HR Calls

I m trying to figure out how to post via e-mail. If anyone knows 'bout it pls help. This post was pending since a long time. I had listed HR calls (HR- Human Resources) as one of my turn-off. The reason might be:

I joined this company in March this year. Till date I haven't given my office phone no to anyone and also never disclosed my desk extension no. I didn't feel the need for it coz all those wishing to contact me have my cell or home no. So after I joined here, hardly 1 week later my desk phone rang. On picking it up, a very sweet voice of a gal greeted me n said "Hello! Can I speak to Sudeep please?". Thinking that the call was from someone within the company I said "Hi! Yeah...I m Sudeep." Before I could ask who she was, she started off "I m --- (don't remember the name) calling from a job consultancy firm. We have a few job openings in (our company's main competitor name). So r u interested? Are u comfortable talking on this line otherwise give me ur cell no. so tht I will speak with u ltr". First I was stumped but gathering back my wits i asked "I don't have a cell ;). But, can I get a job on just 1 week experience?" "I thought u would have atleast 2-3 mths exp. Gimme ur e-mail id so tht when there is a vacancy suitable for u, I can contact u". I heard someone coming from behind so I disconnected the call. 5 min. later it struck me tht how would the gal know my name before hand. Discussing it with some frnds (they too get such calls), we figured out tht our company itself must be giving the task of such hoax calls to keep an eye on the aspirations of the employees. But, how silly of the caller of disclosing my name (n mine not to catch it immediately).

Then few days before I posted my turn-ons' n turn-offs' a call went like this:

Me: "Hello"

Caller: "Can I know whose extension is this?"

"Sudeep n Santosh"

"And I m talking with..."

"Sudeep"

"Hi Sudeep. I m Neha speaking from XYZ Consultancy. We have some openings for candidates with exp. less than 1 yr. So, r u interested or shld I call on u ltr on ur cell?"

"I joined last Monday, so I don't feel like leaving now"

"Ok. Give me ur mail id so tht...."

"Better way u give ur id so tht when i feel like quitting i will contact u"

"The id is (she blurted out something). Can I speak to Santosh?"

"No he is not here right now."

"When will be he back?"

"He is probably in the toilet with a stomach upset. So I can't tell."

Beep... Beep.. She disconnected the phone n I punched my fists in air like I won a big battle. On seeing this Santosh asked "Wht happened?" I said "Got bored hitting the keyboard keys so just loosening up my hands"... lol

I just want to tell the HR ppl tht I m not planning to leave u (so soon), so pls stop bugging me with those calls.

BLOCKED!!!

All sites have been blocked in company ... add it with the new project workload means no time to log in frm home ... so less no. of posts n also less no. of comments on ur blogs ... pls bear with me.

Super Challenge post review

Sometime back I had posted the "Super Challenge" Rest of the World team. The playing team was officially declared yesterday.

Just a crosscheck:

                 My list             Their list

1. Virendra Sehwag (IND)             Selected
2. Sanath Jayasuriya (SRL)           Shahid Afridi
3. Jacques Kallis (SAF)              Selected
4. Brian Lara (WI)                   Selected
5. Yousuf Youhana (PAK)              Herschelle Gibbs    
6. Kumar Sangakkara (SRL)            Selected
7. Andrew Flintoff (ENG)             Selected
8. Irfan Pathan (IND)                Shaun Pollock
9. Daniel Vettori (NZL)              Selected
10. Muthiah Murlitharan (SRL)        Selected
11. Darren Gough (ENG)               Shoaib Akthar


Reserve Force:
12. Sachin Tendulkar (IND)           Selected
13. Marcus Trescothick (ENG)         Kevin Pieterson      
14. Brendon McCullum (NZL)           ---                         
15. Makhaya Ntini (SAF)              Selected

I had selected 15 players while the team has 14 ...
so --- seen in the list.

Go fishing

Uploaded a video on fishing adventures.

Oops!!.. I did it again - Britney Spears

Ketan Mehta, director of Mangal Pandey - The Rising (see previous post), in an interview declared tht he is planning a movie on Rani Laxmibai, another historical figure from the same era. I think he is definitely planning to rewrite history as per his discretion. The role of the brave Rani Laxmibai will be played by Aishwarya Rai. Hmm... tht is one reason to go to the theatre.. ;)

Mangal... Mangal.. Mangal

Even after two days I m still wondering whether Mangal Pandey-The Rising was a historic film or a soft-porn. The way the director deals with the story, it seems to explore the sex-lives of the Generals of East India Company (EIC) n not the life of the hero of the 1857 Indian Uprising. For beginners, Mangal Pandey was an Indian soldier on the payrolls of EIC. He played a pivotal role in the 1857 Uprising (in the current sixth/seventh grade history books, his bravery is described in just one line). So, the director (...remember his film Maya Memsaab) has stretched this one line into a two-n-half hour movie. How? Tht's simple.. put in some sleazy scenes n a couple of 'item-songs'. I m not averse to sex-scenes in movies (Bollywood is coming out of age n i m happy for tht), but the director seems to have forgotten wht an outrage it might generate in the hero-worshipping community (..national heroes do not have any vice). Also a recent book has been published "Mangal Pandey: Martyr or Accidental Hero".

Mangal Pandey (played by Amir Khan) n his officer, Gordon (Toby Stephens) r shown as frnds who do mud-wrestling n drink bhang (alcoholic drink) together. On Gordon's command Mangal chews the cartridge-cover, which is coated with animal fat n which is against his religion. The cartridges create a stir among the sepoys n alogwith some local rulers they decide to overthrow the British regime. The plan somehow reaches the authorities n they summon a large fleet of army to foil the uprising. Mangal Pandey is taken in custody n hanged in public. But, the seeds of rebellion he sowed then, gave birth to a massive upheaval which shook the foundations of the EIC.

Though, Mangal's role was very important in the uprising it is completely overlooked in the film which beats around the bush showing some nautch gals shaking their booty. Amir Khan's 4 yr sabbatical was the main reason for the crowds to throng to the theatres. Though Amir is one of my fav actors, I was totally disappointed with this film. Toby Stephens comes out gr8... I liked the scene in which he tries desperately to defend Mangal in the courtroom. Rest of the actors r so-so. Check out the catchy backgrnd sound on the film's official site.

A recent mail : Wht will be the name of Amir Khan's big budget adult film...

Man-Gal Porn-Day: The Raising

Weeekkkkend....

First of all a very Happy Independence Day (though it was yest.) to all...

Long n hectic weekend (+ Monday)...

Spent half of Saturday sweating out in the training prog... then went to see Mangal Pandey.

Sunday morn. went in searching for a customer for my old 2-wheeler.. evening went out with coll. frnds.. Suraj had also come frm Mysore taking off frm his hectic Infy training.

Monday was Ind. Day.. so spent morning in it.. afternoon took the 2 wheeler for a bit servicing (found a buyer)... evening went for a house-warming party at a frnd's place.

Today morning was pulled out frm the Training in company n given a new project... spent all the day working ...*PHEW* ... so now leaving for home... bye.

Lotz of reading to do tomorrow as many posts r up in all the list... :)

Man Vs Machine

Saw Stealth last Saturday. Actually had gone for "Sehar" n thinking tht it was 1-2 weeks old didn't bother to buy tickets in advance. But, saw a big HOUSEFULL board n had to settle for this movie. The starting scene is beautifully picturised.. the movie starts in future with three super-supersonic jets each piloted by an extra-ordinary human-being. This team (Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx) has been trained to wipe out the terrorist hide-outs all over the world. An auto-pilot jet (with a sophisticated machine-to-man communication interface) is included in the team to enhance the operations n reduce the risk to human life (i.e. pilots'.. n wht 'bout the ppl living in regions near the bombing sites??). This works fine until the program inside the goes haywire n the jet starts thinking on it's own. The storyline as such is very dull (the hero goes on a rescue mission n tames the talking-jet by his sweet n logical approach.. lol). Only thing I liked was the amazing sounds of the jets soaring high n fast in the blue sky (surprised!! the sky will remain blue inspite of the pollution u make.. so need to worry). Also check out this site.. worth a visit

All in all.. worth the money if u like the sounds n don't care even if the heroine looks old.. :p

P.S.: Sorry for the late post.. i know u were missing my excellent reviews (lol). Be prepared for another dose coz going to see Mangal Pandey tomorrow... he he he

Tagging on...

Series of tagging: GrandPooofAwesome --->Veggiebabe ---> Squishy ---> Anonymous Blogger

Anonymous Blogger has tagged me to for listing my 10 turn-ons' n turn-offs' (strictly non-sexual.. lol)

So here goes the list:

Turn-ons':

• Humour (without tht life sucks..)
• Ice-creams n chocolates
• Smell of moist earth (esp. after the first drizzle)
• Songs i love
• Home cooked food (my mom is an excellent cook)
• Good comedy shows on TV
• Reunions (School n college preferable over family get-togethers)
• Sports (almost all .. more if they r outdoor)
• Mythology
• Cold coffee frm "Durga" (a local coffee outlet.. it is addictive)

Turn-offs':

• People who r slow at understanding jokes (esp. if they r cracked by me..lol)
• Fat ppl who disagree they r..
• "Request blocked by Web-blocker" message in the company even when the site is not porn-related
• Bad weather
• Coercion to eat wht i don't like (I tend to start hating those ppl.. one of my aunt is like tht)
• Staying late at workplace when not necessary
• HR calls (thinking of writing another post for this..)
• Hard rock
• Ppl who disobey traffic rules..
• Poor team leaders

I m deviating frm the one-to-one tagging unsaid rule. So I m tagging the following ppl:

• Parag
• Poo Poo Princess
• Harshal
• Natty

Kaun Banega Crorepati 2

Big B is back.. n back with a bang (for this read the next para). The 2nd part of the hugely-popular KBC (same lines on Who wants to be a Millionaire) kicked off last Friday. The enthu of the ppl remains the same only thing changing seems to be the moolah.. doubled this time to 2 crore.

Columnist Shailaja Bajapai in today's Indian Express writes:

...like TV is booming, and we boast of over 60 TV 24x7 channels, the only TV icon we possess is an ageing, white-bearded film star of 60+, who, last week, dyed his hair light brown, climbed into Abhishek’s black leather jacket (with steel rings on the pockets), and sang KBC’s cheerful opening rap-like ditty to belie the crow’s nests gathering below his eyes?...

Sooooo true... but still he remains (n will continue in coming yrs) the comman man's ultimate hero.

Pune (ok...atleast myself) hung my head in shame when a localite reaching the Hot Seat didn't know wht was PETA for.

Bush...

Had told Alex tht I would be posting some images of Bush.. though I agree with Squishy it is hard to find a normal pic of this guy

The wall of ANONYMITY is falling...

Browsing thro' Indian Bloggers' List a few days back, I read a few blogs [sorry for others.. i will try to visit all soon :)]. One of the posts I went thro' "Wall of Anonymity" threw some light over the fact tht many of us here don't know each other but paint an imaginary picture of the blogger (I have my pics on my other blog.. so u need not tire ur brain visualising me.. lol). Anyways, the point put forward by her (~*Deepa*~.. probably tht is a pseudonym) is valid. One of my blogger-frnd Harshal, lives in Pune itself.. but I have never met him till now in person. We keep in touch by just putting our comments in each other's posts. But, 2 days back, my cubicle partner, Santy, happened to look over my shoulder when I was reading Harshal's blog. Guess wht! He turned out to be Harshal's school friend. He he.. my blog seems to be like Orkut.. "A place where u can find ur old friends" ... n old in the sense of childhood :).

Still I m not able to figure why tht video in the earlier post is not coming up. I get an error something like "a href" tag is not opened to match with closing tag. I absolutely have no idea how to go ahead with it.. coz i went thro' the basic html stuff n it seems tht the opening n closing tags r right. If I copy the link in a test html page it works fine. *PHEW*

Now, videos on blog!!

Thnx to 007 .. got the way to upload videos on blog. Though I had uploaded a video of a fat lady sweating it out (tht was inspired from Veggiebabe.. i mean a post of her's). Should I load it?? Mind u .. it is very bad

Share video at JussPress.com

I was born intelligent.. Education ruined me!

Last week (inspite of the heavy rains) the Income Tax Department raided all the educational institutions (I don't know why we call them educational inst. when they don't teach a f*ing thing .. whtevr). If my memory is good, this was the first attack on these colleges which are backed by some strong politicians. Pune is known as the Oxford of the East. I seriously have doubts regarding this coz there isn't a single institution which has good teachers (atleast mine didn't have) or a student-friendly atmosphere (i was failed in my 3rd year viva coz i refused to attend the internal examiner's lectures coz he was a dumbass). The whole education scenario has gone from bad to worse. Anyone interested in making some easy n fast money (add to tht some good political contacts) opens up an engg. or medical college. Youngsters r flocking to this city from all over the country just due to the old notion tht Pune is haven for better education. Time to wake up!

A guest asked the host's 8 year kid "What do u want to b when u grow up?". Expecting a routine reply like a film actor or cricket player, the guest was stumped to hear, "When I grow up, I will open one engg. n one medical college. So I won't have to do anything for the rest of my life".

I have mentioned earlier in my posts, many of my classmates r going abroad for higher studies. Aniket is leaving for France while Mehta is heading towards Sweden. Got Appa's mail 'bout reaching safe n sound to Alabama. I m also thinking 'bout going to Canada (since most of my blog reviewers r frm this place.. lol)

Here (I don't know where else too..) the admissions for engineering are given according to the marks scored in 12th grade. When I was waiting for my turn on the list, I overheard two guys (they had got very less marks) talking 'bout the availibility of seats in good colleges. One of them was asked by a college management (hint for localites... near my house) to cough up additional 7 lakhs for a Mechanical stream seat. Tht boy was ready to shell out those many bucks.... I m damn sure he is still in the First Year coz u can seek admission by throwing money but can't change ur marklist (or can u???.. might be.. shit). A top-class medical college asked a frnd to kindly donate 10 lakhs apart from the fees. She could not afford it n went to a comparatively low ranked college n passed with a Distinction.. way to go gal!