Life here and the life there...

Life goes on...

I just wonder why everything is reverse out here.

List of things that are reverse (ultaa):

1. The chauffeur's seat is on the left side in a car.

2. The zip of jackets are attached to the right.

3. The switches get turned on in the reverse direction.

4. The plug sockets and pins are of a different kind altogether which ensures that gadgets bought here have to have a converter for them to work properly there.

5. These people need to save day light and all, which means that the difference between IST (Indian Standard Time) and EST(Eastern Standard Time) which was 9.5 hours till November mid, is now 10.5 hours. This will continue till around March next year.

However, I am really happy with the courtesy sense of people in general. Whoever, you meet, never mind you know or not, will greet you with a smiling face and say "Hi", "Hello". This really leaves you with a happy state of mind and you never feel that you are an alien.

Onsite life isn't easy by any stretch of imagination. You are in charge of your own life and be assured, your sense of responsibility will be thoroughly tested. If you have a tendency to be lethargic, all I can say is "Best of luck", coz., then only luck can save you.

I came to know after coming here, why USA is considered to be a developed nation while India (in spite of being a nation to watch out for) still has miles to go.

Let me jot down few of the points:

1. Work Ethics - People are not really bothered by what you wear. You do not need a costly suit to show that you work. But what matters is - how efficiently you work and how dedicated you are. No one knows the definition of a strike. Work needs to be done and that's it. Full stop. Time management is vital.

I wonder in India, when will people understand the importance of this. We still hear - strikes being called - no one knows why! Does it really make an impact? Ambulances are still being smashed. Office windows are being broken. Doctors are taken out of their vehicles and beaten up only because they wished to attend the need of an ailing patient on the day of strike!

Our so called 'leaders' - excuse me, I call them 'dealers'... most of them are pure illiterates, with scant regard for the common mass.

logon ko burbak banaye rakhne mein hi bhalayi hai -- their motto! And man power available for cheap. Throw cash, hire goons, buy power. Simple, eh?

2. Discipline - Law is a law - not meant to be broken. But, when breaking law is fashion, who can help! Burning buses, mob lynching, burning the national flag... we do have a long way to go. People respect law and order here, and there are far fewer mishaps and vandalism. Police is feared. I do not say, there is no corruption. Everywhere, there is.... But the extent of corruption is far lesser, which is why the whole system is far more organized. The only catch is -- too much system dependency sometimes come in the way of common sense.

3. Population - This should have been the first point. Hum do, humare do... is still not working for a humongous part of the population. The result - geometric growth of population. Add to that - the growth of illegal immigrants. Whatever be the GDP growth, every penny is being eaten up. USA does have stringent immigrant rules and they DO implement them properly. Not so in India. Bangladesh, Nepal especially have extremely porous borders - not to mention Pakistan and China.

4. Education - Let me give a simple example. If you go to a Big Bazaar or City Center in India, or any of the shopping malls, go to any section and start looking for items. In no time, you would see a sales 'associate' appearing from nowhere. Even if you don't ask for help, he or she will continue to notice your every movement. Come on, are we all kleptomaniacs? Besides, this is so disrespectful. However, it happens only in India. The reason.... mishaps happen, things are stolen. Remember? ...breaking law is the fashion. So, normal people bear the brunt of a few miscreants. Not so in the US. You are left alone. Do whatever shopping you want. They do have technology (read spy cams) to take care of the monitoring part. But at least, it is not disrespectful. The trust is very much there. Now, why did I write all of these under Education... because education alone instills moral values. When you have moral values, when you know - snatching and stealing things is immoral, everything has a value and needs to be paid, these things do not occur. I don't care - how many million graduates pass out every year. What I wish to see is - those disrespectful glances should not hinder me, when I am trying to decide which shirt would fit me better. Way to go.......

Back to onsite life. The good part is - I can cook confidently now! So, you won't understand how happy that makes me feel. I always felt handicapped, when my friends used to boast of their culinary abilities. I can confidently match them now. :P

However, all said.... do I miss my country? Oh yes, I definitely do...

Journey to US

Friends, it has been a long time, since I posted last. Actually the shift from India to US ensured that I did not have time for many of my favorite pastimes including 'blogging'. Its not been too long that I have landed here. Whereas the onsite life has its own challenges, it does present in front of you a gamut of opportunities. So, from here on, till the time I reach India again, every post would detail out my life here.

To start, let me tell you friends, that this was my first flight. haha!! Never ever did I fly before and that too a complex route - Kolkata-Dubai, Dubai-JFK, JFK-Philadelphia. Being alone, with two huge trolley bags and a hand luggage, it was quite a challenge... made worse by the fact that I was an absolute novice. Prior to this, I had hardly left my state West Bengal and here I was leaving India altogether for the land of a certain Mr Obama.

I would detail some interesting pieces of my journey - which I hope you people would like.

1. Air-hostesses of Emirates
Emirates is worth flying not only for the hospitality that they provide but also for the beautiful air-hostesses. Irrespective of the race, each one of them were special. Right - They are taught to smile, their profession demands it. But the beautiful aura exuded by them cannot be taught by any institute. From the Kolkata airport, I boarded the flight and was pleasantly surprised by the gadgetry. It took me some time and some sideways glances at other co-passengers to figure out how each of the devices worked. (Remember I was a first-time flier). A certain friend had suggested me to find the washroom first as that is the most important place to go while on air. As I could not figure that out, I had to ask one of those maidens as to the exact location of the place. She readily showed me the way. Incidentally there were two foreigners (not sure which country) sitting right in front of me. The lady gave me a look which suggested I had made a cardinal sin in asking that question! Any way... was good fun otherwise. The food was delicious - not too much, not too less, just what was required. The rest of the trip till Dubai - I browsed through the numerous playlists available and slept the rest of the time. Finally I arrived Dubai.


2. Ordeal at the Dubai airport
Dubai Airport is probably one of the best in business throughout the world. Not only because of the huge area but also because of the glitz and glamor associated. I was lucky enough to have a guy walking with me who incidentally hailed from Kolkata like me. Given the complexity of the route, it was only because of him that I could figure out the correct terminal within a short span of time. While at the Dubai airport, we strolled a little bit and admired the sales expo in progress. The local time was 2AM, but it was difficult to interpret seeing how busy people were.


3. Dubai to JFK
In the flight I had pre-selected a window seat, but had to give it up when an elderly man requested me through an air-hostess that he needed that seat as his old mother was seated next to me and was a first time flier. I agreed reluctantly and got placed in the middle seat in the next row in between a middle aged lady and a Thai guy. The seat had been swapped alright - but my lunch and dinner? This I found out later - My meal preferences were actually tagged to my seat, Since it was a completely unofficial arrangement, the beautiful air-hostesses completely forgot that the seat had been swapped. Resultant - My meals were being delivered to him. By the time, someone found this out - the guy had already eaten 2 puris out of the slotted 4 that the airline provide. When asked if he had touched the food, he said, "No" and I, in the spirit of sportsmanship said, "No probs, mate" :D. Later some extra delicacies were also served to my seat number (old) and I drank some water instead.


4. At the JFK Airport
After a hugely time taking journey of around 13 hours, I reached the JFK airport. Complied with the essential requirements - immigration checks etc etc, collected the luggage (as it was the port of entry), handed the luggage back over to Delta as they would transport them to my final destination and called home. I had bought calling cards from Kolkata. So, calling home was not supposed to be a big deal. However, I was unable to find the right telephone which would accept the calling card. Finally I was able to detect one and called home. Satisfied that an important task had been done, I decided to go to the terminal from where my flight to Philadelphia would commence. As I found out, I needed to board an air train which took me to the required terminal. By that time, I was already feeling something in my stomach (I was hungry, silly). Once I reached the terminal, I decided to have some snacks from Starbucks and water. Snacks was okay, but when I asked for water the lady handed me over another snacks and billed me. I was surprised because I had asked for water. Later when I looked for the label - the pronunciation of the thing was similar to 'water'!!! I had to actually finish the food, go back there and this time, I pulled up a bottle myself (didn't risk telling her again) and asked, "How much?"
I was back at my seat, waiting impatiently for when the flight would show up on the charter. The bottle was meanwhile stranded in my hand. I was extremely thirsty, but could not quench my thirst, because (you won't believe the reason), I was unable to open the seal !! Two elderly ladies looked at me and one of them commented, "You would need to open that.." ..(as if I did not know that). Bisleri or Kinley bottles in India are easy to open. But here it took me quite a while to drive a nail in between the seal and flip it open. Finally satisfied, I sipped into the water...

5. Reached Philadelphia airport.
The plane was hardly on air for 35 minutes, when the pilot announced to tie the seat belts again.
Everything was fine at the airport... only MY LUGGAGE HAD NOT ARRIVED!! It drove me crazy figuring out where to complain. First I knocked at the Continental Airlines office and they were surprised to hear about Emirates. Seemed they heard the name for the first time!! Then I found out Delta office (I was sweating profusely by then... after the numerous carousal checks and all) and reported the issue to them. They took down my complaint and as I was returning, I asked them, "Is there a point in looking for the luggage one last time?". One of the ladies replied, "Yes, please go ahead." And voila! It was there. My trolley bags were looking at me and smiling. :))


I took a cab and came to my apartment. Unfortunately the apartment was not ready. So, after staying over for 3 nights at 2 different hotels, I finally moved in to this apartment.

Bits and pieces

Hello World

I have been bad! I have been irregular! I have neglected my blog!
Curse me... and when you are through, let me pause and then start afresh with a brand new post.

Not sure if that would interest you, but I work in weird hours these days. Skeptics love to call me the watchman!! LOL :D Yeah.. that's my work on demand for now.

I may look rusty in this post as I have not been writing since quite some time now. So apologies upfront.

Being awake till 3-4 AM every day does take its toll, although the watchmen of my building won't complain. They have a new colleague in me, for free that is. More sincere (seriously) and more alert.

Let me brush up on few of the updates which needed my comments:

1. The surprise wedding of Mr Dhoni with a certain Sakshi
2. "Meow"ist uproar all over India
3. Rise of Paul - the octopus


Well, there are many more, but these caught my attention and probably of most of you.

1. The surprise wedding of Mr Dhoni with a certain Sakshi:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, after a string of pseudo-affairs and hush hush media coverages hurriedly took position beside the bride in Sakshi Singh Rawat. The whole affair was done in such quick time, that the Indian media was literally caught napping. Since enough have already been said about the wedding, I would shut my mouth and let you read through the links.

One can only hope that the Indian Cricket Captain's fortunes take a correct turn after entering this new phase of his personal life.








2. "Meow"ist uproar all over India:

This is not the cute 'hulo' I am talking about. This is a fierce member of the cat family which has sharpened its nails so much that the security forces are biting the dust. With all kinds of arrangements and 'booby traps' (as they say in the army), the ratio of police personnel killed with respect to the cats is still close to 1:1. Blame it on the politicians and their lack of foresight, which contributed to the situation. Today they are as powerful as some of our paramilitary forces. What is happening is not good for the nation, however why this is happening can probably be attributed to the mismanagement of people and resources at the grass root level and the ever lasting politics.


3. Rise of Paul - the octopus

Hail the king! Hail the king! - They say. They are not German for sure. They are the Spanish crowd. As an octopus is being given credit for correctly guessing the results of 8 out of 8 matches in the just concluded World Cup. One thought Shakira was the biggest attraction in this World Cup, but an octopus has overshadowed her popularity in a matter of few days. Scientists say that 8 out of 8 guesses is not that big a deal if we take into consideration the probability theory of mathematics. But the common men wish to believe the uncommon. So from Bipasha Basu to Maradona, everyone was left stunned.


I could not resist myself from sharing this image of Maradona with the legendary Paul, albeit a cartoon, is very realistic. [Photograph courtesy: Facebook]Finally: The latest joke doing the rounds in India
Someone asked Paul: "Will we see India play in any FIFA world cup in our lifetime?" Hearing the question, Paul faints."

There is a humorous article on this @Faking News. Read on and enjoy!!

Brand value

Brand is nothing but a name. A name which has fame. A fame which ultimately provides 'value' (perceived or actual) to the followers/customers/stake holders.

Brand can be an apparel, a tech tool, could be just about anything. And we can also be brands - the way we project ourselves. I have seen people known by organizations. "Oh you know that guy is from 'so and so institute' "... or "Oh he is bound to do it, since he had such and such background".

Ok. These are perspectives. A classic case of reflected glory.. whereas the truth is organizations and institutions of repute would be mere structures of brick and mortar, had it been not for the people who make them special. So, who are they?

There comes the question of brand. If an organization is a brand today (think about it - a mere structure), why can't we be?

I had written in an earlier post that a certain TITAN is so much more revered than the HMT, but there wasn't much technological difference between the two (when they started off). Its just about the way TITAN projected itself, that today we are prepared to shell out substantial bucks to have one.

It would be interesting case study to see what TITAN did differently from HMT.

In line with that famous statement, "Winners do not do different things. They do things differently"..................

....friends, can you tell me what they did differently?

Rants

Hi friends

Once more cut off from the blogosphere.. it had to do more with the work pressure, lack of time, lethargy and the addiction to Facebook. However, afterall a blog is a blog! No social networking site can ever replace it. So, am back!

Much have happened in the interim! The IPL saga and the T20 disaster have literally put a stop on any cricketing interest that I may have had till date. Not sure whether it would be resurrected. To say bluntly, the BCCI and Mr Modi have ensured that our boys do not have any energy left when it comes to playing international cricket. Its amazing to note how money and politics can ruin a fabulous game. People who do not know anything about cricket are at the helm of affairs, making matters worse!

On my personal front, its been like a breeze. Routine work mostly and many ad-hoc tasks. Nothing more to share really. Searching for stories do not help. So, let me stop right here.

Until next time...

Please donate for a good cause!

Hi friends

Please visit this page and donate for a good cause.

http://www.giveindia.org/give/pledgepage/chiranjib

Give India !!

When was the last time you provided food to an orphan?
When was the last time you gave clothes to a beggar?
When was the last time you fed ailing babies on the streets?

Well, the volley of questions above was not to baffle you, neither is in a bid to write something off-beat! Rather, the aim is to turn the attention towards something we forget while running through our daily chores - CHARITY! We forget that we, indeed, are more fortunate than many others. At least, we do not need to think about two square meals a day, a shelter over our heads, pieces of clothes to keep us warm in times of chilling winter. But believe me, there are people in this world who struggle for these BASIC necessities. Pity, we cruise through our fashionable clothes donning sunglasses ad what not! We feel overawed by a guy who just bought a brand new car, wishing, "Oh! I could not achieve that!". It is really good when we look up, strive for betterment, strive to achieve bigger goals. But, in a bid to do all of these, we often forget those people, who also had a dream - who dreamt for a shelter, a bowl of rice... those children, we couldn't care less about, still work in the roadside dhabas - to hell with the child labor laws and all - who cares! Yet, we never protest! Even, myself, the self proclaimed blogger and writer - I write, yet do not have enough capability to drag that child out of that damned dhaba and give him some food and water.

The question is - how much can we really do! Readers may argue - "We are busy with our jobs" "Careers take away most of the precious times" "But how can we help?"
Exactly so - I was indeed waiting for that last question. How can you help! Well, I just received a mailer from Indiblogger to write blogs for the cause of charity and I thought - why not!

Here is what needs to be done.
1. Visit the Give India page. What is Give India?

"What is GiveIndia?

GiveIndia is a NGO that raises funds for the poorest of the poor in India by helping you donate money to 200+ trustworthy charities. All NGOs on GiveIndia have been screened for transparency and credibility."


Please go to this page. Here is the url in case the click does not work.
http://www.giveindia.org/default.aspx
2. Register to the site. Go through the links. You would find plenty of Indian NGOs associated.
3. Login and find the links to donate. Options include getting an amount deducted from the payroll every month through your company payroll. Several companies are listed there which could be found in the drop down menu.
Last but not the least, this donation for charity comes under the purview of Income Tax benefits under section 80G (50% tax benefit). Yes, you would receive receipts.

Friends, let us come together! Say YES to charity! We would earn lots, but donation towards needy ones would really go a long way in putting a smile on some of these faces.

The Fat regime!

I was browsing my Igoogle page for the daily updates this morning and decided to add a new frame - guess what! The Fat Loss window! However, I am pissed off on seeing the tips! Whatever I love to gorge on are a strict NO NO! It's something like window shopping that I am doing right now - seeing the tips, appreciating it wholeheartedly, however I am apprehensive about trying them out.
Indian cuisine as such is very spicy and when we consider the subset Bengali cuisine which I am so fond of, things get hotter and spicier. Take the instance of the simply 'machher jhol' or fish curry in English. My mom is an artist when she cooks it for me. But take my word, it is spicy! Indian restaurants worldwide are a favorite destination for people from almost every nationality. However, many of them are either run by a Pakistani or SriLankan. Of course, food, in this part of the world is almost the same. Yet the name is in favor of "Indian" cuisine.
In a bid not to divert from the topic, today's tip in Igoogle tells me:
"No carbs after 9 p.m. Eat no bread, cereal, or pasta until morning. Extra carbs eaten at night often convert to fat."
Ironically, we follow sort of a reverse order. Our breakfast is the most light and this is the order.
BreakfastLunch>Dinner
We should have a heavy breakfast, then the body is able to burn out the calories gained during the entire day of movement. When we have a heavy dinner, and go to sleep immediately or sometime later, our body hardly gets the chance of burning down the calories, instead they get absorbed into the body and turn into fat.
With an work culture, such as mine, I hardly ever get a chance to exercise apart from the regular 20 minutes of walk that I do daily while getting back to home. Ahh.. I should not give an excuse, but really, that's the way things stand at the moment.

The Blogo-gloom?

Recently Alice commented on an earlier post of mine on the growing blogo-gloom! Now, what is that! For those who are not very accustomed with the term, well, it simply means 'a gloomy atmosphere in the blogosphere'. By gloomy, we mean, more and more people are feeling more and more reluctant than ever to write full fledged blog posts. Why is that? Let me take this opportunity to scrutinize it a bit further.

With the advent of high tech social networking sites and micro-blogging sites, are people more inclined to write within a sentence or two, whatever they feel like?

Facebook and Orkut, the two premiere social networking sites have n-number of features which make it easy to share thoughts, comments, pictures, videos, articles and what not! With the age of less time-more work, more and more people are hooking on to them. And yes, how can I forget Twitter. Of course it is the mother of micro-blogging!

The resultant, writing a long blog post and meticulously placing relevant photographs, making the content catchy and beautiful is not exactly the order of the day, any more!

However, there is a different kind of flavor in full fledged blogging and helps to bring out the true writer in you, which can never be accomplished through bits and pieces commenting and status updates.

Regarding the intermittent gloom in blogosphere, well, I am pretty sure that this is a temporary phase. Everyone needs varieties. [At least I need]. Life usually goes a full circle and would be true in this instance as well.

So, when the phase of Facebooking and Twittering is over, blogging will return. For me, it has already... that is exactly why, you are seeing this blog post.

Alice, I broke my jinx. Let us see when others break...

Khichdi...

Hi friends

How are you all? I regret not have written for quite some time now... guess it had to do with those 'trough' phases when I would just love to stay within me. Well, to compensate, I did paint two graffitis on Facebook, not the best you would see, say in a Public Gallery. But well, it felt nice to see that some creativity is still left, after the daily chores.

What about you all!! Recently Preposterous girl told me that my comment page is disabled. In fact those two graffitis had played havoc on my entire blog layout - a reason in part for me writing this post! ...to set this straight!

The last week:
Packed with work and training! I did find my solitude after a tiring day at work through social networking and chatting up with old friends and acquaintances and most importantly, music!
I have recently been listening more to the likes of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and western evergreen music of Kenny G and Yanni!

The ideal way to listen to Music:
Here are the steps I follow (and you should :P) =>
1. Switch off all the lights. Make the room dark.
2. Tune in to the music you want to listen to.
3. Keep the volume low so that it soothes your soul, rather than pounding on your ear drums.
4. Close your eyes
5. Picture beautiful scenes in connection to the tunes and feel lost.
Before you know, you would fall into a silent sleep. Ahh!! the much awaited rest for the eyes, for the soul!!

Straight from my facebook profile... :)

Graffiti

straight from facebook....

IT: What's the future?

It was sort of spam - which triggered the idea!

Let me tell all of you in detail. I have recently switched to full-fledged comment moderation, as these spammers have really started becoming pain in my a**. Anyway, in one of these comment moderation phases, I saw this pseudo-spam. 'Pseudo' because although the comment was not at related to the post, it was not entirely rubbish. In fact it spoke about solar panels and how he had been able to manufacture one with little cost involved. I am not yet sure if there are scripts which could download malwares and spywares in my machine as soon as a single click was done, but the articles there made sense.

Anyway, he not given me any money to promote his site (and already I have been generous enough by publishing his pseudo-spam). So, lets leave the discussion right here.

However, just the other day, I was thinking about our huge IT industry. I am sure most of the bloggers come from that arena. Let me ask you an open question: How many of you think you would retire as an IT professional? Well, a frank confession from my end: I do not think so! The simple reason being, open your eyes, this industry is fast attaining saturation. Readers who think they are afraid, let me tell you, this will take another, say 10-15 years (minimum)... but this WILL happen.

Let me enumerate the reasons for you:

Short term effect:
The worldwide recession which hit the market in 2008-09. Although the markets are getting revived, yet the golden days are gone.

Long term effect:
The predominant factor why IT industries saw their boom in India and other south Asian countries was because of the scope of having the same work done through comparatively much lower wages. Various sectors saw IT as being an enabler to the competitive edge. Sadly, this no longer holds true. Today IT provides efficiency, but is no longer as effective in providing the competitive edge. I did read an article on similar lines from Harvard Business Reviews. Also check statistics of all IT majors and medium players and check how they had progressed in the 90s in terms of employee count, % year to year profit and how they are doing now!

Counter-argument:
There are counter-arguments to this. Innovation, thinking out-of-the-box can still help. As long as there is value addition, competition will thrive. From a technical perspective, suppose company A1 provides technical maintenance to a retail major B1 and company A2 provides the same support to another retail major B2. So, if the basics are same, work is mechanical, no value addition, there is no difference technically. However, if company A1 can provide an additional measure which provides capability of statistical forecasting, it could be something that even company B2 would be interested in. There comes the competition. So why do you say? IT is getting saturated - its merely an enabler, not an entity to drive crucial competitive edge?

Well.. true.. very true.. however, there are other factors to consider. In the initial years of globalization, India did not have too many companies investing here or ready to hire natives. However, the market was fresh and opportunities were galore, if one had the eyes to recognize. Big players cashed in. Even small and medium players saw their opportunities. But today, this is not so. With the rupee gaining steadily versus the dollar, the wages gave climbed up! Recession and unemployment have hit the Western world badly. There's large scale hue and cry as to why their own nationals are not being given jobs - why work is being outsourced.. Well, still, there's point in investing in our people... good skills for comparatively low wages! Great deal!

But the question is: How long? With China crawling in closer by the day and continents like Africa still unexplored by the biggies, there's more to come! India still has the advantage of housing the largest English speaking population of the world! But that advantage could fade away with our neighbor speeding up at remarkable pace.

So what next! Well, I would put my money on the industries for non-conventional energy sources - solar energy, wind energy, nuclear energy... all of these should take up and grow at a rapid rate. The conditions are favorable as well. With the fossil fuels degenerating and getting used up at an astronomical rate, this industry will experience an unprecedented boom in the coming years. It is a niche area as well and not many players are out there competing. The sector is more or less unorganized as well, specially in India.

So, friends: what are you thinking? Pour your hearts out and comment!

The sweet-as-sugar guys

The sweet-as-sugar guys

There are various kinds of people in this world and today, I am tempted to write about one type. The type that is the most dangerous.
Well, these people are generally average built, have a calm disposition, always put down their heads and listen to superiors without as much as a word. But within, they curse them with all their might.

Friends, you should be particularly aware that these people can really stab at your back and make your life miserable if they get a single chance. Diplomatic to the core, they know how to appease men in high ranks. But look out for that scratch which you suffered.. still wondering, how it happened? Be assured, it's the work of that same average looking guy who smiled at you and gave a rose!! You saw the rose, you did not see the spike!!

But they have a BIG shortcoming. They think none can understand their true motive. They think they can fool all.

THEY DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE WRONG!!

I got a Padmasree

hahahahahahaha.. :D
The way the prestigious national awards are being distributed freely, the day is not far when even I may bag a Padmasree (or bhushan) for 'whatever' reason!!
Some of the choices these year were baffling to say the least! I agree that some of the choices were proper and apt, but there were others which raised questions. I would not take names here, but if such awards are distributed with so much ease, I have serious doubts on the value quotient. I am equally inquisitive about the quality of judges and panel who nominate and select the awardees.

Are you a brand?

"Brand - Have you thought about it? Why is a Titan revered so much more than, say a certain HMT. Why people go gaga over Nike tees, when probably you can get the same sort of tee at 1/4th the price? Well, the difference lies in creating a brand value. These were mere materials. But these can well apply to professionals as well. Making a brand out of yourself truly matters. No two human beings look alike. But there are 'n' number of professionals who work in similar fashion day in and day out. So, give it a thought. What is it that makes you different from other peers in our experience level? Is there a difference? If there is, then work on it. If there is not, then work on it even more. In the process create a brand out of yourself. You should be known, not by your looks, your mannerisms or by your etiquette. Of course they go a long way in shaping up the brand. But they represent the 'look and feel' of a TITAN. The MAIN differentiating factor has to be in your longing for perfection, in your drive towards excellence, in consistency, in venturing in areas which others are afraid of. Then, my dear friend, you will be able to create a positive difference for yourself as well as the organization."

"Again, it all lies in the basics. Jot down your strong and weak points. Sharpen your strong points. Work on your weak points. Stay focused, committed towards creating value. A great way to stay motivated is to dream, to view yourself as the most successful professional you have ever seen. To create an imagery out for oneself is a big step forward towards really achieving the oh-so-dreamy dream!"

I told myself all of these in the morning today. Knowing what to do is one thing and doing it actually is a separate story altogether. What do you think, friends?

2010 Resolutions

Hi people
I am back as promised. If the resolutions for 2009 were crazy, this year it would be simple, realistic!
1) I wish to have greater control over my emotions. I know I can control my mind, but I want it more.
2) I wanna get rid of my blocked nose.. no I don't want to cut it off, but may be, use a nasal strip for good amount of ventilation. Few people know that I am the biggest consumer of nasal drops in whole of India!
3) I have become a fan of 'raaz pichhle janam ka' (secret of the past life) regularly aired on weekdays on NDTV Imagine. If you ask me: Do you believe in past life? I would say "Yes". So, the resolution is: I would go and have a glimpse of my past life!
4) I have NOT taken anti-rabbies vaccine coz I was not bitten by any dog. But I may need to take one other type of vaccine, which, to my dismay, is yet to be manufactured worldwide. I may start a bit of research on it.
5) I need a bit of sleep. I can sleep. I will sleep. I must sleep.
6) Number 4 is even more important because I am thinking of pairing up. Say 'cheers' to the thought, at least!
7) I need some cash. My bank balances are at an all time low.
8) Some big challenges are likely to come my way. I think it would be cakewalk for me, though. (When I say "I think", read "I am DETERMINED to make it a cakewalk")
9) I need to catch some movies at a theatre. I watched the last movie in October'09. Now, would you believe that?

I don't think I wanna jot down any more. With the clock hitting 3AM, it's time to hit the sack.

What are your resolutions for 2010? Feel free to jot down in the comments section. The page is all yours!