Perils of/with a new driver

I have learnt to drive. In 2 years and a few months more, yes, I managed a driving license too. I can cruise the roads now, or so I thought. Little did I know, that I had barely passed the driving test. Little did I know that I had never in my driving classes pressed the brake that hard enough, that the motion would stop with just my contribution to the braking exercise. Little did I know there existed hand brakes, wipers, head-light-on switches (yeah, I thought the headlights come on automatically after 6 in the evening).
Lo and behold, here I was, behind the wheels, in my new WAGON-R. I liked the colour, I liked the price, I liked the tail lights and I thought I knew driving…so I bought it The friend, who accompanied me in the car, was in for a shock. What he imagined to be a lovely drive in a new smooth car, ended up being a start and stop exercise (starting the engine and losing it just after it moved a metre ahead), an arm drill (stretching out the hands wide enough outside the car, to warn other passer bys) combined with an automatic gear shift in a manual gear shift car(I needed another hand to change gears, while I held the steering with both my hands, and the clutch with a leg…c’mon God blessed me with just 1 more leg besides these as an appendage) Once all the calories were burnt for the day, we decided to swap seats. Did I not enjoy the drive back?

Online transactions and me

Every time I buy something online, this happens to me. Once I have chosen the product, filled in the details, entered the payment information like my credit card details, and click confirm, the next page fails to upload. I am left with no confirmation of my purchase. The network connectivity remains intact. Sometimes I am obliged with a kind message that says network too slow to complete transaction, please call to confirm. Most other times, I am left running behind the merchant to check the status of the transaction, and my credit card issuer who unfailingly debits my account especially when the transaction fails.

Trainings@work

Was away on a workshop training on non technical aspects. Two days at it made me think once again on whether classroom sessions help. It can never predict real life situations and demands. What is taught is many a times too textbook. But with full credit to the trainers in this particular session, they tried to incorporate as many activities as they can to explain the concepts in a more practical way. The diverse group attending the training ensured that many a day to day experience was recalled and put forth for discussion. In spite of all this, I continue to wonder how many of these class room concepts will become a part of my real life nature, that I blend them seamlessly into my everyday behavior and use them effortlessly without seeming contrived. But then, if not for these sessions, I would not even know what I am missing.

Coffee table Discussion

Manager to junior: “U see that ..(pointing to a round white patch on the wall)..that is the moon”

Junior1: Yeah..that is the Planet Moon
(Ignorance or Sarcasm?)

Junior2: Yeah..that is the big white moon we all see
(Yes-man)

Junior 3: Yeah..I also see the other satellites around it just like you pointed out
(Yes yes man)

The one who says “No, that is not a moon” is faced with a bleak future.
(This one may not be right either ) )

Quantitative vs Qualitative

As a student, I was indifferent to whether a course taught in class, was quantitative or qualitative in nature. According to many others, this does make a lot of difference to the way the exams are conducted and evaluated. There is a perceived sense of unfairness when it comes to evaluation in qualitative courses. A left brain influence, and hence, a poetic sense of being is associated with being able to do well in qualitative courses. Performing well here is not looked upon as favorably as its quantitative counterpart, as that supposedly directly reflects one’s intelligence, and this does not.

But, in day-to-day living, I would like to believe that it is the qualitative skill that comes in handy. To make complex computations, one is blessed today with the computer, or at least a calculator. Ability to dissect a situation, and arrive at a logical approach to the problem at hand, requires one to be more gifted with the ‘poetic sense’.

More often than not, everyday work is executed to completion, due to one’s level of comfort in interaction with his/her counterparts. Very rarely, is it a case of individual brilliance that shone through mindless boggling of information, and rocket science computations. Not to underestimate such efforts in the academic world, even there, it is the ability to be able to crunch quantitative problems and present it in a manner that makes a qualitative difference to the stakeholder is what stands one in good stead.

All in a day’s work

Work involves meeting people, impressing a few, treading on a few’s toes, putting together mindless documents, adhering to the process. But what makes work more interesting and challenging is the peripherals. Am I inadvertently referring to Maslow’s need hierarchy theory?Quite possible. When I say peripherals, I am talking about the comforts one has come to expect with the job, like the travel to work, the food at the work place, the restrooms décor and so on. Society’s plush needs vary by personal preferences, however the need exists in some form or the other in all.

I used to be taken with surprise and think it was an exaggerated tale when somebody spoke of a someone else moving on to a different job just to be able to accommodate his/her lifestyle, albeit not for just the money. Today, it is no longer the fat pay packets and quality of work..I am increasingly coming across a lot of job hoppers for reasons as mundane as the cafeteria food. In this day and age, where loyalty does not matter in all kinds of jobs, maybe the trend is not misplaced.

Are there too many indirect and confusing references in this post? Maybe, it was meant to be.

Family Yatra

Travel with family is intended to be one of the ways to let a family re discover itself from the mundane ways of routine life. However, unless there is a patriarch in the family, planning and executing this travel becomes an arduous task. One might think the dozens of options and preferences one is confronted with is the hurdle in undertaking this task. However, as has happened in my case, time and again it is the reluctance to take a decision that has made this a contemplative topic.

Let me give a brief background first. I am one with lots of time on my hands inspite of an active work life. My parents are simple folks who spend their time leading a quite but active life. Every six months, boredom visits me like a migraine. I love to travel, and don’t really care much about the company that accompanies me on these travels..or do I?

Every time I have tried to pull in my family into some sort of a leisure trip, I have got varied excuses. These may range from genuine health problems, to something being a romantic spot and not fit for a family visit. They do go on the occasional pilgrimage, so I attributed to this lack of interest to my choice of place.

Since I just like to travel, I told them to go ahead and arrange for travel to any place, in any form of transport, for as many days as the place requires, given the constraints of applying early enough for leave in my office. Two years have passed, and I have not heard a single suggestion from them.

We never had problems of this sort in taking off to wild places when I was in school and my parents led a busy work life. All this leads to me one nagging thought…am I too soft in getting my wishes? Why have we suddenly lost all interest in exploring the world? Is it the age catching up with my parents…am I too demanding for a more active life, a different leap from the sedentary lifestyle I lead, or is it just that I have not been able to become the deciding authority that my father once easily assumed where we were informed a week before the travel that there is a plan to go on a tour, and these were the places in mind, we shall go as per bookings available.

Maybe, sometimes one has to just wield the stick!

Hii…

Welcome to my blog world! Leading a revolution through crapping may be the fallout of this blog, but no such tall claims until the whole world begins to spin on the same crap axis. Dilbert to Bush have mastered crapping..for the uninitiated, here goes..

Crap is a serious form of art, that is fast gaining popularity in today’s economy. There is no science behind it; till date, it has passed across generations only through self persistence, and not through the genes or by rote or by serious practise. If one were to look at this art form more closely, one would realize that it is also a no-cost, highly entertaining hobby which requires two equally minded people or one highly skilled ‘crapper’ who can keep up the momentum.

Crappers are a rare breed; by the time you recognize one, they have already moved on to a different plane of thought. It becomes all the more difficult to finger point one as they do not exhibit any specific patterns while crapping. Good natured cribbing is perhaps practiced by most of them, but it need not be the case always. As they say, it takes a crapper to identify another. A non-crapper identifying a crapper is mostly a guess work.