However, at times I do believe to have gone overboard a few times while expressing. Though, most of the times it has been unintentional and has surely not been written to hurt anyone, yet I have had a few friends telling me that they have been hurt by the content in some manner or the other. Just to clarify my stand at this, initially I really did not take it very seriously as 1 odd incident can always happen but in the last couple of months, two of my close friends have said this to me that one of my posts have been a little insidious. This has made me to think a little, and concentrate of what I have written and try and rectify my mistakes.

Another important thing that I would like to clarify is that I do not write any of my posts to make fun of or intentionally hurt anyone. I know the limitations and the power of a public portal, so surely I can never write anything that would offend anybody, especially friends. And yes, as a blogger and a writer one can never be perfect in his writings and is surely bound to make mistakes. Therefore, I request all my readers (especially my friends) to write into me whenever you are offended by any of the content posted here.

I am completely aware that these kinds of situations can spoil relations, and that is why I was obligated to write this down here to avoid major damage.

Again, I am not writing this specifically keeping my friends in mind. It is just that, it has been my friends who have come back to me with feedback. There can always be a possibility of other readers finding some content objectionable and not coming back to me. So this post is intended for everyone. I will try and avoid any of such content from now on, yet if anything does offend anyone, please come back to me and let me know of it.

In the end I would like to apologize to people if I have hurt them through any of my posts, and also urge them to let me know where I have offended them. I will try and rectify the content as soon as possible.

On January 26, 2012 the President will confer the Ashok Chakra Award on Lt. Navdeep Singh (posthumous), before the start of the parade at the Rajpath.

The full list of the recipients of gallantry and other Defence decorations to Armed Forces personnel and others is as follows:-

ASHOKA CHAKRA:

1. SS-44448A LIEUTENANT NAVDEEP SINGH, ARMY ORDNANCE CORPS / 15TH BATTALION THE MARATHA LIGHT INFANTRY (POSTHUMOUS)

KIRTI CHAKRA:

1. IC-57076Y LIEUTENANT COLONEL KAMALDEEP SINGH, RAJPUTANA RIFLES / 18TH BATTALION THE RASHTRIYA RIFLES
2. IC-71548P CAPTAIN ASHUTOSH KUMAR, 5TH BATTALION THE RAJPUTANA RIFLES
3. SS-43842Y LIEUTENANT SUSHIL KHAJURIA, ARMY SERVICE CORPS / 18TH BATTALION THE GRENADIERS (POSTHUMOUS)

SHAURYA CHAKRA:

1. IC-60963W MAJOR RAVINDRA KUMAR GURANG, REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY / 33RD FIELD REGIMENT
2. IC-67407H MAJOR SHALENDER, 4TH BATTALION THE PARACHUTE REGIMENT (SPECIAL FORCES)
3. JC-413091F SUBEDAR MANJEET SINGH, 4TH BATTALION THE PARACHUTE REGIMENT (SPECIAL FORCES)
4. JC-460294W NAIB SUBEDAR MENGARE SHANKAR GANPATI, 15TH BATTALION THE MARATHA LIGHT INFANTRY
5. JC-470388F NAIB SUBEDAR LAL SINGH KHICHI, SENA MEDAL, RAJPUTANA RIFLES / 57TH BATTALION THE RASHTRIYA RIFLES (POSTHUMOUS)
6. 14433512W NAIK SUMER SINGH, REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY / 18TH BATTALION THE RASHTRIYA RIFLES (POSTHUMOUS)
7. 15143280N NAIK SANKAR TARAFDAR, REGIMENT OF ARTILLERY / 33RD FIELD REGIMENT
8. 4192242N LANCE NAIK BRIJ KISHORE DHAMI, 19TH BATTALION THE KUMAON REGIMENT
9. 5048550P RIFLEMAN TEJ BAHADUR GURUNG, 1ST GORKHA RIFLES / 15TH BATTALION THE RASHTRIYA RIFLES
10. LIEUTENANT COMMANDER ROHITH MOHANDAS NAMBIAR (05622-A)
11. WING COMMANDER FELIX PATRICK PINTO (23569), FLYING PILOT
12. NO. EX GS-184959F OEM SAMSHER SINGH, BORDER ROADS ORGANISATION (POSTHUMOUS)
13. GS – 166845N OEM-2 KANHAYA PRASAD, BORDER ROADS ORGANISATION (POSTHUMOUS)
14. SHRI RAVINDRA KUMAR SINGH, ASSISTANT COMMANDANT, CENTRAL RESERVE POLICE FORCE
15. CAPTAIN SHAKUL TYAGI, PAWAN HANS HELICOPTER LIMITED
16. SHRI BARKET ALI, SPO, VILLAGE-GOURI BINOLA, TEHSIL-THATHRI, DISTRICT-DODA, JAMMU AND KASHMIR (POSTHUMOUS)

Well I have just listed out the list of major gallantry awards. For the complete list of awards that were declared please click here.

Padma Vibhushans:

1. Shri K G Subrantinvan (Art-Painting & Sculpture)
2. Late Shri Mario De Miranda (Art-Cartoonist)
3. Late (Dr.)Bhupen Ilazarika (Art- Vocal Music)
4. Dr. Kantilal Hastimal Sancheti (Medicine – Orthopedics)
5. Shri T V Rajeswar (Civil Service)

Padma Bhushans:

1. Smt Shabana Azmi (Art)
2. Shri Khakd Choudhuiy (Art – Theatre)
3. Shri Jatin Das (Art – Painting) 
4. Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta (Art – Instrumental Music – Sarod)
5. Shri Dharmendra Singh Deol alias Dharmendra (Art – Cinema)
6. Dr. Trppunithwra Viswanathan GopaLkrishnan (Art – Classical vocal and instrumental music)
7. Ms. Mira Nair (Art – Cinema)
8. Shri MS. Gopalakrishnan (Art – Instrumental Music-Violin)
9. Shri Anish Kapoor (Art – Sculpture)
10. Shri Satya Narayan Goenka (Social Work)
11. Dr. (Judge) Pati,andla Chandrasekhar Rao (Public Affairs)
12. Shri George Yong-Boon Yeo (Public Affairs)
13. Prof Shashikuntar Chitre (Science and Engineering)
14. Dr. M S Ragiunathan (Science and Engineering)
15. Shri Subbiah Murugappa Velbyan (Trade and Industry) 
16. Shri Balasubraniinian Muthuraman (Trade and Industry)
17. Dr. Suresh H. Ad’vani (Medicine – Oncology)
18. Dr. Noshir H Wadia (Medicine-Neurology)
19. Dr. Devi Prasad Shettv (Medicine-Cardiology)
20. Prof (Dr.) Shantaram Baiwant Mujurndar (Literature and Education)
21. Prof Vidya Dehejia (Literature and Education)
22. Prof Arvind Panagariya (Literature and Education)
23. Dr. Jose Pereira (Literature and Education)
24. Dr. Ilorni K. Bhabha (Literature and Education)
25. Shri N Vinal (Civil Service) 
26. Shri Mata Prasad (CMI Service)
27. Shri Ronen Sen (Civil Service)

Padmashree :

1. Shri Vanraj Bhatia (Art – Music)
2. Shri Zia Fariduddin Dagar (Art – Music – vocal)
3. Smt. Nameirakpam Ibemni Devi (Art – Music- Khongjom Parba)
4. Shri Ramachandra Subraya Hegde Chittani (Art – Yakshagana dance drama)
5. Shri Moti Lal Kemmu (Art – Playwright) 
6. Shri Shahid Parvez Khan (Art – Instrumental Music-Sitar)
7. Shri Mohan Lal Kumhar (Art – Terracotta) 
8. Shri Sakar Khan Manganiar (Art – Folk Music) 
9. Smt. Joy Michael (Art – Theatre)
10. Dr. Minati Mishra (Art – Indian Classical Dance-Odissi)
11. Shri Natesan Muthuswamy (Art – Theatre)
12. Smt. R. Nagarathnamma (Art – Theatre)
13. Shri Kalamandalm Sivan Nambootiri (Art – Indian Classical Dance- Kutiyattam)
14. Smt. Yamunabai Waikar (Art – Indian Folk Music-Lavani)
15. Shri Satish Alekar (Art – Playwright)
16. Pandit Gopal Prasad Dubey (Art – Dance and Choreography)
17. Shri Ramakant Gundecha and Shri Umakant Gundecha (Art – Indian Classical Music- Vocal)
18. Shri Anup Jalota (Art-Indian Classical Music- Vocal)
19. Shri Soman Nair Priyadarsan (Art – Cinema- Direction)
20. Shri Sunil Janah (Art-Photography)
21. Ms. Laila Tyebji (Art-Handicrafts)
22. Shri Vijay Sharma (Art-Painting)
23. Smt. Shamshad Begum (Social Work)
24. Smt. Reeta Devi (Social Work)
25. Dr. P.K. Gopal (Social Work)
26. Smt. Phoolbasan Bai Yadav (Social Work)
27. Dr. G. Muniratnam (Social Work)
28. Shri Niranjan Pranshankar Pandya (Social Work)
29. Dr. Uma Tuli (Social Work)
30. Shri Sat Paul Varma (Social Work)
31. Smt.Binny Yanga (Social Work)
32. Shri Yezdi Hirji Malegam (Public Affairs)
33. Shri Pravin H. Parekh (Pubic Affairs)
34. Dr. V. Adimurthy (Science and Engineering)
35. Dr. Krishna Lal Chadha (Science and Engineering – Agriculture)
36. Prof. Virander Singh Chauhan (Science and Engineering)
37. Prof. Rameshwar Nath Koul Bamezai (Science and Engineering)
38. Dr. Vijaypal Singh (Science and Engineering – Agricultural Research)
39. Dr. Lokesh Kumar Singhal (Science and Engineering)
40. Dr. Yagnaswami Sundara Rajan (Science and Engineering)
41. Prof. Jagadish Shukla (Science and Engineering)
42. Ms. Priya Paul (Trade and Industry)
43. Shri Shoji Shiba (Trade and Industry)
44. Shri Gopinath Pillai (Trade and Industry)
45. Shri Arun Hastimal Firodia (Trade and Industry)
46. Dr. Swati A. Piramal (Trade and Industry)
47. Prof. Mahdi Hasan (Medicine-Anatomy)
48. Dr. Viswanathan Mohan (Medicine – Diabetology)
49. Dr. J. Hareendran Nair (Medicine – Ayurveda)
50. Dr. Vallalarpuram Sennimalai Natarajan (Medicine – Geriatrics)
51. Dr. Jitendra Kumar Singh (Medicine – Oncology)
52. Dr. Shrinivas S. Vaishya (Medicine-Healthcare)
53. Dr. Nitya Anand (Medicine – Drugs Research)
54. Late Dr. Jugal Kishore (Medicine – Homoeopathy)
55. Dr. Mukesh Batra (Medicine-Homeopathy)
56. Dr. Eberhard Fischer (Literature and Education)
57. Shri Kedar Gurung (Literature and Education)
58. Shri Surjit Singh Patar (Literature and Education – Poetry)
59. Shri Vijay Dutt Shridhar (Literature and Education – Journalism)
60. Shri Irwin Allan Sealy (Literature and Education) 
61. Ms. Geeta Dharmarajan (Literature and Education)
62. Prof. Sachchidanand Sahai (Literature and Education)
63. Smt. Pepita Seth (Literature and Education) 
64. Dr. Ralte L. Thanmawia (Literature and Education) 
65. Shri Ajeet Bajaj (Sports – Skiing)
66. Smt. Jhulan Goswami (Sports – Women’s Cricket)
67. Shri Zafar Iqbal (Sports-Hockey)
68. Shri Devendra Jhajrija (Sports – Athletics- Paralympics)
69. Shri Limba Ram (Sports – Archery)
70. Shri Syed Mohammed Arif (Sports – Badminton)
71. Prof. Ravi Chaturvedi (Sports- Commentary)
72. Shri Prabhakar Vaidya (Sports-Physical Education)
73. Shri T. Venkatapathi Reddiar (Others-Horticulture)
74. Dr. K. (Kota) Ullas Karanth (Others-Wildlife Conservation and Environment Protection)
75. Shri K Paddayya (Others-Archaeology)
76. Shri Swapan Guha (Others-Ceramics)
77. Dr. Kartikeya V. Sarabhai (Others – Environmental Education)

For the complete and Original list click here.

2011, was a mixed bag for me had some good moments and some bad as well. Though my professional career was at bay, my personal life had some big moments, a few very good, and a couple of them bad as well. Though I must admit that the good moments were a little to many, to write out of which a few of them where: I completed my MS, and in the process also earned an Erdős Number, made some great friends at office in Achyut, Sandip, Moiz, Firoz, and Sandeep, joined an executive MBA course and have been performing well in it, and many more. The sad part were probably the only accidents that happened to me, as one of them was a major one and pretty serious (in fact this too can fit into the happy zone as there were only one accident as I call it, which a pretty good figure as compared to the previous years). The other only sad story can be that my good friendship with Umesh has probably been going through a few turbulant times.

The entry into 2012 hasn’t really been good as I fell critically ill, but this is not what the major setback is for me. The biggest problem will be that I would turn 25 this year in May, probably this a great figure and people look up for it, but that not in my case. This number is what I have been dreading for past many years, as 25 means that I am officially no longer dependent on my father and with that I will have to do away with all my army background benefits that I have been enjoying for more than 24 years. Probably this is the most dreaded number amongst the army kids, and unfortunately for me it has to come this year. Now no more army canteen, no more airline/train discounts, no more free entry into army clubs and sport centres, and probably no more army hospital treatment (and I am really scared of this). I am already getting scared with just the thought of losing all of these privileges, and turning completely into what we used to “a civilian”.       

2011 ended also on a good note, with me being able to make patch up with my love (well we have been breaking up and patching up for a long time now) which is very good, but that scares me now even more as with my parents aware and me touching 25, there will surely be a pressure to take the relationship to the next level, something I am not really ready for. Also close friends getting hooked up already and quite a few in the line this year add the peer pressure as well. What scares me to a further level is that with now my brother moving out of town midyear for his job opportunities and my parents moving out to a new location as a part of my dad’s transfer means that I will be all alone in the city, and this is a reason big enough for my parents and grandmothers to get me hooked. Hopefully, I will be able to push all these decisions onto 2013, making me free from at least one big pressure. Or else handling both tags, the adoption of the “Civilian” tag and the loss of “Bachelors” tag, will become very difficult for me. 

Apart from these two probable “dreadful” events life looks pretty comfortable in the coming year, unless the first two weeks of the year repeat itself again and again. Though the start has not really been good so far. Also this year is termed as year when the world will end, I am not sure of the world, but surely I came close to see my life end in the past two weeks. Hopefully this year will bring very few accidents and lot of success. I was also able to keep up to most of my resolutions taken last year, hopefully I will able to keep that trend up this year as well.

It all happened on the Wednesday night 11th January 2012. To give you a small background – I have had a little problem with my small intestines, as they had developed so ulcers within them which had been bleeding for over 10 days by then. The medicine I was taking was somehow not effective at all till that day. When I passed motions, fresh blood also accompanied making me weaker and weaker as every day passed by. But on the morning of 11th for the first time in 13 days I had not lost blood, this event itself caused me to get charged up and excited. I believed that finally after a fight of 12 long days the medication had worked. That day, just out of enthusiasm and excitement I took things very casually, especially my health. And all that over enthusiasm backfired.

That night I lost a huge amount of blood making my blood pressure fall to a very low level. I was immediately hurried to the hospital by my brother, mother and my cousin. My condition was in a kind of a critical state. I was in such a bad shape that around 2 a.m. in the morning I had to be transfused with a bottle of blood. That probably got me back to the normal. In fact a laser surgery was already planned for Saturday, but seeing my condition the doctors thought of not delaying the surgery that further, and have it on Friday itself. As time went by my condition was getting better, and then I took probably the most stupid step, a decision I probably regret all life, or I can say had it got a little more worse I would not have remained to regret it. I had not applied for leave for the coming days in office, so I thought of going to the office for some time, so that I could apply for leave. That act of mine took a lot of toll on my body, as I had exerted a lot already. And though my trip to office and back was very short, for just around two hours including the travelling time, that exertion was enough to be nearly fatal. After reaching back home, once again when I passed motions I lost a huge amount of blood, and for me it felt as if all the blood that was transfused in the morning had been lost. My condition had worsened, and was even worse than it was in the previous night. When I reached the hospital, the doctors took the decision of not even waiting for the next morning and operating on me as soon as possible. I was finally taken into the Operation Theatre around 7 in the evening, and by 9 the operation was successful.

I don’t know whether this was my victory over death or it was a great escape from one or I was just lucky to survive. But one thing that confuses me the most was that was my condition really that bad or was it just my carelessness and foolishness that set up my meeting with death. I really know whom to blame for all of this, my condition or my attitude towards my condition. I remember my office colleagues asking me all those 10 days to go home and take rest, but I just did not listen and probably got myself caught in such a situation.

But I must say that the 5 hours from the time I reached the hospital, till the time the operation was over were really terrible. All that time, I had this feeling that I had touched my end, and it appeared as if all the life was getting reflected before me. And after that all I don’t know but I believe I am a changed man now. I have suddenly started respecting life a little more. I have always been very careless when it comes to my health. In fact health has always been very low on my priority list. In fact the 2008 event also did not teach me much on this front. All it taught was that I had to ride my bike safely, nothing else. But this time around I have a feeling things have changed, and I believe that I will have to change my priority list for sure, getting health somewhere towards the top from bottom.

I hope that all the events that occurred during the past two weeks change my perspective towards life and that now I have no more such “lovely” trysts with my end in distant future.

As all say “All good things need to come to an end”, so has the end of Star One arrived too. This channel was initially targeted to the youth as it broadcasted many youth based shows which became a cult amongst the youth and made the channel instant hit. The channel when launched 7 years ago improvised and introduced shows that were targeted to the youth, and with that the channel broke that times current trend of shows that were only targeting the women folk, especially the housewives, generally centering around issues relating Saas-Bahu, husband-wife, and in general family based issues.

This channel came in as a reverence for the youth when it introduced shows like Remix, which became an instant hit amongst the college and high school going youth. Honestly, this was one the shows that got me hooked to the channel. Apart from Remix, the channel also got in a concept of introducing a weekly show during the weekdays, by introducing Special Squad, Siddhant, Hotel Kingston, and Instant Khichadi, all one hour shows that were shown on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday respectively at probably what was the prime time. All these shows gained popularity as there were all based on completely different concepts and were also far away from the normal trend, and brought in a new freshness on television. Later such became the popularity of the shows that even their reruns later were highly viewed (something I don’t think any of the other current channels have been able to do).

Another innovation that worked highly for them was that the channel broadcasted all the repeats of the shows on weekends for those who missed out on them during the weekdays due to the shows on other channels. This concept actually created a huge viewership for the channel and its shows.

And then Star One introduced probably their most successful series, “The Great Indian Laughter Challenge”, a show that got all the people, diversified in all age groups, hooked to the channel. There was a phase when Friday nights were only meant to be for Star One, and more so for the Laughter Challenge. And probably in no time Star One reached to be one of the top channels, even rivaling against Star Plus which has shows like “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” and other similar shows which were running successfully for years, and had created a huge following base.

After this show Star One seeing the popularity the channel was gaining, the channel introduced many family shows, which were not the typical kind of family shows, and they too turned up being very successful. One of them being Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, a show that had humor as well as touched to the family issues like Saas-Bahu fights and stuff but in a very much hilarious way. 

Then the channel introduced very popular celebrity dance shows like the Nach Baliye series and then later the Zara Nack ke Dikha series. And after running successfully for about two-three years, when it started losing some of its popularity came in shows like Dill Mill Gayye, Miley Jab Hum Tum, and the Koffee with Karan series. Dill Mill Gayye probably went on to become probably their most popular show, as it connected directly to the youth, and by now when the internet media was at its boom, and with youth being the major part of the viewership and the media, these shows excelled everywhere especially Dill Mill Gayye. On the blogs and other forums one could easily notice the craze of this show, and this probably became the silver lining for the show. Such was the impression of this show on mind of the youth that no other show could actually replace it, and probably that has what has happened. It has been more than a year DMG was closed, and since then the channel also started losing its popularity and to such an extent that the channel had to go for a revamp.

Another new concept that worked for Star One was that they did not hang onto a show for too long. The shows ran on for about a year or two only whether they were successful or not. Probably this was the USP of Star One and with this they managed to create a huge fan base and then by ending the shows and introducing new ones they tried to bring freshness after regular intervals. This also meant that the reruns of the show were also highly viewed because of the craze they had created and nostalgia of course.

This worked great for Star One for almost 7 years, but after closing Dill Mill Gayye things really did not go too well. In fact last month or so I saw DMG being rerun on the channel all over again, and I thought that Star One has come back to get its prime viewership (the youth) back to the channel, but the sudden news of the channel shutting down has left me in a disarray. With the closure of the channel also means that the possibility of getting to see the shows like Special Squad, Siddhant, Dill Mill Gayye, and Remix has also vanished. There is probably no chance left to see these shows again.

Probably as a youth, I could relate to Star One a lot, and I guess everyone who loved watching television could. I don’t know what the new channel Life OK is aiming at, but yes with the promotional videos, it hardly looks that it has anything for youth in it. And now in despair I can only say that let’s hope that the channel comes back after some break, or they introduce the old shows back on the channel.

Sehwag after scoring 200

Since Virender Sehwag emerged at the international scene he has always been called as the clone of Sachin Tendulkar, because of the many similarities in their batting styles. But today, probably he has proved this saying correct by doing what only Sachin has done it before, and not just doing it even bettering it. Yes, Sachin Tendulkar created history by becoming the first player ever to score a double hundred in a One Day International and now Virender Sehwag has become the second to do so and now after scoring 219 has the highest individual score in ODI cricket bettering Sachin’s 200 not out.

Now this is the fastest double hundred in ODI cricket, and now has also equaled the record of 25 fours in a single innings (incidentally Sachin is the other one who holds this record and he too had made this during his mammoth innings of 200 not out). Also, this is a great moment for him because he is captain the team in the series and this innings has led the team to a series victory. There was a lot of pressure on him regarding his form, but I guess now this innings has silenced all critics. But to be honest, I really don’t believe if the concept of being out of form really works on Sehwag. I think he just plays the same way every time, and sometimes he scores a zero and sometimes a double hundred or even at times a triple hundred. And yes honestly, the kind of player Sehwag is one can even expect a triple hundred from him in ODI cricket.

There was another comment which I read somewhere, that now Virender Sehwag has become the first human to score a double century in ODI cricket. By using the word human is not only something for Sehwag, but also is a great testimony for Sachin, since for every fan (which includes Sehwag as well) he is not a human but god. I remember after scoring the double century Sachin had said that it is just a record and can easily be eclipsed sometime. He also said that he would be very happy if an Indian can do that. Also when asked whom did he think can actually do that, the first name he mentioned was that of Sehwag’s. And now see all that has come true, it is like Sachin’s wish was Sehwag’s command. 

Sehwag after crossing 200 mark

But truly with this innings Sehwag has entered the record book in such a way that it would be very difficult to remove his name from the record books easily. Though, his style is best suited for the shorter format of the game Sehwag has excelled in test cricket more, scoring two triple centuries. And to certain extent has not really made his mark in the ODIs and Twenty20 cricket because of which he has come under a lot of criticism. But now he has silenced all the questioning mouths, and the way he has done it, I think only he could do it that way. But I just wish that just by looking at the bowling attack of West Indies Sehwag’s innings is looked down upon, as Sachin had scored it against the best bowing attack, South Africa. I am saying this because scoring 200 runs is not a joke, and once it scored the opposition bowling attack is inconsequential. Today was just Sehwag’s day, and proabbaly had it been South Africa or Australia also Sehwag would have scored a double hundred.

Also, apart from Sehwag, but majorly due to him India crossed the 400 run mark in ODIs for the fourth time which is again a record. The score of 400 has only been crossed 10 times till now of which India has crossed 4 times now, South Africa and Sri Lanka have done it twice and Australia and New Zealand have done it once. 
In the end I would like to wish Sehwag for his achievement and I hope that Sehwag’s fires big down under against the Australians, as his explosive batting would really be needed if India want to win in test matches and ODIs there.

Sehwag thanking the almighty after scoring 200

The team pic on the traditional dress day

In my previous post on this topic 20 months back, I covered my side of the journey of first 20 months. My story how I survived till then, and how many of my batch mates lost their jobs or how they quit for better opportunities and other aspects of that unforgiving recession. So now I don’t want to discuss it any further here. And in this post I will try to take my journey forward from there. If I remember correctly, I had stopped in the post around 28thMarch or so, and now I will try and carry on from there. That period again started will IPL and appraisal meetings. IPL was not as fun as it had been during the initial first year, as all the friends by then were very busy into their projects, and we hardly got time to meet during the day, leave the opportunity of watching the matches.  Yes the appraisal meetings were better, as by now I had somewhat gelled into the new department and the new project well by then.

My team

Then came May 1, the results of our appraisals were announced. After getting an increment last time around (or I can say getting the reimbursement of the salary cut) most of us were not really expecting a huge increase, but to our surprise we did end up getting a decent rise in money. Something the Cybagians were not really used to. I cannot say that it created goodwill amongst the employees, but yes it did reduce the bad feelings to some extent. However, even after this I noticed a very high attrition rate in the organization in the coming months. July, August, and September were three months where I saw almost half the team changing.  There was not really anything happening as such in those six months as such apart from seeing many teammates and friends leaving the companyand many new faces joining the team. And yes the biggest thing to happen was as I saw many close friends leave, Vishal who joined the team sometime around February became a real close friend of mine in that period.During that period, my mentor, manager, a close colleague Bharati left Cybage. That came in a more of a shock, not only shook me or my project team, but the entire department and even the client. I took the team some time to recover from that loss, and amidst that the appraisal results for the next appraisal cycle were announced. Once again to the surprise of everyone, we all had monetary increments and that too what we call the decent hikes. But I was even more surprise, when I was handedover my promotion letter by my department head. Well, I am not really sure whether I deserved that at that particular time, but nevertheless it was welcome.Things changed, scales grew higher, and so did theresponsibility with that promotion and finally after a couple of months it led to my project change. Then that was again a big shock (I have written about this here already), as I had been in that project for almost 19 months by then.

Me with the team in one of the outings

And then came the probably the biggest change, I was shifted to the West Avenue location, and that opened a great opening for me. That stint of 5 months there probably revamped me completely. I was not the old Shishir my team knew, or I can say that helped me introduce the actual me to everyone. In that period of time I made many very good friends, something that I had hardly done over the last many months.  Also, during this I did attend almost every team outing possible, something I had not done during the earlier period for some or the other reason. But yes all those events helped me bond better with the team.Another thing, that probably helped me bond better was that this time around in the previous few months the attrition rate has been pretty low which meant that I got more time to adjust and interact with people. I believe the biggest reason for this low attrition rate has been the appraisals at Cybage in this period. For the last four appraisals (after every six months) continuously, everyone has received increments probably which has managed to build a certain faith in the organization and can be seen in the low attrition rate.

But as time has passed by and another appraisal cycle has come round the corner, the attrition rate is high again or I can say has come back to normal.  Since this time around everyone is aware that there will not be any monetary increments people are probably searching out for better opportunities and definitely better pay packages. It looks like the IT life is again coming back to normal after a very long hibernation.

My team in one of the team outings

Apart from all of this another change that happened during this period of 20 months was that our late night coffee meetings were changed to weekend trips. These trips were more fun as well as gave us a lot more time to bond. After the first couple of trips I and Vishal decided to carry out such trips every month, but we have hardly been able to go on 9-10 trips in this period. Nevertheless, all these trips have been highly entertaining and definitely full of adventure. Also, these trips gave us opportunities to go to various unseen locations for trekking and also enjoy the scenic beauty. Suddenly I have found another and a better way to enjoy with friends. Unfortunately the group is not the same, and it is only Raman and me that remain in common. Bhadre has sometimes made an appearance in these trips, but certainly that has been a rare (earlier too he was not really regular to our meetings but did manage to make on more occasions than he has done now). Mihir, who once used to be a regular member of our meetings, has not been able to join once the late night coffee meets got converted to weekend treks. But yes, Vishal has become a very regular member of these trips, and now Achyut has joined the bandwagon too.

Team's traditional Day

Apart from thesethe great moments with my team in the various team meetings, whether they are knowledge sharing sessions (or the fun sessions) or they are monthly birthday celebrations, or they are team lunch outings, or even the Diwali funfair organization committee meetings, all of them have continued to be very entertaining and exciting as they were in the first 20 months period. And all I can say is that the life has been very good so far, except for a few instances when some of my good friends parted ways in search of a better living somewhere else. Lot of my friends left in this period, in fact my fresher’s batch which had 46 of us is now only left to 9 people as we complete 40 months. The latest and probably the closest casualty amongst them being that of Mihir, who left Cybage last week.

Another important thing that has started in this period has been the tie-up between Cybage and SIBM for the Executive MBA course, which I have enrolled for. Now that gives me the opportunity of completing my MBA which I was thinking of last time I wrote this blog post.

The Cybage SIBM Batch

So overall I can say that this period of 20 months has been a much better one for me professionallythan the previous period. And as I have said that this period was probably the one where I was sailing through very easily through these calm times, but I surely hope that in the coming months I will soar rather than just sail.
And on this thought and hope I would like to close my post for now. Hope to update on this very soon.

Well, this post had to have one from our bike treks.. so this is one of them...

Amidst all the hype and expectations of Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th International ton, another Indian cricketing legend, Rahul Dravid surpassed a major milestone. A milestone, which only one player has achieved in the history of test cricket. That was crossing the 13000 runs mark in test matches, he became only the second batsman to do so, which is a memorable feat.

He had become the sixth batsman to reach the 10000 mark, the fifth to reach the 11000 mark, the third to reach the 12000 mark, and now has become the second player to reach the 13000 run mark. This proves why he is the backbone of the Indian cricket team, and why he has been given the nickname of “The Wall”.

Though unfortunately, he has always been under the shadow of another Sachin Tendulkar, and probably because of this his major feats have gone unnoticed. But certainly that cannot take anything away from this legend. Apart from the runs he has scored 36 test centuries and 62 test fifties. His number of centuries is only fourth in number behind Sachin’s 51, Kallis’s 40, and Ponting’s 39. His 62 test fifties is the second highest in number, both Sachin and Allan Border having scored a record 63 test fifties (if Sachin goes onto score a hundred in this match he would come down to a joint position with Dravid here). All these records have to be of a special player. Also, this year Rahul’s form has been exceptional, having scored over 1000 test runs in the calendar year. And this is his third occasion he has done so.

Dravid’s contribution to Indian cricket is legendary, and so in the end I would like to salute his contribution to Indian cricket and congratulate him on his recent milestone. Also I hope that he does cross many more and give us many more moments to cherish. 

I have a good example to explain this situation, when a bad communication and later no communication led up to a very embarrassing situation, for both me and my friends. This made me realize that one cannot and should take things for granted unless they are being explicitly conveyed.

It happened on a Sunday a couple of weeks back. Two of my friends (Tejsweeta and Tejaswini) wanted to visit the army shop to buy a few things. I had to accompany them so that they would be allowed to enter the Army shopping premises. So they had informed me about this well in advance. An evening before this they even confirmed with me of this, and I too fixed up the meeting time (it was for 10 o’ clock in the morning if I remember), and asked them to give me a call once before leaving from their place.  

Unfortunately, a got an urgent call late in night and I had to rush to my friends place in the wee hours of the morning. A lot of time went by at my friends place getting things in order; I did not realize that the shopping time was approaching. In the meanwhile due to all the stress since morning I almost forgot about this shopping plan. I realized that only around when it was around 10:30 that day. I thought of informing my friends to delay this shopping idea for a couple of hours as I would get late as I was engaged in some high priority work. But it is at that time I realized that run out of my mobile battery. My phone was not working, which meant that I could not communicate my situation to them anyway. I was in a little disarray, but then I felt that even they cannot contact me anyhow, and in such a situation they would not have left their place. That thought did relax me a little, and after sometime I headed back home. I reached home around 12 o’clock, and it is at that time a saw many missed calls from Tejsweeta on my other number.

Even after looking that I was not really disturbed as I believed that probably she has been trying to contact me since morning to confirm about this trip. But it is only when I contacted her I feel into a state of shock when she informed me that she along with Tejaswini were waiting for me at the decided place for the more than two hours. Not that really disturbed me a lot, and I was not in a state to respond at all, as anyways it was late to go out for shopping (as the army shops generally close by noon on Sundays). I probably had no words to speak at that time, as to some extent I had goofed up this plan. But as time has passed by since then, there has not really been much to worry about that day except a little embarrassment I got into because of that miscommunication or rather no communication.

To be honest, I been particularly thinking about this incident for the past two weeks and even analyzing it, and I almost every time I come up to a conclusion that whatever happened that day was hardly my fault. To a major extent it was the miscommunication and wrong assumptions made more from my friends rather than me.

To speak a few of them firstly, I believe they should have called me up before leaving. I believe they tried to, but since I did not respond to any of their calls they should have left at the first place. My not  picking up their call should have been an obvious indication that I am stuck up somewhere and should have waited for me to respond, I think they should have been intelligent enough to understand this sign or lapse of communication. As it is always better to wait at home rather than wait at some unknown place in scorching heat.

Secondly, what was the point in waiting at the place for over two hours is something I don’t understand. I can still somehow agree (contrary to my first point), they felt that something must have gone wrong and wanted to stick to the plan. But in that too, I really don’t see a point in waiting for 2-3 hours. I think it makes sense to probably wait for someone for only half an hour, definitely not more than that unless you have some sought of communication going on. I don’t know what exactly was going through their minds which made them wait for so long, get more and more frustrated as time passed by and then probably take out all of that on me the next day. I am very precise with my timings, I hardly get 5-10 minutes late, so probably even 30 minutes was a lot of time taking me into consideration (and they being my good friends and knowing me well should have taken this point into consideration).

To be honest, I really cannot figure what I did wrong, but for sure something was there. All in the end I can say that probably it was a day when quite a few things went wrong. What I am actually sad about that it kind of effected my image and probably even caused a small dent for no mistake of mine (at least I have not been able to figure out any). That is why I planned to write this here as maybe I might be able to get my side of story clear to people and also this will help me get some feedback as well. Maybe I must have gone wrong somewhere, something that I have still not considered.

And the most crucial part is that this, a very simple incident of a common day life can explain the disastrous outcomes of a bad or no communication or as we call it “MISCOMMUNICATION”. Also, this does explain in a way how important it is to interpret the communication correctly as well.