Archive for the 'people' Category

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Spanner number 10

Published on May 1, 2007 in Just for Jolly, life and people. 3 Comments

Once I and my friend had to push a bike, which refused to start, for a mile, to a mechanic. There is a phrase in Tamil slang which tells about the spanner number 10. It goes this way “pattham number spanner”. Mr.Mechanic commanded his sub-ordinate for the spanner number 10 and he used it to fix the issue in minutes. I and my friend, engineering graduates, were amazed to see how great the spanner number 10 was and were discussing how lecturers never gave us spanner number 10 and expected us to produce magic results in labs. We forgot the fact that it is the mechanic who used the spanner deftly to fix our issue. A few months later, we indulged in a conversation which led us to the magic spanner number ten. Here goes our beautiful conversation.

Me : Is it something special with the spanner number 10 or the mechanic?

My Friend : I think it is the spaner number 10. I have heard about the numbered spanners and how they fix problems et all. One can go ahead and do a thesis on the subject.

Me : Really? How interesting it will be. Long live the person who invented the spanners! May be we shall have a spanner number 10 for all our problems so that we can tweak them with a single twist. What you say?

My Friend : Yes! One day we may.

Thinking about this incident puts me in laughter and at the same time I am thinking about putting the spanner number 10 for our day today situations.

I wish I had a spanner number 10

to organise my time in a better way.

How about you?

P.S.:- I heard someone shouting loud for a spanner number 10. Turned back to see that my neighbour looking for the spanner number 10 to tighten my loosened screws. hehe!

CSC to acquire Covansys

Published on April 29, 2007 in life, management and people. 2 Comments

CSC based out of California is to acquire Covansys for $34.00 per share quotes the press release. Yet another acquisition and why am I writing about it?

The former is gonna be my new employer and the latter will become my old employer. As with every acquisition, lots of rumours are going around both in CSC and Covansys. One group of people speculate that there will be a huge job cut exercise. The other group of people are confident with the new employer and they expect a big growth in terms of both monetary and career gains.

Whatever, it is too early to comment on the acquisition. Will be enjoying the rumours till the complete transition takes place and see what is in it for the employee.

GAP

Published on April 16, 2007 in management, people and provoking Perceptions. 4 Comments

GAP is a term I have coined and it stands for Guy or a Girl with Attitude Problem. Here is a management story and the climax is open for discussion.

A and B are working for a company and A terms B a GAP. Given below are the reasons for it.

a) Personal – Sometime back, B passed a sportive comment about A in front of others and A did not like it. A resorts to passing degrading personal comments about B in front of others. B was sportive enough to brush them off subtly. A becomes furious and the grudge volcano in him starts boiling.

b) Professional – B reports to A and A is the authoriative person to take decision in his project. B suggests certain changes to the process and substantiates the same with necessary facts and details. A does not understand this and snubs B. After a while, A finds that B is correct and makes changes and takes credit for the same. A also thinks that B may overtake him and by this time, the grudge volcano in him is ready to explode.

c) Cheap - A commands B to do a personal job for him. B refuses it. A explains B how one should do all this to climb up the corporate ladder et all. B listens patiently and says to A that he does not want to climb up the ladder at all if he had to resort to cheap ways. The grudge volcano explodes and the climax is, B is termed a GAP.

My Questions

Has B taken the right decision?
Is it possible to tackle people like A?
What does Attitude problem really mean?

Disclaimer : This short management story is a child of my fiction and in no way represents any individual or any group or anyone in person. The acronym GAP is coined by me for this story and in no way degrades any trademarks or any other acronyms with the same name.

Are you settled?

Published on April 7, 2007 in Just for Jolly, life, people and provoking Perceptions. 6 Comments

In train, a conversation between two college students,

A : Man! What have you planned after studies?

B : My dream all my life is to land up in a company like Infy. Need to get settled soon man.

As a spectator in the conversation between two relatives,

He : Heard that you are planning your daughter’s marriage by this year end. How far is the groom search going on?

She : Yes! We are. The problem is, not all grooms are settled. We are looking for someone who is settled in life.

He : oh! Settled?

She : Like someone who works in companies such as infy, TCS, CTS and who has a good salary, bank balance, a car, etc.

He : oh I see! My wishes for your daughter to get a settled soon.

This time around, I asked my dear friend my alter-ego about getting settled,

Me : What does it mean to be settled and how to tackle these questions?

My Alter-ego : Boy! It’s a good question which everyone in life has different notions and opinions. It can be answered in many ways. I am giving a sample here.

Emotionally (you may lose the person’s acquaintance if this way is approached) : Do you think getting a job in Infosys or TCS or any other company means that one is settled? If so half in the world are not settled. Stop preaching wrong notions and move away!

Philosophically (The person at the other end may think that you have gone nuts) : If I think that my life is settled, it is. If I think that I am not settled in life, then I am not settled. :-) It all depends on the individual. There’s not a benchmark or hard written rule in life which defines the word settled. A few of us have started to attach our lives to the materialistic world so much that one who has a good bank balance, big company, a own house, marriage at the right time etc makes one feel settled. For others this may not work out and it may seem ridiculous. The truth is, neither of the two is right nor wrong. Money, is both a beautiful and shabby tool to which we have attached our lives so well that it leads to the questions like getting settled and feeling happy etc; The fact is that we are all running a big marathon named life for which the end point is a big zero with few of us thinking that the way we chose to run is the correct one and the others have chosen the wrong path. People who are settled or not settled are defined on these terms. The othrs may feel it the opposite way.The irony is that when everyone is running towards a big zero in life, does it matter which path one chose? ;-)

So, got my point? Now answer me! Are you settled?

Me : Guruji! I am already running and I am not going to think about the paths. As far as I feel that I am happy, I will run.

My Alter-ego : Good my boy! How do you define happiness then?

Me : $#&^**$$ (started running)

My Alter-ego : (like Vadivelu) They call me nuts if I say this! :)

அய்யோ!அய்யோ! இத்த சொன்னா நம்மள பைத்தியம்னு சொல்றாங்க. :)

P.S. :- The person named My Alter-ego is not a reknowned pyschologist or philospher. He does not write any coumns on leading magazines. He is another nut like Mr. Karthick Raghavan and he is currently working on winning the gone case contest. :)

Feel the voice

Published on April 3, 2007 in life and people. 7 Comments

I don’t know what to call this. I don’t know whether this is happening to everyone. I don’t know if there is a medical tem for this. All I know is that I am feeling a person’s voice.

I read a number of blog posts, mails, text messages daily. I have a weird feeling of reading these in the other person’s voice. When I get acquainted with a person, I keenly watch how the person speaks and try to feel his voice. For example, when Umesh writes something new, I read it in his voice. I feel as if he is explaining in his own voice with his strong Mallu accent. Like….

Therrrrrrrrr is a Fundaaaaaaaaah in this.

The other day, I got a text message, a teaser, from a good friend. I really enjoyed it and laughed for minutes together. Thinking about it later, I found that I was feeling the voice of the sender and reading the message. So, it made such a difference to a normal teaser message. Was discussing the same with her, over chat, and found that this is the first time she is hearing of something called ” feeling the voice “. After a week or so, she told me that she also started feeling the voice.

This does not happen with people I have not spoken to in person. Is this something weird? Is this because I was doing a bit of mimicry earlier? Someone please explain.

Disclaimer :- The mentioning of the words Mallu accent does not mean that I have grudge towards people of any region in particular. Remember that my english accent is tamilish.

Cultured Clown – நாகரீக கோமாளி

Published on March 20, 2007 in music, people and provoking Perceptions. 5 Comments

I always liked the movie Anbe Sivam and particularly the song Naatukkoru Sethi Solla Naagariga Komaali Vanthenunga . I like this song because of Kamalahaasan’s acting singing skills. Other being that it is a song written in a communist point of view with provocating lyrics.

I would not say that I am a communist or someone who supports egalitarianism. I am one who does not stand by any “isms” as of now. Will delve into my political stance in another post. The song is composed so well by Vidhyasagar. Adding to good music is the powerful lyrics which wakes up the communist in every person. This post is for those who have listened to the song but did not understand the lyrics much to enjoy the message delivered by the song. Thanks to Shikha for inspiring me to write this, whilst her posts on lyrical love creating waves.

The song is a street play by a group of communists who are protesting against the lower wages paid to workers in the local factory and how they are exploited et all. The english version of the lyrics is given first followed by its translation in bracket. Enjoy!

Communist Leader : Naatukkoru Sethi solla, Naagariga Komaali Vanthenunga
(To deliver a message to the country, I have come in the form of a cultured clown)

Continue reading ‘Cultured Clown – நாகரீக கோமாளி’

My Space

Published on March 16, 2007 in humanity, people and provoking Perceptions. 3 Comments

Office, night shift, personal work kept me busy for ten days and my blog seems to be dormant. Someone even joked that he can hear my blog snore. Here I am to break the dormancy.

The title is no way related with the community website myspace.com. My space is nothing but the boundary or space I am concerned about. I draw a boundary around me in my day to day life. I enjoy my space within this boundary.

Can the boundary be seen?

No. It is virtual one that does not have any thick lines or ropes.

What does this boundary signify?

My boundary gives a space around me which I can enjoy. Which means, I draw boundaries within the greater boundary to have healthy relationships with people. For example, there is a certain boundaries around me for my friends, relatives, people from family etc. That is, anyone I interact with comes under one of these categories will fall into the respective boundary. I expect them to keep at keep a check at the boundary line they are in. If someone crosses the limit and tries to invade into other boundary, either of the two things may happen.

a) I consider the person’s behaviour and his relationship with me and I may let him cross the boundary and fall into the next category.

b) I may not like his invasion to the other boundary and may stop him then and there politely.

What if the other person does not stop invading or switching boundaries?

I try to be polite and say that the other person is crossing the limits which I do not like or expect him or her to do. If it still does not work out, I try to stay away from the person or evade the questions.

I like this concept very much that I relate it much with my colleagues or my relatives. As much I yearn for my space, I respect other person’s space. At least I try to avoid getting into others’ boundaries. I ain’t a master when it comes to the concept of boundaries and space. I am trying to master it out so that my life becomes easier.

Recently, I realized it much when a colleague of mine was asking about my week off plans. I tried to avoid answering and but he persistently talked about the movie I was going to and he was curious enough to know the group accompanying me. I was polite enough and tried avoiding it again. He did not realise my subtle responses and went on and on. The emotional part of my mind tried to take precedence to show the outburst in an emotional way. Fortunately, the rational part of my mind took precedence and analyzed the situation and guided me accordingly. This made me think and I subtly informed him that he was trying to invade into my boundaries which I did not like. I hope he understood it. He did not ask me again.

So, I am trying to watch my space and respect others’. What do you think on this?

Trivia

Published on February 19, 2007 in information, life and people. 6 Comments

Last night, on my way to home in office cab, had a chance to interact with my Office’s telephone operator. He is a nice guy who I have spoken with much on phones and did not meet him till last night. Our conversation centered around how EPABX system works, hunting lines etc; I was the one to ask him many questions as I always wanted to know the nuances of a telephone operator’s job. We stopped at a local tea shop for a cuppa and continued the conversation. Suddenly, he asked me the significance of the dot in the number five key on my phone’s keypad. I replied in the negative and he helped me understand that the dot in the keypad on any phone is to help the blind. It can be touched and felt so that the other numbers surrounding it can be easily punched. I was surprised and thanked him for the good information he lent. The journey continued and I tried punching the numbers with my eyes closed and Bingo! I was successful.

I really appreciate the goodwill of the guy who invented this tactic keeping the blind in mind. After all it is usability everyone yearns for without their knowledge.

P.S.:- Am I the only to know this little but important thing too late?