Christmas '06 @ Bangalore

It was quite a while I went to Bangalore last. That too last time had office work so did not get any time to catch up with friends. This Christmas was a long weekend with Monday being holiday due to Christmas. So I was eagerly planning to escape from Chennai. That's when Bangalore folks called up and said they were planning for a trip for the weekend. But even that did not happen. But then there are so many things to do in and around bangalore.

We decided for a 1-day trip to Sivanasamudram (aka Sivasamudram), a falls about 120km from Bangalore, on Saturday. Sunday we roamed around the city with lunch stop at M. G. Road and wrap with a Bhagam Bhag night show at Innovative. Christmas day start with visit to the Infant Jesus Church and I winded-up my trip with a visit to the Forum.

Here are the photos of my trip ...



link: http://saptarshide.myphotoalbum.com/slideshow.php?set_albumName=album27

Got a nice testimonial

Got this testimonial on Orkut from one my ex-HCL colleague (I am still with HCL) this morning. And it was a very pleasant surprise. I remember having many short discussions with him on various topics during tea-breaks, snacks time and after office hours; each one of which was a lot of fun.

"Saptarshi !!! a man with vision, cool dude....you can talk to him on any sub and he will have his firm point to substantiate his stand. One of the few guys I have seen among the youth lot to be more sesnsible. cool attitude, sharp smile and his sense of humour...make him more lively......(buddy I have done a good selling ain't I?) cheers man !!"

Do not know how of it is actually what I am; but surely a good note to start my week with. Thanks Manick! :))

Dhoom again!

Say it luck or anything, I was waiting to go for Dhoom-2 for a long time and finally this weekend the wait was over ... twice. Something like the double-premiere of Sahara One.

About the movie? Nothing much to say. Girls, bikes, stunts and music that was the USP of the first edition and same is the case here. Though he second half predominantly is a love story which causes it to drag a bit. Stunts are really cooler in this one, especially those by Hrithik. Bollywood has surely matured quite a lot in terms of how the new and copied stunts are executed and used in the movie.

If they are planning a series then I think all Bollywood actors will be wishing to get the thief’s role, because the entire movie is made with the thief in focus and rest others supporting him. Abhishek did a good job with whatever he got, but for some funny reason he forgot to go to gym for the movie or maybe when your wife is pregnant you should also put on weight just to give her company. One thing where this ones lags behind the first one is how suspense elements are handled, there could have been bit more suspense specially involving Aishwarya. Uday Chopra's character was something which I never understood why it there since the first edition and this time the list expanded with Bipasha Basu.

Final word, you can definitely watch it once for all the stunts and get-ups of Hrithik apart from the girls, bike and music; but definitely not a second time unless someone else is paying for the tickets as was the case for me.

Did you vote for Taj?

I am referring to the voting for the new 7 wonders of the world at the N7W website. For those to whom this is breaking news, there is a voting going on to choose the new 7 wonders of the world. The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07. The N7W is on a world tour visiting each of the candidate wonders. They are scheduled to be at Taj Mahal in December, 2006.

You can place your vote online. In India, we have an alternate option of voting through sms.

So go ahead and vote for Taj Mahal!

"The name's Bond. James Bond."

Yesterday night my roomie and I reached home around 9pm; I was in bit early and was watching Shiva on TV. He came and asked shall we go for a movie. Two movies were pending - Casino Royale and Dhoom-2, but I was not thinking as he was ill and just came in after a drive. I am always ready to go out, and since he brought up the topic, so get-set-go.

The nearest theater, Ega, was showing Dhoom-2. We decided to go for it. We knew getting tickets will not be a problem as you can definitely get tickets in 'not-to-be-mentioned-ways'. Just when we starting my roomie's friend called in and said that today's rate in Ega is Rs. 200/- (extremely costly!), but it would have been a bigger tragedy if we would have dropped our plan then. His friend was at Woodlands, another theater, trying to get tickets for Casino Royale. We told him to get two more for us. Luckily he got the tickets and we saved lot of bucks (Rs.140/- per head).

I had got quite a varied feedback for Casino Royale from friends and newspaper reviews. Some of them liked it very much but there was an equal lot who didn't like it at all. Few of the comments which I got were like Bond is not having any gadgets, Bond gets fooled many times, etc. Nevertheless I went with a clean slate.

And my verdict is its one of the excellent Bond movies I have seen. Daniel Craig did a awesome jobs, he fits the role well. The plot is based on the Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel by the same name. James Bond is introduced in this novel and is shown as an agent learning the tricks of the trade. He has promoted to 007 status, but still has to learn many things which goes with that status. He makes few mistakes, gets deceived quite a number of times and even is almost killed once. But as the saying goes, it the end which matters; Bond has the last word - "The name's Bond. James Bond."

My best sequence in the movie will the one in which Bond races in his Aston Martin DBS to save Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in the moonlit night in Montenegro. Vesper is tied in the middle of the road. Aston's head-lights fall on her when the car is just inches away from smashing her head and Bond diverts the speeding Aston Martin at the last moment.

If you are a James Bond fan, then missing Casino Royale would be a crime! For me, the wait starts for the next one :)

Finally caught up with Don

Don - The Chase Begins Again, directed by Farhan Akhtar, is a remake of the 1978 film, Don. But I guess remake is not the exact term to explain it; 'adaptation' will go better. The two films are essential same in their storyline but are still different due to the tweaks in the plot by Farhan.

I will not get into the story or the details of the tweaks, maybe some of you are still planning to catch the DON. But I would love give my take of the movie. The 1978 superhit boasted of legends in its star cast - Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran, Iftekhar, Helen. The storyline and the charm of such greats was enough for it to be an excellent movie. And when talk about remaking such a movie; its bound to evoke lot of high expectations. And I would say it was clever on Farhan's part to change the plot a bit. He made changes in two fulcrum points of the plot which does brings out a total different aspect. In some ways though I find the new plot similar to Face/Off, a 1997 film directed by John Woo starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. Nevertheless Shahrukh and Priyanka did a great job, never easy to be in shoes of Amitabh Bachchan and Zeenat Aman.

Let me also tell why I chose to call it an 'adaptation'. The 1978 Don was setup in a time when underworld used to operate mostly inside the country and girls were not expected to be self-sustaining. Now we live in an era where everything is global, many things which happen in other countries do have a bearing on our lives. Girls are now more pro-active than before. Farhan has accordingly spread the plot on a larger canvas, where Don's gang operates between Malaysia and India. Also Priyanka doesnt needs go for a fight class before confronting the Don.

So on a whole its good remake ('adaptation') but somehow falls a bit short on the charm which Amitabh Bachchan's Don had, but you should complain on that. My advice take it as a new movie you will surely enjoy it; the moment you get into a comparision mode you will waste your money.

http://beta.saptarshi.info/

Launched the beta version of my homepage! Many parts might not work properly, sorry for the inconvenience. I would be very happy if you give comments regarding the issues/suggestions.

Look-wise there is not much difference in the beta edition yet, in fact in some cases the content might be bit older. Major difference is the way the page is made. This time I am exploring the AJAX technology and using it to have dynamic content. My two-pointed objective in this exercise - understand AJAX and simplify the website management.

I am planning the release date around the New Year.

Beta homepage url: http://beta.saptarshi.info/
Normal homepage url: http://www.saptarshi.info/

If you want happiness for a lifetime ...

"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." -- Aristotle

home sweet home

My 10-day luxurious stay at home ends today, tomorrow I have go back to my daily routine in Chennai. Its not that I do not enjoy my life in Chennai, but still home is home ... sweetest! This time I came almost after a year.

If you ask me how was my stay? I will use adjectives like awesome, great, mind-blowing, etc. But if you ask what all I did while I was here? Chances are I would look blankly at you. I actually do not do any constructive things while at home, I prefer becoming the laziest person on this planet. My activities include eating, dozing, watching TV, irritating mom, fighting with dad, etc. If I get time after all that then catch up with my mails and friends on chat.

10 days back when I came, I was looking forward to a long vacation. Today it seems it was too short! :(

Kali Pujo and Deepawali '06

This time I was at home on the occasion of Deepawali and Kali Pujo, after many years. And interesting fact is that I had mentioned last time I came home that I would come on Diwali next time, but had forgotten all about it. I think this what we call destiny.

Here are few pics which I took with my parents at our home in NTPC-Kawas and Kali Pujo celebration at NTPC-Jhanor, about 3hrs from Kawas.

If you have problems with the slideshow below please use the album link: http://saptarshide.myphotoalbum.com/slideshow.php?set_albumName=album26

Six-months at NCST-Bangalore

I am writing this after one year and eight months of leaving NCST in Feb 2005. At that time I did not have my own blog site, but I used to regularly read the post on Raman sir's blog. It used to slowly motivate me to have one of my own and finally in the winters of 2005 I laid the foundation stone for this blog. My first post was dated Sunday, December 18, 2005. About 2 months later I started 'khichuri' along with Khuman Ngakpa, which is rather a collection than a blog.

So the question is what prompted me to type this post now? The reason is recent post by Raman sir. Encouraged by him many ncstians of the present batch have started their own blog and started it with a post on their experiences in ncst till now. After reading through all those narratives, I too felt like narrating my experience.

For some interesting reasons my batch is considered among the worst batches the institute have had, though I guess it was a beautiful patch of our lives. But its better if I start from where it all started.

It was my final year of my engineering and I was thinking 'what next?'. Though I had given the CST and got 97% in I-level, but NCST was not in my list. But then nothing was. My parents thought I was bit weird as I was not so anxious to get a job. To tell the fact they were really pushing me to get a job, and I was like I will get it but what’s the big deal. That when I started to think about NCST specially their Bangalore campus. Reason? Simple I wanted to see the city. So that’s why I landed up in NCST-Bangalore with a sole aim to learn lot of things which the course content had mentioned.

In the first month itself I was sure I was part of a different kind of institute. To quote from one of the blog "paradise for programmers'. Actually 'programmer' is a wrong term to describe an ncstian; they are better described as 'solution architect'. Let it be assignments, quizzes, project or the (in)famous mgpt, everything forces you stretch your capabilities. You are made to think beyond what you have thought before. Two such things which I still remember are the BigInt C++ assignment and network file system project. NCST is the only place where I have performed below my own expectations number of times, though I did not fail in anything in terms of marks. Only thing which troubles me is off-target results and I had to face a lot of those here forcing me to lift the bar.

But NCST is not all about all that hard work. There was volleyball (I never played, only enjoyed the game) and chatting with friends in various part of the campus. In fact that was the most popular time-pass through out the day; first floor classroom had the option during class also. Late nights are a common thing in NCST and we made it exciting by going for drinking tea at 2am in morning to a tea stall on the Hosur road. Also another aspect special about NCST was the faculty, they are simple awesome. They treat you more as friends, that enables you to be more open with them and that the biggest enabler in the learning environment of NCST. Then I remember New Year celebration we organized. It was a real fun with its set of controversies.

NCST-Bangalore has one thing special about it. Its best described in this line I got from one of the post - "Here we have Raman Sir". I won’t add to that.

I had to leave the course in Feb 2005, but that more because my parents were very worried about my job and I had one offer from HCL Tech. But it was a loss not being able to complete the course, but that’s life. Now when I look back I would say it was a great six-month experience at an institute which handles education the way it should be. Many do complain about lot of things about the institute; my take is that, complains are just inconsequential excuses for our own incapabilities.

NCST-Bangalore is a great place where you can learn, enjoy and make lots of good friends; what else can you ask for?

Getting armed with technology

I have believed technology to be a double-edged sword. Technology is good or bad; it’s the way we use it. My focus in this blog is on the free Google Earth service from our good old enabler Google.

I remember when Google had launched the service; there was a lot of hue and cry about blocking it as it could be a possible security threat. Because it shows the satellite images of the strategic facilities and it might be used by the wrong persons. There was quite a debate then but luckily Google Earth survived it to be used by us to find our house, school, college and what not. I remember getting lot of forwards form my friends with Google Earth images.

Few days back I came across one of the news which really made happy with the way Google Earth is being used. It is related to the SEZ controversy in Maharashtra. The government is trying to get lands from the farmers at cheaper rates saying that their lands are not fertile land. That’s when farmers turned to Google Earth to use its satellite images to prove that the land is question is fertile and they should get higher compensation.

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/23627/googleearthcomestofarmerrescue.html
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/google-earth-aid-for-maha-farmers/23627-11.html

I did not follow the news after that so do not know if the farmers won their battle or not. But its feels great to see that tools like Google Earth are finding practical use apart the casual use. Every technology has the lot more to it than just what for it was designed for. Google Earth was meant to be an online map and direction service; but here it has been used as a geological tool. It’s with our imagination which sets the limit for the use of a tool.

Today the internet is full of many such tools which are available free. And I must add majority is from the Google stable. Go ahead and explore the www.

Gathering complete information

An important aspect in starting a new initiative or joining an initiative new is to getting the full information about it. But this is the simplest thing which we always somehow miss. And it can lead to lot of troubles in the end which could have been avoided.

The following piece highlights the point in funny way. Got it from one my colleagues in a forward.

A new vacuum cleaner salesman knocked on the door on the first house of the street. A tall lady answered the door.
Before she could speak, the enthusiastic salesman barged into the living room and opened a big black plastic bag and poured all the cow droppings onto the carpet.
"Madam, if I could not clean this up with the use of this new powerful vacuum cleaner, I will EAT all this ...!" exclaimed the eager salesman.
"Do you need chili sauce or ketchup with that" asked the lady.
The bewildered salesman asked, "Why, madam?"
"We just moved in, & there's no electricity in the house!"

Interesting question?

'Can we ask question about something unknown to us?'

This friday night I was in office winding up my last few activities for the weekend and looking forward for the long durga puja weekend. It was then one of my friends popped up on the messenger. We were having a nice chat about my job and other miscellaneous topics.

In all that I asked him to tell about something about himself which I didn’t know. And he asked me to anything. And I replied back 'how can I ask about something which I don’t know?'. And this is the conversation that followed ...

my friend: Hmm, logical logic..
my friend: But that's exactly why the concept of questions came into being, rit?
me: no
my friend: no?
my friend: Enlighten me, then
me: u ask question when you have doubt about something known to you but you dont understand it fully
me: u can nvr ask question on a thing unknow to you O:-)
my friend: Nope, not 'never'.. How does a child discover & learn things, when he's growing up then??
me: he is told about things
me: give it a thought u can never ever ask questions on thing which you dont know
my friend: Yes, you do have a very valid point, I was just adding on to it, as in, in most cases, questions are about doubts, but often, people do ask something like "What is X?" And therefore, counting in those cases, it cannont be said 'never'...
me: see when u ask "what is X?" ... it means you know that there is something "X" ... but not sure what it is ... so you are asking
me: but if you dont know that there is something "X" ... your question will be just "What is ...?"
me: and thats not a question ;)
my friend: Hmm, we are on slightly different platforms.. You are talking in an absolute sense, and I not quite so.. Remember Ayn Rand's philosophy.. There are no Absolutes. Even Lord Eienstien vouches for this!
me: i always like to bring out the other aspect
me: i love doing it
me: thanks to you i had real fun last half an hour
me: all your points are totally valid
me: i too agree with them ;)
my friend: Even, I love doing the same!
my friend: And hence, we are finally on the same platform!

Isn’t it an interesting piece of conversation, at least we found it entertaining. As my friend summarized it latter ...

"Lovely! Nothing better than an intellectually invigorating discussion about something that is totally nonsensical, and is often the crap of the mind!"

It's shoshthi today!!

It's again that time of the year for which every bengali waits for since the previous years dusshera. Today is shoshti ('shasthi'), the day when the Durga Pujo begins.

In good old days when I was a student it was a day when 5 days of fun used to begin. Spending time at pandal with friends. How can I forget the famous bengali adda. But now things have a changed. Today I am sitting in office working like any other day and same for tomorrow. Though looking forward for the long weekend to celebrate the pujo.

This is my second pujo in Chennai. Last time I celebrated with my roomie and his friends. We went to few pandals. This time round though he is not there, he is in kolkata. So this time planning to join my cousin dada o boudi along with masshi o meshomoni. Its a full house there. This is also the first pujo for dada's son.

Wishing you all too a very happy and rocking pujo!! Bolo bolo joy Durga mai!!

Pyaar ke Side Effects

Dont be surprised with the title I am not going to discuss my love story here. In fact I should first have one to discuss about it. Anyways thats a different tale; maybe I will write about it some other day. Today's post is to tell my experience with the movie titled "Pyaar ke Side/Effects".

A small introduction to the movie. Lead protagonists are Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat. Movie is about there 'pyaar'. Rahul is shown analyzing the various 'side-effects' associated with different stages of love. And then you a small side stories of Rahul's roomie and his brother-in-law. Both of them are like two extremes. First guy is of the 'un-marriageable' lot and second one belongs to the married community. Rahul is somewhere in- between; he has a girlfriend who has proposed to marry him but he is not very sure what to do... for rest of the story watch the movie yourself :)

My motive behind this post is not to tell the story, there is nothing in that. Actually to tell the truth I never thought I will go and watch this in theater. But living in Chennai one usually runs out of ideas on weekend and same happened with us over this weekend. So this was the one movie which we had deliberately skipped. So we decided lets check out how bad is it.

Luck was on our part it turned out to be a good entertainer. I wont call it a real good movie but it was definitely not boring. Best parts were Rahul's roomie's antics and his analysis of the side-effects. First half had lot of instances where you can laugh. Second half was bit emotional occasionally but you can get enough reasons to laugh. I guess overall we had a great time.

One caution, do not go with your girlfriend and if you end up by mistake do not enjoy the movie, unless you are planning for a break-up.

Munnabhai ... laage raho!

After a long time I watched a really great movie. It’s loaded with lots of laughter and meaning. One good thing which the director/produced did was not to make a sequel. Sequels sometimes tend to be bit boring but a series a good thing as each time its something new.

The best thing in both the older and latest edition is the Munna-Circuit antics. I somehow like Circuit more; Arshad Warsi is too good as Circuit. The kidnapping sequence is best kidnapping sequence I have seen ever. I think real life 'bhai log' will get some interesting ideas after seeing it.

Apart from the fun and laughter in the Munnabhai movies, I like them for the social messages they deliver. Most of the points are very simple yet most of us do miss them in life. This time round it tried to show the Gandhian way of life in Munna-style. Usually a movie about Gandhian values can’t expect to be a hit in current times but when to show it as 'Gandhi-giri' it does catch your attention.

Hats off to the whole team of the movie ... laage raho! I am waiting for the next serving to reach theaters.

Five years since!

9/11/2001. The date which marks the turning point in war against terrorism. In some ways you can draw parallel with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during the 2nd World War which brought USA into the war. But unfortunately the difference starts there. While on the older instance the active entry of USA changed the course of history; same doesn’t seems to be true for the present edition.

We have seen so many wars against the terror groups in last five years, but we are yet to see any change in the ground realities. What we have achieved in last five years is a world which constant lives under a threat of terror attack. In name security concerns we have increased scrutiny and restrictions on the common citizen across the globe. There are increased instances of human rights violation in name of security precautions. The line of difference is so thin between a possible threat and an actual threat that the excess by the security agencies can safely hide behind it. End of the day we seem to missing the actual threats and taking fighting the proxy ones.

If we try to draw parallels from the 2nd World War we can say that the success is eluding us because every country is concentrating on its own local problem. During the world war, though with different objectives, there was a single target. It is global threat which is distributed across the globe; the solution should be equally global. Best forum can be the UN Security Council and best anti-terror force would be a force under the UN flag.

Pluto demoted!!

That's the most interesting piece of news I have come across in near past. I thought promotions and demotions were part of only corporate life, but now even the planets have to go through the same.

Pluto's title of a 'planet' got endangered when a number of bodies like Xena or Sedna in space beyond Pluto. These bodies also claimed for the status of planets. And like what would happen in a corporate organization instead of promoting all of them; the management (read "Leading astronomers") decide to strip the Pluto of its title and call it a 'dwarf planet' along with others.

To us it really doesn't matters whether the Pluto is called a planet or not. It will still be there as it was for so many years, going around the Sun. But I was wondering what happens to other sciences like astrology which were based on the fact that we have 9 planets.

Also I would like to quote here a piece about the discoverer of the 'planet' Pluto ...
"Pluto, which has been considered a planet since 1930 when it was discovered by Clyde, Tombaugh. The widow of the astronomer who discovered Pluto 76 years ago says she is frustrated by the decision to strip it of its planetary status, but she adds that Clyde Tombaugh would have understood.
'I'm not heartbroken. I'm just shook up," said Patricia Tombaugh.
Tombaugh, who died in 1997, had fought off other attempts to relegate Pluto, but his widow said this time he probably would have endorsed the change, now that other planetary objects have been discovered in the Kuiper Belt."

It has been long ...

It has been a while since I posted something on this blog. Maybe got busy with other things in life.

Not sure what to write, but wanted to write something. Quite a few thoughts are criss-crossing in the mind. Let's see what they shape up into. Then I can write something meaningful here.

Till they keep njoying life...

Awesome ventilation!!

If your computer is facing ventilation problems. All you need to do is to follow this ...

My new found talent

During my tour to Salem, Yercaud and Kodaikanal, I did lot of experiments with my skill with the lens. But the most of the photos taken by me in which someone was posing were not that good. That job was better done by Sara, Praveen and Aravind.

But when it came to high-speed photogarphy, I think I was born with the talent. Even Praveen was appreciating my high-speed photos [Sara & Aravind will know the importance of that ;) :)].

Here are few of my exploits ...

Special thanks to Praveen & Sara otherwise I could have never discovered this.

My fingers are iching for next chance. Hey guy, when are we going out next??

32 Duracells exhausted ... 1300+ photos

Just back from a jumbo tour of Salem, Yercaud and Kodaikanal. As often I dont have words to describe it but it was no else a dream seen with open eyes.

Whatever we saw was too beautiful to forget. We wanted that those sight stay with us after we are back in Chennai and we did just that. We had a digicam with one 256MB card and one 1GB card. So we made full use of it and lots and lots of photos ... final number was around 1300+. In the process we exhausted 32 Duracell batteries and 4 Everready batteries.

But we never had the realization about the amount of pics we were taking during the trip. There it was like point and shoot anything and everything.

Our entire collection was 2 CD huge. And when I was selecting the ones which I wanted in my album, the number crossed 600+. So uploading them became a small issue; but that job is now successfully completed.

Checkout the photos ...
Salem & Yercaud - http://saptarshide.myphotoalbum.com/
view_album.php?set_albumName=album15

Kodaikanal - http://saptarshide.myphotoalbum.com/
view_album.php?set_albumName=album14

Hope you also enjoy the photos as we do ...

P.S. - My full album - http://saptarshide.myphotoalbum.com/

How to be an early-riser?

In nursery I read a line "early to bed, early to rise; makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise"

Is that true? I do not know. Never got a chance. I am one who to go to bed at early in the morning and rise late in the day. I am like the late-city edition of the newspaper which comes out late so that all the news of the previous day can be included.
In my school day I was forced to rise early. Then also I used to sleep till the time after which it would become impossible to attend school. That too after mom and dad used to bug me for about an hour.
Then came the hostel days in college (SRK Hostel @ JMI, New Delhi). I do not remember a single day when I had breakfast at hostel mess. Me and my roomie were equally good at rising late (but I think I was a bit better). But we used to have four different alarms set, still earliest time was 10:00am.
I improved on that at NCST, B'lore. Due to that appearing for the quizzes was a big headache. But there I had a genuine reason; we used to sleep really late there. How can you expect one to rise early the next day?
But after that, this habit of mine became a serious problem. Now joined a job and all the freedoms of a student life were gone. I was supposed to report at 9'o'clock in morning. It has been more than a year here but I m still struggling to do it.

I wish to consciously improve (on the early-riser side) on this. But I am at my wits' end. If someone has any innovative ideas, you are most welcome to post them in the comments. Looking forward for some helpful comments ...

A page from every 'Guy's Dairy!!!

Everyone in their lives would have had crushes, and me too had my share of crushes. But, it didn't take much time for each of them to turn to crashes.

None of my crushes took off, or probably they crashed even before they took off !! Today, when I look back, I cant manage but to have a laugh.

My first crush was on Miss R. I was in my tenth then. We happened to speak only once. It was when I had offered her a coke. She refused to have it and the very next moment I gulped it down. I still cant forget the dumbstruck look on her face. A few days later, she started going around with one of my classmates. They used to go for wonderful evening walks, Miss R, my classmate and her doggy. Unfortunately (fortunately for me), the affair didn't last too long. On one such romantic walk of theirs, my classmate was bitten by the doggy. He brought up the question: Its me or the dog......she chose the dog !!! The news gave me sadistic pleasure.

I was in a co-ed school for my 11th-12th. I got very friendly with Miss N in my class. It appeared to me that...yes...she is the girl. One day, Miss N came and sat next to me...close...really close.....my heart beats shot up. She said.. I want to tell you something....but please maintain it as a secret. I knew...this was it...yes....she went on...you know...X(another classmate of mine) proposed me......and I too like him...and I accepted. I am telling you coz you are like my brother.......WHAT THE HECK ? As if the first news wasn't bad enough, the second sounded suicidal. I looked at her with an artificial smile and said....Congrats S..S..Sis !!!

The next crush didn't take much time to happen. It was Miss S who walked in to class. I literally had my jaws hanging seeing her. We became good friends...but I never fancied my chances...given the Miss N experience. She was my Biology project partner....while she did the project...I concentrated on her biology ! Just as the boards got over, and as I was mustering enough courage to tell her, her dad got transferred. She changed the city.

Next in engineering college, there was this hottie in my class. Boy....she was a babe...Miss G. She used to stand opposite to me in the chemistry lab.I prayed for some chemistry to happen between us. But I guess, she was much smarter than I was. Miss G realised that I used to mess up all my titration experiments coz I used to be looking at her and not the lab apparatus. I called her out ALONE on my b'day. She turned up with her whole bunch of friends. The girls kept giggling and I looked for a place where I could go and bang my head. I steered clear of her for the rest of my engineering days.

Moving on from here, it was a major success story. This time round, it took some time for things to crash....just a little longer..a bit more than five years. Everything seemed like a fairy tale when the crash factor took the better of me.

By this time, I was in my job as a lecturer and I decided to use the term "interest" instead of crush. So , my interest grew in Miss L in college. I thought she was a very pretty lady. Thankfully, the growth of my interest stopped very soon, the moment I learnt that she was supposed to go on leave the next week for her marriage. She was to marry her long time boyfriend. Only one thought came to my mind....The good ones are always taken !!!

Ha ha ha.....thankfully.....I have grown out of all these......no more CRUSHES.....so no chances of CRASHES......
I live this way now.....hey...wait.....who is this girl???? !!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: not from mine.

kunjam tamil terium

"kunjam tamil terium" means "I know Tamil little bit".

It has been little over a year since I shifted my residence to Chennai (erstwhile Madras). Tamil is the first language of the city and without it one can not get along in city. English is also used but is limited to offices, big shops, theaters, malls, etc. Day to day interaction has to be in Tamil which makes it essential to learn the language.

Tamil was very different from the languages already known to me, namely Bengali, Hindi and English. So I found it very difficult to grasp. But as it is said necessity is the best teacher. Today I can say I know a bit of the language, though a conversation is still like a river flowing in front of me. I can get some water from it but cannot get the whole river. The credit of whatever I learn till goes to my colleagues at office, who took the pains of translating me things which went over my head.

I will like to recall few of the words I need to use on a daily basis...
evlo ... how much?
rombo jaasti ... too much/high
irru ... stop
veedu ... home
tanni ... water
anna ... elder brother
tambi ... younger brother
onne ... one
randu ... two
anju ... five
elu ... seven
ettu ... eight
pattu ... ten
ambadhu ... fifty
po/polama ... go/shall go?

... I think that’s it ... ohh no one more ...
kadal ... love :)

Hope this list grows longer in coming one year.

Being on the other side of the table

The table I am referring here is the interview table. Little more than a year back I was preparing for sitting on the other side of the table (interviewee side). Though there is a bit of lie in that, I never used to prepare for any interview. I liked to handle it as a extempore.

Recently I was asked to sit on interviewer’s side of the table. This I round I was bit anxious, since I will have to be the driver. It cannot be that the other person is asking questions I am just replying to those. I have to ask questions and verify if the answers are correct.

I prepared some questions on the domains I had to take interview using the good old Google and studied them the night before (same thing what my prospective candidates would be doing for their preparation). But the hardest part was to interview people one after another for the whole day and that too for two continuous day. I was worried about how to decide whether a particular person suitable to selected. My main concern was not to select a wrong candidate rather than missing a suitable person.

I was a bit jittery on the first day, but learned a lot. The second day I felt confident enough that I can handle the thing alone. I enjoyed the experience, maybe mainly because it was something different from my regular work.

Maybe I might get many more chances in future but this was the first time. And like all first-timers I will remember it for a long time.

Rendezvous

After a long time, first time since I left NCST, all of us were at the same place on the same time. We were missing some who could make it due to the pressures of life.

Unfortunately it did not start as per the original plan but thats life. But as its said all's well that ends well. We were sitting in our official taxi, though it was bigger taxi this time, with the good old kannadi driver at the wheels. Rest is a long story which you can see in the photo album ...

hoping for another one soon with all absentees ...

Live humbly, there are greater people around us

Vivek Pradhan wasn't a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the First Class air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi Express couldn't cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and still not entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought, he had tried to reason with the admin guy, it was the savings in time. A PM had so many things to do!

He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use. "Are you from the software industry sir," the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop.

Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car. "You people have brought so much advancement to the country sir. Today everything is getting computerized."

'Thanks," smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a detailed look.

He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stocky like a sportsman. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a Railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

"You people always amaze me," the man continued, "You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside." Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naivety demanded reasoning not anger. "It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it." For a moment he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement. "It is complex, very complex."

"It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid," came the reply. This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence came into his so far affable, persuasive tone.

"Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in." "Hard work!" "Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office doesn't mean our brows don't sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing."

He had the man where he wanted him and it was time to drive home the point. "Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country.

Thousands of transactions accessing a single database at a given time; concurrency, data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?"

The man was stuck with amazement, like a child at a planetarium.This was something big and beyond his imagination."You design and code such things." "I used to," Vivek paused for effect, "But now I am the project manager,"

"Oh!" sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, "so your life is easy now." It was like being told the fire was better than the frying pan. The man had to be given a feel of the heat."Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work. Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I don't do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more tressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality. And to tell you about the pressures! There is the customer at one end always changing his requirements, the user wanting something else and your boss always expecting you to have finished it yesterday."

Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realisation. What he had said was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth.

"My friend," he concluded triumphantly, "you don't know what it is to be in the line of fire."

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek. "I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire," He was staring blankly as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.

"There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom. In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolor at the top only 4 of us were alive."

"You are a..." "I am Subedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a land assignment. But tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier. On the dawn of that capture one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker. It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain refused me permission and went ahead himself. He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded. His own personal safety came last, always and every time. He was killed as he shielded that soldier into the bunker. Every morning now as I stand guard I can see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir, I know what it is to be in the line of fire."

Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of his reply. Abruptly he switched off the laptop. It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a word document in the presence of a man for whom valor and duty was a daily part of life; a valor and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes.

The train slowed down as it pulled into the station and Subedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight. "It was nice meeting you sir." Vivek fumbled with the handshake. This was the hand that had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger and hoisted the tricolor. Suddenly as if by impulse he stood at attention, and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute.

It was the least he felt he could do for the country.

PS: The incident he narrates during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true life incident during the Kargil war. Major Batra sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight. For this and his various other acts of bravery he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra - the nation's highest military award.

Live humbly, there are greater people around us!

Hard work vs Smart work

Ravi and Hari were working for a firm. One day their promotion list was announced. Only Ravi got promoted.

Hari was disappointed and asked his manager why only Ravi got promoted when both of them had done same equally well. His manager said he will give his justification for the decision by a small exercise. He asked Hari to meet him outside the office after the lunch.

After the lunch Hari met their manager. The manager asked Hari to cross the street and found out what the lady across the street was selling. Hari came back and told the manager she was selling apples. Now the manager asked him to find out what is the cost of the apples. Hari went again and asked the price of the apples and replied that the apples cost approximately Rs15. The manager asked him to enquire what the price of the best apples is; he went again and informed the manager that the best variety is Rs17.

Now the manager sent a word for Ravi and asked to check out what the lady across the street was selling. Ravi came back and told the manager the lady was selling apples. The prices varied according to the quality cheapest being Rs12 and the best lot costs Rs17. Also she is ready to give some discounts if we by in bulk. How many apples do you want me to buy?

"The value adds which we do to our work matter the most, as the work itself can be done by others also."

Why employees leave organizations?

Every company normally faces one common problem of high employee turnout ratio. People are leaving the company for better pay, better profile or simply for just one reason 'pak gaya'. This article might just throw some light on the matter...got it as a forward email...

Early this year, Rahul, an old friend who is a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer. He had heard a lot about the CEO of this company, charismatic man often quoted in the business press for his visionary attitude.

The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, and the very best technology, even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Rahul was sent abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined. "It's a real high working with such cutting edge technology." Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Rahul walked out of the job. He has no other offer in hand but he said he couldn't take it anymore. Nor, apparently, could several other people in his department who have also quit recently. The CEO is distressed about the high employee turnover. He's distressed about the money he's spent in training them. He's distressed because he can't figure out what happened. Why did this talented employee leave despite a top salary? Rahul quit for the same reason that drives many good people away.

The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called “First Break All The Rules”. It came up with this surprising finding:

If you're losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he's the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge, experience and contacts with them. Often, straight to the competition.

"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. "So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people - in the form of better pay, better perks and better training - when, in the end, turnover is mostly manager issue." If you have a turnover problem, look first to your managers. Are they driving people away? Beyond a point, an employee's primary need has less to do with money, and more to do with how he's treated and how valued he feels. Much of this depends directly on the immediate manager. And yet, bad bosses seem to happen to good people everywhere. A Fortune magazine survey some years ago found that nearly 75 per cent of employees have suffered at the hands of difficult superiors. You can leave one job to find - you guessed it, another wolf in a pin-stripe suit in the next one. Of all the workplace stressors, a bad boss is possibly the worst, directly impacting the emotional health and productivity of employees.

HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find public humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought has been planted. The second time, which thought gets strengthened. The third time, he starts looking for another job.
When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don't have your heart and soul in the job." Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit – often over seemingly trivial issue.

It isn't the 100th blow that knocks a good man down. It's the 99 that went before. And while it's true that people leave jobs for all kinds of reasons- for better opportunities or for circumstantial reasons, many who leave would have stayed - had it not been for one man constantly telling them, as Rahul's boss did: "You are dispensable. I can find dozens like you." While it seems like there are plenty of other fish especially in today's waters, consider for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee. There's the cost of finding a replacement. The cost of training the replacement. The cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime. The loss of clients and contacts the person had with the industry. The loss of morale in co-workers. The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with others. Plus, of course, the loss of the company's reputation. Every person who leaves a corporation then becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse.

We all know of large IT companies that people would love to join and large television companies few want to go near. In both cases, former employees have left to tell their tales.

"Any company trying to compete must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee," Jack Welch of GE once said. Much of a company's value lies "between the ears of its employees". If it's bleeding talent, it's bleeding value. Unfortunately, many senior executives busy traveling the world, signing new deals and developing a vision for the company, have little idea of what may be going on at home. That deep within an organization that otherwise does all the right things, one man could be driving its best people away.

Other side

Everything in life has two aspects to it - the bright side and the dull side. I wrote the brighter side first as we usually forget to see that side. In our day to day life we have to face events and situations which are not in accordance with our expectations. And the human tendency is to see it in a negative light, and spoil our mood and performance.
But surely every single incident in life has a positive side along with the negative side. It depends on the person which side he/she chooses to look at. It is like "life treats you the way you want it to treat you". The negative side is there just to make us aware of our threats, not to overshadow the brighter side. But we choose to get stuck with the negative aspect and the prime reason for this is that we are afraid of failure.
Failures are never the end of the road; they are just a milestone in our path to success. Life time and again presents us with threats and we mostly tend to surrender before them. Because that’s the easiest thing to do. But the challenge and excitement of life is to convert the threats into opportunity. Failures and threats should only act as an awareness of the risks we might face; but our concentration should always be on the opportunities.
This is the simplest way to be happy and successful in life.

"For everything denied to you expect a better one coming your way."

Can we believe the net?

"Can we believe the net?" or "Should internet we censored?" or "Should government agencies step in to regulate the internet?"

In last few days I came across these topics in various forms of media. So thought of keying down my views (might be bit confusing :) ).

To me all of them are quite interrelated and the basic question to be asked is - how much should we believe the information we get on the internet. Today many of us fall back on the internet to get any kind of information. It’s the cheapest, fastest and most accessible source of information.
I will not say we do not get genuine information from the internet, but that is limited to a small set of sites for which we know owners. But there are billions of sites for which we have no idea about their owners or who is behind the content in them. But still many such sites might be useful for our information quest and who knows they can become a trusted source in the long run.
Anybody can put any kind of content on the internet without revealing his/her identity to the world. Controversial topics get painted in different lights on different sites depending upon their sponsor. This is what true freedom of expression is. Internet enables it and it is its pulse. If we start censoring this; we will be loosing the freedom. Today I feel internet is the only medium where you are still allowed to express your views without any restriction. And I would love it to stay that way.
Same piece of information might be correct for a section of society and offending for another section. Censoring the information to respect the emotions of a certain section we are denying something to other section. Today’s society has a huge gap between the extremes of conservatives and liberal. And it’s impractical to think we can satisfy everyone.
I view is that it’s responsibly of the viewer to decide what he likes to see and what he should not see. It’s his responsibility to censorship at his personal level and not expect some big daddy to do it for him, because after some time he himself will be dissatisfied with the big daddy. Exception is children, for whom the responsibility lies with their parents/guardians.
Today we have enough tools/resources available to censor the internet on personal level. But internet should remain as free as it is today; both in terms of posting content and accessing the same. What though can be enforced is that every website should declare its owner/author. This will enable the visitor to read the content in correct light.

Changing before the change

Lots of things (people, scenarios, conditions, etc) undergo change around us and we wonder why the change is happening. We are too tuned into our routine life and we do not like to change. Anything new is welcomed mostly with some sort of apprehensions. We try our level best to resist the change because accepting the change will require us to come out of out of our comfort zone.

Above case is applicable to the majority...

But I have seen a minority which deals with change bit differently. As a matter of fact I can divide the group into two sets - one which aligns with changes in the system and the other which changes before the change.

The first set is the one which is least affected by any change i.e. they do not have any negative as well as positive impact; they simply survive the change.

The second set is the one which caught my attention, the one which changes before the change. I would like to clarify the phrase "changing before the change". It’s not about undergoing a change yourself and then trying to change the system; then it’s almost equivalent to non-alignment. It means to sense the change before it actually happens.

This set of people is the one who are in most comfortable position to reap benefits from a change. It’s very tough to be in this group; also very exciting...

Faith

(Got this one as one of the many forwards I get daily )

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, The Almighty.
He asks one of his new students to stand and.....

Prof: So you believe in God?
Student: Absolutely, sir.
Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.
Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student : Yes.
Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill.But God didn't.
How is this God good then? Hmm?
(Student is silent.)
Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again,young fella. Is God good?
Student :Yes.
Prof: Is Satan good?
Student : No.
Prof: Where does Satan come from?
Student : From...God...
Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student : Yes.
Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student : Yes.
Prof: So who created evil?
(Student does not answer.)
Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
Student :Yes, sir.
Prof: So, who created them?
(Student has no answer.)
Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?
Student : No, sir.
Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?
Student : No, sir.
Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelled your God?
Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
Student : No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.
Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student : Yes.
Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student : Nothing. I only have my faith.
Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.
Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.
Student : And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.
Student : No sir. There isn't.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)
Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have
anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such
thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is
not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)
Student : What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?
Student : You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light,bright light,flashing
light.... But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness
darker,wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?
Student : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?
Student : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now
tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
Student : Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)
Student : Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion,
sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
(The class is in uproar.)
Student : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)
Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelled it?.....No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain,sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures,sir?
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)
Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
Student : That is it, sir.. The link between man & god is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving & alive.

That young man was ALBERT EINSTEIN...

Deserve Before You Desire

Dr. Gopalakrishnan succeeds Mr. Ratan Tata as Chairman of Tata Sons Ltd., the holding company for many of the Tata blue chips like Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Voltas etc. Possibly he is the first Non-Tata person to head the Tata Empire. Read this article by Dr. G - it is really interesting.

The grass isn't always greener on the other side!! Move from one job to another, but only for the right reasons. It's yet another day at office. As I logged on to the marketing and advertising sites for the latest updates, as usual, I found the headlines dominated by 'who's' moving from one company to another after a short stint', and I wondered, why are so many people leaving one job for another? Is it passé now to work with just one company for a sufficiently long period? Whenever I ask this question to people who leave a company, the answers I get are: "Oh, I am getting a 200% hike in salary"; "Well I am jumping three levels in my designation"; "Well they are going to send me abroad in six months".

Then, I look around at all the people who are considered successful today and who have reached the top - be it a media agency, an advertising agency or a company. I find that most of these people are the ones who stuck to the company, ground their heels and worked their way to the top. And, as I look around for people who change their jobs constantly, I find they have stagnated at some level, in obscurity. In this absolute ruthless, dynamic and competitive environment, there are still no - short cuts to success or to making money. The only thing that continues to pay, as earlier is loyalty and hard work. Yes, it pays! Sometimes, immediately, sometimes after a lot of time. But, it does pay. Does this mean that one should stick to an organization and wait for the golden moment? Of course not. After, a long stint, there always comes a time for moving in most organisations, but it is important to move for the right reasons, rather than the superficial ones, like money, designation or oversees trip. Remember, no company recruits for charity. More often than not, when you are offered an unseemly hike in salary or designation that is disproportionate to what the company offers it current employees, there is always an unseemly bait attached. The result? You will, in the long term have reached the same level or may be lower levels than what you would have in your current company.

A lot of people leave their organisations because they are 'unhappy'. What is this so called unhappiness? I have been working for donkey years and there has never been a day when I am not unhappy about something in my work environment - boss, rude colleagues, fussy clients etc. Unhappiness in a work place, to a large extent, is transient. If you look hard enough, there is always something to be unhappy about. But, more importantly, do I come to work to be "happy" in the truest sense? If I think hard, the answer is "No". Happiness is something you find with family, friends, may be a close circle of colleagues who have become friends.

What you come to work for is to earn, build a reputation, satisfy your ambitions, be appreciated for your work ethics, face challenges and get the job done. So, the next time you are tempered to move on, as yourself why are you moving and what are you moving into? Some questions are:
* Am I ready and capable of handling the new responsibility? If yes, what could be the possible reasons my current company has not offered me the same responsibility?
* Who are the people who currently handle this responsibility in the current and new company? Am I good as the best among them?
* As the new job offer has a different profile, why have I not given the current company the option to offer me this profile?
* Why is the new company offering the new job? Do they want me for my skills, or is that ulterior motive? An honest answer to these will eventually decide where you go in your career - to the top of the pile in the long term (at the cost of short - term blips) or to become another average employee who gets lost with the time in wilderness?

"DESERVE BEFORE YOU DESIRE" - Dr. Gopalakrishnan, Chairman TATA Sons.