Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The Satisfied Mobius Strip!





Your movie star name: Chips Rajagopal



Your fashion designer name is Aarathi Brussels



Your socialite name is Baby Bombay



Your fly girl / guy name is A Che



Your detective name is Horse Sophia



Your barfly name is Biscuits Rusty Nail



Your soap opera name is Raman



Your rock star name is Dark Chocolate Thought



Your Star Wars name is Aarleo Cheana



Your punk rock band name is The Satisfied Mobius Strip

Abhiwarya? or Aishekh?

I just found out the Rediff has decided to dub the Aishwariya Rai - Abhishekh Bachchan 'relationship' Abhiwarya, along the lines of TomKat and Brangelina. I didn't think they were actually seeing each other. Not that I really care at all, just that I don't much like Aishwarya Rai. Don't think she's much of an actor. Still everybody deserves someone right?

Abhishekh Bachchan? I thought he was really cute. Loved his interviews with Simi Garewal, seemed like a fun guy. Thought he deserved better than Aishwarya. Thought Rani Mukherjee was a good choice. They actually shared quite a bit of chemistry in Bunty or Babli. So... that was it I thought. He makes movies with Aishwarya, he does poojas with Aishwarya... so what? They want to get married... so what?

Then I find that there's more. Like a family negotiation for a year almost. Both families have agreed, reports say. But this new movie Dhoom2, in which Aishwarya kisses Hrithik and wears skimpy clothes has upset the Bachchan clan. Abhishekh didn't like the kiss and his family didn't like the clothes. But he goes around kissing women all the time no? One can imagine his mother asking him, 'Uska image bilkul theekh tha, phir yeh sab karne ki kya zaroorat thi? Sab jante hai ki woh achchi dikhti hai to phir ye chote chote kapde kyun pehna usne?' I mean!

I thought it would be easy to be born into a family like that. Sure there's paparazzi but surely the're liberal right? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they're a traditional Indian family that insist on Bahus being Bahus. They may be excited and excitable young ladies, but after marriage, they take care of the house and children. So what if they are talented and capable in their own right? So what if they have dreams and ambitions?

And then there's Abhishekh. Is it ok for him to have his fiance give up things which are important to her so that she can 'fit in' to his family? Would he draw the line somewhere? What if his wife (whoever she is) wants to continue working when she has children? Would he say it's her choice, I'll stay home with the children? Maybe he's so well brought up that the ambitious girls stay away from him, knowing that when it comes to a choice like this, they will lose.

I know I wouldn't take it. Even if my most favourite hero professed his undying love for me. I guess I'm quite glad that I'm born to a life where I can choose a partner without fear or favour.

And as for Abhiwarya... I prefer IceShake!

Monday, November 27, 2006

A New Voice

I went quiet some time ago mainly because I was leaving a job and office... and moving to a new one. It was quite hard, given that at my old job I did a lot of stuff pretty much by myself and had to properly hand it all over... and that I really liked the team there. The handover wasn't 100% smooth, but it was not bad I believe. There was one issue that came up about two weeks ago that had me a bit worried, but it wasn't a failure to perform a task, it was a failure to record performance. As crucial, but less traumatic.

Then came moving to a new organisation, learning about the organisation, fitting in... it took some time. From not knowing anybody to actually having a lunch group, it's been interesting. These are fun people as well... just that I've to get to know them :)

I met one of my old colleagues last weekend. He was a colleague at my first job, then a friend, then a colleague again, and now just a friend. At some ways, in the job I just left, I felt he was one of my hurdles. He was smart and hard working and all that, but so was I. And he was in my path upwards, and unlikely to move out of there. I guess when I was recruited, I thought my role was important. Soon I learnt that it wasn't that important so wanted to do something that really contributed to the company. I started doing that but it was rather boring... and to get the interesting work, I'd have had to fight quite hard. And there was a hell of a commute to and from work.

My friend would be traumatised to hear that I think he was a hurdle, but maybe he knows. He joined that organisation about two years before me, and naturally had precedence. He was also naturally, doing better than me in terms of salary and position. But I felt at points that there was no room at his level. At points when I felt comfortable with my own abilities, my own skills and believed I could handle what he was handling, I knew that would never happen. Was it because of him, no. What happened to me was that I was in a grey zone. I felt I was as competent, but I was and would always have remained his junior. That as not something I was comfortable with and given all the other factors, it was pushing me out of there.

Maybe my point here is that in some senses, he was competition. Not just competition, but a rival who had a 2 year headstart. Honestly, when I joined I was happy to be his junior and go to him for responses, but eventually I outgrew that and my boss wasn't as useful or helpful. My friend was helpful, but very busy and... well I was as good wasn't I? Yet he was doing high profile work and I wasn't. He had his favourites and I was... on the fringes. He liked me, he liked my work, but I guess the grey zone worked for him as well. I was not a proper junior cause I had almost as much experience as him and I wasn't on-par cause I wasn't very old in the organisation.

His favourite though, was whom I've previously described as the 'hardest worker'. I think that was also an attitude she'd inherited from my friend. Paranoia in all its forms. Jealousy as well. As I said before, I'm happy to do my work and proceed with my life, without worrying about what other people are doing. I think it's a waste of energy to want to work harder than anybody else, I also know that I'm not capable of working more than a reasonable amount. At crunch times I'll work long hours, but it's not something I can or want to do every day. The 'hardest worker' types absolutely have to kill themselves working. It's either training or pure paranoia that somebody will overtake them.

I had this absolutely amazing conversation with a friend of mine recently. Friend from college who's single now and working very hard... and doing the same kind of work or at least willing to talk about it. I'd told my really close friends that I was afraid I was leaving my job because I've made mistakes. She asked if it was 'routine' mistakes and honestly I didn't know. I met her recently and discussed all of this. Turns out it's all the same and some of us obsess about it. Everybody makes mistakes, some of us take it personally. Some of us tell the world about our mistakes and feel terrible about the fixing process. Some of us believe that nobody else makes mistakes because we never hear them talk of it. And when I say mistakes, I mean things we consider hugely serious, but which are actually routine.

Her experience was very akin to mine. Making a major error and not knowing why you made the error. Losing confidence in your abilities for a while and then picking up the pieces. Knowing that we have to go on by ourselves because our bosses don't want to hear that they've to supervise us. And we do, we carry on but are always afraid of the next mistake. When I found out that it's not just me, I realised that looking over my shoulder is counter productive. I'm sure I'll make mistakes, but I've to trust myself. Mistakes might not even be errors of judgement, cause almost every boss I've had would overlook an error of judgement but not carelessness.

Wow! I just realised that I've always considered myself careless. When I was a child, I probably was. I made careless mistakes in maths tests, I lost stuff... Now, I still wouldn't call myself careful. Food for thought!

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Skull Crusher Busty Bertha??

Your Pirate Name Is...

Skull Crusher Busty Bertha


Did it a few times and got different answers but the first one was ... appropriate :) Most of my male friends through my late teens and early twenties found me remarkably intimidating. I've chilled out rather a lot and now don't crush skulls that easily... but have gained a lot of weight so other parts of the name are appropriate :)

Blogthings is a wonderful way to waste time without thinking that you're wasting time. Maybe more later.