Walk the talk with COO!

It’s not every other day you meet the COO of your company. And it’s not every other day too, that you get to talk to him or walk a few steps with him/her. But this scenario that can be easily tagged as a rare occurrence, happened to me this Wednesday. It was a usual day, with the same usual work and the same usual evening cab to drop me back. One difference though was the presence of our company's COO in the cab that day. When all the passengers registered this development, rumors started floating in the cab, which was still not in motion and resting its whole in the company parking lot, on the various reasons behind his visit. One even went on to say, he is there to assess the employees behavior in the cabs. I thought that rumor was rubbish, but to be on the safer side maintained my silence and did not even try to use my I-POD. And the journey began.

Length of the journey was marred by the COO trying to talk fellow passengers and getting a muted to a one line response. But by then it was clear that there was no purpose or hidden agenda behind the sudden attendance of the biggie in the cab. I was all eyes for my bus stop. At the bus stop, it was a surprise when the COO too got down from the cab behind me. As I started taking my own way to my home, I heard him approaching next to me and he asked me where I was put up. And from then on it was a question and answer session.

Let me tell you all readers that I was not scared or anything of those sorts, but it was just not usual for me to talk/walk with biggies. So, coming to the journey back home by walk with the COO, it started with his question and my answer to that. And then as if making sure that I did realize whom I am speaking to, he asked me whether I knew who he was. I smiled and answered "Yes Sir". I was expecting the next question to be "Your Name?" or "So, you are....?", but he did not seem to be interested in that. He then enquired on the project I was working on and how long I have been associated with this company, the answer to which (almost 2 years) did bring out a small smile of appreciation. I was just cursing myself on my inability to ask him the same questions back. How could I ask the COO "Which project you from?" or "How long have you been in this company?” It would sound dumb. And then unexpectedly the question that I was anticipating popped out from his mouth. "How do you feel here ? Any feedback?” I was about to tell him most of the things that I wanted to tell some biggie, that I realized the point of parting our ways was fast approaching. I had all the time (and courage :-)) to tell him "All fine, Sir" and then the customary "I will take my leave sir, Good Night".
And there ended the Walk the Talk with the COO of my Company!

PS: The next day, in a meeting, with his entrance, I did receive a special smile and a nod from him, which till then was reserved only to the Managers and the Leads.

My Reservations on RESERVATION!

Ours is probably the only society, where people pride themselves of their 'BACKWARD' or 'MOST BACKWARD' (sic) social status. It is not the merit or the capability of an individual that matters for one to get into any educational institution, but the BACKWARDNESS of one's caste. When the whole world should concentrate on progress, both economical and social, we as a nation still want to retain and maintain BACKWARDNESS in our castes, and give them special treatment.

Reservation for what? Being born in a caste, which is classified as BACKWARD in some government order or gazette? Should an important decision of life as Education be left to be decided by fate? What is the good that these politicians are bestowing on the society other than consolidating their Vote Bank?

I know there is always someone who says the hardships faced by the BACKWARD castes are not known to the others. Frankly, in my opinion no injustice is done to the people belonging to the BACKWARD castes at least in most parts of INDIA. Rather, their faction has become strong over the past few years, with numerous political wings of their own mushrooming day by day.

It’s high time we are done with the Reservation system. Make every selection process in this country based on the Merit system. I know it is easier said than done. But these are the reforms we are supposed to be talking about to make this country one of the POWER nations. Reservations, especially based on caste / religion / language, are plans designed to destroy the bright future that INDIA certainly can hope for.

Jai Hind

My Music chart toppers !

This is the list of My Fav Music as of today. Note that they are not ranked, just listed.

* SONG-> (MOVIE, LANGUAGE, SINGER)

* Anisuthide -> (Mungaaru Male, Kannada, Sonu Nigam)

* Mungaaru Maleye -> (Mungaaru Male, Kannada, Sonu Nigam)

* Athiradee -> (Sivaji - The Boss, Tamil, A R Rahman)

* Balleilakka -> (Sivaji - The Boss, Tamil, S P B)

* Gumsum hai dil -> (Kya Love Story Hai, Hindi, Sonu Nigam)

* Raindrops -> (--, English, B J Thomas)

"Music can knock me down !" - Jayanthan R

Alternative ending of SHOLAY!

I was not aware of an alternative end to the blockbuster movie SHOLAY. I found it last week on YOUTUBE. But it was sensible of the movie makers not to make this as the ending in the final cut. The evil Gabbar killed by the Thakur, by just jumping and kicking on his chest and getting him stabbed by a protruding object from a pillar, would not have been the ending for the magnificent movie that SHOLAY is. The original DVD (Ultra) does not have any special features or deleted footage. For those who want to see the alternate ending, here it is..



NJOI !

Intolerance among the Masses…

I see a lot of intolerance on various issues among the masses. The alarming factor being that this intolerance is predominant among the educated people of our society. And the latest battlegrounds for these people are the message boards on the net. For example, looking into the message board of Rediff, any news nowadays leads to a battle of messages ultimately deviating from the news topic and ending at an argument of North India(n) Vs South India(n) or Hindu vs. Muslim or Hindu Vs Christian or One state Vs Other state or One language Vs Other Language.

It can be pardonable even if the argument is subjective, but the usage of unparliamentarily language, venomous attacks targeted on individuals and posting of provocative stories and statements is disgusting and disturbing. Most of these messages are posted by educated minds sitting idle either at home or at workplace. What disturbs me is that, if these are the lines along which the educated minds are thinking and acting then what might me the mindset of the uneducated and the misguided people of our country. Hatred is rampant among many groups, on the lines of religion, caste, language, state, status in the society. Name it and you have an association or a group for that cause. Most of these are indirectly aided and abetted by major political parties for their gain.

On the net, the news about the release of the Audio of a south Indian Super Star, leads to a combat between a North Indian and South Indian, the dismal performance of the Indian Cricket team leads ultimately to a feud between Hindu and Muslims. All the message boards for every topic end like this nowadays (especially in REDIFF). These intolerant mass have not even spared the message boards dedicated for share markets.

I do not want to go into the details of the issue of trying to create a divide in here, Bangalore, along linguistic lines, because I am accused by some of being a Tamilian writing as a Tamilian on issues close to Kannadigas without any concern for the state and its people and its language. My intention behind these posts and my views on these issues, especially the one about Kannada, Tamil and Karnataka are well known to my friends, so I do not need to prove anything here.

Rediff, even after thousands of appeal by genuine readers, has not taken the initiative to close down the message board option for the news items. It’s cashing time, and they are playing their part well. What concerns is the big picture. If out society follows this trend, then the future is scary. This intolerance and hatred will just pull the nation down from its upward journey in progress. This definitely would not have been the idea of our forefathers when they fought to free our nation from the outsiders. Today if any one of them would have been alive, would surely agree with me that, the nation was better of without the much hyped DEMOCRACY. We do need freedom, not only from the foreign rulers, but from the anti-social forces flourishing within, which is in the constant pursuit of trying to divide the nation on the basis of Religion / caste / social status / language etc.

All I can do now is to hope that we understand the needs of the society and mend our ways. No new Avatar or no new messenger is going to descend on the earth to educate or teach us. We, the people need to do it ourselves. Let’s, teach ourselves!