The day of the appraisals....

'Twas a D-day for us in the office…..The appraisal letters are distributed in January and resignation letters are handed over the next few days !!!!….depending on the happiness or unhappiness of the employees. This time too the atmostphere seemed to be charged with electricity. I had come in a smart looking white shirt (which I had decided to colour black in protest….in case I got a bad appraisal). So anyway…appraisal day is very important for everyone..(everyone being a very large number of people……comprising of almost the whole working population of this big, bad, mad world. This is the day when the boss gets a chance to show you your true place (If the boss always shows you your true place….this is the time when YOU get an excuse to put in your resignation!!!) This is the day when some people cry, some others laugh with joy, some people go to the bar and drink…..some out of jubilation, some out of sorrow, some curse their bad luck, some thank their stars. That’s how the appraisal day is. Well anyway, got a great raise in salary this time…probably had the third best performance rating and appraisal amount amongst the people in my grade. I am very happy that my salary has increased by a large amount. Can’t say I am not disappointed that I could not get the best performance rating amongst people in my grade. Had always thought that I had produced the best output….if not THE best atleast amongst the best….also was working on 2 projects at a time…..so thought that would go in my favour as well. But it did not…..thats the reality and will have to live with it and move on…Life is unfair at times….many a times. People who read this post will feel….this bugger got the third best payment…and hes not happy….but then this was my chance to be the best after a long time….and it didn’t turn out to be that way….Its not that I am totally pissed off (didn’t paint my shirt black did I ?) …..but then its not that I am totally not pissed off either!!!!

Bachpan ki kahaniya!!!

When I was young lad one of my best entertainment sources was grandmother!!! If you r wondering how, then u really have missed out on something. The stories that my grandmom told me were awesome, guys. I still remember most of them. When she started telling them it was like being transported to another world!!! Most of these stories were from the Indian mythology concerned with the very gods that we worship!!! Let me tell you one of them.
Young Lord ganesh and his brother Lord kartikeyan were feeling bored. They had no good deed to do, no quarrel to ‘suljhaofy’, no ‘shraaps’ to be given. They asked mother goddess Parvati to suggest some ‘timepass’. Parvati suggested that they should have a race. The first one to go around the world three times wins. So karthikeyan sat down on his peacock (his ‘vahaan’) and started off like our narain karthikeyan on his f1 car. Little Ganesh(little?) meanwhile was a fat fellow who had just stuffed his 100th modak in his mouth. I always find it hard to believe that a fat god like that should have a mouse as a ‘vahaan’.
So anyway, as kartikeyan was making a second round, ganpati got up and went round the place his father and mother were sitting!!! That is to show that they were the world for him!!!! Very clever isn’t it? Or is it laziness? U decide and tell me. Parvati declared ganesh as the winner, a reason why in maharashtrians( don’t know bout others) women don’t enter a lord karthikeyan temple!!!
Moral:- your parents ARE the world for you, trust them!!!!

Oh!!! There is just one more moral- there ARE shortcuts to success!!! ( just kidding!!!)

Personal Interview - Direct Dil Se!!!!

This was something which i wrote during the days when placements were going on in engineering college........Back then the HR questions asked in interviews were quite common.....

Just today a friend told me: kya yaar!!! I am hell bored of giving interviews. Wherever I go they ask me the same HR questions!! Tell me something about yourself? Strengths, weaknesses? Kya dimag ko shot lag gaya hai!!

The thing about these HR questions is that, and I am sure most of u will agree that the answers which we give DO NOT come right from our hearts. We feel something else about that question and the answers which come out of our mouths is different, like for example: we may be wanting to pursue further studies but we say that “I am not planning to pursue further studies” so that the interviewer is assured that this person will not leave the company. Get it? Thus, I feel that a PI is like a drama where our real thoughts take the backstage and our real answers are the main stage actors!!!

What would be the answers if they came right from the heart: direct dil se?
Some examples:

Tell me something about yourself:
I am a real cool guy who was born intelligent in so and so and brought up in so and so. I was a stupid confused guy in 12th standard and so I took up engg and then performed like hell and finally now I am BE instru. So basically education ruined me and now u will ruin me. But what else can I do? I got to have a job right now! Be happy with what I have told you and give me the job!

What are your strengths?
I have all the strengths right now!You name it I have it!!

What are your weaknesses?
Weaknesses me? Ok yes there’s one! I feel like laughing right now!!

Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
I see myself in your seat while you are sitting where I am sitting right now!!!

Why should we employ you?
You should employ me because I am not an idiot sitting here so long listening to all this bullshit you are telling me!

How will employing you benefit the company?
F*** your company!! i just want the job and that fat pay packet you are offering……..15000 starting sal wasn’t it? Wasn’t it? Huh?

Can you tell me something about our company?
How should I know? You are the boss!! You should know!!

Why are your academic marks so low?
Thats because this marksheet is not the real one.......if you would have seen the real one.....they are even lower in that!!!

So do you have any other such ‘direct dil se’ personal interview answers? If you do………………..well keep them to yourself, of course!!!

Some of my recommended sites.......

I was surfing the net some days ago.......found some good 'quote' sites. One of them is www.quotegarden.com..... a site which contains a real good collection of quotes and proverbs on various topics.......like humor, wisdom, love, life etc...
Some of the quotes on humor i found on this site are as given below......


Who says nothing is impossible. I've been doing nothing for years. ~Author Unknown

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes. ~Author Unknown

Above all else: go out with a sense of humor. It is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life. ~Hugh Sidey

Humor is a rubber sword - it allows you to make a point without drawing blood. ~Mary Hirsch

A man isn't poor if he can still laugh. ~Raymond Hitchcock

I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike? ~Jean Cocteau

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. ~Phyllis Diller

Keep smiling - it makes people wonder what you've been up to. ~Author Unknown


There was another site......some of you who read this post might be knowing something called as 'Murphy's laws'. In case u dont know take a look at this site......those who do know, well they can take a look at this site as well...... www.murphys-laws.com..... Call him a pessimist or a person with great sense of humour.........some pessimist laws from this site are as given below:


Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.

To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.

The primary function of the design engineer is to make things difficult for the fabricator and impossible for the serviceman.

These two sites definitely make a good read.....

Engineering years ki poems

Aaah…those 4 years of my engineering……..It was a time when I went through a lot of disappointments and failures….The only time in my life when the poet in me raised its head…..Two of the poems I composed at that time……(they r not that good……but then I was a total failure at that time…..so those poems are bound to be total nonsense…..anyway those poems express my feelings!) I wrote the first poem( Kidhar aa gaya hu main?) in my second year of engineering...when i felt totally hopeless......due to my KTs and other things. The second poem(Yun hi chala chal rahi) composed was at the time of the fourth and final year when the hopelessness had reached a saturation and i had started thinking....what more worse could happen than this?


Kidhar aa gaya hu main?
Bhatak raha hu in raasto par kab se,
Musafir hu yaaro,
Engineering ke us safar me,

Akeli hai yeh rahe,
Akeli hai yeh baahe,
Akela hu main yaaro,
Engineering ke is safar me,

Naa koi manzil hai,
Naa hai koi humrahi,
Naa kisi ka gum hai,
Naa hai koi khushi,

Kis baat ka hai hume intezaar,
Yeh baat kyaa hai, hume nahi maloom hai, mere yaar,
Phir bhi nikla hu in anjaani raho par,
Musafir hu yaaro
Engineering ke is safar me.




Yunhi chala chal rahi
Rukna nahi, Thakna nahi,
Raahi tu kabhi jhukna nahi,
Har raat ke baad ek savera hai,
Har savere me naya ujiyala hai,
Kabhi dar lage to, ishwar ka naam lena,
Himmat rakhna,
Aur aage kadam badhana.

Rocking night!!!!

Was feeling very down on the 31st December afternoon. After making and canceling several plans for new years eve……the final outcome was that I was left out with no plans at all!! Most of my friends had their backup plans. Some were going out with their girlfriends (they were the ones who, of course, had no other option!!!!). Some others who didn’t have girlfriends were still going out somewhere. So one of my friends, Irfan and I were the ones who were left alone. I called up Irfan that afternoon and asked him as to what the ‘situation’ was? He told me that his car was available in the evening and that if nothing happened we could atleast go for dinner and a long drive. Now we were also faced with another problem……… we had to have people apart from myself and Irfan. (We would have looked like a ‘couple’ of a ‘different kind’, if only both of us, had gone out for dinner and a long drive!!!). Luckily, two of my other friends, daanish and nikhil, who we meet only sometimes (they are quite busy at other times!!), agreed to join us!!! So we finally were heading somewhere with this last moment plan…..I had this idea of going out for dinner at a local place and then heading out for a long drive till lonavla. Daanish knew a dhaba near karnala which serves excellent food……we decided that we will go there……We started at around nine-thirty at night……The police had placed checkpoints at many places……to catch late night drunken drivers…….We crossed panvel and were heading down the Mumbai pune old road……I did not know the road to karnala, nor did nikhil, nor irfan, and as daanish knew where the dhaba was, we assumed that he knew the road. After sometime however it seemed that Daanish was a bit confused about the road too!!!……he kept telling us that he could not make out the roads at night time!!! When we came to the toll station on the Mumbai pune old road…..he mentioned that he did not remember seeing a toll station when he went to the dhaba last time!!! By the time he told us this, Irfan was paying toll to the toll station booth man!!!! We realized that the karnala road was left behind and we had payed the toll for a different road!!!! After everyone finished punching Daanish for his stupidity, we took a u-turn and headed towards the karnala road (Karnala is on the Mumbai Goa road…….A right turn at panvel ‘phata’ takes you to Mumbai-goa road!!! We had gone straight earlier and had left the right turn behind!!!) Finally we reached Daanish’s dhaba. It was a ‘typical’ dhaba. A small place which looked shabby on the outside with the paint on the wall chipping off and trucks parked nearby. Nikhil started complaining that the place did not seem ‘decent’ and that it did not serve liquor and that we should go to a place which looked decent. After listening to much of this cribbing we turned back to go to another ‘hotel’ which we had seen in the way not far behind. The ‘hotel’ to which we went was decent enough but did not offer very ‘decent’ rates. So after ordering the starters and punching Nikhil for his stupidity (and the liquor, Nikhil had bought a quart of ‘Old monk’ rum.) we decided to leave it at that and go to the ‘indecent’ dhaba much against Nikhil’s wishes. On reaching the dhaba an old man (‘kaka’) greeted us and directed us to a nice place to sit…..a ‘tent’ open from the sides and with roofs made of straw and the sides partially covered with green colored curtains……Kaka told us that dinner would be ready in half an hour. Till that time, we chatted, wished each other a happy new year (it was almost new year when we ordered the food!!!) and enjoyed the peacefulness of the place. Also the ‘divine’ aroma of food coming from the kitchen was stimulating our appetites. The food came after an hour or so…..(Kaka’s judgement of ‘half and hour’ was a bit erroneous!!) The food was excellent…..pieces of chicken roasted on coal and coated with the typical village ‘tandoori masala’, A spicy and hot curry containing fresh chicken pieces, and a typical ‘khichree’ with a ‘jeere ka tadka’!!! I cannot describe the joy of eating that food after being hungry for so much time in the cold weather!!! We finished eating at 0200 hrs in the morning, paid kaka (a small bill amount of Rs 510 to which we added a generous tip of Rs 40!!!). As they say in hindi, “ Khana aisa tha ki pet bhar gaya lekin dil nahi bhara.” Our plan for new year was different, it was adventurous, but yes it was sucessful!!! The ride back home was also great….no traffic on the way…..Not many vehicles on the road and the stars shining on a new year’s morning!!!