Wednesday, April 30

U Me aur Hum

To cut it short, its better if you see The Notebook instead. Well, it was a Saturday night and we desperately wanted to see a movie on the Sunday ... considering my last movie was an abysmal movie, I had to get over that one.

So off we went for the movie, and lo behold ... Fame Adlabs gives a decent price off on the morning show, black leather sofa seats (lazyboys baby!!) at a cool 100 bucks.

The movie starts on a pretty decent note, with some good acting by Ajay Devgan and most notably Kajol. The funny part is that I do not have the slightest idea how the movie ends.

PS - Please see this movie with a loved one.

Tuesday, April 29

The bigger they are ...

I have hit the mother lode here ... the jackpot. Till the last month, I was convinced that I was a very logic oriented fellow, and the big L word will never happen to the likes of me ... I had decided to use only my mind and only that for all the decisions of my life.

Until recently, when I fell head over heels for that someone special in my life :-)

More will follow. Till that time, you can page me on 9th heaven.

Thursday, April 24

You are what you listen

Do you identify with your genre of music?

What I mean to say is that when you are listening to a particular genre or an artiste, then do you feel the emotion of that song within you?? Sometimes I think that most of the bands which have shot to fame are not simply because they write good melodies or great lyrics ... its because their target group can identify with the emotion underneath the song.

Do you not want to listen to a specific genre depending on your emotion?

Think about it in this way ... a fan of Marilyn Manson, would most likely be wearing gothic makeup, would have had a troubled teenage life, feels unduly wronged ... a fan of DJ Tiesto or Paul Oakenfield would love to dance to a good tune and definitely loves a smooth life ... Linkin Park listeners would have a pent up frustration within themselves, occassionally wanting to shout out against the system. Or have I wrongly analysed the situation?

So whats your groove?

Friday, April 18

69

This is my 69th post.

And it has been a fubar day so far.

Ironic, no?

Wednesday, April 16

Pink Slip!

Our recruitment advertisement that we had put in TOI got the Pink Slip Award for best recruitment ad. Kudos Ethames!!

Customer Orientation

One day after a good satisfying lunch, Don and I hitched an autorickshaw back to our office. The road on which we got the ride is a one-way and the autowallah was reluctant to come along, saying that his children will have to wait. We assured him that we knew a shortcut (that we did), and we would walk the rest of the way ensuring that he gets to his kids on time.

On seating in his auto, I noticed seat belts (yes, seat belts!!) on both sides of the auto. In Hyderabad, upto 6 children are allowed inside an auto. So, in order to maximize revenues, a lof of these drivers have put in a small wooden bench on the opposite side of the seats. This one was cushioned, and to take the cake with a seat belt. Although I seriously wonder, which thin kid must be seating in that position. Watching this, we decided to strike a conversation with the driver. The chappie was a friendly fellow who seemed to be genuinely concerned about the kids.

In a market, where the customer is the king, how many service providers really go the distance and take pains to ensure that the end-customer is happy? The autowallah in this case has gone a step further than norms (and peers) and has tried to re-assure the customers (the parents) about the safety of his end-customers (the children). If the driver can do it, then why oh why cant all the bigger service providers follow suit?

Monday, April 14

Google meets Salesforce

Just came across this.

Now Google Apps premier users can avail of the famous Salesforce CRM, at a nominal price of course. Its an alliance of sorts to stave of the big bad monster from taking on the individual firms. To be honest, it is a one place solution for a lot of SMEs for a simple and yet effectively managed enterprise system.

Effectively, Salesforce and Google Apps are combining their users for a joint Go-To-Market, adding more value each other's product offerings. De factor internal messenger for this would be the Google Talk gadget, which works like a charm.

For Google Apps basic users, who know that paying $60/user/year is slightly over their IT budget, they can use SugarCRM which comes absolutely free of cost!! Knowledge of XAMP is solicited before going ahead with SugarCRM.

Saturday, April 12

I am SAPped!

Back in December, me and my team were in an iterative process for creating a lightweight ERP for our ecommerce based stores. Being a bridge to the technical and the business worlds can be exciting, but without the proper understanding, it can go haywire. Fortunately, we were able to handle the business requirements and all was well. The main reason for any software provider to cry foul is scope change; this is true especially in the case of a flexible business wherein, the entire revenue model of the business changes.

These are the times when the parity between execution and strategy becomes the most clear. So, in December, I had this sudden flash in the pan idea of doing a due diligence for SAP. The right calls and voila, we were underway ... what followed were umpteen number of presentations by various SAP implementation partners, visits by the SAP India sales team to reinforce our decision and "smoothen" the entire decision making process.

What will SAP do for me? Well ...
  • Accountability, Transparency and Accuracy of information
  • Facilitation of further analysis for top management
  • Scrutiny of our business processes by a Third Party for improvements
  • Adherence to globally accepted norms
Four months down, we have went through the entire workflows and process charts at least three times ... the user licenses have been bought, the hosting has been more or less figured out ... and you know what ... I hope to let go a big phew!

b****c*** bahut kharcha hua re!!

SPECIAL NOTE - The post is written ONLY in a lighthearted fashion and does not in any way reflect the organization's vision and mission or complete lack thereof.

Friday, April 11

Solving the wrong problem

Well its all over the news ... just read it in today's news. There is now going to be an OBC quota for IIMs, question one should be asking really is - Why do you need reservation in a premier post-graduation institute?

So now, they (Arjun Singh and his myopic HRD cronies) have increased the total number of seats, and increased the OBC quota for students. Looks like the decision to hike the fees by A and B was a wise one ... lets just say that the higher fees are a premium for excellence and leave it at that!!

At the risk of sounding arrogant, heres a question -
If the holes in a sieve are increased, do you still hope to get the same quality of refinement?

Sometimes I think these news are there in the just for the IIM group discussions and nothing else! In the end, its all foo.

Thursday, April 10

Inertia

What do you do when you seem to be cruising on a wide highway ... and suddenly out of no-where a sharp corner comes into view? Well, you hit the brakes, slow down and turn with the curve.

Fair enough, you can drive. What would you do when the same analogy applies to your life?

Let me explain, what is a person supposed to do when he realizes that the nice and easy life is going to change (I never said end) ... mostly for the better. But the lazy person that he is, is opposing the entire change, just because of its inherent nature ... change. The person just like the car, lurches forward out of his rut and into the new direction given to his course. Heading for the unknown.

Wednesday, April 9

Grey Day

Ever have one of those days where you keep on getting this strange foreboding sensation ... that the sh*t is about to hit the fan?

Today is one of them ... nothing remarkable, just another day in the office, but still ... when your heart is in your throat in anticipation ... do not ask me anticipation of what. If I knew, then I would be a much happier person.

Makes me appreciate the Fear of the Dark - Iron Maiden :-)

Monday, April 7

Faith

Me and Amit have been having this debate since the past 2 and a half years now. It's on the existence of god ... I take the side of the theists and Sharma takes the side of the atheists. In fact he has gotten so good at that that by now he is a moderator in one of such inane communities. I just believe in god. I cant prove god's existence, its a premise for me. And its blind acceptance to that fact.

This weekend, I had been to my family's guru's ashram. I was going there after an absence of 12 years (not that I missed not going there). Whilst on the way, I was questioning the many practices followed there ... no leather items, lower castes may not enter certain areas, lower castes have to wait for the brahmins to finish their meals, et al. My mother seemed to take this to heart, the next day when we were having a discussion with the high priest over there, she asked him this question about why no leather ... and the explanation he gave ... or rather the answer he gave set me thinking.

The disciple does not have to look at question or logic for answers, he needs to look at his faith for those answers. The moment we start looking at other sources than our own faith, we have lost our faith in that particular thing. Be it god, be it science, be it the paranormal. Mulder had faith in aliens, Scully had faith in science, I have faith in god ... what do you have faith in?

Saturday, April 5

D-Wars

If you think IMDB is just a collection of people trying to manipulate people into watching movies they want them to watch, then think again.

Yesterday, I bought tickets for D-Wars (Dragon Wars) the movie released today. Just when my tickets were confirmed online, I checked out the IMDB rating .. 3.8 !! No worries, I reassured my friends into thinking that IMDB does not fit into the "Indian context".

Today, I have seen the worst sfx movie ever. One question to the movie crew ... Why?

Highly recommend give this movie a skip. You wont live to regret it.

PS - Check out the user comment on the imdb page of this movie. Its so apt, that I wish to copy paste it here!!

Friday, April 4

5 years hence

When I was an engineer, the campus placements were on full swing ... well, not so full ... it was the Dot Com Bust of 2002, remember?

So a new firm had come to campus - IRIS. And I was intent on getting placed. The interview was going well and I seemed to have the technical part of the interview clinched (whew!). Now the hard part ... the HR round. Some weird questions were thrown in, but I got them or dodged them safely ... then the head HR (Jayaraman, as I would soon find out) asks me, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"

I had not thought of this question (I was green under the gills, cut me some slack here!!). The smart alec inside me wanted to blurt out ... "On the other side of the table" ... I did not. I gave some simple minded answer and that was that.

5 years hence, I am taking interviews ... and I AM on the other side of the table.

Thursday, April 3

Taxes as Perks

The end of the fiscal year and I am waving goodbye to what the taxman has taken from me. Just another gloomy evening when I came across this link.

Is it not great how companies can twist pain to feel like pleasure? Everybody hates paying taxes, so do CEOs. And now a perk to their job is that the firm will bear the brunt of their taxes.

Suddenly, I feel that I want to be a CEO.

Wednesday, April 2

Nostalgia

It has been 2 years (and 2 days) since I have left the campus on the molehill. All the spirals are lying safely packed in my room, the strategies and ideas have given way to the practicalities of real life. Nonetheless, when I was reading Sumedh's post on CounterStrike ... a stream of memories rushed forth. Those hours of insane midnight gaming, those supercharged competitive section matches, those mid-game strategy sessions and counter-attack theories.

Sat today and played CS with a friend and some bots. It was not that great, but the nostalgic feeling is being rekindled with a fuzzy warm feeling about how we used to play CS in 2004-2006.

Sigh! Heres to days gone by.

Tuesday, April 1

My life is a Beatles Soundtrack

Hell no, I am not a Beatles fan. Or at least was not until I saw the movie Across the Universe. The entire movie is scripted in such a fashion that atleast one Beatles song would be applicable in that scenario. The movie talks about how an irishman comes to New York searching for a meaning to his life, falls in love with his best friends sister, only to loose her to the revolution. And then how love conquers all bringing the two people together. In the middle it meanders between the Flower Power of the sixties and the seventies, to protesting against the Vietnam war, to facing the horrors of the war, psychedelic music and love.

The movie is a refreshing concept with around 60% of it being songs of Beatles and the like. What I am trying to say that its not like a conventional movie ... at one point of time I was thinking ... ye kya ho raha hain. But it cleans out nice in the end and love conquers all. You know what?? That's the third english romantic musical that I have seen in the last month. All of them being good hits on IMDB. This one is a 7.7. Definitely a sign that film goers have started warming up to musicals and romance. The good vs. evil formula seems to have gone out, and now its love wins all.

Would it not be cool to have the songs which go on in the background ... I get by with a lil help from my friends ... I love you yeah! yeah! yeah! ... I am walrus! Koo-koo-kachu ... what's your song?