Its been almost a month since I've been dieting (religiously). Phew !!! I've not eaten normal food (read typical Indian - Marwari food) for so long now that I don't even miss it. In the last 30 days or so, I've lost 7 kgs (little over 15 pounds). Yessssssssss. Last month when I checked my weight, I was shocked to see that I've gained considerably. Once I got out of that shock, I decided to do something about it. Well I am an emotional eater (kinda) and exercise was never my thing (where is the time ??? ahem ...). All I have is strong willpower. So I decided that I will cut down on unhealthy food and will adopt a healthy lifestyle. For the last 1 month I've been eating - Corn, Cucumber, Tomato, Cabbage, Sprouts, Grams, Beans, Apple, Orange, Papaya ... basically fruits and vegetables along with stuff like Popcorn and Puffed Rice. I try to eat 'em raw as much as possible. If at all - only olive oil is used and that too very sparingly. I even try to drink sugar-less tea (2 cups/day max). I have completly chucked wheat or anyting made out of it, milk and milk products, rice, stuff like potato and banana, sweets and desserts, chocolates ... basically all things that makes me fat (but darn tasty ... buhuuuu). For the past couple of weeks, I've been doing little bit of jogging in the morning as well. The results are encouraging and I hope to continue this regimen for couple of months more. My target is to loose 20kgs (45 pounds). So 7 down... 13 more to go.
Wish me luck !!!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Screwjob
This week my mid–term appraisal was done. As expected, it was not to my liking. I did get not–so–bad rating but not the promotion (which I deserved). When I asked why the promotion was not given, I was told that I was not responsible enough. Funny, since I got the highest rating in the last appraisal cycle (6 months back). Let me conveniently ignore the fact that as late as in August, my boss appreciated my efforts ... let me just erase it from my memory. The question is – how come an ‘irresponsible’ guy like me got a Star rating? And if I was that good 6 months back, what the heck did I do in last 6 months which turned me into a slack? No, no wait ... I got it ... I think I have a hunch ... hmmm ... how can I forget that I quit the project couple of months back ... foolish me. Now that I am no longer an ‘asset’, I got screwed (to put it mildly). I guess the promises made to me last time are just that – promises.
The worst part of all this commotion is that I really worked pretty darn hard in this project (2+years). That’s quite some time in a single project (by IT industry’s standards). This after the fact that the client (let’s call him Bob) is not the most accommodating (to say the LEAST). Not a single person in my project is a happy chappie. In fact, in past 2 years, I have seen 2 project managers (including the current one) quitting, 1 team lead quitting, many team members quitting. No matter what they say, they themselves know that one of the main reasons of quitting was – his royal highness. Unlike them, I would be very honest. My one and only reason for leaving the project is Bob. Who else in right mind will walk out of a project which has huge growth potential? Well such an idiot can only be yours truly. The project is about to go in major expansion mode and it offers a long term New York stay. Only me ... only a fool like me.
I am a passionate kind of a person ... whatever I do or believe ... I do it with full gusto. If I don’t like anything, I won’t do it – no matter what. I never cared for the consequences before, and will never care for them in future. Once my senior manager told me that I should be more ‘politically correct’. Huh !!! Isn’t being ‘correct’ (only) good enough? Since I just had it with the project, I decided that I will leave it before I completely lose my mind. Being a professional, I told my manager that I would like to leave the project since I don’t think I can convince myself to give 100% and if I can’t give my best to the project, I should not be a part of it. Surprisingly, I was let go ... without much hue and cry. But when it came to appraise me, I was robbed. Anyhoo ... I have rejected the appraisal and waiting for my next round of meetings with the senior management to get the ‘right’ answers for all the ‘wrongs’. Fingers crossed ...
Little training update ....Today I got an appreciation letter because of my training efforts. The training was very well received (not my words ... I'm quoting from the letter ... HEHEHE). Along with the letter, I am now entitled to reimburse purchase of a book worth INR 250. Wuhuuu !!!!
The worst part of all this commotion is that I really worked pretty darn hard in this project (2+years). That’s quite some time in a single project (by IT industry’s standards). This after the fact that the client (let’s call him Bob) is not the most accommodating (to say the LEAST). Not a single person in my project is a happy chappie. In fact, in past 2 years, I have seen 2 project managers (including the current one) quitting, 1 team lead quitting, many team members quitting. No matter what they say, they themselves know that one of the main reasons of quitting was – his royal highness. Unlike them, I would be very honest. My one and only reason for leaving the project is Bob. Who else in right mind will walk out of a project which has huge growth potential? Well such an idiot can only be yours truly. The project is about to go in major expansion mode and it offers a long term New York stay. Only me ... only a fool like me.
I am a passionate kind of a person ... whatever I do or believe ... I do it with full gusto. If I don’t like anything, I won’t do it – no matter what. I never cared for the consequences before, and will never care for them in future. Once my senior manager told me that I should be more ‘politically correct’. Huh !!! Isn’t being ‘correct’ (only) good enough? Since I just had it with the project, I decided that I will leave it before I completely lose my mind. Being a professional, I told my manager that I would like to leave the project since I don’t think I can convince myself to give 100% and if I can’t give my best to the project, I should not be a part of it. Surprisingly, I was let go ... without much hue and cry. But when it came to appraise me, I was robbed. Anyhoo ... I have rejected the appraisal and waiting for my next round of meetings with the senior management to get the ‘right’ answers for all the ‘wrongs’. Fingers crossed ...
Little training update ....Today I got an appreciation letter because of my training efforts. The training was very well received (not my words ... I'm quoting from the letter ... HEHEHE). Along with the letter, I am now entitled to reimburse purchase of a book worth INR 250. Wuhuuu !!!!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Training Day
Am back ... did not had time to blog for the last 3 days because I was busy preparing for the QTP training that I and Gaurav were to gave. Since the nature of training was very technical and the audience well informed and educated, it was a real test for us to come up with effective power-point presentations and examples.
Couple of weeks back, I and Gaurav decided that we would give training on QTP since it is very popular topic in my office (specially among the tester group) and not many people in my organization gives training on QTP. We learned QTP recently and were very enthusiastic about the idea of imparting wisdom (Haaa !!!). So we coordinated with the training department and scheduled a 3 days long training from Wednesday (of 2 hours each). Wednesday came and we both were very jittery on day 1 because we are not used to give presentations and speaking in front of an audience. It was a case of classic stage fright. Also, we did not plan the training properly. Even the presentation slides were not very organized. The room was full of eager ears. They were really up to it for the training. We had planned 2 hours long training but it ended in less than 100 minutes. We did explain everything that we planned to, but not in the most effective way. I would say ... not the best of days and the training ended in just OK mode. At the end of the training, we sat down and decided that we need to have a proper plan and a good presentation. We decided to make the training more informative and also decided that we both will share the training 50-50. I went home and stayed up till 3 in the morning to make a ‘fundoo’ presentation and jotted down examples to present. I also planned the way to conduct the presentation and its ‘flow’. Thursday came and the presentation went much (much) better as compared to previous day. We almost used the slotted 2 hours and gave lots of illustrations and examples to support the presentation. When we came out of the training room, we felt like kings. We followed the same method and divided the topics among ourselves for the next day. Again, I stayed up pretty late to create the presentation. Today was the third and the last day of training and we absolutely nailed it. It went really well (better than what we anticipated). We were so good today that couple of girls came and told us that it was a really good session and they thanked us for the training. I looked at Gaurav and he was also happy as Larry.
An hour later, I asked Gaurav to check with the training department about the feedback for the training (if any). And soon Gaurav emailed me the final feedback score. WOW !!!! unbelievable. We got an overall 4 out of 5 ratings (21 feedbacks for 3 sessions). The best part of that feedback chart was number of 5s that we got for Knowledge of the Subject, Quality of Training Material, and Presentation and Communication Skills. Gaurav called me up and said that couple of people even told him that this was the best QTP training given in our office. WA WA WI WA ... and the best part of the feedback – it was genuine. We did not ask anyone to fill the feedback form. That’s make it more special. Oh how good am I feeling today ... I feel vindicated that I can do good things if I work hard enough and do the work sincerely.
Tonight ... I will sleep like a baby :-)
Cheers
Couple of weeks back, I and Gaurav decided that we would give training on QTP since it is very popular topic in my office (specially among the tester group) and not many people in my organization gives training on QTP. We learned QTP recently and were very enthusiastic about the idea of imparting wisdom (Haaa !!!). So we coordinated with the training department and scheduled a 3 days long training from Wednesday (of 2 hours each). Wednesday came and we both were very jittery on day 1 because we are not used to give presentations and speaking in front of an audience. It was a case of classic stage fright. Also, we did not plan the training properly. Even the presentation slides were not very organized. The room was full of eager ears. They were really up to it for the training. We had planned 2 hours long training but it ended in less than 100 minutes. We did explain everything that we planned to, but not in the most effective way. I would say ... not the best of days and the training ended in just OK mode. At the end of the training, we sat down and decided that we need to have a proper plan and a good presentation. We decided to make the training more informative and also decided that we both will share the training 50-50. I went home and stayed up till 3 in the morning to make a ‘fundoo’ presentation and jotted down examples to present. I also planned the way to conduct the presentation and its ‘flow’. Thursday came and the presentation went much (much) better as compared to previous day. We almost used the slotted 2 hours and gave lots of illustrations and examples to support the presentation. When we came out of the training room, we felt like kings. We followed the same method and divided the topics among ourselves for the next day. Again, I stayed up pretty late to create the presentation. Today was the third and the last day of training and we absolutely nailed it. It went really well (better than what we anticipated). We were so good today that couple of girls came and told us that it was a really good session and they thanked us for the training. I looked at Gaurav and he was also happy as Larry.
An hour later, I asked Gaurav to check with the training department about the feedback for the training (if any). And soon Gaurav emailed me the final feedback score. WOW !!!! unbelievable. We got an overall 4 out of 5 ratings (21 feedbacks for 3 sessions). The best part of that feedback chart was number of 5s that we got for Knowledge of the Subject, Quality of Training Material, and Presentation and Communication Skills. Gaurav called me up and said that couple of people even told him that this was the best QTP training given in our office. WA WA WI WA ... and the best part of the feedback – it was genuine. We did not ask anyone to fill the feedback form. That’s make it more special. Oh how good am I feeling today ... I feel vindicated that I can do good things if I work hard enough and do the work sincerely.
Tonight ... I will sleep like a baby :-)
Cheers
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