Good Reads

Chk out all these-

1. Vault.com - This is a very good site to get the vibes of different companies and what insiders think. It is dubbed as a online water-cooler with employees giving a vent to their feelings honestly as everyone converses anonymously. So if you are looking out for a new job and wonder what it is like to join that company, post a message and you will be surprised at the mixed responses.

2. All work, no play - this article appeared in this Sunday's Chicago Tribune Magazine. It is a very beautifully written article describing the frenzy as we chase everything in life and yet they remain out of reach.

Currently Reading :

1. Omnipotent Government -The Rise of the Total State and Total War by Ludwig von Mises (1944) on V's recommendation. Reading this book gives a scary feeling. It is not so much different now than it was in 1939. Only that Germans have been replaced by some one else. The potential threat is always lurking over so long as the unquenchable thirst of one nation to exert power over the rest of the world stays.

2. The King of Torts - John Grisham

This weekend was uneventful. I saw the river turn green as part of St. Pat's weekend celebration. Still getting used to the glasses. Yesterday was my first day and my eyes and head hurt so badly.

Countdown

5 months to go. I'm tired of dealing with "dimag hai ghutne mein" kinda people. I will be so relieved. I am very glad I lost my temper today as not losing it would have made it worse for me.

31st August 1997

The memory of that Sunday morning is still clear. Home for the weekend from college, I was woken up by mom early morning that Princess Diana had met with a car accident. Mom has a habit of following news so closely everyday, irrespective of where she is. To add to it, she was such a big fan of the princess. We were glued to the TV that morning tying to absorb the terrible news. There is something with the British monarchy and most former colonies of England. The resentment built over the years perhaps leads to following every move of the monarchy and reveling in their bad publicity. But such was not the case with Princess Diana from the beginning. She was widely admired, mostly for her beauty but also for her quality to be bale to reach out the common people. Bad news concerning her rocked over and over again - separation, Prince Charles relationship with Camilla, Princess's alleged relationships with her trainer - all these finally culminating in the most tragic of all, her death in a car crash. No one will ever know who was responsible.

Now, more than 6 years later, NBC is broadcasting a 2 part series called "Princess Diana: the Secret Tapes". As she narrates the distress she was enduring in her marriage, it brings back fond memories of the princess - allegedly the most photographed woman in the world. Its a shame that life of someone so beautiful had to end the way it did.

End of a journey....

I was searching for a quote to best describe the situation and I found more than what I was looking for. Here it is-
Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it and it will go nowhere at all. It's just that way when it comes to leading people. - General Dwight D. Eisenhower [He used to demonstrate the art of leadership with a simple piece of string. He'd place the string on the table and say the above.]

Letting go of something is so easy. If at all getting back time and people were so easy, things wouldn't be so tough. It is time for retrospection and a little insight into things. If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time. A good balance of hard workers and smart workers is the formula to successful project management.

Meanwhile I'm enjoying this phase with less pressure at work. The past weekend was fabulous. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next 2 months - a lot of traveling to do - it is going to be tiring but it will be fun too.

I'm getting glasses. Its funny because I had this habit of gng to an optometrist every 6 months, under the pretext of headache (well not pretext as I would really get head ache) hoping I would be prescribed one. But every time I went for a check-up I was told its very mild and that I don't need one. But today the doctor prescribed one as it was very fuzzy --- I don't think its cool now. Makes me feel old :( But atleast I'm hoping it will be a cure for my persistent head aches.

I am in a state of trance. People have been kidding that I behave as though I've been on drugs. I've got a shooting pain in the head that stays for days leaving me in a dizzy state even after the pain has subsided. I guess its weird because during these periods I get irritated, suggest things that perhaps don't make sense.

Sarah and I went ice skating today. For the first time, I skated in the true sense- well not perfectly but I will get to it after 2 tries hopefully. It felt so good after falling 2 times and hurting my palm :) - it wasn't fun having skated in the past without falling. She held my hand and helped me skate. And then some 2 cute kids held one hand each and we went around the rink once real fast and bang I fell :). We went shopping later followed by lunch. We did a lil crazy thing at the garage as the parking ticket did not work. Nevertheless the afternoon was really fun and I enjoyed so much. Hope she did too.

I watched this movie Baghban today. It is a very emotional one and definitely worth watching for Amitabh and Hema Malini - she looks so beautiful even after all these years. Its been months since I watched a Hindi movie - felt really good and at home.

My tryst with perfection

-- the journey continues and I forget along the way that expecting the same from others is unjustifiable.
Note for me - Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.

I wanted my partner at work to learn all the tasks and open up and gain confidence. So I assigned him a task. I watched him agreeing to what he didn't believe in. I watched him accepting changes to avoid confrontation and delays. I watched him avoiding follow ups because of lack of understanding. I watched him succumbing to a situation. I wanted him to make his own mistakes and learn in the process. But was caught in a quagmire of responsibility and giving him time to learn. I offered help much earlier than I should have and regret having done the same. It wasn't right on my part to get frustrated for his acceptance. But I also realize it isn't right for me to step in now and point out what is wrong. I'm just going to ride the tide.

Birthday Luncheon

I met R for lunch today at the Star of Siam. I always let him decide the place because he is good at it. It was funny what he wrote in his e-mail abt deciding the plac. His email read "places-I-know-to-be-good-where-you-can-find-something-vegetarian-but-that-aren't-Indian-food-because-taking-real-Indians-to-American-Indian-restaurants-is-silly".

He is such an adorable man. I enjoy meeting him and we talk of out-of-ordinary topics. Today we discussed for almost an hour about Genealogy and how he went tracing his family tree to the 1430s - unbeleivable. He got me cute lil birthday presents and the card read - A Birthday Question - are we getting older and wiser? I sure am getting older, but don't want to comment on the wiser part :)

And a good part of the afternoon was spent in meetings with T and H - I just love working with these 2, though they think I'm a lil slow in catching up with their fast and evil ideas - the quick and the evil duo :)

We send/rcve links on AIM all thr the day. However I have started exercising discretion on what links I should send and talk these days. Its tough but I'm getting good at it - making progress on my Feb 19th resolution. Chk out this one

My 15 second interests : I'm not interested in anything for more than 15 days - be it eating corn, reading books non-stop, watching movies, playing cards or the urge to travel. And then I get so tired of it that I don't do it again for years. I've always thought that V was just exaggerating when he used to say aquareans are crazy - but I guess he is right. These days he just smiles when I talk of something with so much passion as though it has been my childhood dream. Reminds me of Joey (Friends) saying in one episode that if they win the 3 million dollar lottery, he would want to spend the money by buying Knicks. Chandler turns it down. And Joey says it has been his dream and Chandler says "Yes, for the past 15 seconds". The only recent long lived passion I can think of is Ice Skating - it will come to a sad ending when the rink closes for this season this Saturday. I watched Along Came Polly, and going to see Insomnia. Would like to see "The Passion of the Christ" next weekend.