Sunday, January 31, 2010
Heads Up
Bought a bike about a couple of months back which makes mobility real easy within the city. Need to go pick up groceries or need to go have dinner you don't feel lazy anymore to walk or hail an auto. Offlate on holidays I just go to the French part of the town and just get into ultraslow cruise mode....speedo reads 12 kmph.
Also I just ran a half marathon in Jan 2010 and planning to run the Sunfeast 10 k run this time in my home town in May 2010.
Been sitting through a a wage settlement for the last 4 months. It has been a real rollercoaster ride and sitting through and contributing to a wage negotiation process is an amazing experience.
My HR business partner is one guy who you'd to have on your team like the Aussies would want to have Sachin on their team. It's an amazing introduction to the Art of Negotiation. For the first time I realised negotiation is so much about strategy and not too much about being able to haggle too well.
Reading has taken a back seat but I really should get back to it now. In my peak, in my 2nd and 3rd years in college I used to be one of the one book per weekend guys. Gone are those good old days.
Work is awesome and whenever I hear about my illustrious predecessors I get inspired to do more and leave a mark behind. I need to have more energies to do that. I really need to start having breakfast regularly and I really should start drinking more milk. I am a firm believer in milk drinking and my beliefs are sumarized here.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The first post of 2010
I just realized that this is my first post in 2010. For a veteran of 176 posts since 2005 and ~ 100 reader comments, this surely is a lean patch.
Let me begin with something I had been looking forward to since 2007 and could happen only happen yesterday : I ran my first marathon (half-marathon) and finished it on my first attempt.
21 km in 3 h and 8 mins is not the best timing by any measure but given that I hadn't trained for this at all, given that on the previous night I was at a bar till 1 AM, given that I had only 3 hrs of sleep, given that I have given up the habit of having breakfast for the last 15 months, given that I am having a slight breating issue which needs a surgical intervention --- Given so many things, I am proud and it makes me enjoy the pain.
Feet are burning. Hands, legs, joints infact the whole body is aching and I need to catch a flight in 2 hrs.
I am leaving Mumbai a proud man having achieved what I came for.
It would not be out of place to thank my friend who was a great source of sound advice and vital carbohydrates during my stay. Without him I would never have finished my first marathon.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Vishnuvardhan (1950-2009)

Monday, December 28, 2009
Indecision - The root cause of most of the misery
People like the quiet and the meticulous. Who avert all damages. Who foresee problems and sidestep them. Who make things look easy. Who are calm and composed. Who have things under control.
Control comes from knowing. Control comes from the confidence that nothing can go wrong when I am in charge. Control comes from planning -- Incisive, ice-cold planning.
Planning to last detail.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Why I am so domesticated?
Why don't I do crazy hours these days?
Why do I work so hard at work and come home all spent out?
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Dunbar's number
Basically, do we believe that the maximum number of stable social relaitionhips that a person can have is 150 (on an average).
My thinking: Agree mostly but depends on how overworked the person in question is. My Dunbar's number would be less than 150 and dwindling. Blame my job and the flux of change in it.
Teamwork
Also, the 'local' execution also involves keeping a small set of 4 people completely aware, motivated and focussed on details.
Have spent quite a bit of time thinking about the 'concept' of team and why some are better than the others.
Am I doing the right things in my own team to encourage the spirit of 'never drop the ball' or am I encouraging the beginning of an endless 'blamegame'?
Am I doing enough 'team' things apart from writing substance-less 'team' emails?
Building great teams is an art that needs to be perfected over years and great teams are like seed which will spread across the organisation.
