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Showing posts from May, 2009

Yet another way to find jobs

For those of you who have struggled a little to find a job, you will probably appreciate this innovative way of job hunt. I was on a city bus on my way to office. My work place is on one of the prime software localities in Bangalore. When I say 'Prime', I mean, there are at least five software complexes, on the same road. Each complex is a huddle of software companies - Dwarfs to Giants. From where I sat, I could clearly read this : Job Wanted : Mobile : 1234567890 ( There was a local mobile number written). It was written with a black marker or sketch pen on the back rest of one of the seats. For a minute my cheers fell, thinking about the back drop of the scene when this might have been written. The unknown job seeker could be coming back from an interview that had just flopped, might have just then lost a job, might have just then resigned from a job, might have just then finished graduation, might have lost hopes of finding jobs through friends/job sites/ corporate career s

Why Dewdrop?

A lot of people have asked me this question over the last three years... Why Dewdrop? I thought I'll just rewind back three and a half years or so where I was still a beginner writer in one of the software companies in Chennai. I didn't know I could write.. meaning, write anything other than technical subjects centered around my job, as a technical writer. One fine afternoon, just as I got back from lunch, a heavy workload had piled up into my inbox. One thing with work back then...it just came in like wind......I was staring at my mail box, mostly because I felt like the work load was a little boring and also because it was a sleepy afternoon after a heavy lunch. There was this particular manager M who was known to be efficient and of course strict.. If you had worked with any manager in your career, I am sure you would have realized by now, that it takes that implicit or explicit strict aura about the manager to achieve the team's goals. So, that's the kind of manage

If and When

Yesterday afternoon, I was walking past a cubicle and saw this quote written on the whiteboard: Plant If and When; And Nothing grew. How true!!!!! Any decision, commitment, statement, promise reads much better without these two words and the phrase that follows these intelligent words. Put an 'If phrase' in your statement; then you can clearly say that the probability of the instance is very less. If possible, I will return the book today. ( Meaning, I am not even attempting!!!!, but I am being nice to keep you informed of the same, hoping you'll take the hint.) If this is not serious enough, try substituting the word 'money' for book.. It should read better.... Put a 'When phrase' in your statement; then you can as well clearly say it wont happen. When I find time, I'll look at it. ( Meaning, I will not be able to put in the kind of time that your work demands. Just that, this is my way of saying I may or may not be able to do what you are asking..)

Murphy's law - Tried and tested facts

Note : Read till the end before you attempt to dismiss it off as just another pessimistic note. When you want to hurry up: Try waiting for a bus, you will almost always see two buses coming from where you want to go. Try taking an auto and it will surely get caught in a traffic jam or run out of fuel or just break down abruptly somewhere mid-way. When you just took a decision and thought it was not late: Try making a railway reservation - the return journey tickets will surely be available. Try taking a flight - There will surely be an extra alert on security that day and the security check is bound to take a lot of time. Try picking up the phone - It will almost always be out of order or the network will be busy. When you are just thrilled that in an hour's time you will meet your timeline on the dot: Try using the tried and tested software that had never once gone wrong in your able hands : It is sure to throw at least one error, to say the least. Try sending that last email to i

Don't waste....

Someone had remarked to me recently : Do not waste your time.. It hurt me quite a bit. I did give it a thought, but then dismissed it off. Its not the first time that we hear this statement about not wasting time. Everyone says Don't waste time , but will never tell you how not to waste time and how to know if you are really wasting time on something. So I have always preferred to use the word 'Spend' instead of the word 'Waste' in the context of Time. I am an optimistic person here, as I believe that what seems a waste of time today will definitely be a useful investment at some point in time.Now, this does not mean I don't waste time. May be I do, but I weigh my priorities and then spend time. ( Try using the word 'Spend' to sound optimistic!!! ) This thought line was running on my mind when I boarded the city bus yesterday. I still couldn't take the remark easy. A college student was lost in her book. It looked like she was preparing for an exam.

Summer and AC : I just don't understand........

On a hot summer afternoon ( Don't ask me if there can be a cold summer afternoon in Tamil Nadu, India....Check the Web facts about Summer in Tamil Nadu if you wish to.... ), So on a hot summer afternoon... you don't even think twice to step out...There are a hundred things to do for yourself and mostly it is necessity to step out at that unimaginable summer heat - 44 Degree Celsius, 90% humidity. For those who say, we've seen worst summers... stay with the post, you'll see why I am saying this.. Let me get my thoughts out first.... Its become a habit ( Old habits die hard ) to complain about the heat in summer. Of course, the heat will be difficult to handle, cotton clothes will be soaked in sweat, you'll have to take bath at least twice a day, you will feel tired, you will feel drained out of energy and your temper will hit the roof with a reasonable hit on your overall enthusiasm.. Now, if you rethink about it, wasn't last summer like this too? When was the la