la la wonderlaaaaaaaaa.......

This was how my mind was singing with joy and excitement on Sunday night. Amusement parks always amuse me. Thrilling rides that send a chill down your spine, Screams that you let out though you are not that scared, Exploring the unexplored, graduating slowly through the levels of toughness of the rides and finally returning home with exciting experiences are all that amusement parks offer.

The day dawned. An unusual Monday morning. No blues or greens. Just a sense of anxiety. A team outing on a Monday to Wonderla. Can you ask for more? I got myself ready and left for office. We had planned to leave by 9.30 but we were late by 30 minutes as usual. Indian stretchable time, I suppose. Since the traffic was not that bad, we managed to reach the place by 11.10. It was very surprising to see so many kids and youngsters waiting in the queue. Finally we got the tickets and entered the park at 11.40.

Our first battle was against a hurricane. Don't worry, it's not Rita or Katrina that smashed New Orleans. That was the name of our first ride. A three arm roller mounted at a good height. It was one of the high thrill rides. All these rides make you feel very scared when you look at them. But once you take your seats, it's just amazing. All your internal organs are swayed, churned and toppled. After you get down, you feel a sense of achievement and satisfaction and then you say to the same ride that made you fear, "hey, I conquered you. You are no bigger than me." and give a proud smile.

Since we managed to complete all the tough ones first, the drop zone was a child play. Splash was very entertaining and many of us took the ride twice. On top of all that, a nice way to end the day on a water pendulum for which you don't have any support other than your hand grip.

Food was good and affordable. The negative part of the trip was the cost of the ticket. It's definitely overpriced at 480 per head. But no regrets as long as someone else sponsors for you ;-)

My best team outing in the past three and half years. I strongly recommend Wonderla for people who like going to amusement parks, who do not face any health problems and most importantly, who has the guts to face these thrilling rides like me.....

My blog

I'm pondering now, deeply, about what I have for my precious blog. Thoughts flowing like Niagara falls but they don't stop for me to pen down. I need Dumbledore's pensieve, I guess. What to write about in my blog? Perhaps, about my blog itself and the wonderful experiences that came along with it.

If you notice, my first post was in June 2004, titled "Cup of Coffee". A real life experience which I managed to put it in words. Yes, I managed it. I can always speak about a particular incident. But when I want to write it, I always felt a roadblock. Pen tip touching my diary's pages while my mind is searching for appropriate words. That was how I felt until June 2004. Then this amazing phenomenon called blogging entered my life and everything changed. I'm not exaggerating here. Unless your communication is effective, it's very difficult to succeed in this high-competition, fast-paced world. I believe this concept to the fullest. That's what is motivating me to attend Toastmaster sessions. That's what is giving me the urge to blogging.

On Dec 31st 2004, I decided that I'm going to blog regularly in 2005, one post per week at the minimum. I had put that down in my diary as well. I read somewhere, guess it's one of Robin Sharma's books, that a goal unwritten is a dream. All of us have dreams, big dreams. But to achieve them, our dreams need to be transformed into goals. And these goals got to be written down in paper. That's what I did. Although I couldn't achieve all I had planned for this year, I did manage to achieve a few of them. A detailed post on this coming soon.

My passions, a few travelogues, books, music and movie reviews, my ramblings about life and society, stories, poems - what a nice way to express my feelings !!. Thanks, blogspot.com. I was able to explore some of my hidden talents and unleash my creativity. I always had the feeling that I wasn't very creative and my right brain doesn't function at all. Blogging proved me wrong. I had lots of fun not only in writing my thoughts, but also reading others. Most of us never express our feelings directly. Through blogging, I understood the traits of many of my friends. Without blogs, I would have never known that my hubby has a flair for narrating incidents in an interesting way, Gandhi and DD for their good acumen in poetry, Biju and Preethi for their nice, little stories.

Thanks to all those who have been reading my articles and taking time to give their comments. Hoping to write more and yeah, revive my "Amidst a terrible desert" episodes.

My precious....

Tagged by CK

Clear blue sky
Lush green fields
Fully grown coconut trees
Triangle shaped sand temples

Fresh water lake
Infant's innocent smile
Dew drops on leaves
Little lamp near a Tulsi plant

Pulley on top of the well
Sounds of the temple bell
Calf running towards his mom
Ganesha idol at the foot of banyan tree

Jasmine flowers
Steam engines
Malgudi's essence
RK Narayan novel

Slow moving clouds
White spotted deers
Soothing flute music
Hot cup of cardamom tea

Early morning
Temple hymns
Sunset evening
Pretty rainbow

Twinkling stars
Bright full moon
Snow clad mountains
Crystal clear stream

Slight drizzle
Milk cooker whistle
Refreshing lemon juice
Lunch on plantain leaf

Ambrosial filter coffee
prepared by father,
Watching one day cricket
accompanied by brother

Whole hearted laugh
with loved ones,
Special someone's hug
and supporting words
Precious life this is
God's gift of love.

My resolutions for 2006 - Part I

Tagged by my hubby

New year has always been very special to me. It gives an opportunity for a new beginning, a fresh start and time to look back on what I have accomplished in the past year. I had set a few resolutions/ goals for 2005, have made progress on a few of them but have broken some resolutions. Anyway, no harm in trying them next year as well. Yes, I do believe in trying again and again and again.....Will list down what I have accomplished this year sometime in the end of December after I do a thorough analysis.

Here I go....with a few resolutions for 2006 in order of priority

1) Get up at 5 AM everyday (This was one of my goals for 2005 but never managed to accomplish it for more than 3 days)
2) Do some physical activity for an hour everyday to keep my body in good shape (Have learnt a bit of Yoga/Pranayama, tried jogging for a couple of weeks and off late, doing some skipping. But very very irregular in 2005)
3) Learn to play violin (Have been postponing this for the past 2 years, giving lame excuses to myself like unable to find a good teacher)
4) Become a competent toastmaster (There are 10 levels to reach this goal , have completed 7 levels so far, hoping to complete the remaining 3 next year)

This is all I have thought of so far. Will come up with Part II soon

Management education - Why?

I have been hearing from quite a number of people about the relevance of management education. Why is there so much of hype and attention given to MBA? Is it justified? Does it give hollow confidence to callow students? I'm going to list down my answers to these questions. The following are my personal opinions and they might contradict with others.

The world is in such a volatile state these days that unless and until you diversify, it is very difficult to survive in any industry. This volatility is very well exposed by the information technology industry's ups and downs in the past decade.

The trends are changing. Times when our parents and relatives would work for a single organization throughout their career are gone. People are looking for a change these days. The risk taking abilities of people are also flourishing. Job hopping and industry hopping are no longer alien terms. In such changing times, a management degree gives the much needed fillip for youngsters to pursue different and difficult careers.

How many youngsters are there in the country who would want to become an entrepreneur as soon as they finish their basic graduation? Very few. This is because they don't understand business. Our education system focusses more on science and technology in the school curriculum that students can't think far from medicine and engineering. Even after they pursue engineering, most of them are forced to take up post graduation courses like M.Tech or M.S. either by their parents or just by peer pressure.

According to me, unless one is interested in pursuing research after their post graduation, doing an M.Tech or M.S is a sheer waste of time, money and effort. Let's take an example. A person , say A fresh out of computer engineering joins an organization. Another person B goes to US to pursue his MS in software engineering. After two years, A has 2 years of industry experience whereas B has a post graduation degree in hand. Who would be more valuable? If I were the HR head of an organization, I would give more preference to A than B. B is as good as A 2 years before. An engineering degree or for that matter any basic degree is just a platform for a person to grow. A post graduation degree in the same technical field is not widening the platform, instead a person's technical expertise is widened a bit. It neither provides indepth technical knowledge nor it aids in identifying any specialization thereafter. All I can think of as the benefit of doing an M.S. is the exposure, nothing else. It depends on the individual to weigh his options between exposure and work experience.

Getting back to our main topic, an MBA immediately after graduation will not give enough returns. It would just be a continuum of the college education. This is where it gives hollow confidence to those young callow just-out-of-college students. When a person starts working, he gets to know his organization. Although he might not know the intricate details of how the business happens, atleast the work atmosphere triggers his thought process and he starts to question many decisions. After a work experience of 2-3 years, doing an MBA would give him good returns in terms of knowledge, networking by which he gets to understand the working model of different organizations and different industries his peers were part of and a wide variety of career options to choose thereafter. Infact, many universities abroad have imposed a restriction that only people with work experience for a minimum of 3 years can apply for MBA courses.

Domain knowledge in sales, marketing, finance and HR can be applicable in any field and in any industry. This variety would help a person to identify his forte and grow in that. Moreover, these fields are irreplaceable and industry-independent. Even if an industry dooms down in future, a person with such a qualification will be able to move over to another industry in no time. This is why an MBA is surrounded by such hype and hoopla and it is certainly justified. Anyone in India would want to have some backup plans and it is quite understandable, given the type of traditions and customs we follow.

Entrepreneurship has received the needed light, thanks to the various electives as part of MBA. People who had apprehensions on how they could go about establishing their own organization and what facts need to be kept in mind can find answers while doing an MBA. I'm sure the professors of good management institutions would be willing to share their knowledge on the different facets of entrepreneurship.

If a person is more inclined towards technology - the ifs and whys and the subtle nuances of technical know-hows interest him and he prefers to contribute in the technical line to an organization, i.e. he is employed by an employer other than himself, then he doesn't need an MBA. Also a person who would want to pursue research related to his technical interests doesn't need an MBA. These are the only two kinds of people who wouldn't need a management degree.

Before joining an MBA, M.Tech or M.S, the most important consideration is to take a few years to identify the next step and the reason behind choosing one. The best option is to work during these crucial decision making years and do the analysis.

If research and technology are the ones that interest you the most, do an M.S AND a doctorate.
If management and entrepreneurship are your passions, do an MBA.
If working under an employer keeps you happy, then gain as much as work experience as you can.