gave me an insight to fallback on Micromax ,offering more or less same application and that too in an affordable amount .

Ups and Downs

Life is riddled with ups and downs. Most every 'up' is followed by a 'down', though sometimes, an 'up' is followed by more 'up'. The same goes for 'down'.


There are a number of things that have shaped me and my life. Some of them agonizingly obvious, some not so. Yet, when an old memory comes floating up from my past, I cling to it. It might be a happy or sad one, but either way, I find myself helplessly clinging onto it and though their effects still linger on and treat me as one of their own, I know what I am and who I am because of what these memories are to me

Dream interview with RG

Came across an article by Faking news :)

He is hardly available to media to take questions, it’s a dream to get his interview
 Here are highlights of that dream i.e. interview:

Faking News (FN): First question, how did you appear in my dreams?
Rahul Gandhi (RG) : you must be a very poor person. Poor people love me and they see me in dreams.

FN: You are right. I’m a poor person. Not a good salary. Will you pay me if I write good things about you?
RG: No. because if I pay you, you will no longer be poor. I want poor people to dream. Their dreams should be the biggest.

FN: Like a poor chaiwala dreaming that he will become Prime Minister of India one day? Do you support such dreams?
RG:  Next question.


FN: What do you think about Kashmir problem, how can we solve it?
RG: First of all, that’s not a problem. Pakistan is a poor country and they have every right to dream big and they are doing it. Let Pakistan dream about Kashmir. We will reply with a bigger dream, say Congress sweeping elections in Pakistan.


FN: In your recent rally, you cited physical illness as reason for poverty which is quite a drastic shift from your earlier, ‘poverty is a state of mind’ theory.
RG: My speeches are well researched, but are always in a beta version. I am evolving as a human being, so obviously opinions keep on changing. Even Einstein’s theory of relativity could be contradicted tomorrow. Each day I rediscover myself, my dreams, and my speeches.


FN: The craziest thing you have ever done in life?
RG: I went to a poor man’s house and didn’t eat anything.

FN: When did you do that!?
RG: In my dream!


FN: Ok, why are you not getting married?
RG: That’s a wrong way of asking. More appropriate way of asking the same question would be, “What about your dream girl?


FN: Ok! So what about you dream girl?
RG: I am already married to my dreams. Mere khawaab hi meri dulhan hai.
FN: Rahul Ji, thank you for such an insightful interview.
RG: You’re Welcome, Tata, Good Night, Sweet Dreams.

Get your fact right

"Netaon ne yeh kaha, Netaon ne woh kaha...Neta corrupt hain, Neta ghooskhor hain.."


They all are politicians damn it, not all are leaders!


Rajneetigya bolo, neta nahin!