My few cents

Who am I?

2010-10-26T20:24:00.000+05:30

I sometime have a feeling of who I am. Who am I really? Going by the word of people, I am a human being. But so do billions of other people around the world. According to me, if a person knows who he is really, he will be Gnani - sacred one. But why it is not possible for everyone to understand who they are? Is this the reason why people go after their religious gurus who claim to be owning all our fate? If everything is with the super human power, god, why did he make only human being as the controller of the whole world? Why not a dog or cow think and manage the human and other animals? Whats so special with a human avatar? What will be this world if an animal start thinking, smiling, crying, and behaving? Will it start control the world?

Oh my god, if you are there, tell me who can answer all my questions.

T Nagar Ranganathan Street

2010-10-26T20:12:00.000+05:30

Today I hit T Nagar Ranganathan Street, our usual shopping place, for Deevali purchase. Though everybody knows that it is the most crowded place in Chennai, it seems the government has taken little steps to control the place. The infrastructure is very bad. Around 2pm, it started raining a little for 5 minutes. But, that was enough to create mud in the street. I could not even place my feet in the ground. It was embarrassing to see the place during rain.

Second, the people who come out of Mambalam railway station go straight into the Ranganathan Street to reach their places of wish. Even office goers use this place. Because of this reason, the place has become even crowded. I feel the Government should regulate the traffic in such a way that only the customers of Ranganathan Street should only be allowed. Others such as office goers of TNagar should be asked to use another route. I am really not sure if another route is possible, but its my thought.

Its good thought of Saravana Stores to start their new branch in Purasavalkam. If the new branch had also started somewhere in T Nagar, it would have also contributed for additional traffic. I think all big brands should come forward to open their shops in Tier 2 cities as well. If not as big as they have in Chennai, at least a smaller shop will do to control their traffic.

An interesting stuff happened today when I was shopping. A women came out of Jayachandran Textiles with garments in her bag. When she was crossing the security gate, security alarm starting beeping. Hearing that, the women started running. The staff of the shop chased the women successfully. After holding her, they started questioning her and asked for bills. She could not produce the bills and kept on saying her husband had the bills and will pay the amount later. Having seen such people a lot of times, female staff started beating her and used foul languages. The women kept on firm. Since my time was running out, I vacated that place and didn't know what happened to her after that.

Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance

2010-10-12T19:10:00.000+05:30

The book was written by Lou Gristner who was the CEO of International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) Ltd in the historic turnaround of the company in the nineties (1992 – 2002). The company was drowning in the corporate world and at the verge of going bankruptcy. It was then Lou was hired as the CEO. The only short term goal he was given was to “save” the company.
Here’s the summary of the book content.
Lou was hesitant in accepting the offer as his background was not technical and was not confident if he would be successful. He was MBA from Howard Business School and worked for three companies all with non-technical expertise. He goes on explaining about his first job in McNeely as a consultant for companies and when he left the job after 10 years, he was one of the partner of the company. He joined American Express as Head of Card devision. He worked in Amerian Express as senior executive for 10 years and finally moved to Nan Biosco as a senior executive.
The book has been solely written by Lou without help of another ghost writer which makes the book very personal. He explains the internal strategy of the company throughout his period and how he overcomes each situation. He was managing a set of executives and explains he managed them cleverly. A Must Read book.

Same company for years

2010-07-10T20:08:00.002+05:30

In IT field, I have hardly seen people working for same company for more than an year. The reason they quote is always market demand. Yes of course market demands skilled workers to join them at any cost. It is a trend of jobs pouring in from developed countries to India. But once other countries like China, Malaysia, Srilanka, Brazil are ready to take over the jobs from us, our folks will be in real trouble. Attrition is a major issue for most of the IT companies to deal with. They are not able to cope up with the resignations from top skilled workers as they are lured by other companies with bigger pay hike. Some companies take much effort on attrition management and come up with many innovative ideas to keep their top performers. It works well to some extent. But, the major problem is they cannot do this for all employees, as the retention management is including of money rewards and expensive trainings.

When we look at the same case from employees perceptive, not everyone who come out of college gets an IT/ITES job directly. Though IT companies now a day hire a lot of freshers but it is not the case for everyone. When it comes to ITES, a lot of people would have started their career as a field support or technical support engineer in a small firm for salary of Rs. 1000 to Rs. 2000. I started my career for Rs. 600 per month 8 years ago. Because they are starting their career for such low salary, they tend to jump from one company to another because they in a position to increase their CTC. We cannot say it is totally wrong. In fact it is the right approach to quickly increase your salary to match market level before choosing your dream company.

There is another aspect of it is to stay with a same company for long term. I actually worked for 4 companies in first 4 years of my career. That gives an average of one year in a company. But, in my current company I have been staying for more than 4 years now. The reasons are many. It all depends on how the company keeps you engaged on different roles and responsibilities. Of course, salary is also important, but I feel over the years it will be solved automatically if you stay for the same company. Playing a different role every year is also good idea to keep your hands on different areas of same company.

Don't ignore me!!!

2010-07-10T19:49:00.003+05:30

Ignoring someone is very painful than beating him/her at times. There are times when we would have ignored others knowingly or unknowingly. I have heard this complaint many times from my wife but actually I didn't feel much about it as it was the case for everyone. But, there was an incident last weekend which made me thinking.

I went to Yelagiri with my team mates for vacation. We quite enjoyed the outing. During camp fire session, I just asked my team mates to tell me at least one negative point of me. I am actually interested to hear my negative points as it helps me correct my mistakes which I could be making without knowledge. Using the opportunity, everyone told me various points that they came across with me. But one guy told me a strange point. He said "whenever I smiled at you in the office, you never returned that gesture. Instead you prefer to look at somewhere else." He went on saying he felt really bad about it and it made him to go for smoke to relieve from that insult. He even said at such times he would check his emails and other records to find if he made a mistake in the past week which could be the reason behind my non-smiling. When heard this, others laughed, of course me too. But once I returned from vacation, I started thinking about it a lot.

It's just a human courtesy to return a smile but how could I missed it till now. I could have thousand reasons to quote ranging from pressure from customers, people and personal issues etc. But nothing could justify for this bad gesture. But, that's not the whole thing. It's just a simple smile but see how much it affects the people around you. I have seen my managers smiling at me every time the see me. I know the reason now.

I have made it a point from now on to look at people on their eyes and make a smile. It may be for a formality initially but I am sure it will become a habit after some time.

Bhumi Induction

2010-06-13T20:10:00.003+05:30

Today I attended induction session of DnE (Dhrunocharya and Eghalivan) program of the non profit organization Bhumi. It was a session of fun filled activities, different from traditional induction programs where inductors will explain you the concept of their program and all. But here in this program, I noticed a major difference that, the organizers induced participants to think and come up with ideas of what they think this program is all about and what way it could be taken forward to meet the objectives. So, it was successful I would say.

Basically as a person, I am not usually very well mingling with strangers. I would even hesitate to say "Hello" to a person unless I know him thoroughly. But, this kind of programs help me meet strangers and get to know their likes and dislikes and allow me to introduce to them and more. All these things happen in matter of few minutes to hours. So, it helps you make you a people oriented person.

It also helps you a lot of ways. Let me blog about this as I attend more sessions and meeting children and helping them in their career counseling. It is designed as one to one mentoring session. So, I think i would be guiding one student to achieve a better prospect in his/her life.

Its just a beginning.... let's see how it goes!!!

PMP Session

2010-03-27T19:32:00.002+05:30

Though I manage a big team in the office, I am not a certified Project Manager. So, I decided to go for a PMP Certification. I was thinking about how to start it because PMP is a big concept and its not easy to break it without assistance from a professional. I downloaded some online tutorial and tried to study it but it was not really working well. Suddenly I came to know there was a session scheduled for PMP and the trainer was Mr. Upendra Giri. I searched in the net and found he was a big guy in project management. He has given key note speeches in many places and closely worked with many top people.

The class went well for last three days and tomorrow is the fourth day and he flew today by handing over the last day class to someone else. In three days classes that he conducted, most of the time he spent in giving real time stories as examples. There was a message in each stories. He narrated the stories in fun filled ways. He basically seems to be humorous person. There was a think line of fun in the way he speaks normally.

I could also notice he was bosing much and trying to create an impression that he is really a big guy and have close rapport with most of the top people in India and the world. Ofcourse, it is true.

Over all, the session was good and I got a good understanding of Project Management. Tomorrow is the model exam. The next step would be to enroll as a member with PMI and go with preparing for the exam.

My MBA exam is also starting next month, so I am not sure if I would be able to find time for preparing PMP, but I would like to finish is as soon as possible (before I forget things that I learned in last three days).

Axis Bank - the Idiots

2010-03-27T19:11:00.002+05:30

I went through all sorts of idiotic things with Axis Bank this week. I applied for Rs. 6L personal loan with them. They initially said it was possible to sanction the amount based on my salary take home. After few days, after completing all verification and inquiries, they said they could sanction only 5L. I was irritated now because I already made my plans to purchase a plot based on this amount as I arranged remaining amount through other sources. Two days back, Axis came back to me again to say they could sanction only 4L now. Now I cannot do anything with this amount. I am back to starting position now. My plot owner is insisting me to do registration by next week and I am still not arranged the money. I'am now chasing other banks for the remaining amount but the time is key factor now. Since I have already lost one week with them, now it will take another one week if I go to another bank. However, Citibank promised to give money in two days. Lets see...!

Of course there are few advantages with Axis bank which made me to go with them. The interest rate with them is least in the industry. Its just 15%. Other banks offer 15.5% to 16.5%. Another advantage is that they allow Part Payment and Pre Closure which no other bank offers.

Though I like all these features, their service makes me feel I should never go back to them. They don't understand the requirement of the customer and just make the customer to run from pillor to post for nothing. They don't have a clear policy of how much approve or reject. They run it like a government agency. You have nobody to contact if your problem is not solved.

Lets see how it goes next week.

Nithyananda

2010-03-07T19:19:00.003+05:30

Nithyananda - it is the talk of the world right now. Even a 6 year old may know what the issue all about. Is it because of his sex relationship with an actress - his ladylove? No - it is because he is a godman and taught others about Bramacharyam and his person life is full of corruption and lust. He has made crores of rupees by cheating others. He charged anywhere between 2k to 5k for Dharshan and in lakhs for speeches. He also charged in thousands to lakhs to visit his disciples house and to meet them and offer "varam". Now his true face is exposed in the media - thanks to Sun News and Nakeeran and various other media.

I would not say it is completely because of Nitha. Though he used all his skills to make money, it is that our people who made him God. There is famous line in Kamal's "Anbey Sivam" movie. Trust those who say God exists. Trust those who say God doesnt exist. But never trust those who proclaim himself as God. How true the words are. Honestly, I don't believe a middle man required between us and God.

If you note one uniqueness in all 'Samiyars', they first start their career/business as Godman as the one who provides a very good speech first and then teaches Yoga and other classes. If someone who teaches Yoga, treat him as a master - not as a God. At the start of the period, his disciples see him as one who come in between god and human. After few coincidental things happened in favor of them, they start considering the person as God himself. It is nothing but mere stupidity.

First nobody in this world has seen god. They take advantage of it. They make people believe that they are avatars of God. They don't show proof for their claim. Instead they only confuse people saying something which ordinary people cannot understand. Of course it is an art and they become masters of it.

Some people who are known as "Sithars" are the ones who left the family life and dedicated themselves in the search of truth of life. They never attempted to score publicity and money. They never said they are the avatars of God. Instead they said they don't know who they are. So, you can easily identify the ones who are really the sithars. First they don't ask for money, second, they don't try to create publicity. Third, they don't go all about and conduct classes and charging lakhs of rupees.

If one took a second and thought about all these things, he/she wouldn't have fallen into Nithya's undue crazy. Anyway, people have understood him now, and they will not go to him anymore - but it doesn't mean they will not go to another "samiyar" tomorrow. In one way, they are all Sithars themselves - they keep on searching someone to tell them who them are really.

Front Line Managers Training (FLM)

2009-08-26T20:23:00.000+05:30

Just an hour ago, I completed a three training in my company – Front Line Managers training arranged by the company to train first level managers. It started on 24th and ended today 26th August 2009.

Though I manage a team of 60 people, it has never been easy for me to find ways and means to deal with various situations that come in my way. Everyone has his or her own way of approach and everything they do. Sometimes it might work and other times it might not. There is no right or wrong answers to say which approach is correct. It all depends on what situation you handle and what kind of people you handle. The training gave us ideas to manage different kind of people and face different kind of difficult situations.

The three days training consists of well-organized Agenda, which includes Games, Activities, Fun filled exercises, exciting videos and presentations.
We also had an hour session on Day 1 by one of our senior manager, which was quite useful. He shared lot of interesting facts about leadership. He also shared his own experience of handling the situations. The most important factor what we learned from him was about continuous learning.

I must also add a line about faculty who facilitated us for this training. They were very polite, punctual, focus on topic, and allowed us to talk freely and express our ideas and thinking. They let us talk rather than only listen.
To conclude, it was a wonderful session.

Omar Abdulla

2009-08-03T09:34:00.002+05:30

Omar Abdulla, the CM of J&K, created a stunt last week when he was alleged by opposition party that he was involved in a sex scandal in 2006.

In stead of facing the charge and proving himself innocence, Omar took a surprise root to resign and walked out of the assembly to meet the Governor and submit the resignation. What cleverly did was he added a line in the resignation letter that Governor should accept the resignation only if he was convinced that he was involved in the case. What a situation for the Governor?

It all started sometime back in 2006 that one of minor girl exposed a sex crime in which lot of top officials names were rolling on. It was said that Omar's name was registered at position 102 as the list of accused. But later CBI refused the inclusion of Omar's name. Since his name is not in the CBI list currently, central govt. reported to governor that he was innocence. Based on the report, Governor rejected the resignation and Omar started his duty in the office as usual. What a drama?

As a Chief Ministor, if he is so vunerable like this what he can achieve for the state? The main opposition party Mufti Muhammad's PDP will always put charges against him like this (may be ture or false) and will he resign every time? How many times do you have resign if you are going to take all charges seriously? As a CM, he should have the courage to face the charges, instead of hiding behind the people by inducing the emotional.

Stray Dogs

2009-08-03T09:18:00.002+05:30

I read a news in Times Of India about stray dogs biting Children and morning Walkers. Also, they reported that no action has been taken so far from Chennai Corporation. It indeed is true that stray dogs are becoming a threatening factor in our every day life. There are always news about children being targeted by the street dogs every now and then.

It was a surprise for me that one of the animal well wisher commented that it was parent's mistake by letting their children play in the street. He also mentioned that we have to learn how to live with animals. What I am wondering is, why there is no common sense for most of the so called animal well wishers. It looks like these people don't have brain at all. They always care about Animals and not about the humans. For argument sake I am asking, if you can live with stray dogs side by side why don't you live with Tigers and Lions, as end of the day they are also animals?

I dont come to say all dogs to be curbed. At least those dogs that are not owned by anyone can be put into an end as the first phase. If anyone has pet dogs, they should keep the dog in their home only with a rope tied around the neck.

Looking for internet at home?

2009-06-10T03:19:00.010+05:30

I was under the impression that technology in the UK is far ahead of other countries - until I faced this slow Internet connection at my apartment. Today it is at its worst. It takes 2 minutes to load my blogs home page. I was very frustrated with the connection, left the computer for some time, and went to do other tasks. I need to follow up with my Apartment service management tomorrow again for this issue. By the way, I am in the UK now for an official purpose.

Back in India, the connection speed is now available up to 18 mbps though practically not many people opt for this due to high cost. I have a 3.1 mbps wireless connection from Tata Indicom Photon+ in India, which is best connection speed, which I have worked with. I pay around Rs.1300 every month and get 15GB free download limit. Now Tata Indicom has come up with even a better connection up to 18mbps. They call it PhotonPro. I do not know whether I can use my old device for this new connection - I think I cannot - because they provide a new router with this connection. Therefore, I need to stick to my old connection only. I have never seen outage with my existing connection though I have frequent disconnection problem. Yes, it disconnects very frequently and I lose my connectivity to my VPN. This is very frustrating especially when I am working on client servers.

Based on my experience I have narrowed down few vital things that you should keep in mind when taking a new internet connection.

It is not easy to determine what Internet connection you want at home. You need to do a lot of research and decide. If wired connection available, go for it as it is stable most of the time and you do not get much disconnection issues. Only disadvantage with wired connection is you will find difficulties when you change your house. You need to follow up with your Internet provider to do the transfer of the connection who in turn will ask you to pay a small fee. In that front, wireless connections are recommended if you are the one frequently changing the houses.

Another important factor that you need to decide is the speed and download limit. You need to decide what you are going to do with your Internet connection. If you are going to use it only for Email and occasional surfing, then go for lower limit option - which will save you a few hundred bucks. If you do heavy downloads like me then it is better go for unlimited connection or a maximum download limit. Mine is 15GB limit which I do not usually cross that much, unless I do heavy downloading using torrents. When it comes to speed matter, I am a big fan of fast surfing. In front of computer, my patience level is very low. I have taken the maximum connection speed of 3.1Mbps. I am happy with the speed of my connection.

In wireless connection, one point you should always remember. The connection speed will not be the same in all locations. If it works well at your friend's home, it is not necessary that it should work at your home also. So, better do checks at your home before buying it. I am sure most of the Internet providers offer a demo at home for their Internet connection. If demo works fine, most probably your connection is OK.

One more important thing you should remember when you take your connection is that you should always call up the help desk and confirm that the connection speed and download limit and monthly charge that you have agreed with the sales representative are actually available with them. Because what happens the sales Representatives tell us thousand things to sell their product. Once you buy it, if you go back to them, the customer care will tell you that there is no such scheme available. It happened more than once for the people I know.

Finally, check your first month billing and make sure it is the same as what you agreed with the sales person and all points are correct.

Spending time for family and work

2009-06-08T00:34:00.004+05:30

I used to spend at least 12 hours daily and most of the weekends for official work when I was a bachelor. But after the marriage the situation is different and I cannot do the same as I have someone there at home waiting for me now. The expectation from my spouse is very much reasonable and understandable.

When you are single, you don't have anybody depends on you (ofcourse you have your Mom/Dad, but the impact will not be much). But once married you have the whole world depend on you - yes I meant your spouse.

Though spending time for your career is important, the equally important is spending quality time for the family. If family is not supportive, you cannot concentrate on official work. You can make your wife happy if you devote all your time with your her, but you should spend time for your job to run the family, which also requires a substantial amount of your time.

Though I try not to open my Laptop once I reach home, there are sometimes I have to do it due to work pressure from office. Being a TL, I need to be in contact all the time and respond to emails based on the urgency. It sometimes create slight noises at home, however, I manage to solve :). My perception is that if you work for 8 hours in office sincerely, you don't really have to work from home also.

Learning from my 9 months marriage life is, spend all your office time for office and others for family. There can be exceptions here and there. But it is your responsibility to handle it cleverly.

Britain's got talent

2009-06-05T00:21:00.003+05:30

I am just watching Britain's got Talent now in ITV2 channel in London. Yes I am in London now for an official purpose. Let me come to the program.

The program is just amazing - it brings the talent from participant and shows it to the whole world. It looks like this program has earned a mammoth support from English. The winner of this program is going to be getting all in the world - Praise, money, and future. He/she get chance in TV/POP Albums/Cinema. The winner of 2008 got this chance to Recording Studio within a week's time. It was just amazing. Who won't want to win if they get these benefits?

In 2009, the winner is a group called "Diversity Group" which is a group of 13 people and they showed all talent in their dance. It is more than just dance. they showed their innovation, imagination, and everything. They deserve to win this competition.

How can I close this without mentioning about Judges of this program? There are three judges - Simon, Pears and Amenda. Piears and Amenda are usually soft spoken and soft towards the contestants. But Simon is just opposite to them. He is not satisfied easily. His expectation from each participant is not something simple. He never appreciate easily. If a contenstant gets his appreciation they feel they have won the game.

See you later!

Wanna buy a House?

2008-07-04T23:02:00.002+05:30

Wanna buy a House?

I was trying to buy a house in Chennai and finally wound up the idea due to various financial factors. Here are few things I learned in last few months.

It’s everyone’s wish to buy and own a house. But, there are pros and cons as every decision has. One should think about various factors before deciding whether going for buying a house.

First, what is the need of own house? If your entire family don’t have a house to own, then it is worth to think and buy it, as you should definitely own a house, if not for you, at least for the next generation. If you have a house already as a family property and then we need to think about various factors.

Second, what is source of money to buy the house? Almost everyone is going to go for Home Loan. Banks also gives only 85%. The remaining amount, you have to put from your pocket. Of course, for that also, most of us go for another loan. Here’s where the problem starts. If you don’t have that 15% to fill in, then better you don’t go for taking a Home Loan at all. Because, you have to pay a huge sum as EMI already and another sum for personal loan. When you consider you take home salary, these two parts take almost 75% of your net salary, which gives very low money for livelihood. Considering skyrocketing expenditure and inflation, we may definitely need more money every year to cope up with Inflation.

Third, You need to decide, what is the budget for your house. This is very important, because we sometimes, get tempted to buy the house, if it is really good. The owner will fix a rate which is more than your budget. Now, you are trying to take another loan and take money from other sources, to fill the gap and buy the more expensive house. This is practically not a good idea as it will create more problems than any good. You have to stick to the budget and not to get carried away with the look of the house.

Fourth, Do you need a car park? This is considered to be the most important factor in today’s buyers. Everyone is asking for car park, because of known reason that everyone wants to own a car in near feature, if not today. Considering Tata’s 1 lakh car, every IT professional is expected to buy a car in one or two years. The owner or builder always tell you, you can easily park your car outside. But, you need to think for the long term. Today, you might have space in Road to park your car. But, tomorrow, the space might be occupied by the Corporation for something else. Or they might simply tell you not to park the car in that place. And another factor is, if you are going for out of town, how many days, your car will stand outside. When you comeback, what’s the guarantee the car will there still. So, now, what you will do? So, if you are going to buy a car in feature, don’t even think of going for a house without having space car park.

Fifth, let’s come back to the finance matter again. Today, we calculate, the interest rate according to the current market rate. Based on the interest rate, Bank fixes the EMI. Two years ago home loan interest rates were somewhere around 7.25 to 7.77. But, today it is between 10.50 and 11. So, if it increases further, obliviously EMI will also go further. Either EMI amount will increase or the number of years will increase. In either case, you are the looser. It is best recommended to get only minimum amount from the bank as loan, and put your own money for the rest. My recommendation is to have at least 30% of money in your pocket and go to the bank for the rest. Another advise is take the loan for minimum number of years. There are various EMI calculators available in the Bank’s websites. Use them and decide house much EMI, you have to pay for the loan amount you take. Just see the total amount you will pay after your tenure. It will be a huge sum. You will end up paying 3 times of you actual amount. You can bring down this cost, by taking minimum number of years for the loan period. Just the use the EMI calculator and see the difference between 15 years and 20 years. The EMI difference will be very low and but the total amount difference would be very high. In this way, you can save a lot of money. But the problem is, Bank will not give maximum money for 15 years. I mean they have slob for the period. If you are eligible for 20L for 20 years, you might be eligible only for 17L if you go or 15 years.

Sixth, the major reason why people go for own house is they get a new permanent address. You are the house owner so, there is no need of vacating the house. In rented house, you will be asked to leave every 2 years. Of course it completely depends on your relationship with the house owner.

Seventh, there are some advantages of living in rented houses also. You don’t need to worry about your house, for any natural calamities. If something happens to the house by any earthquake or something else, you can simply leave. If your company is moved to some other place which is too far from your current place, you can easily shift to the new place. Or even you might get an opportunity to go out of country or city, for which you need to vacate your house. In that case, being in rented house is extremely helpful.

After taking to many people, and taking their advise, finally I decide not to buy a house now. I can live happily for my monthly net salary, if there is no need of paying any EMIs. If most of the money goes for EMI, then what do you have for living. After starting paying EMI, you will always think about money and how to live the small money you have after paying EMIs.

You are the best person to decide what/when/how you want.

BEWARE OF TELEMARKETTING AGENCIES

2008-05-21T18:47:00.000+05:30

We all receive number of calls from Telemarketing agencies about various offers(!?). One such call received by one of our employee’s Brother made him lose Rs.45,000 in just about 45 minutes. Wanna know more? Read on.
A girl had been calling him for past 10 days posing she was an ICICI bank employee and the bank offered him a Top-up facility for his existing credit card. He trusted the girl and finally accepted the offer. The girl said the Bank's executive would visit him for completing the formalities and he should provide all the documents and a “Blank” check. He just provided all the documents and signed wherever the executive asked him to do so, and finally gave him a “Blank” check. All this happened at 9:00AM yesterday.
At 9:45AM, he received a message from ICICI Bank that Rs. 45,000 was debited from his account to honor the check given by him.
Got it? The executive just went to a nearest ICICI bank, filled up the blank check and debited the money from the account.
Now the entire family of victim running between Police station (for FIR and other stuff) and ICICI bank (for any possible proof). It is now learned that there is a group of people involved in this crime and they are using ICICI Bank's name for their fraud.
There are few lessons to be learned from this incident.

* Never ever give a blank check to anyone. Don’t forget to write Payee name and mark “A/C” payee only” in the left corner.
* Don’t simply trust telemarketing persons posing a name of a good company.
* If they call you and talk to you about some lucrative offer, ask them to send details by their company E-mail id.

IPLT20

2008-04-29T16:58:00.000+05:30

When IPLT20 kick started, I was not too sure if it is going to be a big hit. Reason was many. Firstly, Kapil’s ICL did not gather much attention in public. Secondly, when players play for their country, there is a true aggression and willingness to win the game. But when it comes to playing for a county or city, there is no nativeness experienced Players and they seem to be playing for money not for country. The reason whey ICL did not caught up fame because all the players in ICL are retired from International Cricket and lack of support from ICC.

But After 2 weeks of It’s start, now the fame is building up slowly and people started to follow it very seriously. Cheerleaders are really cheering the crowds. Some poor politicians making fuss out of it to gain political mileage in this matter too. It’s dirty of Politicians to compare Cheerleaders with Bar-Dance girls. Bar Dance girls dance in Bars and there only aim to seduce the Customers. But, Cheerleaders cheer up the crowd by their dance.

Basically, T20 has become very interesting form of cricket because the result of the game can be changed at anytime within a matter of a BAD or GOOD over. Fast food is tastier than Hotel meals. But are they healthier? Some of the cricketers like Imran Khan hates T20 matches because they believe it will ruin the cricket’s very own Test matches. People have already switched from Test cricket to one day matches and now to T20 matches. People want entertainment and are not interested to wait for 5 days to know the result, that too no result most of the times.

Though the mass fame of T20 matches building up day by day, the satisfaction of winning a match will be more in 50 over cricket and Test matches. Because, even an incompetent team which has a fortunate day can win a T20 matches by grabbing few good Overs.

There is nothing wrong in doing something as long as there is no harm for others and it provides happiness to you. In that way, as long as IPLT20 entertain us, let’s also watch and enjoy it.

Software Vs Human being

2008-03-22T21:08:00.000+05:30

One of my co-worker has written a software tool which saves us a lot of time in work. There are encouragement and discouragement for the tool from various other departments, because of many reasons.

Encouragement, because it reduces your time and it gives you accurate result based on the code written. Discouragement because it is developed by an employee, not by Microsoft. So, they are not ready to trust this tool.

A software can make errors if the coding is not perfect. But it never makes careless mistakes as human do. The accuracy of the software is based on the coding. But the accuracy of the humans is based on many factors like knowledge, ability, understanding power, performance, and tiredness etc.

In a different perceptive, software does not have thinking power. It does what it has been instructed to do so. An employee can easily prioritize the work by deciding which is more important in that situation, but a software can’t.

My Trip to Mumbai

2008-03-19T23:24:00.000+05:30

Going back to Mumbai for the second time was an exciting feeling for more than one reason. I can meet my Mumbai friends and visit some places.

The problem created by Raj Thackeray recently was always in my mind, but I hoped nothing would go wrong. While whole India strongly disagreed with his statement that Mumbai is only for Mumbaikars, what disturbing is the way he treated north Indians. Violent cannot be the answer for any problems. It seemed like he desperately wanted some political mileage and took up this case, like what his uncle did a decade ago.

It was just 1:30 hours traveling by Jet Airways, but due to my ear pain during travel, I didn’t enjoy the flying.

I can’t complete my experience without mentioning about Mumbai girls. No girls from other states can match their level of dressing. They are modernized and revolutionary. But, are they more beautiful than south Indian girls? Or is it just their White complexion make them look beautiful. White complexion can give color not fair, isn’t?

While traveling in the plane, I wondered what kind of training this stewards (Air Hostess) would have got. They were so polite, smile faced, and charming. But its common sense to understand that it’s all part of their training. I remember one of my friend once asked me, “why our wives are not like the air hostess?” It’s too late now, you should have decided long back. hehe… But it is all just artificial, isn’t?. Once her job is done, go and talk to her and see how she talks. Then you will never want to marry her (sorry if it offends stewards).

OK, but still you have an option “why don’t you send your wife for Air hostess training?”

Movie Review “Anjathe”

2008-03-18T22:52:00.001+05:30

Last week I saw this movie with lot of expectation, but ended up in a unsatisfying tone. The reason could be my expectation was more due to the fact that last project of the director Myskin and Naren was a big success. Director got a fine line but missed to move into deep.

Actor Naren was not up to the mark as well in this movie. In his previous movie “Chitram pesudhadi” he did a good job, but he should come a long way after the two years. He didn’t seem to be improving himself. He seems to be nervous throughout the movie. In some scenes his acting was worth to watch although.

And then you have Pandiyarajan as villain, who has done fairly good job. Prasanna has done relatively good. Both of these guys surprise the audience by doing villain roles for the first time.

Overall not a bad movie, but could have been little better.

Knowledge Vs Education

2008-03-18T11:45:00.000+05:30

For the last 10 years, people have been very eager to put their children in an Engineering college or Medical college after +2. Engineering colleges have overtaken medical college in last few years, thanks for the IT/ITES industry. Not everyone get their merit seat, so they need to shell out a big money from their packet ranging from 3 Lakhs to 6 Lakhs. It is even worse for Medicine, it goes from 15 Lakhs to 20 Lakhs. But, does completing a degree course get them the job in the market. How many students get out of the college every year and how many are able to get a Job in the Campus interview. In one side, multinational companies pouring in to the Engineering colleges to pick up the right candidates. On the other side, there is a big queue searching for a job in the job market. How many engineers stand in the big queue during the Walk-In interviews?

It all starts from School days when Parents want to put their children in a Convent school which is good for English learning. Of course Christian schools and other English medium schools teach better English. They are able to make students who better in English. But do they make better students? Most of the students suffer when it comes to the understanding capacity and knowledge of common sense. Their only target is to train them in English and make students to mug up lessons. The common perception that those who studied in their mother tongue can’t make better professional because their lack in English speaking ability. It is true to some extent because at the time of interview for freshers, HR expects nothing but communication skills. More number of English medium students get selected during the Fresher’s interview.

But actually what happens when they are in the job? Obviously they don’t have any issues in talking to the clients from all over the world. But the problem starts when there is a complex problem that they have to solve. Mathematical skill helps solve complex problems by analyzing the issue carefully and solving the problem wisely. In that case, those who studied in their mother tongue beat English medium students (oh no.. now they are professionals.) in applying analytical skills, may not be in all the cases, but at least in most of the cases.

Once they started doing their job, it is least bothering matter whether they are Engineering graduates, Arts graduates or Diploma holders. In engineering also, there are various departments like computer science, ECE, Mechanical, Civil etc. A person who has done BE in mechanical join an IT industry. He is selected for his Engineering degree. It is not an issue for the company what he studied and what is going to do. A resource who has an engineering degree is sufficient for them to get more business from the clients by saying they have this many engineering resources at hand and will be able to handle the project. But the student, who has studied Mechanical in his 4 years, needs to sit in front of the computer and do stuff which is not of his interest. This is a common situation in IT industry where professionals do something which is not at all relevant to what they studied, for the sack of getting good salary. On the other hand, there will be many people who will be simply suffering without any job, if they strictly want to go only to their dream job. There are many engineers in Sales marketing field who do the job just because they want to feed their family. There is nothing wrong in taking up any Job rather than waiting for the dream job. But they should not be satisfied with they have today.

There was a period, it was the common assumption that only those who do engineering and medicine can get respectable jobs in the market. But it is not the case today, thanks to the Multinational companies. Anyone who have basic degree or a diploma can move to any position in the company. What is it basically required from a person when it comes to his job? Does his education help him solve his problems in this job? Definitely not.

Then what helps in his day to day job what matters is his understanding power of the situation and talent to act wisely. Both are very important. If one cannot understand what is the situation, then he cannot resolve the problem. Most of the time, the bad result come out of improper understanding of the situation. It is not that important what the way is chosen to complete the work, but what matters is whether the path is going towards the result or not. Another important factor is acting wisely. It means various things like prioritizing the work and do the job based on what is best for the situation and how to come out from the problem quickly and efficiently.

Purpose of this article is not to discourage English medium students and Engineering students, but to express few points.

(1) English is a skill and not a knowledge

(2) Doing Engineering does not guaranty you a job in the market.

(3) Performance of the professionals in the Job is not based on their Academic education.

Effective Communication

2008-03-17T12:23:00.000+05:30

The other day I was talking to a cousin of mine in English. She spoke very fast to the extent that I couldn’t understand even a bit. In spite of my request to slow down, she continued speaking fast. It convinced me that according to her, speaking so fast was a way to expose how best her English communication was. But what is the truth? It is other way around. If the listener can’t understand what one speaks, then what does communication purport?

What is communication; uttering sound or expressing thought? What is effective communication? How do the best communicators emerge? How do they stand out of others? How do they impress the audience? What do they do differently which normally others don’t.

There are few components, which I found while talking to different people, would make communication worthy.

Don’t rush

This is very important factor for effective communication. Try to read the listening capacity of the opponent and talk to the level they are comfortable with. A study states that a person can easily understand between 150 and 200 words per minute. Okay, What if somebody speaks 300 words per minute; it will be difficult, but can still manage to understand. What if somebody speaks 400 words per minute; the opponent can only hear you but not listen to you. In most of the swift speeches, either the opponent will kvetch or will simply feign as if they follow you when they actually understood nothing. In either case, the conversation yields nothing.

At the same time, keep in mind that sluggish speech will turn out to be apathetic and boring one. So, it is the speaker’s responsibility to adjust the speed based on the situation and the audience.

Speak clearly

Speaking clearly does not require one to be fluent at the language they speak. The act of speaking clearly shows two things; their attitude towards the conversion and their avidness towards the message being received by others correctly. Unclear words obnubilate the intention of the speech.

Make it straight to the point

I have seen many people, who would call me and talk about many things except why they called me. I have to cue them to talk about why actually called me. Before talking something to somebody, just ask yourself whether what you are going to talk is relevant to them. Speaking irrelevant things will only force the listener to avoid you in future. Short and sweet speeches have incisive nature in it and are easily received by the audience.

See if the opponent is ready to listen to you

There are some situations that either the listener is fatigued about the topic you speak or simply doesn’t have time to listen to you. In that situation, it will be utter waste of time for both the parties. What can one do in this situation? Simply do two things before starting. Tell him/her that what you are going to talk about and ask him/her if it is the right time to talk.

Keep your voice low, polite, sweet and dulcet

The people don’t want to hear vitriolic voices for long time. If you want to keep your listener focused, make sure your speech is mellifluous. Sometimes the people fallaciously think that raising their voice when they go ballistic will make the listener heedful of their words. You should understand that it will produce nothing but hatred. Showing your feeling in polite way gain more respect than blistering bitter words.

Let the other person react

This is one of the crucial factor that people usually forget. When you argue with someone, you should not talk endlessly. There is a common perception that the opponent will beat them in the argument if they give them time to speak in between. Unless you allow them to speak, you will never know whether they get your message or not. If one talks continuously without giving others an opportunity to talk, it will become “Speech” rather than “Discussion”. Also, let your listener finish the sentence before making your comment. Sometimes people will start with something but actually end up with meaning something else. Interrupting before finishing the sentence, will irritate them and stop them from actively participating in the conversation.

Be Non-Judgmental

During a conversation, avoid “I-know-everything” attitude. If the other person has realized that you have already decided the outcome of the discussion, It will only stop him from making further comments. Everyone has their right to express their thoughts. The other person may have a different perspective which might actually be a good one. One needs to understand things from other’s perceptive also. So, ask the others for their views or suggestions during conversation and don’t react immediately if their opinion is provoking.

Be true to what you speak

There is nothing wrong in saying “I don’t know” if you really don’t know about something. When you say “No” on what you don’t know or what you can’t do, it will improve confidence of your listener on you. The listener will automatically start assuming that you usually know what you are speaking about.

When I talk to different people, I notice many of them fall in any one or more of the above barriers. All of the above factors are something which are tagged as common-sense but we rarely follow.

Okay, Now I have completed writing this article for others; how about me? am I following all those factors? I don’t know, but needless to say, I make sincere attempt to follow them.

First blog

2007-09-04T02:14:00.002+05:30

Hi Guys, started to contribute my few cents to the blog world. Lets see how it goes.