Pain of the thorns in the feet, when the head wants to look at the sky

Are you forced to look down often to take out the thorns that have attached themselves to your feet, when you were looking towards the sky? The constant nagging pain of having to deal with small thorns everyday, affects the focus and determination to keep looking at the sky and aspirations to reach there sometime. You keep getting pulled down towards the ground and have to deal with these thorns very often, which might eventually take you away from your goal of reaching the sky.

Both professionally and personally, this situation is true. There are numerous thorns that you need to deal with constantly in life which challenge you every time. The basic expectation from a family or employer is that they provide you a way or a road, where you can tread peacefully, where there are no / least number of thorns and you can concentrate on your goals. But what happens if you are constantly pulled down by thoughts or fears or piercings of the thorns on the way, which drains your energy, your spirits and forces you to think about the pain you need to go thru everyday.

Do you wear a shoe or protection and ignore that there are thorns on the way? Are you not bothered to clear the way for others to follow without having to bother about the thorns? Is the family or employer ready to clear the way or is intelligently ignorant of the whole thing? Do you having a shoe make you safe and ignore that there could be larger thorns which might pierce the shoe someday? What is the responsibility of the family or employer towards this?

These questions when they remain unaswered, forces people to stop taking risks and aim higher. They are forced to look down and keep out a watch for the next thorn, which means they cannot afford to look up. The loosers are both - individual and the other party. An individual can shift tracks, but tracks cleaning themselves and becoming more friendly towards the person who treads on it, is difficult.

This is where the culture, the environment, trust and transparency, principles come to the foreground.

I am stopping abruptly as I dont feel like continuing this writing......

A tribute to Michael Jackson

The Man, the Madness, the Maverick, the Magic, the Music, the Moves..... Michael for me is more than a singer and dancer. He is an entertainer and a Superstar at that..

It was a pretty sad way to start my day with the news of Jacko's demise reaching me the moment I entered the office and signed in the register. Wife called in to give me this news and the thoughts of yester years started coming back to me. Michael is the inspiration for me to get interested in dance and music.

I started listening to Michael when I was in my 10th std and we had to perform for the school day function. I was not into dance and music, but my only interest was in theatre, wherein I was not able to get any role. I really did want to participate in the school day functions and the only other option that I could find was the dance group. I went to audition for the dance group and the choreographer was a junior to me in school, which surprised me. Well, to cut the long story short, I got in to the group and was in the last lane of the group, so that the other 9 - 10 dancers in front, could block me from the eyes of the audience :)

That was when I first listened to Michael, as we were trying to dance to Thriller song. Though we selected another song from a different group, I never could forget Michael or his songs and dance. The craze that started off then, led me to 1 National level dance award and another - Best Dancing group and choreographer for Aptech, KArnataka

I have a collection of most of his songs, lyrics which I have handwritten and taken from several magzines, photos of his, etc to keep his memories alive. I have been a great fan of him and would continue to be, throughout....

RIP Michael and let his memories and performances live for ever in our hearts.....

Aquila non captat muscas

"Eagles do'nt catch flies" - Great minds don't deal with trifles

A chance understanding of this latin proverb from a friend of mine, actually instilled a new focus and direction into my thinking.

Many a times, we are actually tied down / bothered / focussed on small things in life, that we miss the big picture and miss the opportunity to make a dent in the universe. This in no way means that we should loose sight of the near term / short term goals, but helps us in focussing on the larger picture by keeping a finger on the smaller and nearby one.

Coming to what service that I extend, what could be the big opportunity? Is it the Recruitment Outsourcing / Project hiring / Exclusivities / etc, which could be the big business pullers.

Passive / non-portal candidates

I have come across numerous instances of recruiters wanting agencies to reach out to passive / non-portal candidates and want only "Head Hunted" profiles.

Do you want head hunted profiles or good candidates? Just because some people do not put their profiles on the portals, doesnt mean that they are good quality prospects. They could be as good / bad or even worse than the bunch that we see on the portals. When we talk of head hunting,

I have seen recruiters generating candidates thru cold calling and checking on the portals, if their profiles are present on the portals. This is the practise that I have come across many times, which gets followed blindly. Recruiters are praised on generating these "Non - portal" profiles, but how many go ahead and understand the quality / capability of these candidates.

In my view, this is just blind mining, which gives you more junk than desired and the recruiters always have the reason that getting the right match and the required number of candidates would always be less, as they need to be "hunted". Lots of instances where in you generate more non-relevant profiles while hunting than the relevant ones.

I strongly feel, hunting is done post research. Very less recruiters (apart from the exec hiring ones and very few contigency based hiring agencies) adopt this model. The need to know what a candidate is capable of, whether he / she fits the requirement, credentials, expertise, etc needs to be researched and then the candidate needs to be "hunted" and convinced. Else its no different from the big fishing trawlers who sweep the ocean for any kind of fish.

I know it takes a while to develop this habit of pre-hunting exercise, but needs to be started off. The market mapping, project mapping, candidate mapping, skill/technology mapping, etc needs to be focussed on and captured in the rigth way. The information which gets built over a period of time, by doing these activities are immensly valuable. This can be analyzed and built into a Knowledge Portal of the agency, which can be the USP in this very cluttered market.

Our Native Village, Hesaraghatta

We decided to explore this place, after one of my friend's mentioned that they are going there for a conference / meeting. I had not heard about this place and decided to Google and check out on HolidayIQ, and was pleasently surprised on the great reviews this place commanded. I also observed that these reviews had been written some time back and wanted to contribute towards the same with updating it with my experience.

It has been generally a good experience visiting this place. The ease with which things materialized was amazing. I thought about going there on Friday morning, booking done with absolute ease by noon for 2 families, with confirmations on the booking and choice of food (veg / non veg) and the directions to the resort. All this happened without reminders and no tense moments, which I have faced during some of my earlier trips.

The road is a pleasure to drive on, except towards the end wherein the last 2 kms or so is mud road, which actually prepares you for the 'village' experience. This stretch is also very scenic and you would enjoy the drive, though a little slow paced. Arrived at the resort with the security guard smiling and welcoming and directing us to the proper parking place (in shade). Before we even got out of the car, there was help at hand, to carry our luggage to the reception, again with a smile on his face. Check in was easy and took less than 2 minutes, with some basic explanations about the resort.

We were amazed with the ambience of the rooms, tastefully decorated and a beautiful painting inside. The buffet lunch was a spread of veg and non-veg and was tastefully done. Though not the eloborate variety kinds, but tasty and rustic. Evening spent with family indulging in kite flying, gilli dhandu, caterpiller shooting, buguri playing and cycling around the resort. Night was welcomed with a bonfire, wherein we were the only 2 families to be around it, though there were others. Had 2 charpais and a table to relax around the fire, with drinks and food served on the spot. Came back to the dining area to enjoy a sumptous dinner and then gazed at the night sky with stars and the moon, in a catamaran decked with hay and pillows. Wonderful experience.

Next morning, went out for a walk around the resort and after breakfast, took the bullock cart ride. The slow paced transport, gave us a lot of time to admire the farms surrounding the resort and enjoy the scenic beauty, which we had missed when we drove down the previous day.

Closed for the day with a good snack and cool drinks and the check out was as easy with friendly handshakes and smiles. Would return again......

Best Experience: Entire stay at the resort, the ambience, the politeness and eagerness of the staff to help, the smiling faces, nature and the rustic experience.
I could go on writing, in detail, but would leave it upto everyone to experience it

Worst Experience: I would not term it as a worst experience, as it was not, but missed on the pottery clases and massage / spa, as the concerned people were not available at the resort.

The big let down to school nurturing

My very enthu and energy to do something for my village, came crashing down, when I learnt that the school which was figuring in the Dept of Informations records, is actually just a building where there are no teachers / students and has not been treated like a school for the past 15 years or so... that's the story I got from someone who has been in the village and has come to Bangalore very recently.

Its the typical government syndrome, where funds and aids are flowing to something which is non-existant. Reminds me of a tamil movie that I saw some time back, about a village being non-existant on paper, while in reality it does. But the case here is vice versa.

Anyways, my enthu has not come down to an extent that I have disbanded my want to give something back to my roots, but I will look at a different place, where there is a school and is in need of some selfless support. Until then, ......

School Nurturing

The new initiative by the education dept - the school nurturing program, has influenced me and am planning to do my bit for the same.

I will list the website address: http://www.schooleducation.kar.nic.in/schoolnurturing.htm, so that one can have all the details that they would need and would save me the time and effort to replicate the same here.

I am thinking of supporting and nuturing (to the extent possible, monetarily) a school in my native place, where my dad studied. Its a village called Shampur, in Gowribidanur Taluk and Chikkaballapura district. This is a lower primary school with around 44 kids studying upto class 5th. I never knew that there was a school in my village until now, the reason being that I havent visited my village for almost 14 years now. There are multiple requirements for the school, repairs for the 2 rooms (only 2 rooms available), desks, almarahs, science kit, electricity (dont know how I would be able to contribute to this) and computers. I would not be able to contribute towards electricity and computers, but would definitely think on desks and almarah.

I feel it is a very noble cause and that government / education dept has done a commendable job by coming forward to seek support from individuals and private bodies, which could put our govt run schools in a much better light and can expect facilities which other children from the urban areas enjoy (atleast to an extent).

I would start off with a small support and would continue to do so until I have strength, maybe for the same school or a different one or couple of them. I pray to God to give me the strength and generosity to to go ahead with what I have thought and continue to do so, in the future.

Happy Ugadi and good news

Wishing you all a very happy Ugadi and wishing the year ahead be filled with all the rich flavors of life :)

A good news welcomed me today on the occassion of Ugadi, which read that Obama saying that return of outsourced jobs back to US is not good for them, which in layman terms means that the jobs which were outsourced due to the cost advantage would stay back in India and possibily more such jobs would come to India. The fears of seeing a cut in outsourcing of jobs which require low wages and low skills, would continue to be moved and its good news for the processing outsourcing industry and the likes.

But having said this, the impact on the IT outsourcing would be visible and India should start moving towards high end services and consulting work. As US readies itself to build its skilled labor and educate its people, India should this as an advantage and be the early mover. Obama identifies building solar panels or wind turbines or the new biofuel as the industries of the future, where he would be focussing on job creation which would mean higher skilled, higher value and higher paying jobs.

We should also look at our education system and try and put focus on these new industries which we see as the next growth areas. With these measures, I feel India would bounce back faster than expected and our economy would again show signs of improvement, but would be a mature market.

Back again on Layoffs

Again thinking of layoffs, not able to help it as I need to think on meeting the productivity vis-a-vis cost and its driving me nuts.

I read another layoff tale on Rediff today, by Charan Sethi (obviously name changed)on his story and the learnings. Interesting he says to action on the safety / backup measures immediately and not to procrastinate. But with a fear of layoff at the back of your mind, how would an employee be able to give more than 100%, which is the expected norms during tough times.

Logically it is wise to have options with you, but once you get an option / start looking for an option, the engagement levels fall and it directly affects the immediate performance, which might result in the person being laid off actually faster.

I would second with him, when he says that we should not procrastinate upgrading ourselves, learning new things and start saving. But how much of it can be done in a hurry is to be seen

Layoff tales

Everyone has been talking on the Layoffs and all of them know of someone who has been affected. But how many of us are learning and course correcting?

I was reading the Rediff's article where people who have been affected by the recession and been laid off, share their views and their learnings, though late. All of them say and put the most weightage on the savings front. Tradionally, Indians have been the typical reserved types and would not venture out for loans of any kind and manage their purchases / spending on the amount of savings that they had. Generations now, splurge first and think later. For sometime, I have been in the second category, but slowly and steadily migrating myself towards the traditional Indian mentality.

When you look at the savings and the asset created by the newer generation, most of the times we find liabilities in the guise of assets. Housing, car, gold, etc, which would have been procured with a loan / credit card. Though these could be assets after sometime, but they are definitely liabilities right now and the market conditions are not encouraging either.

So what should be your plan to insulate / minimize the effect, if you are the next one?

I am still thinking and would put that here after sometime

Entrapreneural itch....again

I have started getting that itch again...:) I want to start talking to people on the ideas that I have been having for sometime now, on the industry - institute alliance, assessment and training area.

I was reading an interesting blog which I came across, which has made some impact on me - http://inhouston.ning.com/profiles/blogs/people-call-me-crazy

What to say...

Yesterday night has been a horrifying experience with the news of my ex Boss passing away. Received the info at about 12.30 in the night and was not able to get back to sleep until around 2.30 or so. Wifey was feeling very anxious and needed calming down and she needed comforting.

Today morning came to know thru a friend, let's call him SS, that one of our friend's has lost his wife yesterday in the morning. She fell in the bathroom and died.

Not been having a good day at all and planning to close a little early today and reach home and play with my son.

My condolences to both the families and pray that God gives them the strength to tide thru this phase.

Of slowdown and layoffs

I was reading with interest Subroto Bagchi's blog and the article on IT meltdown and the IT jobs. This article can be read in full at http://www.mindtree.com/subrotobagchi/of-the-melt-down-it-jobs/

He is of the opinion that there has to be consideration to the people in the bottom of the pyramid which is close to 5% of the total workforce, who are non-performers. We need to try all ways and means to retain these people and see them thru the rough times. But another article by Geoff Colvin, wherein he is of the opnion that we should not carry on underperformers for long, as they tend to pull the performers down along with them and the company would be not able to reward the performers, whereby we would be loosing them.

Opposite thoughts, but both make sense. I am trying to strike a fine balance between the 2.