Of Stories, Of Choices....Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

if someone still wants no word on the book 7 suspense please do not read any further

Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.” ~Barry Lopez
well if not literally alive but to feel alive yes you do...some stories do that and
Rowling's magical Harry Potter books do that.
Last week almost seemed like the end of an era.....when i finished the book seven (Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows late at night.
It was too much to resist and it brought back that feeling you have when you leave school. There is so much in life beyond school everyone tells but you want it back...those rules which you despised...those innocent friendships.....that world which you owned and will love for life.Therein lies the charm of Rowling's world.

Unlike other books which critics praise as much more accomplished and classy,
Potter books are actually just a hark back of the wonderful days when we
believed, we hoped and we loved.

Unlike other books ,its not a magical world for all the magic in the book.
The same can't be said for other books.......its all about friendships, families...
responsibilities and choices.
Yes choices...somehow this line had caught my eye when i read it in Harry Potter
and the Chamber of Secrets.
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

Somehow in the end the whole series seemed to emphasize just that.If there was
one character who seemed to good to be true or above being just human it was
Dumbledore and in this book she humanizes him the most and makes the
greatest point about choices and abilities.
At every point in the book most characters choose,
Harry chooses to trust Dumbledore finally while burying Kreacher
...Harry chooses to die......if that was the only way.
Voldemort chooses to kill who he believes served him most loyally.
Ron chooses....,
Draco chooses....even Narcissa Malfoy chooses ....
Xenophilius Lovegod chooses
Dudley chooses and so do most in some part or the other.
While i wont say it was the best of the seven books it surely was a befitting end
and Rowling simply was amazing.

The Dumbledore angle was brilliant and it shows how one becomes wise.Dumbledore was brilliant...but it is after his misery that he understood how much
power corrupts and as he says
"It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrustupon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their ownsurprise that they wear it well."

On a side note i've always felt this about leaders and managers.

Snape's character was brilliantly etched. It shows how the most resourceful and brilliant
can be the most brave or the most evil depending on the choice .
It shows how not all brave people believe in showcasing themselves.
It shows why appearances can be deceptive, and why you first have to be strong
in the mind to be do anything great evil or good.
People who are weak within like Xenophilius may have good intentions
but will easily break.
People like Snape once they choose the right side will never break and is the
greatest cause he probably was the only one who overcame temptation most.

Even Dumbledore was never confident about himself having power so he never
took up a post at ministry but Snape was confident enough that he wont do
wrong again and hangs around with Voldemort's power.

There was nothing exceptional in Harry except that he earned the
love and trust his friends and fellowmen by his being brave and loving for them.
I've not yet seen the movies of this book though i've read all seven ,
now i may see them. But to really love this story you've got to read it,
get immersed in its world and then feel its familiarity...
a movie does not do that to you.
Some who did not read the book ,don't understand the movie they tell me
and some enjoy it nevertheless and you have to hand it Rowling , she made it
complex enough and its all linked up from book one ...clues clues and clues.

I've read the book in absolute anxiety(been waiting since i read the sixth and
wrote a post on it) and sure would 've missed so much and so there might be another post or some addition to this.It could've been made more thrilling , more duels more magic, but Rowling instead focuses on human nature, its temptations, its fears and fallacies .

Its definitely not literature but then once you read books which deal purely with
such literary stuff ,you kind of wont face up that you belong there even if you do in reality........but here in Rowling's world you do own up .
Ron faces upto his fears when he tries to destroy a Horcrux
Harry faces unto them when he realizes that others were becoming leaders too as he wavered off.
But the book surely leaves you longing for what you cant have....
what you leave behind or
rather can never leave behind ...memories.

A good read of some new maxims

Somehow found this site and been very happy about it.
http://positivesharing.com/2006/08/top-5-business-maxims-that-need-to-go

Pretty much what i felt always and what made be tell a friend at my BPO job once a quote by Stephen Covey .
" Treat your Employees as you want them to treat your Customers".Thats the only line i cared for in the books i guess.

Indian Companies really go the old stupid way and its so pathetic when the times of india
published no hikes in IT for next few quarters on front page and rediff says work weekends.
Heck man did they give us extra hikes as dollar was strong or 4 day week .
Then why all these stories now.
I ve been enjoying and relating to so much on the site .Like when my manager says to me ok great youve done good work..whatever you were assigned a great job but what more for the
company, we paid for your work what extra for the organization......and then the splendid question one keeps pondering is why pray why!!!

"Each individual should work for himself. People will not sacrifice themselves for the company. They come to work at the company to enjoy themselves."
- Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda

Wish some one tells that to many of our managers

The site has great articles

Like this which reminded how whenever we had stayed late we got a pizza and

did that lessen our anger well no not at all.
Or may be those boring team lunches and biryanis organized.
http://positivesharing.com/2006/12/why-motivation-by-pizza-doesnt-work/

My yrs exp in the service industry supports this totally
http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/why-the-customer-is-always-right-results-in-bad-customer-service/
I ve seen techs who went out of their way and time to help customers who were

a bit kinder and nicer.

Then this http://positivesharing.com/2006/03/how-not-to-lead-geeks/
esp the point about tools. How can you run a application which itself needs 256 MB and Visual studio on a machine which has only 256 MB RAM and then code test scripts fast. It sucks but people are expected to. Because we are so very adjusting.

The whole set of articles i find are excellent and great but it seems the only people who read them are us who know them by experience and not the managers and leaders who would rather know them but well.
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Last weekend read Benazir Bhutto's Interview in Times
It went like this
"The happiest years of my life were spent at harvard-radcliffe campus in the US.
I was young then , wore my hair loose and looked like Joan Beaz, and attended rock concerts in Boston."

Immediately after the above she says
When i retire , I'll have a less hectic schedule . I'd like to teach politics to young people.

I kind of wondered and wondered whyyyy
You were young and happiest in life at rock concerts and now for the newly young you recommend politics.....Its strange how radically one alters their perceptions...or is it that old theory of the happiness of the young being envied.

I am not the right person to know yet...i'm on neither side yet.

Some lil things

Weekends have been extremely tiring since a little over last month since i decided
to look out for jobs. You almost feel like giving it up the whole waste of
time....of the whole day for 15 to 20 mins of chit chat.But anyways i'd decided to give it a break so tired i was (ah the advantages of having some employment).......but then got a call and
trudged along.Nothing much happened beyong the regular nonsense i'm used to
but well a nice visual kinda stuck in mind.

Last year at nearly same time in the house where i stayed there were these
monsoon flowers and i'd been so happy to se them blossom randomly in the rain
and i kind of was happy enough to gather them nad take a snap of my vase with my then new cam.

This weekend a year later where i went for thr interview i saw similar flowers cultivated beautifully in front of the impressive huge glass building.Cultivated as wide borders in pink white and yellow these flowers of the rain and oh how pretty they looked.

Nothing in that huge state of the art building could match them .I almost was tempted to take a snap of them with my webcam but you never know who would question you so i refrained.

I mumbled to myself that quote

"The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy."
Well they won't....all these great things man built ...inspire awe, admiration and sometimes make one proud may be , but to feel that joy you need something that seems effortless ....its wonderful to stumble upon somethings that bring that happiness. There's so much to be said abou the tiniest things in life.

Reciprocating - ‘being Nice’

Is it necessary to like someone who is nice to you,
are you supposed to feel guilty when someone is being kind
and yet you are able to see what you dislike in that person….and never quite make yourself say he/she is nice and good .

How come one can like someone who's not particularly kind and nice to you and yet not have any good feelings for someone who's being all thats said to be good.

Why is is that it becomes like a unwelcome duty to like some nice people and why is it a welcome pain to like some people not so great to you.

Quite a time i dedicated to pondering on this.
The least i could come up with was , while being nice to me by a person, does make me want to reciprocate ,I honestly have my own judgements about people, and them liking me ,or being nice to me figures nowhere in there.

The point may be is i like people, to whom i can look upto and in some way, for being what they are in themselves and what they stand for, and then if i like that …,I then kind of would enjoy that , such a person is nice to me or my friend.

Else, for all their goodness i have a very badly ingrained tendency of striking down people i do not respect.I try not to but i comes through anyways i guess.

I may get along with all kinds of people and even will happily spend time with people who are nice to me and with me but to really admire and love someone i need to respect and like what they stand for as a person . if not i always feel i am simply reciprocating their niceties to me and feel guilty about my being not really true.

It is thats why i guess say on my blog quote lines
"You can't love anyone until you understand that you can't love everyone."

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P.S: pondering being over all i can think is my life's going nowhere or rather is it going down the drain.
Whatever not much i can do about it except say the obvious always
Hope for the best—- Be prepared for the worst.
But yeah the only good thing now is while the first part of hoping seems very bleak i'm totally off rose colored glasses these days…i feel so better for the second part…quite prepared to handle the worst.
Life's numbed me well.

Whats better ??

Life with innumerable options not knowing where they'll take you or may be not take you
or having just a couple where you know the direction if not the destination
or having no option at all and make a destination of where you stand presently.

I can almost argue for merits of each of the above and therein lies my dilemma.

For a mind which keeps changing (some call it reacting) to everything  perceived its a really hard to live with either of those options.

When you've really been tired option 3 seems so much better and then you can support it saying that quote - " Happiness is wanting what you get".

Just to wake up afresh the next day with that attitude of the first option that would be like saying
"Success is getting what you want. "
"Some would rather pursue happiness than obtain it."

And then in those days when you feel that something huge in the universe has actually conspired against you and you feel bogged down by trying to get what you want you so much prefer option 2.

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As of now too many possibilities loom …too less time…..no clear picture
It seems i have the choice…but do i , can I?
So all i tell myself are those lines by Carnegie
"Take a chance! All life is a chance. The one who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare ."

Lets see this time…….
Till now its been more like the one never goes anywhere is the one who took a chance….. a chance to stay.
Lets see …….

Some organizational and management crap for the record

The less i want to write about management and organizational crap the more it seems to be around in life.The last 3 weeks have been my most agonizing and irritating in quite some time.

In fact i was so upset that i almost wished to put up that brilliant mail by my sr manager up here or somewhere on the web and see how many people really would like to work for such a manager.Actually i beleive there will be quite many because there is no dearth of people who love the bureacratic way of working in an office or rather putting in the hours and not the work.

Management is all about having no principles(put beautifully as being open ) and double talk.How are you supposed to feel when a manager constantly walks into team meetings and says
" I am authorized to fire anyone ".
"We pay for you work you are expected to do more for the organization"why pardon...well everyone has that question but no one asks

"The company's revenues are dipping and so you will see quite a shock in the appraisals" by saying this is his encouraging people to work well or work at getting off the organization i did not get
My lead tells me see dear i have no problems with anything your work is great and all else is fine...but you see the sr manager is very upset about your walking in late...then she adds thoughtfully - even there are issues in team(now i know for a fact no one in the team complained...they just crack jokes and that is being used by managers)

Then she addsIf it was a work issue i could have explained saying you need more experience willl learn but what do i say for this.....its a silly thing and how do i explain it - you are single(oh yeah if you are single you should love nothing but your organization) ......dont even have any chores ......why cant you come on time.Anyways i could live with that....

But next day when a sr manager drafts a mail with the kind of plain threat about taking disciplinary action (i.e this is for walking in at 1 hr late ) what exactly must anyone do...well they should get back and put such people in their place and if my career did not have the precarious blanks and past career shifts no one and no one i know could have managed to threaten me like that.
I have often blogged about how i dislike charityin general and mail goes on about how the "organization is not a charity institue...and one should follow discipline as other people who walkin at 9 feel upset about people who dont"
Walking in at 9 esp when there is no need is discipline ???....
ahhh its for no reason i say life is unfair.the whole mails had no reason or provocation except that two people beleived that rather than wasting time chatting and playing TT at office one can walkin after a good sleep and yet finish all work better than anyone else on the team used to walkin an hour late.

Charity...by not firing me for walking in at 10:30 they think they are doing charity ...WOW.
Though i am not much into charity and did not get much chance in my current project i think i have being doing a lot of free social work for the organization esp in my previous projects staying late and all that....huh.

After writing such a crappy threatening mail to the team he walkin smilingly and talks of where the team party would be and we are supposed to be excited. Now thats professionalism.

When a colleague put in the papers after taking a hike the sr manager says " you've exploited me"....its soo amusing.Next we hear he's also planning to put in his papers as he has an offer from the Indian IT giant if he does not get a project here which sends him onsite.Such people talk of principles and we are supposed to be inspired.

The guy makes such jeers about local guys who are managers and love to have candidatesfrom their hometown but never thinks how openly its visible his preference for high profile / north indian gals.
Whenever i think that in the end you too have to end up as a manager you hate it being in the middle of such double talk.Well we tell each other at least while leaving we can speak during exit interviews but well no one including me is for it cause now companies have reference checks...another threat used to the hilt by managers....and then you never know when during the job hopping drama you meet him and his friends again.This is a very connected world....and so everyone stays mum and so they flourish.

So why am i here still here....
because everywhere else they like Perfect lies and i'm too scared to make up one.If my age were a factor i should have been a manager by now and
since i am not -- dig up is what they do at interviews.
everyone likes to speculate and its so much fun with a resume in hand.
Umm so why did you not do any work for four years ...what kind of reason.
Put in a fake there for four years your resume is perfect and so can be the pay...nothing else counts.You just have to hope that lady luck is on your side and the company is not in a image building mood wherein they fire employees for putting in fakes and since i know that lady luck and me are not on speaking terms i play it quiet .

I sometimes guess if i was a bit stupid or not good enough for the work i do then may be i would have gotten away but while i am definitely nowhere brilliant but being quite good at getting things done , most people like to speculate on my personal life as why else would a 1st class engg graduate almost a decade ago is having only near to 3 yrs software exp and is still not in US.

It is oh so dissapointing and frustrating for most to find nothing there.One of the guys on my team asked in his oh always being nice jokes ,u from that college.....so when did you pass out implying how many times did i fail...having a cute face ,a fancy car and classy humorous lines helps him anyday in this office .
Its with no reason that i say life is unfair but neverthless its ok after a 11 hr sleep almost everything seems fine to me.

Being Hopeless in General

What makes you figure out that you are hopeless in general

Something like this When I
worry and wake up hating to wake up on such a pleasant cool morning
and go to office
worry about the work to be done
worry about all stuff at office
worry about not having enough money
worry about how to invest money and save taxes
worry about missing out on books, movies etc
worry about no good job offers
worry about confusing and devils dilemma kind of job offers
worry about catching up with on all those new technologies for interviews
worry about brushing up all the past stuff you've put on resume
worry about all the nonsense they ask on seeing my resume
worry about how to deal with all this headaches at home
worry about studying to somehow pass that part time Mba exam you've
paid up stupidly for
worry about not getting enough sleep
then suddenly find a online book website and

Somehow just glance up at Pride & Prejudice and read it (a book I 've
read quite some time back , seen a movie seen serials based on it and
yet!!!!!) late into night till 2 pm.

I've given up on myself

Coincidental reminders

Read through the lovely poem below by Elizabeth browning and then i
suddenly remembered one of my favorite song by Jagjit Singh - "Pyaar
mujhse kiya tumne to kiya paaogi" from the movie Saath Saath.
(Its the only cassette which i needed to buy a second time as it was
overused before the free mp3 days. Chitra Singh is too good in Arth
and Saath Saath songs. Adore her voice somehow as much as Jagjit
Singh's....esp that Tu nahi to zindagi me song.......hmmmm)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can it be right to give what I can give?
To let thee sit beneath the fall of tears
As salt as mine, and hear the sighing years
Re-sighing on my lips renunciative
Through those infrequent smiles which fail to live
For all thy adjurations? O my fears,
That this can scarce be right! We are not peers,
So to be lovers; and I own, and grieve,
That givers of such gifts as mine are, must
Be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas!
I will not soil thy purple with my dust,
Nor breathe my poison on thy Venice-glass,
Nor give thee any love--which were unjust.
Beloved, I only love thee! let it pass.

---elizabeth browning---
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

pyar mujh se jo kiyaa tumne to kya paaogi
mere haalaat ki aandhi mein bikhar jaaogi

ranj aur dard ki basthi ka main baashinda hoon
ye to bas main hoon ke is haal mein bhi zinda hoon
khwaab kyoon dekhoon wo kal jispe main sahrminda hoon
mainjo sharminda hoon to aur tum bhi sharmaaogi

kyoon mere saath koi aur pareshaan rahe
meri duniya hai jo weeraan to weeraan rahe
zindagi ka ye safar tum pe to aasaan rahe
humsafar mujhko banaaogi to pachtaaogi

ek main kya abhi aayenge diwaane kitne
abhi goonjenge mohabbat ke taraane kitne
zindagi tumko sunaaegi fasaane kitne
kyoon samajhti ho mujhe bhool nahi paaogi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even reminiscences can be coincidental

More thoughts ......

I've been thinking ive such smart and sweet friends always
that guys at the other end sort of hate me so  much for
being like kabab me haddi.(This seems to be  something permanent since school)
They have to be polite to me just cause i'm kind of a permanent fixture with my friends.

I noticed this today again when the guy in my team wanted to ask B with whom he loves to converse (I and B kind of hang out, bunk out and work together always)"do you pursue any artistic hobbies"...
then he asked S our most brilliant coding lady in the charming but unseen sarcasm
Do u have any artistic hobbies or just coding(What classy tone, its hard to see sarcasm there but for what do they say negativistic ppl like me)
and when she too said no then after a long pause
 he realised he forgot to ask me and asked as a formality.
I just said no and amused myself .

 

Some assumptions are so very stupid by guys
A guy in our team acted like shocked
when he learnt that both of us friends the girls in the team
were born and brought up in the cities.
Hey you people are so boring and such sort....meaning
City girls are  different/ posh or whatever and showed an example
of the gals at a  table at coffee day.
Then at times he speaks in absolute sweet humor  of how
he would only marry  a girl
from his small town and all such .
Its spoken in absolute trademark classy humor(so you can pretend its a joke if and when needed) as thats how he gets away with so much nonsense talk
(unlike others who are so very crass about such nonsensical talk).

Of course my friend not one to take anything quiet
simply rattled off the costs of that look i.e  rates at parlors and
shut him up for the moment .
Then drove the nail in the coffin by saying that first ensure
you get a decent appraisal as youd need a lot more to  take em out.

But so many guys out here at my office
dont get that the difference in that look and charm is more
middle class and upper class strata
and not city or town that it gets irritating.
They look great and even we appreciate it but what
does that have to do with being  a city girl.

And i listen on in such conversations....
how pathetic can life get.

Thoughts on just a day

 

Some people or rather a whole set of people(not talking of strangers a territory i'm off mostly and  is a different thing but friends and acquaintances)
are so much more hearty open and cheerful
, talkative and truthful when on chat than when around
I guess i should include include myself too at times on the list
though i guess its less to do with chat than
with specific people and the approach anyday
----------------------------------------

I just dont have quick smart answers instantly
 when i do i have real sarcastic ones
But i have such smart friends ufff

I just came upset from an interview last week about
how the interviewer said why are you soo quiet types ,
u worked here studied in XX college ...why so quiet ----
and  my friend was like instant answer
 " You Shouldve said nah ....ki what do ya expect at an interview come on 
turn on the music lets dance...then he wud get the answer clear"

Another friend when i cribbed about how the chap kept asking about
did i not try going to US since i was from XXX college said
"You should've said nah....ki well i did not go , but now i want to join
your company and hope you'd fullfill my dream and send me"

I can never think of such stuff honestly.......

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When you get upset , i mean  not angry (which is common for me)kind
but almost heartbroken about money or rather not enough money
its sad real sad,
I 've been hating myself the whole day ,
it was just for an hour or so but
i just felt so pathetic ki ab tu isko leke royegi
Pathetic dear ur slipping into pathetic worlds
Get off it..Get off it
If sobbing is whats must there are better thing to sob about.

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Summers almost ending the monsoons are great at the start
but winter........ummmm another year ....another insignificant year
of festivals from August and what not.

On Being .......

Instinct
Instability
Undependable
Emotional
All rolled into one and defined as unprofessionalism.....
when seen by an onlooker
Being human is a sin somehow

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

How i wish i could be positive

When all you are surrounded by are negatives

How i wish i could be positive

when a question is asked because its needed to dispel the negative

Theres some dark abyss in life

I see it again

somehow i am quite positive

about its presence

How i wish i could be negative about this

 

Cheeni Kam

 

Well it was a bad day … Friday despite watching this eminently watchable film…too much unncessary stress, we like to build it up in office these leads of ours.

Anyways since we had planned an extremely covert exercise in the old college style of bunking to go for a movie during lunch went ahead with it….and watched Cheeni kam…and came back to office and then  took up the headache. The whole experience did not even sink in.

Its a treat the first half. It is not that Amitabh romances but the difference between class and doing something that tiltillate the masses (i.e Nishabd - its stupid to assume anyone watched it to understand any emotion. The leading lady has great legs and thats pretty much the movie for a layman which implies most men??? )  is visible .

You really enjoy watching Amitabh and well Tabu is so very classy and charming.Amitabh great at romance i always say but they baked him into a angry young man

Ok well like many i am still a sucker for bit of a classy romance  and this movie has it.
 Never mind the ending scenes which are gross.
The ending where Amitabh clings to the pillar saying mujhe sexy chahiye is a perfect example of how the  best can be spoiled by one single nonsensical thing.

It could have been so better handles the second half. The way the word sexy is used …i mean heck why be gross about it.Tabu looks great and the right word would be classy all over .Its not like she aint sexy or being branded sexy is equivalent to cheap but the class of Tabu in the movie is so much more than sexy.

Well her character ah  its amazing i ever saw a character in mainstream Hindi cinema.
I mean she doesnt buckle to emotional blackmail????.
A diabetic father threatens her if she goes ahead with her marriage and she does not even budge or lie even for a moment despite the threat.
Heck even heroes are not supposed to be so stubborn in Hindi movies. The moment doctor say unki jaan khatre me hai , or mom or dad says agar ye hua to mera mara munh dekhoge it like sacrifice started.From where did this character arise?
 She stays by her fathers side but not even to humor him she budges from her standpoint. Oh welll…..movies do change …very slowly but well they do ….OOOh.

Of course apart from that most of second part is crap…even amitabh's speech to Paresh Rawal on his stupid fast is irritating. When he points that he is within societal limits …that reason is unncessary and wrong way to justify.The love or togetherness and fun should have been enough reason to justify their marriage and not the way he goes on how marrying an older man is quite with social sanction especially in these times when older women marry younger men.

But hell blink it off…especially if you love watching romance purely just as some like watching action purely go along enjoy it the first half. It a sheer treat.
 As i said in my review of Honeymoon travels our directors these days start off with lovely  ideas but then get lost in making up a marketable products
.

The past never dies

The past never dies, it is never past.
Its not like you dont try
But its easier to say let go
but does anybody let it go
After 9 years of graduating , 4.5 yrs of unemployment and 4 yrs of various jobs i still get asked the same bloody question when someone snaps to the last page at a decent interview.

Oh you are from xxx college. How come you are still here.
Why did you not go to the US. Everybody from your college does.
Well yes they all used to go to US i say.
Well they still do he says…

Heck OK yes boss they do so whats the point you think i'm too old or stupid or something fishy in my personality to be stuck here fair enough - dont want you damned job even if you want to offer.

You say why you are quiet,
why not be more more what i wonder bubbly???…happy??
Who lets you….
And anyways why be …
why cant i be myself
So i am a sullen face
fine dont like it, avoid me …dont select me for your environment.
Why rake it up.
People love to rake up the past
dig up the past
You may want to move on
but past is never past.

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

In this irritating day there's still was place i look at and smile,it wasn't a great place there was lot of messy times, hardships and pain and stress and yet somehow you only remember the good things .
Thats a rarity in life.
It was nice walking past the place where i worked first.

Raining Jobs and Parched IT TalentSpace

Raining Jobs and Parched IT TalentSpace

 

Essentially i am not much of a fan of rediff's articles and its discussion

boards are really gross most times. But i came across this article .(Nothing new in the article really)

What struck me was a comment by a manjula pathy there which i somehow noticed

"Why cry? there are number of people who are very well experienced sitting at home bcoz they are middle aged. companies who hire want very young people.In some of the countries employers see only capability and experience and not the age ,caste and sex like they do in India!!!"

Its not like very greatly put may be but its a very essential truth. I am a part of this industry and have been an going through it and here are a few of my cynical observations .

Like say about young people here's what it is,
Beleive me all companies want this—
A Engineering graduate with 70 or at least 60% + at 21yrs of age and then by 24 or 25 they should have a  3or 4 year experience.
That is perfect and thats what they want.

Now some years ago there was a IT slowdown. Nobody hired where would you get such perfect resumes. Many that are would go to US by now.So what is a clear …whenever there is something that perfect there's a great chance its a fake and yet it is welcomed.No harm in that if you stand by it .

Then one fine day Integrity and Honesty touches these corporates and they fire off people.  Initially i thought it was quite fine and right when people who get in with fake are not upto the expected standard they must be penalised.

But I was shocked to read of a leading company's statement.They say why did these employees fake it especially when they were competent enough to get it on merit. Well i guess it is they themselves and not the candidates who need to answer that.

And the answer simply would be that to even be considered for your interview you need fake.
What industry is expecting is perfect employees to use for their benefit but they are not mass produced. In fact in no industry do they exist these perfect employees.

Integrity is still available but i guess Integrity does not really equal smartness and what the companies need are smart workers isn't it?

Its one heck of an amusing thing simply put.

Many times we discuss and wonder how cool it is in the US to work when you want , if you want to or work part time . Esentially people work and take vacations have a life and come back. Is it feasible in India really.

Can you walk in to a interview and say well i passed out of college did a great job for 3 yrs took a break for 2 years had fun ,travelled and now i want a job again. Is it possible.
There may be exceptions(esp women who get married or had kids but even they get in with hubby or friends help even though they are quite good by  themselves ) but however competent you still may be after the break there is an assumption that you've lost it, your ability somehow at least in India.

HR people have these theories.
If you leave companies you are not stable. Well if all are stable how would you hire?

If you take a break and work or are not sure of your one great FAKE AIM in life(honestly how may have a real one in IT except earning money  which is unspoken )…you cant be reliable.(Assumption:for all you may leave the job any day to have another vacation- Ok confession - this aint an assumption I was asked this question once upon a time )

Can someone at 30 wanting to start a job really compete with a fresher though both are at the same stage of learning.
Its a absolute fact that youngster have more zeal will learn more and every company and country wants a young workforce but when you dont have the youth for it instead of cribbing about shortage cant we even look beyond.

I definitely am not for hiring  people who are sub standard for a given job but i wonder how many companies know what they are hiring for. Half of them stock employees on bench.Its sad to see freshers on bench. I would rather like a nice tired veteran on bench who can use the bench time to learn amd update slowly rather than the restless and raring to go fresher on bench. But yeah they hire the best in campus at times and put them on bench or make them do absolute useles work(some companies provide great recreation facilities though) and disillusion them till they fit into your regular job hopping IT employee type.

Another amazing aspect that HR people and companies keep gushing on is Employee referrals.
In fact I think that is the root cause of all substandard stuff.
You just have to observe with you eyes open when you wait in queue at inteviews. very interesting scenarios proceed. Actually some companies dont even advertise jobs all jobs are through employee referrals.

 Well what most companies don't get is Indians love their own and their own does not start with their company(Unlike say in USA). It starts with family , cousins , all other relatives and friends and then the company .
 So the first good they think for when they refer for the company is in the same order….family……

But then may be one good employee and they think its ok relatives means same genes so it will anyways be good is it…(hmm well i get ideas when i write).
Also that quote " Birds of a feather flock together"
But if that one employee is bad. Ah the theories.

There's another amazing aspect i have discovered from my experience in IT and ITES world.There is so much importance laid on English speaking and all that - so candidates and evaluators take communication as equivalent to speaking good english.
So candidates rattle of words and words of english some with a great accent but ask them to write a stanza, or even something like reading comprehension.

Half of the wonderful IT people do not understand simple IT requirements definition documents. …forget the strange one authored by the Americans.

They code great , i mean i envy their command over coding and memorizing mnemonics and keywords , I poor me who relies heavily on intellisense of IDE's….but do they really know what they are coding for.

Hell just ask some people to read a newspaper and some cant get it straight.Lets face the fact these crash courses in English will get you to speak good English may be but not speak what you wnat to convey and it will not develop your english. The best way to learn English or any language will be its constant use and reading something and assimilating it.

Thats why there's no point in saying "It's raining jobs! But whom to hire".
Its more like Its raining jobs and no one knows what and why to hire let alone how.
P.S:Well thank god i have a nice job - if not good job-else this post may

seem like the greatest crib…but heck thats why I blog.

Alchemist : A lookback

Alchemist : A lookback

 

I somehow recommend the book Alchemist to people . I wont say its a great book but its a book worth a read or some reads esp when you really start doubting  yourself, when you need to beleive in  yourself again against all commom sense.

People say its about love but i actully did not enjoy the love story in it all that much. The last part was too magical and over the top. Its the earlier parts which i admired a lot and liked the different perceptions like those of the crystal seller and the boy.

Whenever someone thanks me for recommending it i quickly glance through the book again and its refreshing.

Some of the best passages in Alchemist i felt are below
===================================================

The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. "When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he's an old man, he's going to spend a month in Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of."
"He should have decided to become a shepherd," the boy said.
"Well, he thought about that," the old man said. "But bakers are more important people than shepherds. Bakers have homes, while shepherds sleep out in the open. Parents would rather see their children marry bakers than shepherds."
The boy felt a pang in his heart, thinking about the merchant's daughter. There was surely a baker in her town.
The old man continued,

"In the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own destinies."
==========================================================
"Well, why don't you go to Mecca now?" asked the boy.
"Because it's the thought of Mecca that keeps me alive. That's what helps me face these days that are all the same, these mute crystals on the shelves, and lunch and dinner at that same horrible café. I'm afraid that if my dream is realized, I'll have no reason to go on living.

"You dream about your sheep and the Pyramids, but you're different from me, because you want to realize your dreams. I just want to dream about Mecca. I've already imagined a thousand times crossing the desert, arriving at the Plaza of the Sacred Stone, the seven times I walk around it before allowing myself to touch it. I've already imagined the people who would be at my side, and those in front of me, and the conversations and prayers we would share. But I'm afraid that it would all be a disappointment, so I prefer just to dream about it."

That day, the merchant gave the boy permission to build the display. Not everyone can see his dreams come true in the same way.
==================================================
"I've had this shop for thirty years. I know good crystal from bad, and everything else there is to know about crystal. I know its dimensions and how it behaves. If we serve tea in crystal, the shop is going to expand. And then I'll have to change my way of life."
"Well, isn't that good?"
"I'm already used to the way things are. Before you came, I was thinking about how much time I had wasted in the same place, while my friends had moved on, and either went bankrupt or did better than they had before. It made me very depressed. Now, I can see that it hasn't been too bad. The shop is exactly the size I always wanted it to be. I don't want to change anything, because I don't know how to deal with change. I'm used to the way I am."
The boy didn't know what to say. The old man continued, "You have been a real blessing to me. Today, I understand something I didn't see before: every blessing ignored becomes a curse. I don't want anything else in life. But you are forcing me to look at wealth and at horizons I have never known. Now that I have seen them, and now that I see how immense my possibilities are, I'm going to feel worse than I did before you arrived. Because I know the things I should be able to accomplish, and I don't want to do so."
It's good I refrained from saying anything to the baker in Tarifa, thought the boy to himself.

================================================

It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting, he thought
When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being," said the old man, with a certain bitterness. "Maybe that's why they give up on it so early, too. But that's the way it is."
. "In any case, it's good that you've learned that everything in life has its price
Sometimes it's better to leave things as they are, he thought to himself, and decided to say nothing. If he were to say anything, the baker would spend three days thinking about giving it all up, even though he had gotten used to the way things were

"The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon."
This candy merchant isn't making candy so that later he can travel or marry a shopkeeper's daughter. He's doing it because it's what he wants to do,

Who knows . . . maybe it's better to be like the crystal merchant: never go to Mecca, and just go through life wanting to do so, he thought, again trying to convince himself.
Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.
 

There are more but i guess its a small book and it makes no sense to put it all on the blog.

Some boring and yet amusing chitchat

With power cuts on weekends you really get some time to

wonder about the everyday chit chat we go through some by

necessity and some just by chance.

Last week sometime in tea break with the lead away ,the only 3 girls now in the team of three diff age groups (each 4 yrs older than one)sit together and try to chat up.We dont have much in common though in the worldly perspective pretty much the same.
Its  a boring chat sort of but when i look back on it with no power and from a dark balcony i am amused.

A electronics company had put up some television at our office for employees for the day and Baghbaan was playing we noticed.

Me: oh god now in office they play this
Su: Salman overacts a lot in this
Me: When does he not
B: yeah its like for granted

Su: Only in HAHK he was good
Me: No he was good in MPK too

Su : As movies increase they get this way
Me: yeah acting to overacting

B: But then Shahrukh too overacts frankly yeah
Su: Yeah but he's great in romantic movies
Me: True and it depends on the director to control, i

liked him in Swades.
Su: yeah but i did not like him in Don(plain obvious she

loved his romantic lines…ah but then dont we all)

Me; But i liked him in Don …i mean i guess i cant think

of anyone better
B: No no one than Amitabh
ME; yeah Amitabh is just him but other. Sharukh looked

most stupid in khaike paan banaras song.

Su:I even like KBC with Shahrukh
Me: yeah me too
B: No i dont, dont u think he's sarcastic

Me: Oh well that he has become even in interviews.

Thing was to me at least it seemed we all knew Shahrukh hams and has become sarcastic but we all remember our memories …the Sharukh Khan for whom first day first show was worth it(those days when you stood in lines of  theaters no multiplexes). ….for whose movies bunking college was cool.Now we dont care if we watch in theater - forget first day.

We were open to critisize him but we still love his flattering romantic lines ( forget kkkk kiran )and soulful eyes in Kuch Kuch Hota hai.(I avoid that movies these days like hell coz i simply keep finding flaws as i see more…that simple charm is gone with all this repeat telecast).

And then at home someday had watched koffee with karan and my sis and i laughed at how wonderfully both Hema and Jaya said Shahrukh with such certainity given different choices.
My sis was like how much women of that era love that flattering fellow. Well sure they do and so do we .
Some people may be good or bad  but you like to have such people about you.They have a charm about them - the people we call the life of a party ,a house , an office a generation or whatever.

And then i was happened to watch the last hour of Kabhie Kabhie somehow and yeah i love earlier part of that movie especially.
Amitabh looks so very charming….and well its a lovely movie.I just tell my sister kya angry youmg man ka tag laga diye usko. what a romantic young man he was in this movie.(I absolutely love to hear amitabh reciting poetry.)

My sister was like "kar raha na re ab romantic man movies amitabh ".I was like hmm demented romantic  is it…and we laugh.

At the end i just remarked such bold and charming touching movies yash chopra made then….and now he's gone reverse gear.Culture overload or absolute mass choice stuff.

Then the power went off in the eve and i had nothing to do but wonder at all these things and laugh at my own self.

The Light Of the Day

Last month i happened to read The Sea by Banville .Is that book a tough read? Oh god yes!!!. Firstly he uses off the world language then he uses long sentences with them and you find it actually tiring. I wont say i dislike the book. Parts of it had very beautifully expressed dilemmas and thoughts but in the end i still say its a very tough read and not to my taste or rather i am not upto its standard yet. It needs some higher powers to get across what’s being said i thought and yeah it drags.

I almost would have felt that these arty booker prize books were a bit too much for my simple feel it kind of reading if only i had not earlier read "The Light Of the Day" by Graham Swift.Its a book of some sublime beauty. I read it nearly a year ago but could not write about it.Anyways This is a book i find hard to write about. Its simply because its so touchingly expressed, and there are not many quotations kind of stuff or any wonderful thrilling happenings or the huge battles of emotions.

The first time one reads it it has that mystery to it so you never really catch the much subtle parts of it too much. But its a beautiful read. Very Simple and yet so very moving.I like it style of writing and also the way he uses repeat sequences of lines in a rhyming way.

Like

"She Bloomed"..................................."

But then She had bloomed".

When you start off reading fiction and you read famous authors in college Sheldon , Archer and all those and the way they write about women, you simply look at it as a story.Its rarely the same when men write about women and women write about women. Some thoughts make you look at it...really do people observe so much.

Like he observes

"Someone Someday should write about handbags, shoulder bags. May be they have. About how women cling to them, as if they're their closest friend when all else fails. The things that you find inside them (I’ve lost count of how many I’ve rifled through")

The book is a treat to read. It is written in back and forth format and u move seamlessly through them. Though as I said ,for the first time curiosity really can be a spoiler. Rarely do you have any suspense in books of this kind (based more on individual psychologies and how each persons behavior gets shaped inexplicably at times)but this one has just that little bit of criminal suspense in a way that really charms you.
One can read an excerpt here

"Something happens. We cross a line, we open a door we never knew was there. It might never have happened, we might never have known. Most of life, maybe, is only time served. "

" A Rebound: you were robbed and now you take. And are the young so easily damaged anyway, ......you're young only once and there is a kind of savagery in it." " The truth is we meet we part we go our way. There aren’t any laws, there aren’t any rules. We ' re not here to follow each other, to guard each others lives"

One of the finest writings i've read and i also read "Ever After" and have sort of taken to his style, though i am yet to read his famous book "The Last Orders"

Some nice reviews here.
Reviews themselves have their own charm i feel. You love sometimes to see some one love what you love or hate what you hate and best is when you suddenly see something when you read a review, something so very obvious but you just did not have that perspective.

Why i love the storm in the air

Ah….Yet to get over that wonderful line by karla in Shantaram
“i take everything personally….thats what being a person is all about”
That book seems to be the only nice thing i can think since quite some time.

But i found some lines of mine from a few days back fair enough to post.

Why i love the storm in the air
I don’t see the huts it demolishes
I don’t see the homeless shivering
I don’t see the trees uprooted
I don’t see the devastated look it leaves on civilization
What i see is what i feela rage against this very world
So i love the lashing rain on my window,
the gales hell bent on smashing the glass around,
and when its had its sayi see the fresh green emerging
the peace sought all around echoing
So i love the storm in the air

Shantaram:One Real Quote of a book

Some books are all about hype…and Some books are those hidden treasure that few savor. Then there are books that actually live up or rather deserve the hype.

Shantaram is one….Only other i thought so was Harry Potter.I know some wonderful chaps who never read the book and just saw the movie would call Potter a childrens fantasy hangover for adults.Ask someone who has read the book and not seen the movie.Some say there are other better writers and books….oh sure there would be , but would that mean Potter ain’t good.
Anyways this post is all about Shantaram - the book by Gregory Roberts i spent April 07 with.

If this books been hailed as a wonderful adventure and masterpiece it is every bit of it.Seems like i am having a voluminous book year. March was all about re reading that voluptous ” A Suitable boy” by Seth and now this.But well i am hardly complaining.

The books a treasure trove of quotes. In fact i so loved half of the lines in the book that id wanted to return the book to the library and buy it but i wish i could afford the prime space it would occupy in my meagre shelves.

Ok well they are clever lines, sad lines and touching lines but the best part for me is a whole part of it is in bantering talk between people, a genre that i love rather than a brooding or thoughtful narration by an author.

Be it movies or books where there smart clever wordplay i like it. Oh yeah its a weakness but yeah i enjoy it and thus if for nothing else just that makes the book special.
And if i was loving it soo much and wondering that only i thought so about it well nah i just looked up on orkut a community out there for it has put up many of the quotes(http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=627868&tid=9029383&start=1) I painstakingly wrote into my notebook so i can reread when i return the book. Funny but well great discovery.I’m glad cause i just cannot afford to put up all the quotes i copied or page numbers i marked. Its one heck quote of a book. Its better bought than borrowed .The book is set in Bombay and throughout it the author speaks of his love for the city. Amazing that at the same time so many books set in Bombay have come out. I’ve read Maximum city and while that in itself is a lovely book i blogged on, this one’s quite different. The perspectives and the eyes who talk you through are different.

In maximum city what the author talks of in real time we understand and feel cause its the city life and India’s own special madness but his thoughts , feelings and perspectives may not be as similar ….cause he speaks based on his opportune research and meeting with the set of people he weaved into stories.Maximum city is a very good book and marvellous insightful book but yeah Shantaram is much much more.

There’s enough about its story on the internet, how its based on a true story and why add my bit to it. All i can say is whether its fact or fiction it hardly matters. They are so interchangeable in there and its beautiful. Its not only a wonderful read , if one takes just the story its quite thrillingly told and yeah even those who only read detective and thrillers will sort of like it i guess, unless they are like those people who like things absolutely like pure action movies where nothing matters but the punch.

The characters have a charm about them…everyone i guess, its hard to take sides if you really have a heart.Karla is well, quite some character thats fleshed out and what i liked about the book was the way it simply withstood when all had changed.
As its said some people bounce back like say Lisa in it and some harden and its never the same.The way karla puts it
” I’m cold inside Lin. I like people and I like things but i dont love any of them- not even myself - and i dont really care about them. and you know the strange thing is , I don’t really wish that i did care“
It reminds of a cold heartless feel that sometimes overtakes one, though unlike Karla most people usually get over it.
But i think one of my favorite for the sheer practicality of it is the following .

” People haven’t stopped beleiving in love. They have stopped wanting to be in love. They just dont beleive in happy endings anymore. They still beleive in love, and falling in love but now they know that romances almost never end as well as they begin“

Shantaram is what most can never understand in real time, no one imagines or can really imagine that fear and all that prison torture and gun running etc, but everyone has their own hells and fears and prisons and when faced with them the philosophies we take to ,the arguments we put against ,and for ourselves are what one relates to and catches your attention.

Karla’s a very specially sketched character and of course for anyone who loves sharp lines its great but then i liked the way all her clever lines are waved away by Lin at a point in the book.In facts the main character is the person whose character is kept most subtle. All others kind of are so very sharp. Even the parts on the mafia are dealt as they are not like putting a glamorized look onto them. I liked the part where Lin’s poor friends refuse to take up job in the counterfeit passport making business, and its true such people exist. Some refuse for fear some,for principle .As i read it i wondered Who can be the judge of who’s braver, the ones who keep fighting every day for their causes or the one who give up and accept their fate.After all to accept the fate one needs to fight one’s own self or may be some people just hide from their own selves.
Another of those words that i’ve often thought of myself was this– because, there are always a small set of people i’ve known who are stupid or mean and even callous and yet i manage to feel sorry for them and cant hurt them at times in ways beyond me.

” Some people always manage to make us feel sorry for them, no matter how stupid or angry we feel about it later. They’re the canaries kind of , in the coalmines of our hearts. If we stop feeling for them when they let us down , we are in deep trouble”
Of course my own obsession with the book can also be attributed to another thing, the book uplifts the importance of freedom and how much of it can be rooted in the mind.”Freedom to say no”
There’s cynicism and an counteracting hope filled in every next line and you wander between them feeling and knowing the sheer truth of being a cynic and still wandering over to hope as thats what keeps one going on.
Not that i did not find flaws .Most unpalatable to me was his idealizing Prabaker’s village. Now anyone who’s been to a real village will know it ain’t all that pretty and filled with such wonderful sweet large hearted people. They have their own share of jealousies, killings and mean heartless criminals.Also some parts especially like the kano bear story and some stuff in Afghanistan seemed like could have been happily trimmed off.

But such things are so easily overlooked in such a gem.
Mira Nair’s making a movie on it i heard and like most , i do beleive movies however well made usually never live up to a good book.I’ve left out a whole bunch of quotes and yet such a voluminous post.Well its a really fine book….fact or fictions not my bother.

Some gems i typed but honestly there are much better ones on most pages.I need to re read the book. Reading it with an intention to finish it in 40 days was a bit too much. I read it only 10 days may be but i intend to enjoy it on some slow days of life again…sometime. For now though it was an exhilarating read.
“when we fall in love with someone our greatest fear is that they wont love us back,what we should fear instead is that we wont stop loving them.. “

” Personality and person identity are in some ways like co-ordinates on the street map drawn by intersecting relationships. We know who we are and we define what we are by references to the people we love and our reasons for loving them”

“Truth is a bully we all pretend to like “

“Only the anarchists trust human beings enough to ;et them work it out themselves”
“Some feelings sink so deep into the heartthat only loneliness can help u find them again.”

“sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears”

Its not more like you agree with most of whats in there but as Lin comments somewhere in there you like how its said.Thats a different charm altogether.

Some banter

I have been like too busy worrying about too many possibilities of worry in life and did not know what to pen down. So thought on penning some very strange non worrying discussions recently .
My dear sister has a way of sudden out of the world ideas and her memories of Hindi movies old and new are like superb.

So as we banter on about films here are a few for collection’s sake.I go to flower seller ask how much gerberas are he says each 20 rs. I quietly walk away .. At the bus stop my sis starts laughing to herself.I ask why and i get this…

“you know there was a movie called rajnigandha where the heroine wonders see i have two guys in my life…one brings ONLY flowers (they were thought of as cheap those days)and one guy brings such expensive gifts.Think sis in todays time what could heroine think like that …everyday flowers the bunch would cost the guy how much 12*20= 240 bucks everyday……how dare she rate him stingy or poor.”
I was left perplexed at her range of thoughts.

One day during KBC there was a questionwhat is ‘zalzala, in english. Usually i am right or rather expected to be right so no one even challenges but this day sis was like
“What do you say …i say earthquake” she says
I thought of the other option but rarely ever in academic questions she
is so sure. She insisted Earthquake. when she was proved right i got my dose of gyaan.

” You see thats why i say watch movies…..it improves knowledge…there was old movie of kimi katkar called zalzala and in the end earthquake happens and swallows up all the loot..”Gosh she is amazing

Then on a serious note one day this was our discussion.
“Hmm i dont like Ash and Abhishek” she says“Preity and Abhishek would make a great pair. She would bring so much life and bubbliness and add to them.”

I counter…

“No Aishwarya is right for that khandaan. quiet head bowed …..just what they want..and she gets what she wants security and name…. Preity is too lively and strong and these people would only ruin her spirit.They cannot add anything to her as a person…..”

I liked Amitabh but this whole fiasco ruined much of the personal admiration i had for the chap.
And so we banter about the people and things not affecting our lives cause there’s nothing much we can do about whats affecting it direct.