Song Remains The Same !!!

Hi People !!! Do you believe in destiny? The other day, I heard someone discussing that everything in life is written, everything is destined, even the fact that I am typing this post right now is pre-planned.... we are mere puppets who are executing the plan written by almighty himself. Giving this point a deep thought, when I reflect back, try to connect the dots... it always takes me to the moments when I had multiple choices ahead of me, had time to decide which one shall I pick to move forward. It was my free will to choose. I always wonder did I pick the right one, what other options would have lead me to. I create stories through my imagination that could have been reality had I gone with another choice. It tells me my life could have been different, good or worse - no one can imagine it till the end. As it was my free will to choose, it tells me I always had the choice to write my own destiny. So, definitely its not all written.

But what about the stuff where we have no choices such as what family, era, time, town that we are born in? After all, we are shaped by our surroundings, they affect us, put an everlasting impression upon our soul. How much can we control them? We don't know what we are going to face when we step out of our house everyday, we don't know who are we going to meet on our new job, who will we meet in public transport. There are too many unknowns. So, one can't create all of his/her destiny.

Seems like either sides of the argument are not true.

What could be true is we all have "Pulp Destiny"... While some of it is written - solid as rock, rest of it can be created, manipulated or spoiled. My thoughts are - Almighty may set us on a path, but it is our deeds that determine our journey and final destination.

P.S. "Song Remains The Same !!!" is a title inspired from Supernatural - an American TV drama, in which characters try their best to avoid a situation, but devil tells them it is their destiny and they cannot avoid it irrespective of the path they take. I say, given a fair chance to manipulate their destiny, no one shall complain that "Song Remains The Same !!!"

Motivation Matters !!!

What if someone offers you $20 to walk on a wooden plane of 20 ft. long and 2 ft. wide lying on the ground. Will you? Think!

What if that wooden plane is placed in between two 20 story buildings on top. Will you still walk? Think!

And what if it is placed in between two 20 story buildings on top and your kid is stucked in the second building on fire. Will you now? Think!

Motivation matters !!!

My friend Gopu..

India had a dramatic win today over Aussies in first warm match of WC2011. The first wicket was taken by Sreesanth who got lucky to get in WC squad after Praveen Kumar got injured. Leading fast bowler Aashish Nehra's run up was looking like someone trying to reduce weight by walking in park and Munaaf has been and will always be hopeless while Gopu (Sreesanth's nickname) was as usual aggresive and took the first and important important wicket of Watson. Though a little undisciplined before Sreesanth has put himself in Game now and had performed well today. I wonder why some people have problem with aggression of Sreesanth??? I ADMIRE IT. Infact, aggression is requisite after talent to win over strong oppositions in sports. It is better to try and fail but not try at all, Sreesanth does put 100%. I doubt selector's decision to rank him below lousy Nehra and lazy Munaf. I suggest he shall be ranked 2nd fast bowler after Zak in this WC. Critics and pros are welcomed.

Apart from this, Dhoni's performance today with three stumpings was at par too. If you recall Nayan Mongia you will appreciate his performance even more, its like we have to run frame six time faster when Nayan did a stumping as compared to Dhoni's normal speed to make it look even. Gauti and Yuvi should find their form soon. Bhajji shall continue his performance.

Though not very promising but let's hope this win do boost India's confidence in this WC since entire nation is hoping God of Cricket (no need to say I am talking about Sachin) shall be counted at least once in WC winning squad. Talking about Aussies, we need Bhajji, Yuvi and Gopu to bring them on their knees.

I did make big deal out of things...

I gave too much importance to the things when I was pursuing them, but once I have them I have realized there is not much of difference in the world now and before. Everything around me is same. Overdreaming is in my habit.

To reach here I had turned things upside down in my life, sometimes I wonder what if I have let my life flown as it is. I would never know how it was meant to be. Why did I make big deal out of things...

As a human, I would never run out of the things I can pursue. I still have the choice of letting my life flow or to intervene. I am wondering, am I making big deal out of things?

London

Hurray!!! I got one of my wish list item, visiting abroad. I am here in London. So far so good, I have found London to be global. Visiting Oxford Street on Boxing Day was a good experience. It made me realize a sale is sale whether in London or Noida. Though 10 days leave at the start of an onsite assignment was bit difficult to digest, no group of friends around to hang out I still had a good time, met couple of old buddies, made some new and visited few places. Fireworks at London Eye was a experience of its kind, after standing four hours straight with icy cold weather it was worth waiting. Over the next few weekends I am planning to visit some famous places. Last week I visited Madame Tussuad's museum, what a place you can get yourself pictured with stars, good thing is they don't move and you can get as many pictures as you want.

The best of part of the city is nobody bothers what you are up to as long as you are not offending someone. London has customs of its own. Its very unlike of how people taunt of west as "open-cultured" back home. People are very broad-minded but well cultured. If somebody gets in your way even at tube station they will say 'sorry'. Sneezing and coughing in office is awkward. You can kiss on the road but don't dare to stare at someone. Nobody on the job is servant here, they are all here to help.

I arrived here in winters. It dawns at 7.30 am and sets at 3.30 pm, short days. I am enjoying each one of them. Signing off as of now, will write back whenever feel to do so. Of course, I can not write all the funny things we do here ;)

'Dream Quotient' of MBAs

In this post, I am writing about my experience while trying to prove my mettle as an MBA who joined IT as a management trainee. I am sure many of management graduates whom I have interacted in last 2.5 years of my IT experience or others who will read this post would agree to the following:

First thing first, any management graduate joining IT shall know that he is competing with every single individual in this field whether holds an MBA degree or not. To elaborate, take any field: automobile, teaching, sports, cooking or pharmacy; these can be called a profession but management is not a profession, it is the driver of all the professions but not a profession in itself. So, any person who has worked on the shop floor in any of these fields can very well be a manager in that field. Same holds true for IT too.

How an MBA at entrant level in IT shall react to this? Reaction shall depend upon the work & work culture. I have found a crucial difference between MBAs & non-MBAs in IT and that is 'Dream Quotient':

For this analysis, I have considered only two kind of people: people from technical background and MBAs. I believe rest are so less in numbers they can be ignored.

What I have seen over the last few years is, people from technical background while studying technical degrees like B.E. or B.TECH. (CS), have thought of becoming a software engineer in a reputed MNC, which if they pass out from an average institute, eventually achieve in less than 2 years. Then what? Then they just follow the ladder which their manager has gone through or has setup for them. This would be called bottoms-up approach. I would call it as a myopic, unadventurous and poor in dream quotient. My gut feel data is 80% of IT professionals from technical background would fall in this category having poor dream quotient.

On the other side, what MBAs learn in B-school is always from a point of view of an organization or CEO. When we are studying we often come across words like "Will you ever as a leader would ......?" I would call it as top-down approach. Unfortunately, we never see any problem as an individual trying to keep ball away from his court (indeed it is a top quality in IT, but we would take that later). Even if an MBA starts from the lowest level in an organization, his eyes would always be at what top management is doing. Dream quotient of an MBA is very high.

Along with the dream quotient, there is a pile of things which I could be pointed out as different in these two sides such as communication, presentation, orientation etc. (later more on this)

In field of IT, you will find more no. of people who belong to the first side. If they reside at a leader's position, do hinder the growth of second side. This can happen if you are in a services company & are living in trap of billing from client.

I thought, this difference can be helpful for the new entrants and people sitting in placements choosing script writers of their future. So, shared it.

I at personal level, am confident enough to find a way out.

Dussera in my childhood...

All festivals in childhood are very joyful as compared to adulthood when they are just counted as leaves. Each of them have a different taste then. We all would agree, as kids we used to wait for these festivals for weeks. On this Dussera, I am writing about how I have celebrated Dussera in my childhood, killing 3 Ravans each year...yes, 3 Ravans. The joy of Dussera to me used to start at 7 am in the morning with different racing competitions on the square.

The anchor annoucing start of the games and crowd cheering loud for winners, really used to create an amazing environment. An hour later, to buy fresh floweres, make malas and put them on our home's entrance was once a year activity for me. Only on this holy day, I would worship my books/schoolbag. In history, this tradition originally came from farmers who would worship their instruments on Dussera. To me it came from my father and as a student I followed it on my instruments, of course those were books then :)

The best part would come in the afternoon, when I would make a Ravan of my own. I did this for years buying stuff from local stationary shop and putting crackers inside, with all my friends then watching it this will be a proof of my creative self for the whole life. I would keep it ready before I leave with my sis n dad for Dussera maidan for my 1st Ravan Dahan of the day. After the 1st Ravan Dahan on our way back we would bring home Sona-patti. And on return, we would kill Ravan made of rice on a table where all males of the family would kill it together with a knife and find a golden ring inside it..that would be the 2nd one. And then for 3rd, I would force my family and friends to join me and see my Ravan burning. It was kind of great with every one just watching and I putting it on fire. This whole day used to be very amusing, but now that's history.

Not sure if everyone knows Dussera is not a single but two days celebration, second day is called Basi-Dussera. On Basi-Dussera, younger generation takes blessings of their elders by giving them Sona-patti and bowing across them. In our days, this was a leave and we all friends would gather and visit each house of colony to give them Sona-patti and get blessing in form of sweets/eatables, at least those were the preffered ones :) This would help people know each other and create a friendly environment. In last 4-5 years, I have lived in places where I hadn't known my immediate neighbours.

Sad but those celebrations are a history now. It has been 8 years since I enjoyed Dussera and saw people celebrating, burning effigies of Ravan.