Being Ethical !

Some months back we had a week dedicated to the ethics in workplace. That week was like a normal week where the message regarding the work ethics is renewed, re-vowed and refreshed to all the employees. It was something very normal in my many years of working experience. But, as part of the opening the ‘ethic week’, the MD made an opening speech on the same topic. He quoted one example and that example is still lingering in my sub-conscious thoughts.

The example – “One employee of the company does online shopping from office for few hours during office hours. Legally, he is being unethical in the workplace. But, his justification is that – ‘what’s the harm in spending a few minutes to do online shopping from office as by the time I reach home the shops are already closed and has to take leave from office to do same shopping which mean more loss to the office’. He is wrong and right at the same time. It is very difficult to draw the line of ethics to each employee so it is the conscience of the employee to decide what is ethical and unethical. But, being ethical is line laksman-rekha. Once you crossed, it’s hard / impossible to come back.”

The above example from our MD which I still remember vividly makes me feel guilty many times. Guilty because I do check mails which is not related to office and reply to them many times spending quite some time to do the same. Here, I’m not talking of the forward-chain mails but, mails which need my reply / attention to a large extent.

I’m doing introspect from that day. I realized myself I’m spending a quite some time on such mails. Such mails are sometimes take lot of emotion to write. And, after writing such mails, it becomes really hard to come back to the reality of office which eventually affects my productivity and creativity.

Even though I wished / wanted to stop from that moment but, the prior commitments to the group which I’m actively involved doesn’t allow me. But, slowly I started disassociating from such things during the office hours. Finally, after much efforts and self-convincing I almost stop such things.

Terminator Salvation : The Ugly Duckling

The new terminator edition has failed to live up to its legacy. You can't find any heart stopping actions or layers of stories. The story is quite confusing. It looks like a disjoint movie compare to the previous stories of legacy.

Arnold (animated or real ?) which featured for less than a minute trying to link this edition to those legacy which had Arnold as main role is redundant and completely unnecessary.

Watch it for the actions and Christian Bale (looks more of supporting role) and you'll love this movie.

If you watch (which I did) for the sake of terminator legacy than this is completely disappointing movie.

I will rate it 1 on a scale of 5.

Reason for (infamous) segmentation fault / Core dumping

It is seen that inspite of capturing lot of requirements and coding meticulously, the code which we wrote is bound to some kind of core dumping at certain point of time if it is part of large application / system.

Many of the analysis of the core dumps through debugger always point to something which was totally unexpected while coding, some kind of input which is not expected and not taken care.

In a large application, it will be very difficult to ensure that all the methods / functions behave properly and gives you the right return everytime for the next functions / methods which is a very much ideal / perfect situation.

One way of encountering it is to make your method takes care of such unexpected inputs which is like conquering the hell to make heaven safe because you never know what hell can be of. I feel this is very difficult or next to impossible in a large system.

So, the next easier way of dealing with the same problem is to check your input before you processed or passed to your methods / functions. This will ensure that atleast your code don't dump because somebody feeds you something wrong. It is simple logic GIGO (Garbage In and Garbage Out). Check the input reject it if it garbage / unwanted to your code. I think this will resolve as much as more than 90% of your core dumps provided you code it as expected with your sets of input.

New found Passion : Stock Marketing

I was looking all the possible options so that my wife won't sit idle before she get a job. The kind of criteria which she is looking (and I prefer) - near and good in place like Mumbai will take time to realize. I hit upon the idea of making her spent time on stock marketing. Since past few weeks she started reading business pages (which was non-existent till yesterday), business sites and sites which gives readings of sensex. Even I suggested to keep an eye on some companies which is worth the investment according to me for a long term. While trying to help her, I slowly started having interest in stock. It's now a new found passion for me.

I took back the password of my demat account which was with my uncle since I opened the account. Today, the moment I reached office, I bought shares of NTPC and Satyam Computers.

NTPC because it is PSUs and the upcoming budget may have something for power sector as the need of power is going to manifold as India progresses.

Satyam because after the change of guard it is going to do better. Satyam has the manpower, infrastructure and process to do well in some point of time. The effect of scandal is slowly mitigating and things started improving. It will be back to its original position in some point of time.

These were my reasons for buying. I listened to my colleagues who were in stock market since long time but, I took little or no advice from them as it is going to my own hard-money to be invested. So, I want only myself to be blamed if things goes busted or worst.

Both the shares I bought showed some profit in the beginning. But, after lunch time both are in RED. Let's see what happens in long run.

Some more investment will happen soon but, not much.


Caution : Investing in share market is like tiger waiting for prey

To make other happy !

Sometimes, we do certain things which only to make someone happy but, not ourselves even if we aren't enjoying / happy doing the same.

I'm doing introspect of such things in my life in past few years as far as I can remember very well and vividly.

Such things which I did for the sake of someone's happiness had a common link. They were all disastrous to me at the end. No wonder that they were disastrous because they were done half-heartedly with no much intention.

Sometimes, it became too stupid to continue and I found myself almost stuck in some senseless situation. Moving out of the situation was rather difficult by that time with so many things on stake and liability.

By the time I moved out of the situation, I lost many good friends and well-wisher by then and also earned bad reputation from other.

And, for myself I earned bad memories which is going to haunt me for a long time and which can't be undone easily.

Don't do things because you want to make someone happy. But, do it because it makes you happy.

Election : My Review

Many people have their own views of why the Congress ended up winning records numbers inspite of many exit polls showing neck-neck fight between UPA and NDA.

In so many years, UPA (Congress) almost touches the magic figure inspite of many factors doing round against them. India being divided by socio-economic factors, giving a review as the whole nation will be difficult and not right. Regional issues plays main role rather than National Issues at many times and many places.

For example, UPA defeated NDA badly in Mumbai because Mumbaikar felt more safe in hands of Manmohan Singh during this period of economic uncertainties. The NDA doesn't have any stalwart who can match that of UPA. Second thing, effect of MNS who eats out many votes of BJP-Shiv Sena as both Shiv Sena and MNS has the same origin and goal so trying to differentiate between two will be difficult and confusing.

For small place like Manipur, the rule party always win whether there is issue or not. Seeing an opponent party winning was a rare chance in many elections.

But, there were few national agenda according to me which finally decides the outcome :

1. (Desperate) projection of LK Advani as PM candidate : It looked like a desperate effort from BJP to make LK Advani at least once as PM as if it is his birth right before the age catches up finally. The effort was unnecessarily too much that it started looking like a desperate measure. Add to this, hitting below the belts of Manmohan Singh calling him "Weak PM" didn't go down well with common man. Personal attack should be avoided if you are looking for top-post.

2. Economic Slowdown : NDA didn't have any big stalwarts who could match Manmohan or Chidambaram when it came handling economy. The economy was hitting the bottom. For a common man (urban), what is most important is safe job, good return and good sensex run. So, the common man prefers to be with the safe hand instead rather than trying with new hands of NDA. See how the sensex hit the upper circuit on the next day of UPA mandate.

3. Hindu Politics : BJP at times go beyond the limits of the understandability of common man. The brutal attack at Mangalore Pub was uncalled for. This separates the working youth class almost forever. This created a fear deep inside the mind of everyone of BJP coming to powerful and putting so many restrictions. The attack on churches at Orissa, Mangalore was highlight of BJP intruding other religions. No wonder they almost drew blank in NE India which is dominated by Christians. When this issues were dying slowly, the hate speeches of Varun Gandhi hit the headline of all National News which refreshes the memories of everyone of Hindu Politics of BJP. Denying the candidature of Varun Gandhi might have done wonders to the common man conscience but, BJP wanted to keep the other Gandhi in their pocket. This eventually confused everyone on the thinking process of BJP. The closeness of BJP with Bajrang Dal, Ram Sena etc. was another important factor. People worry that Bajrang Dal, Ram Sena may become too powerful with BJP giving them a free hand when it comes to power.

4. Nuclear Deal : Everyone understand that Nuclear Deal was really good for India except for Communist party. The opposition to such a good deal was like digging the own graves. The CPI(M) was the main opponents who even pull out support of UPA. This was total disconnect with the ideology and thinking of common man. Due to which, CPI(M) was even beaten badly in home grown also. NDA should have supported such deals but, being in opposition and wanted to rob congress of their good work, they also did the same things as CPI(M). This hadn't gone down well with the common man also.

For the above 4 reasons, I won't vote of BJP this time even if I'm a supporter of BJP every year and every election.


PS : I didn't vote because my constituency is more than 3 days away from my working place.

PMS stories continues

The PMS was over long time ago. The feeling of depression, shock,angry etc. with me has sunk a bit. Get better with everyday.

Like me, there are many unhappy people in my office. The stories of how appraisal was done finally (by so-called HR council) started tumbling down slowly from many sources which are very reliable as far as my experience counts.

The story doing the round is that there was no measurement of your performance done exactly. It is your relation and how well can you butter your boss and superiors was count at the end of day. Favoritism, bias ,personal ego, bad blood, personal grudges etc. all come into play while evaluating someone performance inspite of all the hype which was doing for past 1 year due to the new HR team. It's like old wine in the new bottle.

I don't want to believe this story as I'll lost interest and trust in future PMS and my superiors if I have to. But, looking at the kind of data and backtracking the same, I'm completely sure something is true and done in a very unprofessional and unethical way.

PMS is basically making mockery of someone's performance. PMS is like deciding who is better "blue-eye" boy rather than deciding who has done well and better.

This is bound to happen unless it becomes truly objective based, measured per given standard scale and devoid of human emotions and touch.