ITIL Certified Professional

I had my ITIL V3.0 Foundation certification exam today and I came out with flying colours (82%..passing was 65%) :-). These maybe just 262K colours for some but for me these are definitely 16.7 million colours.

Besides the fact that it reminded me of the time I took my GMAT and came out in black and white (640 :-( ) there was something else that was peculiarly noteworthy. I reached well in time and was waiting for V, the colleague of mine who was taking the same exam and was the actually the one who forced me into registering for the exam, I thought what better than to utilize this time to finish my unfinished morning business. So I proceeded to partake in the not-so-fine facilities of the testing centre and to my amazement found that there was no water provision in the Loo. There was just the good old toilet roll.

I mean I know that most of those visiting that centre were all West bound (GRE/TOEFL aspirants) and this could be a way to prepare them for the life ahead but STILL..they are very much in India and what happened to staying in touch with your ‘roots’ ;-)

What's their fault?

Catching up with my fiancee, her brother and her cousin at Woodside Inn in Colaba. We had some drinks, some snacks. We discussed about the shopping we had done (yours truly is tying the knot in Nov, thus) and joked about the dance preparation (or lack of it) for the Sangeet night. All this and some more and we decided to head to Falafal for dinner which is next door to Woodside Inn. On the way (5 steps between Woodside Inn and Falafal) I saw an old lady with a little boy (probably her grandson) having their food out of a crumpled silver foil. They were having rice with some watery gravy and the little boy had the most wonderful smile on his face. Maybe, he was happy to be having dinner with his grandmother, maybe he was happy to be having a full meal after a long time or, maybe just happy. I questioned (like many times before) the existence of a God (or whatever it is that decides which family and in what conditions will a child be born to) and if there really is one then why does he/she do it. What’s the child’s fault? The same child could have been born to some rich industrialist or even to a normal middle class family where his needs would be provided for, where he would be given the opportunity to become what he wanted to or where he would get at least an education.

Every time I see poor kids sitting on roadsides, or traffic signals or anywhere I feel ashamed for not being able to do anything for them. Giving a beggar some money is not going to solve any problem but that’s all I can do at that moment. Maybe even that's useless because that money might make its way to the ring leader or equals of those beggars. Irrespective, I have always wanted to donate to CRY, SavetheChildren or any such NGO working towards providing the basics of life to the underprivileged children.

The other day outside the regional Passport office while waiting for my agent (he was running late..damn these agents) and having a Veg Grill sandwich I saw a little boy and a girl (probably siblings) begging at the signal. After the lights turned green they came near the stall and sat down. The little girl looked up towards me and a sense of guilt struck me. There I was eating (just to kill time actually) away ignorant of the problems so many of those children face every minute of every day. I just asked the two kids if they would like to eat something..the little boy jumped up, turned around and looked at the shop and shyly said "Lassi". I got them a Lassi each and it was a such a satisfactory feeling I just can’t explain. I walked back towards the office looking back in between to see the kids sitting on the footpath drinking the Lassi and smiling at me. I can proudly say that I remember the happiness I felt that day much more than the loathing I felt towards the officer who rejected my Tatkal application. Damn these sarkari babus- they don’t even know their own rules or maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on him cos he just wanted some bribe.

How we live our daily lives- eat out of international food chains, buy branded clothes ignoring the problems millions of children face day in and day out is so appalling. For all our indifference, we could have been in their place. After all, we didn’t do anything to be born to the families we were to. There is no qualification for that..it’s just destiny. There’s nothing we do for them while at the same time cribbing about the petty things in life. I think all (well, most) of us should hang our heads in shame. I know i will.

Miss Chennai? Sure do..

‘How will you manage in Chennai?’, ‘What will you do in Chennai?’ are the kind of exclamations I got to hear every time I told people in the Noida office of my company that my location was Chennai and I was (happily) very much Chennai bound. To add some would offer ‘advice’…’See, you can ask for a transfer or a swap and you better do it while you are in induction’.

I was amused to say the least by people’s reactions. I had heard that Chennai was not very north Indian friendly and that you cannot survive if you don’t know the local language but coming from defense background and (by virtue of which) having travelled (AND stayed) a lot within India I was looking forward to moving to Chennai and exploring the place, seeing it with my own eyes and forming my own opinions.

After having spent around 14 months in Chennai- the land of movie fanatics, Sarvana Bhavan and of course the I.T. Highway I can confidently say it is as good and as bad as any other city in India (exclude South Mumbai because that’s a different world altogether). Liking Chennai or not is just down to what one wants from the city. It certainly isn’t how most ignorant people like to brand it; many of whom advised me to not move to Chennai.

It is a city which will welcome you with open arms (clichéd - I know) if you are open to its culture and the people…and why should you not be? After all, they say world over ‘When in Rome do as Romans do’. The people of Chennai are very gentle, pleasant and respectful. Most of them may not be very outspoken and frank (in the beginning) but are certainly very nice to talk to. The lowest denominator of the society are just like they are in any other place. Here though, I felt quite some hostility from them because I was a ‘Naarth Indian’. The city has some awesome restaurants and most of them are so much within budgetary range compared to their counterparts in say a Mumbai or a Delhi. I absolutely loved Bella Ciao and Sarvana Bhavan (I haven’t had better South Indian food). The city has a good small town feel to it, the traffic is way less (though very reckless especially on the OMR). Infact, only recently did the city’s second mall come up and now there are almost half a dozen ready to be opened. I hope the mall culture doesn’t spoil the small town feel of the city.

However, people there do have the very bad habit of starting on in the native language when accompanied by those who do not understand the language (and this is commonly observed even amongst the well educated people). But I guess this is the case with our Bengali brothers too..or maybe even with north Indians- only that I may not have observed it myself. Maybe then, it’s just an Indian thing.

The society does seem to be a little hypocrite though and Ar, a hard core Tamilian, backs me on that. Middle class people can’t be seen buying booze at TASMACs (the government controlled booze shops and there are only these in TN) - apparently boozing is only for the lower strata of the society and the high class. I remember once when Ar didn’t take off his helmet while purchasing booze at a TASMAC by the fear of being recognized by some Uncle/Aunty passing by :-D. It is perfectly fine for them to see and cheer on their favourite filmstars boozing and scantily clad women on screen but it’s not acceptable for your neighbour’s son to booze OR neighbour’s daughter to even wear a sleeveless top. In this respect, I think Chennai comes across as hypocrite. I guess that’s because people there are still too strongly hung onto their culture and ‘values’ while at the same time the world (even other parts of India) has moved on thus they feel caught in between. In time that should all be taken care of. Since I mentioned TASMAC I would like to apologise to Dr. Mallya here…I was guilty of buying ‘kalyani gold’ and what nots at the SAME PRICE(!!!) when my nearby TASMACs wouldn’t stock the usual booze brands. I have also had to have ‘Knight and Day’ brandy and again at the same price of your regular good quality brands. I think TASMACs are a big big rip off and one who has stayed ( and boozed :o) )outside TN can only understand what I mean. So, for the sake of the boozers in Chennai (especially the middle class boozers :0)) I hope TASMACS start stocking the regular brands more.

After having shifted to Mumbai now, for personal reasons, I actually realise what a nice place Chennai is (speaking of which I've actually recommended the place to R who has a good offer but is in dilemma since he will have to move from Dilwaalon ki Dilli to Namba Chennai). Needless to say, I would love to visit again. So, all my Chennai friends reading this...get married soon!!

On a whole Chennai is definitely a very good city but it lacks the enthusiasm and the energy that you can feel in a Mumbai or a Bangalore or in Delhi..maybe when I am a little older and want a more peaceful life then I would head Chennai wards..so long Chennai!

Who likes gloss anyway?

I never fail to notice, while travelling by air, the obnoxious amounts of make up most air hostesses wear. I mean what’s with that?? Why do they try to look like some Japanese dolls with red/pink cheeks? I travel a lot (not a lot by air though) so I am guessing, like me, most travelers would want it to be simple (except for those who are paying for luxuries), clean and decent. Nobody likes to travel with too loud people, music, decor OR MAKE UP!! All the more not, when it is worn by those who are supposed to be your hosts for the journey. It’s just ghostly, cheap, irritating…glossy! Most of them look like people with no fashion sense (let alone fashion..not even basic sense).

I mean most of them are smart things, they really don’t have to put those kilos of make up on them to look ‘better’, you ask me.. it only makes them look funny. I don’ think they like to do it themselves, I mean there can’t be that many ill-fashioned air hostesses flying people around. Although, there can be that many airlines that want their hostesses to look good..err white (white and pink). First, why such fixation with the white skin. Second, if you wanna do it then can you not be a bit subtle and normal to look at. The way these hostesses make up, it seems they dip their faces in a plate full of foundation, then in another plate full of some other white thingy and then paint sunsets on their cheek bones. Yukk!!!

Or...maybe, just maybe..these air hostesses are actually part of a smuggling syndicate and smuggle cosmetics across borders by applying it on them. later scraping it off their faces and stuffing into those bottles/packs. who knows!

the story so far

yeah, i started all pumped up 'warning' you to be careful about what you may end up reading out here...basically trying to create an atmosphere. and for what, a bloody lull...i kept procrastinating and procrastinating (that's almost three years !!!). now that i have finally put fingers to the keyboard i think the best way to start would be to see where i have come from that day to today.
let me remember...December 2006...i was working in Mumbai. having just appeared for CAT after i had realised that my coming back from Leeds to 'prepare' for CAT was futile. i should have stayed there longer (and earned a few more quids) and just appeared for CAT without any 'preparation'. come to think of it, i actually might have scored more :P

Professionally... i was working in an IT company, wanted to do an MBA at any cost to change my sector (or so i told to my bosses who tried to convince me to stay on in the organisation). and guess what, i am back in IT. Once in IT always in IT or was it just the simple fact that the placement season for us was in the middle of the economic turmoil. Damn the western economies, the ripples of what they caused were felt in our college, in the quality of companies that visited my mediocre college. I don't know whether it was this or the (relative) comfort of work in this sector...that i got attracted (once again, the first time was while opting for my engineering branch) to IT. So, basically I have an MBA (err...PGDM actually) degree (err...diploma actually), working in IT industry as a manager. Let's see what's in store for me and how much i like the ride.

Personally... I have grown a lot (not in stature)... around my waist. Have thinned around my head. I have mellowed down a lot from what i used to be..confronting, short tempered. Not to mean that i am not any of those now but it's gone down. Probably, this is called ageing. I have moved from Mumbai to Chennai, parents have moved from Mumbai to Lucknow and so technically i am not a Mumbaikar anymore. This part hurts more than any other, even more than the waist which is fighting a constant battle with my trouser. Oh and yes, i have met the one i would like to spend my life with and it's a wonderful feeling even though her parents have their concerns regarding my age, my hair line and my waist line (what's left). I would be lying if i said i didn't miss being a member of the Horny Bachelors' Club :-). V, the president of the club, would smirk on reading this. He has just one other member (A) to preside over; over the years 2 other significant members (V and K) have had to surrender their memberships for reasons similar to mine.

Footballistically... after having won FA cup in 2005, Arsenal reached the finals of the champions league in May 2006 and failed to deliver a trophy that has long eluded us gunners. I would not call it a successful season by any means as we barely qualified for European action in 2006-07, the season still was one which gave hope. We moved into our new home 'The Emirates' and as expected we took time to settle down and as we were we got a jolt with the news of the departure of TH-4 Va Va Voom in the summer of 2007. Somebody had to step up in 2007-08 to fill the void, and guess what, the WHOLE TEAM DID... and it gave us a memorable 3/4th of a season at the top of the league till the horrific incident at Birmingham City where Eduardo almost lost his foot. We lost the title on the fateful day- first the horrific leg break and then the breaking down of the WG-10 at the end of the match at the other end of the field (whilst the penalty was being converted). 2008-09 was a very average season, notwithstanding the champions league exit which was nothing short of a thrashing then was the FA cup exit at the hands of our London rivals and to this day i can not fathom why the PRofessor decided not to play our best player then- the little Russian, AA-23. So even though the season ended with us in the top 4 it was still very much of an underachieving season (or a team building season if you would). So, it has been 4 long years, after summer of 2005, without any silverware to show for in the trophy cabinet. Let's hope by the summer of 2010 we do have to loosen the hinges of that cabinet to allow some movement. As for 2009-10, which i will be watching on my Sun DTH, the season is just 2 match old (plus another 2 for us to qualify for champions league) and it's premature to comment on our chances just yet. Whatever the chances, yours truely will still back his beloved Gunners till the end. Go gunners!