Say 'No' and be an Enemy!

This was initially drafted to post in the Cognizant Blogs, but my Manager stopped me from doing so. So, I've got to share it somewhere, where can I publish other than my own Blog?!

You might have heard about the 'Art of saying 'No''. The following scenario story may have happened really. To you, or to me! You know!

The Art of saying ‘No’ is something that I acquired a few years before. I’m nothing but “Yes” to all, a few years before. Infact, during my 1st ever job after college, where I was appointed as a “Computer Operator” for 3 months, I touched the computer 3 times. Rest of the time, all I did was get coffee/tea for the management, answer the phone! (Good Morning, N****i Trading!) In my first ever professional job – as an online Tutor, I was good at what I did. But then, one of the management folks saw my MSExcel ‘skills’ (!) and moved me from online tutoring to Billing alias Back office! But, I never did say ‘No’. After I learned the art of saying ‘No’, I did face a few problems. People above you like to hear ‘Yes’ all the time! I’m now facing the after effects of saying ‘No’!

If someone looks at my resume, they may think that this guy is so unreliable – keeps on changing the job! I’ll say that the consequences of saying ‘No’ and lot more guts were the reason. I quit I*****s because I said ‘No’ to the Bangalore transfer (from Pune) when I expected a transfer to Chennai (which they promised for a family emergency). I know I had some guts to throw away an important career, but when your family needs you, there’s no need for you to chase the money or career! I quit P*****s because I was put into a Testing Project where I have no idea what Testing is! I still remember – second day on which I joined the project – a person came to me and asked me to write a ‘Test Case’ and I asked him ‘What is a Test Case?’! The interview time promises were not kept by the P*****s people (All I asked them was to give me a project which has UNIX and Oracle technology!) and I had to find another employer who can offer the same.

So, coming to my current employment, I’ve been there for the last four months and into a project from Day 2. So far I’ve got to understand the environment and found out that I’m part of a team which is being formed (I’m the first)! OK, I was the first resource and guess who’s the second – my manager! He happened to be a person who doesn’t know the art of saying No. Since we two were the only folks in the team, we got a very good understanding. I’ve worked in a few organizations now, but I have never faced the issue that I’m facing here anywhere! The knowledge transfer is still not complete (forget about complete – it’s just started and there’s no continuity!). Four months of my time and about 2 months of my manager’s time – we were able to get only two sessions of KT (knowledge transfer) and the folks who give KT to us – from Onsite – are always busy (don’t ever dare to ask how).

*****WARNING*****: If you feel sleepy after reading the above content, I suggest you close the window and do something better. Because, the below will still bore you!

Being a team leader in his previous concern – who also has loads of technology knowledge – my manager was not able to keep quiet like me! (Ofcourse, I had other entertainments!) So, he dragged us into an issue where we are absolutely not required and made himself to come in night shifts. Now, there are two members in a team and one is on leave – who’ll you call? Me! Unfortunately, my manager had to leave early on a Friday and I was supposed to fill in his place at the last minute. You might wonder what the great job that we have got to do in the middle of the night! Delete all the files in a couple of folders when someone from onsite tells you to do and reboot the system – again, when they tell you to do. Sounded challenging to me, so I accepted and stayed back on a Friday (came to office at 2PM unaware that my manager was leaving early). Now, as usual there was no activity going on (well, no requests, I mean) and I was into the entertainment that we talked about earlier. 12 hours had passed by since I came to the office. Now, I was feeling tired (you know, when you don’t have anything to do and you’re still required to do the most challenging work, you’ll get tired, eventually) and called the onsite folks. After about 4 or 5 tries, I caught hold of someone and apparently they were in a meeting. I wondered like everyone else is having a job to do other than me! One more hour passed by and I called again and this time they said that they’re working hard to create a work for me. The Red Bull that I drank about 6 hours ago wasn’t working at all! Finally after about 15 hours of my office time, someone called me and said that I can do that first challenging work – delete the contents of a couple of folders (on 4 systems at offshore). Done. Now, wait for instructions. OK. Another hour passed by and after 4 or 5 continuous calls, I got the green signal for the final challenging work – reboot. Done. Sigh. I decided to leave and then came another challenging work. Since I deleted the contents of the couple of folders, after reboot – they should be getting updated automatically. I noticed that they’re updating and informed the onshore folks. Now, after 16 hours of work (!) that too on a Friday, the onshore folks requested me to stay back until the update is finished and report that they’re working fine. Normal time taken for the updation: 3 hours. So, I said ‘No’ to that politely and informed that I do have life in a very nice way. I am now the most popular guy among onsite and I’m sure there are instructions to the onshore folks – Never handover any work (!) to him [I'd like to pause a moment here and think about the work. Wait, I haven't reiceved KT at all!]. He is unreliable. Trust his manager – he’s the reliable!

Now, on a serious note, I’d been idle for more than half of their time and no one ever thought of initiating the work from their end. How is it fair to ask a resource to stay back for more than 3 hours after he has just completed a 16 hours shift [Give me a break - this is not a production environment!]? Calling him unreliable and making escalations over him for a simple ‘No’ (there are people who tend to agree on this – ofcourse, they’re management!) is IT for me!

I really am unreliable, aren’t I?

மணிமுத்தாறு!

அண்ணனுக்கு திருமணம் என்று நெருங்கிய நட்பு வட்டாரங்கள் அனைவரையும் அழைத்தாயிற்று (ஒரு வேளை இதை படிக்கும் உங்களை அழைக்கவில்லை என்றால் மன்னித்து விடுங்கள்... வேண்டுமென்று செய்யவில்லை!). திருமணம் பழனியில் என்பதாலும், பெண் வீட்டார் திருமணம் என்பதாலும் நண்பர்களை நேராக Reception-க்கு திருநெல்வேலி வரச் சொல்லியாயிற்று. எவனுக்கு Phone பண்ணி கூப்பிட்டாலும் “நா கண்டிப்பா வருவேன் மச்சி-னு” சொல்லி 10 ரூம் புக் பண்ண வச்சி, நல்ல வேளை கடைசி நேரத்துல 5 ரூம கேன்சல் பண்ணி, 3 ரூம்-க்கு மட்டும் ஆட்கள் சேர்த்து (6 பேர் தாங்க!) 2 ரூம்-க்கு தண்டமா வாடகை குடுத்து ‘லைட்டு-க்கா’ ரத்த கண்ணீர் விட்டாலும், புக் பண்ண “Tavera” கரெக்ட் டைம்-க்கு வந்து என் வயித்துல பால வாத்தான்! One of the biggest occasion in my life-னு Reception-க்கு முந்தின நாள், சேர்ந்த 5 நண்பர்களோட (அதுல ஒருத்தன் லேட்டா வந்ததினால அவன விட்டுவிட்டு நாங்கள் கிளம்பியாயிற்று) குற்றாலம் பார்க்கலாம்-னு கெளம்பியாச்சு. வண்டியில் பாட்டு கேட்டுகிட்டே கிட்டத்தட்ட 1 மணி நேரம் கழிச்சி குற்றாலம் வந்து சேர்ந்தால் ஒரு சொட்டு தண்ணீர் கூட வரவில்லை! அடப்பாவிகளா! ரெண்டு நாளைக்கு முன்னாடி தான் “Terror”-ஆ மழை மாப்ள, குற்றாலத்துல செம சீசன்-னு சொன்ன என்னோட நண்பன கொலவெறியோட தொரத்தி தொரத்தி கொல்லனும் போல இருந்தது! சரி, அப்டியே 5அருவியும் பாத்துடுவோம்-னு அங்க போனா தண்ணி நெய் மாதிரி வழிந்துகொண்டிருந்தது! அதுக்கும் ஒடம்பு பூரா சோப்பு தேச்ச கோஷ்டிங்களோட கூட்டம் வேற! (குற்றாலத்துல குளிச்சே தீருவேன்னு இதுல என்னோட நண்பன் ஒருத்தன் போய் குளிச்சது(!) கொடுமை!) நானும் மருத மலை படத்துல வர்ற வடிவேலு மாதிரி (திருடனை தப்பிக்க விட்டதுக்கு அப்புறம் வர்ற சீன்) முழிச்சிக்கிட்டு மணிமுத்தாறு போலாம் மச்சி, இன்னும் டைம் இருக்கு – அங்க கண்டிப்பா தண்ணி வரும்-னு Convince பண்ணி, அங்க இருந்து ஒரு ஒன்னரை மணிநேரம் (நடுவில் அரை மணி நேர உணவு இடைவேளை வேறு!) வண்டியில் A/C-யிலும் வியர்த்து சென்றடைந்தோம்.

திருநெல்வேலிக்காரன் மானத்தை நல்ல வேளையாக மணிமுத்தாறு காப்பாற்றியது! மானத்தை காப்பாற்றியதோடு மட்டுமல்லாமல் எங்களுக்கு ஒரு மறக்க முடியாத அனுபவத்தையும் கொடுத்தது! மணிமுத்தாறு அருவி செல்லும் வழியில் ஒரு செக் போஸ்ட் உண்டு. ஆள் அரவமில்லாமல் அது வேறு பயமுறுத்தியது – ஒரு வேளை இங்கயும் தண்ணி இல்லை-னா மக்கள் நம்ம கிட்ட இருந்து தண்ணி எடுத்துடுவாங்களே-னு பயம் வேற! Parking-ல ஒரு ஈ காக்கா கூட இல்ல (சரி, சரி, ஒரு பத்து பதினஞ்சி குரங்கு இருந்திச்சி)! இறங்கி நடந்து போனால் “சோ” என்ற சத்தமே என் காதில் தேனாய் பாய்ந்தது! மட மட-வென டிரஸ்ஸ மாத்திட்டு குடு குடுவென ஓடிப் போய் பார்த்தால், அருவியில் ஒரே ஒரு Couple மட்டும் தான்! ஒரு பய இல்ல! தண்ணீரும் இரண்டு நாள் பெய்த மழையில் ஏதோ சொல்லும் அளவு விழும் என்று பார்த்தால் நன்றாகவே விழுந்தது! நானே ராஜா நானே மந்திரி என்று யாருக்காவும் காத்திருக்காமல், யாருக்கும் விட்டும் கொடுக்காமல், எங்களுக்காக மட்டுமே கொட்டியது போன்ற ஒரு உணர்வுடன், மணி போவதே தெரியாமல் குளிப்பது, அருவியின் முடிவில் படுத்து இளைப்பாருவது, மீண்டும் குளிப்பது என்று நண்பர்களுடன் நானும் ஒரு மறக்க முடியாத அனுபவத்தைப் பெற்றேன்! Couple-ம் எங்களை பார்த்த சில நிமிடங்களிலேயே கிளம்பிவிட்டனர்! கருமம் புடிச்ச Camera-வில் Charge இல்லாததால் சில புகைப்படங்கள் மட்டுமே எடுக்க முடிந்தது! (மற்றவை கைபேசியில் எடுத்தவை) அவ்வபோது இளைப்பாற நண்பர்கள் சிலர் ‘தம்’ அடித்து, சூடு ஏற்றி, மீண்டும் வந்து குளித்து என்ஜாய் செய்தனர்! மேற்கொண்டு அடி (தண்ணீரில்) வாங்க முடியாது என்ற முடிவு எல்லோருக்கும் வந்த பிறகு தான் அந்த இடத்தை (மனமே இல்லாமல்) காலி செய்தோம்! வருகிற வழியில் சில புகைப்படங்களும் எடுத்தோம். உடும்பு, செந்நாய், குரங்கு என்று (சின்ன லிஸ்ட் தான், வர்ற வழியில் பார்த்தது) சில மிருகங்களையும் பார்த்தோம். இதோ சில புகைப்படங்கள் உங்களுக்காக.

Can you see 'Udumbu' on the above picture?

நன்பேண்டா!

Dedicating this post to my dear Brother! Happy Married Life Anna!

Your Side, My Side and the Right Side!

Every day, right when I start my bike from my room until I reach office (and, vice versa), I keep on thinking, about the traffic rules that no one follows. Well, I remember the famous quote "There are three sides to an argument – your side, my side and the right side". Brings a little smile to my face when I think of what I'm about to write!

 

Scenario 1: If you are in Chennai, you might have heard about the 'Medavakkam koot road' and that's the road that I use to start from Kovilambakkam to Siruseri. That's actually a narrow road and you cannot overtake a bus (unless ofcourse, if there are no vehicles coming in the opposite direction). A calculated risk involves in overtaking the bus (or any other big vehicle – even a car) and for gaining speed. So, when I overtake a bus or say, a van, the vehicle coming opposite to me, say a bike – he could have given me a little way (by moving to his left side) to complete my overtake of the bus, but instead, even though he has space for about a car on his left side, he'll flash his head light and signal me not to come! My thought: Why the hell won't you move to your left side and give a little way for me to finish overtaking the bus?

 

Scenario 2: When nearing the Sholinganallur signal. Just when you pass the Toll Gate, all the company buses (including that of Cognizant) and government buses suddenly would rush past you (I honestly have no idea on how they suddenly appear just before the Sholing signal or maybe it's my imaginary thought?) and stop before you at places where even a car would have tough time to go without scratching its nose. If that bus was not there, I'd have easily gone past all the vehicles waiting before us and in front of the signal. The thing is, as soon as the bus enters the mentioned place-where-a-car-would-have-tough-time-to-go, even with my bike, I'll not have any room left to move on the left side! My thought: Why the hell are you blocking my way? With you action, not only you, but no one else who're standing behind you can go forward! Why can't you allow a little space on the left side for atleast the bikers to pass?

 

Scenario 3: Again, when nearing the Sholinganallur Singal and see a lot of traffic ahead, right from the Toll Gate. This time since the buses takes the left side mostly; I try the right side [the wrong side]. I know I break the traffic rules by going on the other side of the road, but when you are so desperate to reach office on time, you won't consider these! So, breaking the rules, I'd curse whoever comes on the right side to move a little to the left (Just to get you a clear picture here – the left side of our road will be full of vehicles waiting for the signal to clear and almost half of the right side of the road [the wrong side] will still be filled with vehicles waiting on the road and we'll still be overtaking them to go to the front). My thought: Why the hell won't they move left? Don't they think that people should go to office on time?

 

Ok, now comes the fun part with a '.1'. Recently, I revisited the same scenarios from the other side! Here you go:

 

Scenario 1.1: I was into night shifts for about a week. I was leaving the office late and was crossing the same 'Medavakkam koot road' at around 8:30 AM. Now, my side of the road was almost free – only one or two vehicles while the other side was swarmed with bus, cars and bikes. Suddenly, I see a lot of bikers (and even cars/autos!) trying to overtake bus or cars in front of them, came right at me! I had to signal them to stop using my head lights! My thought: Why the hell are they crossing that yellow line? Don't they see that I have some rough roads on the left side and that's why I'm using the middle lane?

Scenario 2.1: It was a Friday and I planned to go to my hometown directly from the office. So, I left the bike at my room and caught a government bus to go to office. Now, when I see from the bus, all the bikers are going past the bus, sneaking through the little gaps and making it impossible for the bus or other vehicles that stand before them to start as soon as the signal is clear! Even though our bus was almost the first to get caught at the signal, when it was green, we had to wait for about 30-45 seconds for the bikers to clear the area (who came very late) and after that only, the bus could start! My thought: Why the hell are they coming and blocking the way like this? Isn't it supposed to be First Come First Serve basis?

 

Scenario 3.1:  From or to office, Sholinganallur signal is always busy. So, I had to literally swim through the 'Scenario 2' kind of situations when I left office towards home after my night shift and finally took the left turn towards Medavakkam. Now, I see a lot of people coming in the opposite direction, leaving us a little space to go through. My thought: Why the hell are they coming in the wrong side? Why don't they start early if they think they're late to office? Idiots!

 

Now, you have no idea how long it took for me to finish typing this [especially in English]. I'm sure some of you might not even understand what the hell am I talking about?! In that case, do mention this in the comments and I'll try the Tamil version of the same scenarios!

 

PS: Well, the right side is, I started following the traffic rules these days!

A Short Story - Destiny

This is my 2nd attempt to write a short story. First one was way back in 2007. Comments and Critics are welcome.

Destiny

He was hungry. He can't feel his legs at all. The prey was just before him. Teasing him. The smell felt good. But, he was a vegetarian. I can't eat anything other than vegetarian, he thought. But, the hunger was killing him. He saw his lover had no trouble eating non-vegetarian. How could she do that? Boy, he hated her for doing so. But, the bell inside his stomach kept on ringing. With one last hope, he searched for anything that's vegetarian. A fruit or a flower – goddamn it show me at least a leaf! Looked like God had no mercy on him. With trembling hands and awful feeling, he decided to eat the prey at last. He did not know how to even eat that non-vegetarian. He asked his lover. Simple, go there, eat and then come back – said she. Felt easy. He was a little bit relieved. He raised his chest up, cursed whoever made all the trees disappear and went near the prey. He started with a bit of hesitance as he did not know if the prey was dead or even alive. As he started eating, the blood, rushed through his mouth, something crushed him along with the prey leaving his body stick with the prey. Rest In Peace Mosquito.

PS 1: Do you know that only Female mosquitoes bite us? Male Mosquitoes are vegetarian.
PS 2: Was frustrated with the mosquitoes in my room and whoa, wait a minute…

Welcome 2013

2012

The year, I came back to Chennai after 5 long years. The year, I joined Cognizant. The year, my best friend got married to another friend of mine after their 6 years of love. The year I started attending all my friend’s marriage (before 2012, I attended only 1 marriage from 2007-2011). The year, I got my second Android (Xperia Go). The year, my brother got engaged.


Honestly, a rough year for me. End of 2011, I quit Infosys and was unemployed for almost 6 months. A great support from my family eased my struggle. The year, I lost my first Android. My beloved Xperia X8 which I customized so good that I felt like a part of me was lost! The year, Sachin Tendulkar completed his much awaited 100^th International Hundred. It is the year which confirmed his magic will no longer be in One Day Internationals. Rest In Peace ODI!



The year, The Dark Knight raised. The year, the continental drift happened. The year, I watched all 10 seasons of “Friends”. The year, I watched Jack and Rose fell apart once again in 3D. The most expected movie “The Hunger Games” disappointed (well, atleast me!). Although I was unemployed for almost half this year, surprisingly, I did not watch a lot of movies!



The year, finally, Kasab was hanged. The year, where people got arrested for even liking a Facebook status! The year, Sachin Tendulkar became an MP. The year, the ‘I-got-tired-of-all-world-tours’ president Prathiba Patil was sent home. Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, wins 3^rd consecutive assembly election. The year, a new ‘Coalgate’ scam beats all the records. Power outage, became very common in Tamil Nadu.


The year, that didn’t end as predicted! *Sigh*

Thank you 2012! Although you started bitter, ended sweet!

2013

A promising start for me. I had a great time celebrating the New Year with my old pals. It was a sweet surprise for me when I opened my mailbox after the New Year Vacation! What more is needed for a writer (I can’t believe I called myself a writer!) other than a recognition? I was shortlisted as the winner for the “Write your Will” contest in Cognizant Blogs! Thank you C2Blogs, Thank you FFC team, Thank you my readers! You’ve made this year a beautiful start for me!



Belated Happy New Year to everyone!

Image Courtesy: Google.

What will you do?

What will I do, before the world comes to an end?

You might ask why I’m writing this – there’s a contest at Cognizant Blogs and this was my entry for that.

I don’t know when someone told me that the world’s going to come to an end and exactly who it was! But then, as innocent as I was back then, I believed it immediately. I searched at the only place where I thought there are people who are smarter than me (internet) and found a lot of websites supporting my belief. Even the series ‘The X-Files’ where a lot of unexplained phenomenon were explained (fictionally, atleast) told me that the aliens had decided to take the planet back into control as we (humans) are polluting and destroying it (somewhat planning for a later destruction anyway). When I saw the 2 sun videos and a lot of other un-explained stuffs which claimed for a doomsday, I thought I should do something.

Well, I’m not a superhero, so I’m not going to try and stop the doomsday. Instead, I will continue my belief and prepare a list of stuffs that I can do with the little time left. First thing would be to spend a couple of hours to create a photo-shop-version-of-me photo and post it in a social network. Even though the world comes to an end and if miraculously some data (including my ‘photo-shopped-version-of-me’) survives, I’d be atleast respectable (or even dared for God knows what I’d do to me) for the new world (if created). History is important?

Visit Sachin Tendulkar once (atleast) and get a real photo with him (and probably tell him to keep playing until he dies coz, the world will end in a couple of weeks). Meet Manmohan Singh sir and talk (?) to him. Meet the Iraq-Palestine presidents and ask them to stop killing people earlier. The same would apply to the Srilankan Army. Congratulate Obama for being the last president of America. Ask Rajinikanth if he’d come to politics or not. Request Cognizant to declare a holiday on 20th December 2012, we can do some preparations for the doomsday. Curse whoever-predicted-the-doomsday as they predicted it to be on a Friday.

Thank Christopher Nolan for taking movies which I have to watch atleast twice to understand. Thank Vinodh Alagan (you probably have no idea who he is – he’s the one who introduced me into the world of series) for making me watch series and then become addictive to them. Find the phone number for the director of the series “The Big Bang Theory” and ask him a couple of questions. “Will Penny marry Leonard? & will Sheldon marry (?) Amy? (And probably what he’ll do after that.)” Finally, thank the director of Shawshank Redemption for making Andrew escape from the prison! Thank (late) Louis Armstrong for that ‘Wonderful World’ song!

Eat almost anything that is eatable and that I’ve never ate before. Fill my bike tank and drive all the way until dry. Pray for a rain (and if answered, drench). Take a trip to a foreign country and put some photos [especially a photo standing next to a beautiful girl by requesting/begging the girl] on the FB (to make my friends jealous and to use the passport atleast once). Some tattoos on visible areas of my body (which I thought would be cool). Laugh at all the bachelors (unfortunately, I’ve to laugh at mirror too) and congratulate (and be happy for) all the married men (although I’m not sure if all of them would feel the same). Thank my first IT company for offering me a change of track (and probably the same company encouraged me to write) to IT. Curse my first IT Company for offering a career track in ITIS. Read a lot of books (well, on the other thought, just buy books and tell everyone that you’ve read those books).Thank God for giving such a wonderful friends and family!

Thank the Blogs for publishing whatever the crap that I wrote! Finally, thanks to you, for reading! So long, then – What will you do?

Image Courtesy: Google.
Dedicating this post to Vinodh Alagan. Happy B'day Vinodh!

Back on Track

When I started to write back in 2011 when one of my best buddies was getting married, I swore that I'd be writing atleast one entry in a month. I'd been out of my game for about two months and now all of a sudden, I was totally free. I thought of writing again. Well, things been a little messy with Polaris after I joined this May and I'd been struggling to find a way out. Unlike the other time when I faced the same crisis, where I ended up taking drastic decisions, I was patient this time (and I could not believe it!) and it paid off well (at least, so far!).


I'm back to my career track and it's been just a little over a week. What we, in IT industry call this time as "Honeymoon period" (Time you joined a project until you start working). I've had a lot of time to kill and lots of doodling in my diary. When I joined Cognizant two days after I left Polaris and on the way to the induction, I thought of meeting new friends again. I made some good pals in Polaris (Induction and in the project) and I thought of doing the same here. Unlike Polaris where the induction program was for 3 days, Cognizant had only one day. I was completely soaked in the rain before entering into the MEPZ and was literally shivering during the one-half of the induction! The time was to short to make any friends and most of my batch mates were either sent to Thoraipakkam or Pallikaranai.


Well, the good thing is that all my room mates (except Rajesh) are from Cognizant and two of'em are from Siruseri where I'm posted. Good to have their company. My team in Cognizant got introduced and it looks like lots of fun going on there! Hanging on to make some good friends now. In the mean time, I've seen some good movies like The Green Mile, Rango and some good series like Game of Thrones and completed The X-Files. Once again, the lizard inside my brain tells me that something is going to happen during December and it won't be like what we expect (Like Earthquake, Tsunami or Volcano). Something man-made is going to come and haunt us back! Fasten your seat-belts, just less than two months to go!

Starting a new chapter in my life - hope to come here often!