As long as it lasts...

I'm talking about my job here. With the current market conditions, this is on top of the minds of everyone. Last time when we had the slowdown in 2000 (?), it affected primarily the IT sector. But this time the wave has covered the entire economy and all the sectors. Lay-offs have started in huge numbers everywhere and we at my current organisation were sitting with bated breath if our company shall follow suit soon.

And yes it did even if in small numbers so far. 12 people have been asked to resign and that includes 2 Project Managers. Some more developers have been asked to move to their support center. This means change from the role of developer to the role of Customer Service Executive. Some agree and accept the demotion while some don't and are leaving.

After a group interaction with the senior management, the main criteria for these exits was not performance. The criteria was being on bench i.e. no work since a long time and cost to the company.

But now my worry starts because if my guess is right, they will focus on newcomers in the next batch of exits. And I will definitely come in that batch coz its not been even one year since I joined this organisation. I was quite nervous initially. But over the past few days I've kind of prepared for this mentally. There is so much I can do to save my job since the criteria has not been performance so far. And if the company doesn't get any new projects, I'm definitely doomed!!

I've no clue what I will do if god forbid this happens. But I definitely know that I'm not having any sleepless nights thinking and worrying over the issue anymore.

So its a wait and watch game for me and any day you might hear from me that I'm a free bird! :D

Two awards

Meira and Monika sent 2 different awards my way in the past fortnight.

Meira gave me the "Thanks for Writing" award which one gives to their favorite commentators (or is it commentors?).

Monika gave me the "Proximity" award which one gives to, as the award name says, the people they feel the nearness and a bond.

Every time I receive one, I feel a certain sense of high. A sense of feeling good about yourself. But at the same time it makes me take a step back and take a look at myself and wonder what did I do to deserve such an award. And frankly I get no answer. So after many of such 'self-analysis' sessions which resulted in no answer, I've to actually make a lot of effort to just accept them graciously without thinking too much.

So thank you Meira and Monika. Thanks a lot for thinking about me and thinking of me as a deserving candidate for these awards.

I pass on these awards to
Swati
Chandni
XH
Mampi
How do we know

You know its the recession time when...

..the cabs at the company get scratched off.
..the food available at the office canteen is either maggi or some biscuits.
..the tubelight fittings are reduced by 25%.
..the stationary gets more strictly rationed

But what takes the cake is when..

...there is no tissue paper in the toilets!!!!

Current Status

Current unread entries status in the reader -

• Blogs: 584
• Technical Blogs: 56
• Food Blogs: 172

VERY GOOD progress..isn't it? :D

Observations about some people in my company

I'm sure each one of us has come across something about a colleague which amuses you or maybe even disgusts you. I also have a few colleagues about whom I've observed a few weird quirks.

There is one colleague who matches lipstick colors with her dresses. You may so whats wrong with it. Yup. There is nothing wrong with it unless you wear orange lipstick to match your orange outfit. Unless you wear purple lipstick when you wear purple dress. Unless you wear bright pink lipstick when you wear a bright pink dress. So you get the drift? :D

Is it just me who finds these combination a little off? Is it just me who's old fashioned and doesn't know the latest trends? I think a nice red lipstick goes well with a nice red dress but orange lipstick?

Then there is this another colleague who wears a leopard print chiffon scarf every single day. It's immaterial if it matches with her dress or not. To me it does seem a little weird. I'm sure that in this case I can't called old fashioned for sure! I like leopard prints but then they have to go with your whole attire. And even if it is the style factor, how can one wear the same darn scarf every single day is beyond me. I've been seeing her wearing it since the past 7 months!! Probably its just her lucky charm *wink*.

And there is this newly married girl (got married in Jan'08). I don't even know her name. I just know her because every time I go to the loo, 80% of the times she is there applying either a lip gloss or a lipstick. Be it 9 in the morning or 12 in the afternoon or 5 in the evening. And I wonder..does one really need to do so much? I agree I'm not a makeup person at all. Rarely are the days when I even put on a lipstick. I'm one of those carefree, nonchalant about my appearance kind of a person. I know I'm one extreme of not doing applying any makeup but retouching your makeup 6-7 times a day is a bit too much. Isn't it?

How long can you hold on?

I have been having slight stomach ache and upset stomach since 3 days. And because of that I was eating very light. Primarily zeera rice with curd. I've had 5 such meals over the 3 days and today when I came back from work I just couldn't resist taking a bit of gazak. One bite of kaju burfi. One spoon of bikaneri bhujia. I just couldn't hold on any longer!! I had to eat something besides rice and curd!!

So tell me is it just me or you guys also give in? Or can you guys hold on longer on your food desires especially in such stomach upset situations?

~~ Keep Smiling! ~~

Sent on my BlackBerry®.

Current Status

Current unread entries status in the reader -

• Blogs: 762
• Technical Blogs: Marked all as read
• Food Blogs: 184

Good progress..isn't it? :D

What do you do when...

...you open your Reader and see 1000+ unread entries under the head "blogs", 1000+ under "Technology", 248 under "Food Blogs", so on and so forth?

I'm not talking about random hypothetical numbers. I'm talking about REAL figures that I saw when I logged on to my Google Reader after almost 1 month. Yeah..life has been that crazy. The regulars at this blog will know from the frequency (or shall we call it infrequency?) of the posts here lately. The month is about to end and I've written ONLY 2 posts so far! Can you beat that??

Anyhow coming back to the counts in the Reader, those big scary numbers which hit me on the face when I opened it today, I got so nervous that I just closed the darn Reader down. After all I'm just a human. Even Google stops counting after 1000 and starts showing mere 1000+ :D

I had one easy option of marking them all as read. But I didn't want to. Coz I wanna read them all!!! Maybe I can set a target for myself to finish reading them before the arrival of new year. I guess I can definitely try and manage that!

Anyhow the purpose of this post was to let everyone know that I'm still alive and that I will definitely read every one's posts and comment as much as I can! Happy blogging till then everyone!!

You know its time to...

...really really trim that tummy when within a week 2 people put their hand on your tummy and ask "Kuchh hai kya?" and you try to just laugh it off by saying "Haan..hai na! Tummy hai!"

Road sense...

...rather the lack of it. Feeling for others..rather the lack of it.

Everyday I see people who are either walking or driving with zero road sense. Everyone is trying to outdo the other in driving like crazy or the pedestrians walking or crossing the roads as if they are the only ones using the road. But over the time I've also kind of gotten immune to this. But what I will never get immune to when people do not give way to an Ambulance or Firetruck and sometimes even a Police car when their siren is on.

For police car they give way out of fear but for Ambulance and Firetruck I have seen it almost next to never. Today also I witnessed this scene while driving to work in the morning when a Firetruck had the siren on and was trying to weave through the traffic. No one was giving way to the truck. Everyone was literally ignoring it except a few sane ones. And forget about giving way, they were trying to use it to their advantage when any sane person was giving way to the truck by butting in front of the firetruck.

Seeing such nonchalance to things of such importance shows again and again how the people are so selfish and self centered. All they think about is for themselves. Did the thought of the people stuck or hurt in the fire where the firetruck was headed towards ever strike them? No. If it had they would have given the way. And they call themselves as literate people. The illiterate people will have more sense than these people for sure.

And above all after behaving like this people complain that help never arrives on time.

I prayed to God that may these people be stuck in a situation when they need the help of ambulance or firetruck and may it never reach on time. And then they will realise what they had done for others has happened with them too.

And I also pray that the people realise and learn sooner than later and start to value the lives of others too.