Christmas Hols!

Right from teh third week of December all the activities are either postponed after the new year or a bit sluggish.Peoplego in to the festive or rather vacation mood during this time of teh year and ot much deliverables are expected during this period unless it is "customer critical". As there arent many people working I am also feeling a bit lazy and waiting till the dawn of tehnew year to start doing things actively again. Last four days I am jus at home.All the shops/restaurants infact teh city is on vacation here in cambs. Thanks to youtube and google videos and also emule which helps me watch movies without a TV at home. I wonder I would hav gone mad without the internet especially in this country away from home. There are hell a lot of things and I keep browsing something or the other. These four days have rather gone a bit fast than teh usual woring days. I was jus doin a minimal cooking,reading,listening to songs, watching movies and a regular dose of 8 hrs sleep. This is a good break infact.I'll be going to work tomorrow. I didnt want to take off as I wanted to carry forward the holidays to next year so that I can make 2 trips to India. Movies watched in the last four days :
1.Da Vinci code (again)
2.Life is beautiful
3.Chariots of fire
4.Kakha kakha ( not keepin the count of how many times I have seen this)
Listening to a lot of Ilayaraja's songs and videos from youtube.

Without Internet/youtube/google I would have really hated this place and flew back..thanks to teh internet and its growth.

Battery Down :(

My car battery and my energy battery both are down this morning.After spending Sunday with my relatives showing them places around in cambridge I am a bit tired today.So I didnt follow my usual routine.My car is also troubling me and I came to office by bus today.

Rat Race ??

Instead of just following the rat race, I 'ld very much like to do something different. Jus waking up in the morning,getting ready to go to office, work,come back home in the evening,chat,watch TV ,go to sleep and teh cycle continues. Man, we need a change. We have to make some postive difference in our life. The main thing for this is NOT MONEY but passion and the idea.What change can I make to myself/society or people around me ?Need to be dedicated, hardowrking and also be focussed. Laziness is our first enemy which justs can overcome all these positive tarits. So GOD pl. give me the courage and strength to overcome Laziness so that I can make full use of my efficinecy,knowledge and capability to achieve what I want.

Christmas Gift from my office.

HABIT

I am currently reading the '7 Habits of highly Effective People' by Stephen R Covey. So will try to jot down what I got from that book.

Habit 1 : Be PROACTIVE.
We would have heard this word 'PROACTIVE' said byour Managers in IT industry , if not all atleast I have heard my manager say during my appraisal. So what he or anybody means by asking you to be proactive ? Is it like do the work before he asks you to do ? Have a contingency plan for all the tasks so that even if something happens you can try to finish it well before the deadline ? or is it to do something extra than what you are expected to do ? Many of us are unclear of the word 'PROACTIVE'. But what I got from the book is that, understand the work given to you and work had and sincerely to complete the task.I'll perform the task with my full efficiency,concentration and dedication whatever the work may be.
Now I have a question here. How will I do a work which I am totally disinterested in, with full sincereity and dedication ? the answer here is 'All work are equal'. Give your full concentration and dedication to the work in hand you will feel satisfied that you have done the work for your satisfaction. So not just by stopping when we complete our work, we have to go one step further and do what more we can do so that we can feel great for that extra piece of work that we have done without anybody asking us to do.
Also try to learn from whatever we do so that we can try to be more efficient when we do it again. Trying to be effective by some way when we repeat the same job is also proactive as we can devise an efficient method to do that task which we wouldnt have done during teh first time.
Try to grab all the opportunities to learn something new.Learning is a process and that will never end.The ways that can help you to be proactive are :
1. Fully understand the work that you are doing.
2. Dont feel that the task is uninteresting.
3. Dont give up.
4. Learn from mistakes and try not to repeat it.
5. Communicate your ideas and thoughts clearly and coherently.

Opportunity!

Instead of blaming the situation, try to learn something out of it when it is bad/good! But usually anybody will blame the situation when something goes wrong. So we can try our best to find out what and how best we can learn from the given opportunity. We must always try to make the best use of any situation or opportunity ( this is in a positive sense). We start creating negative energy around ourselves by feeling bad for ourseleves for being pushed in to a kind of situation which is not favourable to us. But instead of feeling bad we should try to dig out and make use of the opportunity and learn things in life and take things positively. This would create a positive energy not only within ourselves but for people around us aswell. There are a lot of mood swings among people. But when we feel unhappy either you feel bad for yourself or start doing things which are not good to yourself or others. So when we are forced in to such a kind of situation try to make the situation favourable to you by exploring ways in which you can make the situation better.Try to make yourself happy by making others happy. By doing this we'll be matured enough to handle any kind of feelings - not by exposing it to other or hiding it within ourselves so that it comes out with a greater pressure later, but by learning to handle the situation and feel indifferently.But to again insist on the opportunity, aim for the best and try to make the best out of the opportunity given to you to prove yourself.

Train 2 - Urapakkam

During our college days, after the classes end at 4.00 pm we had to wait till 4.40 pm to tkae the train. We had good time in the station with friends waiting for the trains. This incident that I could remember was one such evening when we took the 4.40 train back home. As usual the train was crowded and that day we boarded a different compartment ( not the ladies one) a small one in the middle of the train something similar to the driver's cabin. It was closed but we jus opened it and got in to it. We jus started with some buttons and levers there. My friend Bharadwaj jus pulled some lever when the train was stationed at Urapkkam ( 2 station from our college) and the connecting arms over the train to the electrical lines came down and the train did not start. We were then scared and got out of the compartment and jus boarded another one as if we did not know what happened. Bharadwaj jus very frieghtened when we threatened him that we will inform the guard , to see his reaction.Later after if I remember well say 30-45 mins the train again started to move. It was jus fun and we talked abt that incident for a couple of days about that in college.

East Ham , again

I think this is my 3rd driving trip to London. This trip was even more interesting as we were 4 people and were discussing about a lot of topics/making fun of otheres..etc. There was £1 book sale in Cambridge so we all met there.We spent around an hour there grabbing some good books. And as usual I'll have all the interest and enthusiasm when I am buying the book but ..you know what happens later. So started towards East Ham.London. Reached East Ham in aroung an hour and a quarter.Went to a temple there and then to HSB.Did a lot of groceries and vegetables shopping, packed our dinner from HSB (again) and headed towards Cambs.On sunday I was treated by my friend here in Cambs in Pizza Hut.had a high fat lunch and skipped the meal for the rest of the day.

Unclaimed Leg

Underground Day travel card. Right from childhood I enjoy travelling by train/bus. During childhood days we (my mom,bro and me) used to go to my granny's place by train and my bro used to be very mischievious. I very well remember that one day my mom tooks from one end to the other in the madras Sub urban train. We were really fascinated and we tried to remember all the station names in the correct order and my mom would get us FIVE STAR chocolate for that.
The next regular trip was during my college days. For four full years I travelled by the Madras Suburban trains to reach college. We fought,cracked jokes,ragged,made new friends and what not during our train journey. That was the next stage.
And then comes the train travel from Bangalore to Chennai for around two years atleast once in a month.Many times I travelled with friends and sometime alone.So for the last 24 years I have been travelling by Indian Railways (Madras Suburban/Southern Railways).
I really cherish those memories. Now having been lucky to travel by the London Underground as well I am really excited and would love to grab any opportunity to travel by th Underground.Will try to continue about my train travel experiences and the guys whom I met in my train journey and became friends.

Goin on...

Started to go for Boxing class recently.There is actually not much work in the office and so I am trying to spend my time as useful as possible. Travelled to farnborough a couple of weeks before for a training on Assertiveness and Effective communication.The trainer concentrated more on teh body language and showed many clippings on the political leaders' body language. The course was quite good and interesting and learnt something. I ahve to start looking for a house coseby to office and also spend more time studying. This weekend we are planinng to drive to London to buy some stuffs.Am looking forward for that.Also recently I have seen many movies. Fugitive, Enemy of the state,Bend it like Beckham,Bride and Prejudice,Troy,Gladiator,Mission Impossible 3,Casino Royale,Saw III,Forrest Gump.Also planning to see a couple of movies this weekend.