Way2Top

1. Reply to emails as soon as possible. I normally reply aptly for emails. But for past few months, I have acquired an “email fatigue”, so much that my responsiveness has come down significantly. For some mails I want to give a very thoughtful and honest reply, because of which I keep postponing them. Time to break this syndrome…Replies from me would be apt from now on…But I have to clear the backlog first.

2. The pressure to positively represent ISB in all my activities is creating undue pressure. Sometimes, this comes across as arrogance I believe…Just do what comes naturally to you, you will be fine. The paper certificates should not give you over-confidence. It should just give you absolute confidence. Watch it and adjust dude!

3. Participate in some Social initiative.

4. Watch the weight. I have hit 70 kgs mark. Need to stop further weight addition. Joining the fitness centre is good start but continuing it is the challenge…Discipline…Show some discipline…

5. Call some friend daily and talk. I just browse through the phone book and pick up a friend to call everyday. Maintain it….

Couple of websites I would like to talk about…

www.bharatbloodbank.org: A “Corporate social Responsibility” initiative by BharatMatrimony.com. Since one of my colleague’s father is undergoing open-heart surgery, she was seeking for blood donors. We received a suggestion from one of the employees to check out this website. I registered and found that significant number of people have registered as donors and there are donors from many parts of India. I am sure there are other websites available for blood donation, but I was impressed with the service.

www.dhamma.org: Vipassana Meditation website. Vipassana is one of India’s ancient mediation techniques. This organization is driven by Mr. S.N. Goenka. This organization runs 10-day courses throughout the year, during which the participants will learn the art of meditation and practice it rigorously. There are no charges for this course. Yes, it is absolutely FREE. They will provide you accommodation, food and will take care of your entire stay. But you have to follow the guidelines and timetable that is instituted. During the 10-days, you should not communicate with any other person in the course, not even communication through body language [Using mobile phone is out of question!]. See yourself the course schedule to understand the rigour of the course.

THE COURSE TIMETABLE
The following timetable for the course has been designed to maintain the continuity of practice. For best results students are advised to follow it as closely as possible.

4:00 a.m.———————Morning wake-up bell

4:30-6:30 a.m.—————-Meditate in the hall or your own room

6:30-8:00 a.m.—————-Breakfast break

8:00-9:00 a.m.—————-GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL

9:00-11:00 a.m.—————Meditate in the hall or your own room

11:00-12:00 noon————–Lunch break

12noon-1:00 p.m.————–Rest and interviews with the teacher

1:00-2:30 p.m.—————-Meditate in the hall or your own room

2:30-3:30 p.m.—————-GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL

3:30-5:00 p.m.—————-Meditate in the hall or your own room

5:00-6:00 p.m.—————-Tea break

6:00-7:00 p.m.—————-GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL

7:00-8:15 p.m.—————-Teacher’s Discourse in the hall

8:15-9:00 p.m.—————-GROUP MEDITATION IN THE HALL

9:00-9:30 p.m.—————-Question time in the hall

9:30 p.m.———————Retire to your own room–Lights out

Huh!

Some of my colleagues have/are going to this course. They have very good words to say about this course. They say “I am mentally clear….and have absolute peace of mind”. Why did I write about this course, because my superior believes that taking a 10-day break for this course brings lot of productivity gain to the individual..and he recommends everyone to go through this course…Well, after seeing the schedule, I cannot make up my mind as of now…but definitely will try it sometime..This course might be an answer for what some of you might be searching for…”Away from the outer world, deep into your own world”!

The following ad caught my attention today morning…Nah, not for the job opportunties , but for the brief description of roles…ads for MBA roles in IT are very rare…and this ad neatly summarized 5 different possibilities for MBA grads from leading institutes…So journalizing…

http://www.polaris.co.in/new/about_us/hr_ad.html

Business Analyst
Close coordination with customers and project teams to understand, analyse and translate customer requirements in BFSI domain; test and validate requirements; actively participate in pre-sales activities.

Program Management
Planning, monitoring and control of multiple projects; continuous mangament reporting on financials, resources and risk; proactive identification of issues timely escalation and tracking.

Solution Architect
Articulating, architecting, planning & developing technical specification for end-to-end content delivery strategies, helping define strategies, roadmaps & implementation plans.

Business Development/PreSales
Strategising and winning new engaments within high technology clients; pre-sales activity across opportunities from various geographies in BFSI domain; active interation with prospects, building proposals and presentations, participate in contract negotiations and finalisations.

Subject Matter Expert
Understand and acticulate business needs, translate business requirements to implementable solutions; build competencies in BFSI domain; analyse industry trends and identify suitable offerings; demonstrate domain compentencies in customer interactions.

In general, the boundaries are not clearly defined..One can see, a person performing tasks covered under more than one topic…

Took a day off on Friday and went home to Chennai.

Received a bonanza gift from my brother for my B-day. Most Expensive, greatest gift I have received so far! Nokia N-91…Wow!!! Still exploring the never-ending list of features….What a brother I have..:) On the other hand, with a heavy heart, I am relieving my Nokia 3310 from the service (served well for 4.5 years)!

It feels like only yesterday that I was dunked in ISB pool…but one year has gone very fast…

On the books front, completed reading “Maverick” and “Search”. Enjoyed reading both…”Maverick” was unconventional stuff..I admire the guy Ricardo Semler..”Search” gives lot of insights about Search Engines and talks in detail about Google’s success story…I have lined up few more books in my reading list…“Liar’s poker”, “Sea biscuit”, “The Argumentative Indian”. Convergys Library has procured some new books. Few of them look interesting…So, my eyes will be busy for next few weeks.

On the Movies front, Watched two 80’s movies. AlPacino’s “Dog Day Afternoon” and Michael Keaton’s “Gung Ho”. “Gung Ho” in particular should be featured in the management movie list (Am not sure if it is). Nice movie about Cross-cultural conflicts [American-Japanese]. Watching “The DaVinci Code” is going to be a dream for some more time…[Banned in Andhra and TamilNadu].

When I came back to hyderabad, I was taken back when I saw a brand new “ONIDA OXYGEN 29 TELEVISION” in my apartment in hyderabad. Three cheers to Vickie-the-clickie for purchasing it…Watching football on the 29 inch flat screen would be awesome! Wimbledon, Tour De France, India-West Indies cricket series are also lined up for the next 1-2 months…

PS: Will write about my role in Convergys in the next post…

Proud display of some of our efforts! More “nice-to-haves” to follow in the days to come…We have fallen in love with home that we are not feeling like going to office…!

A message from a very good friend that disturbed me a lot….I know this chap very well…Damn good guy…He recently took up a significant challenge….and is determined to achieve his ambition….his father’s ambition….and all of a sudden this incident….God tests good people a lot…

I badly want this guy to succeed in his mission…

Just see the foot message…tells a lot about his character…

“….My Father passed away on the 8th of this April because
of stomach cancer.Couldn’t inform at that time as I
was/am totally devastated.

PS: For those of you who stay away from parents & who
don’t visit their parents frequently,a complete health
checkup for them atleast once in 2/3 yrs would help
immensely….”

Giks and myself began the last weekend with a mission to set up the home. Over the next 40 hours, we completed many of the tasks in our TODO list. We explored quite a few places. By Sunday evening, the process of purchasing became mechanical. Find the shop which sells the item in need. Learn the price range. Know your BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement). Explore few more shops. Negotiate with the BATNA in mind. Get a new BATNA. By 4th or 5th iteration, we would reach the optimal price level. Complete the deal. Give the address to the shop owner for transporting the item. Get on with the next item….

Seeing the brand new items and installation people walking in to our apartment every 1-2 hours, our neighbours should have been wondering a lot!

PS: I just tallied the accounts. Realized that I spent Rs.4500 for sleeping items alone! [Cot, Mattress, Pillows, Bedsheet, Pillow cover, Quilt]. Well, I now have a comfortable setup to sleep…I really fell asleep within moments…which is a bit unusual for a ‘thinking…thinking’ person like me!

Saw the movies “Pink Panther” and “Poseidon” in the last couple of weekends. Pink Panther was quality fun and Steve Martin has done a splendid job. Poseidon, well, should have been renamed as “Upside down”! The whole concept was mentally challenging. How will it be if the environment around you is vertically inverted? The movie was non-stop action. But beyond a certain point, I started losing interest. Didn’t impress me much.

I am racing against time to complete the book “The Da Vinci Code”, so that I can watch the movie with the novel in my mind. I missed out the experience of watching a movie after reading the novel/book with “The Lord of the Rings” Trilogy. Anyway, I started reading the book on monday night and am half-way through. Man, I love the mystery presented and the way it unfolds. Add to the mystery some dark concepts, Controversial revelations and the elements of the genius Da Vinci, you have a perfect recipe for a great novel…

I want to watch the movie for the experience (Movie-after-novel), the beautiful actress Audrey Tautou and ofcourse the oscar-studded Tom Hanks. Of course, the movie will not have any suspense for me..but that’s fine.

Eagerly waiting for the weekend to arrive…

ps: btw, “THE CANDID VOICE” (the title of the post) is an anagram of “THE DA VINCI CODE”

Since my ‘luxury’ period in the guest house was over, I had to finally move to the apartment in Srinagar Colony. I shifted my things to the flat and headed to office. I purchased a set of bed, pillow and bedsheet the day before and kept in the apartment. When I came back in the night, it struck me that there is not even drinking water in home. All that was available were copious rooms, fans, tubelights and empty cup-boards! It was awkard to sleep in such an empty house! My flatmates would be joining me little later.

There are list of things to do over the next few days

- Get the house cleaned once more.
- Get the Cable connection.
- Install the television and DVD Player
- Get the Gas connection.
- Get the Broad band connection.
- Interview and finalize maid (!)
- Subscribe to newspaper
- Subscribe to milk.
- Subscribe to mineral water.
- Buy a study table and chair
- Buy fridge
- Buy washing machine (?)
- Buy iron
- Buy sofa sets and chairs
- Buy a good 2.1 speaker set.
- Buy cooking utensils, cooker etc.,
- Buy curtains.
- Buy some plants to grow indoor (!)
- Buy TV table.
- Buy a Cot (I prefer sleeping in the floor with the bed..so will take a call on this)
.
.
.

Huh, the list is not stopping…Of course, the common expenses will be shared. After 4 years of comfortable life-style, I simply cannot imagine living without the above basic facilities. Regarding the car/bike, will postpone the purchase until I get my driving licence and save some moolah!

I did not explore HITEC city when I was in ISB. All I had seen was the CYBER TOWERS, which does not reflect the magnitude of the HITEC city.

There are so many buildings in HITEC city. Some of them have beautiful contemporary designs. Lot of new buildings coming up…Latest addition would be from Dell.

As the guest house accommodates people from various organizations, I had opportunities to interact with them.

One of them was from Google. Google hyderabad is recruiting for its “Adwords” and “Adsense” program - for technical development and content monitoring. He said, the female-to-male ratio in Google is 80-20!! There are 600 employees in Google currently. Which means there are 480 girls! The men who join the company are keenly watched at and commented by the girls! High probability for Adam-teasing! Google is known for its culture. One among that is unlimited supply of food. Be it comprehensive buffet/snacks ranging from exotic cookies to indian samosas/wide variety of coffee and tea, Google is among the best when it comes to appetite . So naturally many of the Google employees are obese Convergys does a good job on that front too…Breakfast/lunch/supper/dinner are available everyday for a monthly fee of Rs.150/=. That’s not bad…If they provide a bed and shower, a person can stay here permanently

I met some guys from Wipro. I also met a person who has significant work experience. He has IIT-IIM combo as educational qualification. 8+ years of work experience. Working as Project manager. Couldn’t interact much with him…

I also interacted with a German. He joined me in the dining table. Only two of us were there. He was all cocky…to be honest. In spite of my best effort to grab his eye contact, he was looking everywhere except towards me. Finally he looked at me…and I smiled After exchanging few pleasantries, I began the conversation…”So, Germany is all set for hosting the world cup?”…That was enough to energize him…He was so proud to talk about Germany hosting the world cup…and then suddenly he took a jibe…”It’s a pity that India, with a billion plus population, does not even figure in the world cup football…”. “Forget about Football, not even in olympics…”. “Even in cricket they were 4th or 5th in rankings sometime back..”…He was going on and on….I gave my justifications…corruption, lack of transparency, red-tape, unfit politicians…everything…and how things are getting in right track…Well, Whatever he said was true…but I would not complain about the other person’s country when I meet someone for the first time…I could have countered, but he didn’t stop…”Indians also don’t have a good body frame. They don’t have broad shoulders. They are short. They don’t have balance between education and sports. blah..blah…”. All the while he was surveying my body frame and my shoulders His eyes sparkled. He was speaking as if he just came after obtaining Ph.D in India!! I mentioned about my visit to germany, munich, the beer hall, the black forest etc., all nice things…and I didn’t even mention about my visit to Concentration camp, as I thought the very word “Concentration camp” might upset him…I finally asked him one question..”So, What do you like in India and why have a captive centre in India?”. He was momentarily taken back….My eyes sparkled….While he was very generous in complaining…I could not find the same generosity in praising!!! Well…so much for trying to strike a conversation with him…Heard about the aggressive nature of germans….but witnessing for the first time Finally “Nice meeting you…I am leaving tonight”..I replied, “Nice meeting you too…have a pleasant journey back home…”