As a child I always wanted to get into sports. I didn’t have any specific sport in mind, though. It all started with Kabaadi, when I was 10. After a short stint with that, which lasted only three matches (of which two in the bench), I had to be carried away to safety. The reason was that I was trying to punch an opponent away thinking that it was a boxing match. My coach sat me down and tried to explain the rules of the game, which seemingly didn’t go in. So fearing for my safety, the coach had to literally take my name off the list and send me home. The sacking was also accentuated by the fact that the boy I tried to punch away, was few kilos stronger than me and was the son of our district MLA. I moved away from Kabaddi and tried to concentrate my time and energy (those were the only things I had) in tennis. After about 50 valiant attempts to put the serve across the net, the coach sat me down and said “Hey, why don’t you try table tennis, I guess you will have a good future there”. My father didn’t accept that as a compliment (though I did) and wanted to get a second opinion. The second coach said that I will be better off playing badminton. My father understood that there was at least one thing in common between what both the coaches said; that is “I cant play tennis”. Then I my father wanted me to concentrate on cricket. I found the game enthralling as most Indian kids do and tried my hand at batting. But as always, nothing was easy. The coach at the academy tried to teach me the batting techniques, but none of them seemed to go in as I was swinging the bat wildly, delivery after delivery without connecting anything. Exhausted, the coach asked my father to pay double the money, thinking that he will take me away. But, I was very adamant and so was my father. I think he had dreams of me carrying the burden of the billions like Sachin. Fed up, the coach asked my team to get me in as a 12th man for one of the matches. Probably he wanted to see whether I was any good at carrying drinks at least. However, as fate would have it, one of our team’s members fell down from a rather innocuous bike and broke his arm the day before the match. The coach had no other go, but to play me. I was so happy and called my father and told him how my dream of representing my street in a cricket match (in a sport rather) was going to be fulfilled. The next day, I turned up at the venue before everyone else did and practiced bowling. (Oh, I didn’t tell you, distraught with my batting skills, my coach had asked me to refrain from touching anything with close resemblance to a bat). It was match time and after a few overs, the captain had to turn over to me. It was the first ball of the match by me, and usually a bowler will be able to bowl his fastest during the first over, since he will be fresh. I also did but the only exception being that the batsman turned around and hit me for a six. The next ball was no better either, but just that I was able to beat my delivery in reaching the batsman (I mean, I was able to reach the batsman on the follow through first before the ball reached him), I thought to myself, probably I can roll myself up and bowl to the batsman instead of bowling the ball. That’s how slow my deliveries were. So much so, that the batsman didn’t waste any time doing the rituals before the delivery (like tapping the ground , walking across to the umpire like how Srikanth used to do). He did it when I ran up and bowled the ball. After, I completed the over somehow, my coach came to me and said “you can probably go back and try your hand at Bowling, but in a bowling alley not in a cricket field”. Hi all Bowling coaches out there. Here I come.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
கவிதைகள்
குழந்தையின் மழலை
தாலாட்டில்
உறங்கியது தூளி!
மழை
மழை விட்டும்விடாத ஒருமாலை வேளையில் தான்
உன்னை பார்த்தேன்;
குடைக்குள் பதுங்கும் மனிதர்களை பார்த்து
வேடிக்கை சிரிப்பு சிரித்துக்கொண்டே
நீ மழையில்நனைந்தாய்
உன் சிரிப்பெனும் மின்னல்
என் மனதில் புதிய மழையை
உருவாக்கி விட்டு சென்றது!
மழை விட்டும் நான் தனியே நனைந்தேன்!
காதல்
இனிமே வெளியே போனா காலை உடைப்பேன் - அப்பா
என்ன பாவம் செய்தேனோ
என் வயித்தில வந்து நீ பொறந்தே - அம்மா
நீ இப்படி பண்ணினா எனக்கு கல்யாணம் நடக்காதடி - அக்கா
எல்லாருடைய ஆதங்கத்தையும் புறந்தள்ளுகிறது
உன்னுடைய காதல்!
காதல் - பார்ட் 2
கண்கள் திறந்திறப்பதை விட
மூடியிருக்கும் போதுதான்
அதிகம் தரிசிக்கிறேன் உன்னை!
பொருட்களை விட அதிகம் கனத்தது இதயம்
தாலாட்டில்
உறங்கியது தூளி!
மழை
மழை விட்டும்விடாத ஒருமாலை வேளையில் தான்
உன்னை பார்த்தேன்;
குடைக்குள் பதுங்கும் மனிதர்களை பார்த்து
வேடிக்கை சிரிப்பு சிரித்துக்கொண்டே
நீ மழையில்நனைந்தாய்
உன் சிரிப்பெனும் மின்னல்
என் மனதில் புதிய மழையை
உருவாக்கி விட்டு சென்றது!
மழை விட்டும் நான் தனியே நனைந்தேன்!
காதல்
இனிமே வெளியே போனா காலை உடைப்பேன் - அப்பா
என்ன பாவம் செய்தேனோ
என் வயித்தில வந்து நீ பொறந்தே - அம்மா
நீ இப்படி பண்ணினா எனக்கு கல்யாணம் நடக்காதடி - அக்கா
எல்லாருடைய ஆதங்கத்தையும் புறந்தள்ளுகிறது
உன்னுடைய காதல்!
காதல் - பார்ட் 2
கண்கள் திறந்திறப்பதை விட
மூடியிருக்கும் போதுதான்
அதிகம் தரிசிக்கிறேன் உன்னை!
பொருட்களை விட அதிகம் கனத்தது இதயம்
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Lessons
Wanted to share some of the life’s lessons. There are several moments in my life where I learnt some of the life’s hardest lessons.
Moment #1 - It was February 20, 2008, when my sister passed away. I was obviously devastated and I was letting the whole world know about it. I was crying for god knows how many hours. One of my closest friends Venkat was there with me and I was crying over his shoulder. Three months later, I got a call from Venkat saying that his father passed away. I was shocked to hear that. I asked him how. He calmly said, “he had cancer for five years”. It was even more shocking after I heard that. For I was thinking that I was one of his closest friends and obviously if he was going through this I thought he would have let me know. But no. Venkat was too strong for that. I realized that, yes Life gave me a difficult lesson, but instead of trying to get through it, I was making matters worse for myself and for my parents as well.
Lesson - Never show your weakness - even to your friends
Moment #2 – We had a new HR in our team and we were totally annoyed with her as she was not at all responsive. Whenever, we were in a team meeting or some kind of get together, we used to speak ill of her saying how bad she was in her work. We had additional ammunition, when within one month of her joining, she went on a one month leave. Three months later, I learnt from one of my other colleagues that the HR was suffering from cancer. I was totally devastated.
Lesson – Never judge people by your own whims and fancies. You never know what they are going through.
Moment #3 – It was 2003 and I just joined a company of my choice. Suresh (Sr) and Venkat who were my roommates then, wanted a treat for that. I agreed half heartedly to their demand. Because, my salary was not that great. We went to a Chettinad hotel, ordered something, I paid and came out. Two months later, it was the turn of Suresh to give the treat and we went to the same hotel. I learnt probably the biggest lesson of my life there. You should have seen the enthusiasm in Suresh’s face that night. When we got the menu, apart from whatever I ordered, he jumped in gave multiple suggestions. “Santa order this, you will like it, Santa Order that, you will love it”. I compared this with my treat the other day and my head bowed in shame. I never really cared to ask what Suresh and Venkat wanted. But I was so absorbed in the money that I was about to spend, I was in a different world. That day I realized, it was not only important to celebrate the successes with your friends, but you should also make it really count. You should make sure that they are comfortable. I say this because Suresh was not getting more than me in terms of salary, but his heart (and mind probably) was at the right place whereas mine wasn’t.
Lesson – See above :)
Moment #1 - It was February 20, 2008, when my sister passed away. I was obviously devastated and I was letting the whole world know about it. I was crying for god knows how many hours. One of my closest friends Venkat was there with me and I was crying over his shoulder. Three months later, I got a call from Venkat saying that his father passed away. I was shocked to hear that. I asked him how. He calmly said, “he had cancer for five years”. It was even more shocking after I heard that. For I was thinking that I was one of his closest friends and obviously if he was going through this I thought he would have let me know. But no. Venkat was too strong for that. I realized that, yes Life gave me a difficult lesson, but instead of trying to get through it, I was making matters worse for myself and for my parents as well.
Lesson - Never show your weakness - even to your friends
Moment #2 – We had a new HR in our team and we were totally annoyed with her as she was not at all responsive. Whenever, we were in a team meeting or some kind of get together, we used to speak ill of her saying how bad she was in her work. We had additional ammunition, when within one month of her joining, she went on a one month leave. Three months later, I learnt from one of my other colleagues that the HR was suffering from cancer. I was totally devastated.
Lesson – Never judge people by your own whims and fancies. You never know what they are going through.
Moment #3 – It was 2003 and I just joined a company of my choice. Suresh (Sr) and Venkat who were my roommates then, wanted a treat for that. I agreed half heartedly to their demand. Because, my salary was not that great. We went to a Chettinad hotel, ordered something, I paid and came out. Two months later, it was the turn of Suresh to give the treat and we went to the same hotel. I learnt probably the biggest lesson of my life there. You should have seen the enthusiasm in Suresh’s face that night. When we got the menu, apart from whatever I ordered, he jumped in gave multiple suggestions. “Santa order this, you will like it, Santa Order that, you will love it”. I compared this with my treat the other day and my head bowed in shame. I never really cared to ask what Suresh and Venkat wanted. But I was so absorbed in the money that I was about to spend, I was in a different world. That day I realized, it was not only important to celebrate the successes with your friends, but you should also make it really count. You should make sure that they are comfortable. I say this because Suresh was not getting more than me in terms of salary, but his heart (and mind probably) was at the right place whereas mine wasn’t.
Lesson – See above :)
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Career Progression
This is one of the speeches I gave at a company event. Hopefully someone learns from this.
To take this forward, I would like to share two instances from my previous jobs. Hopefully, those will reiterate the belief in our system and also throw some light on the career path. When I started off with a construction company, where career path was unheard of. If you make sure you keep your senior engineer on the site in good humor, you will get a good hike the next year. Since I was staring off my career, I didn’t know much about how to make sure that I keep that person happy apart from doing good work. It was my first job and I hadn’t developed the soft skills like saying yes to the boss even though I knew that he was absolutely wrong on many occasions. So we both differed and there went my chances of a good appraisal. I thought, doing good work will automatically earn me brownie points and I should be able to go up the ladder, though I didn’t know whether there was any ladder existed in that company at that time. I say this because, the senior engineer was the person running the show on the site. Appraisal cycles were unheard of, but every year we had a review. Honestly, I didn’t know what went on. The senior engineer will talk to the DGM and come back with the comments. There wont be anything recorded on anything. So, I had the opportunity to get some feedback. That was the shortest ever appraisal ever done in my life. The conversation was for two mins. He called me in and told that I am still going to be a junior engineer for another year.since I knew It was coming, I stood up and started to leave when he asked me “don’t you want to know the development needs”, “I said “yea absolutely if you do have one”. There ended my tenure with the company. Based on this experience, I made sure that whenever, I jumped jobs, I wanted to go to a company which had some appraisal system in place. The second company I joined was slightly better. They gave me five reasons why I was not getting promoted compared to none in my previous organization. In that sense, I thought I was making the right kind of choices to progress in my career.
So when I joined xxx, one of the first things to strike me was the system that was in place. It was called a c3 at that time, but it sounded fancy, though I didn’t know what they did with it. As it evolved over the years, I understood that progression in your career doesn’t necessarily mean that you get a change in titles. It means that you are able to take lot more responsibilities and do different things than what you did a year back. As I look back at my career with xxx, that’s what I think is the most obvious thing. I have been able to do different things over the years and the title never really came in the way and thankfully I need not say yes to my boss all the time. I became a fan of the system here which not only emphasized on the detailed feedback but also on career progression. I was able to appreciate this better since I had seen the other two. Progression, not only in terms of the title changes, but meaning changes in the work. The company did not at any point in time allow the title to come in the way of good work. That was important, as it keeps everybody occupied.
To take this forward, I would like to share two instances from my previous jobs. Hopefully, those will reiterate the belief in our system and also throw some light on the career path. When I started off with a construction company, where career path was unheard of. If you make sure you keep your senior engineer on the site in good humor, you will get a good hike the next year. Since I was staring off my career, I didn’t know much about how to make sure that I keep that person happy apart from doing good work. It was my first job and I hadn’t developed the soft skills like saying yes to the boss even though I knew that he was absolutely wrong on many occasions. So we both differed and there went my chances of a good appraisal. I thought, doing good work will automatically earn me brownie points and I should be able to go up the ladder, though I didn’t know whether there was any ladder existed in that company at that time. I say this because, the senior engineer was the person running the show on the site. Appraisal cycles were unheard of, but every year we had a review. Honestly, I didn’t know what went on. The senior engineer will talk to the DGM and come back with the comments. There wont be anything recorded on anything. So, I had the opportunity to get some feedback. That was the shortest ever appraisal ever done in my life. The conversation was for two mins. He called me in and told that I am still going to be a junior engineer for another year.since I knew It was coming, I stood up and started to leave when he asked me “don’t you want to know the development needs”, “I said “yea absolutely if you do have one”. There ended my tenure with the company. Based on this experience, I made sure that whenever, I jumped jobs, I wanted to go to a company which had some appraisal system in place. The second company I joined was slightly better. They gave me five reasons why I was not getting promoted compared to none in my previous organization. In that sense, I thought I was making the right kind of choices to progress in my career.
So when I joined xxx, one of the first things to strike me was the system that was in place. It was called a c3 at that time, but it sounded fancy, though I didn’t know what they did with it. As it evolved over the years, I understood that progression in your career doesn’t necessarily mean that you get a change in titles. It means that you are able to take lot more responsibilities and do different things than what you did a year back. As I look back at my career with xxx, that’s what I think is the most obvious thing. I have been able to do different things over the years and the title never really came in the way and thankfully I need not say yes to my boss all the time. I became a fan of the system here which not only emphasized on the detailed feedback but also on career progression. I was able to appreciate this better since I had seen the other two. Progression, not only in terms of the title changes, but meaning changes in the work. The company did not at any point in time allow the title to come in the way of good work. That was important, as it keeps everybody occupied.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)