More on Paris Syndrome

I had blogged about this earlier. Here is another article. Looking into all these customs, our concept of "Athiti devo bhava" appears to be in a different world

Ideas for our politicians


Polish politicians can surely give some ideas to our politicians.If they can think of annointing Jesus as king , we have a long list and surely this can be used by our folks for fighting elections

Paris Syndrome


Came across this intersting word , in this article

Will this word in future be in vogue to represent something , when something doesnt live upto one's expectations.

Christmas Bonuses


A lot is being written in the British press about the Chirstmas bonuses being paid to High Street bankers, prominent amomg them being Goldman Sachs , where on an average employees will be getting a bonus of 320000 GBP. Googling came across some links on the life and kind of money being paid.

Lehman Brothers in $8.7 billion bonus payout

A big,big bonus at Goldman Sachs

The Firm: Inside Goldman Sachs

What To Do With Your Goldman Sachs Bonus

Reading these one can just feel envious, because most of the people in software industry in India also are putting in 60-70 hrs, but its just the case of being at the tight place at the right time

Balancing five balls

Rediff has an article on Management lessons you learn from real life. The analogy for 4 glass balls and 1 rubber ball is very nice

Height of ignorance or stupidity

BBC reports that a man in South Africa was fined for taking leave after submitting a certificate stating he is pregnant

UK Crazy Country - II (Police Officer suggests giving drugs to addicts to reduce crime)

One of the police officers has suggested prescribing heroin to criminals to cut crime. This will obviously at the tax payers cost. Then why arrest people for drug peddling. Like other doles being offered to people here , govt should go ahead and start giving this allowance to whoever needs it.
In bollywood movies we have seen cops aiding in carry a drug consignment for mafia, so should we say if implemented this will be a precussor to real life following reel life

UK Crazy Country - I (Compensation for being forced to stop drug usage in prison)

I intend to make posting on some of the idiosyncarices which I observe in UK

Today, I came across this news that six prisoners and inmates who were were forced to stop taking drugs in prison have been given compensation by the High Court.The claimants have claimed compensation on the grounds that their human rights were violated due to this practice.

I am sure tomorrow somebody will claim compensation on other grounds for which he has committed a crime

Boards in Marathi

Till now it has always been the Sena which has been flashing the marathi card , but now it the NCP Congress govt. itself. A notice has been issued by the labour department that under the Bombay Shop Act and Maharashtra shop Act all shops , commercial establishments should have a marathi signboard which should be bigger in size than the English board otherwise the owners would be fined between 1000- 5000 bucks.
This news has not been covered in the local English media but the marathi media (Sakal) has given prominent coverage to it.
From a market perspective one fails to understand how a board in local language will be helpful.

Persistence of Placement Consultants

It has almost been a year since I have stopped considering a job change, but having regsitered ( and later deregistered ) on a job site last year, I still keep getting calls from placement consultants.
Today was another such day. The consultant called me on the cell and wanted to know if I was still working in the organization where I was working previously. When I replied in negative , he wanted to know the present organization and went into a spiel that he has a opening at some place. On expressing my reluctance , he switched mode to find out if any of my friends/ex colleagues were interested and if I can share their names. On expressing my inability to share such information , he went on wax eloquently about benefits about moving to that particular city and how things are improving there inspite of the image being presented in the media.
I would like to appreciate him for his persuasive skills and wish I have skills similar to him

2 minutes

Yesterday evening I left office at around 6:45p.m. At the same time I saw many others leaving for the day. One of those guys from my office, decide to take a short cut to reach a petrol pump which is on the road to the office. Infact he took the wrong lane, was hit by a truck and lost his life. He is survived by his family and a small kid.
Today morning when I read this through a mail, I felt very sad for the guy and his family.

Many times we see people taking a short cut to save 2 minutes or even 2 drops of fuel. We fail to realize these 2 minutes could be the last 2 minutes of ones life as was with my office colleague.
While driving or taking such shortcuts we should keep in mind that this life is not only ours but a life of all the people around us, the people whom with we spend our lives.

Exasperating

It is really exasperating when a professional organization promises to send you some document by a certain date, but even a week after the committed date they don’t send. Do they expect everyone to follow up using personal contacts to get the documents? Why can’t we have a law to sue such careless, lethargic organizations?

Probably they might be behaving the same with their employees and when employees quit, the managers or higher ups try to cajole them with carrots
God save such organizations

First Day at School


Today was the first day of my son at school. Probably he being too young too understand the importance of this day in life did not show any excitement, but we being parents were preparing him for the day. Though the first day lasted for just 1 hour he seems to have enjoyed it, especially the new environment.

The school administration did give us some clear cut instructions like that since they don’t want any child to bring a mobile phone to school at any time, parents should also ensure that their cells are off, not even in silent mode in the school. They made it clear that for children to be disciplined, it is essential that parents to follow the same.

Living beyond ones means

All of us, might have encountered this situation some or other time. Why is it that people we employ to do jobs for us (like watchman, cleaner, maid etc) come to us and ask for a loan or advance which is in fact couple of times their monthly salary.
Ever wondered what might be the reason? Is it their poverty or living beyond the means or simple ignorance of financial planning? One can understand if there is a medical emergency but most of the times that is not the case. At most of the places where we work, we do have the concept of salary advance, and the amount is usually equal to the number of days completed in the month never is it 4-5 times the salary. If we say no these guys, they get annoyed, so one needs to be diplomatic in answering them.

As a matter of personal principles I have decided never to give a salary loan to these guys even if the guy stops working for me

Loan from Credit Card Companies

Gaurav Sabnis's post Revenge is Sweet reminded me of this .

I have had instances of these credit card guys calling up an offering a loan at exorbitant rates.Couple of times when I had time on hand , I just checked out at what interest rate they were offering he loan. The usual answer used to be 15 % to 20 % per annum or more. At that point I used to make them an offer that I will give you the money on loan and would be happy with 1/2 of interest rates they were charging. Immediately the phone gets disconnected

Haves and Have nots


In a society, the have nots always look up to people who have things and aspire to lead a similar life. But what happens in a family when have-nots visit their folks who have. They desire to use the things which they don’t have in their homes. This is more pronounced in children and they start fiddling with things which they don’t have at home. In this process, there is a strong likelihood of they not using the things properly or damaging the same much to the consternation of their hosts.
For the hosts on their part, its a much difficult situation , on one hand they see their things not being used properly and on the other hand they even cant say no as it would surely lead to spoiling of relations. Is there a way out?

Intolerance

Yesterday on one of the streets in Pune I saw a Volvo bus , not allowing a Maruti to overtake.
The maruti has a sticker of tiger on the back giving clear indications whom it belonged to or the affiliations of the owner.The maruti driver some how manages to overtake the bus , stops his car in the middle of the road, forces the bus to stop and starts arguing with the driver. Then suddenly he picks up a stone and hurls it at the drivers windscreen and smashes it in an instance.

One fails to understand why the so called political class and society has become so intolerant.

My Second Boss

It is said that children are the real bosses for their parents.
On Saturday we got our second boss.

5 mins for an Interview

I recently came across this news article in Financial Express which mentions of interview lasting for 3 to 5 minutes to judge whether a GM in public sector bank can be elevated to the post of ED. What I find is surprising is that how can an interview board which consists of distinguished people judge a person in 5 mins for such a senior post.

The only other idea which comes to mind that interview might just be a formality and whether to promote a person or not being decided by political masters on the basis of some other considerations

Infrastructure needed to develop a city

Infrastructure

I had been in Banglore last week. It lacks the infrastructure or may be the city has grown but the infrastructure has not improved at the same pace. I fear that the way Pune is growing it may go the same way in next couple of years. Builders and city planners are just interested in bringing up IT parks, malls, multiplexes, but what about the basic amenties. Do the roads support these. What about parking places for the number of vehicles which are being introduced everyday
Unless and untill these issues are addressed it is no point marketing the city as next IT or any other destination