Yes, i am cacthing up with cricket WC.
I still remember the time when i had a dream to be a batsman in Indian cricket team. Now, my wish(not dream ofcourse) is to somehow be able to watch atleast some matches in this World cup. Though some of my friend have told me some links where i can watch live matches, i doubt i would do that(i hope i do that).
Today at last i tried finding some latest information for this world cup and relaized there were some new teams like Bermuda also included this time.
I think bermuda might have been included because cricket is played in pants and players might have complained to ICC that other sportsmen tease them and make their fun for playing in pants and not in bermudas(shorts upto knees, the ones used in Tennis).
So ICC might have decided including bermuda in WC(no disrespect to bermuda cricketers), thus now players feel better in boasting the fact that they also play with Bermuda(not in bermuda but, with bermuda).
Anyways i hope to get some more info over the next few days so that i can feel like an Indian(anybody from India not knowing about cricket should not be called a native Indian, only a residential Indian). I need to prove now that i am a native/by birth/by soul/by body Indian.
Till then, lets hope Indian players too feel like that!! Best of luck to them. They need a lot of luck in the form of important players of other teams getting injured, rains gods smiling at them or may be even umpires watching a bird while the player is LBW(in other words full body before the wicket).
Best of Luck to men in Blue(is the uniform still blue, i read it is under change)?
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Shangahi trip
Chinese New year is celebrated on 17-18 feb, and here it is a week long break. So we(I and Vikram, he is the only fellow Indian i have with me in this city) dicided, to go out for some trip and planed for Beijing-Shangahi trip.
Day-1 : 17-Feb
We checked out of the hotel at 7:00 AM, to catch the flight. Flight was at at 8:40. We reached beijing at 09:40. But we were a bit confused whether we must take a 2 day break at beijing and then go to shanghai or we go to shanghai straight away.
I wanted to go to shanghai and be in Beijing while going back. Vky was thinking the other way. Anyways, because Vky's friend (Sachin) was there in Shanghai so we concluded to go their first.Checking tickets to shanghai, much like a bus ticket(jao aur ticket le lo) we loosers just asked one counter and bought it, didnt even check at different counters for available prices. Boareding the flight for shanghai, I found air hostess to be really(trust me) beautiful, best till date i have seen. We named the best among them as "cute kitten". On reaching Shanghai at 2:40 PM.
Sachin told us the way home - where to board metro, station to get down etc. And there he was to pickup us from the metro station.
At Sachin's house, i had something Indian to eat after 2.5 months(it was like a heavenly feeling)
We kicked off freaking out by visiting people's square. It was quite desserted and lull than it should have been. May be due to spring festival people were at home(this being the last day of chinese calender). Pudong(this river flows through the city) is close by
and after spending some time next to the river we went to the top to get some good view of the place. "M on the Bund" was a open terrace bar, where we spent time waiting for Bipin(Sachin's Friend). He joined us at around 9. By that time we had been doing some picturing
Bipin being the connoisseur of places to visit after sunset to late night suggested for a sports pub, "Melone Americal cafe". Playing darts there we ate some fries and stuff and walked out looking for New year celebrations. The celebrations were gala, with people playing crackers as if it was the last day they can ever play crackers.
Choked of the cracker smoke for more than 1 hour we entered Blue frog, a nice descent place. Watching a white man talking to the mascot of the pub we realized may be its too late and its time to go back.
Day 2 : 18-Feb
We decided to shop some and check out some more places. Bipin suggested going to the science meuseum.
At the science meuseum on checking movie timings we found "Straigh Up helicopters in the action" in "dome theater" would be starting in another 10 minutes. The ticket girl said "i must inform you, the movie is in chinese", so nice of her. But what a dome it was. I have never enjoyed watching a chinese movie so much!! It was worth being part of the science meuseum and not just any cinema hall.
Underneath the meuseum is one of the biggest markets for fake stuff and Vikram utilized it optimally by buying 12 CK Undys. But, the electronic market next to it was closed for new year celebrations. At "Nizang", a nepali restaurant serving Indian food i got what i have been waiting for - Naan, paneer, daal(mmmmm), papad!!Life mein aur kya chahiye?
While looking for the next destination, Bipin recalled they have not taken us to Xintiandi.
With a European built up this place was full of restaurants with german french and italian names. Sachin being a Paulaneer(german beer) fan, we enjoyed Paulaneer in "Paulaneer" and cracked some jokes for about an hour and then started looking for next destination. Based on Bipin's expertise we took the cab for "The House of Blues and Jazz".
If you are a Jazz fan you cannot afford to miss this place. If you are not a Jazz fan, then you must visit this place to find out what Jazz can be(I fall in this category). For three hours the sexophone, the guitar, the drums and the trumpet they played were simply awesome. We did not wanted to leave untill they stop. Sachin is a great Jazz fan and a professional photographer, so it was a wonderful combination for him to get some great pictures. Lots of pictures of House of Blues and Jazz and a better view of Shangahi at Sachin's Photonet. Bipin wanted to play pool and we both went out for searching some place where we could play pool. I did not inform him of my level of expertise and after my first hit he realised the blunder that was now done. He was more than kind to let me place the white ball as per my wish to somehow make the game go on(but no use). Thank god, vky and Sachin joined us in a shortwhile and Bipin got better players to play with(I was saved of hitting the ball only on the table edges and not to other balls).
Day 3 : 19-Feb
Since we were not able to do electronic shopping previous day so Sachin said may be we can try Xujiahui electronic market.
While going to Xujiahui market we passed through people's square and Sachin took us to a pearl market assuming we might buy some. On enquiring the prices we did not buy some but, we bought many. Vikram - 10. Me - 24.
Prices in electronic mall were impressive which resulted into reckless shopping in the form of an external hard disk, MP3 payer, USB stick, Sony Cybershot T10 and Mobile Phone. Sachin pushed us out of the market stating reasons like mercy on the shopkeepers, ATM machines running out ot money and police raid for smuggling. Our hunger for Indian food was still not satisfied with yesterday's dinner and that led us to this very nice place "Vedas"
Bipin had joined us at Veda's for dinner and now we were waiting for him to come up with the plan for rest.The plan was unfolded in this club "Zapata" where we enter and see 6 whites dancing on the bar counter. Despite reluctance to go beyond the entry gate we decided to hang on for some time and checkout. But, what we considered as hanging for a few minutes became few hours. On the first floor, there were more blondes than i have ever seen at the same place and same time(live). We even met a philipino who asked us "so you guys are also hopping from one place to the other every night, i saw you last night at House of Blues and Jazz". After talking to this guy i found phillipines has similarities to India too. But it was time to leave(2 AM) and Bipin was missing. On calling him we came to know he was at another nearby bar "Cancan" and there we find him with this fat guy from Texas. Before leaving we did not miss out table football and pool at Cancan. Ofcourse even after leaving Bipin was worried about the young girl at cancan because of the bloody American. Finally we hit the sack at 4AM.
Day 4 : 20-Feb
3 days passed by so quickly that we just hung on for one more day and since my apetite for shopping had only grown afetr previous day's shopping, i looted the Xujiahui Market again. After buying one MP3 player Vikram looked happy. In comes my turn and i say 10 MP3 players. The sweet girl only smiled, laughed and brought in more and more boxes. While Sachin was still helping me arrange the mp3 players stuff, I asked the girl for 10 USB sticks. Girl's reaction - smiles and laugh. Sachin's reaction - if he had his way probably he would closed me in some loo and leave me there for a few hours untill i promised not to buy anything more.Since we(I and Vikram) did not wanted to miss out any opportunity of Indian food, and despite Sachin and Bipin's reluctance we went to "Shanghai punjabi Indian Cuisine"
But since it was the last day we planned to make it a little quite and went to "Wa bar", a place where beer in menu was sorted based on its country and even KingFisher was available here
Playing dice game there and looser's turn to drink i kept on drinking, till three of them felt mercy on me and called off for the day. Thank god i was not playing for clothes. We closed the day early evening at 10:30 PM, assuming we would be leaving the next day.
Day 5 : 21-Feb
Sachin just said once "why do you guys have to go today, stay for one more day", and we unpacked our bags like immediately. Now assuming this would be the last day we went to a park and just roamed around the place doing lot of picturing.
Bipin joined us at the meuseum where I did some kiteflying after a few years. But Bipin and Sachin were more than bored of Indian food now and they took us too a pure vegetarian Chinese restaurant(A Unique combination of chinese and vegetarian). It was worth the praise that they both had for it. But, now began hunt for post dinner landing area and we zeroed into "JZ Club". So close we were sitting to the band that i could just jump onto the small podium where the band was directly from my seat. Exiting with just one drink we obviously could not go back so early already having done so last night. Bipin suggested trying "ARK" at Xintiandi. We were told by both of them that they have been told, it is THE place in shanghai. But, Sachin went in and came back telling - it is not "THE" place. So we decided to be at the tried, tested and best place - "The House of Blues and Jazz". It continued to be the best place we had vistied in Shanghai.
Day 6 : 22-Feb
We finally left. For our own welfare and for their welfare.
Statistically:
Number of pubs/bats visted in 5 days - 11
My total consumption of drinks - 10 litres
Home made food - All 5 days(god bless Sachin)
Shopping - ???????
New names i got - Baby(i was the youngest among them), Maggu(thats baby in kannada), smuggler(for looting xujiahui)
But finally baby's day out is over.
For more on the same if you have lots of free time and are interested in reading useless stuff on the net(which you do, if you have reached this point of this post of mine) then you can read much better stuff about this shanghai trip at Sachin's Spring Festival Posts
PS: I am posting too late since i forgot my adapter at Sachin's place. Thanks to Sachin for quickly sending it via post. The welfaare did not happen for us even after leaving.
Day-1 : 17-Feb
We checked out of the hotel at 7:00 AM, to catch the flight. Flight was at at 8:40. We reached beijing at 09:40. But we were a bit confused whether we must take a 2 day break at beijing and then go to shanghai or we go to shanghai straight away.
I wanted to go to shanghai and be in Beijing while going back. Vky was thinking the other way. Anyways, because Vky's friend (Sachin) was there in Shanghai so we concluded to go their first.Checking tickets to shanghai, much like a bus ticket(jao aur ticket le lo) we loosers just asked one counter and bought it, didnt even check at different counters for available prices. Boareding the flight for shanghai, I found air hostess to be really(trust me) beautiful, best till date i have seen. We named the best among them as "cute kitten". On reaching Shanghai at 2:40 PM.
Sachin told us the way home - where to board metro, station to get down etc. And there he was to pickup us from the metro station.
At Sachin's house, i had something Indian to eat after 2.5 months(it was like a heavenly feeling)
We kicked off freaking out by visiting people's square. It was quite desserted and lull than it should have been. May be due to spring festival people were at home(this being the last day of chinese calender). Pudong(this river flows through the city) is close by
and after spending some time next to the river we went to the top to get some good view of the place. "M on the Bund" was a open terrace bar, where we spent time waiting for Bipin(Sachin's Friend). He joined us at around 9. By that time we had been doing some picturing
Bipin being the connoisseur of places to visit after sunset to late night suggested for a sports pub, "Melone Americal cafe". Playing darts there we ate some fries and stuff and walked out looking for New year celebrations. The celebrations were gala, with people playing crackers as if it was the last day they can ever play crackers.
Choked of the cracker smoke for more than 1 hour we entered Blue frog, a nice descent place. Watching a white man talking to the mascot of the pub we realized may be its too late and its time to go back.
Day 2 : 18-Feb
We decided to shop some and check out some more places. Bipin suggested going to the science meuseum.
At the science meuseum on checking movie timings we found "Straigh Up helicopters in the action" in "dome theater" would be starting in another 10 minutes. The ticket girl said "i must inform you, the movie is in chinese", so nice of her. But what a dome it was. I have never enjoyed watching a chinese movie so much!! It was worth being part of the science meuseum and not just any cinema hall.
Underneath the meuseum is one of the biggest markets for fake stuff and Vikram utilized it optimally by buying 12 CK Undys. But, the electronic market next to it was closed for new year celebrations. At "Nizang", a nepali restaurant serving Indian food i got what i have been waiting for - Naan, paneer, daal(mmmmm), papad!!Life mein aur kya chahiye?
While looking for the next destination, Bipin recalled they have not taken us to Xintiandi.
With a European built up this place was full of restaurants with german french and italian names. Sachin being a Paulaneer(german beer) fan, we enjoyed Paulaneer in "Paulaneer" and cracked some jokes for about an hour and then started looking for next destination. Based on Bipin's expertise we took the cab for "The House of Blues and Jazz".
If you are a Jazz fan you cannot afford to miss this place. If you are not a Jazz fan, then you must visit this place to find out what Jazz can be(I fall in this category). For three hours the sexophone, the guitar, the drums and the trumpet they played were simply awesome. We did not wanted to leave untill they stop. Sachin is a great Jazz fan and a professional photographer, so it was a wonderful combination for him to get some great pictures. Lots of pictures of House of Blues and Jazz and a better view of Shangahi at Sachin's Photonet. Bipin wanted to play pool and we both went out for searching some place where we could play pool. I did not inform him of my level of expertise and after my first hit he realised the blunder that was now done. He was more than kind to let me place the white ball as per my wish to somehow make the game go on(but no use). Thank god, vky and Sachin joined us in a shortwhile and Bipin got better players to play with(I was saved of hitting the ball only on the table edges and not to other balls).
Day 3 : 19-Feb
Since we were not able to do electronic shopping previous day so Sachin said may be we can try Xujiahui electronic market.
While going to Xujiahui market we passed through people's square and Sachin took us to a pearl market assuming we might buy some. On enquiring the prices we did not buy some but, we bought many. Vikram - 10. Me - 24.
Prices in electronic mall were impressive which resulted into reckless shopping in the form of an external hard disk, MP3 payer, USB stick, Sony Cybershot T10 and Mobile Phone. Sachin pushed us out of the market stating reasons like mercy on the shopkeepers, ATM machines running out ot money and police raid for smuggling. Our hunger for Indian food was still not satisfied with yesterday's dinner and that led us to this very nice place "Vedas"
Bipin had joined us at Veda's for dinner and now we were waiting for him to come up with the plan for rest.The plan was unfolded in this club "Zapata" where we enter and see 6 whites dancing on the bar counter. Despite reluctance to go beyond the entry gate we decided to hang on for some time and checkout. But, what we considered as hanging for a few minutes became few hours. On the first floor, there were more blondes than i have ever seen at the same place and same time(live). We even met a philipino who asked us "so you guys are also hopping from one place to the other every night, i saw you last night at House of Blues and Jazz". After talking to this guy i found phillipines has similarities to India too. But it was time to leave(2 AM) and Bipin was missing. On calling him we came to know he was at another nearby bar "Cancan" and there we find him with this fat guy from Texas. Before leaving we did not miss out table football and pool at Cancan. Ofcourse even after leaving Bipin was worried about the young girl at cancan because of the bloody American. Finally we hit the sack at 4AM.Day 4 : 20-Feb
3 days passed by so quickly that we just hung on for one more day and since my apetite for shopping had only grown afetr previous day's shopping, i looted the Xujiahui Market again. After buying one MP3 player Vikram looked happy. In comes my turn and i say 10 MP3 players. The sweet girl only smiled, laughed and brought in more and more boxes. While Sachin was still helping me arrange the mp3 players stuff, I asked the girl for 10 USB sticks. Girl's reaction - smiles and laugh. Sachin's reaction - if he had his way probably he would closed me in some loo and leave me there for a few hours untill i promised not to buy anything more.Since we(I and Vikram) did not wanted to miss out any opportunity of Indian food, and despite Sachin and Bipin's reluctance we went to "Shanghai punjabi Indian Cuisine"
But since it was the last day we planned to make it a little quite and went to "Wa bar", a place where beer in menu was sorted based on its country and even KingFisher was available here
Playing dice game there and looser's turn to drink i kept on drinking, till three of them felt mercy on me and called off for the day. Thank god i was not playing for clothes. We closed the day early evening at 10:30 PM, assuming we would be leaving the next day.
Day 5 : 21-Feb
Sachin just said once "why do you guys have to go today, stay for one more day", and we unpacked our bags like immediately. Now assuming this would be the last day we went to a park and just roamed around the place doing lot of picturing.
Bipin joined us at the meuseum where I did some kiteflying after a few years. But Bipin and Sachin were more than bored of Indian food now and they took us too a pure vegetarian Chinese restaurant(A Unique combination of chinese and vegetarian). It was worth the praise that they both had for it. But, now began hunt for post dinner landing area and we zeroed into "JZ Club". So close we were sitting to the band that i could just jump onto the small podium where the band was directly from my seat. Exiting with just one drink we obviously could not go back so early already having done so last night. Bipin suggested trying "ARK" at Xintiandi. We were told by both of them that they have been told, it is THE place in shanghai. But, Sachin went in and came back telling - it is not "THE" place. So we decided to be at the tried, tested and best place - "The House of Blues and Jazz". It continued to be the best place we had vistied in Shanghai.
Day 6 : 22-Feb
We finally left. For our own welfare and for their welfare.
Statistically:
Number of pubs/bats visted in 5 days - 11
My total consumption of drinks - 10 litres
Home made food - All 5 days(god bless Sachin)
Shopping - ???????
New names i got - Baby(i was the youngest among them), Maggu(thats baby in kannada), smuggler(for looting xujiahui)
But finally baby's day out is over.
For more on the same if you have lots of free time and are interested in reading useless stuff on the net(which you do, if you have reached this point of this post of mine) then you can read much better stuff about this shanghai trip at Sachin's Spring Festival Posts
PS: I am posting too late since i forgot my adapter at Sachin's place. Thanks to Sachin for quickly sending it via post. The welfaare did not happen for us even after leaving.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Blogger hunt
Great Indian blogger hunt : ibibo
Though i came across this quite late(i just noticed its ad. on Yahoo yesterday).
It looks interesting since to become a great blogger on ibobo means achievement of a certain score. The score can be increased by adding a new post or by someone's visit or by somebody rating your post.
This is quite hilarious as the best to way to increase your score is by continously adding more and more posts, and that means one must have umpteen amount of free time with 24*7 access to the internet. All you need to do is keep on writing everything and anything into different posts and you end up with a great score.
About ibobo: It is very much like indian version of blogspot. 1 feature that i liked is availabilty of an option for the readers to rate the post. This is a great feedback for some serious bloggers as many times people read but do not comment, but rating is much easier for the reader and possibly there will be more people rating a post than commenting on it.
Rest you can check out!!
Though i came across this quite late(i just noticed its ad. on Yahoo yesterday).
It looks interesting since to become a great blogger on ibobo means achievement of a certain score. The score can be increased by adding a new post or by someone's visit or by somebody rating your post.
This is quite hilarious as the best to way to increase your score is by continously adding more and more posts, and that means one must have umpteen amount of free time with 24*7 access to the internet. All you need to do is keep on writing everything and anything into different posts and you end up with a great score.
About ibobo: It is very much like indian version of blogspot. 1 feature that i liked is availabilty of an option for the readers to rate the post. This is a great feedback for some serious bloggers as many times people read but do not comment, but rating is much easier for the reader and possibly there will be more people rating a post than commenting on it.
Rest you can check out!!
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Yahoo Answers
Abdul kalam asked solution on terrorism, and then Sri Sri Ravishankar and Leander paes answered him. Kiran Bedi asked something yesterday and now Sri Sri Ravishankar is asking something again.
How come suddenly all the who's who are present on yahoo Answers? I guess because yahoo wants them to be !! isnt it?
What if there is a comment on my Blog by profiles named Amitabh B, Sachin T, Mukesh A, Manmohan S?? I guess that would indicate my bolg is very popular, great content and well read.
It could be so because somebody is just having fun with me!! or may be, it could be because i am having fun with the very few comment readers i have.
It was intersting to notice that Our honourable President sought Yahoo Answers as a medium to communicate with common educated people(because to use yahoo, one needs to be educated). But, it was even more interesting that suddenly some more important people wanted to communicate to the President through yahoo Answers!!
Bottomline: It was a good and innovative idea to advertise through a popular and respected personality via a serious question instead of the so common celebrities. But regular use of similar names will reduce the sheen of surprise it brought to people. Even if new ideas take time to come in, the same successful idea must not be used so frequently that it looses it's value.
How come suddenly all the who's who are present on yahoo Answers? I guess because yahoo wants them to be !! isnt it?
What if there is a comment on my Blog by profiles named Amitabh B, Sachin T, Mukesh A, Manmohan S?? I guess that would indicate my bolg is very popular, great content and well read.
It could be so because somebody is just having fun with me!! or may be, it could be because i am having fun with the very few comment readers i have.
It was intersting to notice that Our honourable President sought Yahoo Answers as a medium to communicate with common educated people(because to use yahoo, one needs to be educated). But, it was even more interesting that suddenly some more important people wanted to communicate to the President through yahoo Answers!!
Bottomline: It was a good and innovative idea to advertise through a popular and respected personality via a serious question instead of the so common celebrities. But regular use of similar names will reduce the sheen of surprise it brought to people. Even if new ideas take time to come in, the same successful idea must not be used so frequently that it looses it's value.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Customer as Partner
I was just talking to a friend of mine today when we came across a point of customer as business partner.
My take on the point is, it makes a lot of sense to consider the customer as a business partner to increase customer satisfaction. There are a number of reasons why a customer can be directly compared to business partner:
1. Customer's benefit is organisation's benefit.
2. Customer's loss is organisation loss.
The above points are reasons why a customer should be treated equivalent to a
business partner, but the same points can also be used to understand the effects of considering the customer equivalent to a business partner.
1. Increased customer confidence in organisation will result into smoother running of deals and hence will result into operational efficiency as lesser roadblocks will be faced.
2. Better confidence will result into more customer satisfaction.
3. Better customer satisfaction will result into positive word of mouth.
Hence better business prospects.
But i think this proposition will stand water in a B2B scenario and B2C segment might have to be looked from a different perspective.
Analysis on B2C some other time!!
My take on the point is, it makes a lot of sense to consider the customer as a business partner to increase customer satisfaction. There are a number of reasons why a customer can be directly compared to business partner:
1. Customer's benefit is organisation's benefit.
2. Customer's loss is organisation loss.
The above points are reasons why a customer should be treated equivalent to a
business partner, but the same points can also be used to understand the effects of considering the customer equivalent to a business partner.
1. Increased customer confidence in organisation will result into smoother running of deals and hence will result into operational efficiency as lesser roadblocks will be faced.
2. Better confidence will result into more customer satisfaction.
3. Better customer satisfaction will result into positive word of mouth.
Hence better business prospects.
But i think this proposition will stand water in a B2B scenario and B2C segment might have to be looked from a different perspective.
Analysis on B2C some other time!!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
WOW!
I press the button outside the lift in my hotel.
We are three guys standing outside the lift, feelng a little sleepy as we have been
working quite hard through out the day and its past 10 in the evening now.
The door opens and there are 2 girls inside the lift, really beautiful!!
And yes did i hear that right, one girl looked at us and said, wow!!(before we even enter the lift).
3 of us once again get life back in us like we are going to work in the morning.
Vikram asked them, Russian?? - pat comes the reply , yes!!
This happened last evening but the WOW is rolling here and there in my mind, ears, eyes!!
wowww!!!
We are three guys standing outside the lift, feelng a little sleepy as we have been
working quite hard through out the day and its past 10 in the evening now.
The door opens and there are 2 girls inside the lift, really beautiful!!
And yes did i hear that right, one girl looked at us and said, wow!!(before we even enter the lift).
3 of us once again get life back in us like we are going to work in the morning.
Vikram asked them, Russian?? - pat comes the reply , yes!!
This happened last evening but the WOW is rolling here and there in my mind, ears, eyes!!
wowww!!!
Thursday, January 04, 2007
The 09:30 - 17:30 Strategy
This is just one more attempt of mine to improve efficieny at work.
Start with the list of work that you need to finish for the given day before you leave for work. This work needs to be finished between 9:30 and 17:30.
I know that looks like saying there you can see everest just throw your anchor up there and climb it.
Let's break it down into smaller parts so that while climbing the everest we know what all equipments we need and which all intermediate stations we would reach and what kind of hailstorms we will have to face.
When you get to work obviously your boss will have an additional list of tasks for you, and this might be totally exclusive of your list. If you are lucky then there might be some tasks in the intersection of your list and your boss' list.
Now is the time to spend a few minutes and prioritize work keeping both the lists in mind. Breaking this into parts again, prioritize the two lists independently, then compare and merge the two. While merging the two remember - in case there are tasks from the two lists with equal importance then the common list must have task from boss above your's(because at the end u are answerable to your boss).
The list of task might have already gone on to page no. 2. Never mind!! Draw a line under the task that you think is realistically possible to finish by 5:30 PM.
Do not spend more than 15 minutes on this small thing of organising tasks.
Now attack the work. Keep in mind 17:30 is only a few hours away. Initailly it will be possible that you will be slow, in such cases even if it means that you have to skip 11'OClock or 4'Oclock wala coffee break or may be even lunch, let that happen for a few days. It is only a matter of few days after which you will not have to do that.
Bell goes off!! It's 17:30, stop it now!!
I know there will be times when your work will not be finished but, if your really want to finish your work by 17:30 regularly then stop it here, right now!
The assumption for this whole thing is that you dont like non-performance and especially hearing this word from your boss for you. So when you will hear this for the first time from your boss you will not be able to tolerate it, right ?
But that does not mean after hearing this you go back to your seat and sit down to re-start the day from 18:00 to some late night show.
Either go to the canteen or may be just stay back in the office and chat around with people. You might as well leave the office to chill out at your own place or may be some other outing.
But now you know the agenda for day 2(next day).
Let's start again but i assume we would have found the reason why we did not complete the expected work yesterday.
There can be following reasons:
1. We drew the line at wrong place. The expectation we had set of ourselves was too much and it can be termed as over committment. Hence this time it is expected of you that this experience and failure both help you commit what is more practical and feasible.
2. Tasks involved had dependencies which were out of your hands. Like you require
information from somebody else and this somebody else dose not gives you that or may be your boss pops suddenly out of nowhere at 4 in the evening and says there is this new task which is most important. This is genuine and can happen anytime with anybody. This is something that you will have to specifically mention to your boss when he uses the word non-performance. Of-course he will not agree(thats ususal, if he agrees then it is un-usual). But remember often managers dont do so intentionally but because they have their own deadlines.
3. You were slow and still did not compromise on tea,coffee breaks so the schedule slipped. This is what we are trying to improve.
4. Work given was really too much(i know this does not happens more than once in a month, more on this a little later).
There can be other such reasons and one will have to find out them.
The reasons can be identified after 17:30.
I am hopeful this can ensure atleast some improvement in the efficiency of work and time spent at work.
Even if your boss does not likes the site of you walking out at 18:00. Stick back doing things other than work.
Of-course the above story does not mean that work should suffer. There will days when not going back from workplace at all will also not result into anything great. But that happens only once in a blue moon and in such cases stretching beyond normal or even beyond not so normal is OK(only if you do so occassinally). If you do that everyday then iti not work but you who needs to change.
Working late is not any sign of higher productivity but only a sign of Bad management!!
Start with the list of work that you need to finish for the given day before you leave for work. This work needs to be finished between 9:30 and 17:30.
I know that looks like saying there you can see everest just throw your anchor up there and climb it.
Let's break it down into smaller parts so that while climbing the everest we know what all equipments we need and which all intermediate stations we would reach and what kind of hailstorms we will have to face.
When you get to work obviously your boss will have an additional list of tasks for you, and this might be totally exclusive of your list. If you are lucky then there might be some tasks in the intersection of your list and your boss' list.
Now is the time to spend a few minutes and prioritize work keeping both the lists in mind. Breaking this into parts again, prioritize the two lists independently, then compare and merge the two. While merging the two remember - in case there are tasks from the two lists with equal importance then the common list must have task from boss above your's(because at the end u are answerable to your boss).
The list of task might have already gone on to page no. 2. Never mind!! Draw a line under the task that you think is realistically possible to finish by 5:30 PM.
Do not spend more than 15 minutes on this small thing of organising tasks.
Now attack the work. Keep in mind 17:30 is only a few hours away. Initailly it will be possible that you will be slow, in such cases even if it means that you have to skip 11'OClock or 4'Oclock wala coffee break or may be even lunch, let that happen for a few days. It is only a matter of few days after which you will not have to do that.
Bell goes off!! It's 17:30, stop it now!!
I know there will be times when your work will not be finished but, if your really want to finish your work by 17:30 regularly then stop it here, right now!
The assumption for this whole thing is that you dont like non-performance and especially hearing this word from your boss for you. So when you will hear this for the first time from your boss you will not be able to tolerate it, right ?
But that does not mean after hearing this you go back to your seat and sit down to re-start the day from 18:00 to some late night show.
Either go to the canteen or may be just stay back in the office and chat around with people. You might as well leave the office to chill out at your own place or may be some other outing.
But now you know the agenda for day 2(next day).
Let's start again but i assume we would have found the reason why we did not complete the expected work yesterday.
There can be following reasons:
1. We drew the line at wrong place. The expectation we had set of ourselves was too much and it can be termed as over committment. Hence this time it is expected of you that this experience and failure both help you commit what is more practical and feasible.
2. Tasks involved had dependencies which were out of your hands. Like you require
information from somebody else and this somebody else dose not gives you that or may be your boss pops suddenly out of nowhere at 4 in the evening and says there is this new task which is most important. This is genuine and can happen anytime with anybody. This is something that you will have to specifically mention to your boss when he uses the word non-performance. Of-course he will not agree(thats ususal, if he agrees then it is un-usual). But remember often managers dont do so intentionally but because they have their own deadlines.
3. You were slow and still did not compromise on tea,coffee breaks so the schedule slipped. This is what we are trying to improve.
4. Work given was really too much(i know this does not happens more than once in a month, more on this a little later).
There can be other such reasons and one will have to find out them.
The reasons can be identified after 17:30.
I am hopeful this can ensure atleast some improvement in the efficiency of work and time spent at work.
Even if your boss does not likes the site of you walking out at 18:00. Stick back doing things other than work.
Of-course the above story does not mean that work should suffer. There will days when not going back from workplace at all will also not result into anything great. But that happens only once in a blue moon and in such cases stretching beyond normal or even beyond not so normal is OK(only if you do so occassinally). If you do that everyday then iti not work but you who needs to change.
Working late is not any sign of higher productivity but only a sign of Bad management!!
Monday, January 01, 2007
An Year on Airport
31-Dec-2006 18:00
I am sitting in the office working like morons since there is no holday here even on this sunday, in this chinese office(Just because they will give a holiday on Monday for new year). I dont even know what will i do and where will I be at midnight.
18:05
My chinese colleague(David) says. shall we ask the customer for a leave of three days and go to beijing?
18:20
Customer has rejected our request of going away and wants us to support the system.
18:30
We three decide(Me, Vikram and davdi), "hell with the customer", lets get out of this place, we will go to beijing now and come back on 2nd morning.
18:50
We get out of the office saying to the customer that we will leave early today so that we can have nice dinner since we are not going anywhere. Customer smiles as if he is very generous and has granted us freedom for life.
19:10
I am back in hotel and ask the receptionist for a check out. In the meanwhile David has booked tickets for beijing.
19:45
David calls me to check if i am leaving soon from my hotel to pick him up and then go to airport.
20:15
I am still moving my luggage and David has called me 4 times asking if i have left my hotel. He is worried we will miss the flight since we are late.
20:30
I leave my hotel to go to David's place.
20:40
David is impatiently waiting at his place and this Taxi driver is driving as if i am on some sight seeing. But, it is not his fault, the road is layered with snow so he has to drive slow.
20:45
I reach david's hotel, pick him up. He is so upset with me that he is not even talking to me. I know he will not talk to me as long as we dont board the flight.
21:10
We reach Airport bang on time.
21:20
David has collected the boarding pass and he is finally smiling. But the flight is late due to fog and so we need to sit on the airport for some time.
21:45
This is when the right is suppose to take-off, but this flight is suppose to come from beijing to hohhot(this is where i am) and then go from hohhot to beijing. The flight has still not left from beijing, so we expect to leave around 11:00.
22:15
We decide to go through security check-in to avoid any last minute hassles.
22:45
I am feeling hungary so i get some cup noodles and somehow manage to eat them.
23:15
We see a number of people arriving on airport. Hurray!! we think the flight has come and its time we would depart soon and would spend the new year on the air.
23:25
We discover this flight is coming from another city and since it could not go to beijing due to fog so it had to land here.
23:45
I once again have no idea where i am i going to end up.
00:00
We guys hug each other and cheerup for the new year. We have been on the Airport since 2006 and now it is 2007.
00:05
There is an announcement, since the flight that was to arrive here has not left beijing till now, flight is cancelled!!!
00:15
The only possibilty is to cancel the tickets and re-chedule them to morning. We three are in split minds. David has to go anyways as he has some work in beijing and he has his family there. I dont want to go anymore as i have to return to work on 2nd morining and i dont want to go for less that 24 hours. But Vikram wants to go because he is afraid that he will not get another chance to go to Beijing.
00:30
I decide that i will not go but David and Vikram will go.So David can book two tickets for the morning but cancel my ticket.
00:45
I come to know David has booked only one ticket and Vikram also decided he will not go(achha dost hai).
01:00
We are in the shuttle bus to get back to the hotel.
01-Jan-2007 01:30
We reach back to our hotel. Hotel sweet hotel.
02:30
I am thinking i went to the airport last year with sparkles in my eyes and beijing in my mind and i have come back from the airport without going to beijing with smiles on my face and sleep on in my eyes. Since I and david had checked out, so we are left with only one room.
I will be sleeping on the floor. After more than a month i will sleep on floor so i am feeling like i am in banglaore at my place!!
Happy New year!!
I am sitting in the office working like morons since there is no holday here even on this sunday, in this chinese office(Just because they will give a holiday on Monday for new year). I dont even know what will i do and where will I be at midnight.
18:05
My chinese colleague(David) says. shall we ask the customer for a leave of three days and go to beijing?
18:20
Customer has rejected our request of going away and wants us to support the system.
18:30
We three decide(Me, Vikram and davdi), "hell with the customer", lets get out of this place, we will go to beijing now and come back on 2nd morning.
18:50
We get out of the office saying to the customer that we will leave early today so that we can have nice dinner since we are not going anywhere. Customer smiles as if he is very generous and has granted us freedom for life.
19:10
I am back in hotel and ask the receptionist for a check out. In the meanwhile David has booked tickets for beijing.
19:45
David calls me to check if i am leaving soon from my hotel to pick him up and then go to airport.
20:15
I am still moving my luggage and David has called me 4 times asking if i have left my hotel. He is worried we will miss the flight since we are late.
20:30
I leave my hotel to go to David's place.
20:40
David is impatiently waiting at his place and this Taxi driver is driving as if i am on some sight seeing. But, it is not his fault, the road is layered with snow so he has to drive slow.
20:45
I reach david's hotel, pick him up. He is so upset with me that he is not even talking to me. I know he will not talk to me as long as we dont board the flight.
21:10
We reach Airport bang on time.
21:20
David has collected the boarding pass and he is finally smiling. But the flight is late due to fog and so we need to sit on the airport for some time.
21:45
This is when the right is suppose to take-off, but this flight is suppose to come from beijing to hohhot(this is where i am) and then go from hohhot to beijing. The flight has still not left from beijing, so we expect to leave around 11:00.
22:15
We decide to go through security check-in to avoid any last minute hassles.
22:45
I am feeling hungary so i get some cup noodles and somehow manage to eat them.
23:15
We see a number of people arriving on airport. Hurray!! we think the flight has come and its time we would depart soon and would spend the new year on the air.
23:25
We discover this flight is coming from another city and since it could not go to beijing due to fog so it had to land here.
23:45
I once again have no idea where i am i going to end up.
00:00
We guys hug each other and cheerup for the new year. We have been on the Airport since 2006 and now it is 2007.
00:05
There is an announcement, since the flight that was to arrive here has not left beijing till now, flight is cancelled!!!
00:15
The only possibilty is to cancel the tickets and re-chedule them to morning. We three are in split minds. David has to go anyways as he has some work in beijing and he has his family there. I dont want to go anymore as i have to return to work on 2nd morining and i dont want to go for less that 24 hours. But Vikram wants to go because he is afraid that he will not get another chance to go to Beijing.
00:30
I decide that i will not go but David and Vikram will go.So David can book two tickets for the morning but cancel my ticket.
00:45
I come to know David has booked only one ticket and Vikram also decided he will not go(achha dost hai).
01:00
We are in the shuttle bus to get back to the hotel.
01-Jan-2007 01:30
We reach back to our hotel. Hotel sweet hotel.
02:30
I am thinking i went to the airport last year with sparkles in my eyes and beijing in my mind and i have come back from the airport without going to beijing with smiles on my face and sleep on in my eyes. Since I and david had checked out, so we are left with only one room.
I will be sleeping on the floor. After more than a month i will sleep on floor so i am feeling like i am in banglaore at my place!!
Happy New year!!
Monday, December 25, 2006
Festivals and Happiness
I have often believed that festivals are for happiness and people to come together.My belief was firmed up yesterday when i saw people celebrating christmas here.
I am here in a town called Hohhot, in china and there is hardly any christian here.
But last night people were on the road dancing, shopping and playing crackers.
Here are some moments that i spent along hundreds of people i dont know but was happy to be among them.
People are happy and they are enjoying with their families then why should it matter what religion the festival belongs to.
If a vendor can sell some crackers on some festivals and earn even a quick 100 bucks on this day, where as his normal income might be just 30 bucks, then the multiplying effect of happiness is more than visible as it will transcend from him to his family.
If all the shops in the mall sell more. If all the roadside bendors can sell more eateries and all the taxis can carry people overnnight.
I wish there could be one such festivals atleast once in a month!!
Kids singing carols..
Its great to see the festive soon going on as it brings more happiness around the planet and more cheers among people. May everybody have a share of this happiness and fun.
I am here in a town called Hohhot, in china and there is hardly any christian here.
But last night people were on the road dancing, shopping and playing crackers.
Here are some moments that i spent along hundreds of people i dont know but was happy to be among them.
People are happy and they are enjoying with their families then why should it matter what religion the festival belongs to.
If a vendor can sell some crackers on some festivals and earn even a quick 100 bucks on this day, where as his normal income might be just 30 bucks, then the multiplying effect of happiness is more than visible as it will transcend from him to his family.
If all the shops in the mall sell more. If all the roadside bendors can sell more eateries and all the taxis can carry people overnnight.
I wish there could be one such festivals atleast once in a month!!
Kids singing carols..
Its great to see the festive soon going on as it brings more happiness around the planet and more cheers among people. May everybody have a share of this happiness and fun.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
laila o laila
"laila o laoila, kaisi hun laila, har koi chahe mujhko, milna akela".This is a song i expect to hear in an indian pub or disco, but when i heard it in this chinese pub(not even the capital) it was a cracker for me.
Although i and my friend were the only Indians in that big crwod out there and i could see that no body was able to understand that, but i did feel happier to finally listen something Indian in this mandarin land where even english is an alien language.
Although i and my friend were the only Indians in that big crwod out there and i could see that no body was able to understand that, but i did feel happier to finally listen something Indian in this mandarin land where even english is an alien language.
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