Mar 29, 2013
So if your comp./unit says it is "proud" of doing "affirmative action" by giving promotions to 93% of all eligible female colleagues while overall average is around 40-60% of those eligible; should we wonder what we are proud of? Proud of doing biased/discriminatory evaluation? Then how are we different from those companies which would ensure biased promotions in favor or males? I used to think females don't need our mercy or bias in their favor, but only a "fair" treatment...
Mar 23, 2013
While talking to a friend liked what he said: "If you ever feel bored, just pick your bike, catch any road and keep going till you reach out of the city limits. The greenery and mountains will rejuvenate you." It stands true for any city. I think it also indicates that we are not designed to live within concrete walls. Even when cavemen tried to draw images on stone, they sketched trees, animals and outdoor activities. I think good life is without constraints of a city, not within it.
Mar 17, 2013
Does rest of the country know that Maharashtra is facing worst drought in decades? There is no water in villages and people are migrating to cities like Mumbai and Pune. CM Prithviraj Chavan has appealed people not to "migrate". (Migration has got a new meaning in the state now). Today's newspaper tells that political parties are trying to help the poor. NCP has collected Rs 10 Crores and ytd gave away Rs 1.5 Crores to 2152 students to support their education. Pune Congress is organizing a "painting exhibition" to collect funds for the poor. Shiv Sena MPs and MLAs have given one month's salary to the cause. MNS has collected 4.5 tonne food grain and still collecting, to distribute to the affected population. At the time of crisis we can understand these parties by their methods. NCP is all about financial muscle; Cong is elitist in approach while the Senas have a grass-root approach. BJP has accused scams even in drought relief, also relating it to massive "Irrigation Scam" in the state last year... Let us hope rain god and nature supports the poor and situation turns better soon.
Mar 10, 2013
Witnessed a delightful and uplifting scene
this morning while returning from Shiva temple near our ancestral
village - a young calf being served by its owners. It was a beautiful
calf with red skin having white patches; with much hair on its body. Its
small face was cute and lovely. First the calf was standing and playing
alternately a poking game with its own body and chase-chase with flies
wandering around it. Then a person came
and took it to its mother's shed for milk. How it jumped in delight!
Then it was taken for a bath. A lady did something which the calf did
not like and it tried to threaten her with its not-yet-existing horns!
They all laughed at this scene! Then the calf was given a bath by a man
with water from a bucket. At first it protested but after some time
surrendered. Thus it was given a good bath and its skin was cleaned to
dry with a cloth... An absolute delight; they should have a term for
this "cow watching"! Loved it!
Feb 20, 2013
At our company we have an Astronomy Club. They
organized a Sky Watching Show today in the cricket ground of campus. I
also went there and watched Moon's shining surface in detail and also
observed Jupitor and its satellites... It was a good experience...
Working here we have priviledge of enjoying like kids :-)
Feb 14, 2013
Raju Srivastav has turned into a politician. I
am not surprised because USA has Al Franken, junior Senator from
Democratic Party serving since 2009 who is also "comedian turned
politician". Then Italy has Beppe Grillo who is "comedian turned
politician". Japan has Hideo Higashikokubaru as the same. Even
Philippine has Tilto Sotto who was comedian earlier. When everyone can
do it, why can't we? Stand-up Comedians have higher IQ than most actors
and actresses who also join politics!
Feb 12, 2013
Shocking! Indian Railways had imposed a Rs 5
Mela Surcharge on every ticket for Kumbh special trains and the target
is "Rs 1000 Crore Profit"! The stampede happened after train scheduled
to arrive on platform 4 actually arrived on platform 6 and police
"lathicharged" the pilgrims to control them! It seems that Govt could
not see everything going peaceful during Kumbh... It was a man made
disaster...
Feb 12, 2013
The Mahabharata verse avoids GB Shaw criticism
because it was explicit. Lesson: We should be as clear as possible to
avoid misinterpretation:
(1) "Do to others what you would have them do to you" - Bible.
(2) "One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self" - Mahabharata
(3) "Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same." - George Bernard Shaw
Context: searching about Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity.
Feb 11, 2013
Read an old interview of N. Chandrasekaran,
CEO, TCS. He joined TCS after his college got over (REC Trichy). After
working in TCS (only) for 22 years, he became CEO in 2009. He gets up
every morning at 4am to go for a run (has also been running
marathon every year). I liked his one statement which he made when
asked about employees. He said, "I will not get into age, gender and
diversity. I would rather get into performance, energy, drive, agility,
relevancy, innovation." So true... I think very often current gen HRM is
about chasing statistics but missing values and traits which are
difficult to measure. Measuring and maintaining "right" age, gender and
diversity profile of workforce does not automatically translate into
great performance, energy, drive, agility and innovation. Hats off to
leaders like him.
February 07, 2013:
Flip side of having Manmohan ji and Chidambaram ji at the helm of this developing nation is that one PSU buying stake in another PSU is being called "Disinvestment" and nation's Black Money being rerouted into it through Mauritius is being called "Foreign Direct Investment". Then govt is trying to prevent common man from choosing Gold as safe and secure investment and is giving tax breaks to encourage investing in highly turbulent Share Market which again is dominated by FIIs who make cool profits in this emerging market. After-effects would be seen later on if people don't get to save enough in these times of high inflation and rising costs. Will we be able to support our lifestyles when we retire from our jobs? As a conservative society switches to spending spree, we need to self-reflect once in a while. Because one thing is clear - our govt will not think about our good future and all of us need to be good at managing Finances no matter what our professions.
January 22, 2013:
I think old age formulas for success have not changed; honesty and hard work still work. Our neighborhood Kirana shop owner in hometown used to ask us very politely about our studies and career etc every time he got a chance to talk to us. Now I get to know that one of his sons is studying at IIT! Then got to know that the stenographer at our old office is now proud father of an engineer son and a soon-to-be engineer daughter. He writes an email with heaps of praise for me, while I am in awe with his success! I can also see that successes of our generation owe a lot to the sacrifices of our parents/families. If we look around, we have millions of success stories all around us here in India!
Jan 15, 2013:
Chief priest (pontiff) of Adichunchangiri Mutt
passed away in Bangalore on Sunday. The new pontiff would be Swami
Nirmalanandanatha, 43, who is an IITan. He studied engg at IIT Madras
and was selected as research scholar at IISc Bangalore. But he joined
the mutt and has started manu edu institutes in Kolar. Swami
Vivekananda has been his inspiration from childhood. I learn that the
mutt, late swami and new pontiff all are highly revered by the masses...
January 14, 2013:
"Hockey India
League" starts today. Team Mumbai Magicians have agreed to remove its 4
Pakistani players after 500 Shiv Sainiks protested against inducting
Paki players after recent violence on the borders. Well done and thanks!
January 8, 2013:
Once upon a time people used to think that if they had stood in some particular place or in some direction and prayed, the message would be "heard by God" and probably answered sooner or later. Now it appears many of us think that if we post on FB or Twitter, a god-man or any other person we want to "invoke", will come and read our comments (abuses in some cases) and will address our concern. Both are more likely to be superstitious than anything else! I don't have any problem with any manner in which you use your FB wall or other options. But if all of us start shouting, crying, or sharing negative feelings, at the same time, this place will become an unlikable place! Often, we share good things with our immediate family and friends, and use FB for sharing negative feelings alone. It will become a collective hazard in such cases. I also see it a case of over consumption and nature of platform. My first love is Blogs (I still write it). When we wrote blogs, we analyzed a case and reached a conclusion. On an FB status, we only conclude without spending any time to analyze it. So we appear as shouting, crying and venting, rather than speaking or expressing a balanced view.
January 7, 2013:
If you talked to your grandparents, you would realize that you had differences on opinion on many subjects. It happens due to generation gap. But does it mean you should abuse them and attack them for keeping those views? Similar is the case with Asharam Bapu. If he thinks women could avoid violence by calling the attackers "brothers", we have right to call him impractical, but no right to say/write abuses against him. Saints have "idealistic" views on most matters. If Jesus asked us to love our enemy or to turn the other cheek forward when slapped, are we going to write FB and Twitter posts abusing him too? We should show some sensibility and understanding before jumping the gun. I am appalled at the lack of manners and use of plain, crude and filthy language by our generation. Please note that all these things will not make us any better than the person we are abusing. Speaking abuses is also a form of "violence". Last evening, TV news channels were competing with each other to talk crudest and in painting Ashaam Bapu evilest only because his views differed from popular opinion. There, they were trying to serve us what we desire. We should also think what kind of culture we are passing on to our next generations... When children will see their parents talking ill of old people, and using abuses for people with old-generation views, what will they grow into? One day, they may call our own views as outdated. But shall we love them abusing us for our views???
December 25, 2012:
I pray to God that no terrorists come to India as Cricket fans this time from across the border, no tourists get lost and never return back to their nation once here, no Indians support Pak team because of religious reasons and the teams play the game as sportspersons not as contract workers hired by politicians of either nation. And that India wins, always...
December 23, 2012:
We spend 350 days in a year help making women a commodity; be it in films, advertisements, or in personal life barring our own homes. Then we spend 15 days worrying about lack of respect for women in society! We celebrate every time Munni becomes badnam in movies, or raise TRPs if actresses go the lean way, and we would even ask a 5 year old nephew about his "girlfriends" in his class/school - seeding his innocent mind about gender difference - and then we worry about society's lack of respect for women. On political front, we keep reelecting ineffective and corrupt govts, saying "the govt has given us Delhi Metro, so I would ignore cases of crime/corruption and vote for it again", and then we get into such unwanted situations. An old proverb says, "As you sow so shall you reap". We expect everyone to change, be it govt / police / admin / criminals, except ourselves. It is "we" who should change for the better, to make a better society.
December 9, 2012
During school days, some friends thought we should not be made to study subjects like history, geography, social science and literature - they wanted to study science as it was to be actually used in our jobs and professional career. Now if we look back, I wonder how many of us use physics, chemistry, or trigonometry and geometry in our jobs? Or anyone using biology (except those who became docs)? What about the time invested to learn making diagram of amoeba or a cell with its ribosome, nucleus and membrane? I think in the long run we shall be using more of history, social science and literature than the basic sciences we studied at the school... Also, I feel some of us are now studying subjects like history, civics through newspapers :) Though there is a better method - just pretend teaching a kid and learn all the lessons missed!
