Here we gooo…

Boss-O-Stat – These folks are good at boss management, however be the boss. They even orchestrate, surrogate (running errands) for their boss. They never regret to do these out-of-KRA jobs, since they are very sure of the brownies . They often end up doing resource management, interpersonal conflict management and so on… So guys, when would you really start working???

Civilian – These are folks who say/prove “I am not here for politics, I work, I earn and I leave, don’t ask me to move from my desk, even for cafe. Tell me if our boss wants me to come for a coffee. Otherwise… B.O”. The pleasure they derive out of their silence is what wonders me. Their work neither goes unnoticed nor they politicize and earn rewards. (Sounds good after this explanation, will try this role … But don’t ask me when  :)…..)

Adversary – Mavericks are like chorus boys when compared to these species. These folks seem to have mastered the art of I-will-oppose-whateva-boss-says attitude since their conception! They really (at times) make me think that “Oh, how dumb am I, why didn’t I ask boss all these questions and rattle him?!!!”… After seeing the complications they run into, I take back my words!!!

Whip-boy (gender insensitive) – They have an uncanny sense to find when boss will be out of moods… They go with a burning issue (that can be easily resolved by them/team or deferred!!) to boss’s cubicle and get lashed. Guess they would pacify themselves by tweeting “Betta luck to me next tym”!!!

Copycats – Best survivors of a team, they know when to adopt which role and when they can approach boss or anybody in the team. Only tactless moments would be a surprise squad entry or while being caught unawares by boss…

P.S:  Please take it light; I am not at all pointing anyone in this post. Just kidding

Recently, I read that a whole village in India was proud one day… to have killed a couple who married of against the villagers’ wishes. The girl’s father and uncle who killed the couple were portrayed as martyrs!!!

In another news – Ranjita Devi Kumar, a senior hockey player recently made a hue & cry about the sexual harassment by her hockey coach Maharaj Kumar Kaushik.

Godmen restart ‘preaching’ sessions in full swing once the scandal news against them dry up. You see, time is the best healer which makes people forget Swamiji’s scandal!!! But women associated with them and their image is tarnished ever after. People still flock to hear his preaching! Crowd will gather more post scandal!

Thousands and thousands of female babies are killed in India for no other harm, other than being born in this gender!!! An sms forward says “Only 842 girls per 1000 boys are born in India, next to tigers, girls are nearing extinct”!!!

Be it a veil ban, honor killing or sexual harassment, women are victimized. But Kaushiks, scandalized Godmen and martyrs of honor killing live imperturbably.

Kaushik says there is no proof against him even after publicly declaring his intent of having sex with his team mates, making senior players quit from the team on complaining against him and using a videographer for assisting him… Kaushik has resigned, so what about Ranjita Kumar, Helen Mary (another senior player who gave up hockey on being troubled by this coach) and the other senior players who gave up their bright career in hockey just because of this wily coach?

Nityananda proudly flaunts that internet search were at its heights after his sex tape released. Wonderful marketing strategy indeed!!! But Ranjita, the actress who was involved in the scandal has lost her stand in the tinsel town and didn’t even turn up for the rest of her shooting of Ravan when it was about to wrap up the shooting, which put the whole film crew in a fix! Nityananda Swamy is flying high again, back to routine, but what about Ranjita’s image and career?

Sadly one major thing our country lacks even after 63 years of independence is, proper action on sexual harassment cases;  these cases are ‘treated’ secondary as they are not life threatening!

Men involved in sexual harassment are not given the onus to prove their innocence (if they are!!!!) but the onus is on the brave women who break their silence and expose these people and end up paying a heavy price for their bravery, as these men are influential!!! Many women keep mum for these harassment because of their socio-economic barriers that will haunt them for life, if they expose these men!!!! Women are exploited more and more because of lack of stringent rules and cases on sexual harassment and men go on exploiting women because of these loopholes in our IPC…

This society needs more Ranjita Kumars to wake up women from their wanten hibernation! 6+ decades of Indian independence hasn’t done much good to women in India… Rules are to be revamped and women have to loosen their vocal cords against these gentlemen!!!

Here we go…

Akhil: Amma… You know how Zebbba (read it as Zebra) came?

Me: No… How come? Tell me if you know…

Akhil: A white horse was drinking water from a river… A painter uncle came and drank water from that river. The white horse fought with that uncle saying “this is my river”. Uncle got angry and painted black paint on the white horse and it became Zebba…

Me: Ohhh, that’s a lovely story… Who told you this, your Nanny or Poona (m) miss?

Akhil: <A cold stare>

I enquired his nanny and his teacher, none of them taught him and he has told this story to his nanny y’day. Heights of imagination, but a lovely story from a tiny tot . Hope Akhil made you laugh. Will record his version and put it here soon.

These are very common hoarding advertisements, seen wherever you look up!  On the contrary there are debates on antidepressants and law suits on these medicines to withdraw them  from the market! Other than a few inessential medicines (like Viagra, Slimming Pills, Diet Pills and Fat Burners…),  no medicine is unnecessary. Here is an article on the necessity of antidepressants and why do they have serious side effects….

Let me begin with a li’l biochem… Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is secreted in our brain. Melatonin, a free radical scavenger that stabilizes our body and emotions, is derived from serotonin. Neurotransmitters  are neurochemicals that transmit nerve impulses across a synapse. At night, our pineal gland triggers melatonin for maintaining our physical/emotional health, and intellectual capabilities. Whereas, Serotonin is synthesized only during the day time. This switch on/off rhythm balances us/our emotions.

In the pineal gland – just below the brain- serotonin is acetylated and then methylated to produce melatonin. Serotonin is derived from the tryptophan (an amino acid).

Low levels of serotonin in the body is the major cause of depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, irritation and  many other psychological problems. High serotonin content in blood stream triggers cardiac problems and so on. Whereas, low Melatonin leads to delayed sleep patterns, and sleep apnea. Even in animals, the cause of hibernation is due to high melatonin content during autumn (due to less sun light).

Every morning our retina makes serotonin and hence we become agile. Once it is dark, melatonin (which is synthesized only in darkness) takes charge of our health. Melatonin decreases with age, whereas serotonin does not. The major role of antidepressants is to delay the  depletion of melatonin/serotonin from our brains. Certain antidepressants cause more psychological illnesses, if given wrongly. In some cases, a combination of antidepressants would be required to regulate and in some cases the patient might also get used/become resistant to the drug and stop reacting to it.

Psychological problems can be classified in the scale of 3. For scale 1 illness no medication is required other than yoga, and counseling. For scale 2 a mild dose of antidepressants for a short period with regular counseling is needed. Only if the problem is serious and can only be regulated by drugs, antidepressants would be prescribed by the physician. Certain antidepressants contain black box warning that patients under 24 yrs of age should not take it, as it might cause suicidal tendencies in them.

There are 3 major types of antidepressants such as Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), Tricyclic antidepressants, and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). These medicines treat well, but have debilitating side effects. E.g. MAOI drugs taken with flu drugs have dangerous reactions, and elevated levels of serotonins due to SSRIs leads to hyperactivity, shivering, lack of coordination, seizures, and so on.

Anti depressants are to be taken with careful guidance of a physician. Physician would examine the patient thoroughly – including hereditary- and prescribe the right medicine for that particular condition. Every patient is given tailor  made combination of antidepressants  Any medicines would take time to cure and they have worst side effects as they have to play with the body’s bio-clock, which decides when the person should be active or when should one sleep…

Often I wonder why feedbacks include abuses!? Without “dumb a**”, “jack a**”, “idiot”…. Cant a feedback be given? Feedback (fb) is just telling the performer how well did s/he do a thing and how best s/he could’ve done it. It is just to discuss about a particular project and not to criticize the performer and offending him/her to the hilt.

Those who give fbs take the privilege of abusing the performer and assumes that only by offending the receiver s/he wouldn’t repeat those errors.

Feedbacks are to be given in such a way that the performer himself/herself understands his/her flaws and comes up with a solution for the problem and makes sure s/he is more responsible and the error will not be repeated. Any fb should start with a positive note on the performer and in between, the performer should be told what s/he lacked and what could’ve been done better. Quite often in project goof ups, none can keep their cool and tell the team member politely that they were good in certain things, still they have made the application go kaput! It is a tense situation, even then, the project manager/ team lead can avoid name calling and just think of remediation. Later, once the error is fixed, fbs can be given to the performers which would do good to the performers and the project as well.

I don’t have much experience in handling projects, but I have witnessed many situations and have had fbs on my projects. Thankfully my boss was a very sane person, who wouldn’t criticize people unnecessarily. Instead he would just tell us how to improve, which definitely worked well with me/my team, as we didn’t want him to advice us everytime!

Those who just read and leave w/o commenting my blog, please do comment .

I am very proud of my teachers,; they are the best in town teachers, who devoted their lives for music/dance. Their target wasnt money or publicity at all. I was under the tutelage of Late Sri Pudukkottai J Srinivasan for Veena (a stringed instrument). He is a Veena super maestro. I enjoyed my veena classes. I used to call him “Veena thatha” meaning Veena grandpa… He was okie with anything, all my mischief, until I play the notes wrongly or get distracted. I learnt not to memorize but to imbibe the notes in me and avoided having my notebook full of sa re ga ma in front of me, while playing the veena. Veena thatha used to teach the songs in such a way that the notes/songs would go from my finger tips to my veins and get mixed in my blood stream.

For almost 6 years I was under the tutelage of such a stalwart and then we relocated to a different city so as to pursuit our University education. My mom tried hard to find me a veena teacher but I wasn’t happy with anyone. Having learnt the art from Veena thatha, my mind refused to consider anyone as my teacher. So there came an end to my veena classes and till now, I havent resumed my learning again .

 recently I heard that Veena thatha is no more… Being very emotional by nature, I was reminded of the good old veena classes, and for almost 2 full days I was going through the songs taught by Veena thatha. Here is a humble tribute to Veena thatha.. More than his way of teaching, his interest in music made me learn. He would know the inner meaning of the songs as why was it written and what was the context to write it. Almost all the songs I learnt it from him made me feel like I was infront of the composer when he would have written the song. He taught me one jathi in 12 ragas. I was playing the same jathi in al the 12 ragas continuously w/o any mistake. For a novice like me, it was a great thing.

This is what he explained about BanTu Reethi kOlu song.. I wish I had recorded all his classes, they are too precious to miss…

Song: BanTu reethi kOlu
Ragam : Hamsanadam
Talam : Adi
Composed by: Saint Thiagaraja
Notes: sa ri2 ma2 pa ni3 Sa

Pallavi:
BanTu reethi kOlu viyavaiyya raama |
(BanTu)

Anupallavi:
tuNTa viNTi vaani modalaina madA|
dula goTTi nela gula jEyu nija ||
(BanTu)

Charanam:
rOmaancha manu ghana kancukamu |
raama bhaktuDanu mudhra biLLayu ||
raama naama manu vara khaDga meevi |
raajillu naiyya tyaagaraajuni kE ||
(BanTu)

Thatha’s explaination still rings in my ears. The way he used to enact how Thyagaraja pleaded Lord Rama, is in my eyes and will remind me of Veena Thatha’s expressions whenever I listen to this song… This song was composed by Saint Thyagaraja on Lord Rama where the Saint imagines himself rowing Rama and Seetha in a boat.

The Saint pleads Lord Rama to grant him the privilege of being a bodyguard to him. Thyagaraja tells Rama that no other  job in this world can equalize being Rama’s bantu (guard).

In anupallavi, the Saint elaborates how his profile matches with the qualification of being the Lord’s guard, as he has conquered the 6 internal enemies such as kAma (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion), mada (pride) and mAtsarya (hatred and envy). He refers to desire as kAma, the cupid (according to Hindu mythology) with sugarcane in his hands.

In charanam, the Saint says that the God with fur allover his body (Hanuman) held the royal badge and armor given by Lord Rama, as a mark of being accepted by the Lord as his disciple. To Thyagaraja, the armor is nothing but Rama namam (the name of Lord ), which is his best sword/shield against all evils of life. The Saint pleads to bestow such a status on him as well, to serve Lord Rama and remain in his sannidhi (abode) everafter.

Miss you Thatha.. Anybody can explain this song, but you are irreplaceable….

Ingredients:

1. Maida (all purpose flour or finely-milled wheat flour) flour – 2 cups (approx. 200 gms)
2. Ripe yellow banana – 2 Nos.
3. Jaggery – 100 gms (measurement depends on how sweet we want the output to be)
4. Milk – 100 ml

Recipe:

Mix well all the ingredients in water till it becomes semisolid. Heat a frying pan and spread the batter in it with a ladle.  Add ghee in the ends. Turn the pancake upside down and let it be in the pan for one more minute.

The hot pancake is ready to be served with ghee. The time taken for making the batter and the pancake is 10 minutes

By that afternoon Ananth’s house owner came to collect the house keys, that’s when Ananth realized that his dad was not at home. He sent Krish to look for his dad at Retd. Brig. Dev’s house, but Krish came alone. Ananth and Supriya started panicking and searched wherever possible, in friends’ places, with relatives etc, but the answer was no.

Towards evening, they shifted to a hotel near the airport as planned. Even there, Ananth expected to meet his dad. They checked in and immediately started searching again, and Krish suddenly told Ananth that grandpa could have gone to the orphanage near their house. But Ananth and Supriya paid no heed to Krish’s suggestions and finally Krish was very sure about the orphanage search that Ananth had to listen to him.

The trio started to the orphanage. Except Krish, the couple wasn’t convinced about the orphanage visit instead wanted to search in hospitals and police station. They agreed that they will go to the police station straight from the orphanage if the visit is not fruitful.

The cab stopped in front of an old iron gate which bore a name board “Little angel orphanage”. Ananth was very sure that his father wasn’t going to be there. The trio stepped in to the orphanage, and walked towards a well lite room. Ananth heard his dad’s voice there, “I don’t know what to do” and another unfamiliar voice saying “Sir, you have to atleast inform your son that you are here, they would be searching for you…”

Ananth, in sheer disbelief went to the room from where he heard the voices and saw his father sitting in front of the manager’s desk. The manager was a man in mid sixties, clad in a white dhoti and a half hand shirt. He rose from his seat on seeing Ananth and his family, Krish ran to his grandpa and hugged him. Supriya had mixed emotions, whether to scold him for making them search all the day or to be happy that her f-i-l is safe.

Ananth politely asked his dad when did he come here and why didn’t he inform them. Ananth’s dad didn’t answer…. Not happy with what happened, Ananth told his dad to start from there as their flight is on the early morning and they have to sleep for atleast a couple of hours before that. Ananth’s dad broke the silence and said

“I am not coming with you guys. I will stay here in the orphanage” Ananth and Supriya were shell-shocked to hear this. Still Supriya asked her f-i-l “Why did you decide to stay here? How can we leave you here and go peacefully? What is the reason for your unhappiness? We have always done our duties and we love you a lot, without you our family is incomplete. Please come with us. All these years we have done whatever best a working couple could do to their parents”

Krish said “Grandpa, why are you not coming with us? There will be orphanages there as well, where you can spend your time and I promise you I won’t sit in front of internet and play games, but will obey you. Please don’t ask us to go alone”

Ananth couldn’t talk at all. He was not yet out of the shock. Ananth’s dad went next to him and told him “I don’t have any problem in coming with you, but my need is more here. My father passed away when my mother was expecting me.  My mother also passed away when I was just 4 years old. Since then, my elder brother and I were brought up and educated here. This is my alma mater. I have seen my happy and sad days here. Last week I saw a little fellow joining this school. His background was very similar to mine. The orphanage management wanted to name that kid after me, as a tribute to me. Then I realized where my happiness lies and where am I needed more. I have raised you and your kid all these years. The rest of the days I don’t want to spend idling, instead, I want to take care of a few needy children here. You people go to the US, lead a good life with all my blessings. Supriya, you are my daughter and nothing else to tell about you. I absolutely have no complaint, but I have realized where I am going to be happy. Please leave me here and go. Please do visit me whenever you come to India. Keep calling on the orphanage’s landline number. Whatever it is I will miss you.”

Hearing such stubborn words, Ananth and Supriya couldn’t refute. The orphanage’s manager assured them that he would either try to send his dad before they start next morning or will send him to the US in a month or so. They left the place with broken hearts, still hoping that their loving dad would come with them sooner or later……

As days passed, his wife was a little unhappy with 6 dogs at home, and wanted to sell the puppies.  After lorry loads of debates, Prof. Uncle agreed to sell the puppies. The very day he advertised, many buyers came to buy the puppies. They were all impressed with Dixie more than the pups, still Prof. uncle was adamant that he would not give away Dixie at any cost.

Aunty was also not ready to part with Dixie. Even when one buyer offered twice the quoted amount, Uncle was adamant that he wouldn’t sell Dixie.

Wondering uncle’s attachment to Dixie, the buyer asked uncle, “Why do you love this dog so much? Infact her limbs are not so perfect too”. Pat came uncle’s reply “I want someone who understands why I walk slowly”

Please don’t read this post if you are a Gmail fanatic!

I am very meddlesome, at times as foolish as an internet junky would be… One day, during heights of joblessness, I meddled with my own Gmail account and I paid a price of not opening it for 2 days. Sob…sob… You don’t know how difficult it is without mailing every one hour. I neither get any updates on stock market nor am I active in some forum where people are dying to ask me advices/questions. Still, it has become a habit to check my Gmail, every hour at least.

Last Wednesday, I was pretty laid back at work, enjoying frequent coffee breaks, a lunch treat, and frequent calls to my friends – who I have not spoken for a long time… hehehe… you got it right, but please don’t reveal that I was jobless. Business Analysts have to be busy; there is a rule to keep BAs busy even without business, all the time .

On that fine/fateful day (for my Gmail a/c), afternoon, I was yapping with my colleague and intelligently clicked on the “Can’t access button” instead of logging in to Gmail. It took me to a page where there were listings of password recovery, account recovery; account compromised reporting and so on. I got a spark; yes I wanted to see how I will recover my password in Gmail, if I lose it!

Bingo, fill the password recovery page and see what happens. At first there was a tab which asked for my user name saying it would send a link to my secondary id, I gave my user name and a link immediately came to my secondary id in yahoo. Then popped up another idea, what if I don’t have a secondary address or what if I have removed the secondary address I have been using? I opened the link thinking all these questions to reset my password, but to my dismay I entered the passwords wrongly in the tabs all the 3 times and my a/c was locked.

I started panicking, and I clicked on password recovery page and tried sending another link to my secondary id, and no mail came to it this time. I almost tried for 10 times in 5 hrs and left it. I thought if I leave it idle for 24 hrs I can answer my secret question and open my account. Still, I was very panicky!

After 24 hrs of wait, I tried accessing the a/c by providing my secret answer. In the password recovery page, there was no secret question but “temporary question” written instead of question. I was wondering whether I gave this stupid question as my secret question and in such a case what answer would I have given?! I tried for almost 50 times with different password permutations and combinations, and none worked. Finally I decided to drift away from my older a/c and start a new one, and this time I will not meddle with it! Still, I wanted my older a/c; I have been using it for 5 yrs since then. How to recover my Gmail a/c was bothering me throughout the busy day. I didn’t have the leisure time to find how I will crack open my account… I even asked a few of my friends whether they knew someone who would hack my a/c., and one of them nearly hit me for this brilliant idea.

I was in a real dilemma, how to break my a/c and I searched in Google about “temporary question” and in one forum there was a specific thread on this question that this is what Gmail fails to do when we lose our password! It doesn’t show us the secret question, instead masks it! Then how will we know what question we answered?! Still puzzled, I tried hitting my keyboard a few more times to open my Gmail a/c with the password recovery option, but after a 5 or 6 tries, there came a page which had 2 tabs, one which asked me to confirm my Gmail id and the other one to confirm my secondary id. Once I gave my secondary id as it was in the a/c. the next time, I went back to the same page and gave a new secondary id (which I created only on that day)…

Immediately Gmail password recovery page said, they have sent my password reset option to my new secondary id! I was taken aback and checked my new secondary id… There came a surprise to my new secondary id, a new password reset link… that directly navigated me to the password reset page of my a/c and helped me reset my password. I singed into my Gmail a/c (a very close friend of mine) after 2 days of struggle! And… There was another surprise waiting for me in the a/c settings, the secondary email id has changed to my new id that I gave without signing into Gmail…

Gmail is supposed to be very secure, but when we lose our password, we can change our secondary id even without signing into it! Isn’t it frightening? Even without a Global service desk to change our password, we can change the password

Nothing is secure in this world! Whatte a lesson!

Thank you Readers for reading the blog in utter disbelief.. You are free to comment on my stupidity and heights of joblessesness

P.S: I have attached a mail confirmation from google, for changing my secondary id to the new id. Please click on the more tag to see the mail, if you want to!!!

Regards

RS 

The mail from Google team…..

google mail confirmation