Monday, May 26, 2008

Saturday Lesson Learned ~

It so happened that the beautiful start of my staurday helped in making sure that my day does not end without any adventure.

I took a rickshaw to reach home, I got off the ric and heard some 'thakk' noise, I looked behind making sure that I am not missing anything. With normal chit-chat with my friend, I went home upstairs.

I am back to my routine and surfing internet in the bedroom with the music quite loud in the main hall. My cell phone rings (next to the speakers), of course, I did not know. I missed a call. My friend caught the call when it rang second time. (Thanks a lot!)

It was some stranger - confirming my name and then he asks "Have you lost your wallet with license and cards?" I was surpized ..not sure what's happening. I said .."uh..um... 1 min.. let me check it.." I checked my bag quickly and it wasn't there! :-(

Anyhow, it had happened that he had found it from an auto-rickshaw and was going to come to my place to deliver it to me. So nice of him!

I thanked GOD, saying "There are still good people, thanks a lot!"

When I got the wallet, I figured that the weight of the same was very less than it used to be. I opened it and saw there was no money! All money from all parts of the wallet was gone. There! Now this was a shock! (though you might expect it!) Then my statement changed "There are bad people also.. :-( !!"

Someone stole my money and left my all cards intact. At least, thankful I am that none of my cards have been stolen. It would had been worse if my cards (including my PAN card) were stolen.

Lessons learned -
  1. Make sure you don't lose your things..double check when you leave some place. (Basically, stay present-minded)
  2. Ok, if you manage to lose it, then do not panic but take the steps to deactivate the cards.. so for that keep the customer care numbers handy.
  3. If you lose your PAN card, first thing you do is register a FIR to the nearest police station (this one I did not know, my friend told me)
Also, Do not carry unnecessary cards in your wallet. I had some 5-6 cards that were not necessary in India (those were US cards) & Keep a Photocopy of your license and important cards at home at a secure place.

Hope my experience helps you in keeping your things well...
~Krupa

Saturday, May 24, 2008

What a start of Saturday ~

It's Saturday and I am in office. Entire office is quiet and there are only few humans that I see if I go out of my cube. (Actually, there is only house-keeping boys and ladies everywhere)

It is supposed to be the cutover weekend for my project, when project work is applied to production. Being at offshore (India office), I do not have any task to perform for this Cutover. Major activities take place in US, at client Site.

However, I am still called to office.. may be for moral support :-)

One of my friends called me and when I said I am in office for moral support, he laughed! He was like 'you and moral support!?' How Sad!

So Bottom line ~

It's Saturday & I came to office by 6:30 AM, I have no company whatsoever of any colleague, I am supposed to do no work related to what I have come for & Over and above, my good friends laugh at me saying "you and moral support?"

Compelete Waste! I feel utterly useless and put down at this moment. I am not sure if this is work or this is personal? Is it my mood or is it something else?

Well, I am here for more 1.5 hours and then I am off to home. I wish my team in US to go live smoothly with Project, where I Play no role. :-(

~KrupA

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Reality Shows on TV - Nowadays

Nowadays on TV, maximum we see is the Reality Show. Every Channel has some reality show going on. Most of them are Talent shows - Music & Dance.

There is no reality show for playing the Instruments!?! After all, any song or dance can not be successful without the great instruments and their combinations. Anyhow!!

One thing has always confused me about the Reality Shows.
Do they happen Real-time? Meaning, if their performance happens already then how the public-voting is taken care of? Sometimes they do whole drama to show who will be eliminated based on 'public voting' and other hand, they would show the commercial ad for the next time's performances.

Last weekend I spent (or wasted) in front of the idiot box (that's TV). I watched the repeat and fresh telecast of 3 reality shows.

Shahrukh's 'Kya aap Paanchvi pass se tez hai?' (Quiz contest of the questions up to 5th standard for the big kids like me and above to earn up to 5 Crores INR), "Yeh hai Jalwa" (the dance competition) & Super Star (Singing competition).

I liked these shows. But still felt that to capture or enjoy 'some' part of the program, I am wasting much more time behind watching it all.

"Kya aap Paanchvi pass se tez hai?" - is a cool program. SRK is an entertainment in it and the kids are just amazing on the show. This is an opportunity to revise the basics too :-)

(I had drafted this post on Monday and publishing on Friday ~ huh!)
~Krupa

Monday, May 12, 2008

Bus service and my feedback !

It was about the Bus service. I travel by the company bus to go to work & return. The buses are not spacious enough. I mentioned about it in my morning Raga post.

Anyway!

I expressed my feedback with the positive intention to show to the organization a different side of the coin.

Well, if they keep quiet, I really do not have much an option here. However, I sent a reply to all the Admin people since I did not receive any response for a month.

This time the message reached & I was called for a meeting and we discussed the concern areas. I thought the meeting was successful enough.

I felt good about the fact that I tried to suggest the improvement instead of sitting quiet and just talking bad about it.

Had another meeting today and it was not fruitful enough. I got to know - what opinion company has built about its employees.

Mind it, this opinion is created due to the very employees themselves.

It has happened that any time company provides the bus service changes/facility improvements, the bus fees become the debatable and mostly a rebelling issue. Employees fight to reduce the bus fees & company can not make better contract or deals with the bus third-party contractor. Many employees come by an auto rickshaw or public transport to save the fees of the bus. But if it is rainy season, they would join the bus service since it is more convenient. After all these, company also builds the opinion about its employees that we(employees) have interest in saving money and not getting good service.

So, out of 100 employees, even if 30 employees are ready to pay the price for the better facility, rest of the 70 oppose it. End result -> 70 wins and hence no improvements in the service. Now out of those 30 dissatisfied people, some leave for good or some go for private vehicle or some just go ahead with the bus that is provided & continue with the dissatisfaction.

Sad!

I do not know what I can do more about this. If my colleagues do not want better bus at the cost of paying little more money then how do I go and debate with my admin management?

Improvement is in progress as per what they say, so no action for me at the moment. Anyhow! I am hoping for the good.

~Krupa

Alzheimer's & me~

Alzheimer's Disease is what I saw in the Bollywood movie U Me aur Hum. Until then, I was not aware of such disease. (Only I knew was that some people lose their memory but I never knew it's medical name)

Lately, I have been forgetting some things, some conversations a Lot. My numeric memory is good, generally. But I forgot some number and could not recall it at all. I ask some doubt to my friend or colleague and then I forget. After a few days when that colleague asks what happened to that problem & I would be totally blank. I asked him - what problem you are talking about!!

It is so rightly said 'Ignorance is the best policy.' :-) I did not know such disease and I was not bothered about my forgetfulness, but ever since I have (only) 'some' knowledge about it, I relate my problem to that disease.

Curiosity took me here - Alzheimer's Disease

& Here is the wiki link!
This article made it clear that I am not suffering from any kind of early symptoms of this disease. :-)

Let's Party now ;-) & I will forget to pay the bill saying 'what party man!' ... ha ha...

Krupa

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mother's Day - 11th May, 2008

Mother's Day.. I am little late to make a wish here, but not totally late yet.

Mothers are just Special in any terms!

Happy Mother's Day!

By God's grace, I have got 3 mothers & I have seen my 4 sisters and 1 Bhabhi (sis-in-law) becoming a mother. Watching them is like imagining my own birth & my mom. Mother is GREAT - Seriously! Whatever they go through to see their baby in their hands, is just not comparable to any damn thing in this world.

You know what? The perfect example of 'Unconditional love' is a mother giving birth to a baby.

I Love all my three mom (1 mom and 2 Chachi... (aunts)). THANK YOU.

~Krupa

Project that I enjoyed

After a long time, I was on a Project which had lots of hard-core technical work which really did help me in enhancing my technical skills. Also, it was pretty good experience in terms of being at offshore and coordinate the work up to some extent.

I got to learn some soft skills of handling the problem. Generally, we jump into research work, however this time I learned how we can avoid jumping into the problem.

[ In fact, I am not totally right that I learned soft skills coz my Lead (the one who did my performance appraisal) suggested and advised me to learn the soft skills more & better. I respect the suggestion.]

There is a proven methodology of asking question - 5 Whys. This method is very strong and effective. I have not used this method in its right systematic form, but can say that I have used it to reduce the problem resolution time.

I really enjoyed this project, where each day I returned with some learning to home.

~Krupa

[ P.S: I can always create the excuses for not writing here for long time... but I am learning that the excuse game is not a helpful thing I am doing to myself.

So.. with the spirit to write again... here I am :-)
]