Too good to resist

An offer. A dream job. The hope of it made you wait for a whole month rejecting 7 other credible offers. And finally it comes.. the best in town. dreams can now become reality. A glitter in the eyes and relieved happiness to those whom u love. the best career path drawn before u as dotted lines. Just had to sign.. An offer too good to resist...You become the HERO.

During the process, there was one innocuous arithmetic mistake. You realise it a day after u signed the offer. Keeping quiet will harm no one. Finding out will be almost impossible. If you accept the mistake, all hell will break loose. Your professional integrity will be on the line. Your job ends before it starts. Your career path becomes a mirage. Your family will be shattered. You lose everything u ever thot of. You have nothing to fall back on. You become a ZERO.

Yet u choose to maintain your personal and professional values (aka honesty, integrity) and go for the second. If you are me.

An(y) offer too good to resist....?

Epilogue:
Things happen as expected. Im pissed at the big bad world. Tomorrow I start from scratch. Literally. Atleast with a positive mindset, I can only expect to do better!

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Chaos

Once again the most successful Indian captain has been dropped.. this time from the Test squad. The reason given: Performance. The reason I think: Chaos.

"All's well that ends well" has been the pragmatism of Indian cricket and cricket lovers for quite a while now. Winners are awarded with plush lands and houses, while losing entitles stone throws on the same houses. Voices have been hushed in the last few months as the Indians are on a rare winning streak. People, alas, have never mattered lesser.

There is a understated overemphasis on World Cup 2007. Yes. Its a big tournament. Experienced cricketers are needed in crunch situations. Winning it is prestigious. Degrading proven winners is not the way to achieve it. Young talent is important. Spot talent and give them chances, but not on needless biased basis. VRV Singh is being figured in, while he leaked runs today in the warm up game against England, while Munaf Patel who bowled lovely spells with 5 wkts to speak wasnt. Baffling decisions. Batting should be flexible. Why isnt Sachin in any other position but opening and 2 down in tests?

Let us look at Ganguly, the leader. He revolutionised Indian cricket. He epitomised attitude and courage, he backed his younger players like no one. Yuvraj himself admitted his respect for Saurav, who was accused of keeping him away from Tests to get his spot. Ganguly like any ideal leader, was selfless. He brought himself down from opening slot in ODI (splitting the most successful opening pair of all times) cos he cudnt fit Sehwag in any other position and he thot he was experienced and flexible enuf to handle other roles. Who is flexible and who isnt? He got team spirit into a individualistic team of the 90s. One fine day, he dint fit the bill anymore.

Let us look at Ganguly, the player. A short search in Cricinfo stats will leave u spellbound. Hes the quickest player to get 5000,6000,7000,8000,9000 runs in ODIs in the world. He has an amazing average in tests that he has lead, much more than any other captains, including Rahul Dravid. He was an ideal number 5 and bailed out India in times of crisis and beautifully meandered the tail at times. Sachin has a pathetic record in the last 2 yrs in both forms of the game, yet he is persisted with. Ganguly meanwhile had a decent couple of years, averaging more than Sachin definitely. I thot he played one of the most brilliant knocks in Karachi, when the top order just fell in a heap. He steadied the innings with 30s in both innings, when the rest of the top order dint total to 30. Why is Sachin never dropped even after a string of dismal performances. If fitness was a yardstick, why isnt Laxman dropped, as he is worse than Ganguly, as a batsman and as a fielder.

The main thorn in the flesh seems to be Greg Chappel, along with the Board comprising of people who hate him to the core. I dont give a damn what they trying to do, but its created Chaos. Young guns have been brought in and old chaps have been axed. Long term, yes, but think about the experience those guys have. Our bowling department is fully young now. But its faring pathetically, cos there was no one to mentor them, like Kapil was to Srinath. Sadly Sachin's only role seems to be that nowadays! Given Greg's affliction towards young guys and the Board's policy of giving every new prospect a chance, I see a lot of players with 50 ODI caps and 10 test caps for India. Not gonna be many who will reach 300 ODIs and 100 Tests. Given the fact that Sachin needed 76 innings to hit his first ODI century, and his first 8 were below 40, if Sachin was newly inducted into the team today, I would bet against retaining his position for the next series. If this goes on, I doubt if any new Champion will be born. Experience should not be underestimated and it teaches players a lot more than just mere exposure! Ganguly has a lot of cricket left in him and hes an excellent player. Alas, his last few years in international cricket is marred by politics. Its leaking blood to see a player of his quality sitting out for reasons apart from cricket.

I have been tight lipped about this issue till now, but when I saw Kiran More's pathetic comment on Saurav's exclusion - performance, caused an outrage in me. If you have been watching Indian cricket for the last decade, Im sure u feel the same. Its not about what he is or how he is, neither about Indian cricket. Its all about what a player he is and what he does out there in the middle. And hes indeed a champion at it! People are blinded by ravenous youth display, but I feel that its quite a sad chapter in Indian cricket, and Im ashamed to bear witness to it.

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Yey I am the first to comment

As with all good things, there are quite a few evils lurking in this blogosphere. Ofcourse my dearest word verification tops the list! I am no blog analyst, but recently, I have been noticing this trend in blogs of different types. Needless to say, it is only appearing in high-popularity blogs, so has nothing to do with mine, but still its kinda unnerving to find the sort of "craze". It really doesnt mean anything if u r the first to comment or the tenth. Comment is meant to be more of a viewpoint, but its turning out to be a rat race for "signing attendance". Maybe Blog as a school of thot is being misinterpreted! And in the near future, maybe we can see proxies operating in this area! Quality of posts might roughly remain the same, but the frequency of posts have reduced, while the comments have increased. Bloggers have been stereotyped, and they feel indebted to their readers to follow the treaded path. Blogs are also tending to follow the law of averages, any stupid comment will attract roughly the same number of comments as the most brilliant post, as the readers are themselves indebted to "sign in" to anything the blogger says.

Another case of indebtation comes when there is a comment from the unknown person. Two events are triggered. The blogger must thank the new visitor, and invariably visits and leaves a comment to the same effect on the visitor's blog. Comments like the title and anonymous hate comments have become more frequent in blogs. Also, a lot of bloggers tend to moan about not finding anything to blog about. If you dont think of writing anything, dont! They feel forced by readers, decreasing blog hits, their inertia of momentum or whatever crap to keep writing.. and writing.. and writing more... and writing less about themselves, less about their feelings, less about the things that bother them, less about what they care about...

Truths and feelings are spiced up to add more entertainment value. "Not me" I hear u screaming. Do you post and forget about it or do you read through/ edit your post before or after submitting? Do you write what comes to your mind or do u think "This is worth blogging", "I shud blog this tonight"?. Will you dare to disable the comments for ur blog for a month and still continue to blog with the same frequency? You can argue about a symbiotic relationship, but has the "core" of what a blog is missed along the way? If u read the first ten posts of a blog and the last ten, you would know what Im whining about. Blog courtesy, blog etiquette, blog values, what next? Maybe Im not following blog ethics in the content of this post! And my dear spammers have also reduced their indulgence, decreasing the entertainment value associated with a blog! Somehow I find the "fun" element of blogs decreasing and ""compulsive" factor increasing. One blogger stated that the page hits continued over 50 a day when he had not posted for over a month. Another said he blogs for improving his english skills. Another said he loves to make people laugh while another said its to improve the networking opportunities. Another said Im not able to keep people interested, so im quitting. I know there might be a lot of defences for these, and are usually portrayed as advantages of blogs, but is it a good thing or a bad thing?

And I feel everyone of u shud do something to make me more satisfied.

Im sure u r thinkin "there is nothing wrong with my blog", "whats wrong with my blog", "how to make it more interesting for this guy"... Indebtation it is....

Blogs are supposed to be ur thots expressed in ur way. Lets just keep it at that!

Quoting the god of services, "Do no evil"! Will you? Wont you? Its upto you!

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Biap

This is my latest nick name. I hope u remember my nick name woes, but this is one I loooove hearing. Cos its from the latest addition to my family, my dearest nephew. Few of his achievements in the 2 yrs of his existence include 18 stitches to his ear, when he tried to sneak inside a dog's cage through the steel gate of a kennel, innumerable wounds inflicted by his adventurous nature, and an unexplicable feat of pushing the TV onto his feet.. TV broke, thankfully his leg did not. Ofcourse, the best part of it is that he evokes the screams (of fear) from everyone who has had the opportunity to see him in "action". When he comes in, destructors (forgive my developer instincts) stand astonished! Everything in his grasp is either crushed into humiliation or battered into submission or thrashed into humbleness or shredded into pieces. The only smile in the room is often his! Ofcourse, I couldnt help but gawk at this young wonder. He is not as specialised as his elder bro, but is as observant and looking at every opportunity to "prove" himself. Such diligent workaholic i shud say ;)

And btw, today is his second birthday... :D

I would leave you with this, something I wrote when he was born.... that i wanted to give his mom, but never managed to... but if u ever get to read this, my dear Jayanth, I love you!

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V-day

I love you.

I dun have anything to give you.

I dun have to give you anything.

I have already given you everything I had.

I neednt say less, I neednt say more.

It applies to everyone of you, in one way or another.

Its more like love 21-7, 365 days a year. Those who know me know that when I sleep, nothing registers in my mind... absolutely nothing. so thts the 3 hr gap ;)

I dont know why people profess love today.

If I have to convey my love, I would profess my undying love to ....
!~~~ THE INDIAN CRICKET TEAM ~~~!

Whatta match yday !!!

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Long long ago

Long long ago

Long long ago came along a girl
Who has since taken over my world like a whirl
I have since seen the most beautiful love unfurl
Cos goddess as a gift, I had got through an URL

It all started off, seems just like yesterday
When all things gone wrong, I would still make hay
When my life was all about misery, and one kill
When I thot everything was nothing, you fit the bill

Just looking at you standing still
Motionless, seducing me like a pill
Grinding me to the limits like a mill
I have never thot abt dying but u created my will

Nice memories I will always have, of you my lovely garden
Of the moments you arrived through a beep and all those buzz
Wishing it lasted forever, I guard those memories like a warden
Happy and sad, those filled with flush and blush, fury and fuss.

Words seem endless, when your beauty plays a song
They seem non existent, when you do come along
Flutter, my heart does, whenever your mind screams
Cos I feel your feelings as fast as lightening beams.

Moments, so precious, have I collected
Across the two years, since we connected
Something I lost, the same thing I abducted
Alas, yours seem to weigh on me as its recollected.

A million things said and done
Doesnt equate to your brilliance and beauty
And the search has just begun,
For making you happy in life, is my duty.

Girls I have always revered and respected
And you, for the golden heart that you depicted
I have never been so closely inspected
And all my actions changed and perfected.

Without you, I wouldnt have been myself
Where in every action, thy come before self
Everything I do or say, you have changed to suit
Your sense of style and gentleness, you command to boot.

You have been my best loot
My most precious thing, I will hoot
Your health is the only sore foot
On shining silver, like soot.

"I love you" is all I can tell you
Undying love for you all through
Im sad that nothing much I can give today
But I really mean what I keep repeating everyday.

Im still in a flux on where I will be
But I want you always close to me
Every second, through my thots, I see
Your reflection in my heart, making me glee

Valentine's day is nothing special
Just an excuse for me to cover up our spatial
Seperation by uttering those words many a time
Only when I hear your voice, these thots become sublime

My current situation is grim
But you fill my heart to the brim
I have to get a heavy purse and frequent the gym
And as always your name becomes by fervent hymn.

Love is universal, so they say
And all I can do this day
Is to make u happy, I pray
Till the time, together we stay.

An effervescent passion
A controlled compassion
And a selfless deed for education
Together with a confused vindication

These are just a few of your traits
That acted as charming baits
For me to fall into a "trap"
Amazing how each other, we can fully map

You came into my life and filled my heart's gap
You are the best of the best, I can continuously rap
Thinking of you, my eyes resemble a tap
Cant stop admiring you, even when you are taking a nap

Im very proud of you, my dear
My heart beats for you, Im sure you hear
A thousand miles apart, we still appear
So close, our love always shifting up a gear

Time has never been on our side
But sooner or later, it has to abide
As our love transcends boundaries, bonafide
Sticking together for life, a wild ride

You can run, but you can never hide
From the fact that relationships rise and slide
Together, we have laughed and cried
Longing for my proudest moment yet, when you become my bride

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Quadralemma

The New Year has kinda created a dent in my blogging frequency. I am kinda shocked myself, as being jobless wud have meant more, and not less, posts from me. Anywayz, I am officially jobless in a quadralemma. I got 4 choices from which to choose one. On a scale of 1-10, everything has been between 6-7 (yeah, rate yourself is one of the most FAQ in an interview), so its been kinda hard to choose.

Alright, now to the interviewee saga...

I realised that interviewees over a period of time tend to formulate a standard set of answers for the usual FAQ (strength, weakness, projects, challenges etc). I hate repeating things that I have said. My astrounding memory apart, I do tend to consciously avoid saying the same things over and over again (Rahul Dravid r u listening?). And a lot of interviewees tend to repeat the "magic formula" to get in, rather than give the interviewer a good perception of what the interviewee is. There is always a dilemma. Should I tell him what he wants to hear or what I really am? The more desperate u r for the job, the answer tends to slide towards the former. But in this race for the vacant seat, the interviewees who are true to themselves tend to lose out as well. Interviewers can best be described as a bridled horse, looking through a focussed lens. If you deviate, no matter how good u r, u lose.

But on the other hand, what if, the interviewee, like myself, decide I dont really need the job, if they want me, let them take me, else leave it. Even though some jobs can be simply "irresistable", which I can simply not say no, I havent got such a job yet, so I prefer to remain with the "dont care" attitude that is in direct contrast to my usual passive self.

Especially if you are in the place I am, you would definitely hear this statement "Are you prepared to work late to complete your job". Ofcourse, the truth is the worst possible answer. This is an implicit contract that u sign during ur interviews that increases your work load while reducing ur wage and demolishing ur health. Cost cutting technology at its best. Even though most guys would spend time in their offices late, checking emails and chatting, I hate to be in the office or anywhere near, if I am done with my work. I want my bonus to be a function of my job, not a function of my work hours. I would love to see it in a Human Rights Violations document. I think in about 1912 or so, they brought down the working hours to 8 hrs a day. Does any of the companies realise why they brought it down?

Some of the companies really get on my nerves during the interview process. Not only do they think too high of themselves, they tend to frustrate u with "i-have-lost-count" number of interviews. Worst still, they tend to repeat the same questions and i refuse to go into an infinite loop saying "im the smart amazing flawless dedicated guy that u want", complicating things. Interviewers have a valid point. They want to get the best person for a position. But how do they decide on whoz the best, if everyone repeats the same phrase over and over again? Technical, aptitude, business, people, aptitude, behavorial tests after... what more? And if any interviewee knows what he/she wants with their career, it acts like a warning symbol for them. Doubt creeps into their hawk like brains.. "If this guy knows what he wants, wont he become frustrated with this job soon?". Worse so, cos I have some constraints, like my concurrent masters degrees. Talks of commitment, implicit overtime agreements, explicit behavorial threats, lectures on company policies and regulations tend to dominate for the next hour.

The most hilarious part is when the interviewers at the end of the interview ask you "Do you have any questions for us". I thot it was nice of them during my first ever interview, but I soon found a pattern in this as well. They expect you to shoot only "certain" questions to them. They dont want to face questions they are not prepared for. If you ask them more about the role or the job or the growth, they have standard template answers for you. You should see the look on their faces when I ask them questions like "Whats the average age/experience of your Team Leaders, Managers". They take it intrusively, while I am just being practical. Equal opportunities, Meritocracy, Scholarly are buzz words for corporate communication officers to portray the company in a nice way. But are these really the case inside the organisation? These stats might help me validate those claims made on their website. Ofcourse, they avoid it by just saying "Confidential". In other words, they dont know.

So in essence, they end up recruiting guys who dont know what they want in their career, able to comfortably lie in/about their resume, able to work their ass off, not expect any kinda growth, infinite patience towards beaurocracies, do the job day in and day out with a wide smile on their face. And they end up losing them just as quick! As one company aptly put it.. "You know, you have comfortable chairs if you have to work late and we offer free coke". Thanks buddy! But its bad for my health!

Future interviewers, just think about the interviewee, just a little bit, and you will get a much better person to work with!

PS: Im taking a big risk in this post as some of these quotes are from my current offers. But I dont mind, cos I love to be transparent. I want to be able to work in the way I feel most comfortable in, in the organisation that I see the most fit for me, meeting my personal goals.

PPS: I still havent decided on where I want to be. Its decision time, so taking it rationally and slowly.

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The Man Himself

"HE APJ Abdul Kalam" screamed the banner. After breaking our heads over the additional initials, we realised that "protocol" does come into play. Anywayz, I got myself a great seat in the third row, just behind the President's entourage, and bang in the middle. After a tense, fiddling, boring, exhausting wait, we cooled ourselves on sharing of anecdotes about our beloved President, and the beauty of his own anecdotes. Ofcourse, for those of you who havent gone through it till now, please visit The President of India.

Aint his lectures and speeches fascinating? With only one out of the 20+ comments I got being negative about his talks, I was eagerly awaiting his presence. Hidden amidst the powerful big men came a humble little man with ruptuous applause (that was more instructed than spontaneous). However, the sponteneity of the applause was in the duration. It reminded me of how popular he actually is. He had to turn around twice to get us to stop clapping and be seated.



After a short inaudible intro about the President, it was time for his speech. He dint disappoint, with his subtle humour and his purpose-filled talk. "I have prepared a presentation, but let me know if you dont like, I can talk about what you want" lightened up the atmosphere. He went on about the importance of Education, the the need of the present (Info-Nano-Bio technologies merger), the pillars of the future (Knowledge, Education, Healthcare, PURA Grids), and above all scientists and science and technology.

You could see a sense of gratitude in his voice when he referred to Vikram Sarabhai, Verghese Kurien and Homi Jehangir Baba, and pictures of these greats (with their accomplishments) were truly inspiring. One statement was very powerful indeed. He said "Technology has borders, but Science does not". Ofcourse, hardly a speech passes without one of his trademarked anecdotes. So here it was. He had the honour of presenting an award to a 92 year old Nobel laureate. During the ceremony, the Nobel winner not only thanked Abdul Kalam but also picked out persons in the 3rd, 4th and 6th rows to thank them individually for their researches and scientific contributions, saying that it was the collective effort that has made the earth a better place to live in. He emphasised that this "Scientific Magnanimity" is what should run in the veins of all scientists the world over.

He had the knack to tie the whole presentation (that he has meticulously prepared himself) to the purpose of his visit to the Univerisity (to sign MoU on Nanotechnology) and lead to his closure with its impact on scientific enhancements for the world.



Then followed a hilarious Q&A. The first question was quite straightforward, on the importance of Education towards India 2020 - his vision. The second question was from an Indian student doing his MS here (not so hilarious in itself, but tht he did his undergrad in IIT Delhi and grad studies in Stanford made every other Indian question his sanity). He was asking about what measures the President is taking to ensure there is no brain drain :P I thot it was he who has to make a decision whether to go back or not. The President said that 10-15% expats are normal and does not affect the brilliance of the country (man, am I proud :D:D:D) and that they are having a lot of R&D effort back home, if they are interested. The final question was the shocker. One communication engineering gal wanted to put her theory to the ultimate test by quizzing the President about how he is going to abolish the rampant Child Sex Tourism in India. He got the word Children alone at first, but taking note of the shock in the auditorium, and after 3-4 clarifications from the gal and the MC, he proceeded to stop his Advisors from shooing away the gal and asking for the next question. Even though it was ill advised of the gal considering this is not a debating forum but a question to the Head of State, he calmly said that "We need good citizens. Govt cant make good citizens. Women, Family and Education can only make good citizens. And once we get good citizens, these things will automatically cease to exist".

All in all, it was really a humbling experience to meet such a nice down to earth humane scholar of gigantic proportions. Even though I couldnt manage to ask a question, neither get an autograph (he only managed to sign for 2 before he was ushered away), I really felt it an honour to have him with us today. Today shall go down in history as the day - I almost fell down on his feet.

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