Book Review: A Flawed God

Title: A Flawed God
Author: Arjun Shekhar
PP: 284 pages
Price: Rs. 250 (get it for Rs. 200 here)
My Rating: 2/5 … Read if you like corporate thrillers, but don’t expect much real action 😉

Before I say anything else, here is a quote on back cover of book that made me get it:

An ordinary corporate executive turns assassin to save his firm from ruin with the help of the master of a secret guild out to revolutionize the corporation…

Wow, I thought. Another thriller in making. And that too with a different story. We know all dark corporate evil people who hire assassins for their deeds. But this was first time (as far as I know) that someone was actually dirtying their own hands, or so I thought.

The back cover of book, including line quoted above, had this:

Sanchit Mishra a.k.a. Sancho is staring bleakly at his performance appraisal form when an invitation from the mysterious Progress in Work Collective lands on his desk. His colleague and confidante, Pause Daniels, urges him to dig deeper. Soon he finds himself sucked into a secret world of anonymous superheroes out to revolutionize the business world by attacking that flawed god it worships – the share market. This parallel life pumps some self-esteem into Sancho, preparing him to do what’s needed when the firm is taken over by a multinational and an ugly industrial relations situation ensues.

The case for the transfer of ownership from shareholders to employees is made through Sancho and Pause’s story in this witty, fast-paced corporate allegory.

Now this got me confused (and a bit exited) about the book and I just dug in.

First two-three chapters actually got me interested in the plot. Sanchit aka Sancho gets the invite form Progress in Work Collective or as they call it, The Collective.
He flies to Turkey (at his own cost of course 🙄 ) and  somehow, after a terrifying journey (for him) reaches the destination.

The Collective is supposedly an underground society or something which fights for reorganization of all typical corporate organizations and make them more Employee focused than they are now. Good concept really. Someone really needs to do that, I agree. But I did not get why it had to be underground and so secret.

Then it the story revealed that there was a nemesis for The Collective, none other than ‘Shareholder’s Conscience’. Now that is a cool name. These shareholders are supposedly dangerous people and they always assassinate the ‘Master Craftsman’, the leader of The Collective. Well, things got little skeptical here for me. But I held on.

Then suddenly, after a good start of selection process of The Collective, story jumped 15 days to Sancho’s office. Author says he did not want to bore us with details of selection procedure, but it was awesome nonetheless. Hmmm. I was dissatisfied. I wanted things to go into more secrets but apparently there were more pressing matters at hand like villain of Sancho’s career, the General Manager of his company being sacked, Sancho’s boss getting abducted by a local goon (claiming it being on behalf of worker’s Union), Management changing hands, Acquisition of company by some American company etc.

So Sancho suddenly finds himself facing a lot of opportunities  to lead and he does that. He is (from start of the book) being helped by his genius colleague Pause. Now Sancho and Pause have to save company, their boss, their employees from a fiasco. Somewhere down the line I remember exactly how the story had started. And I found the most interesting part (for me) nearly forgotten. :O

The book ends with the protagonist(s) getting their love, victory and well deserved whatever. But it leaves you confused. 😀

The good:

Good points about how Employee’s turn into mindless ‘appraisal thinkers’. Author’s HR experience surely shines here. The language of the book is really good (I recently read Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of Nagas). Concept of The Collective, however far-fetched, was interesting. But..

The Bad:

Author blames current share market for world’s current condition. Though he would sound perfect to people who don’t understand Share market properly, I found it little far fetched. I know some points he makes are true, but they cannot be held solely responsible for everything. And even if we ignore the share market thing, I did not understand why he had to build so much mystery about The Collective and let it go just like that.  I wish he had written Sancho becoming a real sharp shooter or something and saving his company. 😀

The Final Word:

Though I sound skeptical all through this review, I must give credit to the author for picking up a bold subject. People who go through all work tensions and know what evil thing ‘the appraisal’ is will agree with him. I would say read this book if you like corporate thrillers. The action thriller fans can skip it. 😆 If Arjun Shekhar writes another book, I will surely give it a try. 🙂

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a life..

Early morning. Around 7.30 AM. Somewhere on Nagar Road, Pune.

The old man picks up his lunch box and shoulders his hammer. He quickly bows to the God’s idol in the corner, says a quick prayer and hits the road. A day just like any other day.

This is the story of any of the men in the photo. Only hammer gets replaced by something else like a handbag, a broomstick, a bag of goods, a vehicle or just an id card. But the story remains the same. No matter h0w glossy, glassy and classy your work environment is, your story is same as this old man.

He goes to work, works hard, gets his pay and thanks god at the end of the day for giving him power enough to earn his bread. Does he have regrets? Wishes? a bucket list? May be. He wishes he could do a lot of things other than his daily work. He does not get the chance. But does that make him regret his life? Most probably not. Because he knows that there is no use of regrets or negative feelings, they will just spoil the taste of your life. Live it as it comes to you, strive to be better, strive to be worthy of a better life.

Life is not as simple as it seems, or may be, it is.

(see original post here)

Harry Potter!! It all ends!!

Harry Potter! The boy who lived. The Chosen One. Seven books of magic. Books that enchanted the world. And then movies. Not all of them are as good as books, but nonetheless, they have their effect.

For so many years, this little kid named Harry and his friends have been my friends. I did not read HP as a kid, I read them a lot late. I saw a friend of mine reading a book without leaving his room for 2 days straight until he finished it, I got curious. Until then, I had only heard about people being crazy about HP. So I decided to rent the movies. And there it was. I fell for the magical world immediately. Then I had to get the books somehow and read them. I became die-hard fan of HP. And been the same for years now.

For me, Harry Potter books are not just entertainment. They are much more. There were times when I was alone, sad and blah blah (read my posts in sad category LoL).. HP world was my solace. Whenever loneliness or any other unwelcome feeling overwhelmed me, I used to dive in the world of wizards.. I still do. Reading these books again and again, sometimes fully, sometimes just my favorite parts was my way of keeping every other feeling at the bay. Some may think this is crazy but you have to be there to understand it. 🙂

I don’t really understand why exactly HP is something that puts me at peace. I am not a blind follower of things. There are HP books I do not like much. But I still like reading them because they take me in the world not seen by other people. Its been same feeling for all Narnia books, but they are more like kids stories than HP.

There are people who reject HP as kids stories before even giving it a look. Well, to each his own. But I disagree to the claim that these are only kid’s stories. No, they are not just kid’s stories. Certainly J K Rowling wrote these books keeping kids in mind mostly but they are deeper than people think. These books deal with things like friendship, love, loyalty, bravery etc. It’s not the plot that makes you like the books, it is the things that are unraveled as the story progresses.

A lot has been written about HP in so many years and a lot will be written. This is my bit. The reason to bring all this up is because they are releasing the last movie in the series. Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part II.
Its tagline is “It All Ends”. And it really does for us, fans. There will be nothing to look forward to anymore. It kinda ended when last book was launched, but last movie sorta seals the deal.

Anyway, I hope the movie is good. And I will always have HP with me if I need him.

Cheers.

save the children….

One fine day, I was taking my usual after-lunch-stroll-around-the-building with my daily colleague lunch group. It was around 1.45 PM. This is the most probable time when people get calls offering Pre-approved personal loans, credit cards, investment schemes and a lot of other things. I have devised my own tactics for turning down such calls without actually using bad words. After all, the people calling you with these ads n promotions are just doing their job, trying to earn their share of bread-butter for the day. So I talk politely and give all kinds of stupid reasons for not taking whatever they are offering. Some of the reasons I come up with sound almost genuine to most of the people.

I fly

I just wrote a poem. Yes… not that it is any good.
But I am happy I wrote it.
Its been long since my last poem.
There were days when I used to think of writing a lot of poems and I had written few also (in Marathi).
Then somehow I stopped writing them and after a few years I completely forgot about it.

And today, while posting a pic on my photoblog, I searched for something to post along with it, something that suited my view of the photo, and I could not find anything. So went ahead and wrote it myself. I hope at least someone likes it. Someone who inspires me every moment of my life. 🙂

Here is the link to that post: I fly

Lesson of Life

(Just a nice forward email.... credits to whoever created this)

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.

The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they all were right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.

Moral:

Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.

Don’t judge life by one difficult season.

Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time or later…….

5 things for which I love myself

Aaj ki taaza khabar. Suda is doing a tag!!! 😀 😀
Yes, stop slapping yourself, this is not a dream!!! I am really doing a tag (actually stealing it from Reema) 😀
The tag requires me to write 5 things for which I love myself 😉
So here we go:

1. Helping Others: I have habit of helping (or at least trying to help) everyone (read: anyone) no matter who he/she is. Even a stranger can not discourage me.
I know this is a common habit (at least in India, I don’t know about others) but I love myself for it because many other people love me for same reason. I help many people without realizing how much I am doing for them. And I guess that is what makes me special. Whenever someone asks me, “Why are you doing this much for me?” I get surprised. I have heard same question hundred times before but still it surprises me. Friend or not friend, a person who needs help should get it without hesitation.

Help Everyone Everywhere in Everything!!!

Now, I don’t claim to be some great personality or something like that. I help others when I can, when it is possible for me and (recently, only) when it does not create trouble for me.

2. Forgiveness: I don’t believe in holding grudge. I hate some people but that does not make me to hold any grudge for them. The moment my anger melts, I forgive every offender in my mind and let the person know what I feel if possible. I do not expect everyone to be saint. It’s a choice a person has to make for him/herself.
Believe me; I really do not have any enemies. Or may be I should say that I do not consider anyone enemy. I may be distant and rude and dry towards some people but I really don’t see any reason to call them enemies. The guy whom I called “my best friend ever” actually plotted behind me and got the girl I loved when we were in college. You would think I must be looking for a chance to get back to him. But I am not!!! I was stupid back then, because I just liked that girl but never tried to tell her. And I was stupid enough to tell everything I felt to my best friend. May be I was not stupid in telling him. May be they fell in love with each other and the girl (she used to love me, her roommates still claim this even after so many years) thought him better choice. Now, I have no contact with him or her. My friends consider us enemies or something more. But I don’t!!! I just don’t want them back in my life and I am not sure I can bear them together. I am better off without them. And anyway I have found someone *who truly loves me* beyond my imagination. ☺ ☺ So, I have forgiven both of my friends for everything. But still he should better take care of remaining out of my sight!!!!

Forgiveness is Divine Quality

So, I love myself for this forgiveness saintly quality. Now I forgive myself for bringing up stupid hurting memories for very stupid reason of praising myself in a stupid self praising tag post. 😐

3. Flexibility: Now here is something I share with Reema. Put me anywhere, I will match myself to the context!!! (or match the context to me 😛 ). I can live in some extreme rural area with no connection with modern world and will not complain at all. I am living in a Metro city Pune (where I don’t like many modern things) and have adjusted myself to match Punekars. I can live with very less water 😀 and I am adjusting with my current roommates (that is a miracle in itself). In technical field, I have no objections in working across different technologies and different people.
Again, same as Reema, I show nakhras only when I have choices 😀

4. Fakology/Creativity/Making things up/Playing with words: Sometimes, you need to change a few details and twist some tales to tweak the situation for your good or for greater good of the universe……this is the field where I have attained a fair level of expertise. I usually manage to slip through tight situations by using my word-games and a little presence if mind.

Presense of Mind

I will share a secret which is formula I use in most of the critical situations. That secret is *simple logic*. Not just commonsense, but the right application of commonsense. I will explain with simple example (keeping non technical people in mind):

For my project, I was supposed to make a document about a banking product NRI accounts using information provided by my onsite colleague. I was supposed to write “pain areas and problems” in one section. But my onsite friend did not get much information for that particular section properly and the banker he interviewed gave very vague answers. All he got out of the banker was there are no specific pain areas and he does not bother to explain why. So it was my responsibility to convince my Project Manager that there is really no need for that section in document. Here is what I told him:
“Sir, Mr Onsite-Colleague interviewed Mr ******* for this product. As we know the NRI account product is uses Foreign Exchange (FOREX) Dept for currency exchange rates, blah-blah system for customer records and Miss. Blah-Blah is head of the FOREX dept. As the concerned product uses multiple systems and people for small-small activities, it hardly creates any problems for Bankers. So I doubt that any banker can actually tell us specific pain areas for this product, they will just tell problems of bigger products they handle.”

My PM thought over this explanation for a moment and decided not to chase me out of his cabin for such a small issue which was not my creation in first place. So he decided it was wise of me to keep that section blank and my onsite colleague owes has done nothing wrong. The fact is I was not lying. Whatever I told was supposedly expected from the client banker. So I may have missed real thing but I did not create any problems for client as well as my employer.

Now look at the underlined things in my answer. They are my guesses or deductions from a line my onsite friend told me plus some general knowledge. I managed to keep anything from being too specific. Do you see what I mean? No??? Well, I will come up with more examples later. Just keep in mind that whenever you need to slip through tight holes, make sure you are very logical about things you say or make up and also make sure you have left enough loopholes to bypass someone trying to catch you. 😀 I call it Fakology and I intend to write a guide for it, seriously. I love myself for this ability (and many of my superiors and friends hate me for it) 😀

5. Basic Instinct: Now, this is a thing I guess I share with thousands of people around the world. I believe that every person has a power or ability sometimes called Sixth-sense. It is not just your logic or brain power. It is some instinct that flashes up some feeling in your head for a moment when you are about to make a decision. Mostly the feeling slips away before you catch it and understand it. But whenever you manage to get a hold on it, it surely affects your decisions.

The Sixth Sense

I believe my intuition is very strong. I have saved myself from many blunders and stupid mistakes by following my instinct. Sometimes I think my quick reflex to something like ducking an unseen stone is more than just good eyes and ears. Many times I think I heard someone coming before anybody else but it is mostly the feeling and not the sharp ears.

I have a strange example here: In my college days, some friends decided to hide programs in computers in college lab and use them for practical exam next day. I had no need for cheating but I decided to give them company just for thrill of doing something against the rules. That evening, the lab assistant was promised a drink and then he locked us in lab with and promised half an hour for the dirty work. I did not take part in copying but sat browsing the net. After few minutes, I felt an urge to go out of that locked room. Nothing was wrong but something strongly urged me to get out and I started feeling very uneasy when I tried to force away the urge. So I went to locked door and asked the assistant to take me out. He knew me very well. He snapped at me that why I went in at first place if I did not need to cheat? But he let me out and I ran away. I was feeling suffocated in the building. I ran to bike stand away from the building. Hardly 5 minutes had passed when all (cheater) boys joined me at bike stand. A teacher of my dept had caught them red-handed!!!! The teacher failed them in practical exam as punishment instead of making a big issue for that serious crime.

I was simply lucky to get out in time. I was about to get punished for being at wrong place at wrong time in wrong company, I must have missed her by a minute or less. I still don’t believe that it was just a co-incidence. Unknown, unexplained urge to get out of that lab just few seconds before the teacher decided to check the lab……… to much for just a co-incidence!!!
There is other side to these so called instinct decisions. Sometimes, it does not feel right for the situation. It may be turn out to be right in long run but at the particular moment, I can’t afford to follow it. Also many times I simply ignore it because of some stupid attraction or something like that overcomes it. And I regret it many times. How many times I say, “Damn, I should have done it that way. I should have listened!!” I think I should write about instincts in detail in a separate post later.

Well, that’s all for now. I can write a book about myself and best things about me, but I doubt anyone will ever read it 😀
And this is the longest post I have ever written. I hope some people have really reached this line honestly 😀 😀
If you answer this question then I will know that you have read all points above. If you can’t then its okay, I will assume that you have read between the lines 😉
Que. I mentioned that I want to write a guide for something. What is it?
Answer the question in comments. This question is optional 😉 , you can choose not to answer it.  😎

Do you guys need any disclaimer??? I hope not 😉 😀

Shameless self advertisement: See my photography here.  Lately, I am advertising my photoblog too much 😀 😀

Pink Angel

Women always tell every man who will listen that they are not less than them in any field.

But I feel otherwise!! Women just say they are this and that. I dare to say that women are not equal to men everywhere. Not that men dominate them. Its the women who falsify their own claims by their own actions. 😀

Women try to get favors by using this gender bias and stuff. They are usually very stupid favors like getting a seat in crowded bus, getting window seat, getting in front of some line before men, asking male friends to do simple things like booking tickets and many more.

These are simple things, I agree. But these contribute towards male mentality. These stupid incidents water the seeds of thoughts like women are weak, they need men to do most of the things and much more.

So when suddenly women claim that they are not to be called weak in any way, men find it stupid. I am not justifying thoughts and actions of men here, I just want to say that every coin has two sides.

You want funny examples?? There are many.

In any software company, find a boy who is not irritated by his Girl colleagues and I will sponsor a coffee for both of you. 😀

Most of the girls are technically ignorant or incompetent or simply they are unwilling to do/learn any new thing. I know there are many expert women around and I respect them, but majority of girls/women I met are what I claim.

They always ask silliest queries in the world. They need someone to show where the address book in their mailbox is.
They need someone to configure the proxy in IE6.
They think “tabs” in Firefox are stupid and useless.
They need someone to locate the Login button on their internet banking site.
They need someone to open the  “My Computer” for them if there is no icon on desktop.
They get irritated by pop up alerts or windows with more than one option (e.g. Continue, Finish, Cancel) so they just click on “X” in the top right corner of whatever window that appears (and that too without reading a word on it).
They need one or two weeks to believe that Picasa software just shwos images on your harddisk and does not “store” images in itself.  😀

In 4 years of Computer Engineering, most of girls have never heard of RAM, Motherboard, modem. They know what is a hard-disk (“we store things in it, don’t we?”) but have never seen how it looks.

(A note to boys: Believe me guys, it does not matter if you do not know the Geeky things boys are always excited about. That does not make any difference. You cna still work in software industry without it)

Sounds stupid ranting eh? I know I have not given much impressive examples but you will understand when you face something like this everyday. Only thing that makes me angry is, their refusal to learn things. If you are an Engineer and you say you are a equal to every other male engineer then act like you speak.

Most of boys around me agree that if they try teaching any simple stupid thing to a girl who asks for help, she simply refuses to learn claiming that it makes her head ache or it boring or its not her cup of tea or something like that. And she will call again for same thing after some time but still claim that its “boys type” of thing and she won’t learn it.

And some wonder why girls get more salary than their “equal” male colleagues. I guess it is because of some tax benefit rule in India. Some think that if they claim to be equal, then why they get even 100 bucks tax benefit extra just for being girl? (I am not sure about this tax rule though)

Whole point of writing this stupid rant is to wake women up.

If you claim that you work shoulder to shoulder with men then do it in reality as well. Don’t just use your rights to always get a window seat in bus or something more stupid.

If this sounds sexist to anyone, I request that please read the post again. I am not against women being equals, I just want them to be competent as they claim.

(I am too bored to look bacl at the post. So if there are mistakes, I will correct them latter 😀 )

Pink angel

Work (Balance) Blogging

Blogging is good. Good in many ways. Good if you know how to manage it.

Many of the bloggers blog from work. Some of them do it because they can spare time for it and some because they don’t have computers at home (probably because they live in rented flats or can’t afford a laptop yet 😉 ).

Few bloggers are full-time bloggers. They are either retired individuals or the blogging earns their living.

Now, for others, i.e. spare-time bloggers, I have a question.

How do you manage the balance between work and blogging?

I am asking this question because I forced a blogging break on myself just to concentrate on some important things. I was unable to balance these two things properly and ended up trashing one of them (blogging of course).

What happens is, as you keep blogging, you get new readers. Most of them are bloggers and they do write interesting things. So you go read, comment and find more people and make friends etc.

Now, here is a realistic example. I know quite a few bloggers now. And I like to read their blogs. Lets say I like 20 blogs. Three or Four of them write nearly daily. Seven ot Eight write thrice a week. Some of them write irregularly and some of them write stories and stuff (I know 3-4 short story writers).

Approximately, I get around 15 new posts every day in my RSS Reader. Even if I don’t have to read all of them, still 12 posts are there. And if I am busy and miss opening Reader for one day, the count reaches to 20. Then it increases gradually in next few days. And one does not read only blogs. There are other sites and news and many things. So gradually it becomes an overloaded truck.

Now a post of approx 250 words takes some time reading if its on some good subject. There are references to other sources (if you bother to read) and then time to understand the subject. Then if there are already few comments there it adds more time as we read them too.

I am not finding an excuse for not reading or writing or commenting. Its just I find it very difficult to manage all friends and their blogs and your own blog at same time.

At there are some people who comment only if you comment on their blogs. But they are very few.

And there are some people who are always very busy but still comment on my posts even I post after a decade. 🙂

Anyway, I am leaving this post halfway as I think you have got my point.

I just want to know how people manage their time. Mostly the people who use net from workplace (like me).

I wanted to make this post much like Nita’s any statistics and facts post. But then its me!! If I started writing very good posts here, then how can I live up to my reputation of confused blogger??  😀  No. its not an award, its what I think I am. Confused like this post.  😀

Life, Plans, Mess, God, Dad

There is nothing more irritating than not being able to blog regularly. Twitter gave me some relief and now I think I am starting to get addicted to it. But still I haven’t forgotten I have a blog here.

Yesterday, while looking in my bookshelf, I found a small notebook which I instantly recognized as One of my failed attempts of daily diary. I have written only 4-5 time since I purchased it 6 months ago 😀
Anyway, I sat down and read through. Last entry was incomplete and I remembered why it was so. On previous day to last entry, I had listed things I can do but I don’t, things I should do but I don’t and Things I can learn to do.

And then I realized what a fool I am. One day, in bad patch of my life I wrote down most useful things I have ever written or thought of and I was foolish enough to forget them next day and keep the list incomplete.
Now things have changed, little storm is gone and I am buried in heaps of work. I have plan, list of things to do, to learn and I have little or no time for them. My life boat is sailing towards a bright but entirely unexpected future. Its good, I know, but its not what wanted or planned….

May be, now on, I should plan the plan’s execution plan and execute it for sure.

hey God, I know (and I thank you for) you always ‘tweaked, pushed, adjusted, made available, routed and what more’ things for me or say you gave me chance and I always (read: never) used it fully (my mistake)……
But still I am your child and keep an eye on me as always, because I need you more than I ever did as I have messed many things in my life(like this sentence).

My Dad says there is no mess in my life yet, its just a start of the show. God, don’t listen to him, okay?