2012 olympics - when , where, schedule, dates, logo, mascot, results

It is surprising to see many people are not aware of the details of the 2012 Olympics.
I am trying to summarize a few facts as ready reckoner

It is being held in London, England, UK.
Opening ceremony is on 27th July (Football starts on 25th though)
Closing ceremony is on 12th August

Logo : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:All_London_2012_logos.svg

Mascot:Wenlock and Mandeville

Official Website:
www.london2012.com

Loads of information available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Summer_Olympics

Schedule and results at
 www.london2012.com/schedule-and-results/

Tirumala Tirupathi - corruption to the core

Well if you plan to visit Tirumala Tirupathi anytime, only two things are certain

1) Money is omnipresent and omnipotent
2) The Lord in all his magnanimity will not extend his hand for money, rest will do

Well the legend has it that the Lord Venkatesa wanted to marry Goddess Padmavathy and needed money so he borrowed lots of money from Kuberan (Lord of Money) . As a devotee we are trying to pay back the money Lord got so that he can repay Kuberan.

It is true that lots of money flows in to the hundi and the authorities are doing a lot to make the pilgrims feel at home. I am not sure about the exact status of Lord's debt and the interest incurred, if it were like EMI then no matter how much money is paid it won't fulfill the debt after so many long years.

The fact is the people in and around the Lord right in front of his nose are snatching money, cutting all corners and demanding money. Everywhere you go money is demanded as a birth right.  I felt total foolishness in Anna Hazare's campaign after a visit to Tirupathi, there is corruption in every Indian, every soul and he is trying to cleanse the society. Annaji please visit Tirupathi and realize India is not what Gandhi dreamt of .

When someone demands money in front of his own God illegally, what sort of ethical sense does the place make. I mean the sense of spirituality is totally lost.

For head tonsure sitting right below the board stating "Do not pay anything extra for the barber" the barber demands 500 rupees. Only comfort factor is that he completes the shave and asks not in the middle. What sort of guts a person has sitting just below the board and demanding money, which is against the boards orders. The same is repeated at ear piercing/boring place - 500 rupees demanded.

One goes to temple, someone or the other plucks few Tulsi leaves and says it is from some puja and asks for money.  Stories of cutting the queue for money is well known. Give 1000/2000 rupees I will join you right in front of the gate, many touts can be seen bargaining.

End of the day, the view of the Lord ranges only from Microsecond to minisecond, if you manage to keep your head straight despite all pushing and shoving. Well here too if you manage to give 10 rupees in a manner hidden from the camera, you can view for few seconds. Money pays.

All this for a pilgrimage of spirituality!

I will be the least surprised if anti-social elements use this to full effect. It is a clear disaster waiting to happen.
Corruption is so rampant that unless one day Lord comes alive from the statue and slaps somebody on the face things are going downhill.

Dear IT Fresher: Chapter - 1 : Introduction

Congratulations on making it to the IT industry. Well not everyone makes it atleast that's what any company you join would make you believe. Your first day might be same as the scene in "3 Idiots" movie where the principal shows hundreds of applications rejected. The only difference would be you would be in a cozy auditorium with some middle or senior management HR guy telling you that you are one in a million to have made it to the company.

Well the reality always lies somewhere between the truth and false. Any case you can give yourself a pat in the back for making it to the IT industry. It may be you dream industry or your dream salary or dream company but hold on do some reality checks before you build castles in air.

It is not that difficult to get in to an IT company especially with large companies recruiting 20 to 30 thousand an year. Companies have become so desperate that they have reduced the strictness on joining criteria. I know of a company that once recruited freshers without even interviewing them, just based on a written test people were recruited. Companies that said only engineers would be recruited lowered their guard and started taking some science students. I sometimes felt some companies would hang board saying "Trespassers would be Recruited".

However the point is not to demean your achievement but to say that there are lots and lots of crowd at the same level as you are and joining companies as you are. Hence you have to think what makes you special.

NASSCOM says only 25% of IT graduates are employable. The question you have to ask yourself is am I within this 25% or not. This book is not to make you enter the 25% or an attempt to increase this to more than 25% . This book is only a reality check irrespective of where you belong.

All IT companies have trainings for freshers be it a large company or small be it a formal training or not. So one does not need to worry if he/she is employable but how soon one can become employable. The question one has to ask is how soon can I contribute to my own development as well as my company's.

The first thing to do is "Be Aware".

Being aware of many things would help you in making the right contributions at the right time and having right expectations in reaping rewards for your work.

The things will change as time progresses and hence one must always be aware of the following things

First thing to be aware is the size of your company.

Large Companies: The ones that have lakhs of employees world wide. Have multiple development centres(DC) world wide.

Medium Companies: Have Maximum around Ten thousand employees and have few development centres
Small companies: Have very few hundreds of employees and have only one or two DCs

It is easy to find this information from internet.
The size of your DC also matters.
There is a simple technique to identify this. Just think of your visibility to senior management. If your boss's boss doesn't know you even after working in the project for a few months. Chances are it is a large company. If there is decent visibility it is a medium company and high visibility like center head knowing you by name it is small company.


The growth of the company and your own growth also matters but it is necessary to be aware of this information.



Next is industry and market condition.

There are two things here, one is what the media says and other is what situation the company is in. If there is a recession, slowdown etc the chances are you will know it well before the media does. Just look for signs such as salary hike, promotions, new projects won, recruiting pattern of the company etc . These would indicate to you what situation the market and company are in.
As a fresher you may not have access to all this information but keep your eyes and ears open and there is nothing wrong in having a chit chat with some senior folks on understanding the situation.

Third is project situation . This we will deal in later chapters in detail.

Summary:
Start your ground work on knowing your working conditions and environment and as you grow in the organization, keep your eyes and ears open. Be aware so you can be prepared.

Maa Maati Manush and Media

Well first thankfully I do not live in Bengal for I could land up in Jail for criticizing something which CM of Bengal does not agree to. However I also wonder why is the media so against Mamata Banerjee . Are the days of Neutral media dead and buried with the Cable revolution?

I did see the episode of Mamata Walking out on Sagarika Ghose on CNN-IBN. In the first place someone of this position must know what to expect on a show like this. Did she expect to be garlanded and the whole office painted White and Blue? One has to either have the knack of making diplomatic statements or not agree to give interviews in hostile environment. I believe she is too straight forward (Am I praising her?!!) to hide facts or cannot think twice before letting her mind out.

The people who attended the discussion seemed genuinely interested in Bengal's well being and they asked questions which were natural to expect on such shows. Either she was totally unprepared or childish. It was totally unprofessional ( preofession?!!) to just claim the people who asked tough questions as Maoists and CPM supporters and not answer the questions. Questions were tough and it was a great opportunity for her to earn some brownie points given the Media throwing thrash at every opportunity. Well she did give them yet another chance. Now itself people are thinking of next elections.

On the other hand she did ask why college students were all from one particular university which supports CPM.  That was a fair question I felt maybe she felt cornered. In the end I can only say she squandered a great opportunity.

The other point ofcourse is why is media so damn against her. Every opportunity is used to tarnish the image of Bengal government and the CM. I am not trying to justify some statements made but media is no longer media that reports facts. Generating news and negative publicity have become the need of the hour, rather every hour if you run 24hours a day .  TRP matters (TRP = Trillions of RuPees).

India at London Olympics 2012 - A Curtain Raiser

India with a huge huge population of over a billion has managed just 20 medals overall in more than 100 years of Olympics. I am sure you don't need to re-read the above line to believe this. it is a very well known fact that Indians are poor at sports. By sports I mean including Cricket ( yes we have 2 world cups but comparing to 80's Windies and 90's Aussies - no chance).

Going by probability theory we should have been far ahead of others but going by economics, physiology we are lacking behind. Has cricket killed other sports? Well that topic is for another day but if it is a binary question my answer is 1. But no there are largely other factors mainly polititcians eating our tax money and not providing enough facilities to train.

Anyway to cut the long chase short I do not see much prospects this year as well. As of today (with Wiki's help) We are sending around 76 people on 53 events). Lets see who has possibility of a medal

Sania Nehwal: Badmiton
Yes she is world class but has deceived me on important occasions much like Sachin but still would expect at least something from her.

Mary Kom: Boxing
Well she won many world titles but the way she qualified for Olympics stumped me. I had lot fo faith but now it has dimnished a bit. Still a hopeful.

Men: Boxing
India has been doing decent in boxing with Vijendra singh and all. I would be happy if they win one medal. Good thing in boxing is if you go till semis you are assured of a medal.

Sushil Kumar: Wresling
Yes would expect a medal from him

Hockey: Well its history we have 11 out of 20 medals int his category but this time I dont see it coming

Leander/Mahesh/ Sania(wild card?) : Tennis
Well with the association forcing Peas and Bhupathi to join hands I don't think they can put aside differences and win a medal. very sad to see potential go as waste.
If Sania gets wild card - maybe mixed doubles

Shooting: Abhinav Bindra
Well he did it in past not sure what his form is. So cant comment.


Archery, Athletics, Judo, Rowing, Swimming, TT - No hopes of a medal.
Archery I hear has a world class player in Deepika but I choose to keep my fingers crossed.

So overall I do not see more then 3-4 medals. In fact only in 2008 Beijing olympics we had maximum of 3 medals. I would expect to match that or beat it by a medal nothing dramatic. I am not happy but well others play better :)

Dear IT Fresher: A guide for freshers in IT industry - Preface

I am planning to write a series (later hopefully convert to a book) for freshers entering the Information technology (IT) sector. From what I have seen people come with lot of dreams and finally end up being disappointed. From the outside it looks like a dream but for some it breaks down like a car with a leaky petrol tank.

Having the right expectations is the key. The media and people outside the industry have a very wrong notion that IT industry is full of money and enjoyment and nothing else. If you say you work in IT then they assume you have visited the USA atleast once, have a car and paying an EMI for a home. They also assume you work very late and party hard on weekends, have poor moral values. The reality is far from it . As any industry IT also has its good, bad and the ugly. As a fresher one has to know what to expect and when to expect it. No one as far as I know is sent onsite within one year of joining and I have never heard of weekend, late night parties with booze flowing :)
There could be exceptions but it is a fashion in India to perceive exceptions as normal and normal as exceptions.

Well on that note I would like to say that this is not going to be advice but guidelines on what to expect. I hope managers and so called leaders would also benefit in understanding the mindset of freshers and what to expect from them and what to communicate to them so that both are on same page.

One might question what authority do I have on this subject. A fair question. Well I have more than 10yrs experience in the industry worked in atleast more than one company and dealt with lot of freshers. However I do not claim, I am the best in dealing with freshers. It is just a journey that I am taking along with you in taking an outside perspective on this topic. It is more like an ant coming out of his hill and observing whats happening inside. I do not believe anyone with experience of 20+ years would be apt to talk on this topic as no senior management people deal with freshers as such.

Another important point I would like to make is that of generation gap. I read somewhere that every 5 years a new generation is born. I have personally seen a vast difference in behavior, attitude etc of freshers when I joined as one after 5 years and after 10 years. It takes a lot in understanding them as a group and as an individual.  So freshers and their managers lets start this journey and see where we get

Important president of India

Well the race is heating up for the next president of India. Whoever is going to occupy Rasina Hill would be the most important person in India after the next general election.
Why one might ask?
Well with the UPA-II and corruption being discovered as siamese twins it is going to be very difficult for congress to come to power a third time.

Well Paulo Cohelo in the Alchemist says
"If somethign bad happens once it will not happen a second time but if it does, it will surely happen a third time"
Well if you are a true Indian Citizen it is most likely you would start all pujas for the above statement to be wrong.

On the other hand UPA need not be too worried for the BJP is as weak as an 80 year old man. After Vajpayee's exit it is never the same, lacking a strong leadership and when congress has bowled low full tosses BJP has hit them directly back to the bowler instead of sending them over the fence for maximum.
With this situation and the regional parties like SP, DMK/ADMK, TMC , BSP etc all taking a lion's share in their respective states it is imperative that the next parliamentary election is going to provide more confusion than a circus clown regulating traffic at Anna Salai during peak hours ( Well nowadays in reality it is like this but that's for a different post altogether)

A hung parliament is the fate of the nation and a strong president supporting the congress is what the doctor ordered for them. Hence they are pushing for Pranabda. He would be an inside Man on the outside what a brilliant master plan. Well the constitution does allow it then so be it.
However this could severly backfire mind you. Pranab Mukherjee has been a key man for the UPA keeping all the fracture limbs together. He has played the role of fevicol on many occasions and has been their key problem solver, especially UPA-II has a panel of ministers who are trouble makers :)

Well it would be interesting as to who becomes the next president even more interesting would be what happens after next Lok Sabha elections

First Post

Well first thankyou if you are reading this. I am just wondering how you landed here in the first place, by accident, by googling whatever it is it's nice to have you here.
What to expect from here- well nothing really. If there is something you like then its well and good but this is mainly my intention to write something more to de-stress myself feel a bit happy that I am doing something I like .
I plan to write on anything and everything, politics, sports( not cricket alone, I hope), science, Technology (communication ), spirituality, religion etc etc
Anyways hope I would be able to produce some worthwhile thing and make myself feel comfortable and confident to publish a book on my own.

cheers.