Gurmeet Singh
If you think you can't,you won't. If you think you can, you will...
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Adventure Trek in Gurgaon
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Concrete Jungle - Gurgaon
Recently I came to Gurgaon and joined a new organization after 6 long years of association with my first company in Pune. As everyone would do, I too made general inquiries about the place. Most of my friends warned me of some problems, to mention a few like infrastructure, public transport system etc. I thought things are hyped up specially knowing the fact that most of the corporates have their head offices located in Gurgaon. Ignoring these minor problems I went ahead and took a decision to relocate to Gurgaon.
Gurgaon is home to many Corporate Biggies and has been rightly proclaimed as land of opportunities and I fully agree without an iota of doubt. But with every growth phase you have associated problems and the problems here are too many. To name a few,
- Public Transport - Despite being connected with Metro, Gurgaon just doesn't have the public transport backbone, which helps in many other ways.
- Infrastructure - Barring highways the interior roads are in really very very bad shape and when I say Concrete Jungle, besides lack of greenry, I mean ,
Concrete - Buildings & Highways
Jungle - Interior Roads, specially the Old Gurgaon - Dust & Pollution - These are actually the by-products of above two problems, poor public transport system, forces people to take up their own vehicles and bad roads adds to dust. People like me who commute on two wheelers are exposed to huge amount of dust every day.
- High Cost of living - Again an outcome of the first two problems, people have to shell out extra money to stay close to offices to avoid commutation problems or to avail cab services to avoid them.
I am sure the authorities are aware of these problems and the huge amount of taxes/tolls in Gurgaon will be used in the future appropriately to address these problems.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Old buddies reunited… @ Singhad
Our sense of being very early to start the trek was short lived when we reached the Singhad village; people were on their way back after a trek. At this time Ajay shared that he remembers someone helding a record of completing the trek in flat 15 minutes. I wonder we could do that even in 1 hour after several rehearsals ;-). We took our first halt straight away for breakfast at the foothill itself, yes you got it right without starting the trek :-D. It was my not so favorite Poha and hot Chai. The ascend started after this break and it continued uninterrupted for another 15-20 minutes after which the group couldn’t resist the enticing smell of roasted sweet corn with salt and lemon rubbed on it and took one more halt J. Immediately after the break Sandeep and myself, more adventurous amongst other group members started taking not so risky shortcuts to reach the top. There were a couple of more strategic breaks to enjoy the breathtaking beauty of Sahyadri hills and also to capture the view for buddies who missed the trip.
After reaching the top, we stopped once again to enjoy Kairi (Raw Mango), boiled nuts and a few jokes from our little mascot Snigdha and our own Ajay. Everyone chipped in with their ideas to add spice to Ajay’s jokes; had a great time laughing at those jokes. We entered the fort from Pune Darwaza stopping briefly to look at the fort map and Sham explaining me some facts about the fort. Sham choose to wait in a hut while other members went on to explore the fort, Sanjay taking the lead to guide us (specifically me) to various spots and explaining the history associated with those places. We covered Dev Taaka (a fresh water tank, which serves most of the water requirements of the fort), Tanaji Samadhi and the steep cliff which was used by Tanaji to reach the top to fight Udaybhan Rathod and his army. Sanjay also told us about how Tanaji used a ghorpad (also known as monitor lizard) to climb the steep cliff.
From L to R: Sandeep Nemade, Sagar, Ajay Kale, Gurmeet Singh, Sanjay Karadkar , Meghasham Joshi & the little mascot Snighdha in the centre.
Our brief excursion at the hill top came to an end when we reached the hut where Sham was waiting for us. For the lunch we ordered Kanda Bhajia, Pithla Bhakri and Vangyacha Bharit (Baingan Bharta, hope I managed that well in Marathi). We started the descend immediately after the post lunch tea. It was at this point when we regained our sense of achievement of being early for the trek ;-) as there was a huge crowd in the evening for the trek.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
A collection of few good quotes
- Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other.
- Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Making peace is much harder than making war.
- I can disapprove what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
- Don't indulge yourself in anger; it is whetting a sword to wound your own breast.
- The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect is already in the cause.
- A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in little things is a great thing.
- A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.
- Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
- The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.
- The only alternative to coexistence is co-destruction.
- If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
- People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what's bitter and move on.
- People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
- You can't shake hands with a clenched fist.
- If you judge people, you don't have the time to love them.
- Live as you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
- In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.
- Nothing is permanent in this world; not even our troubles
- The only people who fail are those who don't try.
- Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.
- Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.
- It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself
- Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don't keep it a secret
- Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes
- How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.
- If you would be loved, love and be lovable
- Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression;in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population
- You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time
- The part can never be well unless the whole is well.
- Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance.
- Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean.
- We improve ourselves by victories over ourself.
- Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.
- Peace cannot be achieved through violence; it can only be attained through understanding.
- An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness in the world.
- A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else for it.
- We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from it
- To help is not a virtue, but a pulse of existence.
- The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.
- If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want.
- It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
- Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.
- I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
- The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
- The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have
- Time, whose tooth gnaws away at everything else, is powerless against truth.
- To be trusted is a greater complement than to be loved.
Friday, June 19, 2009
A poem by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost. |
Friday, May 29, 2009
Words going techie way...!
Since my childhood I have heard and read about the word "Blackout" which I vaguely remember to be associated with Indo-Pak wars. It meant total power outs to avoid the risk of air attacks in those times. However, in simple terms it is referred to as total loss of power due to some kind of failures. What kind of a blackout (or strategies) countries would have to devise now when thermal cameras are available which can detect people with their body heat aswell? Ah... ! God knows... Well I didn't sit here to write about this...
Well, today I read about a very similar word called "Brownout", which means a drop in voltage in the electrial power supply, or in short a dim bulb signifies brownout. I read this word in a completely different flavour which means "The loss of creative energy experienced by people when they have been working in high pressure scenarios for long durations", this is being used in high tech industry. Coincidentally today my boss was explaining his condition after a long days work. Boss, its just brownout...! well then I wonder what blackout would mean if it goes the same way...
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Height of Ctrl C- Ctrl V
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Will you still be doing what you are doing if you had all the money in this world?
After this question I realized that many of us don't have the answer for this question. Some might have the answer but for others it's just a dream and they don't have the courage to live it. Am I becoming too philosophical... nah... that's a bitter truth...!
For quite some time now I have been trying to answer this very question for myself but unfortunately don't have till now, still pondering and longing to get some answers... my childhood dream was to become a pilot, but then elders say "Jo hota hai ache ke liye hota hai (whatever happens, happens for good)". Here I am an MBA with a engineering degree, back to the corporate world which is still reeling under the pressure of global recession. That's enough funda for today... :D
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Celebrating Women's Success
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
MSD vs a term at Great Lakes
Its over a month and half since I have landed in Chennai. Looking back I realize that MBA makes you do lot of things together, it forces you to learn multi-tasking, time management blah blah... It's a very small time to claim that I have perfected even some of these management arts, in fact I am far from it. It was proved from the fact that I messed up with the exams badly (i hope not very badly :-) ). I scheduled most of the stuff till the very last week, which was a bad idea... I always do the realization late... well last minute Macro Economics assignments kept most of us engaged for many nights, as the submission time use to be 9am the next day... and the lucky ones or rather the hard working ones who were abreast with the class proceedings in other subjects found it easy to handle...
Well coming back to the thought behind writing this piece was an idea to compare my work as a DBA and my first one month in Great Lakes... I actually dreamt about this idea in the class... confused ?? one gotta sleep to dream... how do you expect people to be awake after the assignments... gotcha... :-)
As a DBA we use to have deliverable for every MSD (Monthly software drops), and here at Great Lakes we do the deliveries in form of End term tests... Obviously you can't do the deliveries at the month end until you prepare for it... and there were low level designs as compared to pre-reads, planning as to classes, running test scripts as to surprise tests, daily update calls as to assignment submission, customer interaction as to attending guest lectures... and finally the delivery as to End term tests...
This idea of comparing MSD to an MBA term applies to a one year course, you do a delivery approximately in a month and here you complete a term in around one and a half month. You might miss a MSD as a DBA if you don't have enough customer requirements but there is no dearth of courses in an MBA term to give you a sigh...
After doing all this you wait eagerly for the customer feedback and here you sit back and don't wait for the result especially if you have bungled up your exams...
Sunday, June 01, 2008
The Saravana experience
After sometime I started telling my friend about Kishore Biyani's book "It Happened in India" were he mentioned about the shopping environment in India. In his book he mentions about Saravana stores and concludes that in India people prefer shopping not in peace but in full rush, rubbing shoulders and waiting at the billing counters. It was at this time when it became very clear to me about what Kishore Biyani meant.
During our shopping here we bought 3 tables from one place, 3 chairs from other and then went back within 5 minutes to buy 1 of each from the same places. Meanwhile the earlier 3 had disappeared probably for delivery which was supposed to happen the next day. After this we also went on to buy some expendable FMCG products :-) bought a few things from 3 different places... no computer, no bar codes... just hand written notes from everywhere... and then went to the counter to make the payment, wondering where would the deliveries be made... miraculously all the things appeared at the delivery counter in one carry bag... that too in just 5 minutes... checked the packet because we were a bit skeptical about the process... you see lack of technology made us think twice... I was stunned to see their delivery method, even in today's technology age this store uses hand receipts!
Initially it looked like all the shops on Usman road are as busy as the streets or the Saravana store but again to my surprise the shop next to it, as big as this one with as many varieties as this one, had not even a single customer until we got in. Such is the brand Saravana in Chennai.!
We incidentally entered in one of the Saravana dinning halls and in the menu card read about their presence in UK, US, UAE etc. Post dinner as soon as we reached home I googled on Saravana and was baffled to see the list of things they are involved in.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Law of Calculating Rents...!
Monday, December 17, 2007
It's Business after all !
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Today's Indian Cricket Team
Saturday, January 13, 2007
A fruitful day...
I woke up at 5:30am in the morning, my usual time is at 9:00am, courtesy Babajee of Gurudwara. I woke up 30 mins late and had to leave for Gurudwara without(duh) taking bath, reached Gurudwara by 6:00am. Along side the Akhand path they follow a custom to do Japji Sahib paths as well, so was in the Gurudwara to do Japji sahib path Sewa for 2 hours.
I rarely do these many things in a day including writing this.
Hope to write more often now onwards.
GS
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Cricket Talks on the eve of 4th ODI in SA.
Before the Match:
A: Hey lets bet on what will be the victory margin for the Porteas.
B: India will loose by 85 runs.
A: Why, 85 runs?
B: Last 2 matches it was 157,106 and 85 is a less number than 106, just a random
number below 85.
A: Well, I think it depends on who bat first.
B: Porteas are batting.
A: Oh, is it, then probably you are right.
B: Jaffar is playing today, so probably Sachin would be batting at no. 4.
A: It makes sense, but only if India gets a opening stand of around 30-35 runs and if India looses 2 wickets in the very first over, then it doesn’t make sense whether Sachin bats at 4 or he opens, he would better be opening the inning.
B: Yeah mate you are right.
Ok, well lets guess on what will be the opening partner ship today for India.
B: Not sure but I think the total opening partnership for India will add up to 50 runs for the entire series.
In office, during South African innings:
C: Score is 156/5.
A: Oh God!! Above 150, India lost the match again, they won’t be able to chase above
150.
After SA innings:
C: SA scored 243/8 in 50 Overs.
D: Well, let’s bet on what margin India will loose.
A: India will score 150.
D: What range, let’s keep a range of 20 runs.
C: 150- 170.
A: Same, 150-170.
D: 180-200.
B: I will go with D.
A: Well, I think Sehwag will score 22-25 runs, and Jaffar probably 12- 15 runs.
D: Hey come!! Today Sehwag has an added pressure of captaincy, I don’t think, he would be able to improve on last match’s score. Moreover that will become 30 runs opening partnership. NO WAY!!
A: Yeah, you are right.
B: Well, I think India would reach 180-200.
A: We will leave by 5 O’clock , atleast we would be able to see an hours match by then India would be all down.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Oh no not again…
Every thing was set for a perfect weekend, setting the alarm for 7:15 am, I slept at around 4 am: I had been a nocturnal since my school days and add to it the Friday night fever. The irritating ring tone of my mobile woke me up at 7:00 am and very annoyingly it was a call-out. Every time I forget that people on support should not plan for any outings especially on weekends, seems that the probability of getting a call-out is inversely proportional to your availability. One following the other, one more fault was reported and finally it was already 11am when I left Milton Keynes.
Friday, September 29, 2006
The Da Vinci Code
In the Louver museum, Paris its curator Jacques Sauniere has been assassinated and the curator leaves some cryptographic message seemingly for the investigating agencies to trace the murderer, but he indirectly involved his grand daughter Sophie Neveu, who happens to a cryptographist with the French police. The message was pointing to a symbologist, Robert Langdon, police believed to be the murderer but Sophie deciphered part of the message and in an attempt to solve rest of the puzzle, took Robert away from the police. They started on a quest to solve one of the biggest mysteries of all times. Sophie comes to know about the life of Jesus, the truth that he was married to Mary Magdalene, the romance between them conceived a daughter and their bloodline still exists. She also learns about how the church has been trying for centuries to hide this and destroy all the documents, which proves this fact. At times church also tried to destroy their bloodline. Apparently, the church was trying to destroy these facts because they feared that the Church would be feminised if Mary Magdalene took over the reins of Church after the crucification of Jesus and they considered it to be devilish.
Every attempt was made to defame Mary Magdalene, a lady from a royal family, as a poor whore. But the followers of Mary Magdalene tried to protect her identity and her history, this history is now been protected by a secret society called Priory; the sole purpose of this society was to protect the documents and the Holy Grail (the grave of Mary Magdalene), which proves these facts. At any time there are four members from the Priory who have the information about the Holy Grail and the documents, Jacques Sauniere happened to be the grand master of this society and he passed on the message to her granddaughter because the other three members have died recently, protecting this information.
Sophie and Robert unravel the history by deciphering the hidden message and during this they also come to know about the person behind these killings. She comes to know that she is one of the living offsprings of Jesus and to protect this bloodline her grandmother was living in hiding with her brother, who were declared dead with her parents in an accident. The priory thought that it was a murder disguised to be an accident and hence the family was living separately to protect the bloodline.