OFFICE OFFICE -2

Girl : Have you seen the mail on new joinees? You definitely must’ve noticed
Guy1 : yes yes, a new girl in so-n-so dept. She seems cool.
Guy 2: Yes.
Girl : She also mentioned her hobby as Gourmet Cooking
Guy1: What’s so special abt that, every girl cooks!
Guy 2: oh! its special alright! its a kind of an art for eating less and end up paying more. (Kam Khao, Zyaada Baro)
PS: Guy1 dropped the idea of meeting her and getting acquainted!

———————————————————————————-

Guy 1: So how did it go?
Guy 2: What?
Guy 1: The interview
Guy 2: How did u know? I just finished it, u too got a call from the firm?
Guy 1: no, but everyone on the floor knows. You were leaning on to the mass-com during tele-con. Its ‘the talk of the town’ now!

———————————————————————————-

Senior: As APJ says Without your involvement you can’t succeed. With your involvement you will fail.
Trainee: Sir, did u mean to say “u can’t fail” ?
Senior: ha ha ha..yes u r right! I was just joking

———————————————————————————-

Senior: Your letter is here. You are doing excellent job. Even at times like these, I know you are working hard and work of two people. Keep up the good work.
Guy: Thank you sir.
Senior: As I said, the company is not doing so well, and at times like these your work though recognised, company offers to pay only half the amount agreed. I’ve strongly raised up this point to higher concerned though.
Guy: *goes numb*

Wordless Wednessday – Cat goes hiding – yet again

Book Review – The Bricklayer

The Bricklayer is a brilliant novel of Noah Boyd.

Paul Lindsay,A former FBI agent who writes under the pseudonym Noah Boyd, provides the thrills, colour and the spirited details to make it a most fascinating and stunning novel filled with non-stop action. The pacing of this multilayer plot is brisk; there are just enough twists in the suspense to keep the reader on the edge throughout. The author provides an excellent storyline to showcase Steve’s special character traits and ensures to keep the reader’s interest.

At times some events sounded a bit ridiculous but still found it highly entertaining. One of the reasons why The Bricklayer is so effective is, Boyd writes of what he knows and has done it so with authenticity. He introduces an enigmatic yet poignant new hero, Steve Noah Vail (The middle name says it all).

Steve Vail could be Jack Reacher’s twin. Steve Vail is a former FBI agent, who had problem with bureaucracy and chose to be fired for insubordination. Although his present occupation is that of a brick layer in Chicago, he is soon called upon when the FBI wanted to stop “Rubaco Pentad”; a group who knows a great deal about how the FBI works and is out to disgrace the Bureau. And the gang has managed to outsmart FBI by killing some prominent people and threatens to continue unless their demands are met. FBI deputy Assistant Director Kate Bannon persuades Steve Vail to take up the case. And thus follows a series of exciting & exhilarating scenes in which Vail matches himself against a group who seem less interested in money than in killing him. The interactions between Kate and Vail is nice and has some romantic undertones.

I look forward to reading a lot more Steve Vail in future books. I am looking forward to reading the next instalment “Agent X”.

——————————————————–

PS:

Good News: Millennium Films has acquired film rights to The Bricklayer. Starring Gerard Butler in the role of ex-FBI agent Steven Vail. Movie to be released in 2013.

Sad News: A website cites Paul Lindsay (age 68) passed away in September 2011.

OFFICE OFFICE -1

Somethings in life are better felt than read! Written communication cannot absorb the entire emotions/feelings..

Still I’ll try to share some happenings that occur in office:

——————————————————————-

2 Guys meeting at Office Pantry after a long time
Guy 1: Hey, How r u doing man? How’s life? Having fun eh!!
Guy 2 (replies blandly) : I’m Married.

——————————————————————-
Guy1: Boss, I need to know abt the other packages also.. I’d say job orientation is essential.
Boss: (Citing Example): See, Rotation / Orientation is not that good.. u’ve much more to learn in your current field of expertise. See in India, once u r married, ur wife is for life long, u dont change her for anything. Same should be applied to ur job profile too. But yes, u’ll ve a feeling that, something else was better, which cannot be the case. So – Focus on one!

———————————————————————-

Many such instances occur in our daily life.. which makes our not so interesting office hours lighten up with small bouts of laughter

to be continued…

The Lucky Charm

Marriage season is on! And yes your friends and colleagues are in some mad rush to loose their bachelor degree..
A stage arises in a guy’s life when he thinks he have had his days being a bachelor.. His parents pressurizing him to get married and he has to (maybe) reluctantly agree to their wishes. Once a guy agrees to his parents wishes, he too falls in the ‘never ending’ search for his right future partner.

He has to go through all those ups and downs of rejections.. Being rejected and getting to reject ‘wannabe-brides’ in a whisker (thanks to the matchmaking sites and their business blooming) does brings the ‘lows’ in a guy’s life. [He thinks that its the lowest state of self-esteem he has or will ever fathom ... he still don't ve a clue of life after marriage.. but he still dreams].

Coming back to the title of this blog entry… To some extent everyone is superstitious.. and when it comes to some lucky charm, people never hesitate.

So lucky charm and marriage … ahem!!!! quite a gamble!

Reminds me of a movie I had watched sometime back “Good Luck Chuck”. It was a fun movie. Having said that, the lucky charm about whom I’m citing is also a guy! But do not relate him to character Chuck – it is not that lucky for him!!

Now about the charm he casts!!

He has definitely proved himself to be lucky – atleast for his roommates.

Yes, whomsoever has become his roommate have had an upper hand in getting their marriage fixed SOON.

He used to be known as “Mangalam Sir” (Tamil Movie Boys’ Vivek’s Character) for his managerial skill.

But now: the name as meant to be ‘fortunate’ is definitely so for his roommates when it comes to their marriage.

Current Status: He now has 3new roommates. Its heard they are still to decide who will be sharing room with him.

WILL THE LEGEND be safeguarded? Only time will tell!! Till then he’s MANGALAM Sir!!!

My Blog: 2011 in review – from WordPress.com

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

———————————————————————————

PS: WordPress.com have very nicely worded about the visitors. Thank You All

2011 + 1 = 2012

2011 – What Kind of Year Has It Been!!!

Moments of Highs n Lows…

It has been a YET ANOTHER YEAR.. or is it?

Some Moments that shall be cherished for long…

Somethings and Some people shall always be missed … (Many who were a part of your life or an inspiration to u)

But we go into a New Year with New Hopes & Aspirations.. And of-course Some resolutions…

Looking forward to a Better and Hopeful 2012 (Midst all those wandering End of World rumors) … !! HOPE is all that u Need!!

Hoping that the ‘key-code’ 2012 surprises and bring in loads of happiness!!!

So see u next year!!!!

PS: And those who wish to “Sleep all through 2011 to wake up in 2012″ .. DREAM ON!! Get a Life!!!!

World of Opportunists!

Opportunities are all around… Created by opportunists or say identified by them… Every single one of us has an hidden opportunist in us – all that required is identifying ‘one’!

The pessimist would pick the glass half empty, while the optimist would choose it half full. Opportunist will fill the glass mixing his drink!

As simple as that! Cashing in on any opportunity..

Its again in one’s mindset. How one directs his/her thought process.

 The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the opportunist adjusts the sails.

Its a matter of choice.

Choices!?? No, it cannot be a choice! its like turning a blind eye!

 A pessimist will look at the red stop light, an optimist sees the green light, an opportunist definitely could be colorblind

Life moves on! The selfish advantages taken by opportunists are always discussed, especially if that opportunist is one from your office.

Missed opportunities / being an opportunist does it to us! The thought “arrrgh! Y didnt I think of it 1st” says it all!

More to deliberate… maybe sometime later…

Book Review – The Secret of The Nagas

After reading “The Immortals of Meluha“, I knew I definitely will have my hands on the sequel.

Cover Page

When you put in your imagination to bring gods as mortals from a mythology, it’s quite a task and should be well thought of, as some characters are far more fanciful to be human. And the author Amish has done a commendable job. The tales and fables we have heard from our grandparents about Shiva and his ganas is brilliantly “reconstructed differently”.  Author has taken characters and names from Indian mythology given them ‘life’ in this book with intriguing tale and everything seems to connect pretty well. His writing definitely touches the heart.

The writer has an eye for detail; it has a positive and negative effect at times. His language maybe slightly mediocre, but then it connects with the reader. Well words like Meters, Missiles, “Mumbo-Jumbo” riddles, radio waves, accumulator machines, India etc may not really ring a bell for a tale taking place in 1900BC. but should anyone care about those?

As the second book starts from where the first book ends, the chase is on.  While the events in 1st book saw story opening in Mansarovar, then to Meluha and ending in Swadweep; events in this book unfolds itself in Swadweep, through Kashi & Branga and ends in Dandak Forest.

The description & characterisation of the Nagas are lovely. I was really surprised with the turnout of events across “The Lord of the People” and “Naga Queen”. I didn’t really expect it to turn out that way.

The story moves fast and without pause, and is definitely a page-turner. The story is just not about Lord Shiva and his human form. It’s not just the male characters but the female characters that are brought out in strength and reflect them as to why they are well-intentioned to be the goddesses. Equality, Justice, Truth, Loyality, Trust, Conflict of Interest, Ethics etc. are some of the social concepts that come into limelight.

Talking about detailing, I’ll have to contradict my earlier comment at places, since some matters are not discussed further. Eg: The so-called strange Branga Rituals and The Plague that have no further mentions.

If you loved Sati in The Immortals of Meluha, then Anadamayi is sure to capture your attention in this book. Many other interesting characters are also brought to life and do their part.

If you’ve read The Immortals of Meluha, you must read The Secret of The Nagas. And if you’ve not read both the books of Shiva Trilogy and are even a mite interested in Indian Mythology, buy both the books.

My hands will definitely be on Amish’s 3rd book “The Oath of the Vayuputras” when it releases. Looking forward to it.

Overall Rating: 7 /10

PS: One can follow author @amisht

One can read My review of his 1st book: “The Immortals of Meluha”

Companies, Assets, Appraisals and Emotions

Employees are a Company’s Biggest Asset. Or thats what everybody (The Company HR) says.

Let me take an example of each one of us.

How many of you will agree to the fact the we tend to take some things that are ours or that we think are ours for granted.

Appraisal- the way an org reacts to the way we react(Work) to them.

Its all in the appraisals…its also the time for the organisation to prove how important / unimportant their assets really are. Really?

Yes, appraisals can be a reality check. But to which direction? No one is so sure. No Bell Curve or other ‘Techniques’ actually satisfy an employee.

The funnier part is the emotions that are involved in the process.

And to name a few: Hope, Anxiety, Excitement, Expectations during the time of filling in the forms

and Hope, Surprise, Joy, Anger, Curiosity, Astonishment at the ‘hand-over’ of appraisals.

The emotions surge in and out at varied proportions. The mixed bag comes in all sizes.

Its all human nature.

Comparison or Correlation is inseparable characteristic that we all have and that hits a sour note.

I’m still waiting for my appraisal letter. (Eagerly? I guess so!)