Corporate Wierdness

Today was the last day to fill in the appraisal and I casually opened my peoplesoft only to find to my horrors that my manager was by the name Srini (if you did not guess, he is not my manager :)).

Now I know this guy was a manager in Minneapolis for some other account but I had no clue that i was reporting to him. Clueless I asked the Peoplesoft helpdesk within the company as to what is happening.

They mentioned some technical mumbo-jumbo etc... That they had some huge number of record changes and that the transfer of record was intiated through a manager through some other system which was linked blah blah... etc...

I asked at the end what the deal was - He said - nothing can be done about it...

Then I thought - So this appraisal I am going to be appraised by a person who does not have a clue as to what I am working on and I dont have a clue what he will be evaluating me on. I always knew it was a process which is considered a necessary evil and something which is so important in the careers of people has been treated so shabbily.

To cut the long story short, I have decided to default by not filling in the appraisal.

Year gone by

Its been a year... since I started blogging (actually a few days back)... Had begun blogging on my birthday with no real intention to keep going... Was a impulsive decision to blog and posted a real stupid first post and sent the link to my friend who promptly replied "You got to do far better than that if you want anyone to read what you write!" Frank, not so subtle :)

But its been a good year... I have been to a whole new country which I never set foot before... The emotions are mixed as I prepare to leave pretty soon... On one hand, is the facilities, the infratsrutcure, the pool, the tennis, the fantastic summer etc in Minneapolis which I will be missing... On the other hand, I will be in India, would get to meet friends, relatives and family - more enjoyment though lesser avenues...

So Chennai , here I come... Wish me luck...

Best Article on Reservation...

I have read quite a few articles on the reservation issue... But the best written was by my classmate in IIM on our yahoo groups (in blue)... After reading it, I feel proud that I studied with this guy because of his thinking. It shows that even in adversity, we should come out with solutions with a positive frame and only that maketh a great man/leader...

I am sure many people will say that he is making statements in the air. I would say that - yeah maybe, you have every right to think so... but if not anything, the thought counts... And personally knowing Vicky - he talks less and works more (quite my opposite)

Watch out for these budding managers who are going to make a mark in the coming years...

Hi,

Looking at the mail from Kash and Interview from Arjun Singh, here is what I understand:

1. The real issue of what IITs and IIMs represent - Quality seems to be on the backburner.
2. Political Leadership of this country is either not capable of understanding this, OR not bothered or may be both.

But why not look at the same issue with a different angle?

Why should we depend upon only on government for creating quality education in India. IITs and IIMs were created in an era in which Government was responsible for everything under the sun, let alone Higher Education. Today the situation is different. Private sector plays a much bigger role in Indian Economy. As a result the reservation in Jobs has almost become a non-issue (though likes of Arjun Singh would have Infosys and TCSs of the world loose their leadership by providing reservations). Why can not we aim to do something similar in Education too? After all, we have some excellent private institutions in India (BITS Pilani, XLRI, MDI, ISB)....Why not focus on creating more such institutions or strengthening ones we have?

All of us would agree that India has to become a superpower despite of its Politicians and not because of them. Why waste our energy in fighting with a system which is being driven by criminals. Why not focus more on Creating something. After all IITs and IIMs happen because of people working in them. There are challenges and it will take time to create such institutions and brand names, but we should at least start moving in the right direction.

Regards,
Vicky

Expensive Kisses

I was really amused to see an article and a discussion forum dedicated to "Kissing in Public" and the fines associated with them.

It seems that in Delhi, the fine has been hiked 10 times to Rs. 500.

What is amusing is that when we have such serious problems in the society, we give so much importance to a topic which is not a really issue of mind-boggling proportions.

The viewpoints of the readers to the discussion on rediff a couple of days back are even better - some say that the Moral police are going too far, some feel that they may be right but a bit strict, some feel that it should be much more and people will actually not mind paying to get a kiss...

The best was the response (in green) to one of the below (in blue)

Subject: whats wrong !

hi readers, whats wrong in lip locking as long as both the partners are ready. its their lips if r happy to do why shud others bother. as for family places like parks, then couples do such things in private places so they dont seee such ppl. but keeping fine on couples is too much. i m totally against it ??

u cant control urself just becoz someone is watching u. at home parents dont allow, outside police threaten u with fines so where do couple go and do their romance ?? its totally fair to lock lips. i m part of it and in my city there is no such restriction. yash.

Posted by yashasvi on 20-APR-06

RE:whats wrong !

Hey Baby, In which city you are living?

Posted by pankaj on 20-APR-06

I was laughing my heart out - imagine putting a response like that to a girl in a public forum. One could argue that this is indecent but it cracked me up :) :) and come to think of it, it was a smart one-liner :)

Embarassing...

I usually chat with Amma using Yahoo voice chat and when she logs in, I usually tell her to hold on while I connect the speakers...

As usual, today Amma came online and this is how it went

Amma: r u there?
Me: Yes
Amma: Can I call

I wanted to type the usual "one sec" but then i went a bit too left of the 'c' key and typed 'x' instead and pressed an enter and guess what came on the screen!!

Me: one sex

I tried to correct by quickly typing one sec but then the damage was already done and my mom had obviously seen it.

Then I put on the headphones and took the call and she giggled and said "Dei, I will get you married - dont get so worried"

I wished Mother Earth would open and gobble me up...

Working Sat :(

I hate it - I just dont like working on weekends...

It has been a while that this has happened but the thing that is bugging me is that it is not my fault. What I hate even more is that I will not get paid as there is no concept of overtime...

I am definitely going to bill my lunch to the company if they are not paying me - grr...

And let me check for an expensive place in downtown to eat ;-)

When choice is a problem

Everything in this world has in some way or the other got to do with choice. We study and work harder to have better choices for career. We earn more so that we can have better choices... When we have to go travel, one has numerous choices.

But nowadays I feel that the very fact that there are lot of choices makes decision making quite a daunting task. And too much of choice leads to more confusion than clarity. And the decision is not always clear-cut - they always come with some ifs and buts.

For example, the other day when I was going to buy a bathing soap in target, I saw a whole shelf dedicated to soaps of different fragrances and sizes and prices. Sometimes a simple decision like buying a Hamam has these days becoming quite a complex problem. Of course the solution here could be to a different one each time - you may actually be able to do that with soaps..

But mildly increase the prices of goods which you are choosing and you will start feeling that "brute force trial" of all choices is not always the smartest option.

Right now I am grappling with the choice of a mobile phone. These days there are so many companies with so many models and so many features (some of which I cannot comprehend, for ex: movie editing on a mobile!!). Sometimes I wish that the telecom world had not changed so much that my old phone (6100) looks out of sorts. And here is the problem of mamking the right choice - the moment I buy one, I am stuck with it for atleast 2 years :(

PS: I read this article and I yawned myself :) and one funny thing came to my mind - the word choice told so many times reminded me of the ice-cream who used to scream in the street "Ice, Ice" - Choice, choice sounds similar, doesn't it