Long Adrift When you are hanging out with your batchmates at 2:30 am in the management institute night canteen ,waiting for your egg parantha to douse your hunger pangs, the promises you make to each other to forever keep in touch and communicate continuously even after passing out, seem to have the strength and the sheen to stand the test of time. But maybe its delusion caused by the hunger, or your own naivete, those promises just dont hold! People get busy with their own lives, courtship , long punjabi weddings, settling down with spouse, trying to navigate the first workplace and trying to fit in etc etc just does not allow for the 'staying in touch' that everyone had promised each other. Hmmmm...

Funny the more the options to stay in touch - the phone, the Skype, the IM, the email, more the lack of contact ! Any reasonable explanation out there ? Maybe Malcolm Gladwell , the philosopher of the day. might have written something about it!  ¶ 3:25 AM 0 comments

  Getting Things Done - Well I always thought it came naturally to people ! Punishing deadlines, multiple ( too many to count ), special interests, drive for results, branding mania ensures that there is lots to do , too little time and thus constantly shifting timelines. In the end of course dissatisfaction ! So I have been doing some reading around getting efficient and productive and basically getting stuff done within boundaries of reasonable time. Well not surprisingly have settled on the 'Getting Things Done' methodology which from what I read on the web, half the corporate world is using. Well the other half better adopt it fast otherwise the resulting productivity gap will be too stark ! David Allen is the bloke who got this out of his head and of course the books ( 2 in this case ), the website and the corporate training seminars have germinated ! But the method has appeal coz its simple yet rigorous, can be set up using simple stationery, I have read both the books and am beginning to get a hang of the system though am not fully there yet. More in a future post.  ¶ 3:21 AM 0 comments

  The SWITCH, SANJAY's WIT and GOOD FRIEND RAHUL Yes after lots of voyeuristic oohs and aahs on the apple.com site and the mac stores here in Singapore and in Malaysia, the switch has finally happened ! I am now the proud owner of a MAC MINI, the latest Apple machine to hit the world and Microsoft ! Gosh its lovely, gosh its easy, gosh its pretty, gosh its almost invisible, gosh... !

So the love affair with iLife, iWork and other yummy easy to use and intuitive software has started for me. So the next big presentation for work that I am creating will be on this machine which i will convert into a quicktime move to play on my windows laptop infront of 60 odd employees ! Hopefully the lovely slides, the lovely transitions and the funky music I put together on GarageBand, Apple's music composition software will keep them awake :-) My Mac Mini and my Play Station Portable go together very well ! Synching movies, music and photos to and fro is just a dream... So the next time I have to go to Bangkok, I can rely on my PSP to dish out the entertainment and not the lousy airplane entertainment...

BTW I just got inspired to restart blogging after I stumbled upon my colleague in Gurgaon, India's blog. Sanjay Lakhotia who was one of my first managers when I joined my present organization in New Delhi on the 1st of June 1999 straight from IIM Kolkata. Yes some memories there ! Sanjay - good postings about the dilemmas of consultants. As usual very very witty ! (DC and I were just discussing your and Avneet's sense of humour ) Way to go ! Keep up the posts ! Hopefully I can... Link to Sanjay's blog http://sanjaylakhotia.blogspot.com/2005/05/kya-consultant-hai-hum.html

Good wishes out to dear friend Rahul Batra who is right now in Dubai interviewing for a role with a premier global consulting firm. Currently pursuing his MBA at INSEAD in Singapore, Rahul and I started our working life in New Delhi at my current organization's New Delhi office. He stayed for about 4.5 years moving to Mumbai and eventually Singapore in the bargain when he left for new experiences in strategy consulting and then the MBA. He deserves the best out there. So All the best !  ¶ 8:21 AM 0 comments