Attention, (Indian) Employers !

A girl who has just written her final year engineering exams attends a campus interview for a huge MNC. She hears nothing from them for nearly 5 weeks and then suddenly one day the appointment letter arrives by post asking her to join work in 2 days in a different city. In addition to that, the letter also has a list of requirements from getting the provisional certificate to registering at various places.

I cannot believe that the employer is dumb enough to assume that the girl is some version of superman and can fly and get all these things done in a day, pack, move to a totally different city, find a place to live in and still be ready to start working at 9am the next day.

The girl is obviously anxious, calls HR, gets an extension of 5 days, hurriedly does everything (not to mention the parents who work round the clock to help accomplish this in addition to all other things they normally have to do), goes to the new city, finds temporary accommodation after spending a whole day going around the city and arrives on the joining day exhausted and even more anxious!

Is the employer increasing productivity by making the freshers join a week in advance? Wouldn’t it better if all candidates were given at least 2 weeks time to be prepared, especially when they are just stepping into their careers from student life? When HR already knows that the candidates are going to ask for an extension, can they not save all this drama by being a little considerate? Why take the freshers for granted? Is such behaviour going to give the employer loyalty and respect from those freshers?

An NRI wants to move back to India for good. He has a telephonic interview with a MNC at 7am in the morning (because of a 4 hour time difference with India). Its 7:45 am and he is still waiting. He writes an email to the person with whom he has interview asking if there is a change of plan. He gets a reply in 2 minutes saying that the person is in a meeting with a client and will call back later.

Would it have been difficult to send this email 45 minutes ago informing the NRI of the change? It would have been clear from the NRI’s resume that he is currently working and has a job to go to and cannot sit around for 45 minutes doing nothing. How can a group lead at an MNC not even have this basic courtesy?

The interview is rescheduled and this time the group lead is again 20 minutes late. Neither does he inform about this in advance nor does he apologise for being late.

Following the interview, a video conference is set up. The NRI has now taken an afternoon off and is sitting in a video conference facility. He has a presentation prepared and is expecting 4 people to be present. As usual, they are late. 3 of them turn up in 15 min and the fourth in 25 min. No apologies, as usual. He starts presenting; one of them sitting right in front of the webcam starts chewing a samosa loudly while 2 others are discussing among themselves. Patiently he finishes presenting and then answers a few questions. He is told that he will be informed of their decision in a week.

2 weeks pass by and there is no response, so he writes an email asking them for an update. 2 more weeks pass by without a response.

The NRI writes to HR saying that he is withdrawing his application. Who would want to work with a bunch of people, with absolutely no professional ethics whatsoever ?!?

Does applying for a job translate to “I need a favor from you and so you can take me for granted”? (Indian) Employers, please understand that it means “I have skills that I think will be of use to your company and your company has prospects that will help me grow”. It is a mutually beneficial relationship and until both the employer and employee understand this, there can never be a healthy work environment.

I have heard of number of people in India who change jobs just because they get a better package elsewhere and have seen a number of employers complain. I am not saying that its always the fault of the employers. But before expecting loyalty from the employees, they should think if they did at least a few things right to deserve such a loyalty. Paying a salary does not guarantee that because it is not money given away, it is money given for services rendered.

Unfortunately (or rather fortunately) there are certain things beyond money….

….for everything else, there is master card :D !

This and That

In search of a dirty bachelor....

Half-eaten pizza boxes, clothes strewn all over the place, dirty floors, all in all a messy room – what does this remind you of ? The most likely answer is probably ‘a bachelor’s room’ but where is this room and more importantly, where is this bachelor? None of my male friends at the University of Stuttgart lived in such a messy room. In fact, some of their rooms were neat enough to embarrass me and make me wonder about my housekeeping abilities!! I have also visited (and sometimes without giving notice) friends from college or cousins who live alone and never have I seen a messy bachelor room....well, except in the movies. I have a feeling that some lazy guy started this rumor of being cool, if you don’t keep your place clean and it kinda stuck and even guys who are otherwise neat probably brag to their friends that they aren’t!

Nenachu nenachu siricha oru joke, something I heard recently...
Two people in a train
first one: enna sir, endhooruku ticket eduthurukeenga ?
other one: idhu mana desam, mana prajalu, mana rayilu, manaku enduku babu ticketu ?
first one: ''Without''nu ivalo velavariya solreenga !

One-stop shop is the way to go....
When you are looking for a house to rent, it means you are moving and in a place like Germany, where everyone loves paperwork, moving means piles of paperwork and changing your address at every place from the local city office to the library. So Immobilienscout does a brilliant job of pointing you to websites that offer services to people who move and for free
- you can order boxes for packing (umzugskarton)
- you can find the best movers or painters
- you can intimate the change of address to banks or insurance or telecom by just a click of a button
- If a particular organization will not accept an online change of address then you have a formal letter generator (in german) that you just have to print and post !
- You can find the best electric power supplier in your region
and the list goes on…
Idea mani asks: why not have a link to ebay to find used furniture in the same area ?

PS: am wondering if I should make "this and that" a series....hmm...

PPS: How do I label this post ??

Desis, Start Sketching !

I was recently talking to a friend who works with 3D printing (some samples of 3D printing are here) and is thinking of starting a business of his own. He sent me his prototype website for feedback and the first thing that occurred to me was that he was working only with CAD models when a lot of modelers are switching to Google Sketchup. After his initial doubts, he started using it and now he tells me that he is amazed with its capabilities and is extremely grateful to me for suggesting it.

Like the webpage claims, you can model anything in 3D. Needless to say, a lot of people have been modeling buildings in their towns and every now and then a supermodeler is recognised and appreciated by the community. The most recent one, as far as I know, is Tang, whose goal is to model Taiwan. Check out some of his amazing models here.

So far I have seen many such supermodelers from all over the world but I am still missing someone from India. Given that India has so many beautiful places and buildings and even more talented people, this should not be this hard.

Constructing 3D buildings in one's hometown would be a great school level or even undergraduate level project. I say home town because in that case it would be easier to take photos of the buildings/monuments (to add the photo textures to the 3D model) and take in-situ measurements if there is a particularly difficult feature to model.

If enough initiative is shown by a particular school/town, Google may even be ready to sponsor some other activities in that place.

The board of tourism could use this tool to popularise some of the less known places in India Most international tourists only know two things about India - the Taj Mahal and Ayurveda. At best, they know about Rajasthan. The Karnak temple, the Vitthala temple and ruins in Hampi, various temples in Tamilnadu and so many more places can be brought to the attention to millions of Google users by means of Skechup.

The tool is free, is relatively easy to use and there are tonnes of training material and user forums available to help guide newbies...so makkale, give it a try and start Sketching !

PS: I would have loved to show a sample model that I created but certain rules in the industry I work in prevent me from doing so but I am sure Google search can help answer all your questions.

PPS: If I did miss any skechup supermodelers from India, please let me know, I will be really happy to get to know them !

Of kids and brats

There are 2 things one never does - tell a bride that she is marrying the wrong guy and if you outlive that mistake then never tell a parent his/her child is a brat !

There was a time when I thought all kids were cute and sweet...I was a confused teenager who was used to heros falling in love with heroines who loved kids or vice versa. But the cuteness and sweetness will disappear when you spend some time with kids who have been pampered and spoilt by the parents and your inability to do nothing in such a situation drives you insane !

Frankly I cannot love all kids unconditionally. The only reason some kids get the 'unconditional-love' cards are because I love at least one of their parents unconditionally. So meeting one of the kids without this card is always tricky.

First of all, when people become parents they undergo a transformation. All parents think their child/children is/are the best and quite a few actually expect others to fall in with that as well. Parents, please understand that a visitor may not share your enthusiasm for watching 100 photos of your child eating cereal or listening to your description of your child's antics for the whole day (the aww feeling stops after an hour) !

I usually get along well with most kids and I never meet them without presents (so that makes me Santa Claus in their eyes and that helps :D). I also enjoy the little pleasures in life that one experiences in the presence of a kid. A friend's kid once drew me a picture (more like a scribble) and gave it to me as a present. I still have it and treasure it. If only the world was only made of such sweet kids.....

I do understand that kids get cranky when they are hungry or sleepy or sick and that's understandable. But there are certain kids who are so spoilt and mean, they know that all they have to do is to throw a tantrum to get their way. I don't like giving parenting advice (and I shouldn't since I don't have kids of my own), so all I do when I encounter such brats is to make a mental note as to never visit the parents again for the next few years (during which I hope the child grows up and learns to behave).

Ashok has a strict rule of not traveling with kids as long as the travel is not to a restaurant or a park and I used to think that he was impatient. But when I came back from a day trip to a nice city with some friends and their kids and couldn't remember what I saw because of the incessant crying and adam pidichufying I decided that he had a point.

For all I know, my kids could end up being brats (Oh dear God, I hope not!) and I would probably be blissfully unaware of that fact but until that day comes, I can choose when and where I want to be with kids !

Some things change....

Happy New Year Readers ! Don't worry it is not one of these new-year-resolution posts. I actually planned to write one last week in a pathetic attempt to bring the number of posts in 2010 to 100 but I decided that I liked '99' (read couldn't come up with any new year resolutions!)

Now think of concentric circles……(Time for a Flashback)

I first met him at a Hindi class. Remember those Rashtra basha, praveshika classes?? God I hated those! Is that anyway to learn Hindi? I attribute all my knowledge in Hindi to Shahrukh and his romantic (or what I thought was romantic as a stupid teenager) movies. Anyway I am digressing. He was a quiet guy always minding his own business and uttering only a few words. I liked him instantly but I was puzzled by his aloofness…until then I had never met an introvert. I slowly started talking to him and even then he would only answer questions and never say anything on his own. He was so shy that even if he saw me somewhere outside he would keep on walking without as much as a smile acknowledging my presence. At first I thought he was rude but then I realized he simply did not interact with anyone unless the other person approached him first.

I gradually learnt that he was a very diligent student at school and was also a good shuttle player. His amma always proudly showed off all the trophies he had won in the various matches. In spite of all this I learnt he hardly had any close friends and very soon it was obvious that I was probably the only one. I realized it was only because of his lack of people skills. So I started bugging him about interacting with people and asked him to follow what I was doing when I met someone. I could see that I was slowly arousing his interest since he was impressed with my network of friends and all the fun we had (well, I didn’t exactly tell him about all the trouble we got into, I figured that information was for later :D).

I was always very fond of him (I still am). He was very innocent and naïve and I always worried that people would take advantage of him. I coaxed him to be more street-smart and although he tried, it never really worked. He was 2 years younger than me, so he pretty much started following me as a mentor and we had lots of good times until I went to college. Hostel life and then coming to Germany made me lose touch with him though I would occasionally get some updates about what he was doing.

I recently found him in one of the social networks and was overjoyed. I learnt that he is not in India anymore and works for a MNC. The first few emails I got from him made me really happy. He asked me to chat with him during one of the weekends and I gladly agreed. There is one thing about catching-up with someone that you haven’t really interacted with for years, it can go both ways and unfortunately this chat went the way I hoped it wouldn’t.

During the first few minutes, he kept talking all the time that I was inordinately pleased that he is not the same introvert he was years ago. But after a while, I realized, he was consciously making himself talk, so it ends up being mind numbingly boring. He was saying the same things again or things that totally were unimportant and he was an extremely poor listener. Very soon, we had run out of things to talk and I realized I was getting both angry and annoyed. I thought to myself that I would have preferred the silent guy to the boring chatter box and it was probably because of me that he has turned into one. Its true that its been years and we have somehow drifted apart and have landed in different wavelengths. The pangs of guilt and my fondness for him made me chat with him a little longer but I knew I was stretching my patience limits and very soon I would snap. Well, that was that...it was the last time I had a chat with him. Since then, I have restricted our contact to occasional emails. I still like him and wish him well but its just not the same !

I have read somewhere that women always assume that they can influence and change a man by caring, the operative word being ‘assume’. I have often seen rogues turning into respectable gentlemen for their women or duds turning into geniuses in movies but have never come across something like that in real life. I understand that it’s not the same situation here but I can’t help but wonder if this is another delusion....

Top 5 Madisars

I recently saw ''Seetha kalyanam'' and there were only 2 reasons for it - a traditional 7 day brahmin wedding and Jo in Madisar...although the movie moved at a snail's place and the ending was too predictable, it did do justice to the 2 things I looked for.

The ''bough'' vecha kai is adorable while the maroon with double side jari makes it very authentic !

That also got me thinking about other heroines in madisar and here is my countdown.

Note for buzz readers: If you want to take a look at the embedded videos visit my blog to read this post.

5. Bhanupriya in Aahaa

It looks like someone drew a madisar on her (video from minute 8.35). To quote my paati ''Onbadhu kajam evalo paandhama irukku avaluku'' !

4.Urvasi in Micheal Madana kamarajan

"Sundari neeyum'' is an amazing song and the venpattu Thittusundari, I mean, Thriupurasundari wears will remain etched in my memory forever !

3.Padmini in Vietnam Veedu

The only reason Padmini is pushed to place 3 is because she is slightly plump when compared to the gorgeous ones in 1 and 2 and that makes a difference.

2.Sridevi in Meendum Kokila

I couldn't find a proper madisar pic from the movie but found another one and that one's pretty too ! There is no better combination than madisar with temple jewelery and she is wearing my favorite color combo, the mambhazha yellow with maroon !

and the undisputed number one position goes to

1.Sowkar Janaki in Edhir neechal

As long as I live, I will love ''Adhuthathu Ambujatha parthale''. The ettukal mookuthi, the jimiki, the long plaited hair with flowers, her beautiful eyes that look even more pretty with kaajal, all together make her the best velli thirai mami.

Special mention should go to Hemamalini in Hey Ram, the only reason she is not on the list is because her screen presence is very limited to actually include her in the contest !

An extra special mention goes to the invincible Shanmugi mami but she is out of the contest because of the mama/mami questions that might eventually be raised !

The scene with Gemini Ganesan that follows this song is the one that takes Shanmugi...err..kamal to a thani level....the body language, the blushing, the whimpering.....chancea illa !

On behalf of all mamis - Indha pudhu varusham ellarkum amogama irukattum bhagavane !

Ippadiku,

nammathu mami

PS: Please do not suggest Asin in Madisar as one of the contestants, she wears it like a ready-made pant suit and it only ends up looking weird !

PPS: Did I miss someone else ??

Disclaimer: All pics (except the last one ofcourse) and videos belong to the respective production houses. I am not responsible for any copyright violation in the embedded videos.

An English Christmas...

Right from Agatha Christie to Charles Dickens, everyone raves about an English Christmas. Just to what find out what all the hype was about, I decided to spend Christmas in London this year.

Here are some of the things I really enjoyed and hence have decided to include in the ''must-do'' list.

Watch a Pantomime

A Pantomime is a musical-comedy mostly performed during the christmas and New year season. I saw the ''Sleeping beauty''. I was initially skeptical when I learnt that the show was nearly for 3 hours and hardly anyone had come there without a kid. But it turned out to be 3 hours of pure and unadulterated fun.

The actors were brilliant and whats more they all had radiant smiles and really seemed to enjoy what they were doing. The show was very interactive and the audience was allowed to boo the villian (-ess), sigh with the princess when she falls in love and wish for a ''happily ever after'' ending. The crew threw chocolates into the crowd, came running through spraying everyone with water guns, had gorillas that scared the living daylights out of some kids, made the audience sing and dance with them...ohh I felt I was 13 and was taking part in a school annual day !

The best part was when a couple of the really small kids were called on stage and were asked questions by the court jester (CJ). Here are some of the ''brilliant'' answers

CJ: Where do you live ?

Kid1 (after a lot of thinking): Home

Kid2 (after a lot of looking around): hmm...

CJ: never heard better answers !

CJ: what did you get for christmas ?

Kid1: hmm...nothing

Kid2 (with a sheepish smile): hmm...forgot

CJ: well, between the two of you, you are keeping the christmas spirit alive !

Enjoy the Christmas lights

Walking through Oxford street and Regent Street on Christmas Day was amazing inspite of the biting cold weather (click on the photo for a larger version).

For someone coming from Munich, where christmas decorations are confined mostly to the city centre, seeing rows and rows of lights in all possible shapes and colors was just too festive to miss. Going on Christmas day would ensure that you will not get clobbered by crazy shoppers (its God's day, noone shops much to the relief of most men)

Eat Christmas pudding

If there is something worth eating in the English cuisine, its surely the Christmas pudding. Made with nuts, raisins and alcohol (mostly cognac), it is definitely a dessert worth gaining a few pounds for (atleast thats my excuse for now) !

Do some ''Boxing day'' Shopping

All stores have a massive sale on Boxing day. I saw items that had 70% discount. Well, yes, you should have had some experience in Ranganathan street to combat the crazy women (and sometimes men) in the crowded stores and if you are prudent, you will shop online or visit some stores away from Central London where the chances of you being mobbed are less likely !

Visit a Castle

I went to the Windsor castle and was pleasantly surprised by very few visitors.

Since most people use the christmas vacation to catch up with families, sightseeing places like Castles are hardly crowded and this is a once-in-a-year opportunity for a highly touristy place like London.

Besides this I also had fun with a school friend, a college friend, a distant cousin, nearly emptied Saravana Bhavan in Eastham, saw Manmadhan Ambu in Cineworld (and felt jealous about how desi movies were screened and advertised just like English movies - for someone in a city where only 2 theatres screen English movies and desi movies are confined to one show, this is a big deal!) and ate a looooooot of really good desi food (to an extent that I should live only on water for the rest of the year!)

An English Christmas in London is a lot of fun, an English Christmas in London with near and dear ones is super duper fun !

Copyright for Pantomime photo: Odos Entertainment