Party tonight!
Email from Gauri today:Hi guys,
Time: 19:42 hrs
Venue: Pacific Blues*, Sec-18
Reason: Life, the Universe and Everything
Be there!
* I was originally planning for the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but we’d have had to wait quite a while.
As you can make out, he does have a intelligent sense of humor.
Other talents of Gauri include :
1. The ability to digitally sign PDF documents by hand, and I mean opening the PDF in a binary editor and typing in the hash.
2. Standing on the net at the Volleyball court in a everlasting wait for the ball to come at a smashable height.
3. Shouting "Bana ke de" बाना के दे, once in a while, while waiting.
4. Jumping and punching a ball into the net when it does not come at the desired height for a long time.
5. Sleeping with his eyes open on the office chair, with his hands on the keyboard, fingers twitching periodically.
6. Going into 3 hours of silent zombie mode at the mere mention of the love interest we forced upon him.
7. Generally being part of the gang come what may.
8. Taking the initiative to take my case, despite a history of no success (I'm asking for trouble)
And many others....
Gauri Blogs here.
Labels: People
Values, Morals, Beliefs blah..
If you think I will make an attempt to differentiate, or elaborate on any of these, I won't. You can safely read the rest of the post. Only yesterday I had a discussion with a friend about how one feels right after reading a book by Ayn Rand (I mean Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged). We did mutually agree that for atleast a week, the reader moves into a Self critical and People perceptive mode. One tries to map actions of other people to the characters in the book, in order to stereotype them into Howard Roark, or Dagny Taggart. To try and evaluate your own actions and thoughts just to try and identify with the protagonist, because she does exalt them, and for atleast a week as I said, you believe her too.So, my week ended a while ago, and today I am attending a workshop called MPG, by BW, to cut the crap, the first task of the day has been identifying the 5 key "Values" that I live by. Not those that I want to live by (Health-Weight Loss), and not those other expect me to live by, but those I actually do live by. Now this is easier said than done, because, the values I finally settled on are different from those I marked given a list of 30 values and asked to choose my top 5. So, feedback from peers, manager, self assessment, instinct and introspection, all went into these top 5. I can't say I'm completely satisfied, but then I did a fair amount of thinking, and I'll settle with these. So, whats the point?
The point is that today I realized that some things I don't really care to pay much heed to consciously, actually drive many decisions I make. On the other hand, there are values I am expected to live by, but I don't really.
Making decisions is far easier, and frequently, even the most important decisions you make don't make you question the reasons you made them. Now, that I have a pack of cards with names of common "values" written on them, I can actually take some time to think what each of these means to me. Pick a card and think what it means to me and if my actions are aligned with this value or is it totally unrelated.
Add to that a cool leather folder and 2 days in a conference room rather than on my seat, working, this workshop seems fruitful already! Ok, lunch break over, update later.
(Btw, I'm told this is one of the most expensive employee training programs in the world, but then, who said freedom comes cheap!)
End of Day 1 Update:
Day 1 ended with handing over my managers opinions about me, and lot of things about me, like skill levels required and existing skill levels in a variety of things, Talent, critical skills, communication, leadership.. the works. Add that to the review I got from a peer, and lots of introspection, the biggest outcome is that person I project myself to be, is not really what my values suggest, or what I would like to be. Apart from that, My manager and I disagree on a wode array of things, something I need to discuss in a meeting with him, and let him know that my priorities are not as mechanical as his expectations... More after day 2..
Ingenuity
There is no lack of ingenuity around India. What we commonly call Jugaad is a raw form of untapped intellect. Some of it does get tapped though, literally :). I came across this little foot operated device somewhere near the Govind Sagar. Its quite interesting, hygenic, probably manages to conserve more water than the expensive sensor laden taps increasingly visible these days.
The foot pedal is connected with a metallic chain to the tap arrangement in the pipe. The other end of the tap rod is connected with a heavy weight. There is no need to balance the torque, the weight can safely be heavy, because the chain with the foot pedal is just long enough to shut the tap tight when the weight pulls down. So as soon as you remove your foot, the water stops flowing.
So, maybe you should consider this in your house. Save money on jazzy mixers, more importantly save water, and more importantly still, hands free! (Should be called bluetooth tap.. ummm bluefoot tap!)Labels: Travel
The journey of Books
I haven't had much time to do anything off late. All I can manage is work and few hours of reading stuff at night before I become drowsy. So, while I pretend to be busy and stay away from most chores, I've been reading a lot. Books I've finished this month include Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand), H2G2: The H2G2, H2G2: The restaurant at the end of the universe (Douglas Adams), and Train to Pakistan (Khushwant Singh).The motivation behind all this reading is a race (to finish the book), which I figured is a great way to read a book. You get done quickly, always have someone to discuss it with, and well, sometimes you win. I lost the Atlas Shrugged race, though it was close, and I'm leading the H2G2 race by an entire book! So, Train to Pakistan was read by the napping Hare, while he waits for the Tortoise to catch up! Infact the Hare now plans to read LOTR : Book 1 before getting on with the race again. (Are we there yet??)
I did intend to write a little bit about every nice book that I read, but I will refrain just yet because I'm reading (very) popular fiction and well, people have preconceived notions about the same. One thing that I would like to point out for sure, I was given the impression that Train to Pakistan might be a disappointment. It wasn't. After a long time I read a book that I couldn't put down till I finished it. A 2 page description of the monsoons in India was an absolute delight to read.
The description of the 'Ghost Trains' brought back memories of the stories my Grandmom used to tell me about their journey to India during partition. It took my paternal grandparents 14 days to cross the border, and the trousers my grandfather started in were reduced to tattered shorts when he reached his parents house in India, where most people failed to recognise him. My paternal grandparents finally crossed the border aboard a train, and at the last station on the Pakistan, as the train slowed down, people with swords could be seen waiting to massacre the passengers. As they approached the station, the driver of the train had a change of heart, knowing well the fate of the passengers if he did stop, and Instead he went full steam ahead without the customary stop at the station. If it weren't for that driver, my grandparents would probably have perished that very day.
My maternal grandfather has similar stories to narrate about his ordeal at the time of partition. My maternal grandmother came to Delhi aboard a plane, but my grandfather had to make his way through by conventional means. First, he was given poisoned pan (betel leaf) by a friend who came to see him off at the railway station. He spat it out when he realized that it was poisoned. My granddad has a 'Om' 'ॐ' tattooed on the back of his hand. He covered that using a piece of cloth, as if he was hurt. Is train was infact attacked, and he had to blend into the crowd, and not get noticed as a Hindu refugee, so he joined the people moving the dead bodies around, and moved the bodies of several of his friends and did this job for a while to remain inconspicuous. He did finally manage to make it to Delhi in due course without getting recognised. He says that he moved the dead bodies of several of his neighbors and friends while he was at it.
These stories always gave me goosebumps, as did the story narrated in Train to Pakistan. I was specially touched because my family was directly affected by the partition. We still fail to identify with our roots. My family's customs are a mixture of the customs of the erst wile Punjab and Multan. So, when I am asked, what my native place is, I can either go into a lengthy description of why I have no native place or say 'Punjab' and ignore the interpretation. Ignorance maybe bliss, but then at such instances it does pinch not having a native place, a village, an origin.
So the point is, the book was a good read, and at the cost of sounding preachy, I think it deserves a few hours of everyone time.
So, till the tortoise catches up, I'll attend a meeting and take a nap :)
