"DE"nnis the Menace...

No no, it is not the cartoon character that I am talking about. It is an exam at work place that had become a menace for me as I was unable to clear it last year. Yes, after two unsuccessful attempts, it spilt over to this year. One full year had passed and here I was again trying to overcome my biggest nemesis ... this DE*** exam. Despite noble thoughts of preparing in the best possible way, all I could do was negotiate with myself on losing some sleep and trying to cram up as much as possible. In the end, statistically, I had prepared for 30% of the syllabus.

As things turned out, I had to muster my memory from last year's preparation and I scored 70%. I could not believe that I had passed! This was such a relief especially after not being able to prepare as well as I had expected. I cant believe, especially because I had prepared so well and still failed to clear it last year. I can't believe, especially because the network connectivity was lost half-through the exam and I was nervous that I would be able to complete the exam. Well, sometimes you never know what might happen :-)

Horn Please!!!

Driving on the highway in India, it is quite common to notice that the truck in front of you has a stylishly written "Horn Please" that would make caligraphics in the world proud of their community. It is the most polite way in India to 'horn' (honk) in order to ask way. Horn is a device that will help a motorist gain his right of way. It is not used as a device to remind the erring motorists. Lane driving is a thing of the distant future.

A couple of years back, I was in London. In the six months of my stay in London, I got used to the low sound levels of the traffic. There would hardly be anyone who would honk. And if someone really did, then it would be an embarassment to the driver. In India, it was different. I had to cover my ears for an instant when I heard constant honking till I realised that it was the way of life in India. So much so that people honk out of fun even if they dont see any traffic in front of them. I once asked my uncle why he honked once every few seconds and he said that "Someone might come in the way of our car, so I honk before that can happen". It was so annoying to hear the sound continuously.

Even worse is if you are stuck in a Traffic Congestion. One impatient person will honk and all it does is start of a chain reaction of honkers trying to tweak their way out of the jam. Initially, onlookers and pedestrians might have felt it irritating, but now even they have thrown deaf ears to such noises. Today, nobody even cares for the horn. Noise pollution, irritation to passers by, annoyance to residents are all but forgotten. India was once famous for its resilience and patience, today it is well known for its inaction and apathy. The horn is now falling to deaf ears.

What does "Take - Nikal" (technical) mean in the IT world?

In the IT field, people switch companies in search of better roles, better challenges and better salaries. Once they know that they have taken enough, woh nikal jaate hain. Take, nikal...

So, now when some one says "I have lot of experience in take-nikal (technical) aspects", you know you can have a good laugh.

Well, dont take it seriously. The weekend is here and I am just cracking up! ;-)

"Sad Sad" and "Happy Sad"

I smiled when I heard the little girl in the movie "Cheeni Kum" say "Tum sad sad kyon ho, happy sad kyon nahi?"

Well, people who make you feel sad whenever they meet you and then hurt you again at special occasions make you "sad sad"

And the people because of whom you feel happy hurt you, then you become "happy sad"

What a concept!!! I am so "HappY HappY" with this concept because I can smile thinking of this concept irrespective of the person with whom I am or what they do to me :-)

How personal is official?

Manager: "It is very important that you complete this task over the weekend."
Employee: "I had some personal work planned this weekend."
Manager: "I understand it, but this is very important and it needs to be sent out first thing on Monday morning to the bosses."
Employee: "Hmmm... OK"

This is a very common conversation that we hear at work and many a times, we change personal plans to accomodate official work. At times, it makes sense when there are really important and priority matters that need immediate attention. However, with conversations such as the one above, it does not really make sense as to why there would be so many important/ priority tasks within every project/ organization.

I have come to learn that it is basically two things -
1. Our (over)commitment to work and to outperform others
2. Poor planning, prioritization and judgement by higher management

When we are passionate about what we do, we tend to overdo things without realizing the actual worth of the task. Sometimes, we believe that the task is really important to be done immediately. We leave aside our personal work, sometimes to such an extent that rather than earning for the extra work, we pay for it. Only if the work was planned well in advance or we had stuck to our personal priorities as well, many of us would not have to suffer.

Everyone of us need to understand the importance of segregating official and personal tasks and that in itself will help us become better planners and keep us very organized.