Sometimes its incomprehensible to me how arrogance can take over a person. Just because you were given a promotion or even a pat on a back, doesn’t mean it makes you better than someone else. I can’t say that this just part of Corporate America because this happens eveywhere. You see it more and more that people can promoted because of what they say and how they can say it, rather than their capabilities. The wrong ones move up and the good ones get left behind. I can’t say that all managers make these mistakes, but it seems there are more of them then the ones that will stick their neck out and make the right decision. Just because you are friends outside of the office doesn’t mean that you need to reflect that on your judgement and decision making in the office. That’s the big mistake that I have seen in my experience that managers/decision makers do on the job.

You must be thinking - why is she writing about this? Did something happen to her recently? No nothing has happened. I have been observing such trends since I entered Corporate America so that I can learn about how business works, to learn, and reflect upon it.

Just recently I told Neeraj that when we open our own IT company, I am going to make sure that such mistakes are not made. I want to be in charge of the internal resources so that I can make decisions that would be best for the company and its employees. People get treatedly badly all the time, sometimes its political. I hate that - there is no reason that politics needs to be involved for the betterment of the company. The shades of gray in business has been brought in by the people and needs to be changed by the influential — that is if you have the guts. That is what I see is lacking in today’s companies. No one takes on the initiative to make the big change because unfortunately they are too worried it will fail.

You can’t go wrong in your company right? I wouldn’t think so. Its amazing where Neeraj and I are in our lives right now. I see us growing more and more, thinking about such aspects that we had never thought about before, and many people our age don’t think about. We have an action plan for what we want to do 10 years from now - where most people couldn’t even realize where they will be in that time.

You do have to be realistic which I understand. But I know that if I was an authoratative position where I could make the hard decisions for the betterment of my own company, then I could do it. If you don’t have happy employees then all you are going to have is higher turnover and low motivation to get the job done. People should feel that somewhere that company is their own as well, and they should work to make it better, as if it is their own. Alot of people work because they have to not because they want to. Those are another type of people, along with the arrogant ones, that I wouldn’t tolerate in my company. They are only bad news to the company and a deteriment to what could be outstanding for a company. The ideas are flowing like crazy, and I am liking it. Its the time now that Neeraj and I can take to grasp and learn all that we can, gain the experience, so it can be applied when its our turn.

Its easy to make the same mistakes over again that you have seen or if its happened to you. Its harder to achieve the ability to learn from the wrongdoings from others, and take it on as an initative to change and not let it happen again. That’s the passion that I have to do. I have always wanted to make a difference a person’s life, career, or any other way possible. Realistically it will happen - it just takes time.

The other important thing to remember is that the light at the end of the tunnel can be seen - if you just wait and take a hard look. So I will take my frustration that I am seeing today as a positive note, learn from it, and not make the same mistake when I am the decision maker.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Another post. Yes. I am finally doing a bit better at keeping my blog up to date.

Whoo. What a day. Neeraj and I got to the office at 7.45am this morning, and we didn’t get home till 8.30pm!! This definitely has been one of the longest days I have ever worked in my entire life. But like I said in the previous post, the office is going to need me more for the next four or five months. It seems to be the same for Neeraj as well. Some wouldn’t even look @ a PC when they get home, and look at me. After 12 hours, I still don’t enough of this machine.

So did I tell you that we are doing a girls Secret Santa luncheon at the office? I have not created my wishlist for that yet. I need to get on that. Then of course we do our traditional Christmas exchange with Diane and Beth. Last year we added Daniel and Neeraj to the mix which was fun. This year we are a bit behind schedule (Beth - give me a date that we can get together ) in planning this but hopefully by the end of the week it will be done.

There is a lot to do this weekend. One is that we need to go to the DMV (driver motor vehicle place) so that we can change the lienholder on our dear Sonu the Sonata. We recently had refinanced and in the state of Missouri, the owner holds on to their title (in Illinois the bank holds on to it). So because we have the title, we have to get the lienholder name registered with the state.

Second big thing is that we need to put some air in the back tire of JollyFace (Neon) and then put it in the garage. Oops - make room in the garage and then put Jollyface there.

Third - clean the house

Fourth - go shopping. I am so in the mood to go shopping, its been ages since I have been to the mall.

Fifth - I would like to go see Aaja Nachle in the movie theatre. If that can’t happen then atleast rent a movie like Jab We Met or Bheja Fry, etc…

On top of it, Neeraj may have to go into the office on Saturday. I have just been informed by the Commander and Chief (aka Neeraj ) that we are going to the office at 0700 hours (that would be 7am for those who don’t understand military time ). Thank goodness we have a full stop at 4.30pm to go to class.

I watched parts of the CNN/YouTube Republican Presidential Debate tonight. Unfortunately none of these very “aged” candidates impressed me. I think the Republican Party needs to recruit some young ‘uns with new ideas. Gee whiz.

I guess I am good for now. Its only 9.41pm and Neeraj is asleep, and I am heading to bed too. As Beth would say, “We’re old!!” Sometimes I can feel it.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Its been a rough week. Very rough. The office has been awful - literally, awful. Then Neeraj and I come home, and either I have had to go somewhere or we get home late, that we get nothing done that we have planned.

Then on Wednesday we had this horrible thunderstorm/lightning, and it seemed to have bursted my office laptop. Freak. Now I have to take the time out next week and go up to Chicago to get the stupid thing fixed. You turn it on and it will automatically restart itself without booting up XP.

I keep no telling myself that I need to post, and thanks to everyone who has had interest in my writing. That is a real day brightener, but I just haven’t had the time or in the mood to write. There is still much more I have to talk about — and you might get lucky and get two posts from me in the same day. We will see how the day goes.

The weather this week has been horrible as well, and hopefully it will be better tonight because Neeraj and I have planned to play tennis. I am looking forward to that:!:

The weekend is totally shot as the family is going up to Chicago to go to an amusement park/water park with my chacha’s family at Six Flags. Its going to be tiring, but it will be fun. At the same time, Neeraj and I need to go shopping today because we need swim suits.

Time is flying faster since we have been married it seems than before, and I don’t know why. I guess life has changed a bit more drastically than I must have thought. There are still many more decisions that Neeraj and I need to make in the near future that will affect the rest of our future. Did that make any sense?

Its time for a vacation. Neeraj, can we go back to India again?

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

I have been thinking about writing a post every day this week, but life has changed. How? Why? Read on.

CAUTION: This is a long post. It goes on and on and on. Read at your leisure.

I have made headings for those who would rather scim through the post, you can then read the topics that you find interesting. Smart eh? Thank you, thank you.

Birthdays

Happy Belated Birthday Govind!

I can remember the first time Govind commented on our blog even without looking it up. It was Swatantrata Divas last year, and Neeraj and I had written a joint post in shudh Hindi. To sum it up Govind’s comment, he said:

You guys used big words

Here’s Govind’s full comment given on August 15th, 2004:

Hmm, tough hindi words. Happy independence day. I think, if our government would have spent at least 5% of their defence expenditure, Indian’s would have made some achievement at olympics. Have to see, when this will happen.

I don’t remember seeing Govind’s picture until our first OBM when I asked everyone to send me one so that I could put it up in our gallery. By reading his posts and his comments on our blog, I imagined Govind to be a tall, dark, thin, typical Hyderbadi with a moustache and a stoic expression. I was close, he didn’t have a moustache.

He always provides insight to whatever topic whenever he has commented on our blog. I always am interested to hear what he has to say. Sorry that these wishes are late, but even that will be explained very soon. We hope that your day was as special and memorable as you!

Happy Birthday Gudiya!

She’s a close cousin of mine, I have mentioned her once before on her b’day last year. Today is also her mother’s birthday (my bua), and I hope that they both have a wonderful day today!

Job

So since recently I haven’t mentioned much about my job. I haven’t had a chance with all that is going on with Neeraj, his passport, and his visa. I rolled onto the project near my home. It wasn’t the role that I wanted to be in (its more of a functional process architecture role rather than technical), but I am glad to be commuting from home and not traveling by plane. So I started there on 8th August, and its been fun so far. I work Mon-Thurs 10 hours a day, and then I get Fridays completely off.

So here’s a typical Mon-Thurs morning for me:

5.20 am - wake up
5.30 am - shower
5.45 am - getting ready & checking emails/blogs (I can’t check anything @ work )
6.05 am - driving
6.50 am - reach the office

Then I usually leave around 5.20 pm in the evenings and make it home by 6 pm. By the time I get home, change, eat dinner, watch Fame Gurukul and my other serials, I am left with about 0% of energy. Kunal summed it really well yesterday by saying that every time he checks my online status on Y! Messenger, its either on “at the office” or “sleeping”.

I am working at a huge client where 90% of the contractors are either from Patni, Satyam, or HTC Technologies, so you can imagine how many Indians are there. I had seen something on the very first day I was at the client site that I will never forget and haver never seen in America. The majority of the Indian women that worked there were wearing salwar kameezes/punjabi dresses. My first thought was,

Am I in India or America?

As anyone else seen this before here? I don’t know about you guys, but it was odd the first time I saw it. But now, even I am thinking about wearing a salwar kameez one day too.

Neeraj’s Update

So the last you might have read was that Neeraj got his passport. Then last Monday he had gone to the US Consulate to get his visa re-stamped on his new passport. They told him to come back on Tuesday at 4 pm to pick it up. He bought train tickets to go home on Tuesday night because we assumed that he would get his stamped passport and the visa documents that day. We made that fatal mistake: trusted the Consulate!

He got his visa alright, but when he asked for his visa documents packet, the lady didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. He explained that when he came here almost a month before, they told him to get a new passport and @ that time turned his wet visa documents. He was told that he would get a new packet when he came for the re-stamping. But that lady was so rude to him and just told him to come back the next day, and she couldn’t do anything. Now you guys should know that buying train tickets for the next day is just about impossible. So first he went to the railway station to get a train ticket for Wednesday, but in vain. The ticket counter closed before it was Neeraj’s turn.

Then Neeraj went home, didn’t even get to cancel his Tuesday train ticket. He went back to the US Consulate on Wednesday morning at 7 am. Now really how much time do you think that they would take? One hour? two hours? No, Neeraj didn’t get the packet until 1 pm (he sat at the Consulate for 6 hours ). After two hours when Neeraj asked how much longer it will take, the same lady from Tuesday was there, and she told him not to tell her how to do her job. What the freak??? Finally he got his visa packet, amazingly got a ticket on August-Kranti and got to Sawai Madhopur to be with his elder sister on Thursday morning.

He is going to Hindaun with his elder sister today, so finally he will be home. His ticket to the US also got confirmed today, and he will be reaching on the 8th of September (granted there are no more roadblocks ).

I am really ticked @ the US Consulate in Mumbai, and I am contemplating writing a blog about just it. I was thinking of starting one on blogspot, anybody have thoughts on this??? I just want to vent out my anger. I have written a letter once complaining to the US government about the Consulate in Mumbai, and it really didn’t help. I am thinking I should write a letter to my Congressman, but I also want the public to know the truth about it too. Please give me your thoughts.

Interesting article on being an online persona — Thanks to Ashwin.

Now my long post is coming to an end. Everybody in America, enjoy the long weekend (its Labor Day on Monday ).

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

« Hide it

So its official. I am off to Austin, Texas on Monday morning for three weeks. I am waiting on a final call from the project manager so that I know the details (what time I need to be there, what hotel to choose, etc..). The excitement isn’t really there, but I just hope it goes by fast. There are many mandirs in that area, and I can’t wait to go check out @least one of them.

For those that missed it, I was on TV today:!::!::!: Yes, finally on the Community Roundup program they showed the Narendra Chanchal Mata Rani Jagran that Mumma and I went to on 17th June. There we were sitting and enjoying Chanchalji’s bhajans! We watched it with full stereo surround sound and with me, of course, dancing live. So for those who are in the US and have TV Asia, you can still have a chance to check it out tomorrow morning.

Saj dhaj kar baithi Maa, aur mund mund muskhaaye…

The parents and I are heading up to Devon Street (famous little India of Chicago) tomorrow during the day to do some shopping and have some great food. They also have one of the nicest beauty salons so shall also get a facial while I am there.

Neeraj will get his medical report back today but must keep it sealed till the day of the interview. He has got a busy day himself so hope all goes well for him.

London will be the place for the 2012 Summer Olympics. I saw the pics today on Zee News how they are going to modernize London, and by golly it looked cool:!: Neeraj and I are going to the Olympics that year, are you? Ok, I don’t know if we are or not, by then we will have kids and most likely settled in India. Wishful thinking for now.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.

Thanks everyone for taking some time out and playing Antakshari with me. It was really fun and maybe we will do it again at the next OBM. When is the next OBM? Anybody up to doing one in June? If you are then just comment and let us know which weekend would be the best.

Well yesterday was a major down day for me. I have been on the bench for the past two or three weeks, and they wanted to send me to training at Washington DC and then to a project in Memphis, TN. The project was going to be till October, and let me tell you I don’t want to be traveling until then. So I was upset because I didn’t know what to do. I had been trying for a project near my home because of two reasons: (1) I didn’t want to travel (2) It was going to be harder when Neeraj comes. I want to be here available if Neeraj needs me for anything. My city is nothing like Mumbai as you cannot get around without a car. We don’t even have public transportation:!: In the beginning until he gets his driver’s license and gets familiarized with the area, he’s going to need my help. But if I am in TN or some other state, I am going to be useless. I won’t be able to help him and hence we both will be lonely.

So it has been tough. They filled the training with other people, but still not sure about what I am going to do. I am still trying for a project closeby which would then be State Farm or Caterpillar. We will see what I land. There are a lot of other things involved in this that will change for me (pay, holidays, etc…) but its something that I think I want to do in order to get what I want — to be able to stay near home.

I wish Neeraj was already here, we were already married, and settled. My job problems would definitely not what they are today. Khair that’s a dream, and I am living the reality.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.