I have never seen the company network behave so slowly, like the one I am seeing today. I must have lost connection to the server a zillion times and everytime I lose connection I have to enter my username and password. So if quantify the amount of time I spent between analyzing a problem and entering username and passwords, the latter wins hands down. I cant understand how can a company function with such low internet bandwidth. Also the other thing that annoys me is proxies. I just hate that part. It is everything has to be filtered and checking personal mail is considered a waste of time, which again I dont like it. I sincerely request the company network guys or whoever designs the network policies. PLease ban all the pron, but whats the harm in checking mails. After all we are humans and we are not supposed to be working for 9/10 hrs straight. That might be a perfect solution in an ideal world, but unfortunately this is not. When I see workplaces like Google/MS etc. THey dont have such thngs and still their employees are productive. I believe I didnt encounter proxies when I was at the client site also and amazingly my productivity wasnt hampered one bit. Or may be such blocking etc is for Indian companies only. Even then it does not make sense. I think I am just ranting here and I should head back to entering username and passwords, so I can, maybe/hopefully, finish something.
Month: December 2006
Friday– A day of all wrongs
Warning: Long post
Every 2nd friday it is time for me to pack and head home and usually every one of those Fridays I am busy and always thinking if I am forgetting anything. This past Friday was also no different. The morning went unbelievably smooth and I wondered whether the 2nd Friday jinx has been broken. I was merrily going about my stuff until 1:40pm, when I recieved a phone call. It was from a fellow blogger Nabeela. A couple of weeks ago we had decided that we would catch up for lunch when she was in the city on the 22nd. I totally forgot that it was the 22nd and I am supposed to have lunch with her. I was really pissed off at my self for not writing it down in my calendar or my book or on anything. There was no ways I could leave office early that day, so I asked her if she could come over to my office, which again is a weird thing to do. I am really thankful that she refused that offer. So I asked her when her flight would be leaving, since I would be heading to the airport in the next 4 hours also. As it turnes out she was supposed to fly out at 7:30pm and my flight was at 8:30pm. So I told her I would catch up with her at 6pm. Nabzz, if you are reading this blog.. I am very sorry for what happened this past Friday.
Usually I leave office at 6:45pm, but on Friday I left at 5:35pm. The taxi driver was driving like a maniac and got me to the airport at sharp 6:00pm. With my luck being the way it was, after sending countless sms’ I still couldnt get hold of her. I was all alone at the airport eating the box of chocolates I got for her for about 2 hours. The only good fortune was the flight was on time (for the first time, I have been flying this flight since last 3 months now and it is always late).
The take-off was pretty smooth and I was enjoying the Kingfisher experience. And then Friday jinx played its part again. The air hostess was serving the dinner and asked me what I would like to have, so I replied Vegetarian please. It seems she ran out of the veg. trays, so she told me she would be back in a few mins. So then, I waited and waited and waited and kept turning around to see if the food was still being served. Finally I saw the air-hostess bring out coffee and I was like, where is my food??. By that time I was seriously starving. So then, I finally asked her what my stomach had been asking me for the last 15 mins. SHe said she would be back in a sec. In the mean time, another air-hostess who was serving coffee saw my distress signal and asked me what I needed. I dont know whether she was new or a regular crew member, but she somehow lost control of her coffee tray and as luck would have it she dropped the hot coffee right next to my feet. Luckily it didnt fall on me or burnt me anywhere. I finally got the food, which was not on the menu and it really sucked. I had some rajma, some roti and some weird subji. Also a bread pudding as dessert. They told me they had run out of vegetarian food and this is all they have for veg. stuff. Almost every crew member started apologizing and I was angry, but couldnt do anything about it. They were all very pretty and I was like it is not good to be rude to pretty ladies. I think Vijay Mallya is very smart. He hires good looking ladies, because he knows men usually cant argue with pretty ladies ;). So everytime they would pass me, they would ask me if I was ok or if I needed something else. At one point of time, I was like yes yes yes.. please give me your telephone number, may be we can catch up for coffee sometime when you are in Mumbai :P:P. Unfortunately, I didnt do anything like that and left it at that.
The landing was on time and I was like finally the day is over, but no there was more trouble brewing for me. It took me 50 mins to get out of the airport. Too many holiday travellers and too few baggage belts. So finally I got home hungry and tired and was hoping mom had made something special, as it turns out there was nothing special, just plain dal and roti. Oh well.. something is better than nothing, so yea after my quick dinner, watched some TV and then went off to sleep. All in all it was an alright day. Worst things could have happened. So yes.. I did enjoy my Kingfisher experience.
Funny
Strike..
I didnt have to go work today because we had a strike ‘bandh‘ as we call it in the local lingo. Now I have no idea why we had this bandh, but all I know is this bandh was planned about three months ago. Funny, how political parties plan strikes so much in advance. It is like preparing for a party. But anyways I spent the day at my house, doing absolutely nothing, except attend a few meetings and sleep. Some of my colleagues unfortunately were not as lucky as I and my team were. They were picked up by 6am and have been in the office since. I just hope that the frequency of all these strikes go down. It is only Dec 15th and we have 3 strikes already this month. It is like anything happens and the best solution to solve that problem is to call a strike. I cant recall any single problem being solved by a strike. It just costs so much economic loss to state machinery and every single working person, but somehow no one realises this in India. I remember a few years ago, some politcal party called for a strike in Mumbai and so everything was shut down. The good part was the next day some citizens filed a lawsuit against the political parties who called the bandh and the court fined those parties a huge sum of like Rs. 2,500,000. And after that the frequency of strikes called by that party has dropped down drastically. I hope someone does the same in this state. I think the best way to stop all these strikes is to hit the political parties where it hurts them most and that is their check books, otherwise I dont think this bandh culture is ever going to end.
Same news.. different days
While coming from Mumbai on Monday, I was reading the Times of India, considered one of India’s premier newspapers. I also get the TOI at my place in Kolkata, so I was very surprised to see that many of the articles in Calcutta Times on Tuesday were exactly the same as the articles of Bombay Times on Monday. So does this mean that Kolkata is running a day behind in all its news? Or just because in Kolkata we pay Rs. 1.00 per day, while in Mumbai the same newspaper costs around Rs. 3.00, we should get the news a day late? I am really surprised by this. I wish I had yesterday’s Mumbai edition of TOI so I could take some photos of the common articles and post it here.
Is honesty still the best policy?
I remember when I was a small kid, not that I have grown up now, my parents taught me that honesty is the best policy. When I started going to school my teachers also emphasized that honesty is the best policy. But now when I see the world around me and look at all the things that are happening, it makes me wonder if honesty is still the best policy. I remember everytime I have done a mistake and been honest about it, everytime I have suffered. I used to like a girl when I was in the college and we were very good friends, but my problem was I used to like her. So instead of trying to cover it up or do something more sillier, I went ahead and told her how I felt. The result.. we were no longer friends, forget about she being my girlfriend. I have heard and read about people who have lost their jobs, lives just because they had the guts to be honest. Everyone is afraid to say the truth. Anyone who stands for justice and honesty are either bribed off or killed. Human lives and values are not important anymore. I guess the world we live in has no place for honesty.
Quote
Great achievements and great love involve great risk.
A friend of mine sent me this and I think it is true.. what do you think about it??
Funny
Sick
Yea.. I am not feeling well. I know for sure I have cold, since my nose would not stop weeping. I also have fever and am feeling very weak. I hate going to the doctor, especially a doctor whom I have never seen before in a entirely new city. I think I am just paranoid about doctors. I dont like it when someone knows more about my body, than me. It just feels weird. And what, I am just supposed to trust this guy and take medicines as he gives me. What if those meds dont go well on me? Or what if the meds he gives me has no effect no me? I think this would mean another visit to the doctor or may be a different doctor all together. So basically we are back to square one. So yes going to a doctor is weird. Well I have spent my entire weekend in the bed, so I might just go to the doctor tomorrow morning. Yes, as much as I hate going to his clinic.. I might just do that. Hopefully tomorrow will be much better than today. 🙂
I hate this..
Meebo just got blocked off at work.. This is the saddest day at work so far..
My thoughts...My story 