Eight Below

Another busy weeks.... invaruiably didn't do anything productive, but sometime it happens you end up with doing such things. Anyway, I'm not going to discuss anything here and waste another couple of hours here, boring me & you.

Last weekend, I was in chennai. My train reached the station at 5:55 am sharp unlike it used to be late by atleast 30 mins. My train companion was botheriong now & then right from 4 am about the chennai station, believe she is new to the city and was here for some program on NDTV ( I thought journalist have some sense of gathering knowledge about the places where they visit.. this was enitrely opposite or may be I'm the poor fellow appointed to give those details to here)

First , I thought of taking Auto from the prepaid stand, but after seeing the amount (Rs.102) decided to try out my old friend Pallavan :D. I never boarded the bus from Railway station, infact haven't used the bus for long time in chennai after 2003 March ( I bought my bike in March 2003).

It was around 6:45 am when I got my bus k18, which is supposedly to be the very frequest bus in the city connecting my locality & railway station. I was frustated by the waiting time {Ops Mgmt-naa ;) } and asked the neighbour sitting beside me. He shared a few thoughts on changing needs of people and few buses converted into hitech bus flying with colours ( I have seen only 3 colours Orange, Yello & blue, is there anything else too ?? ). The old man gave me good idea whats going on in Chennai. He was surprised to see a software engineer boarding bus in chennai ( Is that anything uncommon in chennai????).

Finally, I reached my place at 7:50 am. Though it was time consuming, I enjoyed the ride in bus a lot. It was totally different than what I experienced in bangalore or nasik.

P.S. : The title is a picture name, I saw last friday in Star Movies. Really beautiful movie teaching us about obidience, discipline and team spirit. Though actors are meare dogs, they speak more on management style. Leaving apart the crap portion of the hero, the dogs have done a splendid work in the movie. Have a chance to see the movie, watch it... its worth watching two times even.

Taxing the $uper RICH

Inspired from my Godfather Scott Adams Blog - Dilbert Blog on How to tax the Super Rich, trying my best what all we can do to the Indian $uper Rich.

As Rajni says in his Sivaji movie, "Richer gets rich; poorer gets poor". There are many riches, uncountably grown in the recent past. Correspondingly the Super Rich which were few a couple of decades ago were increased well in number.
Ambani, Sunil Bharati Mittal, Narayanamurthy, Azim Premji etc.etc. who owns at least Rs.100 Cr in their pockets, squeezes their CA just to get out of the Taxation Net. The normal 33% taxation doesn't help the government to tax out our guys and benefit the needy ones. Lets have a 'deal' as said by Scott Adams in his blog.

What could be the rights given to them which would not affect them invariably with the normal society? Here are few from me,

* Super riches can be given the double voting rights. In any case they won't come down in the hot sun and vote during election, so giving a double voting right will not affect the society or the candidate.

* Super Riches can get special VIP pass during the National festival and given a seat near President or PM. By any chance its going to be the Prez who will hoist the flag. So giving a seat near by that will not make any big implication, rather we can allow them to bid for the seat.

* We can allow the Super Riches to drive car at the speed of 200 KMPH after 10pm. As they keep their schedules of flight after 9pm, this would benefit them a lot.After 10 there won't be any big commutation by the regulars on road, so no disturbance to the citizens.

* We can allow all the Super Rich to build their houses in one particular area and make sure there will be uninterrupted facilities for them. Anyways now they are paying lot of bribe to the local persons to get the essential needs, why don't we make it legal, at least the government gets some money in its kitty.

* This is most important privilege - Given an option to have more than 1 legal wife. As they are Super Rich, they will be able to maintain two three houses. By this they can satisfy their existing "KEEP" and legalize all their dealings with them. In fact by this process, you demolish the "BENOMY" trade usually happens with this keep and get lot of black money into the market again. Disclaimer:- Government will not responsible for any characteristic & emotional mishaps happening because of this privilege. Its the sole responsibility of the Super Rich to maintain all the wives equally or proportionately.

I believe, have added a lot to this list. Though I'm not up to the creativity what Scott had about the Super Rich ( neither even to the extent of his comments), trust have gave some insight on what I'm trying to say here. You have some more ideas in your mind, please pen them down as comment, will compile and send it across the P.Chidambaram.

Gobi Lollipop

Quite interesting to know that, I have started blogging again ( that too weekly twice or thrice). Suddenly, I have many things to share, but not sure whether everything would be appropriate to pen down here.

Yesterday, there was team lunch. Good part of your office being nearby MG Road is you have lot of place to hangout. My boss use to say for every 10 steps you keep in MG Raod, you will come across 2 eating hangouts. I tried counting and am sure he also did that, becuase it was precises.

One of the onsite co-ordinator for our project came to India to get married, so there was a party arrnaged (Mind, its the 3 party in this month and hope to have more in a row). We went to a hotel called EMGEE, decent place, nice food and resonable rates. If anyone happens to take your food in MG Road, Bangalore try this restaurant inside HOTEL SHELTON.

I'm getting into the team now. As usual the topic is about Cricket or Calcutta. If they ( the team) are saturated with either of these, then the topic will be about Balki or Vijaykanth. Even my Practicse Lead who is from Pune was very much aware and intersted in discussing about Balki & VK. I believe, if VK does some movies in Hindi, soon he can progress in the National Politics.

Three Cheers to VK!

One good thing about having lunch with your boss is you don't have to pay anything :D & you will also get the freedom to chose & eat whatever you wish to. Finally the menu,

1. Roti-3
2. Paneer Masala Thikka
3. Aloo Kadai Dum
4. Chinese Noodles
5. Fried Papad
6. Tomato Soup
&
7. Gobi Lollipop

Negotiation Skill

Whenever we talk of salary increases and pay negotiations, nine out of ten people suffer palpitations. Remember, being shy, scared, whiny and my job speaks for itself never works. Raise your hand to be heard or learn the tactics to get your word in. Negotiation is an acquired skill.

I thought I wanted a career, turns I just wanted a paycheck
This is what most negotiations turn into, if we are not prepared beforehand and are not clear minded about our reasons for seeking the new job change.

Let the employers initiate the salary negotiations
Joy, a marketing executive was doing well in a small company. His salary was tied to the commissions he got on the business he brought in. He was out in the field and learnt a lot. The problems was there was no clear hierarchy in the job. His boss was doing the same, he saw no avenues for growth. Hence, he applied in an upcoming aviation company for the post of assistant marketing manager. When it came to salary negotiations he let it slip that his previous company paid him a commission on business brought in.

The employers outright rejected the idea and quoted a salary which was marginally higher than what he was getting, Joy accepted without buying any time to think through the offer.

Never accept outright
According to human resource managers there is a general band of salary that the prospective employers have in mind and they quote the lower end of that band.

You do not want to show your eagerness to settle for whatever salary being offered, they expect you to ask for more. Do so, but do not outprice yourself. According to a former human resource executive and a consultant, Neeta Navin, the employers always keep a 10 percent margin for negotiations.

And in case you do not get the salary you expect but the company is excellent with good prospects go for it, she advices. Most companies bring you at par within three months if you perform well.

Skill set and experience
Back your demands with your job achievements and skill sets. You cannot just ask for more because you are moving jobs, it is because you think you are suitable and deserve the hike.

Joy erred on the side of caution, the company was new, he had an excellent track record and brought tremendous goodwill and skill sets. He never calculated his worth right

Compensation package
Negotiations are not just about a salary hike. One can negotiate a good compensation package including healthcare benefits, stock options, profit sharing, quarterly salary review instead of yearly, a signing bonus, education allowances, relocating allowance, a company car, travel costs, the list is endless.

sutta idam : PayCheck

Do You Know ?

Do You Know that

Letters 'a', 'b', 'c' & 'd' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 99
(Letter 'd' comes for the first time in Hundred)

Letters 'a', 'b' & 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999
(Letter 'a' comes for the first time in Thousand)

Letters 'b' & 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999,999,999
(Letter 'b' comes for the first time in Billion)

And

Letter 'c' does not appear anywhere in the spellings of entire English Counting

P.S.: above post was a Forwarded Mail from my friend :)