Lessons Learned : Job #1

Life is an ever growing lesson , and If you haven't made Mistake , You haven't Lived to learn !

From Student to Engineer , Engineer to Professional . . . I have not been a keen learner , but I do have some Gems from various people, Places, Books etc.

I am glad to have learned a bit, and thankful to all those who inadvertently or intentionally , taught me Few things :

• Work for Your Project, work more for yourself, You'll learn more, You'll be More Productive.
• Be Active apart from Work, It'll relax you, It Would not be a definite edge in terms of Rating/appraisals but lack of it would certainly be a negative point. Moreover .. Who doesn't want some Fun in life.
• Don't Live in your past, You were once Blades of Glory, Present might be some other Chuck and Lorry ;)
• Learn to know and categorize People , but Don't be Judgmental
• Do Not Expect ! Expectations are the source of all remorse, all pity, all the negativity. You worked your asses off on something, Coz U Liked it , No one Can ever Push you into doing something. Live in that happiness, Any Reward that comes your way, Is a Bonus.
• Be Reasonable , and Be Logical, Impulsive reactions are seldom good but mostly worse
• Control Anger, Frustration , Roam around Don't spread it. Negativity breeds only More Negativity.
• NEVER EVER Mail or Publicly address any hot shot's Mistakes (or what you consider as a mistake) , you'll only get screwed and  screwed harder. 
• Be Politically correct , not just for the sake of it , but coz Many a times you'd realize person/place is not that bad after all.
• Be Resourceful , More Importantly , be Rich in Data , the More You work , the More you can show, and the more you can show, the More It'll let You Grow.
• Be Receptive : Not all talk is Crap, Sometimes you'll miss out on Golden words , simply because you loathed a person's attitude, demeanor or style.
• Be Accepting and Learn from your shortcomings , pitfalls, mistakes.
• It's never too late to apologize, If you feel you were wrong during any incident of time, just say so. It might not affect the end person, but It'll surely make you a better being. 
• Friends and Family : Don't Lose them ! , they'll be the Only support in Good times or Bad, you might feel grumpy , you might feel dejected , you might wanna scream , but Whenever you realize the part you've been wrong ... Just say a Hello , and Life'll again be all Mellow.
• Keep the Passion Alive !

That's All for now , hoping to make new Mistakes , New remorse , New Brickbats, New Lessons ;)

Amen 

Too Much Inspired from

Holstee Manifesto

&

Steve Job's Speach

[Retrospection] - An open Mail to the team leads and team

Well I was in Dilemma whether to  re-post this blog or not, This was the blog which triggered a series of events for me , and when I look back I do realize the truths being spoken BUT more do I realize the mistakes I made.

• Communicate in written only if you need to , Words once written , can not be denied.
• Get your facts straight, Not just speak what "you think".
• Write once, Read a hundred times, over a span of days/ weeks if the need be. If you still feel certain , go do it, don't hesitate, but if you don't feel it right , chuck it.
• Put yourself in the others shoes, What would you have done , How would you have reacted to a similar letter/mail.
• Emotions and Job don't get quite well.
• More Lessons : http://goo.gl/lAA8q 

;)

Enjoy the Job , It's just a part of your Life.
And yes , Make Mistakes , But learn well enough to make new ones every time. And As Some One Said it , BE YOUR SELF !

Hi All

I have been thinking (after a long time actually) , on why we crib so much , why is it that after every policy change, after every appraisal , after every move , after every issue , after every promotion , after every tiny COA ... Instead of rejoicing on the overall success of the group (which should be the case) , we just crib.

The Core crust in my opinion lies with the vision , we do not have pro-active mind set, we just pretend , plan and display measures , which as a bitter fact , is hardly ever in line with what we want.

When it comes to resources at the bottom of the pyramid , who actually have the most zeal to do something , and the time to devote , we always ask them to be at their toes whole year. What is being said is : "Performance is measured throughout the year".

Whenever there's a successful implementation , It's these foundation , that  have actually worked (not without the guidance of experienced resources), but when it comes to remunerations , Its hardly replicated.

But even that is not the issue.

No matter what the organization gives , no matter how many times you appreciate , no matter how many accolades you give , if the way we execute it , and the timing at which we execute this, is not changed, "don't expect a happy team".

We have discussed a lot about ESS score, about What Employee wants, the "I appreciate" week , and so on and so forth. Unfortunately what we haven't learned is : "Employee is not a fool" , There's a True Appreciation , and a Faked one. In Most of our cases (exceptions are many as well) , this has been a Faked one , or a induced one when a US counterpart would have appreciated.

Why Can't Managers have faith and Judge their resources?

The reason is always given - "You can't keep 100% of employee happy"

I Say "Why not !"

I'll tell you one last bitter but fact.  The reason is because most of the upper pyramid is actually not aware of what their resources are doing , what their needs are , what their aspirations are, and what work they do. If I spare 30% of the upper pyramid , the remaining 70% comes in this category. (fortunately my lead comes in the elite 30)
Bad Choice : Never give a Data you can't explain, never be emotional in what you speak, be professional, be terse.

If you are well aware , you have a bonding (not a fake one) , trust me resources are not just a few Employee ID's, they understand. It's only when they feel being fooled , that they revolt.

Why is the case that Managers have to fight over for their candidates for rating at the crux hour of 1 month duration ?

Why is it always that managers feel an urge to talk , discuss and take feedbacks only when it's either IDP, KRA, Midterm, ESS or Annual Cycle ?

Does it take so much time ? and are we really so short of time all through the year , and suddenly have all the  time to discuss ?

I don't think so!

Just be Truthful.

This has been my first company , and I have learned a lot, and I expect to continue learning, Some day I would like to lead a team under me , I would definitely not want to be like most of you when I do so , That's a statement enough which shows the depth of it.

I am sure all of the people at the foundation of pyramid would agree.

PS: I didn't wanted to bring this up at the time of rating or appraisals , hence the delay, but as already said , I realized the Pinnacle Pyramid has all the time to discuss and take feedback during this duration :)

This is not a rattling , just a few 1 or 2 liners in the heart  which needed almost two pages to materialize .

Thanks and regards

Swapnil Kocheta

PS: May be someday I'll Write "The  3  N Mistakes of my life" , and this one would definitely be there at number 3 or 4 :P

Website Performance and Google Chrome

I just came home from a intriguing session on basic Jquery, and was raring to see what all is in stock for me.
A few websites down the line , I realized the plethora of tasks that have been and could be done using sheer old JavaScript, let alone Jquery.

Any ways, as an intrigued mind of an IT Engg. Who has lost touch with technology for ages, the first thing that popped up into mind was : "Dude ! Where is the code ;) ". So the Saga began ....

There used to be a nifty tool called IEDeveloper toolbar, sure it'll gimme something ... Actually - NONE.
O k ...
k lets try that Fiddler and other tools. Well .. many things but not CODE. ;)


Ok ... so what .. Lets learn it .. JQuery.com .... few pages down the line .. a big yawn.
So I start again , at the stuff , I am good at .. search ;)


Wollah , chrome has a developer tools, this must be fun , and sure it was .. not only I got the gist , but wow it even suggests what is absolutely rubbish with a perfectly good looking (but slow) site.

Check it out guys ....
Image below is more than self explanatory. The rest is pure dig deep down under.

Relations in the "e" ("i") Age

We Are living in the Communication age , the Age where everything starts of with an "e" (Apple Like to fancy it with an "i").

We eMail, Read ePaper, We Stay online , Work Online , but stay Apart.

The age of Communication, has provided us with all the means to communicate , but has taken from us the urge.

The urge to write a mail (letter), The urge to talk back home, The urge to Listen to your sweetheart's Voice, The Urge and passion to have your photographs developed and printed, The Urge to get together with old pals from college/school or the Urge to be present at the Family get together .

The boon has slowly seeped us deep inside, making space for itself by dumping out odd emotions, unrelated conclusions, savoring times, Odd memories...

The Age has taken a toll on us, We Don't know emotions, we can't interpret reactions, And Most times We fail to understand our own very self.

You have a 1000 friends Online, but rarely a real one beside you. You have a tons of mails in your inbox , but rarely any that Counts !

You enter a gathering , Looking for people with same passion , and end up talking google, yahoo, MSN , Some new Streaming site, Torrents , Links to the posts you did, or to comments by an odd person.

You find a Friend, a real one , but you fumble on ways to interact, to react to his deeds, to help him when he needs , to catch the signs when he wants you.

Worst , You interact with a Cross gender, You share same passion , You love the company , Its been ages you talked to a girl , You share emotions , and then your mind goes overload.

the module to handle emotions was just dumped down by the new package to understand controls on your iPod to control the laptop via Internet.

You simply lost count.

You become restless, Impatient , And @best interpret the "relation" to be of love (yeah you already had 50+ of them ). Even worse - you have a girlfriend , now what do you do.

I'll leave this for you to interpret (if you don't have a Module replacement already ;) )

You talk back home on persistence of your mother's "SMS", but then again , you've nothing to talk, same Old Office , college , food, Sleep, Play, and Obviously you can't talk All the "e" Things to her.

What do you do?

Try and run away. Blubber some crap, Have a Fight , Argue , And Off you go.

Turns out you dn't have a Family now!

Friends , yeah i have friends, they are my age , they talk all the "e" Crap, Lets Talk to friends ..

And Off you go again to "YOUR" kind , talking more crap , replacing more modules , turning more Zombie , burning more midnight oil, and breaking more apart!

Welcome to the Age of

"Communication"

Big Fish!!! > Quest for a Bigger one

****Posting a long Written Entry****

The weekend , had a real nice and fruitful discussion with Rekha on our project, lives, transaction from college till data, career prospects and all those subjects we never thought we'd talk of. And the results were Superlative!!!
Here goes a retrospective gist for my own reference whenever and wherever i feel (and of course for all of you out there reading it).

Its been more than an year working in the software industry (of India), working on diverse fields and routine jobs , mundane jargon's , and (un)necessory processes , working your way into destruction of your self , yet wondering each time .. Woah how did i do this to ME.

This is the phase , where people start contemplating on the future.
This is the phase , when your parents start thinking of your partner (and u too).
This is the phase , When people feel the Pinch to do the thing which the Utmost want to do, And
This is the phase , When You have the Max ,and justifiably Equal Fear of Failure!!!

Lets take'em one by one.

This is the Phase , Where people start Contemplating on the future !
Really?
Not actually , rather this is the period they start looking back , this is the phase when they look at themselves as what they could have been, This is the phase, when people don't have a dream , not a real , a new one , so they go on dig their past , try to bring out the hidden dream.
The one which had always been there, but neglected.
Why now?
Because people don't really know what else to do, they can't think of anything worth a penny.
This is the time by which their sense of self is long dead,
and This is the time , which if and will , make their future.
Hazy!!!???
We'll back Come to it (or rather we'll have to come back to it)

This is the phase , when your parents start thinking of your partner (and u too).
Yeah rite, You accept or not (Guys won't , girls WILL), but this is the time of life , when you are most frustrated, when you need someone , someone apart from ur dear friends, whom u may tell all , whom you may scream out loud, and who .. in spite of all this, will turn up to you whenever he/she has a problem/solution.
Your parents , get confused with your behaviour , your rudeness, your abstractness, your new lifestyle, suddenly the generation gap Widens, Its everywhere , the look helpless , what has happened to their lovely lad/lass.
and wollah , they look for an adapter ;)
An adapter who fits into ur generation , and connects you with the old gen of theirs, so as the vibes are back on track.
PERRRRFECT

This is the phase , When people feel the Pinch to do the thing which the Utmost want to do
ok , al rite . Yes , this is the phase , when most of the Entrepreneurs began their insight, their vision, their Goal.
Frustration opens the eye, and scarcity brings innovation.
IFF (extra F intended ;) ) you are feeling content with the job you are in , IFF you are happy with the stuff you are doing, and IFF you see no harm in continuing.
Congratulations my friend, you have found the destination , Catch up to it.
Very rarely people do find the Satisfaction.
BUT , IF you are sad whenever something good happens to someone around you, or IF you feel a pinch to do something, but donno what, or IF you are just unhappy at times , and find solace in itsy bitsy happiness scattered everywhere.

THEN you probably need some more time with yourself, you need a thorough soul searching , you need to weigh your choices, and yesss you need a change in life.

This is the phase , When You have the Max ,and justifiably Equal Fear of Failure!!!
When you were young (College) , you had no Job , No money , all play and mind was a free bee,
You had parents to fall back on (you still do),You had castles to make , you had plans to execute, You had DREAMS , Each day anew !!!
Innovation , Ideas, Thoughts ... they all came in a free way.
You had no binary actions to do, you had so many options to choose or to ignore.
BUT
Now is not the time (Some people may argue , and rightly so),
You have a Fat check coming in ,
You have Liabilities transferred on to you,
You have a Lifestyle change , which is cumbersome to change,
You don't really have a friend backing (distances matter),
You are too confused to go on,
You weigh Decisions on Results , not on belief.

You start thinking about your parents , you start contemplating on your career, you see monetary loss, You start bargaining with your soul, You don't know what to do, You seek advices from people , but have your own in place ,
You start looking for a better place , but you hardly know what's better.
You either follow the herd straight away (do an MBA in most of the cases , as it pays money and power),
or
you follow your past dreams (based on inputs from people around you, who know nothing about you),
or
you bargain yourselves with quite many past and future options , and rather select the current one.
You end up ...
Being a Fish, Looking for a Bigger Fish

I know the King! ! !

Hello all...
Its been a disappointing day, Starting with a mild headache, Sinus , and what not..
Well thats my problems..
But what followed ... is OURS.
On my way to office (CSC Electronic Complex indore), we have to cross three POWER ZONES:

1. Malva Mill (मालवा मिल )
   
2. Pardesi Pura (परदेशी पुरा)
   
3. Patni pura (पाटनी पुरा)
   

Well Why POWER ZONES !
For all Not so good reasons.. This is one of the most PSEUDO SECULAR (POLITICAL) area of indore.
Every Festival is being celebrated with valor and vigor.(what does it matter if general public suffers).
There's Ganesh chaturthi , then there's navaratre , then deepavali, and so on and on and on...
Nothing wrong in that.
On that line ,

would like to add to all PSEUDO/NON PSEUDO SECULAR/NON SECULAR people, i love my festivals , my culture , my country , and dare you curse/taunt me on that.

Well..
So on regular days, its a triumph crossing malva mill , and then patni pura occasionally ..
today .. being late , was driving @ 50+ or so .. and there comes our BHYO (भ्यो) (indoree word for brother,uncle,dude,pal) speeding from atal dwar looking onto patnipura side bhyo...

and ..
I braked, avoiding collision.. BUT

Woaah .. i made the mishtake.. BHAI ke ilaake mein BHYO se panga liya ..
The guy kept on screaming , following , shouting until he realised what the hack .. i aint gonna stop.

Those from indore might know that patnipura , malva mill etc are bhai ka area from PSEUDO SECULAR ATAL FOLLOWER Party.

Am i being pragmatic ?.. neah not yet...

Retrospection .... looking back to my school days ...
Similar incident occured far back... RAGHOGAD, GUNA , the area of bigger BHAI , the then CM of state and my almighty super super super super senior of college , Gold medalist in Civil from SGSITS : Mr(Er.) Digvijay Singh (ji).
If you are an outsider, dare u speak to ny1 in raghogad/guna in a copetetive/convincing voice.
He'll just utter .. RAJI JI .. and u are done...

Well To hell with all above crap.
The point i wanted to make (unconvincingly from above examples):

1. Is this the type of Democracy we want to have? , Where government is by the people for sue , but is Of The (KNOWN) People Only , and For The (Selected few) People.
2. Ain't you(and me) one of those hypocrite as well , who would snatch every possible link , reco, SIFARISH to fulfill your goals.
3. Would it not be a better world if we were more sensible, more calm , and more real to our self. why do we always look for a mentor? Why do we make Someone GOD? , be it SACHIN, or DHONI. DIGVIJAY SINGH or KAILASH VIJAYVARGIYA. And why not so for the real heroes of the nation : eg. Technocrats, Soldiers, Scientists, Artists. We barely remember there names.
4. Why this Mentality of : I know the King, I Know the King maker, I know the King's Butler, I Know the King's Sweeper ???

WHY ??? And What the hack ... till WHEN

Finally , would like you all to have a trip to erstwhile CSC Campus , Via Patni pura , malva mill and LIG Square t have a better (bitter) feeling of life we live.
Till then
Chao.

Search. . .

Human Mind is A Nomad by nature, an infinite loop with greed for anything and everything. When Darwin gave his theory of evolution , it was a revolution to understand the evolution of man kind, BUT , ain't it the greed , the lust , the hunger , which led man to turn social from ape?
If yes, Why do we Condemn the so called -ve elements of society?
They are doin the same thing what Darwin taught us: Survive !

And if Survival were the only motif , then we would not be standin right here... The Motif is to outshine , to become the larger fish, to search for a larger prey, to device methods to fight back the competetion.
Hence If Survival were the only motif , Evoloution was not at all necessory.

Coming to our real world , the Pseudo Physical world we live in , The World we call Home , The World which might well Enough be a Program Written by An Almighty ;) (Matrix ).
Each day we Start with a Search!
Search for a Motif to start the day,
Search for a Means to survive,
Search for yet another Reason,

Search for ME.

Its not the Society,Its not the Need, Its not the Status, and Its Surely not Pure Selflessness which drives the day/months/years of our lives.

Let me site an Example to end up with...
"Raghav Works for a multinational firm , which pays handsomely for a newbie. He gets the best work he ever though of during his grad days, He gets all the tools to make his life easy, the work is just moving some tits bits ,

YET. . .

He's not happy, he wants challange , he wants freedom , he wants friends, he wants moolah, He Searches for yet another Search....
A Search to Search again for Satisfaction."

Raghav is Just an example , it can be you me , anyone. We start our days/months/years with a Goal, and on the way ... it get lost in the myriads of another Bigger and flashier Goals.

Should Raghav Quit his aspirations, have a steady life, be content , Surely he'll SURVIVE ! ! !

Or

He Should Continue searching , keep goin for newer Horizons , stay Hungry (On the lines of : "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish"), and end up discontent , dismayed, or may be just pass off... ?