Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The clock’s TICKING…

And here it comes, finally, 31st December, 2008. Looking back at the 365 days that have gone by, if I were to categorize the year 2008 as “Happy” or “Sad”, it was definitely a “Happy” one.

So, with yet another year knocking at the doors, everyone must be busy finishing their office work, and trying to leave home early today. But, I am at peace, at home, writing away my last words of ‘08.

I have no plans for the coming year, no resolutions (after I realized that I haven’t been able to keep any of them), no big dreams, no expectations from ‘09.

08 was………… But one thing ………No…there are so many things that I want to write, but I don’t have the time, Sorry…Please wait for my other posts in ‘09.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

My First Project in MS Excel

Everybody(almost) knows that I am an SAP consultant having an experience of more than 2 years in the IT industry. Even Resource Manager Classmy managers here are cognizant of this fact. My resume speaks volumes about my experience, achievements and abilities. But this darned recession has hit the managers of my current recruiter. When all the big shots are trying to reduce operating costs in this crisis, employing creative and innovative ways of their own, my company is no different. They started off with removing toilet papers and soap. I had to buy half-a-dozen of kerchiefs for office use only. I thought this was the worst cost-cutting measure that any company could ever implement, but in today’s world, where bourses are tumbling down all around, I should have been prepared for the worst.

Since last July, I am on bench. How convenient! I used to go to office for only 30 minutes each day.How fortunate, when everyone else is working so hard to save their jobs. I still am, I thank GOD for that, wondering each day, “Why am I not being fired?” And since last week, I have been assigned to a project, which is worse than being on bench.

One fine morning, my manager called me up, and asked me to report to office in 30 minutes. I was still in bed. But, I said, “Ok Sir, See you in 20 minutes”. My office is just 1km away from my bed (may be a 50 mts less). When I went into his cabin, he smiled and welcomed me. The first thought that came to my mind, “Cool, at-last I got a project”. He asked me to pull a chair, and sit besides him, really really close. While I was handling the chair, he was clicking away his mouse, and 10s of windows were popping up. I thought, “Wow, this project is going to be the project of my lifetime. May be this might turn out to be an onsite opportunity”.

We settled down well, and he turned his laptop towards me and said, “Before we begin, Let me tell you this, this is very confidential. You are not allowed to discuss about this with anyone else.” I thought, “Maan, This is a perfect reward for me to have so much patience, for the 4 months that I was on bench. Bring it on. I am ready to roll.”

And then he explained the whole project in minute detail. By the time he had finished his explanation, I thought to myself, “Yaar….I should have resigned long before.”

There was a site, which gave out information about various tenders, but at a price. My company’s free trial subscription would be expiring soon, and my manager wanted me to extract information about all the tenders available on that site before the subscription expired, into an excel sheet. I was initially so excited about the whole thing when he had mentioned words like “confidential”, “tenders”, “deadline”, “high-level stuff”, but now I wanted to kill that fellow. He had said that he was an IIM graduate, but I never believed him. What the hell, Can’t you register for another free trial with another user name? I asked him the same question. He looked confused, taken aback and after thinking about some time, he said, “I don’t know, but you have to do this by tomorrow evening”.

Wow, I sometimes wonder, how can people who crack CAT and enter into the IIMs, be so dumb. What do the IIMs do to their common sense? When I returned to my seat, the first thing I did was to try to create a free trial subscription for myself, and I was able to. But still, by the end of next day, I sat for hours in-front of my computer screen to compile data from the website, created a 6MB MS Excel file, zipped it and mailed it to my manager. Instantly, I got a thanks mail, but there was a question for me. “Can you please re-send the file with an “xls” extension ?”

#%%$^&  #$@!%^ $&&*#$ !#@@#$ %^%$^

Sunday, December 21, 2008

The Foggy Mornings

Winters are here, and the best place to spend most of your weekend hours is tree-in-fogdefinitely your warm and cozy bed, with a thick blanket. A steaming cup of tea or coffee just adds to the ecstasy. Today when I woke up, it was really foggy, at-least, by Bangalore standards. But the smell, the chill and the cold instantly took me back to my college days in Kurukshetra. Winters were lovely back then, even when the Sun shone at it’s highest point, it was not blinding. It was all white, throughout the day, all winter. Not a ray of sun was able to touch the ground for days. And the first thing we did after getting up from bed, was to run to the Khokha for a cup of tea and a cigarette. I miss those foggy mornings.

By the time I finished writing these few lines, the fog was gone, and so did all my memories. The sun was shining bright.

Today is the SNAP DAY. Oh no……… The Admit card print out!!!! Thank God, the test begins at 2, I can still have my daily tea.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

My Dearest SE K550i

Lovely morning. Hectic day in office, I had to sit from 11 to 5 today. Had to see sony-ericsson-k550i-blackoff a friend who was leaving Bangalore, and then when I was coming back, I thought I would save some pennies by taking the bus (on someone’s recommendation), but that cost me Rs. 4350/- .

Someone stole my cell in the bus. A little bit of tension. Got down, and used the pay phone after such a long time. Pay Phones have their own utility, I thought they have lived their lives, but they are still useful in today’s mobile world.

But, the phone was instantly switched off by the rogue. And all my hopes of getting my cell back were lost. No problem. Next steps!!!

1. Block my SIM .  The Airtel shop was closed by the time I reached there.

2. Had to meet a friend. Had an appointment, but without my cell, I didn’t know the time. So, I used the Pay phone for the second time today. Had dinner and went with her to get my new mobile.

3. Buy a new mobile. Global Access. The cheapest SE, which had USB connectivity, so that I could get back all the contacts without any trouble. Cost me Rs. 4350.

4. Get back home. How wonderfully Bangalore autowalas behave??? 

5. Tomorrow morning, block the SIM. Reach Airtel shop and block the old one and get a replacement. And live happily.

I want to say sorry and thank you to my dear SE K550i for all the lovely moments that we had spent together. So many hours of conversations, so many messages. Although I could have never imagined my life without you, but it seems that  Destiny has a different story for both of us. No matter where you are, I will always miss you. I don’t know if you would ever remember me again, but I will always remember you and cherish the moments that we have lived together. sony_ericsson-w200

Well, I just forgot to mention, my new mobile…. Sony Ericsson W220i. She is my new baby now. Hope we will be compatible with each other. Only time will tell.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

What a spectacle !!!

Moon on 1st december

I don’t remember the date, but it was somewhere in November. What a spectacle. A smiling face, which looked like a 2 year olds drawing. I wouldn’t have looked up into the sky that day, but for a friend who called me up and asked me to look up. Fortunately, the sky was clear and I was not in office, else I would have missed this amazing arrangement of our MOON and the two planets (not sure which ones were they).

But one thing I realized, that in today’s world also, there are people who have time to look up into the sky, look at the stars and enjoy the beautiful spectacles which are still a mystery for us. I remember those summer nights at home, when everyone of us used to gather in the evening on the terrace, with tea and chat away the evenings. How wonderful those times were. But, with cable TVs and the Internet, I thought those times could never be re-lived by the humans. But now, I believe, we can really do those childish things again, as and when we wish.

I called up many people and asked them to look into the sky. I was really surprised, they already knew. Wow……

And by the way, it was 1st of December……The picture might not be very clear in this black background, but try finding the three white figures above.