What do I need to do?

The following conversation between a budding engineer and a bored , gives "my" answers to this question.

Friend: Hello :)


Me: Hey there. Long time!


Friend: Ya, quite some time. Was busy in my 7th semeter project preparation


Me: Hmm,how is it going?


Friend: Good.. no major hiccups so far.


Me:Amen,


Friend: Hmmm, so how long in IT? 2 years??


Me: yes, 2 years this september.


Friend: how does it feel?


Me: I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes.. I feel the weariness.


Friend: :)


Friend: I have a question.


Me: Shoot..


Friend: Which is better, tcs or infosys? I got thro Infi for the heck of it yesterday. Had a on-campus call.


Me: You prefer strange organisations even for the heck of it!!


Friend: :) now tell me in 1 words how are the 2 companies..


Me: Why do you add to my woes? The client wants me to cut down the estimation of a projects by 10%. My lead wants me to gives numbers of the order of 1000 hours per quarterly release? Totally tangential demands.. And now you want me to describe the major Indian IT hubs in 1 word!!!


Friend: Come on..


Me: TWINS.


Friend: Bingo... you actually did use one word...

Me: Well, its my opinion. It may not be the entire truth, of course.


Friend: Another question: What does one need to survive here?


Me: :), why are you putting me to test on a lazy saturday?

Friend: I need to know.


Me: The most obvious skills viz, communication, basics of what you have learnt... anyone can harp on these for long hours. But here is something that my friend passed to me:


1. Know when to talk


2. Its ok even if you break the first rule. But know when to shut up. This can keep you in sane mind


3. As long as you do not prove to be worthless during the time of the interview, your employer would even hire and retain a monkey with a good haircut!! quoting Dilbert here with the "retaining" being my add on.


4. The egos are big and fat as the salary packages. Make sure that you do not step on them.


5. Learn to play tennis. You always need to put your ball out of your court.


6. There will always be a sniffer in your team. He is usually the most talkative and the most approachable. He sniffs for information and feeds it to your boss. Any potential threat will be nipped in the bud.


7. Dont gossip. Everyone is busy doing it. You can keep yourself busy by laughing at them


8. Observe people. They are a great source of live jokes.


9. Be true to your work and yourself. The rest are all worthless and devoid of substance.

Vivaah

Life can boast of many first times ... the first book, the first job, the first boss, the first bad decision, the first goof-up, the first date, the first kiss, the first altercation, the first time you spilled coffee at the most inappropriate time, the first skid off the moped, the first sight that didnt turn into love, the first tear in public, the first guy and among many other firsts, the first time I watched the movie Vivaah... if I can attempt to use one word to define this ageless saga is anachronism.


There was a time when there was a clear division among the movies that were recycled from the bollywood movie-manufacturing industry. Tut tut, did I say Bollywood... Purists of this industry please forgive me for the blasphemy. I heard of late that someone did not like Bollywood being called "Bollywood"... argh pbbht!!!

Coming back to where I had started, I scoffed at the folks who had watched the movie. I was not sure what impetuous was needed for someone to watch the movie. Sarcasm was evident in my tone whenever I spoke to someone who had bore the videographic tome for 3 hours. Alas, I can scoff no more.

The first time I watched it, I was surprised to receive the world neatly wrapped in a glossy wrapping paper, with a red satin ribbon tied round it. Perfect and boring... My friend Dipti had put in the CD and was watching it in rapt attention. Nothing could shake her from there. She even knew the dialogues by memory. I was amazed by her taste. Of course, I did not appreciate what was unfolding on the screen, reel by reel. This is was my memorable reaction to the near-perfect-family-minus-a-bad-mother movie.

The second time when the movie was playing, I realised that I need to put aside my prejudices and watch the movie with an open mind. It is then that I saw the innocence portrayed. The spirit is so palpable. The emotions are so evident in each moment.

Simplistic depiction of the story. It does not force the right or wrong of characters. For example, the protagonist's aunt is depicted as a shrew. Except in one scene, where her husband berates her for her behavior, there is no animosity slung towards her. The movie does not preach, neither precribes. Well, none of the Barjatya movies have. My friend stated, " The movie should have been premiered a decade ago. It would have been a mega money grosser then. We have lost the innocense to appreciate such narration." How right... We have lost the sensitivity take notice and applaud this effort.

I thought the director let us down this time. But, Am glad to be wrong. I just needed to grow up to like the movie. Am grateful to have given myself a second chance.

N70?

When i got out of Paal 9/11, my office premises and walked to the metro station, my eyes came to stop at a cute guy, working in the same office as mine, waiting for the metro 54. Little did I know that I would be sitting opposite to him in the bus 300. If Nostradamous had predicted this as well, then I would have worked longer today.. till 2100 hours.

I reached the Bijlmer station only to see the bus 300, still 13 minutes into near future. Meanwhile my colleague, let me call him A started chatting with the cute face, call him B. The conversation veered towards mobile phone, Nokia N70, since the cute face was toying with it. Before I forget the details of the conversation, let me pen it down...

A: Which cell is that?

B: N72..

A: How much do you use it?

B: what??

A: How much of it do you use? Are you well-versed with all the applications that this box comes with? I have come to hear that it the closest to a computer.

B: Ya, I have used as a modem to connect to the net, to read pdfs, word documents, listen to music, PDA, take pictures, of course. But it is pathetically slow. This is the major problem. Not that only my handset crawls, but all the N70 boxes are sluggish.

A: Is it cos of the memory?

B: I dont know. Not pretty sure of that. Actually, I can install my own applications on this, MSword, Powerpoint, Excel, etc. The OS is not symbian, this is another contributing factor for its slow response time. Though Sony ericsson is fast, you can only install applications from a custom menu. In N70 it is awesome, it is custom. It also needs an anti-virus and a fire wall since you can connect to the net so easily with this.

Me: When will oranjebaan arrive? Why is the bus chugging along like a rope train in Ooty? Kabhie hum raste ko, aur uske haath mein rahe N70 ko dekhate... Hmmmmmmmm...

A: Nokia is coming up with an application that can sync with google..

B: Nokia?????? . With my current phone, I can sync my email contacts with any mail server. Pull down all my contact lists, calender, even read my personal messages from my mail accounts... Awesome it is. I wonder how many contacts he has? You know, I have tried reading pdf docs on this. We have to scroll left and right to read a line completely. Mess it is. I could however view power point ppts on this.

Me: Yaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnnnn..

A: Now that the iphone is here, i wonder how long will N series hold the center stage. The Nseries is not acceptable for executives, nor is the iphone. Nseries is the "thing" for them.

B: Of course, even the blackberry.

A: The blackberry has a problem. The executives need a keyboard. I do not think it is handy with a joy stick. Anyways, ipods and executives do not look good, you know, not an executive match. Did you see the rush for the iphone in the US? Sold out on the debut itself.

B: Hmmm.. yes. I did. And you know regarding the iphone.....

And then Oranjebaan arrived and I got out.

Marriage! I do

In micronomics, politics, science there is a concept called bandawagon effect. In totality, it essentially means that, "people often do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. The effect is often pejoratively referred to as herding instinct, particularly as applied to adolescents. Without examining the merits of the particular thing, people tend to 'follow the crowd'. The bandwagon effect is the reason for the bandwagon fallacy's success."

Having said this, can we question ourselves if the same theory can be extended to explain certain man-employed institutions, one among them being marriage. In recent times (not that i have seen many other times), this is more than evident in my immediate surroundings. Yesterday X got married. Y is getting engaged soon, so will Z. Then the A, B , C follow.

There are certain beliefs that I hold dear, fast and hard. There is a certain quantum of learning that one must do alone, without the supportive comfort of a crutch. We have begun living, or rather surviving, a life where we can dare to make mistakes and win our own wars, lose a few battles, or as in my case, losing many battles miserably - jarring and ignoble defeats...


I wonder what is that prompts us to say "Ok, Let me give it a try, sorry, not 'it', but 'him/her'". I know, actually knew, a guy who has seen 55 gals. I have written about this specimen in one of my other blogs. How many is the right number? What are you trying to guage here? Is it your level of patience? Or do you keep looking until the futility of the pursuit numbs your senses so as to daze you into accepting anyone out of sheer defeat. Or, Do you succumb to the unsettling fact that your never-reducing age will soon reflect on your face too?


Well, well, well... how many is the right number.. 'One, two, three... remember there is no limit to counting'... Hail mary, mother of God, Is it even possible! Meeting a couple or more of guys/gals may not necessarily help you decide on the criteria that you expect in your guy/gal, but certainly will help you decide what you "DONT WANT". Isn't this more important? This may received as negative perception. Why look at the thorns when there is the rose!!! Motherhood statements galore...


When I questioned my senior colleague, who recently said, "I do", why he married the one he did? His answer was pretty simple. "We struck a chord"... Were you playing guitar?? I asked a similar question to another friend, her answer was slightly on the conservative side. We spoke for 8 hours and then I knew it had to be him and ME... This reminds me of honey came in and she caught me red-handed. blah blah blah... It wasn't me. I like this song.

Lastly, saying "I do" is not difficult. As long as one does not wake up one fine morning and bawl,
"What the hell did I do"
"Why did I do"
"How did I do"

At the end of the spate of questions, you may not have the answer to the most simplest of all, "When did I do"... you would love to forget the day you said, 'I do'.