Sunday, December 30, 2012

... for India's Daughter ...

"
they're killed before they're born,
they're abandoned after the're born;
and those who survive this
are shamed & shunned & shoved iron rods!
"

... for The One who awakened a Nation!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

"A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's." ~ Jean Paul Richter

... legend has it that when this young man joined as the marketing head of one of the popular automobile company in India close to a decade ago, the joke that started circulating was "ye tel bechne wala kya gaadi bechega!" ... and that was then... now, that very same company is encouraging everyone to Rise to the occasion and also giving the grand old daddies of the auto sector a run for their money!

... not only they've become good in marketing their products, they've also become one of the better ones when it comes to the brand loyalty... and not to mention the 'cult' following for some of the vehicles... the pinnacle of Brand Equity model! ... although that man left the organization about an year ago... his work speaks volume today...

... which left me wondering if the current sarcasm "ye mobile bechta tha! isko kya malum gadiyon ke baare mein!" about this CxO level guy of another automobile company will follow the same 'life cycle' that the earlier mentioned company saw? or this will become another footnote in the long and winding TGW...

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

"Ordinarily men exercise their memory much more than their judgment." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

it may sound strange but every time i clip my nails, i feel the itch to write a blog post... now, i'm not saying that i only post when i clip my nails... i'm just saying that clipping my nails sends some type of 'feel good' signal to my brain as a motivator to write a blog post... and so here i'm...

... but then, sending a motivating signal to brain is one thing and keeping your mind focused on the blog post is another... because simply getting a motivation doesn't necessarily mean executing the task successfully or otherwise...

... and if that task is apparently non productive (say) writing a blog post... then it needs more than the 'feel good' factor to write ... eons ago when this started, there was a continuous (proverbial) fire in the belly... but it apparently cooled down as the my belly turned into 60 pack of semi-uniform spheroid... but as they say the legacy lives on... what a crap!

... there are atleast three 'topics' that i want to write about on this blog... one is about the Fast Track Selection Scheme of Tata Motors, other is about the Executive-MBA from SCMHRD and the third being about my infatuation about Penny (that's her screen character's name)...

... now i've attempted to write about the FTSS earlier... and given my (not necessarily detailed) understanding of past and current selections and the work that has resulted from it, i know i can wait for some time before i spill out my two cents...

... as for the MBA-Executive Education from Symbiosis Center for Management and Human Resources... well, i'm still a part of that program so... i can write about it in foreseeable future... eve though i'm itching to give them a piece of my mind!

... but nah!... this post is for Penny! and i will not be surprised if you don't get it!... unless you are from the western side of the imaginary line that divides the third rock from Sun into two halves... which will give you a slight advantage in guessing... the theory is that it all started with one big bang and things have never been the same...

... thanks to AVP who gave me his prized collection to watch... and which i forgot... so it just laid there... forgotten till that one day when out of sheer boredom and curiosity i decided to watch the series... and like millions of fans across the globe, i'm hooked to it... and this is despite the 'overdone' character of Dr. Rajesh Koothrapalli...  more on that and some other tidbits later on... right now i need some sleep!!

Friday, November 9, 2012

"Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit." ~ Vince Lombardi

i finally found it... the spark or the mojo or the groove or whatever you want to call it... i found it tonight while shuffling through the tweets at my landing page... and after a long long time i felt the same way i felt years ago while watching those 'Reclaim Your Life' Tata Safari TVCs...

... writing a meaningful article on this blog was on 'To Do' list from quite some time... although i cannot promise that this article will turn out to be a meaningful for you... but then, i never promised it! ;-) or did i?

... “Keep your friends close and enemies closer” said the learned Sun Tzu, long long time ago… and clichéd as it may sound, this makes more sense in the current Red Ocean of Automobiles than good old times of ‘Leadership with Trust’ of Tata Motors... and before you start trolling with all your passion and spirit about me hinting the demise of the legendary JLR's owner... let me put it right... i'm not writing-off this company... yet!

... if Goldman Sachs says we've got potential then i believe we've got potential... and at the same time i believe there is always a danger of living in a state of delusion firmed with denial... seeing the recent trends, it can safely be said that the 'younger brother' is displacing us from # 3 rank far more often than what caused the initial saddening to our chairman... and perhaps to all of us...

... as if this was not enough to make us cringe... here comes their media onslaught... Live Young, Live Free

... Anand Mahindra one of the most active entrepreneur on twitter, tweeted about this video... and like one of the zillion other fans i pounced on the link... and after watching it, i'm sure that this year will no longer end the same way it was going to end... and no, i'm not going to do any of those things that you are thinking right now ;-)

... let's find our mojo back... amen!



Saturday, November 3, 2012

"Trouble teaches men how much there is in manhood." ~ Henry Ward Beecher

... it was a Friday (i guess) and we were dwelling upon the action plan for the list of 'issues' that were reported in RTSM meetings and CST meetings and IPTV data and what not... and i mentioned to my boss that i'm planning to take it off tomorrow... and things have never been the same since then!

... i took it off on Saturday and got my Indica Vista pampered at a local service station...another uneventful routine there... it always pains my heart to see some of the better products going awry in the market thanks to people who don't understand 'service'... and then it pains even more when i realize that there is an iota of contribution from me as well...rather, lack of contribution... but more on that on some other day... unless there's a public demand! ;-)

... that 'Saturday Off' was the first of many that were to follow this month... that very day i was told that i've been nominated to visit Kolkata a.k.a The City of Joy, for a Commercial UV's Customers' Survey... the travel itinerary sounded even more interesting when i realized that i will be in the city during the Navratris ... so there i was packing up for another weekend away from office, only this time it was ~1900 kms far in North-East direction! :-)

Monday, October 22, 2012

"It is never until one realizes that one means something to others that one feels there is any point or purpose in one's own existence." -Stefan Zweig

... i guess... it's time has come... i mean this post's time... it's been sitting in the 'draft' for months... blank... just like the state of my mind for most of the time and probably it would've remained in the draft... had it not "she looked like diana hayden" kind of messages that i received... it put me into some sort of familiar misery... the one that i often try not fall into.. and AVP was not helping... "she's hell of a personality, hats off!" he messaged again!...  but then, he is not supposed to help... i knew she was intelligent and smart and always looked charming... well, maybe this is just a distraction and i shouldn't digress...

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

"It is right to be content with what we have, but never with what we are." -Sir James Mackintosh

... with my parents visiting here and Coursera lectures and new boss and better clarity emerging with the projects and more exposure with people with whom one should get more exposure, my life is is busier and more hectic than what it was in the previous month ... and yet, something is missing...

Friday, August 3, 2012

"Nothing so conclusively proves a man's ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself." ~ Thomas J. Watson

... history always amazes me; especially when it is portrayed in a form of a motion picture with important characters played by talented Hollywood actors... no, seriously! it becomes far more compelling and believable in that form... even though this form of portrayal is often a result of biases, omissions, false representation of history, overly dramatization of events... you get the point...*and* almost everyone is aware of this... the director , producers, actors, critics and even the intended audience... and yet, it remains one of the finest medium to make most of us informed (if i must use that word) about what shaped the world and why we are the way we are at macroscopic level...so whenever i feel the need to go through a cycle of emotional atyachaar, i turn towards some of the flicks i have mentally 'earmarked' for leisure watching...

... and then it becomes interesting... every time i go through the list of movies that i feel i should watch, i end up watching something that was almost never on my mind earlier... usually it is the result of my laziness from extended thinking or sometimes plane convenience of 'random selection' or sometimes a combination of both in some 'random' proportion... alright! enough of random rants!... this particular post was in draft for about... umm... a month? or so! and today i got some time to pour in a pinch of masala into it... or maybe not... adding masala is usually not something i look forward to (i get enough of it in my lunch!; and NO i don't bring tiffin at work!)... so, i'll try to do what i usually intend to do while i'm at my blog...

... and that means i've to come up with something unique or original or funny or interesting or profound or cool or something simply captivating for the reader... i mean you! and here's the thing... if you've read this far... i've already succeeded... and by some logic that translates to happiness... so i'm successful AND happy; which by another strange logic translates to being content!... wow! now, this is turning out to be a great post! isn't it? ... here i am, sitting in front of my Thinkpad, continuing from an old post that i left at one-and-a-half paragraph, about a month ago and feeling successful, happy and content! beat that!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

"Women deprived of the company of men pine, men deprived of the company of women become stupid." - Anton Chekhov


putting things in perspective does not necessarily come naturally to us, the social creatures. how-so-ever ironical it may sound though. so when this gentleman mentioned that he has more than 30 years of experience in marketing alone (i never asked if he has any 'other' experience as well!), all i could muster was 'a-huh!' and sadly, it conveyed a picture of 'unimpressed' me and my poker face was not helping either! all this while i was trying to put those 30 years along with my life's timeline. and then it struck me, this guy was 'studying the market' in Zambia when i was still gorging on Cerelac! (not the Apple flavor though! i never developed a favorable taste for that one!)...and my work experience tells me that i must mention that Zambia is a country in Africa (not South Africa!) and no, it's not same as Zimbabwe...

... he then went on narrating experiences from meetings he attended with businessmen across the world in his career... and he was telling about the products and brands and stores that we've never heard of and had Google not been accessible from our terminals we would've never known... in the later half of this (almost one way) conversation he came to 'culture' and it's important role in the lives of International Marketers... this stuff was keeping all of us attentive... till he asked us to note down the problem points westerners have to face very often while dealing with... umm... Indians...

... "wait! what?" was the initial facial expression of the audience and while i tried hard to suppress my silly smile, i realized it was of no use!! in next nano-second everybody started chuckling!!... "actually it's not just about Indians" he quickly tried to clarify... these issues crop-up in most of the dealings of the South Asian businesses with the EU-US bloc...

...the closing 30 minutes of our interaction were spent on identifying and noting down those issues... few points still linger in my mind... philosophy of "everything is negotiable"; saying "no problem" on every concern; suppress the 'bad news'; not being vocal about issues that affect the business/company/society as whole etc etc... it was not any groundbreaking finding that we made... it was plainly listing down the 'known issues'... and while all this was last weekend, i came across a satirical about Oprah's shocking find that we "Injians" *still* eat with our hands!

...reflecting upon the gyan on importance of understanding the culture of the target country by any marketer *before* entering with an offering, that story makes an excellent example...  which btw also reminded me of the statement he made in the first session and i quote "one thing is guranteed in International Marketing and that is failure, it is your job as a Marketing Manager not to make it a routine"...

(originally published in KNOME)

Sunday, July 15, 2012

"Wealth is an inborn attitude of mind, like poverty. The pauper who has made his pile may flaunt his spoils but cannot wear them plausibly." ~ Jean Cocteau

i've been suffering lately due to the performance anxiety, albeit mildly... and i'm not talking about the one that makes us all blush blush... it's just that sometime back i noticed that i've posted my 299th blog entry... and an idea got herself impregnated in my mind, that the 300th blogpost should be... ummm... more meaningful... and thus i abstained myself from frequenting here, lest i write something impromptu and spoil the occasion of reaching such an important milestone... and so the days lingered and... well... nothing meaningful got written...

... and just like that, i ended up 'wasting' whatever time was left at my disposal after the office and evening lectures... and when i say wasting i mean i regret reading all those news stories, watching movies, 'surfing'... u get the drift... and late last night, when my full bandwidth was restored, i ended up watching even more videos at youtube... it started from a tweet which was linked to a blog post and i found a reference of a stand-up comedian, who made a comic reference of rape (and was later trolled!), i googled his name and one thing led to another and i ended up watching two videos of approx one hour each on US marines' training... and the chirping of birds outside my window made me realised it was 4 in the morning and i've been up all night!

... last time i did something like this was in the month of april, when i was deeply madly passionately 'inclined' towards a girl... and it was happening so fast that even though i could sense something was amiss, i kept going... now, i won't go into the details but that whole experience moved my perceptions slightly... about many things... including the ever so easily ignored question about the purpose of our lives...

... and while i'm dwelling on that topic, u should take some time to ponder as well... or maybe you've already figured it out... in any case, to wrap this teaser article i would like to quote a tweet from someone i follow...

"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"



Tuesday, July 3, 2012

“Beauty and seduction, I believe, is nature’s tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with.” ~ Louie Schwartzberg

... mornings are a great time to think and reflect and contemplate and introspect... provided u get up early enough to think and reflect and contemplate and introspect... mornings are also very very busy time for your brain to function in a coherent manner... there is way too much of churning going in the brain in the mornings... which doesn't sound as good as it actually is... remember what they say about morning workouts? it's good for the body... well... if it is good for the body then it ought to be good for the brain, no?

... if you are thinking "what a crap!" then probably i've done my job well... your brain is giving the right signals to you... ;-) ... the thing is, i went to bed at around 0100 hrs and yet ended up waking at 0530 hrs! can u believe that? i mean... here i am... well awake and listening to some bird chirping in the neighborhood and no alarms and no 'hangover' and no dizzy dizzy feeling whatsoever... what do i do? i start this blog post... and if u r thinking that i really have no better things to do in life, then perhaps we don't know each other or perhaps you know me quite very well :-)

... anyways, i met Sid in his office yesterday and had a pretty lengthy chit-chat on usual guys' stuff... although we had to keep women and sports away from the conversations... we were in office na!... which essentially means we were restricted to talk on the work related stuff... it was not as boring as it sounds here... he's part of the marketing team focusing on any country except his own... and he's very much interested in honing up his academics, specifically related to the field he is in... and if you are wondering why i'm telling you all this it's because that was exactly the common ground that we hit upon... and we spoke close to two hours on how to go about the professional challenges that we are facing as individuals... in short, it was a good 'touching base' session (i really don't like that jargon, but still)...

... and i just realized it's morning time... time to finally get up and do something more productive! ;-)

Sunday, July 1, 2012

"A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his likeness to the intelligent observer." ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

what am i doing here? what am i doing right now? where am i going? is there a purpose of my life? am i more than a physical being? what or who is igniting these thoughts in my mind? is it me or my subconsciousness? are they different?

Saturday, June 30, 2012

"A man's vanity tells him what is honor, a man's conscience what is justice." ~ Walter Savage Landor


i wrote this as 'summary' for my LinkedIn profile... but i overran the 'character' limit... so i thought, why not post the original version on my blog and trimmed version on the LinkedIn? pretty cool huh?

so, here it is... the full length version:

hey!

good to see you here on my LinkedIn profile and to make this passive virtual interaction a little more productive for you, let me present a snapshot of my professional exposure, albeit briefly (I'll try)…

… graduated with a degree in Mechanical & Automation Engineering from GGS Indraprasth University in Delhi, my first exposure towards a 'workplace' was with a small scale Engineering Services provider to a manufacturer of Industrial and Automotive Diesel Engines, based in Bologna (Italy). I was part of a very (very)small team entrusted for converting their aging engine blue prints in 3D CAD models and corresponding engineering drawings using Dassault System's CATIA software. It was very engaging work and timely delivery of correct CAD data was our promise which we religiously kept. It was a brief stint though, as the glitter of the emerging IT Service Industry caught my fancy…

…  and soon, I found myself helping 'end-users' of the Computer Networking products, over phone calls and using nothing but the troubleshooting guidelines and my charm. This was my first ever experience in dealing with the customers 'first hand'. In those graveyard shifts, I was solving 'real world' problems in 'real time'. And to be fairly honest, this turned out to be quite an experience! Working for an offshore service provider as a Technical Support Engineer, I was trained on the Computer Networking Hardware products of one of the most respected companies in this field. And our client, being the global leader, had product offerings for every segment. Be it Home users or SOHO or Medium / Large size enterprises…

… my job required me to listen to the 'Voice of Customer' and turn it into an acceptable working solution for them. With my customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings never dipping below 85%, I realized that I was good in this. Striking a natural conversation (even though there was a 'standard operating procedure' to initiate the call), soothing the frayed nerves early, getting the required customer data (in the times of Privacy Concerns gaining fairly wide media attention) and then providing the working solutions fast; all this was coming naturally to me.  The only thing that was not adjusting to my newly found skill-set was my body-clock; and so I quit, just like that. I had no plan, none what-so-ever. But then, that was not the end of it… I walked-in for an interview into the office of Tata Technologies (then known as INCAT)…

… and I joined Tata Technologies in the summer of 2007; was deputed at the Engineering Research Center (ERC) of our (biggest) client, Tata Motors.  I started as a Design Engineer in the Vehicle Integration Group (known as Vehicle-1). I was part of the team responsible (mainly) for the Steering System of Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) which was under the Commercial Vehicle Business Unit (CVBU). The year 2009 started with me moving to the Passenger Car Business Unit (PCBU) and from LCVs, I moved to Utility Vehicles (UVs). The area of responsibility also expanded, from one aggregate to many and then the then the entire vehicle. ..

… my professional exposure at the TATAs been very diverse and if I try to fit it in this 'summary' section I will be doing a great injustice to all fellow professionals. And if you feel the need to keep this 'conversation' going, please feel free to connect with me here on LinkedIn...

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

"The means of livelihood depend not on the virtues, but the vices of others" ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton


aHa!

there u r! if u're reading this then u either want to know "why?" part or the "STILL" part (there's a third possibility that u r really happy to see me posting after long time on KNOME, but i will discount that theory!)... and chances are u r from that HR department... maybe not, maybe u stumbled across this KNOME thing and found my post... or u could be part of a bigger sinister campaign from a Sim(b)le politician who is keeping (at least trying to) a sharp eye on every thing that goes on the internet...wait! we are not on the internet. right? wrong! i just realized that we actually are... so! there u go! i'm putting a huge risk by posting this thing online. but then, we all do, right from the moment we step out of our bed... or double bed or whatever... risk is not bad, not mitigating the risk is... but that is beside the point.

"what's ur point?" u may ask... well! first of all, i can't believe u reached this far! but now that i know u have plenty of time (in the office!... u don't do KNOME at home... there are better things to do. no?) i must take *my* own time to make my point (whatever it is!)... and if u r reasoning that even i have plenty of free time in office since i posted this and not Sim(b)ly pasted it from some lame email forward or some website or anything such media... guess what? u r right on ur money! Ha! there! i said that! now more risk!!

let's move our thoughts from risk to...ummm... ah... well... u know... sustainability? nah! there is enough sustenance on this section... lemme churn my redundant grey cells... u get ur tea in the meantime, presuming u r reading this during the tea break! no tea break yet? get a coffee or something... no coffee machine? Ha! u r definitely not from the HR ;-)

anyways, after the crisp Bombay Khari and Tea, i'm feeling better... but that also means i'm finding it difficult to get on the same train of thought with the same intensity as i was riding on earlier... what i'm hinting is that it's time to stop and ponder...some call it retrospection, others name it introspection (while some are still stuck witht he notion of inspection!)... and as my financial management prof says: "Guys! Think for a moment."

Sunday, March 25, 2012

..."Being satisfied is not unwise, but being comfortably numb is"...

... it was another random post on my FB wall... a sarcastic 'info-graphic' that we humans (Hindus actually!) got involved in so many legendary wars only because of women... the info-graphic said that the Ramayana and Mahabharata and what not happened are all because of women... in various forms it is the feminine counterpart of ours that has led to the confrontation of us mortals... err... even immortals!

... and if i were to introspect superficially, it is very likely that i might end up drawing same or similar conclusion... and end up blaming women for any and everything bad that has happened in the history of (hold your breath!) mankind! ... ever wondered why it is never womankind? i mean... where are all the feminists? why not make a huge hue and cry about this as well? it's no longer chairman or fireman or policeman ... u got the drift...

... but something else caught my attention... not exactly "the other side of the story" or "the other face of the coin" but let's call it "the other effect"... taking cue from accountants' language... the credit-debit effect and stuff like that... i started wondering if it is correct in interpreting women's role like that... i mean... remember that joke where a dying man recalls, to her wife sitting nearby, that she's been with him in every bad thing that ever happened to him; and then he drops the punchline-"you brought me bad luck" or something to that effect... i must admit i giggled when i heard that joke first time... and it was almost a decade ago... i was naive...

... my point is: women have played a pivotal role whenever there's been a stalemate in the history of... well... mankind... there are uncountable anecdotes from the Hindu mythology about women getting involved when things needed change and even with my very limited exposure towards such sources i can think of many such stories...the one that captured my innocent fascination some decades ago was about the concept of revered shiv-ling... i was visiting my nanihaal and there's one of the most important shiv-ling temple... from that story i took an off-shoot and was captivated by one of the most seductive narration about the various forms of Shakti and her various forms... called as Durga Saptshati... it can be very "in your face" at some point of narration...

... why i'm talking about it here? we're in the midst of navratris and i'm getting even more drawn towards the other half of men... the better half... more conscious, more aware, more concerned about them...

(caption credit: via Himani)

Monday, March 19, 2012

"The more difficult the challenge, the more room there is for real value to be built."


... it just dawned upon me that its been quite a while I wrote on my blog… and that too after I introduced it to this young charted accountant … who’s now in that exclusive list of people who get the access to some of my zealously guarded thoughts and feelings and emotions (not necessarily related to financial stuff!)…

… twenty twelve is already becoming (another) busy year in my thirty years of existence on this planet… and I am not complaining… the decision to go back to college to start my masters program in management is turning out to be good one… it’s keeping me busy with things that are adding value not only to my intellect but also to my sphere of influence…

… Also, the first quarter of the twenty twelve has made me sit and take notice of the money that I was bleeding out… I was not careful towards the savings that I was supposed to ‘declare’ and other benefits that I was entitled to… and I was paying the government more than what was due on my part… the seeds of this ‘awareness’ were sown by Vikas during our lazy casual chat after our scrumptious lunch at his home sometime in January during my visit to Delhi and what made an indelible impression on my fluidic grey matter was the ease with which the money matter can be handled… I always carried this ‘IT guy’ impression about Vikas and there he was, stumping me with his financial acumen… and he didn’t just let me go with my ‘promise’ about me-working-on-the-money-matter… he followed it up… and I’m glad he did…Dad’s visit to Pune in late February only amplified this momentum… when it comes to details, he’s not easy to convince… so there I was… getting ‘personalized advice’ on my finances… things are improving up a bit… and I’m pretty happy about it…

… and then there is that one aspect of life that provides reason(s) to do what we do on a continuing basis… as I said… it’s not easy for me to bare my opinions and feelings and emotions for debate or discuss… but I am treading on this path, tempted to walk that extra mile…

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

"One may calculate the value of a man from the number of his enemies." -Gustave Flaubert


... it's an old wisdom that u need to keep that ax sharp if u need to keep using it to cut the trees... and I guess it holds true with almost anything that u need for your survival on this planet... among other things, this metaphoric ax could be your mind...

... and this stark reality hit my face on twelfth of February ... the instruction were clear, report at 0900 hrs at the test center, which happens to be our Asia-Pacific HQ... February 12th was turning out to be one heck of a hot date on my calendar... I was supposed to appear for one of the most fabled talent management program conducted by Tata Motors - The Fast Track Selection Scheme a.k.a. FTSS... the only other program that comes closer to FTSS is TAS... however, TAS being a launch pad to other Tata Group companies as well, is not as fervently discussed in the circles here as is the FTSS...

... the morning was warm, though I could feel slight nip in the air... as we all waited there in the lobby, this HR lady walked in and suggested that we may take breakfast... we happily took the suggestion and filled our tummy with poha and sandwiches along with tea... got ourselves registered at the designated test and then waited... then waited some more... and even more...

... never in my life while appearing for any competitive test I felt so 'light' mentally... any more lighter and they would have to tie me down... the test was quite a learning experience... they all are... and since I was attempting this test without the pressure to clear it made all the difference... I could focus on things that I usually don't while appearing in exams... for example the computer monitors, AC ducts, absence of fans (duh!), chairs... u get the drift...

... u see... my objective for appearing for this test was not to clear it and succeed... my objective was to break the halo this test carried... the fable and stories and aura... I could see right through the clutter and make a mental note of how anyone should attempt this test... in other words... how I will attempt this test next time!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

"...the quality of our emotions is responsible for the quality of our relationships..."

... a friend posted a video ad of The Hindu on FB last week... and then more real (and fake) news started generating on the internet... my take on the content is that The Hindu's response to the TOI Ad was a bit 'knee jerk' reaction... a little... umm... immature? ... i mean... they could have responded by doing nothing... i know this opinion can make some people uncomfortable... "How can you NOT respond to such onslaught?"... i agree... there could be some serious business implications by not responding to competitors' moves... especially   when the balance hangs by a thread in favor of no particular entity... but then... you don't have to feel uncomfortable *every* time someone makes a move... it won't help the cause and i am sure your ability to keep an eye and agility in taking business decisions will be more important than simply responding in advertisements...

... but then... i am not here to discuss all this!... i am here with a lingering thought, rather chain of thoughts, after reading this blog post by GarryZ on Gender Disparity... the fact is: there's a major gap AND it's widening. however, there's an underlying trend... the creme-de-la-creme of the socio-economic ladder is viewed as the pious lot... educated people have wider exposure towards everything and lower strata of this hierarchy is often blamed for this mess...

... IMHO this is not correct... i've seen, met, interacted (and argued!) with many of the professionally qualified people i came across in my social circles... and they do NOT shy away from expressing the desire of a male heir!... "tu nahi samjhega!" is often their punch line... and with a sly smile they remind me that i've yet to enter the famed institution before i can even talk about children... does that mean our thoughts change after circling around agnidev seven times? i don't know! i hope not!

... but then... i have another blessing upon me... and that shall keep me favoring a girl child! ;-)

Saturday, January 28, 2012

‎"Working overtime doesn't increase your output. It makes you stupid."

well... this post is not about not working overtime and becoming smart! ... more than that... i am feeling like working overtime right now because my brain & mind have decided to act unlike Lord Krisn & Arjun in Mahabharata ... and because of that all my brain waves are getting mixed up... which means that this is the perfect opportunity for me to write a blog post! ... now... i know that there are some very intelligent people who like to spend some time on this blog and i have met some of them... and then i have a personal reputation of some kind... my point is that i can't simply let this mental mayhem get the better of me and write some piece of holy crap!

... but then, you don't just pull-out a decent blog post out of thin air or keyboard for that matter! you need some key ingredients like an author (could very well be a typist! who knows?), an idea (original will be a bonus!) and a plot (story wala plot... though buying a plot of land is another thing on my To-Do list... but then To-do lists don't work!! damn it!)... so coming back to pulling-out a decent blog post from...

... Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. i've been watching this series since past week... after all these years i turned my contempt towards this "children's movie" into a curiosity... and thus started a journey of another kind... and i was not disappointed... initially... the vivid imagination of the author is impressive and translating that into visuals was done commendably... but all this was put aside by my mind... while my brain was still happy with the movie!... and it was entangled in the sub-plots... and then i started paying attention to my mind... you really can't sell a movie on the magic factor alone! there was a love story in there! and may i say more than one??...

... and you can't have love stories without a boy and a girl ... (okay! yes! you can have love stories of the other kind but that is out of the scope of this post!) ... and for some one who grew-up on a staple diet of Hollywood (thanks to Cable TV!) and verry typical Hindi movies... i found completely at ease enjoying and spotting the teasing and tension brewing between the characters... and various other emotions that usually accompany when you have love with cross-connections... or triangles as they say in the common language...

... triangles are pretty important shapes when it comes to building things! ever noticed bridges and ever rising skyscrapers? ... so how can a shape that is so important in building things be associated with the negative connotation when it comes to an emotion like love? maybe (just maybe!) we need a little more introspection on this aspect... i mean the love thing...

(to be continued)

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

"The future has not happened yet. So there's absolutely no reason to be negative about it."

"...if you fill garbage in, garbage will come out..." she said, holding that mic in her hands... she is audible in any case but she has some fixation with the mic thing... i was still in sorta trance... her shrilling voice was not helping my frayed nerves... my body wanted some rest and my mind was reminding me this on a continuous basis... skipping classes was the last thing i could do... especially after taking a laung vacation... laung as in Nissan Sunny Caaaar... so i tried my best to keep my eyes open and ear shut in the lecture... though i was not much successful doing both the things at the same time...

... and then i realized it was not her! it was the lack of air conditioning that was making me feel uncomfortable... so i asked her to switch the AC... my batch mates gave me *that* look! ... thanks to the guy from Symantec my request got some more weightage... but she obliged... and we all had a sigh of relief... reminded me of the advert being shown on the TVs... i guess of 'Tata Sky'... we need to shed our inhibitions and gather some courage to 'speak' out... this courage should not be confused with 'shouting' out... which is very often the case...

... i know this is not making sense but then who said it was supposed to?

"When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."

well... the Gallup Q12 is here again... i've done my part, just like i did last time and before that and... ummm... anyways...

... what i am interested in is writing about this 'eureka' moment, while chatting with a friend (yes! i DO have friends at work!)... i was joining-in after a long vacation (by my peer's standard) of ten days... and thought of touching some base...
... "arre! tu kahan tha itte din?" is the common question with *that* look on their faces and i can't help but smile and let my gift of gab take over from there...

... but this 'moment' i am talking about was in reference to the 'first impression' that comes from new-joinees about working in Tata Motors... and this is more common (and often) from people i interact with outside the company! ...
... "Tata mein join karo to life ban jaati hai", "Tata offers ALOT of benefits", and some more on the similar lines... my personal favorite is "you generate alot of equity while working with Tata" (Radhey's quote!)... and i never heard the word 'career' or any synonym of it in this 'first impression'...

... that sent me in some serious introspection (on a continuing basis): does Tata Motors represents a company which allows you to grow organically in your career? or it's a place where u join and stay (willingly or otherwise) with a 'happily ever after' ring on it!...

... don't get me wrong on this ... i am aware of the existence of FTSS, TAS, LEAD and many more ways to identify and appraise the talent that we have and allow them to face the business challenges, which by any standard is no indication of an easy life; my humble concern is:

why do working in Tata Motors carry an impression of 'relaxed and settled life'?...

... but then, like the other side of the coin ... i have personally seen some very talented 'fire-in-the-belly' type colleagues going tame after their first year appraisal (am i suggesting something?)...and this is not in one specific role in one specific department... some gold medalists from the fabled IITs left after brief stint of their rotation... some joined us from our formidable competitors and then left again with bad taste in mouth... while others who are capable of 'leaving' are always looked down upon... "ye yahan tikega nahi!" ... "ye to kabhi bhi jaa sakta hai!"... there's an underlying distrust and resentment (and may i also say fear?) in the middle management and when you add the sense of frustration and strangulation dominating the minds of the 'young turks', you get a snapshot of what it is like working in the current environment... and this is leading to erosion of the 'talent' or the 'human capital' from Tata Motors... which brings me to my second big question:

what are we doing (or going to do) to check this exodus?

... this introspection came haunting again when i had to answer a question in Q12: "if i would recommend this company to my friends for a great career?"

...the answer is a bit more complicated than it seems! and i must confess that this is not a right forum to answer this question!

... meanwhile, the battle continues...

Sunday, January 1, 2012

"I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy." ~ J. D. Salinger

in any case, it was planned to visit AMG for luncheon, and i was on my way for that light breakfast and then...  i got this phone call... now the thing is that my phone screen has gone kaput (thanks to brawn power of a local manoos!) and there is no way i can make out who's calling... so... i had to take that call... and then... i heard one of the most cheerful voice on my phone after a laung laung time!!... and i *knew* it was NikkiZ... BUT... this lady was startled when i addressed in my usual manner (of addressing NikkiZ) and i sensed some awkward murmur on the other side... it wasn't NikkiZ ... and now my mind was running zillion Google searches simultaneously matching that voice and names and faces of people i could think of who can call with such exuberance... it took me close to one complete second in apologizing and confessing my predicament and inability to identify the caller... i was so embarrassed... i have a reputation of correctly identifying people in such circumstances...

it was JyoZ, and this was one pleasant surprise... she later told me that she was calling from RadZ's phone simply to (sort of) ambush the friends...  i decided to pull-over and catch up with her and of course her hubby as well... talking with them made me realized (once again) why har-ek-friend-zaroori-hota-hai!!

and even though there are (like) million things coming in my mind that i want to put here... i must succumb to one of the most important activity we mortals have to perform... sleep!!