Another chapter ends

Quick notes on happenings and my experience working out of a client location in the last 3 months.

1. I felt valued again after a long time.
2. My ego which had taken a beating got a nice boost.
3. Met some really cool and interesting people.
4. Figured out exactly the kind of work I want to do.
5. Was admired and I couldn't understand why.
6. Learnt that I can sit through a 3 hr journey within the city doing nothing.
7. Saw how a big international corporate giant works. Not sure I like it.
8. Realized eating alone sucks more that I thought it would.
9. Gained 3 kilos.
10. Lost an umbrella.
11. Realized people problems are everywhere.
12. Found a new role model.
13. Realized that documentation is not so bad.
14. My public speaking skills improved though it still needs a lot of work.
15. Wrote my first ever farewell mail.
16. Not a single person asked me why I wasn't married yet. (except my classmate from college who I met but he doesn't count.)
17. Bridget Jones Moments were only two, when I almost fell out of the bus and when my umbrella went flying during a conversation with the boss.

Sigh. Time to move on.

Unfinished posts - 2

6. Untitled (8/11/07)
Much has been happening at work and I realize there is a lot involved to a functioning of a project other than the 4 lines of code that we write. Being good friends with the analyst helps, he tells me after very many calculations and function point analysis and what not that my team will need 6 months to finish. Then comes the manager who unaware of the discussion I had with the analyst tells me we have 3 months only. Much fun it is and Dilbert makes more and more sense everyday. All this estimation though was demystified seems bloody complex. And I began to wonder how budget and time estimations and planning is done for a big project in other industries. Think about movie making. A big bollywood potboiler. Do they have a tool where they input number of heroes and villains. Number of twists. Is it a love triangle? Quadrangle, more people so more time. Evil inlaws...who die so more people but not so much money. Comedian, he comes free, no change in numbers.

7. Untitled (9/7/07)
Nothing seems to be going right. For people around me. I am helpless...

8. Do you care to know where I've been and what I've seen? (9/23/07)
Back from Pune from an official trip. Feels good to be important. Especially when someone at the airport is waiting for you holding up a placard with your name. I wouldn't know because they had the wrong name up. The city though decked up for the festival looked old and worn out to me. But then I really didn't get a chance to see much of the city. Meanwhile back home, B'lore doesn't feel like home anymore. It is crowded and alien. I have never wanted to get away so bad. Also reading 'A thousand splendid suns' doesn't help. It is similar to Steinbeck's Grapes of wrath in the sense that the suffering just doesn't end. And to think it could have actually been a true story, that women in war torn troubled Afghanistan fought battles of survival everyday makes my spine shiver.

9. Untitled (3/5/08)
Its that time of the year (where I work) where everything we have done or not done in the last year is questioned, judged, appraised or ignored. Is there a way in which this can be done in a fair unbiased manner? The way it is designed right now is that it all boils down to one person and your relationship with that one person. The boss. That is in my opinion is unfair. And most people would agree the boss is not always your best buddy at work. To make things a bit confusing we recently turned into a 'flat' organization (whatever that means) from a hierarchical one. That is just a load of crap because there hasn't been any change in the reporting structure, all they did was throw at us some fancy new terms for existing design. To grow, one has to climb up the ladder though they tell you there is no ladder. So how does one get on top of this invisible ladder?

10. Khuda ke liye (4/7/08)
Maybe because I went in with high expectations I was disappointed watching this movie. The message is that Islam is misinterpreted and Muslims wrongly targeted and branded as terrorists. But this post is about the music which so totally rocks.

Unfinished posts -1

Writing doesn't come easy to me. I struggle for the right words, the right mood and the right composition every time I set out to write something. And I have a so many posts drafted that I actually don't remember now what I set out to write that day. And few posts though complete just didn't feel right hence never got published. Rather than them just sitting as drafts I'll publish those unfinished posts here, sometimes its good to not know how a story ends...

1. Is it only me. (12/3/05)

Do you ever get excited when you get a message on your mobile? You are tired of pressing the refresh button for the nth time, no new mails, suddenly you hear the message alert, your heart starts racing, you never get bored of seeing that '1 message received' icon, you try to make a guess, is it going to be that person you are thinking about? Is it a forwarded message? ....then of course you open the message to see its the service provider telling you about one of their promotional offers. But receiving sms's are so much more fun than getting calls, I mean where is the suspense when you see 'XYZ calling'?

2. Untitled (4/11/06)

I sometimes hate myself for not using this space to discuss important issues or things that might be interesting or useful to people. This blog has been about me, me and me. Its not that I don't care about the world around me, I most certainly do. Its not that I don't try, like today I really wanted to blog about the sorry state that Karnataka CET (entrance exam for proffesional courses) is in but I read this on my gmail tool bar "Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."

3. Combating laziness (7/8/06)

I could have achieved so much more if I weren't this lazy. Erm.. let me rephrase that, I could have achieved something if I weren't this lazy. Yes, it is my biggest enemy and to this day it has ruled me. Several attempts to fight it resulted in nothing simply because I was too lazy to do anything more than just make an attempt. Starting Monday (Procrastination has got nothing to do with laziness, no?) I am going to put myself through a rigorous test for a week where I make the most of time and try to be as productive as possible. The rules are simple.

• Be disciplined : follow a fixed routine. (I have already completed 2 weeks of getting up at 5:45 in the morning and going for walks. Clap. Clap.)

• Do it now : No putting off things for tomorrow.

• Keep things in place :You think this is easy? I am a born klutz, the word 'order' doesn't figure in my dictionary (neither does simply because I don't know what they mean but that's not the point) This will also require me to designate a place for everything I own, right now everything is everywhere, the only rule I follow in keeping my things is 'Keep it out of Dog's reach'. I will do the designation part tomorrow after I clean the mess. (Boot camp starts Monday, I am allowed to put off things for now)
• If it doesn't build character or if it doesn't pay don't do it.
  

Oooh I am so excited.

4. Untitled (9/19/06)
When I got my new phone, I decided not to blog about it. Didn't want to be called a show off. The fact that i am a show off doesn't change but didn't want to be called one. My iPod got attention here but my cell wasn't supposed to. But there is a need to set somethings clear. I chose this baby after 4 months of careful research and consultations from different qualified people. And yet people have the nerve to tell me that it isn't a good choice. Are you kidding me? Yeah ok, maybe it isn't as sleek as your Motorola Vi3. But hello??? Does it have a 2MP camera?

5. Untitled (5/20/07)

So we did make it to the movie, dad insisted that we carry odomos, lest giant killer mosquitoes in the small theater attacked us and on reaching mom regretted not carrying kingfisher headphones because the sound was abnormally loud. Odomos smelling, red kingfisher headphones wearing freaks, ladies and gentlemen, thats my family for you. Anyhow, we didn't look like freaks and all of us quite enjoyed the movie. Very DDLJish, but its fresh and green and wet (what do you expect when the movie is called monsoon rains!). And theres a hot dimpled guy who turns up in the end who makes up for the Ganesh scenes in a vest (not baniyan, my sis corrects me). I am no authority to speak on Kannada movies the only movies I watched were Anant Nag movies (no surprise I liked Mungaru Male, Anant Nag is as good as ever) or few artsy movies by Girish Kasarvalli, but I think the movies coming out these days are much more matured than ever. They have done away with the 'cheap' image and are catering to a wider audience. Radio is playing a huge role. I only hope they make more original movies and stop copying from Bollywood.

Btw, dad paid for tickets and popcorn and pepsi, feel guilty now for not buying mom a gift :(

Fear Factor

Yesterday coming back from work there was this old guy (old compared to the otherwise young IT crowd) in the bus who mentioned there was some tension in the city. People got excited and there were frantic calls being made to learn more. The guy though wouldn't stop, I heard him make at least 15 calls calling different people warning them about the incident and with each call exaggerating a bit. So, he probably did a good thing by alerting people but I felt he was just creating panic. I called up a friend who works close by, he dismissed it saying the situation was under control and there was nothing to worry. This guy however, lets call him oldie, asked the driver to take a different route though the usual route hardly comes close to the affected area. He then made the driver switch on the radio to listen to the news, it wasn't even mentioned! After a lot of fidgeting and 'panic creating' he finally gave up realizing that the situation was probably under control. I heaved a sigh of relief and was about to go back to my music when oldie next made everyone in the bus close the windows. "Chinkungunya mosquitoes are coming in" he said. This after two giant mosquitoes had just bitten me. While his intentions were both good he was unnecessarily panicking and worse spreading the fear. And I could see he enjoyed it. Shows what an uninteresting life he otherwise has if this is how he derives joy. I spent the next one hour in the bus wondering how many days I'd have to take leave if I contracted the disease. Loser.

One, Two, Threeeeeeee

Blog turns 3 and I feel like I am 103! Reading few of my older posts I ask myself, when did I stop being funny?

This old age I tell you.

2nd year birthday post
1st year birthday post
0th year birthday post