This happens all the time!!

Ugadi Celebrations with Cooking @ Home

Today my home is bustling with a lot of excitement and noises. The occasion is Ugadi. Though I am still not sure about the significance of this Kannadiga festival but today we are enjoying the holiday to the fullest. As usual the entire gang is here: Ujjwal, Neo, Sameer, Priyanka and me. We are celebrating the day with cooking, I mean cooking in the real sense. The plan was charted out yesterday itself and the menu was also decided.

Mushroom with Gravy

Chana Daal

Mix Veg Pulao

Rassam

with Pav….. mmmmm

and we wanted some more but Neo surrendered there after; being the Chief Chef the main responsibility is on his shoulders. Today is a D-Day for him as he is bragging about his cooking for past couple of weeks and today is the day to prove this. Any way, the kitchenette was transferred in the night itself to our place. Ujj and Neo packed the entire stuff in a bag and came in the night itself to avoid any risk of not being able to get up and come in the morning.

So Priyanka was given the responsibility to arrange a few utensils, kitchenette was arranged by Ujj-Neo duo and we provided the venue with all the moral and emotional support required!! Sameer and Neo went to the market and bought vegetables, Paneer and other condiments needed. The excitement is at its peek as if a new born has come to the home for the first time and at the center stage of this extravaganza are Neo and his HOT Plate. This is perhaps the first time in the life of Neo that he is being given so much importance. We can not afford to make him angry or annoyed for at least couple of hours more.(Note: Due to unavailability of Mushroom, we used Paneer)

Well!! It’s not that I am just sitting idle doing nothing. I am just taking a break after contributing my part. I cut the tomatoes, Paneer and processed Mutters also, now the others are doing the left over stuff!! The cutting process was also exciting in itself and with very care we performed the activities. First it was the turn of Mix Veg Pulao which took almost half an hour and looking decent enough, chilling out in the casserole. Then came the Paneer which is also looking nice. Now as per Neo we are in a critical stage as the most difficult segment of our this culinary drive is under progress. The Chana Daal is on the Hot Plate and according to him if this goes well then it will be a real victory or success for him! Priyanka with her a little bit of experience is trying to keep the things under control, Sameer is trying to make most out of the drive, Ujjwal as usual…. and after all these hard efforts, I have been told not to enter the kitchen until the job is done, so I am sharing this with you people. So till Chana Daal is ready the daring team has some time to take rest, with their fingers crossed J.

Break

OK at last we sat and made a Gola! It was already 3:30 PM, but believe me it was worth that patience and the most importantly the Chana Daal was awesome. We all jumped on the food like we had not eaten for days and with sip of Pepsi we had really good time.

Now after over eating we are trying to adjust it and cursing Neo and the poor and nice fellow is packing the kitchenette!!

Hangover Over!!

This post might seem a little outdated or irrelevant as it is coming after two weeks' time lag. I could not help, I was intoxicated, it was Holi after all.

We had no plans to celebrate it, as I had lost interest in celebrating Holi for past few years. Then my roomie told me that some DA-IICTians were gathering at Desi's place. So we reached there and in no time many more DA-IICTians started popping in, we were near about twenty in all. Then started dhamaal with colors and water. A small pool of mud was created mixing water, color, dust and other garbage. Almost everyone was honored with anointment in that pool(I got the privilege of going thrice). After beating each other and shouting at the top of our voices for a long time the band of brigands marched towards another camp. I never imagined that I would be celebrating Holi in Bangalore and that too in that way. As I was walking on the streets in that condition I was surprised on what I was doing as well as happy that no one could recognize me!!
It seemed that only we were that much excited that day as very few people in Bangalore celebrate Holi.

It was one more house of my seniors and there the rituals were repeated religiously for the benefit of the new joinees in the gang. After having done those, we were informed that our seniors had arranged bhang ki thandai for us. Then somebody brought it on the roof to my extreme disappointment as the quantity of it was sufficient enough that we could just manage to taste it!! but there I acted smart. Out of the three bhang ki golis I managed to get hold of one but Sameer jumped in between and I had to share it with him. Then Patrik sponsored the sutta flaunting his new brand Devidoff and then came the chilled beer. I got hold of my Can. It was chilled KF Strong 500 ml. All the brigands made a Gola!! and then after a few mls went inside us ... the real fun started. Patrik and Desi were on hot seat. That small amount of alcohol helped them to shun their formal veil and come into the real Desi and Bhojpuri avtaar. The jokes and incidents that came out of their mouth made all of laugh so much that most of us were out of our breath. I suppose it was not the greatness of the content that made us laugh so much but the content in the Cans that made the impact!! I was in a severe "Roflol"(Rolling on the floor, laughing out loud) condition with my legs up in the air and thanks to Rohan Mandora for being a teetotaler that he arranged delicious Samosaas and Kachoris while we were Rofloling.

Then we reached our home at 4 in the evening and I fell asleep immediately in that condition. It was a bad day for LP Baba. That poor fellow came from the far end of the city to meet us and to be with us on the occasion of Holi and I scolded him!! Sorry LP, it was not intentional.

Celebrating Three quarters of uselessness

Like every year the whole world is busy in taking stock of it's activities in the past fiscal year, which ended in March. Managers(at least some of them) are busy in number crunching and setting guidelines for the coming year. I also wanted to do such kind of activity for me. I completed three quarters in the industry and here is the budget(or summary) for that period.

Total time spent - 9 Months
Total Leaves taken - 12
Leaves remaining - 18(till Dec. 2008)
Projects worked on - 3(sounds cool!!)
Total Days worked - Can count them on fingers
Total opportunities missed - Two (Third one is in the pipe line to be missed)
Total new friends - Many
Organizational Activities - Four
Knowledge gain(technical) - A few ounce
Knowledge gain(non-technical) - Quite Satisfactory
Other Activities: Book Reading, Blogging, Chatting
Favorite Platform : Microsoft Outlook (Believe me it's magical)
Tools Learned: Blogger, Outlook, Visual Studio and and thats it!

With the hope to see a better year ahead.

How to **** the CAT

It seems no different this time also, third time in a row, year after year. I am making the same mistake once more and even after knowing this I feel helpless. The previous two times when I attempted the CAT, I focused mainly on English. During past two and half years I have improved a lot but it seems like never ending journey for me. I am so obsessed with improving my English that I neglected Quant and DI/LR almost entirely. It is not that efforts put in to improve my English are not paying off but the output to input ratio is not very impressive.

As per the general opinion the O/I ratio is best in the case of Quant, still I feel so lazy whenever I go to start my Quant preparations. I am yet to overcome this weakness of mine, but this time also I am not doing much, than making just plans. Though i am getting highest percentile in Quant for past two years, still I believe this is the area where quick improvement can be achieved.

While discussing all these issues, this time also I did the same which I do with DI/LR every time. They are always neglected by me and I feel very sorry for it(actually for me). One reason is it takes a lot of time to read the Question and then I have to painfully use my hands and brain to find the solutions. This step-motherly behavior is not going to work out, that I know and let me take the oath one more time that I will not repeat the same mistake this time.

Target - 2009, have to make really big this time.

A missed Farewell

Though in my tenure in the organization so far, I have seen many people leaving and joining the organization at various levels, it was only yesterday that it really hurt or surprised me. The reason was departure of one of our most loved team members. She was good in every respect be it technical stuff or be it lively non technical discussions. She was a great source of inspiration especially for guys like me who are new in the game. I feel very low and disheartened as she was my mentor and taught me quite a few things. Whenever I required some guidance, she was always there.
The one thing that I have always read about in management books and hear senior people talking about is bonding among team members and how this is important to get success in every field, but it was only yesterday that I saw what bonding is in a corporate life. I saw tears in the eyes of many of my team members including me also. We were not able to say or ask anything and she left immediately as she could not stop herself from crying. Here also I want to write a lot of things but I am unable to find the proper words.
This was as sudden and surprising as it was painful. Whatever might be the reason I have seen a new color of professional life which was so touching.

On behalf of my team I wish her all the very best. Thank you for being there. We all miss you...

Confluence – An initiative for learning and growth

After joining MindTree in July campus batch we underwent two months long rigorous training. No doubt the training provided immense learning opportunities both in technical and non-technical field, various other activities that are being held in the organization time to time also provide us opportunities to learn and also have fun. Many MindTree minds are contributing in some or the other organizational activities, be it Osmosis, some charity work, mini marathon, blood donation camp or something else.

I also grabbed one such opportunity to contribute my part when there was a call to volunteer for the newly created Campus Council, which is now given the name as Confluence, meaning flowing together. This is an initiative to enhance the partnership with various institutes where MindTree goes for the campus placements. From each institute some volunteers are selected to represent it into the council and they will be called as Campus Ambassadors and two senior MindTree minds are designated as Campus Sponsors for each of the institutes. The idea is to visit these campuses at least once every quarter and conduct some sessions and workshops which will be beneficial to the students. Besides this, a lot of emphasis is being put on the long term relationship building with the institutes by involving faculty and management who are continuing force for such initiatives. Campus teams have come up with their plans and have already started visiting the campuses and the response has been very positive so far. Some of the interesting ideas are:

· Panel discussion on IT’s social impact with panel including a Judge, an Editor, A Human Rights Activist.

· Discussion on ‘Power of Vision’ using one inspiring video clip.

· Importance of process in every aspect of life.

· Professional growth and personal growth.

and many more such great ideas with Subroto’s interactive session with students being the highlight event in one of the institutes.

Apart from being an organizational activity this initiative is a great learning opportunity for all the participants. On one hand it is providing a great opportunity for the volunteers to meet and discuss with many senior minds, while on the other hand it is a platform where senior minds are can understand and appreciate the needs, concerns and thinking of the college students and Campus Minds. Besides this, I believe that this activity will help to add to the confidence and soft skills of the volunteers as they are bridging different entities situated at distant locations and having different expectations and notions. This requires a lot of skills and efforts.

Overall I believe that this is a great initiative and will help in making MindTree’s brand in various institutes which is very much essential for the future growth. This also signifies the increasing maturing level of the organization and a process driven environment with a lot of learning opportunities for all the parties involved. I wish luck to Kalyan and team!!