Don't lean towards the left... it's not right

Hi,

I have decided to use more of my right brain at work from now on. When I come to think of it, all the learnings I have had in my life have been in the left side of the brain - Be systematic, be logical, follow rules, be on time, deliver on time, deliver what is expected, etc etc. But never had I said to myself - appeal to the imagination of the end user, Be creative with the work product, imagine yourself in the end user's shoes and look at what might be expected, go beyond what the customer says. Well, I did use some of these at times at work but never very consciously. I believe not using right brain and using the left brain continuosly can be a reason for stress at work. In the sense, being systematic, following known procedures and processes is like routine which bores you easily. This also adds a lot to your guilt conscience because when you do not do something in an organised fashion, you tend to criticise yourselves. So, you are always thinking of the daily routine you are 'supposed' to follow as a resonsibility on your shoulders.

'Responsibility' sounds like a very positive quality but if you look at it what it means is - ability to come with a response. It is similar to 'answerability' and 'accountability'. I am not saying these are not required, but getting them too much into your head makes you think of only how to satisfy the other person, how to satisfy your boss, peers etc, but not yourself. So, next time a task gets allocated to you, instead of getting into a duty conscious mind (the responsible person), look at it as a piece of work at which you can excel. That would make you work for yourself and the quality will also improve because you are using more of your right brain.

Nice weekend...

Hi,

I had a very nice weekend. Well, not because Deepthi had left for her hometown, poor thing had some fever. I had a good time because I did not spend it lonely. Normally, before marriage, I would spend the weekends and holidays rather gloomily keeping to myself. But this time I somehow did not want to be lonely. On Saturday I wanted to cook food (well if you call whatever I cook food), but then cooking and eating alone would be rather boring. So I called Rana home and we had the meal together. I made Bhendi fry and Toor Dal and Rana seemed to have enjoyed it. We watched the movie 'Big Daddy' together and in the afternoon we had discussion about general things in life, what should life be like, importance of spirituality, etc etc. And then I took Rana to the theatre class and he thoroughly enjoyed it. We had dinner with Ratan (the intructor) & Co after the class and left for home at around 1 O' clock. If only the traffic police had not caught us and asked for documents etc, I would have gone to sleep much more happily.

Sunday I called up Vivek and invited him for lunch. This time, my Aloo fry seemed to be getting spoilt, but Vivek came just in time to save it from any further damage. He added Biriyani Masala to Aloo and it was rather tasty. I am now inspired, thanks to Vivek, to try my hand at experimentation at cooking. Then, Vivek added tadka to the toor dal I was making which made it tastier. We both watched the cricket match after that and in the evening decided to head to Indijoe during happy hours. I came back home by 10 in the night and had a really nice nap. Early morning at 8 AM I heard the doorbell ring but wasn't excited as I knew Deepthi's flight would reach by 8 30 AM only. So thinking it would be the baai outside, I opened the door and to my surprise Deepthi was here - she had lied to me so that she could surprise me. Neways, meeting her after 4 days did cheer me up and here I am all charged up for the week.

What on internet do I dare blog...

Hi,

I was thinking - why not re-visit the idioms of good old English and make them more contemporary. I have some examples below:

Situation: Say you do not understand the motive of the lazy moron who has been bugging you day in and day out to sell some credit card to you, you would say,
Old English: 'What on earth are you bugging me for when I made it clear that I would never in my life buy your credit card!'.
New English: 'What on internet are you bugging me for when I made it clear that I would never in my life buy your credit card!'.

Situation: You tell your partner that you see cracks in your relationship.
Old English: 'I dare say our relationship is ending'
New English: 'I dare blog our relationship is ending'.

Situation: You told your prof that he is mistaken about sonething.
Old English: 'He got very hot under the collar when I suggested that he might be mistaken.'
New English: 'He got very hot under the earphones when I suggested that he might be mistaken.'

Do suggest some more...

Five Point Some Potter...

Hi,

I had watched the play 'Five Point Someone' staged by the group EVAM in Chowdiah Memorial Hall last Saturday. It was a nice adaptation and there were some nice creative techniques used in the play to make the stage look like a classroom the Insti roof and also the hostel room of the 3 main characters. They have a website where you can book tickets for any of their forthcoming plays http://www.evam.in/

Neways, I have been reading 'The Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'. Yeah don't blame me but I had always thought that Harry Potter was meant for kids and never got the interest to read it. Now, I have given in to the hype created by the release of the 7th book in the series and am aiming to get to the 7th book in a month or 2. I have almost finished the first one. Though I have watched the movie, I find the book a very book read. JK Rowling is an amazing writer. The simple language she uses makes it a very light read and to her imagination, all I can say is 'hats off'. Will compare the different books in the Harry Potter series in the coming posts. So keep visiting.

New initiative at work - iPAD

Hi,

I have taken this new initiative at work iPAD to make Project Activity Documentation easy. Basically, I have been handling the audits of our team and had got several comments from the quality team over the documentation of team's activities. The team is supposed to maintain an activity log, peer review records, Minutes of meetings, delivery mails, appreciation mails, Issue Register, Weekly status reports and what not. Each of the above has a prescribed format and whenever an activity happens at work you need to save a file in the prescribed format at a particular location. I myself had faced a lot of problems trying to save these files. So I had decided to create one excel sheet with each activity log as a tab so that you can fill in all the data at one place (you can give it a geek tag - data integration but this is more from the enduser perspective - the enduser's headache gets reduced a lot as he/she just has to keep one sheet open all the time and fill in data whenever an activity happens in his/her project).

Since this sheet is a log of various activities that happen in the project, I decided to call it PAD (Project Activity Documentation). It also sounds like a notepad, so gives an intuitive feel as to what it is meant for. And then suddenly I got the idea of naming it iPAD or myPAD (inspired from google's iGoogle, Apple's iPod and MSN's myMSN, Yahoo's myYahoo etc) and then we agreed upon the name iPAD since i would stand for Integrations which is our team name. So finally I have created an excel sheet template with 7 tabs and named it iPAD (Integrations Project Activity Documentation). I see some initial success in using it. Earlier, it would require some n reminders before getting the teammates to fill in various sheets. Now, everyone keeps their own iPAD sheet open and fills in the required data. Hope this carries on well and yeah I am really going to boast about it in any interviews I face later in my career. I personally am very satisfied with the initiative.

Acting Classes

Hi,

Yes, I have joined acting classes. There is this group called MiSF!T owned by this theatre actor cum director Ratan Thakore Grant which holds acting workshops for beginners. MisF!T stands for 'My Interest Stys Firmly In Theatre'. Quite an innovative acronym. Ratan is a very nice individual with absolutely great brains and also a very energetic personality. The kind of energy he puts into the classes will make you want to perform your best whenever he asks you to enact something out. Also, the theory he teaches is so very logical and makes great sense. Kallu, Chauhan and all have already started making fun of me, but theek hai, I am doing what I enjoy.

There were 2 exercises Ratan had made us do which have really made me less nervous than I was before (not just on stage but also in the real life). In one of the initial classes he would ask everyone in the class to give every other person in the class a Page 3 kiss (you basically do not touch the cheek of the other person but just act as though you have given a kiss). Initially you blush to do this, but after doing it, most of your inhibitions are gone. Last week he has made us blindfold a partner and make the partner walk on the road. When I was blindfolded and taken out by my partner, all my senses got heightened and I really started observing things better. One of my old friends had recognised me and asked me if something happened to my eyes. I laughed and told him nothing happened. Neways, after you go through a lot of raodside guys and vehicle riders staring at you in sympathy and curiosity, you lose your inhibitions and nervousness. Also since your eyes are closed, you start observing with the remaining senses and realise how much confusion eyes really add to your mind...

Back to Blogspot

Hi,

Its been years since I was able to access this blogspot. I thought my account would have expired by now but thankfully it is very much alive. I had a lot of problems over the past 2 years in maintaining a single blog site. Once I decide upon a particular blogsite, my company would block that address and force me to find a new one accessible. But from now on, I think I will stick to just this one. If I am not able to access it, I will just post my blogs through mail to the same address. The shifting of address has resulted in my identity crisis and also I have lost some fans over the last 2 years. I am not going to let this happen from now on.

Neways, it has been 6 months since I got married and life has been really different since then. My lifestyle has changed a lot. During the months of Feb and March, I was engaged in Aerobics at my company, but after that I had discontinued mainly because of the glue on my ass which doesn't let me move from my seat. I had been learning carnatic music but I had discontinued even that last month. My music sir was a little disappointed, but somehow, I thought of moving forward. My attitude doesn't allow me to practice Carnatic music daily (and believe me that is really essential if you are to learn singing). Since last month I have been attending a theatre acting workshop help by a theatre group called MiSF!T. This has really been a great experience for me so far. Now I know what to think of if I am on stage and how to get that expression right, those dialogues right and the act right. The head of this group, Ratan is a very nice personality who makes you think a lot and at the same time puts you on stage making you apply what is taught. I will update you more on what has been happening in these acting classes in the next post. Till then.... bbye....

Shanker Dada MBBS

Hi,

I was watching 'Shanker Dada MBBS' - telugu version of "Munna Bhaai MBBS'. Well when people ask me,
"Is it the same as Munna Bhai?" I reply,
"It is Munna Bhai MBBS with Chiranjeevi's charm added and Sonali Bendre's charisma added with catchy tunes by my favourite music director Devi Sri Prasad."
Yeah, Sonali Bendre does act in Telugu movies, and you must see her sari to believe how beautiful she looks. And Chiru, well I went to see this movie on the 51st day and on that day they had added one extra song as a gift to Chiru's fans. I did not know this when I went to watch, but was surprised to see many college students on the 51st day because I thought they would have already watched it some 4,5 times. They had all come for the new song... which was towards the end of the movie... and once the song ended.. all college students left and only families were left in the theatre. Chiru is GOD for all college going people, who grew up with his movies.

And regarding the music director Devi Sri Prasad.. watch out for him.. he is going to be in the news soon... quite promising young guy.. and has given some beautiful melodies comparable to the one and only Illayaraja. And his fast numbers are quite catchy.. jus listen to the title song of 'Shanker Dada MBBS'.. you will understand.

In all... as you must have guessed by now, I enjoyed the movie a lot.. and Sonali... man.. Sonali... is simply amazing....

The cryptic way

Hi,

There is a friend of mine, Nikhil who says.. 'Srini you are smart, you know.' But before I blush.. bang comes his remark, 'But you shud realise you are crazy.' Well, many friends of mine often wondered how would I be if I get philosophical.

According to me life is all cryptic. Ask anyone solving crosswords, U will get the same answer. Sometimes you have to frame clues and sometimes you have to solve them. Some girls are like Hindu Crossword which you would like to solve daily whenever you want to exercise your 'brains'. Then there are some gals like Young World puzzle for kids. Their brains cannot think beyond certain level. And all the clues you give them go waste, because they cannot solve cryptic puzzles. They keep framing direct clues for you which you can solve in a minute. Then there are Hindi crossword puzzles who cannot solve English clues. Then there are crosswords like that of 'Times' - the American kind of crosswords. These are the dudish gals (euphemism to pr@$). Like the grid of these crosswords, they lay bare with very few darkened squares here and there. Me being a fan of Hindu crosswords, would like gals who can frame and solve cryptic clues. Well, my apologies to anyone who has not followed this blog. No, don't accept that you can't understand cryptic messages. Instead, blame me for going mad, Young World puzzle solvers do think I am mad ;-)...

Its the time to disco...

Hi,

Let me continue with my blasting of Delhi. I talked about Delhi babes but not of Desi dudes. I call them hydrogen peroxide dudes. At my school our principal liked a guy who had his hair greyed by hydrogen peroxide. The principal happened to be a chemistry lecturer and he liked the idea that some student of his is making good use of some chemical he had worked on during his PhD. Coming back to Delhi dudes, these desi guys with a singing accent of Delhi never even bother to fake a good English accent and the so-called babe just falls for their biceps. The chidiya and thotha will startof there and go to the malls, go up and down the elevator spreading their deo smell everywhere. Then he takes her to Ansal Plaza where he answers one of her touches and slowly they cross the barriers and smooooooooooooochhhhhhhhhhh...... From there they will go to Nirula's, sit in the corner seat, the gal puts her lap on his and acts as if she has done something entirely socially acceptable. Lemme divert again. Talking of socially acceptable behaviour, one of our profs at IIT who also was our sysad used to appeal to us - 'Please don't open the web sites which you won't in front of your mom'. Arre...so much senti to stop porn viewing. Ok where were we..Nirula's... So this culture goes on. It reflects in the latest hit songs - 'Its the time to disco', 'Fanaa' - well, that is all ok. But the dudes should become modern in more ways than growing biceps and using deos. English with a bit more pseud accent would make him look more dudish... And for heaven's sake walk straight...