hseham

I'm alive

2006-09-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

yeah thats about it. Just checking if blogspot still publishes my post.

well..if it gets posted, yours truly will be back..:)

news @ 9

2006-07-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

If you are an indian I'm sure you must have seen this revolutionary change in the TV news channels. How I feel about this change is a something I would come to later, but there is definitely lot more available in the form of news today than maybe till 2 years back. News media forms a very important feedback loop in any democratic setup. But somehow over the last few months I'm getting this feeling of things getting a bit overboard.
Gone are the days when our national channel Door-darshan used to give "breaking news" only on some national calamity or election results or some really high profile deaths. Today everything is breaking news...starting from Sania Mirza losing one more first round match to Emraan Hashmi saying he will no longer kiss on screen. The "Breaking News" pioneer was Aaj Tak I think 3 years back and they still continue to be the leaders. Their breaking news is pure entertainment. They took the nation by storm with their exclusive on the delhi monkey man a few years back.
But mediocrity apart my real problem lies with the whole system. You watch any news program the anchor will have more to say and will express more opinions than the poor chap who has come all the way to say something. News coverage is not about showing the blast scene 100 times or running a SMS poll whether the government of Maharashtra/BMC has failed or not.The whole idea of providing information is lost and u are given opinions. There is so much negativity which is built towards the government/system.
The selections of news is also something which really bothers me. I understand there are a lot of bad things that are happenning around us, but atleast one postive/inspiring story a day would go a long way.
We have some of the best journalists, and I sincerely hope they help in shaping a better tomorrow raher than showing time and again how hopeless our present is...

Blogging @ work

2006-05-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

That's exactly what I'm doing right now...since I'm blogging from office lemme blog something about my work. Its been a week since I have put in my papers here..

Your workplace becomes a completely different one after you have put in your papers.
The first change comes in your boss who has this mixture of "How can you do this to me + I don't really care + You are going to repent for this" look on his face. Then comes your team who have this cocktail "U never told me before + how did you manage + I love this organisation + when will my turn come" look in their face.

Then there is this category of concerned souls who walk up to you, with "this I've known you for long" look and it starts of with "I have heard something..Is it true??". Then the real interrogation starts where?? when?? why?? how??...

There is a subset of these concerned souls who just need to know where??. The moment they hear this they give you a complete snapshot as to how your career is going to shape up. They exactly know why I have taken the decision and they are really happy for me. These people psyche me the most because they seem to have everything about me figured out.

The last is the "May I help You" service called HR who have this "I know exactly where you are going" look in their face. These people just want to know why. The moment I finish telling them some story it goes.."I understand..But why??" and it goes on and on till I say ok I'll have to think.

Now you want to know whose face has this look.. "I hate this organisation + I have everything figured out + god I hope I have taken the right decision + need to go back home and read my offer letter once more + I love my new organisation + need to do a google on my new organisation ".
Thats me..:)

tk care..I'll be back..:;)

something interesting

2005-08-01T04:19:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading this book "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy"..one of the most funniest books have read..the book has a very good funda about art of flying

How to fly?
its very simple..just throw urself at the ground and completely miss it.

so keep laughing..if u find time read this book..its a laugh riot

i'll be back

Writing blogs

2005-07-31T06:09:00.000-07:00

I had almost quit writing blogs..I was just going to put this page on sale. But then this is the only piece of really creative sh** I have in my life..as well keep it alive.As someone said "Let not the creative genius in you die dude..Please"..(ok..actually the truth is that my friend threatened me that he would remove my link from his blog if I don't post something)
ok some status check on my life..moved to the financial capital of India about 2 months back. Now I belong to this real niche segment of people who earn their food, clothing, shelter and their drinks..:).feels good..Apart from that life has been good. Weekdays are good, weekends are better. The last week was real amazing. Mumbai had so much rain, half of the city submerged. no office for two days..:).Really exposed how badly administered our cities are. People were stranded in the roads for 12-13 hrs. But then the "Mumbai spirit" is something I was amazed by. Life just resumed to normal within hours of rain after the rains stopped. Once again I realised after a lot of thinking how powerful nature is. End of last year I was in Chennai when there was this tsunami incident. The forces of nature can really take u by ur balls. You just cant fight them.
Its raining badly since morning today.If continues the same way till tomorrow morning I guess the government will declare another holiday. no I'm not smiling. I seriously hope it stops for a while.
praying for everyone who had to undergo long hours of wait and agony..

take care

I'll be back..more regularly I promise

Big day

2005-05-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

I got a broadband connection at home today and boy I'm very excited. People who have experienced the transition from a dialup to broadband would understand. Gone on a downloading frenzy since morning. Still have a dozen downloads lined up in Kaaza, but most of it is pending. Maybe I'll leave it that way overnight (imagine doing that in a dialup). Apart from that I also got the offer letter from the company I'm supposed to join. So two things which I had been waiting for the past few weeks happen on the same day.
Been holidying for quite sometime now. Eatin well, sleeping well, playing a lot of computer games, watching all the TV soaps with my mom and rest of the time I'm online. I'm luving my life right now. Life for me has always been a sine wave. lots of happy moments lots of dissapoinments, today is surely a high. Donno what tomorrow holds. Life is sure a sweet mystery.
One more exciting thing about today is the date -- its 5th May 2005--05/05/05, thats been happenning once every year since 2001( 01/01/01 ; 02/02/02 ; 03/03/03...), and will go on till 2012 and after that its not gonna happen till the next century.

I think all this deserves an entry in my blog so here goes...

I'll be back

no title

2005-04-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

so I'm back after a break. I hope nobody missed me.. last 1 month had been hectic with project submisions and end sem exams(:) atleast that was how it was supposed to be), the truth is that we had no net connection in the hostel for the last one month.

Just came back home after wrapping up things at college. But more than college I think I'm gonna miss the hostel life. I think the best part of any college life is the hostel. Atleast I'm gonna really miss the late night chai an maggi meetings, the midnight TV room activities, the movie screenings at the common room, the birthday celebrations, the holi bashes, the shouting and cribbing on the food quality at mess, the amazing cricket matches, the startegy meetings on how to study for exams and nevr start studying till the last week..man the list goes on and on. And now I'm back home, have a month long break before I start working.

ok enough melodrama. have been reading a couple of novels lately. Just finished reading Kane and Abel-Jeffery Archer. I somehow enjoyed their young lives more than their adult lives. But very gripping and good one time read. One the best peices is the place where William Kane plays golf with Alan Lloyd. Currently reading State of Fear-Michael Crichton. Not the typical Crichton kinds. It is about environmentalists trying to manipulate the environment to draw attention to their cause. Very boring characters. Waiting for it to end:).150 more pages to go..yawn

now have to put a title for this blog. I usually put the title at the end after writing my blog. But today in no mood of thinking. So this blog goes without a title. Anyone who proposes a title for this really arbit and random mumbling, would get a special mention in my next blog..

tk care and don't sweat the small stuff

I'll be back

I'm 25...

2005-02-21T05:02:00.000-08:00

Just celebrated my 25th b'day yesterday.I seemed like the end of an era. Looking back the last 25 years have been pretty good. Donno what the next 25 has in store. The week running into my b'day was also a good. I got a job from campus..felt like a perfect climax to celebrate the first 25 years.
Celebrating birthdays at hostel are an experience here. You have people assembling at your door at the stroke of midnight and everyone has that killer look on them. They are there for giving you birthday bumps. Birthday bumps in this part of the world entails the birthday boy getting kicked hard on his lower back by everyone. Amazing custom this is. The poor chap is left standing the whole of his birthday after the generous shower. Anyways the whole thing is fun. Feels sad that this is gonna be my last celebration in this fashion.
I love birthdays. You feel very special. Everybody smiles at you, you get to hear the best things, old friends call up. Its the best day of the year. But yesterday for the first time I felt I'm getting old. Maybe the number 25 has the effect. See I have already mentioned "25" 6 times in the blog. The fact that I have not gotten any wiser or responsible over the years has an even worse effect.

Maybe its part of getting old, to get the feeling you are getting old or maybe I should shut up now..

signing off

I'll be bback..

The art of form filling

2005-02-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

One of the best parts of being in a B-school(Indian B-School) is the placements. But the better part is filling company application forms. Now please these are not just application forms, every form has a set of really really personal questions. They want to know it all. It starts with what are your strengths? areas of improvement? career choice? and just goes on and on and on...have you led a team?If yes how, where, when, why?.. Some forms have really innovative questions..how do you measure success?..I just really wanted to answer it as "I usually use a ruler scale". The worst part of it is that all these needs to filled by hand. For people like me who have really gifted hand writings, the elimination starts even before the form has been read.
Its been one week of really hectic form filling and now I'm really irritated. Its 2:30 in the night and I have to think of an instance in which I used an innovative approach. Most of the innovations in my life have been of the censured variety, can't really write them in the application form. Anyways I have become one experienced story teller now. I can tell the same story in 75, 100, 500 or 1500 words. maybe i'll write something about how I used partial differentiation to explain why 2+2=4 in my 1st grade.
Guess I need some sleep. Good night...

I'll be back

What am i gonna be?

2005-01-26T05:08:00.000-08:00

I'm back after a while. Life in the meanwhile has been full of action. We have our campus placements scheduled soon. and the big question has again popped up in life. Who the hell am I gonna be? I was very clear on what I wanted to become when I was 4. With age they say comes clarity, a purpose but its been the opposite here. I hope I had some kinda time machine where I could feed in each career option and go forward 20 years to see if I'm enjoying what I doing.
Anyways, its not that I'm gonna have complete control over where I end up. Its gonna be a few HR managers who are gonna decide this for me. Hope I end up in some place where I would enjoy my work ( and get a 7 digit pay package ;)).
Gotto to do some real slogging in the coming week, its time to burn the midnight oil. Had a great start yesterday, slept with the room lights switched on.
Going to the canteen now to have a hot cup of tea. They say tea is a stimulant.

I'll be back

Black Wednesday!

2005-01-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

The Indian bourses took a beating today. The stock market is one confused place or is it confusing place?
My first reaction after witnessing the events of Tsunami last week was that there would be a decline in the indices. But then the stock exchange traders around Asia wasted little time regretting the victims of the disaster, and Indian stock market even hit an all-time high last week. Market it seemed has no morality. And today when things have settled down, there was across the board selling. It seems the investors were expecting a correction after the rally over the last few months. Metal stocks crashed. Just yesterday, some one advised me that metal is the sector to be. I hope that guy didn't himself put his money in metals.
One good thing was that today wasn't a monday. It would have added to the confusion, what would they have called it..Blacker Monday?? ( May 17th 2004 was the original Black Monday )

I'll be black..sorry back

Choclatee

2005-01-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

Cadburys dairy milk celebrates its centenary this year.Dairy milk has been my all time favorite. Truly an amazing choclate and truly a great brand. Cadbury Dairy Milk was launched in 1905 ( no great math required for that..:))
The Cadbury Dairy Milk sales in 2004 £320m
500 million bars of Dairy Milk are produced every year
sold to about 30 countries worldwide
A total of 12 Dairy Milk varieties are now produced, the recipes for which are kept under lock and key at the Bournville factory

Long live Dairy Milk, may you live a 100 more years.

I'll be back

One more year goes by

2004-12-31T10:08:00.000-08:00

2004 comes to an end..last 10 minutes. By the time I post this it shd be 2005. Hope everybody has a happy and prosperous year ahead.
Today I went to Spencer Plaza an hour back. Spencer Plaza if u didn't know is a huge shoppping mall in Chennai. This place is usually crowded, but today the place was overflowing. It was as if half the city was packed inside. Maybe the Tsunami had something to do with it. All the beach goers also turned up in Spencers. I sometimes wonder whether the shops in these malls really make money. More than 90% of the crowd don't shop, they are there staring at the windows or at other shoppers. People just roam about, and even people who seriously come to shop keep postponing their purchases to the next shop hoping that there is something better in store furthur down. Personally, I don't remember the last time i bought anything at Spencers, but I make it a point to go there atleast once every week. One way I think the mall owners must be breaking even is by the amount they charge for the parking. Especially today, they must have made a killing.
..just 5 mins for 12:00. So happy new year everybody.Have fun

I'll be back

Who Am I?

2004-12-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

Just been wondering does anyone read my blogs? Is there any way we could track that?..
This is my fourth blog entry and I haven't introduced myself. Well, the time has come. I belong to India. I did my graduation in computer science engineering. After my engineering like thousands of other brother Indians I too was to join the software industry. I was all set to work in cutting edge technology and make the world a better place to live. Then, something called COBOL happened in my life. For the next one year I was coding in COBOL. Just for the record COBOL is a vintage programming language. The reason its name is even being mentioned is because of IBM. IBM Mainframes are these huge high storage high performance machines. These are real costly. Most of the fortune companies still run their operations on mainframes. These vintage systems are usually progammed in COBOL. Programing is COBOL is like teaching english at primary school. You just express your self in plain english and voila thats exactly the syntax of the language. Ok I Know I'm exagerrating it, COBOL is a powerful language but it is not something you will enjoy coding. That decided it, I quit my job after a year and went on to pursue my MBA.
I'm currently in the last term of the course. Thats a short chronology abt my life. Feeling sleepy now. Writing my own intro puts me to sleep, I can imagine how people reading it must feel. Sorry..

I'll be back

The day before tomorrow

2004-12-27T09:53:00.000-08:00

interesting title for a blog. It just goes to say that I have nothing much to write today. Another uneventful day to add to this uneventful life. I sat thinking about what changes have occured in my life between the start time ( 9:00 am, 27th Dec ) and end time ( 11:30 pm, 27th Dec) and I have been thinking for quite some time now. The graph is a straight line. If you were to erase today from my life would it make a difference?This needs some serious thinking again..
Just finished reading "Deception Point" by Dan Brown. I have been a big fan of Dan Brown ever since I read his "Da Vinci Code". I would save Da Vinci Code for another blog but Deception point was a let down. May be I was expecting too much or maybe it was written for a different target audience. Anyways the plot sucks..have you ever read a book where after 50 pages you get to know what the ending is going to be and you have 400 more pages to go. I just did and its no great feeling I swear.
Today was also the day after the great Tsunami. Luckily no surprises in store today, the sea was quiet. But yesterdays quake and Tsunami combo did some massive destruction. According to last figures more than 20000 were killed.
Just realised that Kuala Lampur's Petronas is no longer the tallest building. Taipei 101 in Taiwan is the big one now and some dude has scaled it already. ( click the link for the news item . courtsey BBC )

I'll be back.

Eventful Sunday

2004-12-26T04:21:00.000-08:00

yeah right..today has been eventful. It all started with the mild tremor which only I felt in my house.Actually it feels real good when u are the only one to experience a phenomenon and you have anxious faces looking at you and listening to ur experience:). The tremor was at around 6:30 a.m, I'm not the kind who gets up in those ghostly hours but something wasn't right. Maybe I have the power to detect earth quakes?wow..need to wait for yet another quake to confirm that.wil keep u all posted.

This quake was centered in Indonesia which sent tremors to places as far as India. It measured close to 9 in the richter scale which I learnt is pretty nasty. The quake gave rise to some real huge tidal waves called Tsunami. This tsunami swept most of South East Asia. I live in this sourthern state of India called Chennai which also experienced the Tsunami. We live close to the sea, so today was spent answering calls from worried relatives and friends who were checking on our safety. More than 1000 are feared dead in our state.

Such things really put me into the thinking mode. Nature sure has its checks and balances. May god give strength to people who have lost their near and dear ones in the calamity.

Did some research in tsunami all day.Some teaser for u ppl

A tsunami (pronounced tsoo-nah-mee) is a wave train, or series of waves, generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that vertically displaces the water column. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis. Tsunamis can savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life.

Thats it frm this side of the monitor. As usual

I'll be back

The first one

2004-12-25T08:39:00.000-08:00

So here it comes..my first blog. Been planning about creating my own blog for some time now, but everytime I reach the site I used to spend time reading others blogs at the end of which I would postpone it to another day.

Anyways, its one great start, today is Christmas eve. I guess everything has its own right time. So who am I and what am I gonna share with the world here thru this blog?? Frankly I have no clue (thats for the second part..the first part would be answered in future postings :;) ). I have never really beleived in setting goals. Why set them and get disappointed on not being to achieve them?.

My posts are gonna be random scribblings( or is it just scribblings, arent all scribblings random..whatever). This blog I promise is gonna be total chaos..You could call them the mission/vision statement of my blog

I'll be back