It's been a long while since I blogged, for various reasons, but I don't owe an explanation to anyone out there. I took to blogging inspired after reading some really wonderful blogs and am back at it for the same reason.
Well as always this blog is just a representation of my thought process........
It's been a couple of months in US of the A and all of sudden I have started thinking about what I want out of my life, well you know, defining goals and all that stuff. As a friend had suggested the QLC has come to haunt me again!!!!
First I want to start of by tracing my past especially the last 3 yrs of my life.
In September 2005, with a hint of hesitation I walked into the Infosys Mysore campus. Well at that point I was aiming at making a mark in whatever I do........be it software! You can call it the confidence (or over confidence) in my abilities. Through the first half of training I struggled, C was a monster I just couldn't handle. I struggled endlessly with the nuances of the "if's" and "for's" it had to offer. But you know, there are always good friends to bail you out.
I started enjoying life at Mysore, used all facilities the campus had to offer and things started to fall in place. I managed to find my feet in the Java module and went to on complete the training successfully. I was getting sick of the routine at Mysore and was waiting to grab a posting at a desired location and move on.
Scene shifts to Bangalore, Electronics city, Infosys, Home, 2006
My first project at Bangalore turned out to be a nightmare...churning out endless weekend shifts and night outs for 3 months on the trot. And at the end of 3 months I got the welcome break. That's probably the first time when the crisis hit me. I started thinking about my shelved dream for an MBA. I traced the steps that any CAT aspirant would do.......enrolled for mock cats, revise quant, practice DI case lets.
The 6 month ordeal ended in March'07 when I realized that it's another torturous year ahead in Infy before I take the exit route. Focus shifted to MBA'08 and all steps turned in that direction. Classes, mock cats, absence at work...all followed and on the other hand the US visa was waiting for me at work. But I was undeterred, constantly reminding myself that MBA is my destination.
It took 2 calls and an equal no: of interviews to deliver judgment that I didn't make the cut. There were quite a good no: colleges that decided that 98.5 was not worth looking at in comparison to a 98.7! Cant blame the colleges though, they had to apply the filter somewhere.
I had hit the roadblock....or so I thought!
The last 2 years...........cost me time and loads of money. Of course I learnt a few things too! There are certain advantages of having played a sport.....you learn to shrug off your defeats and look forward to the next game. Well playing cricket in my early days has paid off !!
At around the same time Dallas came calling and my focus shifted in that direction and it helped me take my mind out of the minor setback. I landed in Dallas, USA on May 10th to kick start another phase in my life. I must confess that USA was never on my mind and I cried the night I boarded the flight for having left behind a goal I set for myself.
It's been 2 months in Sam's club and again I can see the crisis haunting me. I am faced with lots of questions and each time I end up with a different answer! At times I feel it's best to stop thinking and live the moment. And for that, I guess sports works best, it's ideal to shut out the thoughts and sweat it out. I am glad dad instilled some interest in games during my early days.
Sports is my way of dealing with the crisis........not solving it. Have you found your way?
Friday, June 6, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Living life out of a laptop
I am currently living a good part of my life out of a laptop.
I use the laptop for
So effectively my laptop never sleeps..................or it does only when I sleep.
Anyone out there who can stretch the scope of a laptop, please let me know. I'll be more than glad to explore.
I use the laptop for
- work - priority, of course, and uses up good 10-11 hrs of my weekday
- entertainment - music, movies, news practically everything
- information - google maps is quite popular out here, I am wondering what people did before google maps came into existence. I cannot imagine finding my way in a paper map.
- cooking - Yes, I use it to search for recipes and english names for some desi ingredient.
- communication - email, chats, scraps.........u name it.
- Online transactions - order phones, pay bills
So effectively my laptop never sleeps..................or it does only when I sleep.
Anyone out there who can stretch the scope of a laptop, please let me know. I'll be more than glad to explore.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
First impressions!
I landed on one of the most developed countries in this world last weekend as an "alien with a valid immigrant paper". I stepped foot on 2 international destinations en-route to the DFW airport at Dallas,TX.
As any new experience would have it.........here are my first impressions of this land.
till I add to the list............Bye.
As any new experience would have it.........here are my first impressions of this land.
- Highly process oriented..........there's a lot of process and order to everything around.
- Almost everyone here seems to own a car.........the number on the road probably exceed the 2 wheelers back home.........therefore you hardly see anyone on the road.
- People's notion of "vegetarian" food is wrong. Fish, chicken etc are considered vegetarian.
- Public transport is practically nil. Whatever little exists is excellent in terms of service but lacks network to drive people towards using it.
- Every area that has a few high rises is referred to as downtown.
- Everything is huge.......each onion is of the size of a coconut, coffee mugs are the size of a pet bottle, juice cans come in gallon portions.
- When you sit in car.....u seem confused coz of the reversal of directions.
- Lack of poverty and undernourishment has it's share of problems.......As I sit in the plaza area and watch people around me I observed that a large share of people are obese. The situation looks scary.
till I add to the list............Bye.
Story behind the tissue culture!!
Out here in USA the area around the bowls are meant to be dry........which means the only way to clean up is to use tissues. Well some adapt to this easily while others find it quite difficult. I belong to the second category.
The first time I had to decide to break conventions made me think........... I was trying to analyze how the tissue culture came into practice.
And here is my analysis..........
Well this country experiences cold climate for most part of the year. In the early years technology was not good enough to provide hot water in the pipes. So it must have been extremely difficult to clean up using cold water after answering nature's call. So that's when the early man must have decided to use paper instead of water!!! And it just caught on as a "best practice".
Another interesting observation with the same context is the use of cutlery to eat food. Back home in India our hands are considered the most convenient option. The cold climate over here must have forced people to wear hand gloves which makes using hands to eat a difficult option.
Well these thoughts confirm my belief that every custom has a reason for the way it's evolved and is mostly an effect of man's attempt to solve a problem on hand.
If you come across any such interesting observation, I'd love to hear from you.
Signing off..............
The first time I had to decide to break conventions made me think........... I was trying to analyze how the tissue culture came into practice.
And here is my analysis..........
Well this country experiences cold climate for most part of the year. In the early years technology was not good enough to provide hot water in the pipes. So it must have been extremely difficult to clean up using cold water after answering nature's call. So that's when the early man must have decided to use paper instead of water!!! And it just caught on as a "best practice".
Another interesting observation with the same context is the use of cutlery to eat food. Back home in India our hands are considered the most convenient option. The cold climate over here must have forced people to wear hand gloves which makes using hands to eat a difficult option.
Well these thoughts confirm my belief that every custom has a reason for the way it's evolved and is mostly an effect of man's attempt to solve a problem on hand.
If you come across any such interesting observation, I'd love to hear from you.
Signing off..............
Friday, May 16, 2008
Experiencing change!!
The subject line in one of my earlier blog was about how my life was set for a change.......and now I am experiencing the change. It seemed all of a sudden though I knew at the back of my mind that it was coming............
Here I am in another part of the world trying to adjust with everything around me............the people, the place, work....almost everything.I hope this experience adds value and another dimension to my personality.
For those who didnt know.........I flew to Dallas, USA from Bangalore, India last weekend. It's been a week here and I'll try and reserve another blog for a list of my interesting experiences with the aliens out here.
Till then adieu.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Race on for the "hot" seat
Some ramblings about elections in the country........it's a random narration with no structure of thoughts.
It's time for elections in Karnataka. The last time the results were dreadful with no party winning with a majority required to form a government on it's own. Unstable coalitions governments proved to be a curse for the people of this state. The last 5 years saw 3 chief minister from 3 different parties stake claim for short periods. This meant that the first few days in office were spent in celebrating their success and the last few days in trying desperate measures to retain the hot seat. In between the ministers were busy settling scores against their foes......oops! No friends and foes in politics.
Last 5 years the state has stumbled on numerous fronts. Bangalore promised a lot but delivered little. Administrative reforms remained on paper and never took shape due to constant threats to the survival of the coalition. Infrastructure in the city has stumbled with people spending most of their time on the roads. Crime rates are on the rise.....the list of woes are endless.
The "pack of jokers" have made a mockery of the people's mandate or do our votes even matter. Come election time and parties and politicians pumps crores of rupees to lure the under privileged with free booze and cash. This helps swing the mandate in their favor.
The declared assets of most candidates swell to crores. I cannot imagine the actual figures. Their pockets have swelled at the cost of poor taxpayers money.
What happened to the storm "Lead India" created. Will we get to see the hero contest in the state. Or is it another reality show that attracted the masses but failed to create a leader.
It's been 8 yrs since the road in front of my apartment has been concreted. Each time Bangalore sees a heavy downpour there's flooding in the surrounding area due to a poorly maintained storm water drain. I see the list of candidates who are contesting from my area and am not convinced about the credentials of any of them. I doubt if they'd make a difference to my life and those living around me. Do I need someone like that to represent me and raise my concerns and initiate works on my behalf.
I am wary of casting my mandate for a variety of reasons.
Hope the son of the soil.....humble farmer with a hummer does not make it to the hot seat this
time.............He needs to be shown the door for ridiculing one of the greatest democracies int the world.
I pray some sense prevails among the people of the state.......God save Karnataka and Bangalore as the "race" for hot seat hots up!!!
All opinions are personal..................
It's time for elections in Karnataka. The last time the results were dreadful with no party winning with a majority required to form a government on it's own. Unstable coalitions governments proved to be a curse for the people of this state. The last 5 years saw 3 chief minister from 3 different parties stake claim for short periods. This meant that the first few days in office were spent in celebrating their success and the last few days in trying desperate measures to retain the hot seat. In between the ministers were busy settling scores against their foes......oops! No friends and foes in politics.
Last 5 years the state has stumbled on numerous fronts. Bangalore promised a lot but delivered little. Administrative reforms remained on paper and never took shape due to constant threats to the survival of the coalition. Infrastructure in the city has stumbled with people spending most of their time on the roads. Crime rates are on the rise.....the list of woes are endless.
The "pack of jokers" have made a mockery of the people's mandate or do our votes even matter. Come election time and parties and politicians pumps crores of rupees to lure the under privileged with free booze and cash. This helps swing the mandate in their favor.
The declared assets of most candidates swell to crores. I cannot imagine the actual figures. Their pockets have swelled at the cost of poor taxpayers money.
What happened to the storm "Lead India" created. Will we get to see the hero contest in the state. Or is it another reality show that attracted the masses but failed to create a leader.
It's been 8 yrs since the road in front of my apartment has been concreted. Each time Bangalore sees a heavy downpour there's flooding in the surrounding area due to a poorly maintained storm water drain. I see the list of candidates who are contesting from my area and am not convinced about the credentials of any of them. I doubt if they'd make a difference to my life and those living around me. Do I need someone like that to represent me and raise my concerns and initiate works on my behalf.
I am wary of casting my mandate for a variety of reasons.
- will it even make a difference
- do I need "some" candidate to represent my constituency.
Hope the son of the soil.....humble farmer with a hummer does not make it to the hot seat this
time.............He needs to be shown the door for ridiculing one of the greatest democracies int the world.
I pray some sense prevails among the people of the state.......God save Karnataka and Bangalore as the "race" for hot seat hots up!!!
All opinions are personal..................
Friday, April 18, 2008
IPL has a lesson for marketers
The idea of IPL was mooted to rival the gang led by Subash Chandra. At every step Modi and his team at IPL were making news for the large deals they struck, be it media rights, logo rights, sponsor deals etc. The auctions that followed for the franchisees and the players saw money being pumped into the game of cricket like never before. They had clearly got the edge with the backing of the parent bodies. However there were questions raised about the chances of the league becoming a success for a variety of reasons.
The challenges for the bosses at IPL were many.The franchisee did their bit by organizing promos, launching memorabilia, release music albums etc.....but everyone knew at the back of their mind that if IPL had to succeed for the game and nothing else. The much needed hype before the event took off was created.At the same time there were opinions expressed about cricket being a game of national loyalties and how an Indian could never celebrate when Bret Lee broke Sachin's wicket.
I too had the same kind of concerns about the prospects of the league for a variety of reasons. I had developed a feeling that probably this country has had a overdose of cricket and it was time people enjoyed watching other sports,well, I guess it was not to be.
The challenges for the bosses at IPL were many.The franchisee did their bit by organizing promos, launching memorabilia, release music albums etc.....but everyone knew at the back of their mind that if IPL had to succeed for the game and nothing else. The much needed hype before the event took off was created.At the same time there were opinions expressed about cricket being a game of national loyalties and how an Indian could never celebrate when Bret Lee broke Sachin's wicket.
I too had the same kind of concerns about the prospects of the league for a variety of reasons. I had developed a feeling that probably this country has had a overdose of cricket and it was time people enjoyed watching other sports,well, I guess it was not to be.
A ball is yet to be bowled nevertheless the first game at Bangalore is a sell out. Selling rates have gone up 5 times in the grey market. For me the league is a success even before the first ball is bowled. I am convinced that the people of this country can never have enough of cricket.
As it's rightly said, there's a place for everything in this world and this new avataar of the game will find it's place and meet with success. For the sake of the game I love, Congrats and best wishes to Modi and team for changing the lives of a bunch of talented cricketers who dreamt of donning the Indian cap. They can hope for a life out of IPL for the sacrifices they have made in life.
Lesson 2
I was passing through the Chinnaswamy stadium members entry gate when I noticed a board which said........"Black Dog Members Stand". I was wondering what the hell was a "Black Dog" .
Later I found the stadium map and saw that the names of stands go like this......
- Antiquity
- Black Dog
- McDowells
- Bagpiper Special
- Royal Challenge...........
And the team is rightly called Royal Challengers.
I'll skip mentioning what theese names stand for (I wouldnt wanna reveal my knowledge on these!!). Does anyone bother that ads and publicity for alcohol is prohibited.............Mallya and his team found a way to bend the rules. A event like the IPL has done the trick for the UB group. It is advertising budget well spent!
The IPL extravaganza has arrived!.......exciting times ahead.
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