Stock "Ex"perts...

Pona varusham indha neram stock market appadiye engayo poittu irundhadhu. Inime market kizha poradhukku vaaippe-a illainnu ellaarukkum oru nambikkai. 100 point yeraradhu, 200 point yeraradhu idhellam vishayame illa, yerina 500, illa 1000 dhaan. coat suit tie irukkavan ellam expert ayittaanunga...kalakka povadhu yaaru-ku poha vendiyavan ellam news channel, paper-la vandhu "expert opinion" kodukka aarambichittaanunga....

"We are seeing the decoupling theory playing out."

"Sensex will cross 25k in 2009.."

"Traditional P/E multiples need to be relooked given the strong India growth story..."

2009-la eppo 25000 thodumnu patti manram vekkaadha koraiyaa pechu...india mathavanga yaarayum nambi illa..thaane ukkarndha thaanai thalaivan-nu ore build up-u....be careful, feelings-a control pannu, emotion-a adakkunnu sonna oruthar rendu pera yaarum manushanaave madhikkalaiye...

Ippo market crash aahum podhu paakanume, vaazha pazha kadhai solra senthil maadhiri moonjiya vechittu naan appove appadi sonnen, ippadi sonnen-u bit..thaangaadhuyaa thangaadhu....Usupethi usupethiye ennamaa rana gala paduthitaanunga.. evan indha decoupling-a kandu pidichaano avana mudhal-la sudanum...

"markets will be range bound for a while" - idhu engalukku theriyaadhaa??

"markets may reach oct 08 lows" - idhai kili josiyakkaaran solvaaneyaa...

Gundoosi vikkaravan, punnaakku vikkaravan ellam expert aayittaanunga..Kosu thollai thaangala muruga...Innumaa indha ooru ivanungala nambittu irukku!!!!!

A(a)pp(u)raisal

There is something that happens twice a year in a software engineer's life..Something that we dread and cannot avoid...A(a)pp(u)raisal!!! I've been doing this for seven years now and it gets more and more tortuous with each passing year. Especially when you know that what you are going to get is pre-determined and the crap that you fill in the system has no use.

While you try to blow things out of proportion and trumpet those as your achievements, your boss tries to downplay whatever little you have actually achieved. However, it provides a great opportunity to laugh at yourself and the whole system . And that's the only way you can come through this unscathed.

Seven deadly strategies that could help in this wretched battle without really breaking sweat.

1. Thou shall not question your manager (it's not a coincidence that this is first in the list.)
   
2. Thou shall take initiatives that burden others while not affecting you in any way (initiatives taken a month or so before the appraisal have greater effect. And the greater the nuisance value of the initiative, greater is the attention you garner.)


3. Thou shall strive to do value addition (noone knows what it is..so you have a free rein here)..
   
4. Thou shall create templates, documents and checklists that serve little or no real purpose.


5. Thou shall always look busy. (Even when jobless and roaming around, have a notepad and a pen. If you can help it, supplement this with a serious look while mouthing high sounding gibberish in your mobile when noone has actually called you.)


6. Thou shall use words like KM, Quality, Reuse, Strategy, Process, CMM, Leadership in every other sentence. (It's important that the listener has a hard time understanding)


7. Thou shall retain a copy of previous appraisals for Reuse.(beware of an appraiser with a good memory)

And some interpretations for the usual feedback given during appraisal, vadivelu ishtyle....



Hard worker - Evvalavu adichaalum thaanguraanya!!

Committed/Team player - Nee rombha nallavannnnnnn......

Good communication, but improve technical skills - Building strong-u, basement weak-u...

Good initiative - Neeya vaaya koduthu maatrayeda maapple....

Need to take additional responsibilities - maappu, vechuttaanga un promotion-ku aaappu!!

A grand coalition??

The recent terror attacks have exposed the utter inefficiency of the Indian government and the national security aparatus. All this is primarily due to a lack of a strong government and a bold leadership. A government that has to spend most of its time trying to placate one ally or the another trying to extract its pound of flesh hardly has the time to focus on trivial issues like terrorism, naxalism and the like.

Given this, I feel the two only pan-India parties BJP and Congress should come together. I know this is impossible and sounds stupid, but if Congress can do business with the Left and with the DMK, why can it not do so with BJP. Same is the case with BJP. It has allied with DMK, BSP and the like in the past. Both the parties even had a failed experiment with a shameless party like the Janata Dal led by the former PM Deve Gowda.

Rather than having unprincipled partners who are barely recognised outside the borders of their respective states, why not have a grand pan Indian alliance? The present situation gives both the Congress and the BJP a wonderful opportunity to sink their differences and come together in the best interests of the country. They are certain to have a landslide victory and can come to power with an absolute majority. Of course, before this happens lot of groundwork needs to done. A charter similar to the CMP the Congress had with the left (but a useful one) needs to be hammered out. And they can share the power for 2.5 years each. This is certainly way better than having to deal with more than dozen partners.

But we all know that it is impossible for the Congress and the BJP to agree on even something like the direction in which the Sun rises...And the tamasha will continue and precious lives will continue to be lost. And all political parties will try to politicise and trivialize an issue of paramount importance to derive political mileage. Anyone who saw the remarks made by R.R.Patil, Naqvi, Achutanandhan et al can only hand their heads in shame. But this is India that is Bharat where you can get away with anything. We are like that only ;-(((((