Stakes

Should someone play safe or take a risk and say something which might put something at stake? Answer to this question unfortunately, is often determined by the stakes. The reason I used the word "unfortunate" is because it goes against the principle of speaking and thinking freely.

The counter-argument to this would be if thinking and speaking freely is hurting someone, is it worth it?The answer to this question is also pre-determined by the fact how much the person in question matters to you.

Most people do not follow any principle in particular, they just choose either of the ways depending on which one suits them.
Now the most important question "Am I one of them?"
Recently I caught up with a very good friend. Amongst the various other talks, we also had a discussion on a very "debatable" topic and there was a deliberate attempt on both sides to use "veiled" words.
I can only talk about myself and thus this is my take on that:-I have always believed in voicing my opinions, one of the numerous reasons why some people just love to hate me. On that day however, I for the first time felt the other way round.
Thus "I am just one of them".
However another valid argument against this is, isn't it against the principle of every strong relationship that both parties should be able to say whatever they want without the other taking offense?
Well, when you have just a few people who matter to you, better hold on to them and put them ahead of your principle of "speaking your mind".

Late from Office

Working in the private sector and that too in IT means that you often have to stay back late which is nothing unusual. Most of it can be attribited to the fact that 65%-70% (if not more)of the clients of these IT companies are from the U.S and difference in time zones is what leads to it.
But why am I writing about it? The reason is, that people take great pride in it which is something which really amazes me. Whats more that even their parents and spouses almost boast about it in public places & get-togethers.
For all of them, coming back late at night shows how precious you are to the organization. As if the organization never existed before them! Coming back from office at 8:30-9:00 PM is suddenly "not in" whereas after midnight or close to it, is.
Now the question arises - is it really that bad working in IT that you have to continuously slog it out throughout the year? The answer is a big "NO".
Most of these offices follow a pattern of 9.5 hours per day which strictly speaking,is more than enough for all the work that we do. Yes, I admit that sometimes during "releases" you really have to work extra hours but that certainly does not happen throughout the year.

Throughout the day some of them play games, talk non-stop over the phone (office phones,which are absolutely free) & engage in "group conversations" best described by the word "adda".
Few others remain logged on to Orkut the entire day and if you check their profiles on weekends (like I do) you would see their every 2-3 mins they would have a scrap on a weekday.
The funny part is you would see scraps like "I am very busy. Have lots of work to do".

You can't help yourself but ask the question "How come have you logged into Orkut then?".
There are some who upload albums containing 40 odd photographs each having captions which even the most intelligent of persons would have to think of for atleast 3-4 mins.

The most irritating part is, if they see you doing any self study, even when you have completed your quota of work, non-stop without indulging in any of the above and have spare time, they would come and tell you that they can't do the same as "they have so much work to do".

Hence this phenomena of "coming back home late from work" can be put to poor time management skills and certainly raises questions on the sincerity of these people.

Routine Stuff

Today I was thinking about going out to buy some new stuff for myself but then backed out. Put that to my lazy nature. Normally I just want to laze around during weekends fearing about the cruel and gruesome 5 which lie ahead. I have a release in Jan and am yet to finish off coding. Only god knows when would I complete all the documentation!

In IT, for every hour of coding you have to do 3 hours of documentation and with me being the sole person reponsible for this release, I can't do anything but take all this in my stride.

Coming to shopping, I love spending on new T's and Jeans. I hardly have formals. Even on a Monday, let alone the other days, you would find me in those. Thank god I work at a place where there are no strict dress codes, otherwise I wuold have been taken to task.

There is another reason behind me not wearing formals, and that is...my weight.

My BMI stands at 24.8 and it does not help that now standard is such that people with BMIs between 23-25 are overweight and beyond that, the dreadful term "obese".
Talking abut BMIs, I have a collegue who is quite well built, weighs a trifle more than I do but has the same height as me. When I told him about the revised standards, I myself just couldn't stop laughing. He was one of those who used to joke about my weight and it was nice (though a little surprising) that he is "obese" and I am "just overweight" :D.

Again coming back to the shopping & clothes(just getting drifted away time & again. Well put all these to my random thoughts), there are a few people I know who would continue to roam around, even if they have work, till everyone notices them in their new attire. Even that isn't enough for them , they want others to ask how much did the clothes cost(especially if they have bought something expensive). Only if the new clothes could be worn with their price tags on :)

First Post

Well here I am tying my first post ever. I have been wanting to do this for a while now but have held back because I never thought that I can ever put my random thoughts together. So what led me get over my mental block?
Offlate I have been searching my friends (or should I say mere acquaintances) profiles on Orkut to find if they are into blogging but to my utter dismay found that there were every few and those who do either haven't posted for long or somehow don't post something which really interest me that much. Having said that I wouldn't say that didn't like any of them. I would really have to admit that most of them, if not all, are far better writers than what I can ever become. Somehow since they put their blogs as their "webpage" on their Orkut profile, they refrain from posting real life incidences, fearing it might offend some.

I remember how I was persuading one of my friends that she should take up blogging, being such a gifted writer and post certain personal stuff. When she gave the "same" reason I listed in the previous paragraph, I told here to use aliases instead of their real names.

After all that, what does she do? She sends me an email (posing to be a blog).

I learnt computers only after passing school, at 18 and thus after this long wait of 6 years I have finally decided to fulfill my own desire to express myself in a public forum irrespective of what any one might have to say.

Hey....hey... don't get me wrong, all this doesn't mean that everything here would be negative, it will have even positive things :).
Neither am I a very gifted writer nor have I ever posted something in any public domain, so it wouldn't be smooth but I hope to improve.Also, I want to see how long does this craze in me for blogging remains, given that I easily tend to get bored after a certain point of time.

Talking about getting bored, I would do well to end this lengthy introductory post right here, else some of you (I hope my post gets atleast one reader) wouldn't dare visit this post again :D.