Wednesday, December 28, 2005
The Road Ahead...
Every road in Mahabaleshwar is so surrounded with greenery that it is like walking in a grape-vineyard...
Mahabaleshwar-A rugged beauty...
11 of us friends went on a tour of Mahabaleshwar (120 km from Pune) and while the memories are fresh, I would have to write few more posts on this great trip. To sum it up, here was a comment from Parthiban (to the group) on the trip-"Defer your marriages. We can have more of this for a longer time. (Thathuvam of the day ;-)))))"
I am hard-pressed for time right now, so this will take time; but before I forget, let me quickly list down things I need to record, more on them later.
1. The bus journey between Mahabaleshwar and Pune and dumbcharades (esp. the special movie enacted by Muruganandam:))
2. The hotel that sucked big time-Bharat Hotel, Mahabaleshwar.
3. MTDC-An unexpected surprise (esp. their canteen and Dosa:)
4. The great trekking expedition and songs on the way.
5. Strawberry gardens and Fresh Strawberry cream icecream.
6. Midnight walk to the market (some 3 km from our hotel)
7. Night of jokes and carefree arattai.
8. The mad scrambling for Dosas and Uthappam at the canteen reminding me of hostel days.
9. Meditating at the edge of a cliff and then breaking loose on the packed lunch.
10.Amazing views (this I am not sure if words can capture, since even the photographs weren't sufficient in espousing).
11.Roaming aimlessly on the streets of Pune
12.Anbazhagan's Birthday bash at 12am enroute Hyderabad.
I will load some great pics in the next post.
I am hard-pressed for time right now, so this will take time; but before I forget, let me quickly list down things I need to record, more on them later.
1. The bus journey between Mahabaleshwar and Pune and dumbcharades (esp. the special movie enacted by Muruganandam:))
2. The hotel that sucked big time-Bharat Hotel, Mahabaleshwar.
3. MTDC-An unexpected surprise (esp. their canteen and Dosa:)
4. The great trekking expedition and songs on the way.
5. Strawberry gardens and Fresh Strawberry cream icecream.
6. Midnight walk to the market (some 3 km from our hotel)
7. Night of jokes and carefree arattai.
8. The mad scrambling for Dosas and Uthappam at the canteen reminding me of hostel days.
9. Meditating at the edge of a cliff and then breaking loose on the packed lunch.
10.Amazing views (this I am not sure if words can capture, since even the photographs weren't sufficient in espousing).
11.Roaming aimlessly on the streets of Pune
12.Anbazhagan's Birthday bash at 12am enroute Hyderabad.
I will load some great pics in the next post.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Prudence-the need of the hour...
The incident that happened with the employee of HP Bangalore has left most of the IT fraternity shocked. The repurcussions could be felt in my city as well, as most of my female teammates have added reaching home by 8pm to their list of new-year resolutions and I have been receiving email forwards on the importance of being "safe" and tips to avoid mishaps. Every time an incident like this happens we suddenly awaken to the fact that we are not living in a safe world.
I would not make the mistake of trying to be a judge here of who was wrong in letting this happen. But I am definitely reminded of one incident which puts things in perspective. I had to work from my company's Bangalore office one day and was waiting for a cab there for home-drop at around 8pm. There was one lady with me and the cab arrived after a wait almost 15 minutes and patience not being one of my virtues, I goaded the driver to start immediately. His reply was_"Sir, we have to wait for the escort". I was shocked-why the hell do we need an escort at 8pm in a bustling city like Bangalore. Anyway since it was decided that way we had to wait for 30 full minutes before the burly guy with an ominous stick in hand entered the vehicle and we were ready to go and before this there were so many formalities like the coordinator nothing down each vehicle's passenger details, driver's name etc.
When I think back about it, all of it starts making sense. I somehow think it has more to do with the culture of the organisation-whether it is being thorough in every detail and every aspect of the employee's work-life. I can bet my salary on finding atleast 10 other companies in Bangalore which have never paid attention to this detail. It is just that one of them is involved in this unfortunate incident. Now I am sure there will be a flurry of safety activities in each of these companies and things will improve-but at what cost? Reminds me of the road near my college in Chennai where the divider was built after a lot of non-fatal accidents when a student finally lost his life on the road in one of the most horrible ways imaginable!
If you are reading this and are an employee of some company, start asking yourself what things could go wrong with the system that is present in your company and raise your voice before something goes wrong-dont think it is too much to ask-it is your right! Though you might not get the credit, you could end up saving a life!!
I would not make the mistake of trying to be a judge here of who was wrong in letting this happen. But I am definitely reminded of one incident which puts things in perspective. I had to work from my company's Bangalore office one day and was waiting for a cab there for home-drop at around 8pm. There was one lady with me and the cab arrived after a wait almost 15 minutes and patience not being one of my virtues, I goaded the driver to start immediately. His reply was_"Sir, we have to wait for the escort". I was shocked-why the hell do we need an escort at 8pm in a bustling city like Bangalore. Anyway since it was decided that way we had to wait for 30 full minutes before the burly guy with an ominous stick in hand entered the vehicle and we were ready to go and before this there were so many formalities like the coordinator nothing down each vehicle's passenger details, driver's name etc.
When I think back about it, all of it starts making sense. I somehow think it has more to do with the culture of the organisation-whether it is being thorough in every detail and every aspect of the employee's work-life. I can bet my salary on finding atleast 10 other companies in Bangalore which have never paid attention to this detail. It is just that one of them is involved in this unfortunate incident. Now I am sure there will be a flurry of safety activities in each of these companies and things will improve-but at what cost? Reminds me of the road near my college in Chennai where the divider was built after a lot of non-fatal accidents when a student finally lost his life on the road in one of the most horrible ways imaginable!
If you are reading this and are an employee of some company, start asking yourself what things could go wrong with the system that is present in your company and raise your voice before something goes wrong-dont think it is too much to ask-it is your right! Though you might not get the credit, you could end up saving a life!!
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Mayakkamaa...Kalakkama...
There is a line in one of favorite songs-Mayakkama Kalakkama-which goes like this...
Unakkum Keezhae Ullavar Kodi...Ninaithu Parthu Nimmathi Naadu...
This translates into something like this:
There are crores of people even below you...think of it and seek peace.
This might sound like a very cynical way of seeking peace, but I rediscovered the meaning of this over the last week. I had the opportunity to interact people from different walks of life at one place. When these people discussed their problems with me, I got a sense of real guilt-what I used to call as my problems were not problems at all when compared to the magnitude of problems these people were talking about. And most of them had successfully come out of it (infact I knew some of them for some time and not in my wildest dreams could I have guessed their burdens from their demeanour). Now my problems really seem lighter...almost comical when I think about them:).
Unakkum Keezhae Ullavar Kodi...Ninaithu Parthu Nimmathi Naadu...
This translates into something like this:
There are crores of people even below you...think of it and seek peace.
This might sound like a very cynical way of seeking peace, but I rediscovered the meaning of this over the last week. I had the opportunity to interact people from different walks of life at one place. When these people discussed their problems with me, I got a sense of real guilt-what I used to call as my problems were not problems at all when compared to the magnitude of problems these people were talking about. And most of them had successfully come out of it (infact I knew some of them for some time and not in my wildest dreams could I have guessed their burdens from their demeanour). Now my problems really seem lighter...almost comical when I think about them:).
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