Last exam, reliving the first day

Today being the last exam of my MBA, some of us chose to celebrate it exactly in the same way as we did our first day in college. We went for a movie. Some might ask what the big deal is. Well, on the first day, when we had to run around, get a ton of formalities done in the college, a small group of people who barely knew each other decided to go to a nearby movie hall and watch “X-Men: First Class” (read about our experience that day here). Technically, we should have been in the campus, but we all thought, “What the Heck, let’s go for a movie”.

It was a good experience and a good memory now.

Today, I and a few other friends had an exam - Our last exam in MBA. I hurried, and left the exam hall over an hour before the scheduled end – only because I had to catch a movie. I said to myself, “What the Heck, I’m going for a movie today”. It felt like reliving that day (though with a number of variations).

Unfortunately, the movie we went to was “Olympus has Fallen”. A movie that reminds me that Hollywood movie makers are also humans. They make mistakes!

It was a bad experience and a bad memory now. But while I write the blog, I say, “What the Heck, it was with friends(Charu & Nimit), so not a total waste of time & money”.

And with this, I sign off as the student writer in me. Will soon resume as a jobless person sitting bored at home, followed by as a person taking a break from my career once again.

No to Nokia

During a recent debate with some friends over the sorry state of affairs in India especially from the perspective of women safety, the conversation brought up the case of private companies taking actions to ensure women safety. One of the initiatives being generally followed is that a lady is not the last employee to be dropped off in the cab or that there is a security guard in the vehicle in case she has the last stop. Assumption being that the security guard has probably undergone an extensive background check.
I mentioned how Nokia is not doing any such thing despite requests from women employees. 

How do I know this- because my sister was an intern with Nokia and their cost cutting measures were quite evident from the frequent changes of transport contractors without any proper checks. What did this mean? The cabs they provide to employees (including interns such as my sister) were changing every second day, with new drivers, ones completely unknown. No courtesy of dropping off a lady passenger earlier or sending a guard in the car. On top of that, the cabs used to come at around 7AM for the pickup. Thankfully it was summer when she was doing her internship. Had it been winters, 7AM would have meant fog, darkness and a situation where one doesn’t really feel safe. Why didn’t my sister raise this matter with the HR or someone else in the company? She DID, and then got shot down. Besides this, Nokia India’s desperate attempts to cut costs have eaten into the pie called employee morale. I will leave commenting on their survival in India for another blog post.

On the other hand, I was doing my internship last year with Coca Cola. The company took pains to ensure safety and comfort to its employees, at least in my opinion.

Long story short- Avoid working for Nokia, at least until they prove that the work place is not as bad as I have imagined it to be. 

Joan of Arcadia, reminds one to think beyond just 'I'

For the last few days I have been watching a series online called "Joan of Arcadia".
I had come across this name somewhere online and the only reason I took some interest initially was because I have actually been to Arcadia (in California). Plus, from my early days of Age of Empires, I remembered 'Joan of Arc', who I had later found on Wiki was a French 'Folk Heroine'.

So my curiosity got the better of me and I went to Youtube to check out some clips of the show. went to IMDB and found that it had a mediocre rating. But I still ended up watching the first few episodes of the show. The show focused on a girl who talks to God and God asks her to do things that lead to something indirectly. In short, she becomes the 'Instrument of God'. The girl Joan gets to see how her actions can indirectly lead to someone being happy or someone relieved of his or her suffering. The show is different. Definitely different from my usual platter of TV shows that I watch.

The drama-fantasy show is actually quite nice. It gives a emotional touch beyond just the typical drama shows having numerous love connections, heart-breaks etc (eg The OC). This show revives your emotional quotient from a more altruistic perspective. It borders on being 'sentimental'. Most of us, and especially me, are so self absorbed in our lives that most of the time we (again, especially I), think of academics, career decisions, and to a degree social standing almost all day long (Metaphorically of course).
And all these things seem so trivial when I think about how the rest of the world survives, feels and handles issues. I am reminded of my friends who have faced many more challenges than what I have, financially, emotionally, even physically. Watching Joan of Arcadia, I feel guilty for not being a better human being. And even though I resolve to do better while writing this blog-post, I just know that tomorrow morning onward, I will again be the same self absorbed individual.

Oh, did i forget to mention that I'm an Agnostic.

Well, I guess I can conclude by saying: You should definitely watch this show.