The best thing about working in a start-up is that there are no processes and the worst thing about working in a start-up is that there are no processes. Crazy huh? But that's how it is :( The usual mentality in a start-up is, "Get the customer and just complete the bloody work! And make sure he comes back again!" Doesn't matter if you have to bend over backwards till you get a slip-disk.
I started my career in a big organization, a telecom giant, where everything had a process. It was extremely frustrating at times when the processes hindered quick completion of pending work. We often joked that we would soon receive a process on how to take a loo break, how to pee, etc. But that's how all these big places work and I can totally understand why it is so. With so many people of different mentalities working in a place, processes keep order and peace. At the end of the day work gets done albeit slow.
On the other hand, in a start-up, no such troubles exist. You get a project, everybody jumps in and gets it done. But, in an extremely haphazard manner. Its more like how nature works. Chaotic and yet in tandem with each other. But then nature has probably got an ISO Level process worked out which we are approximately a million years away from. Right now we are just monkeys swinging around in the wild hoping that none of us would slip and fall and break our head.
Ours is in a state where processes have become a requirement to streamline work, increase coordination and smoothen basic functioning. Internal projects continue to run perennially without dead-lines, external projects are taken without a fixed scope due to improper evaluation of the requirement. And even if the requirement is analyzed properly, scope keeps changing due to lose ends in our agreement with the customers. Customer Delight turns into Employee Suicide.
I am not sure whether processes are a solution to all this because I have been in places that either had them or didn't. Never witnessed the change brought in due to setting of processes. A lot of our guys (specially the management) at work realize that processes are inevitable and they need to be introduced and a few are extremely enthusiastic about the same. If my new project works out, then my colleague and I have planned to put in a basic outline of a possible process implementation, partially because it could be a good case to experiment on and partially because it needs a lot of documentation to be done which is possible only if done systematically.
Lets see if that works out :)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Verbal Diarrhoea
Ever heard of the concept of "Verbal Diarrhoea" (henceforth referred to as VD)? Well I am sure you have and if you haven't then read on, cause you just might be suffering from it. The concept is very simple and is astoundingly similar to its namesake disease. The funny part though is how similar and yet different it is from the medical condition. The similarity is that in both the cases, there's shit all over the place but that is where the difference start. Because once you are done, in the medical condition you feel relieved no matter how short the duration, but in case of VD, buddy you are so screwed!
Now I do not consider myself a Phd in this particular topic but I have gained experience far beyond an average person thanks to my extensive experimentation with the subject. They say that accepting the fact that one is in a denial phase is half the war won. Well I would like to step up and say, "Yes! I am suffering from VD!" Chandler Bing makes it amusing and to a certain extent cute, but in real life its not such a pretty scene. Though I have noticed, that when relating an incident of VD, the audience is usually in splits. (By the way, in case you don't now who Chandler Bing is, google it!)
My friends know what I am taking about. I have given it a lot of thought and I believe there is a solution. Count to 10 before uttering each sentence, sort of like Atal Bihari Bajpayee, our erstwhile Prime Minister. Your listeners would be so bloody bored that they wouldn't give shit about the shit you are throwing. Or better yet just don't speak. Though the best option is to find someone who can stand your VD and stop you when you are at the verge of an attack.
You'll notice that once you have started understanding the symptoms, you can actually curb this problem. For instance, let's say by some miracle you have managed to crack a joke and actually got people laughing. Now if you are not good at a sequel, do not attempt following up on the joke. And if you had an abysmal effect with the first joke itself, do not attempt a comeback (this is a precautionary measure to all my fellow patients)! Its a sure shot way to leap into the endless pit of VD. Worse is the situation when you realize that you have just raped the joke, no one is laughing and just to save your face, you are still talking, trying to revive it, trying desperately to squeeze a little squeak from one of your listeners. But, within a couple of minutes you have gone into a spiral loop and every word you utter is making the condition fatal. That is a point of no return. May your soul rest in peace.
Now I contemplated citing a couple of my personal favourite cases of VD, but I think I shall give it a pass tonight. Each of them was an embarrassment beyond comprehension and some day I shall relate a few. But for now, I have understood the problem and things have improved a lot. I now try to keep my stupid mouth shut.
Now I do not consider myself a Phd in this particular topic but I have gained experience far beyond an average person thanks to my extensive experimentation with the subject. They say that accepting the fact that one is in a denial phase is half the war won. Well I would like to step up and say, "Yes! I am suffering from VD!" Chandler Bing makes it amusing and to a certain extent cute, but in real life its not such a pretty scene. Though I have noticed, that when relating an incident of VD, the audience is usually in splits. (By the way, in case you don't now who Chandler Bing is, google it!)
My friends know what I am taking about. I have given it a lot of thought and I believe there is a solution. Count to 10 before uttering each sentence, sort of like Atal Bihari Bajpayee, our erstwhile Prime Minister. Your listeners would be so bloody bored that they wouldn't give shit about the shit you are throwing. Or better yet just don't speak. Though the best option is to find someone who can stand your VD and stop you when you are at the verge of an attack.
You'll notice that once you have started understanding the symptoms, you can actually curb this problem. For instance, let's say by some miracle you have managed to crack a joke and actually got people laughing. Now if you are not good at a sequel, do not attempt following up on the joke. And if you had an abysmal effect with the first joke itself, do not attempt a comeback (this is a precautionary measure to all my fellow patients)! Its a sure shot way to leap into the endless pit of VD. Worse is the situation when you realize that you have just raped the joke, no one is laughing and just to save your face, you are still talking, trying to revive it, trying desperately to squeeze a little squeak from one of your listeners. But, within a couple of minutes you have gone into a spiral loop and every word you utter is making the condition fatal. That is a point of no return. May your soul rest in peace.
Now I contemplated citing a couple of my personal favourite cases of VD, but I think I shall give it a pass tonight. Each of them was an embarrassment beyond comprehension and some day I shall relate a few. But for now, I have understood the problem and things have improved a lot. I now try to keep my stupid mouth shut.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Inspired?
Have you ever felt so inspired that you thought you could achieve anything? That no obstacle was big enough, no distance far enough and no task impossible? It was as if a super-being had taken over you. A feeling of higher consciousness. You could see a pattern to everything that was happening around you. And you felt as if you had the power to manipulate circumstances, create situations and convince strangers to walk your path, just so that you reached your goal.
You work with such focus and passion that the thought of failure never crosses your mind. You can't see the end but you know that the dark road ahead will light up just in time for you to walk past without the minutest hitch. Your positive attitude helps you take things in stride. Your confidence is at its peak and yet safely below the level of over-confidence.
What if this source of inspiration is so strong, so cosmic that it engulfs your life? It inspires you to live. Makes you want to be a better person. Pumps in so much faith in you that you want to prove yourself. Inspires you to appreciate what you have and open your eyes to what you need. Helps you differentiate between what you want and what you need because there are times when you want what you don't need and you can never have enough of that.
And such inspirations come unannounced. You cannot brainwash yourself to be inspired. It could be an idea you got during one of your early morning dreams, or the thought of insignificance while looking up at the sky on a moonless night. It could be a near death experience or a child birth. It could strike you one winter morning while you sip coffee staring into nothingness. It could be your inner conscience, a beautiful poem or a piece of music. Or it could simply be... a person.
You work with such focus and passion that the thought of failure never crosses your mind. You can't see the end but you know that the dark road ahead will light up just in time for you to walk past without the minutest hitch. Your positive attitude helps you take things in stride. Your confidence is at its peak and yet safely below the level of over-confidence.
What if this source of inspiration is so strong, so cosmic that it engulfs your life? It inspires you to live. Makes you want to be a better person. Pumps in so much faith in you that you want to prove yourself. Inspires you to appreciate what you have and open your eyes to what you need. Helps you differentiate between what you want and what you need because there are times when you want what you don't need and you can never have enough of that.
And such inspirations come unannounced. You cannot brainwash yourself to be inspired. It could be an idea you got during one of your early morning dreams, or the thought of insignificance while looking up at the sky on a moonless night. It could be a near death experience or a child birth. It could strike you one winter morning while you sip coffee staring into nothingness. It could be your inner conscience, a beautiful poem or a piece of music. Or it could simply be... a person.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sita hindi bhasha bol sakta hai!
Had a great Saturday as usual. Got some serious practice done at class today, actually feel a lot more confident now and its been just 2 weeks that we have started practicing more. I am really happy with the way the sessions are going.
The heat is really turning into a killer! And to go out shopping in this heat is as torturous as third degree treatment in POW camps :P (feels exaggerated right? but that's how much it irritates me).
I was watching "Atithi Kab Jaoge" today and I really connected to a small thing they showed. In the movie, Konkana Sen Sharma was playing the role of a Bengali girl and in it she kept mixing up gender while speaking. Eg. "Woh jaati kyun nahi hai?" referring to Paresh Rawal. It just made me happy seeing that it is actually a phenomenon common enough to be shown in a movie.
I have lived almost all my life outside Calcutta and have spoken Hindi for a very long time. But apparently there is one thing that has had very little improvement in my mastering of the Hindi language. I, like Konkana just cannot get the concept of when to use "ka" and "ki". I refer to a girl saying, "woh kal aayega." or "Tu sari kyun nahi pehenta". I have started putting in conscious effort to correct this but I think I need someone who can correct me continuously and explain the logic behind the sentence formation. I could also get myself a Hindi Grammer book and attempt on my own. But I fear that the result could be disastrous.
It is actually not completely my fault. Bengali doesn't have this gender differentiation! And genetically I am a Bong :) Thanks to this, my friends and I have had some very amusing time, some very embarrassing and quite a few life threatening situations (cases where I have referred to girls as mentioned above).
I firmly believe that there are numerous Bongs out there, who are tormented and are living in misery because of this "ved-vaaw" between the genders. Come on! Why should there be any difference in how we refer either a man or a woman? Is a woman less than any man? So why shouldn't they be referred in the same way as a man?
:D Absolute pathetic attempt at selling my concept but God knows my life would be simpler if this minor ammendment could be done in the Hindi language.
The heat is really turning into a killer! And to go out shopping in this heat is as torturous as third degree treatment in POW camps :P (feels exaggerated right? but that's how much it irritates me).
I was watching "Atithi Kab Jaoge" today and I really connected to a small thing they showed. In the movie, Konkana Sen Sharma was playing the role of a Bengali girl and in it she kept mixing up gender while speaking. Eg. "Woh jaati kyun nahi hai?" referring to Paresh Rawal. It just made me happy seeing that it is actually a phenomenon common enough to be shown in a movie.
I have lived almost all my life outside Calcutta and have spoken Hindi for a very long time. But apparently there is one thing that has had very little improvement in my mastering of the Hindi language. I, like Konkana just cannot get the concept of when to use "ka" and "ki". I refer to a girl saying, "woh kal aayega." or "Tu sari kyun nahi pehenta". I have started putting in conscious effort to correct this but I think I need someone who can correct me continuously and explain the logic behind the sentence formation. I could also get myself a Hindi Grammer book and attempt on my own. But I fear that the result could be disastrous.
It is actually not completely my fault. Bengali doesn't have this gender differentiation! And genetically I am a Bong :) Thanks to this, my friends and I have had some very amusing time, some very embarrassing and quite a few life threatening situations (cases where I have referred to girls as mentioned above).
I firmly believe that there are numerous Bongs out there, who are tormented and are living in misery because of this "ved-vaaw" between the genders. Come on! Why should there be any difference in how we refer either a man or a woman? Is a woman less than any man? So why shouldn't they be referred in the same way as a man?
:D Absolute pathetic attempt at selling my concept but God knows my life would be simpler if this minor ammendment could be done in the Hindi language.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Hideaway
I must agree that I have had a pretty good childhood. I had my share of troubles but then again who hasn't? But the bigger picture brings a smile to my face and fills me up with nostalgia. I had everything that a kid could dream off. Parents to trouble (mostly mom), big place to run around, huge garden to dirt my clothes, zillion trees to climb, chickens to chase, dogs to be chased by (bitten, at times), fruits to pluck (steal too :D ), fishes to catch in streams (mistook tadpoles for fish at times), books to read and a heavenly place to grow up in.
The 3 phases of my childhood that I remember extremely clearly are my days in Melli (South Sikkim) - thats where my father used to work, Kaji House (Kalimpong) - where me and my mom lived while my dad came to visit on weekends and Tapoban (Kalimpong) - where I began living as a PG but then became family. Each and every moment of my life back then was an adventure and the best part was that I was a kid to actually enjoy life. I didn't have to worry about the difficulties that my parents had to face to make life work there, but I guess that's why every kid deserves to have a memorable childhood, enjoy being a kid. I guess I was just plain lucky.
As a kid too, I was quite a loner. I enjoyed time in solitude. While living with my parents, I could balance my friend-time and alone-time but when I started living at Tapoban, things were a little different. There were other kids there and one wouldn't be left alone when he wanted to. Though now I look back and see how wonderful a time I had in Tapoban, as a kid back then, I really missed living with my parents. I was in class 4 then. Not too big. And at times I just wanted to be left alone and picture myself with them. But as I said, it wasn't easy being alone in a house filled with kids of various ages. But where there is a will, there is a way. I needed to find a place from where I could keep an eye on what's happening in the house, whether anyone was searching for me and whether I had to make a quick getaway. Kalimpong being a hill station had terraced landscape. We had our water tank up a couple of terraces to the left of the house, (its a totally different issue that we could never pull water up to it from the "jhora" below :) ).
But I discovered that it was the perfect place to spend some quality time with myself. No one would even dream that there could be someone sitting behind the tank. Had a wonderful view too, sitting above the tank. I could see the whole "Kanchenjunga" range peering behind the house on the left while Kalimpong town to the right.
Took these photos, the last time I visited the place in 2008. It was during the rains, so was mostly cloudy. But there wasn't a single shred of cloud as far as my memories were concerned. Its been ages since I sat there studying, at times angry and at times sad cause I missed home but then its not really too difficult to time travel. All I have to do is close my eyes and I am there, back to the water tank, a kid in class 4, and yet there is difference. I see myself not sad but smiling smugly because I know the future and I know that I must enjoy the moment for I'll be holding on to it for a very long time in the future.
Took these photos, the last time I visited the place in 2008. It was during the rains, so was mostly cloudy. But there wasn't a single shred of cloud as far as my memories were concerned. Its been ages since I sat there studying, at times angry and at times sad cause I missed home but then its not really too difficult to time travel. All I have to do is close my eyes and I am there, back to the water tank, a kid in class 4, and yet there is difference. I see myself not sad but smiling smugly because I know the future and I know that I must enjoy the moment for I'll be holding on to it for a very long time in the future.
Friday, May 14, 2010
A recovering sniffulus maximus
I stayed home today. Just couldn't get up in the morning. Tonsils were as big as grapes and I realized I was breathing through my mouth. Immediately dropped the idea of going to the office because even if I did manage to drag myself there, I would have felt terrible all day, not worked a bit and would have just extended my agony. Staying home also made me realize how sleep deprived I was. I literally slept all day. Did a little light photoshop thingy in the evening and came up with a stacked photo effect. This is how the final outcome looked :
What say? Not bad eh? I like it :) I am planning to put this in the site header. It should liven up the otherwise bland color scheme I am working towards. I am planning to keep it simple so that it loads fast. But then again I can always rework on the theme of the site because I plan to implement the whole thing using CSS.
A friend of mine is getting married on the 15th of May, ie, the day after tomorrow at Jaipur. Too bad that I won't be able to make it there though. We were roomies in our 4th year at college and had some good times back then. We had actually become good friends right from our first year cause we were in the same section of the hostel. Man! The things we all did back then! I could write epics with the stuff that has happened back in college. The only part about college that I don't like was the God forsaken college. The kind of fun we had is like L-E-G-E-N-D-A-R-Y!
I had never been to Rajasthan in my life, this February being my first opportunity to visit Jaipur as a result of one of my other friend's wedding :) Had an awesome time there. Chandrashekhar and myself roamed all over Jaipur using every possible mode of local transport possible. He also helped me accomplish, probably one of the wildest thing I have ever done in my life :) I want to visit Jaipur again. I had some wonderful moments there and some not so great. I need to go to Rajasthan to overwrite those. I need to make some more good memories there. I don't know if that's gonna happen but I wish it everyday.
A friend of mine is getting married on the 15th of May, ie, the day after tomorrow at Jaipur. Too bad that I won't be able to make it there though. We were roomies in our 4th year at college and had some good times back then. We had actually become good friends right from our first year cause we were in the same section of the hostel. Man! The things we all did back then! I could write epics with the stuff that has happened back in college. The only part about college that I don't like was the God forsaken college. The kind of fun we had is like L-E-G-E-N-D-A-R-Y!
I had never been to Rajasthan in my life, this February being my first opportunity to visit Jaipur as a result of one of my other friend's wedding :) Had an awesome time there. Chandrashekhar and myself roamed all over Jaipur using every possible mode of local transport possible. He also helped me accomplish, probably one of the wildest thing I have ever done in my life :) I want to visit Jaipur again. I had some wonderful moments there and some not so great. I need to go to Rajasthan to overwrite those. I need to make some more good memories there. I don't know if that's gonna happen but I wish it everyday.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Sniffulus Maximus
"My name is Maximus Sniffulus Horrendous, Commander of a sad lot of WBCs, General of a weak resistance, Victim of a common cold, Husband to a throat infection, father to a wet hankerchief and I will have my medicine this week or the next!" - Inspired by Ron Howard's Gladiator
The common cold is extremely common to me. A slight change of weather and I am leaking like a flower pot. And then there are certain places where I am in a state of perennial "sniff sniff". My four years in college at Chiplun went mostly sneezing. And the funny thing was, I stepped into New Bombay (the train/bus crossed Panvel) and my cold magically cured.
My roomies know how many handkerchiefs I have wasted during my days in college. And now the legacy continues. My colleagues are traumatized by my affinity to it and are scared shit that I might spread the joy around :P. It had once reached such a critical situation that I could actually scare them with it :)
Anyways, thing is I am really feeling very sick thanks to the stupid cold. And worse is the fact that I cannot miss office this week :(
The common cold is extremely common to me. A slight change of weather and I am leaking like a flower pot. And then there are certain places where I am in a state of perennial "sniff sniff". My four years in college at Chiplun went mostly sneezing. And the funny thing was, I stepped into New Bombay (the train/bus crossed Panvel) and my cold magically cured.
My roomies know how many handkerchiefs I have wasted during my days in college. And now the legacy continues. My colleagues are traumatized by my affinity to it and are scared shit that I might spread the joy around :P. It had once reached such a critical situation that I could actually scare them with it :)
Anyways, thing is I am really feeling very sick thanks to the stupid cold. And worse is the fact that I cannot miss office this week :(
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