I have to run now.....vendakkai fry, vengaya sambar and murukku beckon. And needless to say, the answer to the question above is....
Thursday, April 2, 2009
New post or Ghee roast?
The past few weeks have been pure bliss. My almost dry taste buds finally have some reason to cheer :) My folks are in town....and me, myself and my stomach are all growling with gluttonous excitement. I have been eating at least 5 meals a day, ably supported by 'tea' in the evening and 'kaapi' in the morning.
I have to run now.....vendakkai fry, vengaya sambar and murukku beckon. And needless to say, the answer to the question above is....
I have to run now.....vendakkai fry, vengaya sambar and murukku beckon. And needless to say, the answer to the question above is....
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The post about nothing.....
Clearly, as the name suggests this post is not about anything in particular. I am a HUGE Seinfeld fan and the show is clearly, as the name does not suggest, about nothing.
If Seinfeld can script 9 successful seasons, maybe I can conjure up a few lines that don't amount to anything! Arrested Development, a show about something, is another of my favorite shows.
I am extremely passionate about sports - in other words, if someone was passionate enough to call himself/herself extremely passionate about sports, I would be one among them.
Someday in the future, I hope to have a job that has something do with sports and also have plans for my off springs to become professional sports persons. As a kid, I spent countless hours playing cricket with buckets, tumblers and other things that I could lay hands on, positioned as fielders. Numerous scorecards of matches I played and trophies I won by beating myself are stashed away in some rat-infested corner in our attic. The wall was usually the bowler unless my Mom was free.....she would then morph into a fiery West Indian fast bowler or a wily Pakistani legspinner who was good-natured enough to make dosas for me after the game was over. I was driven into such desperation owing to the fact that my house was in road that can be best described as girl dominated (and so were the surrounding few roads) and the alternatives were:
1. A weird game where everyone held hands and said Yes sir No sir Then Who sir? The rules of the game may require reworking since it is clearly not, as the rules suggest, a 'girls' game.
2. 'Paandi', a game that involved tossing a rock and hopping through squares in order to retrieve it.
3. Drawing, painting or some stupid shit like that.
4. Watching Sound of Music and keeping count of the number of times the movie was watched.
Clearly, as my feelings towards these 'alternatives' suggest, I completely despised these games - as any young boy, living in Madras and aspiring to be a cricketer would.
Having grown up such a un-cricket-friendly neighborhood, it was not surprising that I had limited success in cricket and was not good enough to make it big. I was in 12th grade and having failed to make it to the State u-16 cricket team, I turned to the TV for solace. The year was 1999 and one of the first club games that I watched was Manchester United's dramatic, last-gasp victory against Bayern Munich. Until then, my football hero was the greatest genius to grace the game - the incomparable Diego Maradona. And from then on, the ardent supporter of the Argentinian National Football team evolved into an ardent supporter of the Argentinian National Football team and Manchester United Football Club.
What followed next was a long and arduous 4 year lesson completely unrelated to sports that taught me that computers were only for games. C, C++ and Java were not for me. Unlike Britney Spears, I decided OOPS..I can't do it again and instead of the taking the popular MS flight to the US, I decided that I would try and bell the CAT. Clearly, as the recurring theme suggests, failure reared its ugly head again. The GMAT was a far easier test, albeit an expensive one and I was finally on a flight to the US to study. I loved international flights and especially the longer ones since I was under the impression that you get 'free' drinks - but sadly it would be another two years before I learned of the concept 'there ain't no such thing as a free lunch'.
That brings us to the the present and more importantly to the end of this post. Clearly, as the title did not suggest, the post about nothing has in fact turned into a mini-story of my life.
If Seinfeld can script 9 successful seasons, maybe I can conjure up a few lines that don't amount to anything! Arrested Development, a show about something, is another of my favorite shows. I am extremely passionate about sports - in other words, if someone was passionate enough to call himself/herself extremely passionate about sports, I would be one among them.
Someday in the future, I hope to have a job that has something do with sports and also have plans for my off springs to become professional sports persons. As a kid, I spent countless hours playing cricket with buckets, tumblers and other things that I could lay hands on, positioned as fielders. Numerous scorecards of matches I played and trophies I won by beating myself are stashed away in some rat-infested corner in our attic. The wall was usually the bowler unless my Mom was free.....she would then morph into a fiery West Indian fast bowler or a wily Pakistani legspinner who was good-natured enough to make dosas for me after the game was over. I was driven into such desperation owing to the fact that my house was in road that can be best described as girl dominated (and so were the surrounding few roads) and the alternatives were: 1. A weird game where everyone held hands and said Yes sir No sir Then Who sir? The rules of the game may require reworking since it is clearly not, as the rules suggest, a 'girls' game.
2. 'Paandi', a game that involved tossing a rock and hopping through squares in order to retrieve it.
3. Drawing, painting or some stupid shit like that.
4. Watching Sound of Music and keeping count of the number of times the movie was watched.
Clearly, as my feelings towards these 'alternatives' suggest, I completely despised these games - as any young boy, living in Madras and aspiring to be a cricketer would.
Having grown up such a un-cricket-friendly neighborhood, it was not surprising that I had limited success in cricket and was not good enough to make it big. I was in 12th grade and having failed to make it to the State u-16 cricket team, I turned to the TV for solace. The year was 1999 and one of the first club games that I watched was Manchester United's dramatic, last-gasp victory against Bayern Munich. Until then, my football hero was the greatest genius to grace the game - the incomparable Diego Maradona. And from then on, the ardent supporter of the Argentinian National Football team evolved into an ardent supporter of the Argentinian National Football team and Manchester United Football Club. What followed next was a long and arduous 4 year lesson completely unrelated to sports that taught me that computers were only for games. C, C++ and Java were not for me. Unlike Britney Spears, I decided OOPS..I can't do it again and instead of the taking the popular MS flight to the US, I decided that I would try and bell the CAT. Clearly, as the recurring theme suggests, failure reared its ugly head again. The GMAT was a far easier test, albeit an expensive one and I was finally on a flight to the US to study. I loved international flights and especially the longer ones since I was under the impression that you get 'free' drinks - but sadly it would be another two years before I learned of the concept 'there ain't no such thing as a free lunch'.
That brings us to the the present and more importantly to the end of this post. Clearly, as the title did not suggest, the post about nothing has in fact turned into a mini-story of my life.
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Dilbert Principle
I must confess, I read Scott Adams' Dilbert Principle a little too early. At that time, I could not appreciate the humor as much as I do now :)But now that I have a job (don't know for how long) I am beginning to see what Scott envisioned.
'Work' equates to conference calls and more conference calls discussing what went wrong with what was planned during the previous conference call. The rest of the time, you are free to do whatever you want to as long as you show that you add value to the company. Often, this involves remaining silent on most conference calls and saying something vague (read corporate mambo-jambo) when asked for an opinion. An exception to this rule is the last minute work that gets shoved onto your desk by your boss. These require some scurrying around and usually result in frantic emails/calls. An eternal optimist will capitalize on these rare occasions to wash away any guilt that he/she is being compensated for just being physically present at work. The rest of time can be spent on facebook, chat windows or other tools that have a proven track record of keeping boredom at bay.
At the end of the day, as long as you remain in control of your emotions and think, speak and act logically, you can lay claim to have all that it takes to succeed in pretty much any job. Good communication skills, PowerPoint and Excel skills, and the ability to manage relationships well help you take the elevator on your way up instead of the escalator. Specific to the US, additional skills required to be on the fast track to success include the ability to drink for a long time without getting inebriated and being up to date with what is happening on the sports scene.
My Dad once told me that in order to succeed at the workplace, you must realize that people that work above you are fools and you must either be one or learn to act like one. I am still trying to figure out whether I am acting or just being myself!
If you spent the last few minutes reading this drivel, I apologize - my entire post can be summarized by Dilbert.
Disclaimer: This was not posted while I was at work. The post was not inspired by, or have any relation to my job. I work hard and put in long hours.
'Work' equates to conference calls and more conference calls discussing what went wrong with what was planned during the previous conference call. The rest of the time, you are free to do whatever you want to as long as you show that you add value to the company. Often, this involves remaining silent on most conference calls and saying something vague (read corporate mambo-jambo) when asked for an opinion. An exception to this rule is the last minute work that gets shoved onto your desk by your boss. These require some scurrying around and usually result in frantic emails/calls. An eternal optimist will capitalize on these rare occasions to wash away any guilt that he/she is being compensated for just being physically present at work. The rest of time can be spent on facebook, chat windows or other tools that have a proven track record of keeping boredom at bay.
At the end of the day, as long as you remain in control of your emotions and think, speak and act logically, you can lay claim to have all that it takes to succeed in pretty much any job. Good communication skills, PowerPoint and Excel skills, and the ability to manage relationships well help you take the elevator on your way up instead of the escalator. Specific to the US, additional skills required to be on the fast track to success include the ability to drink for a long time without getting inebriated and being up to date with what is happening on the sports scene.
My Dad once told me that in order to succeed at the workplace, you must realize that people that work above you are fools and you must either be one or learn to act like one. I am still trying to figure out whether I am acting or just being myself!
If you spent the last few minutes reading this drivel, I apologize - my entire post can be summarized by Dilbert.
Disclaimer: This was not posted while I was at work. The post was not inspired by, or have any relation to my job. I work hard and put in long hours.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
A fresh start :)
After a three year hiatus, I am back! Things have changed since the last time I updated my profile on blogger.
1. I have grown older: three years - numerically, twenty - physically and a Benjamin Buttonesque five years younger - mentally :)
2. I have spent a fortune on an MBA and am slowly gambling my way back to get back into the green. Trust me, the lottery never works.
3. I live in a small town in the US and am preparing to move to an even smaller town in the coming month. As hard as I may try, I can never use the pick-up line "Graamamum cooku, naanum cooku" because (a) you don't get to meet single women who know Tamil in small towns of America and (b) why bother with (b), (a) is reason enough.
4. I have been elevated to the status of an 'uncle' a couple of months ago courtesy of my lovely sister Sandhya and my awesome BIL, Karthik. Of course, I have enjoyed this status for the past two years thanks to my dashing looks and sarcastic friends.
Key projects that I am looking forward to for the remainder of the year include:
1. Continue writing.
2. Running a marathon/half-marathon in summer.
3. Resuming serious cricket and
4. Holding on to my job in this Omaha beach of an economy.
Cheers!
1. I have grown older: three years - numerically, twenty - physically and a Benjamin Buttonesque five years younger - mentally :)
2. I have spent a fortune on an MBA and am slowly gambling my way back to get back into the green. Trust me, the lottery never works.
3. I live in a small town in the US and am preparing to move to an even smaller town in the coming month. As hard as I may try, I can never use the pick-up line "Graamamum cooku, naanum cooku" because (a) you don't get to meet single women who know Tamil in small towns of America and (b) why bother with (b), (a) is reason enough.
4. I have been elevated to the status of an 'uncle' a couple of months ago courtesy of my lovely sister Sandhya and my awesome BIL, Karthik. Of course, I have enjoyed this status for the past two years thanks to my dashing looks and sarcastic friends.
Key projects that I am looking forward to for the remainder of the year include:
1. Continue writing.
2. Running a marathon/half-marathon in summer.
3. Resuming serious cricket and
4. Holding on to my job in this Omaha beach of an economy.
Cheers!
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