Thursday, July 26, 2007

Growing Weary of the World .. again.

Read Dollar Bahu by Sudha Murthy last night. Not her best writing, but the message comes across.

I have been blogging a lot lately, but the interest has shifted to my other blog - www.eshabraille.wordpress.com . I find that world a tad better, and infinitely more interesting.

Some days i get the feeling that we live in 2 different worlds. One world is too starved to worry about any higher need on Maslow's heirarchy. The other world is too stuffed with goodies to have a genuine care, and therefore invents issues to protest about. Maslow was wrong. When the food and safety needs are taken care of, we do not go towards self realisation. We go towards being more judgemental, narrow minded, and in general, non-adjusting.

All of Delhi is going through this trouble of non availability of public transport. Suppose each car vallah and bike vallah were to stop at one bus stop, ask people where they are going, and offer a lift to anyone going in his direction? Would that ease the situation a little bit?
But cars zip past on Delhi roads with one passenger each.

What does one do with a world like that?
What is there to blog about?

And then, I grew weary of the world
And sought
a little peace
to sleep in.
No news
of deaths or births or attempted deaths
Nothing to say
to anyone.
On anything.

There is no need
to say
if nothing is done
where
there is a need
to do.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

If your child speaks, he is unfit to fly

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19735896/

If your child says "Bye, Bye, Plane" enough no. of times to annoy the flight attendant, it doesn't matter whether you have a ticket, nor does it matter if you know anyone at the place where they are offloading you, or if you have enough supplies for the child if they are offloading you miles from home. An airline can offload you because you do not drug the child to make it keep quiet.

The Farewell Mail

This first came in a forwarded mail this morning. Its a Farewell Mail.
JPMC(JP Morgan Chase) HR will be sooo grateful to this guy for spreading the truth about it as an employer. This kind of a referral truly comes only once in a lifetime.

What's more, it has already covered Finance and IT industries. That is industry wide recognition!
******************************


Dear Co-Workers and Managers,

As many of you probably know, today is my last day. But before I leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been to type "Today is my last day."


For nearly as long as I've worked here, I've hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support. Words cannot express my gratitude for the words of gratitude you did not express.


I would especially like to thank all of my managers both past and present but with the exception of the wonderful Saroj Hariprashad: in an age where miscommunication is all too common, you consistently impressed and inspired me with the sheer magnitude of your misinformation, ignorance and intolerance for true talent. It takes a strong man to admit his mistake - it takes a stronger man to attribute his mistake to me.


Over the past seven years, you have taught me more than I could ever ask for and, in most cases, ever did ask for. I have been fortunate enough to work with some absolutely interchangeable supervisors on a wide variety of seemingly identical projects - an invaluable lesson in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium.


Your demands were high and your patience short, but I take great solace knowing that my work was, as stated on my annual review, "meets expectation." That is the type of praise that sends a man home happy after a 10 hour day, smiling his way through half a bottle of meets expectation scotch with a meets expectation cigar. Thanks Trish!


And to most of my peers: even though we barely acknowledged each other within these office walls, I hope that in the future, should we pass on the street, you will regard me the same way as I regard you: sans eye contact.
But to those few souls with whom I've actually interacted, here are my personalized notes of farewell:


To Philip Cress, I will not miss hearing you cry over absolutely nothing while laying blame on me and my coworkers. Your racial comments about Joe Cobbinah were truly offensive and I hope that one day you might gain the strength to apologize to him.


To Brenda Ashby who is long gone, I hope you find a manager that treats you as poorly as you have treated us. I worked harder for you then any manager in my career and I regret every ounce of it. Watching you take credit for my work was truly demoralizing.


To Sylvia Keenan, you should learn how to keep your mouth shut sweet heart. Bad mouthing the innocent is a negative thing, especially when your talking about someone who knows your disgusting secrets. ; )


To Bob Malvin (Mr. Cronyism Jr), well, I wish you had more of a back bone. You threw me to the wolves with that witch Brenda and I learned all too much from it. I still can't believe that after following your instructions, I ended up getting written up, wow. Thanks for the experience buddy, lesson learned.


Don Merritt (Mr. Cronyism Sr), I'm happy that you were let go in the same manner that you have handed down to my dedicated coworkers. Hearing you on the phone last year brag about how great bonuses were going to be for you fellas in upper management because all of the lay offs made me nearly vomit. I never expected to see management benefit financially from the suffering of scores of people but then again, with this company's rooted history in the slave trade it only makes sense.


To all of the executives of this company, Jamie Dimon and such. Despite working through countless managers that practiced unethical behavior, racism, sexism, jealousy and cronyism, I have benefited tremendously by working here and I truly thank you for that. There was once a time where hard work was rewarded and acknowledged, it's a pity that all of our positive output now falls on deaf ears and passes blind eyes. My advice for you is to place yourself closer to the pulse of this company and enjoy the effort and dedication of us "faceless little people" more. There are many great people that are being over worked and mistreated but yet are still loyal not to those who abuse them but to the greater mission of providing excellent customer support. Find them and embrace them as they will help battle the cancerous plague that is ravishing the moral of this company.
So, in parting, if I could pass on any word of advice to the lower salary recipient ("because it's good for the company") in India or Tampa who will soon be filling my position, it would be to cherish this experience because a job opportunity like this comes along only once in a lifetime.


Meaning: if I had to work here again in this lifetime, I would sooner kill myself.


To those who I have held a great relationship with, I will miss being your co-worker and will cherish our history together. Please don't bother responding as at this very moment I am most likely in my car doing 85 with the windows down listening to Biggie.


One!

**************************************

JPMC need not worry though. We Indians are incorrigible employees. There will still be applications for employment.

Friday, July 13, 2007

ये दुनिया हो या वो दुनिया,
अब ख्वाहिश-ए-दुनिया कौन करे?
- A sher that I read somewhere, and kind of portrays the state of the heart.