Friday, April 18, 2008

The Great Trade-off

Can one ever trade the two most desirous things in this world?

Well one look around you and you will find several examples of compromise, intentional neglect and forced assertion that pit Love and Money against each other.

What’s that emotion that really makes one pitch ones loyalties one way or the other?

At times it’s just a state of mind, but most cases on careful examination would certainly reveal a scheme that the person had in mind, which lead to a manipulation and calculative moves that make the decision tilt in favor of one or the other.

The anatomy of such decision would be a definite research piece that could take a life time to unravel, but the fact that there exist many such examples of intentional deceit where one choose money over true love and forfeited one’s self respect and also endangered others who had been earlier conned into believing things that were not necessarily true.

Life can be a dangerous thing to deal with when one has to make these trade-offs at the cost of other individuals.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Why do i get irriatated.. (much less these days...)

I get irritated when:-

I see lethargy – of any kind, personal, in the professional work
I see people wasting time/money – their own or of someone else, does not matter
I feel someone is not trying hard enough, giving up mid way
I see someone not willing to listen to sane advice
I see someone trying to be cunning with others
I see someone trying to politicize/play favorites
I see someone trying to push around and show a lot of ego and heavy headedness
I see someone being excessively arrogant about far lesser achievement
I see someone being extremely material in thinking and short term in focus
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.
.
.
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List can be long, but the most irritated I have ever got is when I see people giving a word and not standing by it, making a promise and betraying the other person.

There can be no worse act of cruelty by one person to another than the one mentioned.

Think a 1000 times before pulling another person in the ring with you, giving a word to the person and then for your own benefit/safety/material gain leaving the person alone, betraying the person.

That nostalgic feeling...Old friends and old memories

It's always such a fantastic feeling to catch up with that school or college buddy whom you had not met or spoken to for years.

I suddenly saw an email in my mail box from one such person and was so excited that my colleague who was sitting on my desk asked me "What happened?"

I was in some embarrassment explaining him the reason for that wide smile on my face because as soon as i saw the mail, some of those funny moments that we associate with each of the persons around us just flashed in front of me.

There are quite a good no of fun moments associated with this person too...

It's not getting any cheaper is it?

The economy is growing, there is a sense of good in every sector and the general mood seems great.

BUT, inflation is taking its toll, well inflation has always troubled some government or the other at different times since the last 15-20 years or even longer.

What's different this time around?

Well, its for the first time perhaps in my life time that food prices across the board have seen a sharp increase. One does not need to be an economist to tell you that when food prices go up and they affect the common people beyond their earning cycles, they vote against the government.

Bye Bye UPA government at the center.

PS:- My understanding of the Indian economy is as good as Sachin Tendulkar's(Master's) understanding of Chemistry in class XII.

Thailand - Phuket - Good place, better people....


I write this from a seat overlooking Concourse C on the swanky new Swarnabhumi International Airport @ Bangkok. I was in Phuket for a few days and what I saw of Thailand, the people there, their attitude to customer service and work in general has impressed me a great deal.

The places I went to were clean, you would hardly find people loitering around without work, everyone seems to be busy with some task or the other. I found people were happy and content – at least their facial expressions showed that they were happy and the limited conversations I had with some of the locals did tell me that they are quite happy and proud of their country, culture and the king!!!

The land rates in Phuket - one of the most popular tourist destinations were a mere 10-15lac Bht/acre i.e. 12-18lac INR/acre. Wow, that’s a lot cheaper than any of the places in India isn’t it?

The temple that I visited was hardly crowded and the roads are great, people seemed to follow the traffic rules pretty well, I think Thailand and the people impressed me a lot.

Over and above all this what impressed me was the attitude of the people, I found it very positive. People have a tremendous sense of service, they are polite and savvy when it comes to serving their guests.

At 930pm in my hotel the person who was looking after us went all the way to find out some small bit of information that I asked her to look for and spent almost ½ hour to get the right person, for me to talk to.

I am actually planning to come back, preferably within the next one year, spend some more time in this beautiful place and with these great people. Well, actually spend some money here as well,

It’s well spent, believe me!!!