Ideas & Views

a frustrated man in anger: Oh God! God appeared: Yes Son! Man: (puzzled and looking around) God: Why did you call me? Man: (bewildered and not knowing whom he is talking to) I didn't call you. Who are you? God: You said " Oh God" and I had come for you. Man: Oh! So, you are GOD ??!! God: Yes Son. What did you call me for? Man: I am frustrated in my current position. Nothing is going smoothly as per plans. I am in too much of a bottleneck everywhere. I need solutions. God: Son, Gods don't appear to grant wishes. When I created you, I created you with infinite possibilities. All you need is to look inside you. Explore your deep depths, tune in and listen silently to the serene inner voice I gave you. When you understand the problem thoroughly, the solution will become visible to you by itself. You don't need me. I never created any problem for you. The next time you call, it must be to thank me for having created you with infinite possibilities. Hope to appear again...

as i was browsing thru some management related stuff, i stumbled upon the blog of one Anand Sritharan . his profile was quite interesting. he is an IITian , finished his Masters in EE from UCLA, worked with Intel as a Design Engineer in Santa Clara for a while but went back to India to crack CAT and is now with McKinsey after his IIMA stint. for sometime, i was pondering on what could have made him go back and take CAT. IIM craze of course, i decided. over a period of time, i have started to feel that all our IIMs and other management institutes in India have become a churning machine of salesmen and marketing personnel . they are producing graduates who take delight in their trained taste for management and are convinced somehow that they have made the most rational decision by getting into management well early in their lives. this is a serious thought to me at this stage of my career and also purely from my not-so-well-informed point of view: do i want to sell my country ...

The Bachelor of Arts by R.K.Narayan ------------------------------------------------------ i have been wanting to read this book from my school days but somehow or the other never had a chance to get a hold on this very first book of R.K.Narayan. There is a place called Book Chowk (both in Trichy and Coimbatore) where they sell and buy all sorts of used books. Chowk is any narrow laned street full of roadside book vendors in the heart of the City.you will get anything from IAS preparatory materials of Brilliant Tutorials to last month's ananda vikatan. It will be a surprise to any first time visitors that people who have not even gone to school for namesake surround themselves with books of all sizes and shapes, pounce and grab customers to have a look at what they have got to sell. more surprisingly the sellers also have some kinda knowledge about what they dusted just yesterday. these self taught small scale business men are such skilled master sellers that only strategic haggl...

a Pulitzer prize winning book (1985) by Tracy Kidder on how a small company and a small team made it big in building computers.............. some notes scribbled down hurriedly while reading the book....... "Mushroom theory of management" ?? Put them in the dark, feed them shit and watch them grow !!! not everything worth doing is worth doing well...meaning...if you can do a quick-and-dirty job, and it works, do it. in computer making industry, there is no such thing as a perfect design. this lesson is the first step in learning how to get the machines out the door. an engineer should know when to stop striving for perfection. about engineers in page 146: engineers do have a professional code;among its tenets is the general idea that the engineer's right environment is a highly structured one, in which only right and wrong answers exist. its a binary world; the computer might be its paradigm. and many engineers aspire to be binary people within it. no wonder. the prospe...

as i opened the online technology news websites, invariably every site is talking about the sony and nintendo game consoles. some sites also have news about myspace being sued by universal music for encouraging users to share their copyrighted mp3 files. is this all there to technology? what are we doing to the society in terms of technology? music, video and games? is that all? when there are more pressing issues like resolving the situation in iraq and afghanistan , curing autism, making life better for the poor and unhealthy, do the technology gurus talk about mp3s, mpeg 4s and wii ? don't they have that small piece of flesh called heart? think of a war torn iraqi teenager, an innocent human who have lost every member of his family to the brutal exchange of bullets and has no roof on his head, no place to go, nothing to eat. it is tough to swallow a morsel of food if you think of his spate. how do these technocrats spend all the money and efforts on luxurious things like a ...

Cell phone rings in vibrate mode in my neighbor's cube. neighbor: hey, what is it? i told you i am busy and asked you to call me at night after 9! what is it now? voice on the phone: -- neighbor: but you said your registration last day is tomorrow. haven't you registered for courses yet? did you talk to your professor or advisor? voice on the phone: -- neighbor: you said you wanted to take 2 courses. why don't you go over the course handout, ask your professor and just register for any 2 courses. this is pretty simple, right, not a big task. just pick up any 2 courses from your department. voice on the phone: -- neighbor: oh, what is your professor saying? why can't you register for courses? You still have time?? (not waiting for a reply) see, i am in the middle of something here. cannot talk to you right now. you cannot be disturbing me like this. call me at night. u got it? ok? the phone conversation ends. neighbor's voice was raised high and sounded stern th...

Phone rings in my neighbor's cube. Neighbor: hi, Mark here! Voice on the phone:hi honey, this is me. Neighbour: hey, waz up? Voice on the phone: one of my friends is having a card game at her house tonight. i was planning to go and have some time out there. i was wondering when you can get back from work today. i wud be finished preparing dinner and feeding Daisy. you can feed the 2 boys and keep an eye on them ??say the party is at Charlotte's house at 6?? Neighbour: Mm, let me see. i still have something to finish before winding up. say, i leave here at 6 so i can be home at around 6:30? i will feed the boys, don't worry. when will you be back ? Voice on the phone: oh, i should be back by 9. that's so sweet of you dear. hope the boys dont trouble you much. you might want to put them to sleep if they get too troublesome. Neighbour: Mmmm, now you are asking for more. See, what a nice husband you have got. you are gonna be happy for that. Be back on time, honey. Ok. b...