Some damn thing
Really want to write something down tonight -- more of an effort to go beyond one post after returning from my long 'non-writing' hibernation. Hopefully, I'd be successful tonight.
Was just wondering that there has to be a story or instance from everyday that is interesting, something that's likely not a daily routine, and is worth writing. And finally figured out a topic to write about, which is Cricket! ('Ours', not 'Theirs').
Bain India, for the first time, is entering a corporate cricket tournament and our first match is scheduled against Colt India. Next Sunday's (16th Nov '08) the match and we finally started practising today. Well, we hopefully will have atleast one more practise before the actual play. It was good to see how our team was finally discussing on who the bowlers are, who are the batsmen, who'd be the captain etc. I finally realized that I do have a spinner in me, a leg spinner. The ball doesn't spin as much as Shane Warne, but isn't too far off at the same time. And since I already have a batsmen in me, guess, I make an all-rounder now. (Well, in case you are wondering, am not going to make my score and performance from the matches public on this blog).
That's it for tonight I guess. Good luck to our team.
Time taken to write this post: 10-15 minutes
Wakeup
Originally, there was just one thought behind this post, but suddenly as soon as I wrote the title, I realized that the subject actually has multiple meanings behind it for me.
Most importantly, it reflects that I need to "wake up" from a long 'non-writing' hibernation. Ofcourse, I've tried this a number of times earlier but then guess, the motivation doesn't last more than one post. No further comments on this, I am forced to believe in
"Actions speak louder than words".
Secondly, for some reason, it reminds me of the college days. My every single password back then used to be "wakeup". Ofcourse the college days were quite lazy and I kept this as the password so that atleast everytime I key that in, I am reminded to get active. I know it's random, but whatever.
And lastly, the original thought: I went home for a week during the Diwali festival and being tension-free from all the work back in office, I slept for long hours, infact very long hours. My dad called me on one of the days and said that he has some experience to share, and this is what he said -
"My son, there are two kinds of people in this world - masters/bosses and the slaves/servants. When masters sleep, they wake up from their sleep in time and are attentive with hundreds of immediate actions and directions ready for their slaves. They act responsibly and behave actively. But when slaves or the servants get up from their sleep, they always have just one lazy thought on mind of being a servant to their boss and having to follow their directions or working on the daily routine. And to be clear, I mean masters or slaves by behavior, more than just by designation. So decide, if you want to be a master in life or just a slave."Between that day of my dad's thought and today, trust me, I've still been lazy, very lazy. I feel so much like a slave at the moment.
Time taken to write this post: 30 minutes
Elton John
After procrastinating for long, this post is more of an attempt to revive an 'almost dead' blog than any other rationale behind the content in here.
I want to dedicate this post to
Sir Elton Hercules John who set up my mood to finally post something on this 'not anymore' philosophical blog. Have been listening his songs for few hours now, and more I listen, more I get in love with some of his absolutely brilliant tracks. Never have I liked a singer as much as I like John, and I realize that from my craving to learn a piano right now. John, for the uninformed, is a great pianist and you can find him playing a piano in almost all his live performances. Btw, you tube has some great collection on his live videos (Yes, I've been watching those videos as well).
Infact, I just figured out a great new year resolution - learning piano. I already have a great singer in me, all I got to do is learn piano and I should be able to perform something similar to what John does.
All thanks to John for the motivation.
Time taken to write this post: 15 minutes
Opportunities
How does it feel facing interviews or for that matter, how does it feel to even think about them? Scary thoughts, harder heartbeats are few immediate reactions. Interviews are to test for
interviewee's compatibility with the firm/college/job/whatever. Failing is definitely heart-breaking and sad but what we should understand is that failing in interviews doesn't mean that we're incapable. All it means is that we're incompatible.
And I can say that because Bain's been kind enough to give me interviewing opportunities. Have conducted 5 interviews so far and I'd say that this experience of interviewing people has taught me far more than what giving 100 interviews would. Interviewing people is not an easy job. You need to be smarter than the interviewee to judge that the interviewee isn't making fool of you. Judging a person, and that too officially gives an amazing sense of you being responsible for things, important things.
Apart from the regular case interviews and market sizing stuff, one thing that I really focus upon during interviews is to check if the person is logical and if he/she has a good presence of mind. I personally like people who are good at common sense. And you definitely need that, be you in any field around the world. Cross-questioning to check the integrity of the person is important as well. I do that. Understanding person's interest in the profile, in the job is another very important issue I take care of.
In short, it's an awesome experience to interview people. I believe, it should make me feel more confident while facing interviews myself but then who knows, it's not that easy to be an interviewee afterall.
Time taken to write this post: 23 minutes
Increasing heartbeats
What if the manager calls up the receptionist and conveys the message that he wants you to call him (manager) up? Scary thoughts. You hear from the reception that manager's trying to reach you and wants you to call up IMMEDIATELY.
It happened with me the other day. Thought that there definitely must have been something wrong at my end - some zero defect mistake in the deck, some logic mistake or may be he has some urgent work for me. The heartbeat went up. Finally, I did call him up and after a long ring, he answered saying - "Akansh, Can you call back in 10 minutes".
I called up again, this time he didn't answer the call at all. Even faster heartbeats. I gave another shot and yes he answered this time. His words were - "Akansh, I've called you up to take your miseries away, if any. We have decided to promote you to the senior analyst position and based on your performance, you truly deserve it".
Trust me, I haven't had a better feeling. Getting promoted in 7 months is phenomenal. Things have turned out good all this time and I really hope that they continue the same way. God Bless.
Time taken to write this post: 16 minutes
Getting difficult to answer
It gets so damn difficult to answer questions like:
- Tell something that no one else knows about you
- Tell 3 things about you that depict your character
- What is that you like the most in life?
- Tell one situation in your life when you acted most wild
- Tell one situation in your life that you won't ever forget
I realize how bad I am at filling slam books. Need to work upon my life history a little bit and explore the inner self.
Time taken to write this post: 7 minutes
Surprizes
At times, things happen just against what should have happened in normal circumstances. They're mostly disturbing is what I've been realzing or may be we seldom notice the happy days of our life. To accept the 'unexpected things' or in other terms failures, we mostly come up with the same optimistic answer - may be God has something better aside for us. And we start moving on. But on the other hand, why doesn't hard work fetch awards at the first chance? The thing is that it's not about just the hard work. There are few other things that one needs to take care of in addition to the normal actions/duties.
Getting demotivated and disappointed is definitely not an option or else things keep on getting worse. I've had some friends whom I feel sad for considering that they've almost lost the skills that they had just because few failures turned up in their lives.
Whatever!!
Time taken to write this post: 12 minutes
Waiting sucks
It is terribly irritating when one needs to wait for something/somebody. Looking at cellphone more often if you missed a call, looking at watch more often only to find that it's not even been a minute before you last checked the time, checking emails every 5 minutes, logging on to messengers to see if there are any offliners, trying to think of other alternate ways which could be used to pass on information and if you've missed on that one too.
Everything's just an excuse to believe that the expectations haven't been shattered yet. But the bitter truth is that they have. Anyways, things are great. They really are.
Time taken to write this post: 4 minutes
It helps!! Finally bit relaxed
It's been tough for the past few days. Things have been disturbing all the time - at work, at home, during drives, everywhere, anywhere, even on a shit pot.
But then, I found a way to let out my emotions. Picked up a diary, wrote few odd pages. Picked up the diary again the next day, wrote another page. Opened my blog reader and read through one of the blogs which has some real motivating posts (Atleast I find them motivating). Finally it helped. Got rid of a number of those irrelevant, disturbing thoughts. Stupid, how stupid of me to have been wasting time thinking of stuff.
When there are disturbing thoughts on one's mind, distractions are at their heights. Everything that one listens, watches or feels is tried to be co-related with those stupid emotions and thoughts and are in turn found to be irritating, only adding to those distractions. Everything looks shit then. Everything looks shit even at the moment. Time for another diary page I guess.
Time taken to write this post: 5 minutes
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