Sunday, May 25, 2008

Musings of a Confused Mind

I love Marvin.

For those of you who have the annoying habit of jumping to wrong conclusions, Marvin is my Macbook Pro and not a guy.

Leopard rocks. Again, do not jump to conclusions, Leopard is the Mac Operating System.

The reason for this announcement is the discovery of google blogger widget for Mac. It allows me to blog directly from Marvin without logging into blogger directly. It just provides basic functionality for now but I am hoping it will get better.

Past few weeks have been tumultous (once again).Why can’t I have a normal 9-5 life? Because I would hate it. I prefer things to be like this and a tad unpredictable.

A change of job, change of environment, adjustment to the new place. Let’s just say that the Piscean in me is at its most dominant in such situations.

And the next few weeks are going to be hectic again. Loads of work other than the office stuff going on. Next few weeks are going to be something to look forward to.

The upper management at my new job takes training of the associates pretty seriously. I have seen people groan saying "Not one more session on oral communication or written communication". What most people do not realize is that no two training sessions are the same as the personality of the trainer makes it different for each session. And learning never stops.

Two training sessions stand out from the rest:

1. Influencing Techniques: I realized how much my mom uses them consciously or unconsciously. Just as an example:
Mom: Son, get married
Me: Mom no. I am still a kid.
Mom: Ok then atleast get a haircut.
That's what my mom does to get me a haircut whenever I go home. Classic example of Influencing Techniques.

2. Leadership Development
Now I have a different view point of leader from most people. I believe Leaders are either born or become so because of the circumstances. One cannot train a person to be a leader.

I have had a fascination with entrepreneurs for as long as I can remember. Again, entrepreneurs, leaders, managers are confusing concepts.

Entrepreneurs by definition make for bad managers. A leader need not be an entrepreneur but vice versa is not true.

But as regular readers (if any) of my blog know, I really do not like discussing serious stuff. People assume I am not well if I talk serious stuff.

The thing that made that training session stand apart was a story of making split second decisions and making tough decisions. A story of leaders in the army. The story was “The Rope” by Capt. Raghu Raman. In hindsight, calling it a story/case study etc seems demeaning. So I’ll refer to it as “The Rope”. One can find it here

I am not looking forward to being sued for copyright violation. So the disclaimer that no word of “The Rope” belongs to me. “The Rope” is sole property of Capt. Raghu Raman. I would have liked to have his permission to share “The Rope” on my blog but I could not find any contact details for him. In case, he sees this, I request him not to sue me as I am under a huge debt already.

Jumping to the next thing I want to write about. The most abused word in English Language. SORRY. Do anything, just say a sorry. Repeat it and say Sorry again. A cab driver hit my bike from behind on one signal and said “Sorry”. Next signal, he again does it and says “Sorry”. The food delivery boy to my place messes up my order every day and says “Sorry”. A dialogue from Mr India comes to my mind "Soon people will commit murders and say Sorry".

For those who are not interested in sports, anime or movies, the post ends. Please leave a comment so as to motivate me to continue blogging once in a while. That is if you want me to.

Real Madrid win La Liga for the second time in a row. Yipeeee. The team needs just a more GOOD defender (good bcoz RM just sign defenders and not good defenders) and one CONSISTENT creative midfielder (consistent because Guti is not. And no I do not want CR7. I want Diego).

Euro 2008 is about to begin. Again, I am supporting Spain (I love their style of football. But then again I also love the game of Arsenal who have been trophyless for a while now). However, I think Germany and Italy are the strongest contenders.

RR win IPL against all odds. Goes to show how important the Leader of a team is. Gr8 show. IPL is here to stay. Atleast, it gives something to watch other than the K-serials.

Watched Strangers & Indiana Jones over the weekend. Strangers is a good concept but Indian Directors have something against making fast paced thrillers. It is too slow & hence, not gripping. Indiana Jones is ok movie. Not really as gud as earlier Indiana Jones movies.

Loads and loads of movies to look forward to this summer. The Dark Knight (Anticipation is driving me crazy. Batman movie directed by Chris Nolan with Joker as the villain. Look for a post on Batman in some time), The Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton plays the Incredible Hulk), Wanted (Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman. Promos look really good) and Righteous Kill (Al Pacino & Robert De Niro together for only the second time in Indian movie history. Need I say more?).

Time to sign off. Next post on Batman in a fortnight.