Wow its been 3 months since my last blogpost. Time has really gone by really fast.. a lot more has happened in these months than in probably 2 years now (2 yrs back was the last time when life changed drastically... i moved from college to office!). And the change spans across personal and professional life ! So, I moved into a new place (had been living in my old place for about 6yrs!), a great gang at work, see great new work coming my way for the next year, quite a few of my friends announced their engagements and weddings, watched quite a few nice movies, learnt to play tennis (which I now play regularly), went out for a couple of late night dinners with my gang at work, plus a music concert..and the best one - I found a great new pal !! If you are wondering what is the big deal in that, well, some of those are the things I did for the first time ;-)
This post is going to be rather haphazard, thanks to the number of things I wanna pen down. So let me first talk about my new pal. This pal got me the freedom and independence I was yearning for. He gives me a sense of belonging, he gives me the space I need to connect with myself. He has all the time in the world to listen to me talk. The only sad part is that I do not get to spend a lot of time with him. But am hoping soon I will be able to. So before you wonder who I am talk about, its my new Santro Xing, my very first vehicle, and the first for my family (and the reason am not getting enough time to spend with him is that I stay rather close to office, so not much driving involved, and not 100% confident to just go for long drives all by myself!). Bought it in September. Its a nice car, and just the feeling of being able to sit in the drivers chair is simply amazing. Didnt know driving at that time. Started learning after I bought it. The driving school course didnt help much. Thanks to Varun, who helped me out with it ! We would do long driving sessions in my apartment and once he felt I was ready to go on the roads, I started driving around, ofcourse with him sitting next to me. And then, slowly graduated to sitting in their alone and he driving right behind me ! We did that for about a week.. and then, voila! I was all by myself... Then, we went out for a couple of long driving sessions. Had lot of fun as we used to just drop by our pals places without any prior plan, had breakfast at vidyarthi bhavan, blah blah ! My driving experiences have been simply amazing! They have been a major source of entertainment for my office gang.. esp, the tea breaks! I am pretty confident now, though parking continues to be a major pain point. I suck at it, just cant seem to get the hold of it :-(
But as it is always the case with new cars, I too manged to injure it in a minor parking related accident. One morning while removing it from my parking space, managed to scrape it against a pillar that had a metal part protruding out ! Yikes.. it was a bad dent. The color came off completely. I was ofcourse heartbroken and upset. Got a lot of gyaan from people about the do's and dont's, to the extent tht I was confused about what I should really be doing ! This was within the first month of purchase. I finally decided to let the scratch be there atleast it was time for the first service. First service is done now, and my friend is back to his own original self. Unfortunate that I could not take a pic of that ugly scratch that had spoilt its looks for the first two months !
I think the other things that have happened probably deserve separate posts like this one.. which was dedicated to my new pal!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Shocking interview
(Image from timesjob)
Many job interviews are normally conducted on the phone if the candidate resides in a different location. Initially I guess people must have had there skepticism about the reliability of the process. I sure did. But, after a few telephonic interviews, I developed faith in this means of hiring, until last week, when to my surprise, the interviewee actually cheated !!
A senior colleague and I were scheduled to take a telephonic interview of a candidate with 6 years of experience in the industry. In order not to reveal any information about the candidate, we shall assume it was a female named 'A'. There was a lot of disturbance on the phone, as A was outside the office. The communication appeared broken. As always, it started with us wanting to find out about her previous job roles, projects, etc. We were not quite pleased with the answers as her knowledge appeared flaky. Nevertheless, we continued to probe. During the entire time, we not even in our dreams suspected foul play. We blamed her repeating the questions after us, he broken answers, her confused thoughts, her switching from one line of thought to another, etc, etc. to the poor communication link.
The interview was not going on well. Then came our final question. Which, as before, she repeated. And then, we heard a voice in the background that had some key words from the question. Fortunately, I could catch that in no time. We immediately put the phone on mute and exchanged glances. We knew what was going on. There was a pause for a while. And then started saying something, which was again quite abrupt. And now suspecting something amiss, we fired some more questions and she was a little confused. She took her own time to answer. And to our surprise, she went from one direction to another, 180 degrees apart. It was quite apparent that she had no clue what she was talking about. Just to confirm, we asked her a couple of more questions. And we found that there were uniform pauses after every question was asked and there were no complete sentences in her answers.
Clearly, after this, it was evident that there was someone who was prompting her the answers. She was repeating the questions to convey the same to him. The person must be writing the answers in broken sentences on a piece of paper. And in the hurry to answer, she must be just reading it out and not being able to form complete sentences. Also, since was not using her mind, she had no clue what she was saying (which was of course quite shocking considering her immense experience).
It is true that even if she was successful and did get a job offer, whether or not she is ultimately able to manage with the work, her resume could say that she worked in the company. However, this is so incorrect! What good would it be ?? Will she ever get the job satisfaction ? Will she ever be able to enjoy work ?? What about her career growth ? Well, to each his own! Quite unfortunate however.
A senior colleague and I were scheduled to take a telephonic interview of a candidate with 6 years of experience in the industry. In order not to reveal any information about the candidate, we shall assume it was a female named 'A'. There was a lot of disturbance on the phone, as A was outside the office. The communication appeared broken. As always, it started with us wanting to find out about her previous job roles, projects, etc. We were not quite pleased with the answers as her knowledge appeared flaky. Nevertheless, we continued to probe. During the entire time, we not even in our dreams suspected foul play. We blamed her repeating the questions after us, he broken answers, her confused thoughts, her switching from one line of thought to another, etc, etc. to the poor communication link.
The interview was not going on well. Then came our final question. Which, as before, she repeated. And then, we heard a voice in the background that had some key words from the question. Fortunately, I could catch that in no time. We immediately put the phone on mute and exchanged glances. We knew what was going on. There was a pause for a while. And then started saying something, which was again quite abrupt. And now suspecting something amiss, we fired some more questions and she was a little confused. She took her own time to answer. And to our surprise, she went from one direction to another, 180 degrees apart. It was quite apparent that she had no clue what she was talking about. Just to confirm, we asked her a couple of more questions. And we found that there were uniform pauses after every question was asked and there were no complete sentences in her answers.
Clearly, after this, it was evident that there was someone who was prompting her the answers. She was repeating the questions to convey the same to him. The person must be writing the answers in broken sentences on a piece of paper. And in the hurry to answer, she must be just reading it out and not being able to form complete sentences. Also, since was not using her mind, she had no clue what she was saying (which was of course quite shocking considering her immense experience).
It is true that even if she was successful and did get a job offer, whether or not she is ultimately able to manage with the work, her resume could say that she worked in the company. However, this is so incorrect! What good would it be ?? Will she ever get the job satisfaction ? Will she ever be able to enjoy work ?? What about her career growth ? Well, to each his own! Quite unfortunate however.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Uncertainty!
I hate being in uncertain circumstances. Life's hell when everything around you is uncertain...your future, personal life and even the house you are staying in! And in order to avoid this, I spent quite a lot of time last year and good part of this year to figure out exactly what it is that I want from life, so that I do not have to face with uncertainty...I had all the details figured out, of every aspect of my life ! But, alas, life never turns out the way you want it to (Ok nothing new...everyone knows it). As Randy Pausche mentioned, you will always be faced with obstacles- "WALLS". There is a saying, "If you want something very badly, the entire universe will conspire to give it to you". If this is true, and you are not getting what you think you want badly, it implies that in reality you do not want it badly! Now, the thing I do not understand is that "very badly" is quite an objective phrase. You could say that very badly here could mean that "something you will die without" ? Well, need not necessarily be true in all cases, for example, I will not die if I don't get a chance to pursue my higher studies...but I know I want to do it badly!!!
While, I have always believed in "whatever happens, happens for the good", but there are times, when you think - "why didnt that happen..am so unlucky! what happens next? I am in a mess". And thats when you start thinking about why is it happening only to you...why YOU alone ? At that very moment, you are unable to see what is good in all that is going on..and lose the steam to wait for the real good thing to happen.
I wonder if there is anything one can do to avoid having to live in uncertainty. Maybe yes, not to just have one plan ,but also plan for alternatives, have buffers, etc etc..all the management fundaes. However, am not quite sure how much of it you can really apply here. This requires a bit more thought.
And the most irritating thing about uncertainty is that if it has been brought upon you because of the way society functions or your being of a particular gender..ie, due to things that are not under your control! Ofcourse there are things one can do even in those circumstances, face it and fight it..they are the real heores. I would love to fight it out...but fight whom? Society..no problem! But family and friends ? They are the lifeline. Tough to be happy after making them unhappy. And thus its a difficult decision to make. One can't be selfish. Thus you are very often told to let go...sacrifice!
Ok the above are all jumbled up thoughts in my head. And come to think of it, it all sounds like the words/thoughts of a loser! But maybe its just a passing phase..hope its the later ;-)
While, I have always believed in "whatever happens, happens for the good", but there are times, when you think - "why didnt that happen..am so unlucky! what happens next? I am in a mess". And thats when you start thinking about why is it happening only to you...why YOU alone ? At that very moment, you are unable to see what is good in all that is going on..and lose the steam to wait for the real good thing to happen.
I wonder if there is anything one can do to avoid having to live in uncertainty. Maybe yes, not to just have one plan ,but also plan for alternatives, have buffers, etc etc..all the management fundaes. However, am not quite sure how much of it you can really apply here. This requires a bit more thought.
And the most irritating thing about uncertainty is that if it has been brought upon you because of the way society functions or your being of a particular gender..ie, due to things that are not under your control! Ofcourse there are things one can do even in those circumstances, face it and fight it..they are the real heores. I would love to fight it out...but fight whom? Society..no problem! But family and friends ? They are the lifeline. Tough to be happy after making them unhappy. And thus its a difficult decision to make. One can't be selfish. Thus you are very often told to let go...sacrifice!
Ok the above are all jumbled up thoughts in my head. And come to think of it, it all sounds like the words/thoughts of a loser! But maybe its just a passing phase..hope its the later ;-)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Happy Friendship Day!
Its great to walk with a friend
Fantastic to do silly things together!
I have been very lucky when it comes to friends. Been blessed with some really really fantastic bunch of friends...each of whom has been there for me when I most needed them. A very Happy Friendship Day to the smaller MOFFIA and ofcourse the bigger JANTA :-) You guys have been wonderful !!!
I got the above pics as a forward from a close friend. Rather cute...
Friday, August 1, 2008
My new cell
My friends find me a weird character...not only coz I dont go to movie theaters, but also because I don't use cell phones...Ok I know you are probably surprised at reading this (not if you know me). I used a cell phone for two months when at college and found it to be a nuisance. Somehow, started using it again a couple of months back. But note, I still had not given my cell number to a majority of my friends. I would always leave it in my bag, and carry it around only sometimes..ppl would call me and I would not answer! However, I still had it. Then, on a not_so_fine_day, I managed to lose it. Thankfully it was a 6 yr old piece :-)
Now I was without my cell. And that is when I realized that no matter I was not using it as much as people around me do, I had actually got used to it. In the back of my mind I knew that if I needed, I could get in touch with anybody anytime ! And now without it, I felt quite disconnected. I felt the need to have it back. And lo...I actually went out to pick up a new one for myself! (I really can't believe that I did that). I set the budget low...I got a Nokia 6805 (I guess once a Nokia, always a Nokia..ok am not really serious about that one!).
Its a nice one..though a little bulky..but a good feature set for the money I paid for it! Found the reception to be pretty good..besides that, has a basic camera, speaker phone, fm radio, mp3 player, bluetooth support, front panel display, wide screen. The keys are also nice and easy to work with. The UI is pretty decent as well. But what I didn't like is that if I have to disconnect a call, I can't do that very easily. The moment I flip the phone open, the call is answered !! I am not quite sure about it yet as I have not done much finding out...but if it is true, its rather weird.
Now I was without my cell. And that is when I realized that no matter I was not using it as much as people around me do, I had actually got used to it. In the back of my mind I knew that if I needed, I could get in touch with anybody anytime ! And now without it, I felt quite disconnected. I felt the need to have it back. And lo...I actually went out to pick up a new one for myself! (I really can't believe that I did that). I set the budget low...I got a Nokia 6805 (I guess once a Nokia, always a Nokia..ok am not really serious about that one!).
Its a nice one..though a little bulky..but a good feature set for the money I paid for it! Found the reception to be pretty good..besides that, has a basic camera, speaker phone, fm radio, mp3 player, bluetooth support, front panel display, wide screen. The keys are also nice and easy to work with. The UI is pretty decent as well. But what I didn't like is that if I have to disconnect a call, I can't do that very easily. The moment I flip the phone open, the call is answered !! I am not quite sure about it yet as I have not done much finding out...but if it is true, its rather weird.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Randy Pausch's Last Lecture
cheezo pointed me to this lecture by Prof Randy Pausch at CMU. This lecture was called the "The Last Lecture", as professor was suffering from an pancreatic cancer. Inspite of all the treatment given, he was told he had only 3 to 6 more months. He died on July 25, 2008.
Its an insiprational lecture, where professor presents insights into how he anaged to achieve all his childhood dreams, how one can enable others to achieve their dreams and some of the lessons he learnt in life. He comes across as a wonderful character, cheerful and full of energy. Couldn't believe when he actually did some push-ups in front of the audience!
My take backs from the lecture (there would be no point if I had not learnt anything from it ;-))
Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Its an insiprational lecture, where professor presents insights into how he anaged to achieve all his childhood dreams, how one can enable others to achieve their dreams and some of the lessons he learnt in life. He comes across as a wonderful character, cheerful and full of energy. Couldn't believe when he actually did some push-ups in front of the audience!
My take backs from the lecture (there would be no point if I had not learnt anything from it ;-))
- "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted"..how true !!
- Prof. on obstacles (ref to as brick walls) that tend to discourage you from following your dreams: "Brick Walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things". So if the drive to achieve something is too strong, the better the chances of someone breaking the wall. He goes on to add that, the obstacles are there to keep the "others" away and to just let you in...so dont lose focus and keep pursuing !!
- If you don't like someone, then you probably do not know him/her enough (or long enough). Everyone has a good side..you just have to wait to see it show.
Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
On moving to KDE4
I am a Gnome suer. Have religiously stuck to it for all these years. It is not that I did not venture out into the KDE domain..I did. And the first time I had, I had found it quite uncomfortable to work with. But, with so much talk about KDE4.0 and now KDE4.1, I was kinda tempted to give it a try (I know am late in doing this !!).
So I finally installed KDE4.1 on my Ubuntu Gutsy installation. I am no good at analyzing or commenting on piece of software, however, here goes my first impression...look and feel-wise...
So what did I like thus far ? Hmm...can't think of anything...maybe I am missing something ?!?!
Nevertheless, there is no denying that some of the best apps are available on KDE! Just that I use them on gnome desktop..like soooo many others!
Post publish edits: I must admit that I have not read all the facts on KDE4. varun just informed me that one of the idea is to have no icons on the desktop! But since I already had lots of stuff lying on my desktop, I probably saw the undesirable result. So, I think the right thing to do here is to read the facts first and go back and do the settings...
So I finally installed KDE4.1 on my Ubuntu Gutsy installation. I am no good at analyzing or commenting on piece of software, however, here goes my first impression...look and feel-wise...
- Too large Icons: The icons on the desktop are too huge by default (Or is it only my particular setting I do not know) !! The desktop looked all cluttered and not a least bit appealing...and visual appeal is the first thing you would look for.. I was rather disappointed !
- O2: In this default theme, the icons besides being larger, also have a shadow of sorts which makes the desktop look really ugly. You right click on the file, the terminology of the menu list options is quite different. Normally, you would have options pertaining to the file, ie, file related operations. However, the list here is : Icon settings, desktop configuration, alignment, add or remove widget, etc. Not sure if it is the same in earlier KDE versions.
So what did I like thus far ? Hmm...can't think of anything...maybe I am missing something ?!?!
Nevertheless, there is no denying that some of the best apps are available on KDE! Just that I use them on gnome desktop..like soooo many others!
Post publish edits: I must admit that I have not read all the facts on KDE4. varun just informed me that one of the idea is to have no icons on the desktop! But since I already had lots of stuff lying on my desktop, I probably saw the undesirable result. So, I think the right thing to do here is to read the facts first and go back and do the settings...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
X-Airport Road (Bangalore)
So the curtains finally came down on the HAL Airport. For those staying on Airport Road for more than 10 years, it was a mixed reaction. Some were happy that there would be no disturbance anymore and that the Airport Road traffic would ease, while others (the frequent travelers) were disheartened as they would now need to travel more than 50 km to get to the airport which was earlier a 5 minutes drive (for someone like me!). And for some others, it was just an _emotional_ attachment (sounds weird, but true).
There were many advantages of having the airport so close to my house. Of course, the biggest advantage was that I didn't have to leave home 3 hours before a flight. Second, it was so easy to go and pick up relatives and friends coming over. And the hidden advantage...many a times, friends and relatives did not have the time to drop by (coz they were on a short trip, or whatever else the reason), I used to either just catch up with them on the road across my house when they were headed to the airport, or at the airport itself (since it was walkable for me). Alas, this can happen no more! Now, I can't even think of going to the airport to pick or drop someone (a waste of time and money both).
However, as was expected, the traffic on Airport Road has decreased significantly. Its so much easier to cross the road now. The traffic gets cleared in one green signal. Even at night times (during peak international flight time) there used to be heavy traffic..but now, its like any other road.
So, overall I think it was beneficial as till now since I didn't have to travel, I have been enjoying the improved traffic situation and less pollution. But the day I have to travel or need to drop or pick up someone, I am sure to complain :-)
I wonder if there is any plan to change the name of the road ?! It still is airport road..though whenever I refer to it with that name, people tend to correct me by saying 'its old airport road' !!
There were many advantages of having the airport so close to my house. Of course, the biggest advantage was that I didn't have to leave home 3 hours before a flight. Second, it was so easy to go and pick up relatives and friends coming over. And the hidden advantage...many a times, friends and relatives did not have the time to drop by (coz they were on a short trip, or whatever else the reason), I used to either just catch up with them on the road across my house when they were headed to the airport, or at the airport itself (since it was walkable for me). Alas, this can happen no more! Now, I can't even think of going to the airport to pick or drop someone (a waste of time and money both).
However, as was expected, the traffic on Airport Road has decreased significantly. Its so much easier to cross the road now. The traffic gets cleared in one green signal. Even at night times (during peak international flight time) there used to be heavy traffic..but now, its like any other road.
So, overall I think it was beneficial as till now since I didn't have to travel, I have been enjoying the improved traffic situation and less pollution. But the day I have to travel or need to drop or pick up someone, I am sure to complain :-)
I wonder if there is any plan to change the name of the road ?! It still is airport road..though whenever I refer to it with that name, people tend to correct me by saying 'its old airport road' !!
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