MARTERIALISTIC WAY OF LIFE – PLANET EARTH

What to know whether you are following materialistic way of life? If Yes, please read the following points, which hints the materialistic characteristics of a person, and compare the same with your own. There may be a chance that at least 1/2 points definitely coincide in everybody's case. The way to check the degree of materialistic nature you have at this moment is to try to match the following points with the ones you feel/ think that you exhibit in every day's life. The maximum number of points coincides in one's case, the maximum materialistic that person is.

If you are so enthusiastic to

1. EARN Money and possessions

2. No empathy to fellow human beings

3. Respect affluence

4. Respect Ego

5. Give importance and priority to one's own self

6. Try to follow "Gain everything and loose nothing" concept in life

Materialism and materialistic way of life both are different concepts. This blog does not explain these concepts in detail but focuses on materialistic way of life characteristics and how to identify the same in one's own personality. Most of us show some spirituality at one point of life. Actually, everybody knows spirituality gives peace of mind whereas materialistic mentality increases the animal craving for more and more needs and comforts. And this blog agrees that at this moment most of the people in this world are valuing materialistic way of life compared to spirituality and in the race of winning and gaining more they are not in a position to think about even the nearby future.

Can you guess how long can these materialistic humans walk on this planet if they continue to crave for more at the present rate? You know the answer is "not much time". Ok. After knowing this answer, are you in a position to come down on your cravings? If your answer is Yes, we all can hope that this planet can survive and cater human beings needs for some more time in future. But, if it is an unfortunate No, then you know that the D-day is nearby.

The crazy logic in this case is that day after day, it is becoming difficult to understand by human beings that for whom they are accumulating all the resources, s/he will not be in a position to enjoy these. The reasons are so many for this to happen. If humans stop this animal craving for more and more, stop following the illogical and irresponsible materialistic way of life, and try to judiciously use all the resources they have at this moment by maintaining an eye on future, we can all hope that planet Earth can survive for some more time as the only planet that holds survivable climatic conditions for human beings in the entire galaxy.

Think about what you read!

Don’t Leave Your Business – Unfinished

Life is full of tasks; everyday we start many things but do not complete them. In other words, we leave them unfinished. Why like that? It is not necessary to complete or whatever we do. But leaving a business unfinished is not recommended anywhere. It is always better to tie the loose ends. Never ever leave an unfinished business just like that; complete it. And make sure that is completed from all the angles.

Sometimes, unfinished business from our past life comes back haunting into the present life context and creates unwanted obstacles or troubles in our present life. Once the problems start, then people will start wondering first about why and where from these unexpected issues are popping up in to their pleasant cool life. After they come to know the origin of the problems, then they wonder why they had not finished the old business during that time itself. Life is full of contradictions. Those who understand the concept of life only can understand the importance of survival tactics of life and try to implement them. Life is not cool for everyone. But we can prevent most of the problems by making it a habit of completing whatever we had started in life; means do not leave any business unfinished.

Don’t Leave Your Business – Unfinished

Life is full of tasks; everyday we start many things but do not complete them. In other words, we leave them unfinished. Why like that? It is not necessary to complete or whatever we do. But leaving a business unfinished is not recommended anywhere. It is always better to tie the loose ends. Never ever leave an unfinished business just like that; complete it. And make sure that is completed from all the angles.

Sometimes, unfinished business from our past life comes back haunting into the present life context and creates unwanted obstacles or troubles in our present life. Once the problems start, then people will start wondering first about why and where from these unexpected issues are popping up in to their pleasant cool life. After they come to know the origin of the problems, then they wonder why they had not finished the old business during that time itself. Life is full of contradictions. Those who understand the concept of life only can understand the importance of survival tactics of life and try to implement them. Life is not cool for everyone. But we can prevent most of the problems by making it a habit of completing whatever we had started in life; means do not leave any business unfinished.

Being Poor Helps You… Sometimes!!!

Being poor is good for your health. Yes, anyways being poor means there is no chance for you to consume extra calories. Right? That way, you consume less which in turn makes you slim if your genes won't ditch you. Therefore, for you, there is no need to go to that hi-fi gym and pay fees for using the ultra-chic equipment there. But, rich have to do this. Because their spending power buys them all sorts of unnecessary calorie rich stuff and they eat that anyways, which leads to increase in the girth of their pot size belly. Again to reduce this, they prefer to go to gym/ health care/ fitness centers, which charge them heavily to reduce their own hidden fat. How ridiculous! And, being poor, before you spend every penny, you think twice. This kind of thinking increases your alertness which in turn increases your consciousness. Rich people pay hefty fees to attend meditation classes just to incre ase their consciousness and alertness. Since most of the times, they rarely get a scenario which taxes their mind power; just to keep their mind in healthy state they are forced to attend meditation classes. Being poor, your situation itself creates such kind of environment without you paying a single penny! Howzatt!!

Society scrutinizes every action of yours, if you are poor. To avoid this, you need to consider Society and how it reacts and responds for actions of yours, for every activity you do. Most of the poor people think that life is a hell; this kind of looking at life happens only when you compare yourself with the filthy rich guys. But, just look at the way on what rich guys are spending money for. They spend most of their money on feeling good and looking good. Feeling good factor is a costly one. People, only when they can buy what they want to buy and do how they want to do, can feel good. But it is not possible for everyone, though being rich, at all times. Sometimes, being poor helps you to do what you want to do without attracting unnecessary eyeballs. And about the looking good factor, you don't need to think about that. Your situation and your purchasing power parity take cares of y our slim look. Any doubt!

In summary, sometimes, being poor helps you in more than one way. A few things, which you feel that can be possible only for rich guys, are unnecessary to lead one's life. If you are good at preventing them happening to you, then there is no need for you to be rich. Just like what we discussed above, if you control what you eat, there is no need to go to gym. Similarly, if your mind is alert and your consciousness level is high, there is no need for you to attend meditation classes, etc. After saying all the above stuff, this blog also agrees that there a few things only money can buy to further your advantage in current life, for example, just like your international MBA degree, your flying power to anywhere in this world within a few hours, etc.

The Trend of Luck

Luck has much for many, but enough for no one. It's true that everybody needs luck badly. But it is not only scarce and nobody knows when it will brace you or leave you. That is LUCK! Some people believe in luck and they feel that the things happening in their life are because of luck they have. Irrespective of the believing or not believing in luck, everyone in this world needs a bit of luck. Even Thomas Edison, who believed in science and invented so many new things for the convenience of mankind believed in luck. He himself said that genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration, which is nothing but luck.

There are so many examples in our real life regarding this luck. People, whom we know for years and who were declared dud in their professional life, have suddenly started flying in their careers. Everyone wonders how it happens. But it happens and is happening. Nobody knows for sure how luck play games with us. There is no mathematical formula to predict the lucky trends in our life. All the algorithms so far invented by mathematicians hoping that they can capture the future trend of luck, sadly explains only the past performance of luck. There are so many theories to predict the patterns of luck.

From the religion point of view, those who do good karma possess good luck. If a person does the bad karma, the percentage of luck factor goes down. Nowadays, we can see the fortune graphs of people rising and lowering just like stock market Sensex within a few seconds. As per religion, the underlying factor that causes these random and unpredictable Up and Down fortune aberrations in our life with rapid frequency is because of the LUCK percentage factor in our lives.

In summary, we can only conclude by saying that luck never gives, it only lends. And no one can make luck. It has to be given by some unknown force or factor. How and on what basis the percentage of luck will be allocated to us, nobody knows.

Best of luck!

Turnover as a Performance Indicator

While buying mutual funds, most of the investors consider turnover as one of the performance measuring indicator along with other indicators such as P/E ratio, load/no-load, investment strategy, etc. As per this blog, considering mutual fund turnover as a performance indicator is ridiculous. At most, you can consider the turnover factor as the complimentary performance indicator along with other regular performance indicators.

In a financial year, if a mutual fund shows 100% turnover means that it has replaced all of its holdings at least once in the last 12-month period. If the turnover is more than 100% means, the rate of replacement of holdings increased by more than 1 factor. There are so many things to be taken into consideration before judging why a particular fund is showing that much percentage turnover. And one more factor is that whenever a fund goes for buying/selling of holdings, it has to pay tax on every transaction. Whatever profit it is expecting to earn by buying/selling the holdings that should be more than what it pays as tax and other expenses.

A few funds do not go for huge turnovers. But that does not mean that they are so prudent and are following a profitable path. As per funds history, there are so many low turnover funds that have made huge losses by not doing trades at the right time in the market. The high turnover funds are no exceptions. If the manager of a particular fund wants to dump the holdings at the wrong time, it means that the fund lost so much money in the form of taxes. Buying/selling holdings without following right market timings will bring loss to high turnover funds.

In summary, it is always better to give less importance to the turnover as a performance indicator. Always give priority to other performance indicators and if you want consider turnover as a complimentary performance indicator rather than the main indicator.

Focused Funds

If you are sure about particular sector funds, have enough knowledge in the basics of investing in those sectors and sector fundamentals, you can go for sector fund investing and reap huge benefits. Now the stock market is UP. And it seems that this trend is going to continue irrespective of the current recession. The FIIs are pushing the market up again. And it is time for the small time investor to again start doing the investments through funds.

Sector funds may add value and double your returns at this moment. But as you all know, every coin has two faces. It is better to branch your investments in sector funds while maintaining the proportional investments in other options like Open-ended mutual funds for diversification. If the boom continuous, the sector funds may add value and returns to your portfolio; but it bursts, your diversified investment portfolio will save you from the market crash.

Sector funds have high maintenance part. They come with huge overheads. It is always better to check out how much the fund is charging under the Fund Maintenance part before jumping into the ring.

Best of Luck!

The Advantages of Internal Newsletter – A Handout

An internal newsletter targets company employees as its main audience. The periodically published newsletter is expected to talk about the employees and their achievements mainly. Birth/marriage/work/etc anniversaries relating to employees should be brought to notice through internal newsletter with colorful visuals accompanied by flowery text. Every newsletter carries the messages of company CEO/MD/etc targeting employees, company growth, and market conditions, which educate employees and give them a broader outlook about where their company stands in the present competitive market. No matter what, an internal newsletter surely serves the company in integrating employees of all roles and ranks like a united family.

All the events, small or big, that happen in the company can be highlighted through newsletters. The underlying idea of "United, we can achieve anything and everything" can be propagated using newsletter as a medium. You can conduct instant polls to know the pulse of the employees about any critical issue and publish the same in the newsletter so that all the employees could come to know the opinion of their colleagues. If you are a knowledge-based company, you can use Newsletter to drive a reading campaign among the employees.

These kinds of campaigns help employees to educate themselves about new concepts, issues, policies, etc, relating to their domain and allow them to use their newly found knowledge to design and implement new processes that can help the company to save redundant costs in the long run.

So many things happen in the daily professional life of an employee.

While solving the unexpected issues under tremendous deadline pressures, the employee uses his/her little grey cells at lightening speed and uses the hidden knowledge base acquired through in-depth practical experience gained so far. Problem solving is important but sharing others how s/he solved the problem is "more important" from the company point of view. This kind of sharing helps the company to reduce the redundant efforts in solving the similar kind of problems in future. Moreover, the company's internal newsletter is the only tool through which employees can share their unique personal work life experiences.

In summary, an internal newsletter acts as glue that binds the company with its employees by sharing their unique experiences, knowledge base, and talent. Just imagine if you can make this medium little bit interactive that forces the employee to contribute something for the newsletter, whenever it is published. By publishing the contributions of an employee along with his/her visual, the company is doing nothing but respecting the employee and at the same time letting him/her know that s/he is the valuable source for the company. This kind of appreciation and publicity makes an employee proud and increases his/her sense of belongingness to the company. This kind of belongingness in turn helps the company in retaining the crucial talent, which it requires in this heavily competitive world.

Writing Release Notes Proving to be an Enigma

Products are updated by their manufacturers following the market demands of the customers. After every updation, the manufacturer releases the new version of the product along with a Release Notes. This Release Notes talks about so many things about the product in terms of defects/bugs, enhancements, changes made to the existing features, etc. And every manufacturer tries to give precise and correct information in the Release Notes. Since there is no universal format about how to write the Release Notes, every company follows its own standards in presenting the content and layout design.

All over the world, there is a convention among the Release Notes documenters that the Release Notes should be written in Present Tense. But at the same time, all companies don't follow this rule religiously. Again, there is no consensus about how much content should be provided to the reader of the Release Notes relating to a particular topic. In companies, this decision is always taken by the Documentation Head in a subjective way. That means, whatever goes as part of the content to the reader, depends on the wish of the Documentation Head. Nobody is quite sure about the content aspect. Some companies try to write the Release Notes as a mini-guide but a few others go for providing conceptual outline for the changes done along with respective guide links, where the new content in detail has been updated. Reader can click the guide links and read the content in detail, if s/he wants. < /P>

A few documenters debate about which tense should be used in Release Notes. As per them, if you are writing the Release Notes about a defect, then the problem part should be written in Past tense and the Solution should be written in the Present Tense. But, all over the world, documenters insist on writing all the Release Notes in Present Tense. A few others write in whatever tense they feel convenient; these guys argument is that they are mainly targeting the reader understanding aspect. Therefore, the stress is not upon the tense and sentence structure part but on the readability part.

In summary, how to write a proper Release Notes is proving to be a mystery for the new writer. Since the writer's content is always at the mercy of the Content Reviewer, there is much not scope on the part of the writer regarding how much content should be provided to the reader. Unfortunately, there is not much content available in the Net relating to the Release Notes.

Rule Creation

Sticking to said rules is one thing and creating new rules is altogether a different job. It is not possible for a person, who is a strict follower of existing rules, to think creatively and design new rules. His /her mind is already disciplined to follow those existing rules and creating something new is treated as a crime. Nevertheless, rule-benders exist everywhere. These guys /gals always are in a lookout for excuses so that they do not follow the said rules. If they are successful, then they feel that they have achieved victory.

Rule creation is an interesting job compared to following the existing rules in a disciplined manner. During rules creation, one has to think about all the target audiences and their psychologies. Everything has to be taken into consideration; otherwise it will be difficult to make people to follow the created rules. On the whole, the created rule should provide leverage to the follower and should not take way the mostly guarded personal space of the follower. Any rule which does not follow these rules will be broken by the followers no matter what how much good it does for them, if followed.

In summary, rules should be there and have to be followed. Creating rules is for bringing orderliness in the place wherever they are implemented. Nevertheless, rule-breakers/ benders are there everywhere and it is quite a fun to watch them doing that. However, neatly designed rules, keeping everyone in consideration, do not face resistance among the followers.

Age Vs Learning

Learning is a tough task. Depending up on your age, it becomes more difficult to learn new things. In these days, everyone needs to update their skills quite often to stay in the market. Depending on the market requirements, you are forced to sharpen your skills. Competition is everywhere. Be it getting a job or selling your product in the market, nevertheless you need to face a huge competition. Getting success is not that much easy. You need to strive hard for that. Hardworking is not the solution for today's competition. You need to be smart also. Only then, you can grasp the market. Otherwise, you will remain where you have started initially throughout your life. Irrespective of the amount of effort you put to win the competition, the market hardly allows you to grab the success easily. The only way to outdo the market is to think and do in the same way about how the market functions to o utperform you; implement the same tactics and strategies to win the market.

Getting what you want and how you want is a tough task nowadays. The competition between the grey cells has been increasing and it seems that it is going to become intense day after day. That's why you need to prepare your mindset to learn not only new skills but also improve your existing skill set. No matter what your age is, in today's market for your survival, you need to be a student throughout your life.

GUIDE WRITING FOR A LEGACY APPLICATION - TIPS

Legacy applications come with heavy baggage. The first problem is that the application is not designed as per the current standards. And there were so many chances that it was developed in a hodge-podge manner. During the initial stages, when the application has been under the process of building, documentation was not taken care of. Once the product started selling in the market, clients started asking for documentation to understand and implement the functionalities. Then, the company understands the importance of documentation and hires a few Technical Writers for Guide-writing. But here, the catch-in is that it is quite difficult at this point to gather product's process-related material because nobody knows completely about the product.

All legacy applications, which lack documentation for their critical processes, project this kind of problem to the writers. The common solution recommended for this kind of typical problem is that writers have to sit and play with the product so that they can understand the nuances of the product functionality. The second alternative is to call for a meeting with all the relevant departments including Sales, Pre-Sales, Business Analysts, and Design team and conduct a functionality walkthrough so that everyone can chip-in something about the functionality from their point of view. The third alternative is to take the help of Development team and request them to go through the code so that the functionality behind that particular feature can be understood and documented properly.

In summary, before documenting the functionality of a legacy application, it is always better if the writers take the help of all relevant departments of the company into confidence before they start working on the Guide. Always Understand, Verify and Validate (UVV) the given functionality before you start writing about it.

NET ADDICTION

Are you addicted to Net? This is high time everyone, who has been accessing Net for the past significant period of time, has to check whether they have been addicted to Net knowingly/unknowingly. Following are a few questions which help you to identify whether you are addicted to Net or not. Can you stay without getting connected for a single day? Can you stay without updating your blog for 2 hours? Can you stay silent without chatting with your friends /colleagues during a single weekday? If the answer is No to all of the preceding questions, then it can be safely assumed that you are one of those internet addicted personalities. And it is time to see your nearby psychiatrist regarding your addiction.

In most of the cases, people access Net to be in touch with their colleagues' /friends/ for official communication/ to update their notes/ etc. But, what happens here is that they get habituated to do such tasks period after period and while doing so, they unknowingly gets addicted to Net. Once addicted, they access Net to check their mails even when there is no necessity to do that. It is some sort of obsessive compulsive behavior which forces them to do such sort of things. Addicts spent most of their time browsing websites irrespective of their relevancy to their work/life. They register themselves with social networking sites and start updating their personal news so that others can read and respond. The buck does not stop here. The addiction forces them to such an extent that when they are not in a position to access the Net such as during traveling, etc, unable to resist themselves, the y try to access the Net using their Blackberries and start corresponding with their buddies online.

Life won't be same once you become a Net addict. It is better to accept that you are addicted and take help from professional psychiatrists as early as possible. One another example of Net addiction is that a few people are addicted to playing games on Net. These guys and gals are emotionally attached to the scores which they try to achieve during the play. Therefore, until they defeat the other player, who is sitting somewhere in the other part of the globe, these guys won't stop playing. Sometimes, this playing event crosses 24 hours at a stretch. This kind of continuous playing harms players physically their nerves and psychologically their mental stamina. If people follow the same kind of activities continuously religiously, then the chances of becoming Net addict are not very far.

In summary, though the technology has improved by leaps and bounds, but humans have not changed much in their mental and physical capabilities. That's why this blog suggests that it is always better to use and interact with new technologies in a limited and beneficial manner.

OLD Vs NEW WORK CULTURES

There is a lot of difference between the old and new work cultures around the globe. Today, it is easy even for a layman to judge whether a company is still following the old ways of doing things or flexible enough to understand and implement the new global work culture. Companies, which follow old work culture, follow dress code. Some go to the extent of asking their employees to wear uniforms (particularly manufacturing companies!) so that all the employees have something in common among them, which lay stress on equality and oneness.

In the recent globalization scenario, so many new domains, verticals, and industries have cropped up out of nowhere to service the global citizen in every aspect. Information Technology popularly known as IT is one of them. It has changed the global work culture scenario radically in a very short period of time (in one decade!). IT industry not only has created huge employment opportunities all around the world but it also paid the employees huge salaries to keep them in comfort and follow their own style of living.

All around the globe, IT work culture has been adjudged as the best one so far. IT companies follow flat-hierarchies, give their employees top priority, and freedom regarding their professional life. They were allowed to wear what they want and use company laptops for their personal use, along with other perks, free gifts, weekend dinners, etc. IT has changed the old work culture all around the globe. The new work culture has its own objectives and priorities, which are quite different from the old one. IT companies stress their employees only on getting given assignments done. That's it! How do you do that is not company's problem. Employees can come to office as per their own comfortable timings and stay as many hours as they want. At the end of the week, company checks whether the particular employee has completed the minimum number of work hours or not. This kind of work culture has not been imagined before 1990s.

In summary, the new world work culture gives importance to freedom and employee satisfaction unlike old work culture which gives importance to pseudo-discipline, unnecessary strictness, and mind-boggling organization hierarchies.

THE POWER OF A SUGGESTION

The power of a suggestion depends upon the receiver not on the giver. – Anonymous

In our daily life, whenever we come across people who are facing simple problems for which we know the solution, as a human being, we tend to give suggestions to the concerned person though s/he don't ask us. The solution is powerful enough to eradicate the problem. But, does the listener of the suggestion is willing to obey and implement this powerful solution? Everybody has freedom of their own and nobody can force others to listen to what they say. But at the same time, when the suggestion provided is a time-tested one and the problem-facing person is not listening to it, what else anyone can do?

Everyone can lead their life in their own way. They are the masters of their own destiny. When people want freedom in whatever they do, they are bound to follow their inner instincts rather than depending upon outsider's suggestions and ideas. Although it is better to follow your own instincts, but sometimes, it is rather better to look at other people and understand their suggestions before discarding them. This way, though you won't follow what others seem to be dictating, from your point of view, but still you can share their knowledge. Sharing knowledge is a good thing. If not here, somewhere else you can use the same idea/suggestion for betterment of your life.

In summary, this blog advocates every reader to listen to the suggestions that others give about your problems and try to understand them in terms of timing and context before you decide whether you implement the same or discard them.

TIPS FOR A NEW JOINEE

Joining a new company is easy but mingling with new colleagues is little bit difficult task for most of the employees. Every time the new joinee is supposed to interact with an existing team / group, s/he feels odd. This happens particularly if the new joinee is shy and introvert.

Every thing is new for you when you join a new company. The place where you sit, the people whom you interact, the process which you follow, etc, are all new to you. Sometimes, there are chances that you may feel lonely even if you sit in the middle of a huge crowd. And at other times, when you interact with a hard guy/gal with attitude, you really feel going back to your previous company where you were used to be the Boss for your buddies.

There are a few rules which you need to follow for smooth interactions in new places. This blog recommends a few ways, which helps you to understand, compete, and interact with unknown colleagues comfortably.

• Never try to stereotype people.
• Never comment your new colleagues though they become so closer to you in the first few days.
• Whenever others try to take advantage of your silence, excuse yourself and keep away from that place.
• If anyone tries to bully you, then just give a smile and keep yourself at ease.
• If somebody tries to interact with you, answer them politely.
• Never extend discussions.
• Never stalk at others.
• Do your work and leave the office at least for the first few months
• Never indulge in anti-company discussions.
• Never indulge in mudslinging activity.
• Take it easy, even if somebody comments you.
• Don't let others a chance to probe about you and your private matters.
• Don't let out your honest opinions about others if they are laced with negative tinge.
• Always try to praise others reasonably because that's what everybody wants to hear from others.

In summary, you need to understand that change is the only permanent thing in this world. Once you start adapting yourself to the new changes in your life, automatically new bonds will be created with your colleagues and life turns smooth as time passes by.

To & Fro Expenses – Face-to-Face Interview

In these recession times, getting an interview call is a big achievement. Normally companies conduct telecom before they go for a face-to-face interview with the candidate. Earlier, most of the companies used to pay to and fro charges for all the outstation candidates. Sometimes, in earlier days, depending up on the position and urgency of the job vacancy to be filled, companies used to book flight tickets for the prospective candidates; but those days were gone. In these times of recession, if a company responds to your resume and calls you for an interview, that itself is a big achievement.

Nowadays, companies are not declaring to outstation candidates that if they want to attend the interview, then they have to do it at their own cost. The company is not going to pay anything from its pocket toward the to and fro charges of the candidate. Actually, the candidate who is looking for a job is not in a position to pay the expenses. This is the time the company should come forward and shoulder the expenses. Nevertheless, this is not the case. In good olden days (read pre-recession days), every company worth its salt used to pay all the charges including relocation to the selected candidate. But, in these times of recession, where people lost their jobs and are unable to pay their own expenses to attend the interview though talented, are not getting help from the interview-calling company. This situation is too bad.

In summary, companies have to think humanely. If they feel that a candidate is worth to do a job with them they should come forward to pay the expenses incurred by the candidate for attending the interview. That is what is called "Gentlemen mentality"; companies, which are mean and do not have the Gentlemen mentality, just tells their prospective jobseeker that you are selected for face-to-face interview, but if you are willing to pay your own expenses, you can attend the interview otherwise no, because we are not paying you single penny toward your interview expenses.

The Y-Chromosome Extinction

The Y chromosome, which differentiates a boy from a girl, is set for extinction within the next 5 million years, as per a renowned scientist who did a lot of research on the human chromosomes. Now, the interesting question is what will happen then. Does it mean that the human species timeline is over? No, the scientist says; as per her recent observations, there is a possibility that a new human species will develop in the future, which will extend the timeline of human species further.

If you look from Gay Rights movement angle, the Y chromosome extinction factor has more relevancies nowadays. After 5 million years, if the world is devoid of Y chromosome, then there will be no males. This situation resembles like a Spielberg's Hollywood movie in its wildest imagination. Nevertheless, if this becomes true and a new human species evolve during the next 5 million years that does not have a Y chromosome but with some other chromosome or whatever, the whole world goes for a change spin. This kind of change in the chromosomes will have impact on our genes and genetic disorders. Moreover, there are chances that a new set of health-related problems, which require new medical solutions, come into picture. This is so crazy to think about such kind of stuff so ear ly!

In summary, this is an interesting finding, which has deep repercussions in terms of both genes and human race. Meanwhile, if you are male, guess what happens to your precious lineage after the next 5 million years!

The Mind and New Challenges

Recently, there has been an article in a very popular magazine saying that people living in a place other than their own are good at creativity. The article talks about people who have been living abroad for so many years. When a test has been conducted between the locals and foreigners, the latter found to be more creative in answering the test compared to the former. This is an interesting result.

Frankly, even before the test has been conducted, most of us know and feel that whenever we stay in a foreign place, psychologically, we feel that our mind is so alert and it does not let you sleep peacefully until it knows and understands the new surroundings better. A new place creates a new learning opportunity to our mind. Moreover, the mind won't settle for less until it knows everything it has in its view. While learning, the mind exhibits extra capabilities, shows more enthusiasm, and alertness in learning new stuff. Because of the extra alertness and new networking between the grey cells, the functionality of the brain improves like never before. All this activity is a response to the challenge that the new surroundings presents to the mind.

In summary, new challenges always poses great challenge to our minds while understanding them. The challenge itself provides a new opportunity to let footloose your mind and explore new hitherto unknown things.

DOMESTIC OR MNC – WHICH COMPANY TO JOIN?

Hey guys! Because of the ongoing recession, there have been a number of employee lay offs. Moreover, the employees who have been laid off by the companies are struggling to get new jobs in this bleak market for their survival. It is heartening to see that the talent, which this world direly needs, for its future growth and survival is not cared during this time and has been left to survive on its own as if there is no need for it to the market neither in the present nor in the future.

Whatever it may be, once you were laid off, it is time to start searching for a new job. Since you are one of that talented stuff the companies want to hire, getting a new job even in this bleak market is not a problem for you. Nevertheless, the question is, this time, how not to make mistakes in choosing a right company. Your earlier company was an MNC and had given you huge perquisites. However, it laid you off at that moment when you direly need a job; the reason may be the recession or whatever. Now, the question is that if you get an opportunity to join in either an MNC or a domestic company, which one you chose.

If your job is dependent on some outsourced domain, then obviously you need to go for an MNC. Nevertheless, if your talent has demand in domestic market as well, this blog suggests you to opt for domestic company though it pays you less. There are so many reasons to support this statement. Since India is one of those least-recession hit countries besides with huge domestic demand to cater for, it is easy for India to come out of this mess easily within a short a period (give or take a few months). MNCs are hugely dependent on outsourced market. Their markets are specifically targeted to a few developed countries like Americ a and a few European countries.

Although an MNC offers you a job during these times, it may be possible tomorrow that it may lay off you, again, because they could not able to get that project, which they have been waiting for all these months desperately because of these recession times. But, chances of similar kind of thing happening with a domestic company is near-to-nil if the Indian government's time-by-time fiscal boosting efforts and the encouragement it has been giving to different sectors to boost the domestic demand is taken into account.

In summary, this blog suggests you to grab an opportunity to work with a domestic company, which caters needs for the domestic clients, mainly. In one way, it also gives a new boost to your resume in opening a plethora of new domestic opportunities to work for.

ENERGY MANAGEMENT – ACHIEVING SMART PLANET DREAM

India needs huge power generation capacity within the next 20 years. Already, we have been maintaining a huge deficit gap when it comes to power generation and consumption. The conventional power generation resources are in scarce now, throughout the world. All the developed countries, including US, are struggling for the development of non-conventional power generation resources like wind, solar, hydel, etc. The technology that has been developed so far to utilize these non-conventional resources is not up to the mark. Although as a symbol of positive note, the world has decided to move and build huge capacities in terms of non-conventional power generation resources, so far the growth in this area is not that much significant as expected. The present recession has given a huge financial setback to the non-conventional sectors R&D efforts. Power saved is equivalent to power generated. – Time has come for everyone to take a serious look at these slogans and put effort to implement the same. If you cannot generate power why unnecessarily waste it? Someone else can use it in a most significant and productive manner, if the power is saved. This planet needs energy for development. Without energy, the so-called "Smart Planet" dream will remain as such. In this time of crisis, Energy Management is one of the areas where the governments all over the world have to sit and look at seriously. The transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, if taken in to consideration, are so huge and inefficient management of the same is no longer good for the development of this planet. The nuclear power is not such a kind of power-generating source that every country can depend upon. It comes with its own problems baggage of storage and security. The world still remembers the Chernobyl incident and the problems it had created. Power, when generated with clean non-conventional energy resources, is good for development of the planet Earth. Efficient "Energy Management" techniques with latest and sophisticated management technologies, will definitely serve the purpose.

The Cat is Out of the Bag

The beloved Satyam company is in news again! Yes, this time, it is about redundant employees. Everybody knows that Tech Mahindra had acquired Satyam company (bought a majority share at a whopping 20.99 billion INR). At the time of acquisition, like every new acquirer, Tech Mahindra has said that the company won't lay off employees. They want the talent to grow in their acquired company, Tech Mahindra declared. The Satyam employees were also happy regarding the Tech Mahindra's acquisition of Satyam because the former is an Indian company, which is capable of understanding Indian employee sentiments.

However, it seems that all these mutual understandings had gone in vain. Now, though the company is not talking about the lay offs directly but its statements are indicating something like that and the number of employees that are going to be effected is approximately 1/4th of the existing Satyam staff. If this number of talented employees comes in to the job market during this recession time, just imagine the period during which they can get a new job that suits their talent and perks. How long will it take the existing job market to absorb this huge talent figure? As per this blog estimate, it will nearly take at least 1 year if all other things remain status quo.

India has started feeling the recession heat since 2009 February. Although the whole world has started feeling the recession heat since 2008 October, India could able to stay away from the recession heat due to the monetary and fiscal policies adapted by the country. Regarding the domestic job market, the country has been announcing stupendous financial support time-by-time to boost the domestic demand so that it can save millions of domestic jobs. However, the IT sector and its related job market, which is mainly dependent on the outsourced projects, are at the mercy of the revival of the world economy. One can see hope rising in the IT sector only the day when the American economy bounces back.

Until then, the IT sector journeys in the dark only!

LTTE Has Become History

Now the fighting in Sri Lanka is over to its President Rajpakse's satisfaction. The Sri Lankan military has delivered a crushing blow on LTTE and the result is that Sri Lanka is now free of extremist LTTE. The Tamils living in the LTTE captured areas were given a safe passage before the final confrontation. Prabhakaran, the LTTE Chief Supremo, along with his aides died in the battle to the relief of Sri Lankan government. Rajpaksa has given a freehand to the military to defeat LTTE. There were so many human casualties during the war, but all were ignored. The human rights groups have reported nearly 6000 human casualties during the war.

Sri Lankan government has declared a nation-wide holiday to commemorate the end of LTTE. The war with LTTE has been going on for the past 25 years without any positive outcome. Now, the Sri Lankan army has brought the war to its logical conclusion. India helped and supported Sri Lanka in so many ways to defeat LTTE. Prabhakaran's aides killed Rajiv Gandhi, the ex-PM of India, because he has sent help to Sri Lankan government to defeat LTTE. Since then, India has been hunting for Prabhakaran; the main aim is to try him under Indian law for his drastic actions against Rajiv Gandhi.

Finally, the end of war with LTTE has once again proved that nothing can be accomplished through violence.

Common Man – The Kingmaker

Now the elections are over and the much-awaited results are out. All the political parties are shocked and surprised at the results. The so-called leaders have not grasped the intelligence of the Common Man and played the same game as usual, as they used to play in olden days. They have not understood that the gadget using population of India can make a difference through their votes even after listening to their gullible long speeches for hours. Even the Netas tracked the Indian population using every communication channel including the modern Net and made sure that the target population should have seen their vote-request advertisements. The leaders left no stone unturned but they lost in guessing right; why?

It is because of the overconfidence factor that they have projected in their speeches, blatantly drastic acts they did in their constituencies during their regimes, and the underestimation of the intelligence of the Common Man. They insulted Common Man through their ridiculous offers like free money, free power, etc, which are not possible to do so in reality. Even a child has the knowledge nowadays to understand and question the vague promises of the so-called Netas about how they could give when the State itself has been reeling under debt.

The election results indicate that Indians, this time, favored dynasty rule as they did many times before. Although the dynasty point is there but this time they voted for Congress keeping the professional veterans like Manmohan, Chidambaram, etc, in mind hoping that they can deliver what they had promised during their election campaigns.

Let's hope that the so-called professional veterans take India to the next stage where it can be reckoned as one of the potential forces both financially and militarily.

The Salary Bargaining Power

During interviews, it is common that the respective HR of the concerned company asks you to tell him/her how much you want as remuneration/CTC to work for their company. Moreover, everybody faces this toughest interview question irrespective of his or her domain.

If the employee is already a laid off one, then by default, s/he loses the bargaining power. If the employee is still working in a company but wants to come out of it quickly because they are planning to shutdown the company, and conceded the same to the target company HR, then again s/he loses the bargaining power. If the employee is forcefully pushed out of the company, means terminated, then obviously getting a job itself will become so difficult for the employee; therefore, forget about salary negotiations.

Only those employees who have considerable experience in their respective domain, knowledge in their field, created considerable impact during the interview on the interview panel, and currently holding a job can negotiate and demand salary face-to-face with the HR of the target company. Otherwise, just forget about that during these recession times. If you don’t fall into the above category, no matter whatever logic you use, it does not hold much water from the target company HR point of view.

That’s why, if you are willing to move out of your present company, irrespective of any reasons it is better to start searching instead of sitting until your present company lays off you.

Formula: Effort X Patience = Job

Yes, this is true that the two strong factors, which work, in getting you a job are effort and patience. Effort in terms of number of attempts you apply for a job, number of interview calls attended, etc. Patience in terms of the time you took to get a job without getting wavering to other distractions. If you have enough patience to give so many efforts, then the chances of getting a job are more in your case.

In pre-recession times (read good times), there were so many vacancies available and companies used to chase potential candidates like anything. Those were the days where potential candidates used to get whatever they ask for as remuneration and sometimes more also. The IT field has transformed the job culture in India like never before. Actually, it has created its impact on other domains also in relation to the hire and fire aspects. Now, during these recession times, things have changed drastically. Those heavy recruitment days were history now. Hardly, companies are going for recruiting nowadays. The number of candidate screenings has increased now and only a few out of thousands are lucky enough to get a job. The salar y levels have come down drastically and the recruiting companies are forcing potential candidates to accept a cut in their CTC to get the new job. Frankly speaking, since there is no other way to get a job nowadays, it is better to accept a pay cut rather than staying unemployed.

Nobody exactly knows how long this recession will stay. The so-called experts (read good for nothing) are good at projecting colorful graphs and redundant analysis based on what happened. They are neither equipped with expert knowledge nor capable enough to suggest correct remedies to their respective governments in order to come out of the present recession clutches.

Biometrics – A Nascent Technology

Nowadays, most of the companies all over the world started using Biometrics either for Time & Attendance purpose, to maintain a note of who is visiting their respective establishments, or for nabbing trespassers who try to sneak-in. Although there are various types (facial, iris, thermal, etc) of biometric products suitable for various purposes on offer, the most marketed biometric type so far in the domestic market (in India) is the Fingerprint biometrics.

From corporates to small start-ups, everybody is using these fingerprint biometric scanners hoping that they can provide some sort of additional security compared to the regular manual security. But this falls under the category of interceptive biometrics where the user needs to spend sometime to get authorized by the machine. Using facial biometrics, which falls under non-interceptive category, has become a new trend nowadays.

Marketing biometric products is always a tricky one. Although biometric industry has grown by leaps and bounds due to the recent terrorist attacks, the technology behind these products is still nascent. The technology has not yet attained the maturity stage so that it can provide foolproof security wherever it is deployed. Having known this fact, marketers are trying different ways to push biometric products in the market using all sorts of flashy advertising to hide the shortcomings of the technology behind the product.

Biometrics falls under the security products category, which concentrate heavily on safety, security, and protection. The only marketing strategy that works for Biometrics is the emotional marketing strategy rather than other flashy marketing strategies. Since the technology behind the biometric products is still in the nascent stage and the customer relies on the product for the security reasons, it is always better to let the customer know "what to expect" and "what not" from the product in terms of functionality.

Alertness, Stress, and New Tasks

If life is full of work then living becomes dull and boring. Since work is unavoidable in life, people invent new strategies to overcome boring during work time in the workplace by listening to songs, taking short-breaks, and talking to their colleagues. These short breaks definitely have the potential to rejuvenate your senses and relax your mind. Taking short breaks in strategic way increases workplace productivity like never before. But, there are people who want to do multitasking like listening to songs, playing computer games, etc, while doing their main core job activity. For some people, this kind of multitasking definitely creates problem in completing their work within deadline.

The problem lies in the human mind. Human mind does serial processing, not parallel processing like today's computer chips. Multitasking is possible with parallel processing but not serial processing. The mind, using serial processing strategy, processes the things to be done one after another. Therefore, if you try to do a few new critical tasks at the same time, no matter how efficient you are, but your mind will definitely bound to fail you. On the other hand redundant tasks, where the mind is already habituated to accomplish the task in record time without asking for your alertness, encourages multitasking.

Therefore knowing this difference, always concentrate on the single task at hand, if it is new, critical, and needs your presence of mind. Don't try to do multitasking, if you are attempting new critical tasks. You can always listen to your favorite songs once your mind is habituated to the new task in hand.

Getting a New Job

During these recession times, if somebody holds a job (even low paying!), it is great! The present time is quite different from previous boom-bust periods. The remarkable characteristic of the present times is job scarcity. If there are no jobs in the market, then as an employee how can you apply for a new job? At the same time, the market has not promised you that there will be a galore of jobs everywhere and every time whenever you need one! Right?

Getting a new job is quite difficult these days. The first difficult thing is to identify a genuine vacancy. Since it has become a fashion nowadays for companies to give recruitment ads just for the sake of publicity and not for real recruitment purpose, it is becoming quite difficult for the jobseeker to identify the real recruitment job ad from the fake one.

After identifying the genuine job ad, the next step lies in applying for the same. Since we are all reeling under recession times, you are not expected to demand high salary but to accept what the company considers and offers as part of their policies. The offered salary may be low compared to what you had got in your previous employment, but still if you want a job in these troubled times, don't hesitate but go for it.

The third step lies in adapting to the new situations and demands; this again is really a testing point. To overcome this obstacle, you need to be flexible in your mindset.

In summary, to survive in these recession times, you need to be flexible in your salary, relocation, and work stress demands.

This is the time to be flexible but not to flex your muscles!

Jobsites Have Become Advertisement Selling Sites

In these recession times, once you are laid off, it is not easy to get
a new job. Although the jobsites are overflowing with jobs but most of
the companies giving ads/ notifications in these jobsites are
interested in neither recruiting like earlier times nor chasing the
candidates like never before. The question is why these companies are
giving notifications in these jobsites.

The reason is nothing but to gain cheap publicity among the jobseekers
by paying little amount to the popular jobsites; that's all. There are
a few companies, which have been giving same job notification for the
past 6 months but not recruited a single candidate, in these jobsites;
this kind of activity is nothing but cheating the innocent jobseeker
who applies for the said job and waits indefinitely for the company to
respond wasting his/her precious time.

Popular jobsites should identify these companies and block them giving
priority to the interests of the jobseekers. Everybody knows that
recession is silently taking away all our jobs but it is happening
throughout the world. However, companies, for the sake of cheap
publicity try to cheat the innocent jobseeker by giving cheap hollow
job notifications in popular jobsites, is something very bad that
should not be allowed.

Jobseekers! Beware of these hollow job notifications and immediately
alert the jobsite about these companies who looks after noting but
their own publicity.

Talent Retaining Methods - Indian IT

Indian IT companies are coming out with various options without
resorting to blunt lay off their precious talent. Yes, it is true that
a few companies, including bigheads, have been resorting to lay offs.
However, there are a few companies, which are doing some
brainstorming, coming out with innovative and practically alternative
innovative solutions instead of opting for lay off in the first step
itself.

Following are some of the new ideas practically implemented by a few
innovative companies:

1. Allowing employees to go on a sabbatical while they are paid a
small percentage of their current salary
2. Create a policy where employees would work for only a few days in a
month (30 days) and take a certain percentage of their salary
3. Counseling employees about the ongoing recession and making them
accept to cut a certain percentage of their overall salary
4. Cutting a certain percentage of their variable pay without
effecting the entire salary
5. Identifying weak performance employees, conducting training
sessions for them to improve, while giving them a small portion of
their salary

Like this, every company though lately, started innovating a new way
to retain their talent. Unfortunately, there are still some big
companies, who want to get rid of their excess flab in the name of
non-performance.

Part-time Job Comes as a Succor These Days

Yes, most of you who might have lost your job due to recession would
immediately understand what this blog is saying right now. In these
intolerable and vulnerable days, having full-time jobs is a luxury.
Most of the jobless workers nowadays are scouting for part-time jobs.
It is better to get at least something in the form of a salary rather
than getting absolutely nothing. One way, it is good also. The so far
full-timers have to change their mindset to adjust to the present
scenario. However, do not think that this is what going to be your
life forever. Remember Eminem's favorite phrase in the song - I am not
in love ... it is just a phase I am passing through – and apply the
same to your present job style.

Frankly speaking, first, someone has to have a doable work to give it
to others. In these days of recession, work is scarce. Moreover, the
effected people have to undergo a forced holiday, which they are not
interested in. Let us all hope that the present turbulent times will
end as soon as possible and the citizens of this world will again lead
a good old life of their own.

Ever Experienced "Brownout"!

You must have heard about Blackouts (when power goes off and the night
surrounds you suddenly for long periods!) and have experienced it
whenever there is a grid failure in your neighborhood. However, going
Brownout is something different. This term is related to Internet.
Going Brownout means your internet-connected system goes offline for
several minutes before getting connected to the Net again.
Nevertheless, why like that? Congestion is the answer.

Yes, the number of internet users has grown rapidly so far. People
have found the advantages of using Net and they started developing new
interest in it. Even recession failed to grab Net away from users.
Instead, most of the new users joined the internet bandwagon during
this recession period. Because the demand and supply of bandwidth are
not growing proportionally, it is predicted that Brownouts will start
happening in the nearby future.

Therefore, use Net judiciously!

Hydroponics – The Soil Less Farming

This is a very interesting kind of farming. Hydroponics is farming
with water but no soil. Although this kind of farming has been popular
in US, UK, and Canada, it is rather not that much popular in other
parts of the world. However, this kind of farming has huge benefits.
Especially, urban citizens can take advantage of this kind of farming
and can grow fresh vegetables in their indoor areas. The other
advantage is this farming technique does not require huge real estate.
You can do your farming if you have space of just 20 meters. That's
cool!! In developed countries like US, UK and Canada, readymade
hydroponic-kits are available. All you need to do is fill the kit with
water, mix the water with the given exclusive hydroponic-fertilizer,
and sow the seeds in the holder. That's it! Just wait for 2/3 days to
see the results. If you want to do big, hydroponic-farming through its
scaleable solutions allows you to do. You can produce 1000 kg of
vegetables and sell the same in your neighborhood. Pretty much money,
right?

So, why you are waiting for? Go to the nearest hydroponic-center, get
the details, and start growing your own produce.

Building Your Resume

If you are on the lookout for a new job, this is the right time you
need to build your resume afresh. You know why people use the word
"BUILD" instead of writing resume. It is because the word BUILD
signifies and resembles symbolically about building your career. Life
is full of surprises. Nobody knows, in these times of recession, whose
head is going to roll next. Therefore, it is in the best interests of
your career to build a new resume, which truly reflects your potential
and professional capacity with genuine experience to support with.

Resume building is not an easy exercise as most of the jobseekers
think. Quite frequently, HR people come across so many resumes with
half-baked English with illegible salary and experience details. It is
easy to identify these types of resumes from professional ones. One
can easily realize that both these resume types are eons apart. The
look, intro, and the approach of a professionally written resume have
the potential to convince the employer. Nowadays, jobseekers are
inserting their introduction videos in the PDF files of their
respective resumes thus giving it a multi-media touch. The way you
build your resume reflects your technical, language, and communication
skills. It also makes the reader know about how you carry yourself
professionally.

Therefore, always take care while building your resume!

Is Your Mobile Leaking your Secrets?

Yes, chances are there if you are using a sophisticated mobile, which
have all the hi-fi features like Bluetooth, GPS enabled, etc. Most of
the people who buy costly mobiles never think that their precious
mobile leaks away their secrets, conversations, SMS to their dear
ones, Bank details (if stored), etc, to the hacker who tracks you.
Nevertheless, why people track? Yes, they may do that for evil
intentions like, for example, steal money from you, blackmail you
(after knowing your secrets!), etc.

It is very easy nowadays to get tracked, hacked, and cheated. Your
hi-fi mobile is the culprit behind all these things. A hacker, who
hacks your phone, installs a small mischief code in your hi-fi mobile
using its enabled Bluetooth feature; without your knowledge. That's
it! From there on, whatever you do, wherever you go, whomever you talk
to and receive calls, whatever SMS you send /receive, etc, every thing
would get tracked by your hacker. The hacker will know your movements
even without your knowledge. Your hacker who sits at a distant safe
place and tracks all your stuff can record all your conversations and
SMS. Although you are the owner of your hi-fi mobile, frankly
speaking, the control lies literally in the hands of your hacker.

However, what are the ways that a mischief code could be installed on
your mobile? There are so many ways. As told earlier in this article,
one way is through enabled Bluetooth on your mobile. The other way is
when your mobile software gets crashed and you go to the showroom to
reinstall the mobile's software, then a rogue worker there can install
this kind of mischief code in your mobile.

Therefore, this blog suggests to go for an entry-level mobile instead
of opting for hi-fi one. The more hi-fi your mobile is, the more it is
vulnerable for getting hacked by the rogue elements.

So….BEWARE!

I Shoe/Sue You!

This is what has been happening recently all over the world. May be
people have been using this SHOE missile to vent their anger against
the concerned person or the establishment. Nevertheless, the SHOE
throwing episodes have been increasing day after day and people have
been relentlessly doing that against people who have been known as
HEAVY WEIGHTS in national and international politics.

Can this be taken as a good symbol? People, without getting afraid as
in the past, are coming out of their fear veils and are protesting in
such a way, which make authorities sit and take notice. Earlier, I
used to hear ridiculous stories from people who returned from US
saying that people there SUE even big corporations, without fear, if
they bear loss because of the company's product. It is something they
do quite often and because of that company's there, take so many
measures in order not to give a chance for their customers to SUE
them.

Exactly, let's hope that the SHOE throwing episodes in Indian election
scenario should bring such kind of accountability and responsibility
in the mind and hearts of the existing and would-be politicians. This
kind of episodes will definitely embarrass and harass them in front of
the public for not doing their work properly. Justice delayed is
justice denied. It seems that since justice is delayed (in most of the
cases!) due to the laborious, complicated, and outdated existing legal
process in India, people have been readily opting the Shoe throwing
option not only to vent their anger but also to punish those who are
insensitive to their ever-lasting problems in front of the public.

Although this blog does not appreciate and recognize that Shoe
throwing as one of the official protest options, but due to the
insensitivity of the politicians to the current problems that India
has been facing, it assumes this is also one of the authorized ways to
force the wily politician to do something good for the public who give
him power and authority through their vote power for the next 5 years.

A New Biometric Tool

A new tool has been found by our scientists, which can be used as an
antitheft mechanism for your ipods and mobiles. Moreover, the new
biometric tool is nothing but the hair in your inner ear.

Every time your ear picks up a new sound, the hair in the inner ear
vibrates in such a way so that the sound received by it can be
amplified by X times. After amplification, the sound is forwarded
toward the eardrum through the existing bone setup. Now, while
vibrating to amplify the received sound, the inner ear hair itself
produces a noise of its own. Moreover, this noise found to be unique
to each individual and made the vibrations of inner ear a new
biometric tool. The surprising factor is that we (humans) cannot hear
the noise produced by the inner ear. Only sensitive microphones have
the capacity to pick up these noise signals.

If brought into use, this biometric tool can be used by your bank call
centers to verify and validate your call by making a few clicks from
their computer while you are on call with them to know whether you are
the same person whom you are claiming to be.

SO, BE READY!