Ginger & Cardamom

India wins the Twenty20 World CUP, I am elated. Cricket can't get better :-)

Benched: Learning from Supply Chain and IT

Now that I am getting into shoes of my new job of being a Fun(ctional) Con-Sultan-t. Its high time I should write something about it. I deal with Supply Chain Management in my work are so I found it the most appropriate to write something about it. The post has been a result of my thought process during I spent two long weeks on the bench. So here I go about my learning from Supply Chain Management and an IT Organization-

1- People = Resource/Raw Material

2- Resource on bench= Safety Stock

3- Resource under Training = Inventory in Transit

4- Resource Transfers= Move orders

5- Onsite= Interorganization Inventory Transfer

6- Billable Resource on a Project= Sale of Goods

7- Compensation= Cost of Goods Sold (Direct)

8- Buffer Resource on a Project- ATP (available to promise)

9- Cubicle of the Resource= Locator

10- Daily Attendance- Physical Counting

11- Appraisal- Work in Process

12- Head hunters, B-Schools, Engg Colleges- Vendors

Some times this restless soul wonders that all the IT organization who talk about lowering the inventories all across the companies are unable to do it with in their own organization. All this and so more when I was BENCHED……

Busy!!! Call U Back

I got a message from an old friend saying “Bhool Gaya Mujhe, Corporate ban gaya tu!!!” (You have forgotten me and turned into a corporate). This line set me into thinking what I had been on my mind a lot lately, Is this true? I out of habit keep pinging and calling friends and acquaintances to be in touch. Yes that’s true that I actually have nothing to say but just a small phone call to say that I still do care. I have discovered some responses on which actually I can categorize conversations-

1- Hey Prats!!! What are you doing man? How is life?….blah… blah and a 10 min conversation.
With all said and done 10 minutes that make your day, make you feel that you exist apart from your employee number, cubicle number, and extension number. There is more in life than e-mails, the replies and the contemplation of to whom it should be carbon copied.

2- Hello!! Who is this? Prateek?!?!?!? (a minute of mourning silence for the dead memory cells) oh yes!! Prateek. How are you?
This one is a tricky kinds, if the short term loss of memory is temporary there can be a hearty conversation like the earlier one. If not then the situation becomes a lot funny. The conversation goes like following-

Ol’ Buddy: So tell me man how is life?

Prats: Cool yaar, I have recently moved to Bangalore.

OB: Oh Banagalore!! Lovely place lovely weather.

P: Yeah man very true, U tell me how r u doing

OB: Nothing much man, some good work keeps coming on and off. (Good answer Have and have no work keep guessing). How is your company doing?

P: Oh its been fine except for some jitters because of the weak dollar.

OB: (Thinking and fitting correlations & regressions) oh you in IT services?

P: yes, I am with Infosys.

OB: Oh man I completely forgot. I thought you were with Goldman Sachs.

P: ( Confused) I was in marketing not finance.

OB: You were in my class…eh… y..eee….s!!! Aur batao Howz Life?

P: Blah Blah …. Acha chalo will talk to you later!! BBye.

3- Hey Prateek!! I am a bit occupied can I call you back later.
And they call back. Take time to talk and show true professionalism.

4- The most interesting ones are who say “I am a bit busy, I will call you back.” And they never call back. This is one category I seriously pity. They don’t want to keep in touch and don’t give an F word. But they would be diplomatic they might need to revive the contacts in future.

Of all things said and done I was wondering when my friends says that I have turned into a corporate, have I fallen in the dreaded 4th category myself. I hope not, because always in my life I have believed in some principles which I found were articulated in a blog, Whose I don’t remember but the exact worlds stuck to me as a paraphrase of my own thoughts “When Business and relations are difficult to pull together, Relations must survive.”

P.S.- To my old friend, I have not turned into a corporate, couldn’t call you because I missed your number trying to get it from the common friends and will give u a buzz ASAP.

On The Job: Alternate Careers

The other day I was watching one of the TV shows on M-TV. The show is called “On The Job”. It’s a very fresh concept and with a very different perspective. The show concentrates on the alternate careers. In this show people every week there is a alternate career in focus, something like a product designer, choreographer, DJ, VJ, radio jockey, bartender or a stylist. People are screened in the top 3 make it to the screen where they are provided with the setup and facilities and made to do tasks which they need to do on the job. During the course of the show it provides ample information for people who are planning to pursue the alternate career of the week. Finally the winner of the show who does the given job best gets a chance to be an intern with one of the best names in the career in focus.

First time in India, the alternate careers are being focused by such a mass media. One of the greatest problem with the people who are willing to follow alternate career paths is the resistance from the family. Despite all the cosmopolitan culture influencing India, still the mom’s psyche out when a son says he wants to be a bartender or a daughter says that she wants to be a choreographer. Answers like “Kya tum engg ya medicine nahi kar sakte” or “ Complete your degree from here and do an MBA”. This resistance from the families majorly because of two reasons one being lack of information, and the second being the amount of uncertainty associated with alternate careers.

With M-TV bringing the idea of alternate careers right into our living rooms, makes it acceptable that people are willing to join these careers. There has been a plethora of shows which were necessarily talent shows and they primarily concentrate on the talents of people and career opportunity associated with them. First time with “On The Job” a TV show has tried to sneak peak into the world of alternate careers. Focusing not on the talents of the participants but on the career choices people would like to make.

It is a very good opportunity identified by M-TV, as it connects very well with its target audience. Which essentially consist of youth and the cosmopolitan crowd of India. It not only entertains but also gives a very different perspective to the people who actually are looking forward to pursue alternate careers. With all the monotonous monologue on the television, “On The Job” provides a refreshing change.

With or Without You
(Couldn't think of anything else for the title)

The world has stopped, life is dull and slow,
The humans still, the trees silent as seeds were never sowed.
The roads lying speechless all along,
The skylarks are numb without a song

yesterday as beautiful as it could have been,
For me the words and the world she seemed.
My life had all the reasons it had to be,
Every time I opened my eyes, in front was she.

Some little facts my heart refuses to explain,
Her glittery eyes and shiny hair how they released my pain.
What a bliss it was seemed like a boon,
But never understood why it had to end so soon.

The life is empty, loneliness surrounds,
All around is a vacuum, memories profound.
A surreal touch and a loving glance,
A long wait to life another chance.

All off a sudden the folklore of my life,
has lost all it's stories.
Without her I am the sun,
Who has lost its glory.

A Walk Down the Lanes of Yesterday

It has been 7 years when I last walked down that gate, and thought I would never return back. Have rushed across the familiar building a zillion but didn’t ever felt like strolling through those corridors. After seven years here I decided to go to the same building where I started my life. Almost a quarter of century and a journey where I have reached an end of being a student. I believe that I started my career from PCVN, because I really don’t remember anything much from my former school where I did my education till class III except for some people who joined with me to PCVN and one Mansi Khare (which my mom and dad will keep praising because of her good hand writing).

It was so nostalgic to walk in there, walk in those corridors, and classrooms where I have grown up got my education. The place which introduced me to computers, books and above all my friends which are still with me. I couldn’t believe when people say that I have changed a lot, my teachers could still recognize me. My class teacher from the eighth and ninth grade still remembered me and also remembered how I used to carry those diskettes with me all the time (p.s. CD ROM were not into fashion at that time and I used 3.5” floppies to carry my data). The librarian whom we used to call library ma’am was still there and told me that how she always knew that I used to bunk library classes to go and sit in computer lab. My English teacher was still as stylo and arrogant as she always used to be. Things had changed, lots of faces were new, and the ones which were not the age showed on them. Life changes a lot of things, when I walked through those corridors they were so familiar the grey stone and the red brick wall. The wall magazines of the houses placed towards the right. But none of the faces seemed familiar, I was just wondering the people who would be passing out now would have been fifth graders when I used to be in school.

It was so good when I saw genuine smiles on faces of people who had taught me when I was a kid. Such feelings and compassion hard to find in the professional world, when people celebrate your life and trivial achievement with pride not with just a passing smile. The 2 hours which I spent in the school were few of the best times of my vacation. No matter where I go and what I do I will always remember PCVN.

World War III

I am sure you people would have been shocked by the title, but I was checking my spam folder one of these days to delete all the Crap I get. I read the titles of some of the spam messages. Actually its sometimes so funny and all the subject lines suggested me only one thing that the third world war had begun and unknowingly I or if not me then at least my mail box has been a party to it.
I am just writing this to tell the world that i have nothing to do with any missiles, aircrafts and satelites that have been talked about in all those spam mails. More so about the attack on the Supreme Court and the terrorist. I have read the news of Saddam Hussain being hung to death and I believe the media, and I have nothing to do if he is still alive. I mean I didnt even opened these mails.

Its so ridiculous to have such mails in ur mailbox as spam. IThey really expect someone sane who would open mails like these. Spammers at least you can think of better subject lines. Best of luck next time!!!

Current Song: Let it be- The Beatles (Real words of Wisdom)