ExpertDabbler

..Fade in…

Urgent requirement:
There is an urgent requirement for the post of Prime Minister of India.

Eligibility:
BE/MBA/MSC/MCA/ME/Phd/Any Degree/Any SSLC/Any 8th standard/Any LKG..

Skill sets:
5 years in idhu (not even as close as my onnu vitta sithappa) of which 3 years should be in adhu.
People with exposure to XXX will be preferred (though not required).

The above example is perhaps the only requirement for which i have been spared by HR consultants. At least till now. Sigh!

But puleez i am not making up when i say i get the most irrelevant kind of emails for job openings. I mean, what do they get? What do they hope to achieve with this mails? If they feel good about what they write and expect somebody to read, then its high time they start a blog. But why spam?

..Fade out…

..Fade in…

Once upon a time, there lived one blogger who had lotsa vetti time at work and access to blogspot. All was fun till he decided to move to a separate domain. His friend sponsored the domain and he had is own blog URL. Wow, what an achievement! Little did he know the perils lurking in the vicinity.

Then, one fateful day he wrote a post about… NRIs… in not so glowing terms. Thats when it all started. The sea which was till that time roaring, came to a standstill and re-started like the way it does in K Balachander movie. In short, all hell broke lose.

The blogger who till that time was mainly writing for just fun was suddenly a proud recipient of glorious mails.. Mails not just from commenters or bloggers but of a different kind. None of his readers would know about his unique privilege… Everyday, the blogger sees atleast 50 mails like this…

Author : Spalva-ry (IP: 195.229.242.154 , 195.229.242.154)
E-mail : Spalva-ge@LadyFire.com
URL : http://#.com
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=195.229.242.154
Comment:
advanced surveillance group pennsylvania real estate commission vegan microsoft excell for microsoft millennium mazda miata 1995 convertible top effects of alcohol on the liver concierto de rebelde lips of an angle lyrics political science paper topics helena ga

A new comment on the post #724 “A tale of two banks - 1″ is waiting for your approval
http://expertdabbler.com/2007/02/15/a-tale-of-two-banks-1/

Author : Mary-ux (IP: 195.229.242.154 , 195.229.242.154)
E-mail : Mary-vf@CoolYork.com
URL : http://index3.kalloi.com
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=195.229.242.154
Comment:
ohio consumer counsel when is a good time to travel to italy about hampshire county jail wawatosa wisconsin dyspraxia nevada exploited film woodloch pines central florida zoo nh lot

I just want to know one thing.
What’s the business model of spammers? Why do they spam? Whats their mission in life?
Are they just human beings like you and me? Or extra terrestrials? They know that i have a spam filter. I have comment moderation. Which means no comment eludes me unless i am doubly careless.

I just wish someone organizes a spammer’s conference just to understand who they are and why they do what they do..

..Fade out..

I was reading about Agile and this struck me early morning. (early morning yosika vendiya mattera idhu? No wonder i am still single)

I think life in itself is an exercise in Agile. Lets for a moment replace software development with life.

I get up every morning and think:
What did i do yesterday, What am i going to do today, how am i going to do it, what are the obstacles - if solveable seek and collaborate with those who can help, if else TiG (Trust in God) and move on.

I also,
Iterate new ideas with team (friends, loved ones, family is our cross functional team)- it can be for any activity.
Continuously validate (established values, beliefs,assumptions, goals).
Adapt to new conditions, situations and opportunities.
Is this not Agile?? In my understanding, it is.

Life can be very active if approached this way.

Some people may dispute the concept of continously validating beliefs and values but we stupid humans keep evoloving faster than we can accept it. I used to hate Agile sometime back. I am still not convinced about how it can be adopted for UI processes, not entirely seen a project be successfully implemented using Agile methods. But for managing life, i think none betters Agile principles.

I think Agile sucks in the Indian IT industry because it requires face to face communication among the team in the entire span. Some idiots think it can be replaced with telephone calls during morning and evenings with onsite and offshore which soon becomes nothing but a ritual. (indha scrum meeting seekiram mudichutu bus pudikanum)

On a serious note, i am searching for a URL like arivukolundhu.com..ivlo chinna vayasile evlo arivu tch tch :D. Annanuku udane gaurava doctor pattam kudungappa

Apparently, people had stood in Q to book flats in one of DLF’s upcoming project in OMR. Velangumayya!!! Most of the folks have paid 5 lakhs without even looking at the location.

Now, all i can afford to book is train tickets and cinema tickets.

Why can’t I raise an IPO? It will be Expertdabbler IPO.
The prospectus filed in SEBi would say something like ‘Konjam selavu irukku, Panam kudunga’
That should be the most honest, shortest and sweetest prospectus ever in the history of SEBI.
i would not be surprised if it gets oversubscribed, for this would be the first prospectus ever to be completely read and understood by the common man.

Alternatively, I am looking for a girl whose father is a real estate developer. ‘Veetoda Maapilai’ is such a cool idea. Now, can life get any better than this? I have had enough sleepless nights as a UI developer. Let me see some real money and get settled in life. Sigh!!

Jan 25, 2007:
I quit my previous organization.

Jan 23 2008:
I am sending my inquiry to my present company if the PF has been transferred from my previous organization. I was almost sure it would’ve happened. I just wanted to confirm.

I get a reply stating the request has been sent 3 months ago and no communication was received from my previous company. I call my previous company HR and I get a response that they did not receive such transfer request in the first place!

Who is to be blamed?

I am partly to be blamed since i just assumed that all these formalities would be taken care of by the concerned HR departments once i had signed the PF transfer request form at the time of joining.

But I could not help but think about the general apathy towards the employees’ hard earned funds. I guess I was lucky to get a response since i knew the HR person well in my previous organization. She even bothered to send a mail to find the whereabouts of my documents. But still its important for people to really understand how things work in the HR worlds of IT industry.

Oh yeah it will be a completely different story if the employee owes the company

It’s not just the govt. offices, stupid!

First off, thanks a ton to folks who bothered to comment on my previous post. That did cheer me up and i am back on track:)

Sometimes I can get worked up all too much and i feel like running away from everything. But obviously I would not do once better sense prevails I guess i am entitled to my share of polambals

Let me also clarify that my gloomy post had nothing to do with the stock market crash
I have not put naya paisa into it. It may have been slightly different had it been real estate since i bought a flat last year. But having visited FAIRPRO and seen the response first hand, i guess i need not worry about real estate crash for now. So 2009 might be the right time to worry about real estate.

I have written posts like these three years back. The only difference between those times and now is that nowadays i get a few comments and offline messages from the monus and karthiks and NV sirs of the world to cheer me up. I am truly proud of my blog in moments like these

As i type this, i feel like i am sitting in the beach, all alone, with a tsunami fast approaching. And i am just sitting, doing nothing because for some reason, i am not supposed to run away.

I guess at the bottom of it is some unshakeable belief that i will survive all this and much more.
Only time will tell if its a stupid belief or supreme will. That depends on the result anyway, is it not?

Everytime i face a tricky situation, i say to myself, “If only i can survive this, i can survive anything”. Obviously stupid idea, and as one would expect, it only gets more complicated with each passing year.

But sometimes stupidity gives you peace of mind which no genius can.

I would assume most of the folks who visit this blog are those with more or less similiar background as mine. Background as in Tamil speaking, conservative middle class, upbringing with a tilt towards what is euphemistically put as ‘ Working Professional in an MNC’.

If yes, then this suggestion definitely holds good. In matters relating to career, pursuits, interests, hobbies, always err on the side of risk. If you face two paths and are confused about the path to take - eschew the ones which looks ’safe’. Safe means ’so-so’. The one which seems less comfortable and more risky is perhaps the better option.

In my personal observation, in the last ten years, those who have shed their comfort zones and ventured into new things have been many times more successful than those who avoided risks.

Okay, some people might say ‘the risk should be calculated risk’. Let’s face it, with our background we just cannot be reckless. A certain element of caution has been embedded in our DNA

I’ve seen people giving more importance to ‘what others might say if we fail’ than failure itself per se.

Of course, you will make mistakes; things will go wrong; there is more scope for embarassment. If you take ten decisions, chances are two will work out. But it’s precisely those other eight which ensures that the two successes are not mere improvements but stupendous feats. And it’s precisely these stupendous feats which changes your life for ever which can never happen otherwise.

As a bonus, you will learn that eight failures out of ten is not the end of the world as you once thought. You will also learn that nobody gives a damn about you, let alone your failures. People are more self-centered and focused on their own progress than you can ever imagine.

It would only be of two pages. And the first page will talk about the benefits of a TO-DO list.

I’ve always been the disorganized type until last week. Somehow managed this way for the past 30+ years. But at times i’ve felt life getting totally out of control and sort of gets overwhelming.

I am not able to put my finger on something to say that caused the change last week.
But suddenly I find myself maintaining TO-DO Lists in my diary. Its usually filled with daily stuff that i need to do - from calling up my gas agency for booking gas to fixing my wireless router.

Glad to say, it works like a charm and this is one stuff that I would recommend everyone to do it. Just jot down a list of TO-DO items and track them everyday. You will find yourself tackling a lot of the stuff (urgent and important)within a week.

This is not to say that we will not get things done if we don’t have a TO-DO list. But invariably, the stuff which will get the first attention are the urgent issues. Gradually the things which are less urgent but more important in the long run will fade out from our minds. Which is precisely what we can avoid using a TO-Do list.

So what would get into the second page?
More on that tomorrow

Officially declaring the expertdabbler podcasts to the outside world.

Be prepared for a boring 17 minutes. Friends and well wishers, wish me luck. I need all the luck in an activity where i am taking out my baby steps

Hail Tata for

bringing a car within the reach of the common man. For once, we might have a car which we can buy with our savings. For thinking about kuppans, subbans in tier3, tier4 cities who would want to go around in cars once in their lifetime.

showing India has designers who can think about the Indian junta.

thinking about women who want to commute safely in Indian roads with less fear of harassment and their safety.

Curse Tata, if

all this Rs. 1,00,000 hype leads to poor quality in build when it’s actually built.

it costs more to maintain this than purchasing a new one which would lead to even more junk.

it leads to more traffic snarls in a country where building a better public transport is more important than building a Rs. 1,00,000 car.

I wish

Nano comes with a mobile urinal. I know I am asking too much, but even a low cost but effective one would do a world of good to elderly and diabetic patients caught in a traffic jam.
India will be, if not already, the diabetic capital of India in the days to come.