This blog originated in my office on a Saturday because I could not think of what else to do to ward off these major bouts of sleep that were assaulting me. Not the best place to have my creating energy flowing but this at least helped keep my eyes open on a very boring and non-productive day and hour when none of my official mails or phone calls were drawing any responses. How we landed ourselves into this yawning, un-productive predicament today? Cos on Thursday the ruling party of Tamil nadu decided that bringing an entire state in India to a standstill would somehow help the plight of the Tamilians in SriLanka.
Well not getting into my opinions regarding this political jumble, my office decided to compensate for the one days loss by making us work on a Saturday. Since more than 50% of the people did not turn up anyways, since none of our other offices where our big bosses and other colleagues sit were working and since none of our clients were also working, what this helped to do was only to maintain that minimum number of working days that every city office is to maintain in an year.
So here I am writing a blog about nothing at all, surrounded by some colleagues on personal calls (stealing the sleeps of their friends and family because they couldn't catch their own), some others typing personal mails, some others sitting in cafeteria chatting away and some with their heads on their desks - simply dozing...
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Day of the Deppressing SMS
And just when I needed it the least. At a time when I could really do with some funny messages and nice laughs, today for some reason it felt like Archies Gallery has announced "The depressing SMS Day" to add to the list 730 days in an year!
One of the sms sent by a very close friend of mine went something like this "3 Stages of Life: TEENS - Have Time and Energy but no Money; WORKERS- Have Energy and Money, but no time & OLDIES-Have time and Money, but no Energy" - My first reaction? How depressing!!! What the hell is the whole point of our whole existence if we will never have all 3 together...Ohh no!!! But as I had already decided to not get affected by all the negativity around, I completely blinked away the message and let it go...
In another 15 minutes, a long lost friend suddenly remembered me. I'm sure we have all experienced that uplifting feeling when we are feeling really down and out of the blue, this long lost friend suddenly gets in touch with you. I always felt that it was the best way to feel better immediately - Just chat up with an Old Friend.
Well coming back to the topic - this friend of mine gets in touch with me through an sms which went something like this "When you are in light, everything follows you. But when you enter darkness, not even your shadow stands by you". What???!!! Thank You!!!
I mean, it doesn't even rhyme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Could have I screamed or what. And all this on the day my favourite office person was in one of his absolutely worst "I'm-really-dumb-but you-have-to-listen-to-my-speech-for-4-hours-today". And after my 4 hours are wasted, I get another "what-were-you-doing-the-whole-day" speech!!!
And, icing on the cake-the ends with an sms from this above mentioned favourite person which goes something like this "at time of crisis, your days should be a lot more productive than today"...Ohhhh wow....
One of the sms sent by a very close friend of mine went something like this "3 Stages of Life: TEENS - Have Time and Energy but no Money; WORKERS- Have Energy and Money, but no time & OLDIES-Have time and Money, but no Energy" - My first reaction? How depressing!!! What the hell is the whole point of our whole existence if we will never have all 3 together...Ohh no!!! But as I had already decided to not get affected by all the negativity around, I completely blinked away the message and let it go...
In another 15 minutes, a long lost friend suddenly remembered me. I'm sure we have all experienced that uplifting feeling when we are feeling really down and out of the blue, this long lost friend suddenly gets in touch with you. I always felt that it was the best way to feel better immediately - Just chat up with an Old Friend.
Well coming back to the topic - this friend of mine gets in touch with me through an sms which went something like this "When you are in light, everything follows you. But when you enter darkness, not even your shadow stands by you". What???!!! Thank You!!!
I mean, it doesn't even rhyme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Could have I screamed or what. And all this on the day my favourite office person was in one of his absolutely worst "I'm-really-dumb-but you-have-to-listen-to-my-speech-for-4-hours-today". And after my 4 hours are wasted, I get another "what-were-you-doing-the-whole-day" speech!!!
And, icing on the cake-the ends with an sms from this above mentioned favourite person which goes something like this "at time of crisis, your days should be a lot more productive than today"...Ohhhh wow....
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The TV show, The Famous Law or the Book - Whats my Life Become?
Recently I watched a TV show where the anchor was discussing with a few people this new-age phenomenon called the - Quarter Life Crisis. And there it hit me like lighting- the absolutely Right Condition to describe my situation which was baffling, frustrating and confusing me all these days.
In short, like many of us mid-twenties people (that describes the term "quarter life" according to the program) I find myself in a scenario where, today, I am not sure where I am and where I am heading to...is it the same place where I always wanted to head to...If not what is it that I would REALLY like to be doing and how do I figure THAT out....Arrghhhhhh it really is frustrating...
Well, how all this frustration, confusion and eventually the crisis came about. It can be blamed on the Recession, The standard enemy in the ofice, The Murphy's Law and finally the Catch 22...
The "R" word that hit the globe
Why am I suddenly thinking on those lines? well...the fact of the matter is that I am at a juncture where I am not enjoying what I do...not that i dont like what my work envisages and expects me to do, I in fact love the actual "definition" of my work if only it let me keep doing that. But, wat with the dreaded "R" word, global crisis, lay offs, being constantly scared of being on the dreaded "list", seeing people you know closely falling victim to the "list" that to extremely ruthlessly and inhumanely without any warnings or notice, everyone saving there own backsides which then leads to insecurities, lies, stealing credits, undercutting and what not it really has become very unpleasant to just wake up and head to work. Especially as now we have all been exposed to its darker sides - not so much because people ar ebeing sent off - but more so because of the WAY they have been sent off.
The person we all love at our work place
As, someone very very very smart once said "People dont leave Organizations People Leave People". In short when we get fed up and run away, its not the chairs and workstations we run away from but more often than not (statistically) we leave our direct bosses. I wouldnt even want to start describing this paticular being and the species of this being that i have been exposed to for the last year or so. (all was well before that year....)
Third - The Muphy' Law:
Well, If I didn't believe in this till now, then I have learnt it the HARD way...really hard - If anything can go wrong, it definetily will; and more importantly - Everything that can, always goes wrong all at once. Ohh what an optimistic man our dear Mr. Murphy...
But anyways, to explain things a bit more - my first year of working in Chennai, I managed to finish 3 projects with relatively happy clients and decent acknowledgements. And then started the 4th project in my 2nd year. At the end of my second year im still stuck with the same project. Why???
Well why not - One of those lovely "Non - Indian" clients who start and end their day complaining about the incapabilities of us "mere" indians to our "non-indian" bosses, who incidentaly always "understood" and "agreed" cos - the client is always right;
Then there was this vendor - who believe they are the best in the business, dont have to listen to anyone else that the client has appointed to manages them , meaning us, and thereby went on to completely mess up the project. To top it the guy incharge of the project turned out to be a Male Chauvanist Pig who thought come what may, he wouldn't even consider a girl as a equal human, let report to;
Thirdly, once again, the person we all love so much in our organisation - who knowing all the above situations and my so called "incapalities" of handling them (which in fact he was so happy to highlight all over the place) should have managed to handle them himself and prevented the snr management involvement. But though I am incapable and he was extremely capable did not manage to do any further improvement than I ever did.
And finally, all other small individual things, one or two of which go wrong in different projects all went wrong together in mine!!!
I mean is this a prime definition of murphy's Law or wat???!!!
And Finally - The great Book - The Catch 22:
Now am at a juncture where I hate the whole secnario...the atmosphere sucks...the project has gone to the dogs, everyone is scared and worried and unhappy and I dont want to get out of bed and go back there. BUT, and there it comes - i dont want to be fired as well. Before all this happened and if I get to do wat Im supposed to do - I loved what I do. I wish I could continue doing my job peacefully and I wish I wouldnt be fired. But now I hate it. I think they are inhuman and horrible. I think theres nothing more for it in this as long as I have this Huge roadblock between my job and my management and I, of course, still dont want to be fired and end up un-employed.
If thats not Catch 22, then what is???!!!
Now, i it a wonder if all this had me wondering a very simple thins- if not for some people who made optimistic Laws, wrote Books on optimistic topics and made great TV programs on more optimistic ideas, how owuld I have ever described my Quarter Life Crisis ituation through Murphy's Laws and Catchh 22?
In short, like many of us mid-twenties people (that describes the term "quarter life" according to the program) I find myself in a scenario where, today, I am not sure where I am and where I am heading to...is it the same place where I always wanted to head to...If not what is it that I would REALLY like to be doing and how do I figure THAT out....Arrghhhhhh it really is frustrating...
Well, how all this frustration, confusion and eventually the crisis came about. It can be blamed on the Recession, The standard enemy in the ofice, The Murphy's Law and finally the Catch 22...
The "R" word that hit the globe
Why am I suddenly thinking on those lines? well...the fact of the matter is that I am at a juncture where I am not enjoying what I do...not that i dont like what my work envisages and expects me to do, I in fact love the actual "definition" of my work if only it let me keep doing that. But, wat with the dreaded "R" word, global crisis, lay offs, being constantly scared of being on the dreaded "list", seeing people you know closely falling victim to the "list" that to extremely ruthlessly and inhumanely without any warnings or notice, everyone saving there own backsides which then leads to insecurities, lies, stealing credits, undercutting and what not it really has become very unpleasant to just wake up and head to work. Especially as now we have all been exposed to its darker sides - not so much because people ar ebeing sent off - but more so because of the WAY they have been sent off.
The person we all love at our work place
As, someone very very very smart once said "People dont leave Organizations People Leave People". In short when we get fed up and run away, its not the chairs and workstations we run away from but more often than not (statistically) we leave our direct bosses. I wouldnt even want to start describing this paticular being and the species of this being that i have been exposed to for the last year or so. (all was well before that year....)
Third - The Muphy' Law:
Well, If I didn't believe in this till now, then I have learnt it the HARD way...really hard - If anything can go wrong, it definetily will; and more importantly - Everything that can, always goes wrong all at once. Ohh what an optimistic man our dear Mr. Murphy...
But anyways, to explain things a bit more - my first year of working in Chennai, I managed to finish 3 projects with relatively happy clients and decent acknowledgements. And then started the 4th project in my 2nd year. At the end of my second year im still stuck with the same project. Why???
Well why not - One of those lovely "Non - Indian" clients who start and end their day complaining about the incapabilities of us "mere" indians to our "non-indian" bosses, who incidentaly always "understood" and "agreed" cos - the client is always right;
Then there was this vendor - who believe they are the best in the business, dont have to listen to anyone else that the client has appointed to manages them , meaning us, and thereby went on to completely mess up the project. To top it the guy incharge of the project turned out to be a Male Chauvanist Pig who thought come what may, he wouldn't even consider a girl as a equal human, let report to;
Thirdly, once again, the person we all love so much in our organisation - who knowing all the above situations and my so called "incapalities" of handling them (which in fact he was so happy to highlight all over the place) should have managed to handle them himself and prevented the snr management involvement. But though I am incapable and he was extremely capable did not manage to do any further improvement than I ever did.
And finally, all other small individual things, one or two of which go wrong in different projects all went wrong together in mine!!!
I mean is this a prime definition of murphy's Law or wat???!!!
And Finally - The great Book - The Catch 22:
Now am at a juncture where I hate the whole secnario...the atmosphere sucks...the project has gone to the dogs, everyone is scared and worried and unhappy and I dont want to get out of bed and go back there. BUT, and there it comes - i dont want to be fired as well. Before all this happened and if I get to do wat Im supposed to do - I loved what I do. I wish I could continue doing my job peacefully and I wish I wouldnt be fired. But now I hate it. I think they are inhuman and horrible. I think theres nothing more for it in this as long as I have this Huge roadblock between my job and my management and I, of course, still dont want to be fired and end up un-employed.
If thats not Catch 22, then what is???!!!
Now, i it a wonder if all this had me wondering a very simple thins- if not for some people who made optimistic Laws, wrote Books on optimistic topics and made great TV programs on more optimistic ideas, how owuld I have ever described my Quarter Life Crisis ituation through Murphy's Laws and Catchh 22?
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