Office conversation

So, the democracy that was exercised few days back brought results. If you don’t know what, then let me tell you. In our department we all were asked to forward the name of two employees one from assistant level and other from executive level, who we think deserved the annual perk from office. I exuberantly forwarded two names and the one who deserved won. I had left office earlier on the day of result. Following conversation transpired the next day on the same issue.
Raxi: Ram Prasad has got the grades. Hari was fired. According to Mr. Ro if everything was planned there was no need for the drama. He was really enraged.
Sandy: Wow! That’s cool. He deserved it.
Subbu: Yup! He works really hard and obeys things.
Hem: I also think he deserved it. But what ever that was done in the name of nomination was a frame. It had some other intention.
Raxi: didn’t you learn about the whole thing yesterday.
Sandy: No how would I.
Raxi(mockingly): you people shun work in the name of going to pulchowk.
Sandy: it does not mean that going to pulchowk is to know who got what. I do not go to unconcerned departments smelling new things cooking. I was at the Inventory.
Hem: Yes I was also at inventory but remained mostly at HR.
Raxi: Mr. Da who was so reluctant to vote and said he was concerned for others finally voted himself for assistant and Dept. Chief for executives.
Sandy: But I heard for Dept. Chief he had written he would not resent whoever is recommended.
Subbu: How come you people know the results when it hasn’t been flashed?
Sandy: I heard it on the workshop day.
Hem: After conducting the whole drama at least they should have come out with the results.
Sandy: Most of the staffs knew informally only we three were spared.
Raxi: Mr. Ro had told as soon as the recommendation cheats were counted.
Hem: Why does these things happen?
Subbu: this is so frustrating!! These things is not encouraging. Whether do not leak the information if you do make sure everybody knows it.
Sandy: The reality in our department is that we have groupism. We talk about one thing with some and with others the whole content is manipulated. There is no need to backbite anyone.
Hem: that is the main problem, at the end of the day we have to do our own work. The whole drama was to learn what the staffs think about each other and about their executives.
(Subbu leaves to fix something)
Raxi: I do not know about the intention but it was useless as the staffs feared that their handwriting will be identified and they will be biased.
Sandy: yes that could be the reason. This time my another nomination was a game of politics. I loved playing it.
Raxi: The best way was to ask the staffs to tick the names from the list and drop it in a box. It would have been justified and the result would have been fair.
Sandy: But to me the result is fair though what you said is correct.
Raxi: For e.g. Mr. Su had worked in this department for years and he hasn’t even got the perk a single time. He has worked hard.
Sandy: But its based on the work evaluation this year.
Raxi: It is a lie, a blatant lie. Then how come we can’t get the grades.
Sandy: Dept Chief had said we could be recommended.
Raxi: Then he knows nothing about the office rule. There is a rule which says employees can be recommended for grades only three years after they have joined the job.
We left the cabin after a guffaw. There are still few things that we all can agree on.

Rich with Information

No work yet so many things to do, sound oxymoron but again that’s the way it is. By work I meant activities I do for my office. From 10 to 5 I have lent my time to office choirs but it doesn’t tell me not to do other things when there are no official works to be done. I had made up my mind that I will pass time reading things in the net. The first thing I did after starting my computer was checked my google reader. Gauss!! There were so many things unread. There was hundreds of information marked unread. I knew I could avoid many of them for example sports in which I have not much avid interest. Spain won euro so what? If it hadn’t won Germany would have won. Ok I agree I am boring. I have always been like this. There were business news, science news, celebrity stuffs, entertainment, programming news, computer and internet based things, politics waiting to be opened just like the monkeys look at the people who offer them biscuits in their walks. Just like kindergarten kids looking at their teacher for some response they looked through my computer. Trillions of information get added every day and just filtering them for oneself is a formidable task. Mugabe won the election while the international communities are planning for sanctions, Bill Gates finally left Microsoft, Google has built application for web owners to make their web sites search engine friendly, some old tree increases life expectancy, the number of illegal immigrants are dropping in Europe and United States, Israel and Palestine again at loggerheads, oil prices reached a level high at $142 per barrel, Indian government is loosing confidence, a 84 years old Tibetan Refugee murdered in Pokhara among so many others. In economist.com alone I had more than 300 articles unread. Obviously I don’t read all those articles just check out their headline and dig into those that I find interesting or that seems to be a must read. In CNN money there are 1000+ new entries waiting to be read. To avoid myself being overwhelmed with myriad of information and their sources I finally deleted my subscription from entertainment field except for jokes. Unfortunately they won’t get my attention and still in many days they won’t even reach 100. Now there are blogs. These blogs are basically journals of people spread in the world. They exist in the virtual community. If I had to walk pass them physically in the market I might not even look at their face because I don’t know how they look but I know how they feel, what turns them on and what turns them off, what did they do last weekend, when did they went to bed last night. There are no significant brain in these blogs still its so interesting to get into others life without breaching anything without violating any norms.
Information had always been there, events have always took place, great things have happened, crimes have been committed, war has be waged these are no new things but all of a sudden with the advent of technology we want to know everything, get informed in the most trivial of things and events. We might not notice that our room is in mesh but we want to know if the litters in Everest are cleared or not. We might not know who got elected as mayor in our city but we bite our nails to know the result of US primaries. Information has all of a sudden become so crucial, it empowers us in own way. With information one can analyze the current trend in the stock market and make investments accordingly. One can see the real state booming by leaps and bounds and we clear our bank accounts to buy a plot of land. We can see the electronic Scotties have already penetrated the market of a neighboring country and we postpone our plan to get a petrol powered bike when the price of fuel is soaring higher and higher. The access to information never had been so easy and cheap, in fact they do not even cost a penny. When we were kids our home works and assignments included reading the textbooks and answering their questions, today’s kids are given case and they have to work on a project. Last weekend my fourteen years old cousin asked for my help on a project which required her to gather the names and address of the travel agents in the country, how many customers they serve every year and represent the facts graphically. When we were kids the project as such would have taken more than week. It would have been rigorous and one had to visit government offices or areas like Thamel to gather that information but in half an hour my cousin’s project was ready.
Information is an invaluable treasure when one can use it, it is not any precious than a comb for a bald if one cannot use it. It need not always yield monetary benefits, it might just help one attain satisfaction feel fulfilled and updated. When I told people in the developing countries specially India and China are feeding themselves more which could be one of the reason behind food shortage long before George Bush ignited controversy by saying the same thing, my colleagues appreciated my insight. But I had told what I had read and that was no insight of mine. On fuel crisis as well I had given the globally accepted reasons which had not been published in our news papers and again I had received the glance of ‘wow’. When I started using google reader, igoogle etc. I became a leader in technology adoption. Information might have helped me earn praises; many people actually use the information to make profit, to earn bucks. Information empowers us with weapons more powerful than the real physical weapons. They provide us facts and data to prove our point, they provide us insights to predict the course of our business, they help us take precautions and preventions. Information is the real power of 21st century.

A thought on my life

It was just few days back when I was writing about how uncertain our life is and yet how we look around for ways to know what is going to happen in our future. Though not regularly mummy seeks advices of the astrologers especially when things are not going the ways we expected. She has a good faith in two of the astrologers, just a year back she had one particular person she would seek advices to appease the planetary bodies to bring about prosperity in our family now she has one more person who she believes. I remember when I was a child mummy sometimes used to consult an astrologer and we used to be very curious to know what he said. Till date though with no beliefs I like to hear what these astrologers say. Coincidentally few events matched up and her faith has grown. However she herself is not an avid believer in astrology, it’s just once in few years she feels that the planets are not happy and we are not getting what we deserved.
I grew up as an intelligent child with bright academic records. I never stood second in any of my final exams until ten. My academic record remained as bright as it had been and I topped the University in my undergrad. During my school life I had a pressure to meet up the expectation I had been burdened with. There used to be norms what a bright and good student ought to do. There were many do’s and don’ts. These included things like laborious students concentrate more on studies because for sports and other activities they will have the entire life. Literally they became my conviction and I was just a bookworm. I loved singing but when I used to take it seriously I used to think I am a studious students, I should rather focus on my studies. I loved to dance but dancing was activities for students who are not good at studies. I was never into sports because I was unhealthy and weak. But yes I was a good student. Everyone had great hopes from me, in SLC they expected me to top the whole country, one of my aunts had even promised me a surprise gifts. Then once for some reason which I do not remember mummy took our holy birth calendar to the seer. I was so desperate to know what was said for me. The seer had surprises for mummy; he told her that in the process of life my brother will take over me in education, in achievement and in so many things. My brother was never at par in studies and mummy was really pleased with what the seer had said but she was not happy for me. She believed I equally deserved success, fame and money. That thing must have been a serious for me for which I remember that even today. I am quite proud that my brother finally geared up and has a good academic record especially in the undergrad. We both got job without much struggle. Mine is an easy going job while his is quite hard and engaging. In terms of services and facilities his being a private organization is better than mine. The whole family is very happy for him especially after the previous job which was rather treacherous and it had really been difficult for him. Luckily with the grace of god he is now in a better job.
I have not sat down to discuss or compare my job with that of my brother’s but to ponder on an incident that happened today noon. Today being a weekend, I was watching TV with my father while mummy was busy in the kitchen choirs. She came to the room where we were watching TV and she sat on the sofa. I was talking casual things with my father. Mummy looked at me and with a serious aura she said she is worried about me. The aura had something in it that it denied to be ignored, I looked at her without saying a word. She was still looking at me and I asked her why. I had hints of the answer, I thought it was my health, my growing weight, my insomnia, my depression but she didn’t answer. Buwa said she is worried about me because I had a mediocre job with salary that is very less for a prosperous life, she was worried about me because she thought I think too much for others. I am easily disturbed by emotions. Because I am very docile I have less chances of seeking other ways or doing any business to enhance my income. My brother who is more docile than me had quite a good career ahead because of his organization and because of his being stronger in terms of emotions, because of his capability to remain apathetic to things around. Mummy thinks I cannot save money and care too much for others. Not being industrious and creative is an evil today. Though with clear conviction that money is the most important thing most of the time (rarely it is not), at the end of the day I succumb to emotions. I do things for goodwill and for help rather than for monetary benefits.
I have always noticed this dissatisfaction in mummy and she expresses her dissatisfactions in rather unconventional ways like while watching a reality show she says out of no where none of us are famous, non of us win anything. I believe after being raised by her, after living with her after knowing her for all these 26 years, I can read what she really wants to say. This dissatisfaction has never let me down but sometime I feel ‘had I been able to do this or that’.
I believe until I got a job I was a sheer kid. I thought after getting a job I will get a car. It seemed so easy to me to have a car by paying installments. Life seemed so easy to me. While this house was being built, sitting on the terrace I used to look at the road by airport, I used to think when this house will be built when I will have a good job, life will be so prosperous and fulfilling. I planned occasionally I will go to the top of the house on cool evenings and feel good about life, it will be very fulfilling. In the years that passed the house was built, I got a job but I have never gone to the top of the house, in the terrace, feeling content and fulfilled. Forget the car, I haven’t even afforded a bike. Every month I finish my budget before more than a week. Every month I have to muse on expenses which can be cut. Every month one or the other thing has to be done for which there was no provision in my budget. Every month the budget has to be adjusted to include a new demand. Had there been only one additional part time job, life could have been easier but no there isn’t any. On the other hand expectations only rise, demands only get piled up. Its been difficult when still my father runs the home, soon things will change and responsibilities will come upon my head. May be this is what they call growing up, this is what they call the process of getting matured.
As a child I thought when I will grow up, I will do this and that. I will buy this or that. But growing up hasn’t been loading the pocket with more money but adjusting the life with the money I have. With mere Rs.500, I used to pay fare, buy stationeries and still saved few money when student but as a grown up with almost Rs.4000 I have to live in the crunch. This is no dissatisfaction this is just a thought. My friends who were thought to be dummies couldn’t make things here and moved abroad and now they earn more than myself. Ultimately money matters and peace of mind cannot be achieved when adjustments are to be made. Adjustments wouldn’t have been adjustment had they been easy and not painful. With adjustments now and then how can one have a prosperous life. Yes I wonder.