Miscellaneous posting

Some days just dont go your way...or shud i say my way.

Just becoz i didnt scrap back on orkut immediately, someone things im angry - DUH - Do you think i have nothing more but to chat using orkut? (There was a time in the not so recent past that i did have nothing else to do...but how things change!!!)

My performance manager wants me to detail how ill achieve my targets as part of my goal setting process. Last i checked it was a goal setting exercise, not a journey log...but then, i sent the goals, now the ball is in his court

I am plagued by worries from tata indicom customer service. They are dumb, impolite, uneducated and really really irritating. Courtesy seems to be a word that they dont understand. Let alone common sense. What a lousy excuse for service...

My house walls are leaking. Yet again

The mice in my kitchen are back. Eating rat poison (new brand - I switched from Mortein to Hit), but like the Terminator, they keep coming back. Wonder what kinda poison it actually is

Work woes. Or shud i say boredom woes. Im awfully bored with my work...

Studying woes. Have my exams on dec 2nd : DSP and SMR . Just figured out DSP means Detailed Scheduling and planning. Was thinking it was demand and supply planing....damn im woefully underprepped for this exam... SMR is gyaan - Strategic Management of Resources. I figure hopefully my earlier certifications will take me thru these

Social woes...I woke up one day and realized all my friends were too busy for me,and my social circle consists only of my first degree friends(Refer Six degrees of seperation). Need to get me a life..

On the bright side, i met a long lost (not exactly lost, but long missed) friend from NYC. Was a great surprise . Of course, it was spoilt by my other good long lost friend who called me and told me that this other guy was gonna be in the country this weekend...and i tried to act surprised when i got the call!!! Got some new perspectives on life...Aisa bhi ho sakta hai types!!!

2 unexpected calls happened which did wonders for my ego...Thanksgiving in the US means possible gifts:)


PS: Happy now, Vandy?

Website woes

Of late ive been facing website woes. Orkut tells me that im getting no cookies. Hotmail Beta delivers all mail unflinchingly into junk, not to mention popping up beta version errors. Harvard business review site is down. Gazzag is spamming my mailbox. Zorpia.com wants me join them for networking. Symphony services spams my mails with walkin job interview offers...

I cant remember which bank has which id and password. Which email has which password. what egroup mails get delivered into which mail id.

Sometimes, life may have been simpler without networking sites, with snail mail written on good old inland letters and job seekers cud look at the classifieds. Banks would still be crowded and we'd still be carrying huge cash at home for possible rainy days... And id not be spending sunday night writing this blog and flipping my tv across 70 channels to find a good one!!!

Some of my favourite quotes and poems - Updated

• Six feet now suffices for the man for whom once the world was not enough (Attributed to Alexander's epitaph)
  
• Just because you don't understand Japanese doesn't mean Japan doesnt exist (I said it- maybe one day someone will make it famous)
  
• Dont quit - Just because you hiccupped does'nt mean you need to stop breathing. (Only i could make such a statement)
  
• "Beniyaazii had se guzarii bandaa paravar kab talak;
  Hum kahenge haal-e-dil aur aap farmaayenge kyaa???" (Ghalib)
  
• "The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one:
  Yet the light of a whole life dies When love is done." (excerpted from Francis William Bourdillon)
  
• "Funeral Blues " by WH Auden - Loved this poem which was made popular also thru 4Weddings and a funeral. My fave. excerpt:
  "He was my North, my South, my East and West,
  My working week and my Sunday rest,
  My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
  I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong"
  
• "They also serve those who stand and wait" (Milton of course...or was it Keats)
  
• All of the walrus and the carpenter
  
• Arthur O'Shaughnessy's "We are the music makers"
  "We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams,
  Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams;
  World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams:
  Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems "
  
• "I Think i saw a putty catth...I deeeeed ... I deeeed" (Tuffy in Tom&Jerry)

And suggeted by KP ... In memorium of pirates of the carribean, circa 2006

• "Fifteen men on a dead man's chest... Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
  Drink and the devil have done for the rest...yo ho ho and a bottle of rum"

:)

.....thats just off the top of my head:)

A boring day- Or was it?

Jai Karnataka

I had a lackluster day. Cold intensified, worked a bit from home on (yet another) presentation and went to Brand Factory for a boring bout of browsing. Sounds like a boring day. Or so i thought. Then again, how often does one go through a day when their city is renamed. I went to sleep in Bangalore and woke up in Bengalooru!!! Aint that a funny thing. While i was whiling away my day, the city was renamed. Come to think of it, ive lived in a lot of renamed cities. In fact every city ive lived in has been renamed... Chennai, Mumbai, Kollam, Kalburgi, Bengalooru. Wonder if i shifted to Australia would they rename it Convictalia, or better still Rooland?

Top Ten reasons why people quit or want to quit their jobs.

A lot of my friends call me when they want to quit or are thinking of quitting their jobs. And this topic came up recently with a friend of mine who has nothing to complain about in terms of money of power, but he was thinkin of a shift anyway. Most often people quote promotions or money (or lack thereoff) or boss/peer issues as reasons. But i believe there are only two reasons why people quit. and all others are sub-sets of the two. These are:

• They got what they wanted (or needed)

or

• They didnt get what they wanted (or needed) from the job

Note - Want and need are completely two different things, and i shall not get into the semantics of that.

Now that the reasons for quitting are established, lets get into the top 10 excuses for quitting a job, which arise from the above mentioned 2 reasons. (In no particular order)

1. Hate the boss/peers/ team
2. Hate my work content - I think im not doing "value added stuff"
3. Work life imbalanced, heavily in favor of work
4. Too much bench-time (Idle mind is the devils workshop)
5. Didnt get promoted even though i deserved to
6. Dont get paid as much i deserve to
7. Office politics - People out to scuttle my career like its the Black Pearl (Refer Pirates of the carribean)
8. Have great work, decent peers, decent boss, but no career path ahead as it is top heavy already
9. Have great work, decent peers, decent boss, but my role is too stifling and has no scope for making independent decisions
10. The organization doesnt know where it is going nor where i am going with it...

Thats it. The great listing...But i think all material things being equal, its only 2 things tht really motivate a person to quit - Either your hatred towards your boss is stronger than your love for your work, or Your work content sucks so much that u are willing to give up good money, great boss and the bestest peers to move on.

Frankly there are more reasons why people dont quit than there are for people quitting. But thats another post on another day best written when im in a more optimistic frame of mind

A good quiz to take to check whether you shud be looking for a new job ...

http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/change/20050216-krantz.html

Sick songs...

Coldster's paradise

As I sneeze through the mountain of kleenex around me,
I take a look at my self and realize there's nothing left.
Cause I've been achooinng and coughin so long that
Even my mama thinks my brain is sneezed out
But I ain't never swatted a mosquito that didn't deserve it
.....

Trying to be inspired by Gangsta's paradise...

Written by me in a fit of self pity... and inability to sleep despite heavy doses of tylenol

Whats the point of a damn vacation if i fall sick everytime i finish it. Thought vacations were supposed to relax the nerves

Life, the universe and me...

There are times when i look around myself and realize that not everyone is a hurry to get somewhere. In fact i dont think people even think about where they want to get to, let alone hurry to it. Then there is me. Hurrying all the time. Would probably help if i knew where i wanted to go though.

I've been accused of several things all my life. One is not knowing what i want. Another is about windmills. First things first. I do know what i want. And knowing is the damned problem. Most people want to make boss by x , retire by y, start their own business by z, blah blah blah. I want to build a house. A house which i design. Which i furnish. Which i own. I want to travel the world. I want a phd. I want 30 visas on my passport by the time i am 30. I want to learn. So why do people say i dont know what i want??? Unfortunately i know the answer to that as well. Thats coz what i want doesnt really gel with the idea of "what is expected" of a 20-something professional. Add to it, the fact that the said professional is female; then any mention of home and hearth is percieved as the fact that i am ready to slow my career down for the sake of marriage. Guy gets engaged - reaction: Good for him. He is settling down. He will be stable. A long distance runner for the company. Girl gets engaged - reaction: Oh God. She will not travel. She will have "other priorities" ; she cannot concentrate on her work; blah blah

Probably the most cliched male-female in the corporate world thing. It is such blatant double standards which brings out the pessimist in me.

Then there is this thing about windmills and me. Recently i made a statement that just because some circumstances or events worked out favourable to me, doesnt mean i agree with the principle of the said event/ circumstance. I once argued with my english teacher in school because she had given me higher marks than my classmate despite both our answers being the same. She obviously didnt take kindly to the whole issue. And i was told to shut up as i was not affected. Today, im told much the same thing. But u know what, i think i need to keep fight those windmills. Else the windmills would keep churning our garbage and dust which will ultimately choke me of whatever ethics and integrity i possess.

Life is a bitch. Then you die
The universe started with a bang. It will end with one. Soon.
Im stuck between life and universe. And not smart enough to cut my losses and run.

Bah.

(If you read this hoping for some connection to the Arthur Dents and Fords and trillians of the fictional world, there is one. Didnt this post read like it was written by Marvin???)