Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Always know your objective first.*

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director, "what is
the criteria that defines a patient to be institutionalized? "

"Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, we offer a teaspoon, a
teacup, and a bucket to the patient and ask the patient to empty the
bathtub."

1. Would you use the spoon?
2. Would you use the teacup?
3. Would you use the bucket?

Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would choose the
bucket as it is larger than the spoon."

No," answered the Director. "A normal person would pull the drain plug."

He flunked..... .....

There is a difference between an objective and actions!
Unless you understand your objective, you will be wasting your time in your
actions, think out of the box to full fill the objectives.

*Always know your objective first.*

Friday, January 16, 2009

Sadness is good for health

Even as contemporary society prizes personal happiness above all else, a fascinating study suggests that sadness is good for the health.

We all go through rough patches sometimes, whether it's after the break-up of a relationship, the death of a loved one, and ofcours in the current phase of the global financial crisis, losing a job. Perhaps, then, it is time to embrace our miserable side.

Mental health experts caution that the increasing tendency to take a pill to beat the blues could actually affect human evolution. Sadness, they argue, serves an evolutionary purpose - and if we lose it, we lose out.

Read Full Story On This Link:
Sadness is good for health: study

Also read this:
Depression Should Be Embraced, Not Medicated

Feeling blue? Stop worrying... depression is good for you, say scientists

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Have A Blessed & Wonderful Pongal




The first day of Pongal known as 'Bhogi Pongal' is a day for family gathering and is dedicated to Lord Indra, the king of the deities and God of the Clouds and Rains. It is also the beginning of the New Year according to the Malayalam calendar and before sunrise, a huge bonfire of useless things in home is lit that is kept burning throughout the night. The houses are then cleaned till they shine and are decorated with Kolams painted using rice four. The harvest of rice, turmeric and sugarcane is brought in for next day.

The second day of Pongal known as 'Surya Pongal' is dedicated to the Sun God. The granaries are kept full on this day and Sun God with his rays are painted on a plank as he is worshipped with the birth of the new auspicious month of Thai. Since the word 'Ponga' means 'to boil' representing plentiful and excess yield, a special dish is cooked on this day in a new mud-pot that comes in innovative shapes and have artistic designs on them called 'Pongapani'. A colorful sugarcane market is also set up on this day. The special dish is called 'Sarkkarai Pongal' and is offered to Sun God with sugarcane sticks.

The third day known as 'Mattu Pongal' is dedicated to the cattle as cowherds and shepherds pay thanks to their cows and bulls, wash them, paint their horns and cover them with shining metal caps. They are fed 'pongal' and tinkling bells are tied around their neck. Cattle races are conducted and in the game called 'Manji Virattu' groups of young men chase running bulls. Bull fights called 'Jallikattu' are also arranged at some places where young men have to take the money bags tied to the horns of ferocious bulls single-handedly and without the use of arms.

The third day is celebrated as 'Kanni Pongal' when unmarried girls cooks Ponggal wishing for wedding bells soon.

Pongal, as all Indian festivals, have interesting legends attached to it. Originated as a Dravidian harvest festival, it has found no mention in Indo-Aryan Puranas. According to the popular legend, the first day of the festival known as Bhogi Pongal was once dedicated to Lord Indra. The child Krishna came to know of the pride and arrogance of Indra on being the king of the deities and that he thought himself to be the most powerful of all the beings. He conjured a plan to teach him a lesson. When, as usual, his father and other villagers who were cowherds by profession, were preparing for the festival and offerings to Indra, Krishna objected and persuaded them to worship Mt Govardhan instead, as it gave them fodder for their cattle. When Indra came to know of this, he considered it a heresy of the villagers and sent thunderous pours, storms and lightning to drown them and punish them.

However, Lord Krishna had other plans in mind and he lifted up the Govardhan mountain on his little finger to protect the cowherds and their cattle. The simpletons tried to help him by putting their own sticks in the mountain out of love. The rains continued for three days and at last Indra realized his mistake and divine power of the young boy. He promised humility and begged Krishna's forgiveness. Since then, Krishna allowed to let the Bhogi celebrations continue in honor of Indra. A beautiful depiction of the scene can be scene at Mahabalipuram where Krishna lifting Govardhan has been carved skilfully and since then the origin of the festival of Pongal came into being.

Another legend associated to the third day of Pongal known as Mattu Pongal involves Lord Shiva and his mount, Nandi the bull. It is said that once Shiva ordered Nandi to go to the Earth and deliver his message to the people that they should take oil bath every day and eat food once a month. However, the dozing Nandi could not hear the message right and told the people to eat everyday and take oil bath once a month. Shiva was furious and said that due to his folly, there will be lack of grains on the Earth and so he would have to remain on Earth to help humans plough the fields.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Great people talk about ideas,Average people talk about things,Small people talk about others

A
lady in a faded grey dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun suit walked in timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office.

The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Harvard.

'We want to see the President,' the man said softly. 'He'll be busy all day,' the secretary snapped. 'We'll wait,' the lady replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away.

They didn't and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president.' Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave,' she said to him.

The President, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady told him, 'We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed.

My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus.' The president wasn't touched....

He was shocked. 'Madam,' he said, gruffly, 'we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery.

'Oh, no,' the lady explained quickly. 'We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard.' The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, and then exclaimed, 'A building!'

Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard.

'For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now.

The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, 'Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don't we just start our own?' Her husband nodded.

The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name - Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

Most of the time we judge people by their outer appearance, which can be misleading, and in this impression only we tend to treat people badly by thinking they can do nothing for us thus we tend to loose our potential good friends, employees or customers.


Great people talk about ideas,
Average people talk about things,
Small people talk about others.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Being A Satyamites


I Just Got This Email From My Friend ..Email Is Saying About How Its Feel To Be A Satyamites. Please Read.

Dear all of my Satyamites,

Yesterday will be a memorable day to us throughout our life. Little bit of business & human nature knowledge is forcing me to write few of my thoughts (Please ignore them if they doesn’t make any sense). Ask yourself who is worst affected by all this mayhem. Is it u & me (employees), Govt or Satyam & Ramalingaraju ?. My conviction says that employees of any MNC are associated to that company as long as they don’t have any better option, the best thing government can do for a company is to keep itself away from it. But there was a visionary who created wealth for a nation for 20 years, the only thing that cannot be separated from Satyam for these 20 years & ahead also if Satyam remains was\is a name called “Ramalinga Raju”. Fortunately I got some 15 min of time talking to him when i was an ELTP. He’s much softer then we see him. Imagine what would be going on in his mind when he was writing yesterday’s letter accepting all the things which he did only to save his company. All have made him scapegoat for what has happened & left the company keeping their integrity intact. He was cursed badly for putting the money of a public limited company into his family driven company but it only now clear that how he was transferrring the risk from 50,000 people to his two sons & his known-integrity.

The worst which can happen to we the employees is that we are out of our current job, jobless for time being & then again getting a job which we deserve & our families will be worried for us(as they are always). But a relatively bitter truth will be for the Raju-family who will be annoyed for ages & will be treated as miscreants by those who do not know the truth or more about Greedy investors & money market. And the truth is that he has not stolen some thousand crores rupees into his own pocket, it was a bubble he created which busted. (And every other company on earth does so, being wary of not getting trapped)

One more thing which annoys me is does a philanthropist guy deserve this disgraceful exit ? I really feel sad about the way he’s been portrait in the media. Our rustic fellows have already started comparing him with Harshad Mehta. Tell me any incident in corporate India where any chairman has dared to confess such irregularities in his own firm. And believe me it takes hell lot of guts to accept all this publicly. And as I read the news today morning it was published there that even his community members have suggested him not to tell anything and later on he can play with the Indian laws as every politician does in India. But as he mentioned it was all deep regret in his conscience which lead him to confess all this.

I am not at all saying that he’s totally innocent and unaware of what’s been going there but a person who has started a journey called Satyam 20 yrs ago with few associates and made it 4th largest IT Company in India, done all this for sake of his 50000 Satyam family members. In the end i’ll ask only one question to all of my friends,” for whom he has created this bubble, if it was he who was going bankrupt? ”

The day before all this mayhem started, we all were proud to be called as Satyamites and were wearing the Satyam tag displaying our esteem to others, and now due to a single incidence u are feeling awkward to show the same Satyam tag in public?? I don’t know about others, but still I am proud to be a SATYAMITE!!!

(Image Courtesy: Google Images)

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Have you watched them sleep ?

2009 IT Hiring and Salary Outlook

2009 IT Hiring and Salary Outlook
by John Rossheim
Monster Senior Contributing Writer (Courtesy Career-Monester)


With the US economy tanking, the question for IT professionals is this: Is my niche relatively safe?

According to many observers, there is good news for IT folks in a number of sectors, whether they’re veterans with decades of experience or recent graduates whose skills are untested in the marketplace: If you’ve got the right tech skills and can think like a line-of-business manager, you’ll be in demand. “For sure, there is still a shortage of IT skills,” says Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, head of the certifications group at networking vendor Cisco Systems.

But with the economy likely to shrink for a good part of 2009, will employers be able to build their IT staffs, or at least fill vacant positions? Here’s what we’re hearing around the industry.

Will IT Head Count Rise, Fall or Go Flat in 2009?

The proportion of employers increasing their IT head count will edge up from 40 percent in 2008 to a projected 43 percent in 2009, according to a survey by the Society for Information Management (SIM) published in November 2008 using data collected in June.

Jerry Luftman says this number remains valid, even with the fiasco in the financial markets. “Information systems and business executives are not panicking,” says Luftman, SIM’s vice president for academic affairs. “In previous recessions, IT was the place to cut, cut, cut.” Why not this time? Because IT has become a champion of cost-cutting across the enterprise, Luftman says.

Offshoring may be more of a threat to American IT jobs in 2009 than it has been in recent years. After trending down slightly since 2006, IT budget allocations for offshore outsourcing will jump from 3.3 percent in 2008 to 5.6 percent in 2009, the SIM survey says. Why the increase? “The economy is in a downturn, and many organizations believe they can get IT staff at a much lower cost offshore,” Luftman says. IT executives may also feel financial pressure to try offshoring, even if they have concerns about quality, he says.

Financial IT Jobs Lost and Gained

Obviously, thousands of jobs in distressed banking and financial services firms will be lost to downsizing, mergers or bankruptcies. But for the companies left standing, “even in the worst crisis on Wall Street, networks still have to perform,” says Beliveau-Dunn. For that reason, mission-critical IT operations will carry on, while many growth-oriented IT projects may be suspended or sacked, industry sources say.

But just as the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting reforms created work for IT professionals in the wake of the early-2000s corporate scandals, the current financial crisis is driving up demand for financial IT talent in select niches.

“The government has enacted new securities regulations and modified existing ones” to mitigate the effects of the financial crisis, says Ari Packer, a financial software engineer with Galatea Associates LLC in Somerville, Massachusetts. As a result, Packer and his colleagues have been putting in extra-long hours for their clients -- Wall Street broker-dealers -- to rework software that must continue to function well in a rapidly changing regulatory environment.


Read Full Story (http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search-essentials/technology/2009-it-hiring-salary-outlook/home.aspx?WT.mc_n=MNL000308)

Tuesday, January 6, 2009