Where is it?

I am searching for something, but I don’t know what. That is the root of the problem. Many of us, rather, I would say, every one of us is searching for something, definitely, we are searching for something, looking everywhere for something, but we surely don’t know what is it ?

Though, we don’t even know, what we are searching for, we are asking ourselves the question, “Where is it?”. Isn’t it weird? Do I sound like a maniac? Do I talk like a psycho?

First things first, “Why am I writing about this ?”

This is the “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”. From the bottom, I guess, I am on the third level. I am desperately trying to climb up as fast as possible, but it seems that the last two stages are the most difficult tread on. But, my patience has started showing signs of ageing.

I hate “Psychology”. But, I believe in it.

This theory looks OK to me. At-least, it resembles my hierarchy. But, do you really think that human desires or needs are hierarchical? Give it a thought, because many people(read #!@#%^$# Psychologists) disagree. I am one of them. 

Post 2009

1 month is about to pass by, and today, on the 25th day of 2009, I am writing down my first post of this year.

Well, 4 gone, 2 still under the covers. But, not much expectations from them too. I guess, I am pretty much sure now, as to how should I travel my life. But, present times are difficult. Global meltdown, recession, bourses tumbling, cash crunch, find their mention in the daily news. Amidst all these, there are more violent incidents taking place all around.

I am not going to blabber much in this post, since, I don’t have a topic today. Just, wanted to give a start to 2009, since nothing has happened that would permit me to give it a great start, so, here I am,

A SUTBLE START TO 2009……HAPPY NEW YEAR…..

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.

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 my 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 ?”

#%%$^&  #$@!%^ $&&*#$ !#@@#$ %^%$^

The Foggy Mornings

Winters are here, and the best place to spend most of your weekend hours is definitely 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.