Lal Bagh Flower Show - 7th to 15th August

Chennai - "People makth a place"

Chennai is one of the metropolitan cities of India. How huge it is, I have no idea. (Google search anyone :-) Just Kidding) I have begun to fairly get a sense of direction about what is where. It's amazing how places don't matter when you have people you love around you.

Few years back, Chennai was a place I was not so happy to go to. I had eyes judging me and watching my every move. I was filled with fear and apprehension when I left for Chennai and when I used to come back - of guilt. Guilt that I was probably not a good person, guilt built on people's expectations and wants and demands. Nope Chennai was hot, sticky and not at all friendly.

Well thankfully, that era ended and this time round I have actually begun to like Chennai. Catching an overnight train with an airbag, getting my cousin to chauffer us around the city (This is so far the city with the largest number of bill boards I've ever seen), attending a wedding where we got to eat four bowls of ice creams! It was an amazing feast. Main thing was the welcome that my aunt and uncle give us.

Well coming to what we did- drove around for almost three hours, attended the wedding lunch, caught a rickshaw to Gandhi beach and sat there for sometime. RBI (Reserve Bank of India) employees were doing a worthy cause on the Independence day of India by collecting all the rubbish they could find on the beach. They were wearing white caps with the RBI logo on the front. They had turned up with their friends and family and it great that they took out one of their precious free days to do a community service. Keep it up RBI!

Nisreen and I then decided to go for a walk till the shore and on the way passed the baloon shooter. We decided to play a game. The last time I had played was with my late friend A.Rahman. He had taught me how to shoot the baloons. This time, I hit all 12 on 12 including the flying one's. Nisreen managed 10 on 12 which means we girls are not bad shooters, eh?

After that we did the usual rounds at the malls - City Center, Spencers and Reebok. The mall culture is there in every city. What amazes me is the different kinds of goods we get. The best part was I bought books! Lots and lots and lots of books. I got "The Kite Runner" at Rs. 60 vs Rs. 350 at Landmark. I also bought a copy of "A thousand splendid suns" for my 'Boss' under whom I did my internship. I got Sidney's and Chicken soups and a puzzel book for my cousin (She is those left-brained people who hate reading and love numbers) I think it's after buying books that I feel wonderful. I now have books for the next one month and I'm looking forward to my reading :-)

Rushing back, we got ready in a frenzy for the night function. We went to the Dulah's home, saw him being wished well by his family, his sehra (face veil) being tied and finally the mount on the horse (one last chance to run away hehehe). We followed in the car and as family got V.I.P treatment. All flowers on us and being welcomed etc. Food was excellent.

At 10.30 pm, we left for the station, caught our train and had a pretty good sleep coz we were frazzeled out. Touched Bangalore by 6.00 am and home by 6.30 am on my good old scooty (Poor baby had to carry us two and our two bags!) It was a good ride coz we got no traffic and the morning breeze is amazing.

All in all, an amazing trip :)

The neighbours grass

It's strange how the grass is always greener at that other end. Yesterday I was invited for Iftar at Munira ben's place. I go to her home for my afternoon prayers as her home is just a few minutes distance from my Institute. At times when I have to stay back in college for some extra studies I also pray my evening prayers at her home. God bless her.

Well so yesterday as we sat for iftar, she with her two kids, her sister's kids and I. I listened to the conversation between her and the children. They were discussing about science and optional subjects. Munira ben was scolding her nephew that he should come and take his elder brother's books, she did not tell him. A choke rose my throat as I realised that I didn't have this kind of family. I didn't have tiny feet pattering around my home or watch me cook or fight over bringing the dishes to the table.

At twenty five, I had as a child dreamt I would have at least three kids. I am very happy for what I am today and what I have, it's when you see something you don't have that you feel that tug in your heart. I had the strangest dream the other night where I saw my daughter. I was carrying her in my arms. She was a copy of me as a child..lol.. yet I still remember the feeling so well of holding her and she looking up to me. Tell that to my comedian friend Devendra and he said "First dream about your husband and then your child!"

All in good time I hope. :-)

I wrote it!

Well I finally got down to submit my essay on an environmental cause. I choose to write on Global warming and Prof. Raj liked it! I guess it was worth spending four hours on it even though that meant loss of two classes! :(

You can read the essay on my stories blog here

I just realised that I cannot write any technical articles. I freeze when someone asks me to use jargons and fundas. I started reading 'Blue Ocean Strategy' and was actually getting mad! I just could not understand the technical language. I told Prof. Sunil about it and he told me "You have to come to the level where you can understand it". He was so kind that he took a whole lecture on Blue ocean strategy to give an outline about what the book was proposing. He's a big fan of the book and says it's something totally new.

So well I will read it now, hopefully understanding the book. At the same time, I am now going to try my hand in writing technical papers. You never know, I might one day just write a management book! InshaAllah!

Musings

I'm facing the writer's block!!

I have to write an article for environmental cause and I simply am not able to! Prof. Raj is expecting it today and just look at me! I am not able to write even a bit. This is what happens to me during a deadline. I just hate when there is a fixed time limit to anything.. whether it's exams or assignments or submissions.

This trimester... trust me I have improved loads!! I had a 'disorder' of late submission of at least 3/10 and this trim, it's cut down to 0. Zero because I simply couldn't complete one so I did submit an unfinished assigment for which I may get just a mark.

As for last trim, I was late for all my three projects and you know what happened to my internship report!

The same happens with exams. Though thanks to my dad, I'm reading a this how to study book and getting to know a lot of tips and smarter ways of time management and completing the course ware before time etc.

Now you are wondering how I manage to do well in exams, right? lol.. if I can't submit my assignments on time and I can't study under pressure, then how in this world do I manage to get through??

That's where I have always believed in the dua, the prayers, of my family and friends. It's their love and their prayers for me that have always gotten me through.

When I was in Christ College, someone asked me how I managed to get 93% (O.K. I do study well but I still am not happy as to how I study!) I told them it's all because of God. I strongly believe that it's My Lord who gets me through. I sometimes feel I don't deserve what I get. I get far more than I ever expected... but for it I am always always thankful.

Well these are just thoughts off my head... Am writing something to get myself to write. I do have this wonderful story in my mind and I suppose I don't need to worry... I just need to write. Once that is done, then revise my draft, email it to my prof and that's as good as done right? :-)

So off I go...

A stare, a friend and three ice creams!

Yesterday was an upsetting day that turned quite pleasant.

I am on a cleaning spree especially for my cupboards because

a) There are too many clothes that I don't need

b) I don't like the way they are arranged

c) Too many books

d) Too many papers

so for nearly three hours I sat and filed the papers and removed two bags of junk.. envelops and outdated documents. I filed the papers in different files and realised why I liked administration. I'm not the neat psycho that my sister is. ( You keep your jacket on the bed and she shouts at you to hang it behind the door!) However, I do love neat people and neat homes so I'm going to be conscious. My wardrobe is currently haywire and I intend to wire it up may be tomorrow.. yeah.. Saturday is a good day for arranging ;)

Well, after my cleaning spree I went to college and on the staircase I met one of my professors for whom I have great regard. I don't know why and what, but he didn't want to greet me! Imagine the hurt of this little heart. I told him "Good morning Sir" and he stared at me! Stared! And trust me there was enough time to give a response but nope.

I went to class and my Macroeconomics Prof. was teaching us Inflation half of which went off my head as I was thinking what wrong I had done to get that kind of a cold stare... well it was not a 'cold stare', just a stare that made me so cold. I told Dev and he is laughed it off. Told me I was being silly just bcoz a prof didn't say 'Hello', I told my sis and she said, "He must be having a bad day, don't think soooooo much"

Therefore, I hope he had a bad day. My sis also advised me that I should have high regard for my professors but not get too attached to them that such tiny things start mattering. Well I can't help it. If I like someone, I like them all the way! Like Prof. Narayan Swamy... I think he is the coolest and he always gives us a smile when we greet him.

Well I was OK by the second lecture and enjoyed my classes. In the evening I went for prayers and met up a student from Tanzania. He is going to start his MBA at Mysore University and it's always fun to talk to people from home. The way we speak, joke, and pull each other's leg reminds you of home sweet home. May be I should go back to my dear East Africa.

And yeah.. after a long time.. I had three ice creams :-)

1st Rank - Figure that!

Good news after a nail-biting period and terror of failing a paper - I get 1st rank in my 2nd trimester!!

When I got the marks card I was like 'What??!!" and quickly checked my marks for Operations Research II coz I was so scared about the paper. I was 'pleasantly' if not 'shockingly' surprised to have got 87%. I think it were subjects like Executive Communication, Web designing and ERP that saved me. I achieved a 89% and 95% respectively.

Alhamdullilah (Praise be to God!)

I have one month to go before my 4th trimester exams and with all this project management techniques we've been learning in class, I hope to do a better job this time :-)

An Unwanted Visitor

Nisreen and I got up at 4.00 am to have our pre-dawn meal (We are fasting 13,14,15 this month) and guess what we saw?

A BIG BIG BIG RAT or was it a mouse?

Well anyways, I ran like a kid into the living room screaming for my mom. Only this time there was no mommy and I had to do the needful.

I closed the door of our bedroom and asked the girls to open the front door. Thankfully, the rat went out after nearly giving me a heart attack of climbing the bedroom door as I stood by it.

My God I'm terribly scared of them. I just can't bear them. Uhhhhhhhh

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

I am struck by this book. When I first started reading it, I couldn’t stop. I left all other work aside and just read and read and read. This is the kind of book I hope to write one day. I found Khaled Hosseini’s way of expression quite similar to mine! In fact I feel as though we were supposed to be literary twins and got separated at birth. This is not to imply I write as astoundingly as him, but that I found myself sharing one common trait with him: Human Emotions.

Throughout the book, it’s all about emotions. He speaks of real people, real life, irrespective of what they wear, look like, live like, at the end of the day, they have the same feelings, the same heart as the rest of us.

The story is about two women. Their lives and how they end up together as co-wives. After the initial hurt, the shock, the acceptance, ‘this is my territory and this is yours’ and finally the friendship that develops between them.

This book further goes on and shows that feelings and emotions have no age. One can be a seven year old girl, a forty year old woman, a twenty eight year old battered wife with the same level of understanding.

The mental pictures that Khaled brings to mind are so vivid. One does not only see the scenes play in one’s mind but also become the character. In the first part of the book, while reading about Mariam, one can feel Mariam, be Mariam. When he switches to Laila, again, you become Laila. However, the kind of atmosphere created in reading about Mariam is the same while reading about Laila. A slight change could have worked because at this junction it took me a while to get into ‘This is Laila’. The tone, texture and expressions remained the same from Mariam to Laila. At the later part when the two come together, one end’s up feeling not knowing Mariam at all. She has become a stranger after twenty years.

The most touching part of the book is the friendship between Laila and Tariq. Especially when contrasted to the cruel Rasheed and how he would batter his wives. The letter to Mariam from her father is beautiful. It reminds one of the letters in ‘The Notebook’ by Nicholas Sparks. They speak of so much depth and love.

By the time I finished the book, I had gone through a mirage of emotions: sweet, tender, bitter, shocking, anger, wonder, relief and happiness. Happy because at the end, the book ended with hope. Hope for a better future for Laila, and for Afghanistan and its people.

Introspecting...

There is always a certain sense of disappointment when you decide to check out the feasibility of a project and find the candidate system to be so-so. It can work but there is nothing exciting about it.

That is how one of my projects turned out. So-So. Earlier on there was this other project I was so die-hard willing to work on. I wanted to make it work but the client on his part was 'not' disinterested but definitely not as interested as I was. So I thought, hey if we are not putting the same zeal into it, why bother. I was tired of pouring ideas after ideas after ideas and taking all the crap from the client.."Wait.." "No..." "Yes..." "You know...." "May be..." "I feel it will work..."

STOP!

You tell me either you are into it or not. No response.

Project scrapped.

Therefore, I went out to check the other project and well, I'm not at all interested. It's so boring and I can work on it but with a dejected attitude which I hate to have. Anways, I have decided that if something really does not interest you then you shouldn't do it. At the end of the day you have not created anything great. At best something mediocore but not one you stand back and admire.

Conclusion - Unless I find an excellent project, I'm not signing. I rather do one from my heart than do one with my mind

Books Spree- Blue Ocean Strategy

I got it! I got it! I finally got it! The same Santa Cruz signal before the airport for Rs.100 This is a book recommended by my Power Strageties professor so I wanted to read it plus the recent hype around it. Now, isn't me going on a book spree :-)

Books Spree - It Happened In India - By Kishore Biyani

I saw this on the shelf of Big Bazaar at Koramangala and couldn't resist picking it up. It really seems for like the autobiography of a retailor and the 'sabse saata din' remembarance. I have just schemed the book and there seems no 'wow' moments where you understand a management funda.

(Actual review after I read the book)

A picture speaks a thousand words

This was a snap I took in the airplane on the way back to Bangalore. I wish I could capture all the beautiful scenery. It's amazing how clouds look when you are right next to them.

This one for example has many shapes. If you look closely you will find your imagination make shapes in the clouds.

I see a baby fish fast asleep :-)

Mumbai- A city of dreams or rubbish?

Mumbai – Something about the city always excited me. I think it was the local trains or the buzz and the hurry burry. May be it is the anonymity that one gets that is appealing to me. I love to get lost among the crowds. This time however, I seemed to notice all the wrong things about Mumbai.

1) Dirt
The streets are laddened with piles of rubbish as you see ‘Joppar pati’ on both sides of the railway tracks. Everything from the counters to the stair case to the roads had filth. I stayed at a friend’s home to realize they had no garbage system but rather dumped their garbage outside their homes. Shocked? Well imagine my friend is a manager in one of the big IT firms and yet he seemed to be nonchalant about it. He explained that there was no garbage collection at all. Someone would come and pick the garbage and God knows what he would do. They have a compound sweeper who collects the bits and papers that one throws so randomly from their window.

2) People

The people are so poor. It’s one thing to be poor but totally different to be poor and live filthily. They are small time road traders selling stuff at Rs. 5 ($ 0.13) to Rs. 40 ($1) however; they are not bothered about the flies and the kind of water they use, their hands, and the dirt filled nails. Does one get so dishearten by poverty that even keeping the place around them swept and neat become unthinkable? I passed through the red light areas of Mumbai and saw the way the prostitutes lined outside their box rooms wearing traffic light red lipsticks. They were not pretty. Dark in complexion and wearing gaudy colors, they looked down- graded. The taxi drivers would bat an eye while lying about the amount of fare. I was duped by Rs. 10 and I didn’t like it. Therefore, as a visitor to the city, always check with the meter list how much the exact fare is.

3) Weather

Hot, humid, rainy, damp and sticky.

The rain mixes with the garbage that is literally around the city and people walk on least bothered. You will feel hot and sticky and sweaty all the time unless you happen to be the lucky one out of a million who works in an AC office and can eat in an AC restaurant.

4) Food

Good food. As long as you don’t know how it is prepared.
Else
Cook at home
Eat at trusted brands like Coffee day or Italiano or Kobe’s.

The one restaurant you shouldn’t miss out is Delhi Durbar. You can order anything blindly and it will be delicious. I strongly recommend the Biryani’s and the Tandoor Chicken dishes.

5) Overall

It’s not the place that matters but the people. When you go to Mumbai, go with your best friend whose company you enjoy tremendously. It might fade the background and who knows, while chatting and laughing, you could drink away a glass of melon juice without noticing the flies around.

A visit to Infosys

Today was an amazing day. Fifteen of us were selected based on our country presentations on MBA prospects in various countries. I happened to be one among them :-). The lucky ones got to go for a onsite company interaction and guess which company? Infosys!!!

Infosys as you all know is among the best rated software companies of India and we hold a lot of pride in it. I have been hearing about Infosys ever since I came to India for my undergraduation. Infosys came to our Chirst College campus around 2004 and a lot of my juniors got selected. During my time we had Digital Globalsoft (now 100% HP), Amphasis, Tata Elexi to mention a few. I had seen Infosys from outside many times on my way to work (HP also in Electronic City) and today I finally got to see the whole of Infosys.

We had an hour's interactive session with the Senior Vice President of Infosys, Dr. L.P. Ravindra. He has 31 years of experience and we were spell bound by the way he spoke to us.

The main topics we discussed were about why Infosys has reached were it has today, it's marketing strategy, CSR, role of an MBA at Infosys. He gave us valuable advice on how we should keep adapting, moulding, changing. He handles and E &R, Education and Research division and pioneered the concept Industry focus in colleges. Currently out of 1800 Engineering colleges in India, 400 have tied up with Infosys where Infosys conduct their training to the students and get them established in the industry. Amazing.

Everything about Infosys spelt 'Quality'. Our guide also spoke excellently and had in dept knowledge of the whole campus.

It was a great day!

Infosys Photos

The internet is back

Well I finally had to threaten Hathway that I would withdraw the connection and I wanted my money back to get my internet going.

I really don't like it when I need to be 'Firm' in order to get my work done. Anyways in India, it's only when you threaten to cut your connection.. whether it's your cable, your mobile or your internet that the company actually 'realises' you have a problem and solves it. Not 'Try' to solve it. Did you know there is nothing like 'Try' in this world. Either you do it or you don't!

Internship Report Done!

Yahoo! I finished I finished I finished! I finished my internship report, my resume, my appraisal, my everything. Now I no longer have any tensions wrt the placement department for all is done :)

Of course my sales report is yet to be done and I need to complete it by Friday L but hey it’s close to my heart and I think I will actually have fun writing it.

Yesterday, there was chaos in the house. The gas cylinder finally came only to find it’s leaking. I got the small gas cylinder on my bike scared like a kitten. I saw myself exploding anytime if God forbid, the gas starts linking and catches a spark from my bike. Thankfully, my imaginations remained imaginations. Back at home Namrata confirmed that it could happen and it had happened to her neighbour back in Raipur. He was a young boy of twenty, twenty two and was getting the cylinder on his bike when he met with an accident and was blow off. Made me realize it’s truly very risky.

The T.V. Repair guy finally came and thanks to God, the T.V. is working fine. Some cable had died and it was making a cracking sound and the screen flashed. This is the interior snap of our T.V :)

Ok, now I am hungry coz in the hurry and adrenaline rush, I forgot this body needs food too.

Warning note: Dad called me to pass a message from the BOSS – Mom. She has ‘Commanded’ me to start exercising and begin yoga early in the morning. I just realized, you’ve got to be careful about what you say on your blog… lol

It's time to make a choice...

Yesterday I 'think' I had a panic attack. This is because I was standing in the middle of the kitchen looking for something... I don't know what and I was like real scared. I suppose it's the tension of the reports I have to make. I think it's a 'perfection disorder' or something... and of course a 'delay disorder'. I got up at 5.00 am to give it a shot but after prayers I just couldn't sit. This time it was not mental but physical. My back was acting funny and even dinner became a problem for me! I just couldn't sit without feeling uncomfortable.

I seriously have to start some sport. Anything for now I don't want to became 52 instead of 25. I am at the peak of my adulthood! I should be running around the world with my back pack instead of lying down on the bed trying to make my report! What am I? Some retired oldie?! Its 4.oo p.m and I am feeling exhausted! (Thankfully I can type ;) )

We learnt an interesting concept in Production Management. "How much can a man work?". Professor explained the various techniques used to calculate the time it takes to get work done in the factory - both for products and services. This has got me thinking... How much work can one really do? Is it 4 hours? or 6? or 8 or 12 or 16? Today, with India emerging as the next big economy, the metros and the cities have became a 16 hour job cycle. Out of 16 hours that one is 'supposed' to work, how many hours is actually 'productive'. I personally believe it is humanly impossible for an individual to work using his brain for 16 hours. Once in a while, that is fine but everyday?! The poor man is going to crack down sooner a later. Work is a huge part of our life, but it is NOT life.

If you want a successful company, you need happy and successful employees and customers. To get a happy employee, you have to take care of him not only from his job perspective but his overall growth. Nowadays MNCs (Multi National Companies) keep aside a room which they call 'They gym' or 'The recreation center', yet do they ensure that the employees get the chance, get the TIME to go there? Usually the employee is kept so busy that he forgets the geography of the company and remembers just his cabin.

I do understand that a company has to meet targets. Therefore, a lot of planning is done, schedules are laid. so if the life of an employee is not being balanced, then it is obvious the issue lies at the top level management. There is a defect in the strategy and in fact the whole 'Vision and Mission' of a company if they expect to exploit their very own people.

Thankfully, I have not encountered 'Cruel' managers personally. I know they are there. I have seen them, I have observed them. I know how greedy and mean they are but thankfully, My immediate manager has been a good one so I have been in a way always 'Protected' from the mean bad world. What I can't stand, is seeing my fellow colleagues being used! Being shouted at! being embarrassed in front of their colleagues. What to managers think they are? God? Especially middle level management!

A lot of these thoughts have been running through my mind. I will be leaving my cozy nest and venturing into the 'Big bad world' in less than a year. What is it that I want? Where is it that I want to go? What kind of people do I want to work with? Do I want to work 16 hours so that I can afford a car or do I want to work 9 hours and commute by bus. Do I want to work under someone? If yes, who is that someone? What is it that I want to work for? I want to leave something concrete behind. I don't want my life to be wasted on doing something that will have no benefit to human kind, to this world that God has created for us to develop.

I don't want to sale cosmetics to the 'upper uppers' or work in a financial institution that promotes speculation which has destroyed the lives of millions of 'investors'. There is one thing that has come to my attention which I find cause worthy. That is Micro finance. This is one industry that has shifted focus to the less-fortunate. Today we have banks like ICICI and CITIBANK calling you every now and then, "Mam, would you like to avail a personal loan of Rs.20,000?" Yet, a poor widow, who needs money for the funeral rites of her husband is refused by all major banks simply because there is little guarantee of repayment.

I am still studying the Micro finance industry in India and I admire Vipul Ahuja of SKS Micro finance who has not only succeeded in the field but has helped thousands of poor women through his micro finance structure.

There are always pros and cons while selecting your career. After 12th Std, I had to choose between Medicine and Computer science. I had seen enough T.V. programmes to know that the life of a doctor was miserable. I read 'The river and the source' and got to know doctors don't sleep for 36 hours at a go! No ways! I opted out. Thankfull, for now, even the smell of disinfectants disturb me. Especially after my bike accident few years ago. No, I was not meant to be a doctor.

After completing graduation, I didn't want to work 16 hours like the software engineers do here. They go to work at 8.00 am and come back home at 10.00 p.m., I mean that is o.k. while you are a bachelor, living away from home and may be for a year or two, but then what? Are you going to do that all your life? One moves ahead to the next phase of life - Marriage and children. Imagine never getting a chance to go to the annual school day of your son because you had a release?

I know it's happening and millions are living this life. However, Life is a choice! It's our choice to live like this. It's our choice to put pressure in our lives. I had a choice and I choose not to join the industry. A good thing for I was an average programmer. I got the work done, but I had no passion for it neither did I enjoy it.

And now.. Here I am. Back to the question of what I want. What choice should I make. Should I join a corporate that pays me a six digit salary and takes from me my life in totality, or should I join an industry I believe in, I believe that is out to help, that is out to make a difference. The pay would be less. Far less, may be not even 4 digits. Should I forgo my car? Should I forgo this AC room and a personal P.C. for days under the hot village sun?

Most importantly, do I have the confidence that "I" can make a difference? Do I have the capability? Do I have the ability?

A lot of questions for which I still search answers