Induction Program - An Experience

Its been a week since I started working with a young IT Consulting and Solutions company.

I am still spellbound over the effect of a single week at work (not really work!) on my lifestyle. The laid back life I was living over the last two months finally has come to an end. No more sleeping, movies and hanging out. I had a similar feeling during those Engineering days... the migration from the one month vacation to a new semester. But, the migration this time is completely different and is more of a learning experience.

The reason for this is the chilled out and fresher friendly work environment at my organization and the investment, time and the personal attention it puts in to develop us newbies. The highlight of this week was the Induction and Development Program the company had organized for us at Sinhagad Fort near Pune , by a professional outfit named High Places Management Pvt. Ltd. , based at Pune.

These chaps conduct management development programs for various organizations, small and big, for freshers as well as for senior management.

The Induction Program started off with presentations by people with various roles and experience at the company, in Mumbai. Thereafter, on Friday Afternoon we, a batch of twenty one embarked on our journey to the Fort. We already had got various opportunities to get to know each other, but this was the best time to understand my colleagues. The guest house on the top of the fort is a kind of a dormitory, with one huge room each for the guys and the girls.

The weather was just awesome, with clouds hovering around and greenery. Everything just looked surreal. The Induction program consisted of various team games , open forums, trekking, a presentation by the company and discussion of experiences conducted after every activity. The whole thing was very well thought out, designed, planned and managed by the outdoor organization. It was completely relevant and met its goals, focussing on Experiential Learning. (Learning through Action)


The objective of the entire program was to help us understand each other, learn to interact and work with differently minded people and to introduce us to corporate life, a transition from college life. We learnt various lessons, a few of them being time management, being practical, getting work done in spite of different approaches and clashes and try to make the most out of each other's potential, leading to tangible results. The idea is that individual performances and contributions add up and achieve big results.

I've a special mention for one of the directors the outdoor outfit, Mr. Milind Kirtane. A middle aged person, who graduated from IIT Chennai and after working for 8 years, left the comforts of a cushy corporate job for something more adventurous and fulfilling. Since then he has a great experience outdoors. Its been a pleasure to listen to his experiences and philosophy towards life.

The fear and the apprehensions I had about life at work almost vanished after this program. It might be temporary, but it provided a great impetus nonetheless. My understanding of this world, people and the company has taken a step up. I believe that, finally its all in the mind and my mind is ready to enter the corporate world. Well, Almost!!

Thought of the Day!

No this is not a series. Don't expect me to post a thought a day. Anyway... it Just occurred to me and I found it cool enough to post it here -


"I for one, believe that Life is Large, its like Wikipedia (:P) There is so much to see, so much to learn, so much to do..... you never seem to get enough of it. You just can't seem to conquer life with the challenges it keeps throwing at you."

- Ashutosh Deo (August 18, 2007) ;)

Movies: My Recommendations

I recently added one more thing to my addiction bag- MOVIES. You could say I picked it up from a very good friend and a movie addict, before he left for the states recently. No, I just don't watch any movie I get.... I am hunting for some "quality movies", the ones that tend to influence or inspire you big time... the ones which make you think and change your outlook towards the world.

I knew all along that I was gonna see these "quality movies" some or the other time... but out of laziness and disinterest, had thought of seeing them in old age :D

Glad I am done with my Engineering and back to my usual self (Free Bird) plus ample availability of time (No responsibility, girlfriends etc) that I started this "hobby" and am half a connoisseur of movies already. But I've to admit, I was completely wrong when I used to think earlier that this would be a waste of time. Now I regret why I didn't start watching earlier.. But its better late than never. I assure you that watching these movies will reinstate your faith in the world and life in general... Ok I am getting too philosophical here ;)

I discovered and confirmed my liking in Biographies, Drama, Romance, Travel and Real Life stories. I have always loved to read about people, how they turned their life around in difficult circumstances, how they started companies, how they travelled round the world et al. In short, I am inspired by real world stuff.

Ok... Time for the recommendations... Click on them to know more, from the IMDB (Internet Movie Database... cool huh? Make friends with IMDB)

The Best of them all: (in no particular order)

Diarios de motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries) (2004)
Vita è bella, La (Life is Beautiful) (1997)
October Sky (1999)
The World's Fastest Indian (2005)
Rain Man (1988)
The Godfather (1972)
Before Sunrise (1995)
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988)

Really Good Movies:

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
12 Angry Men (1957)
The Pianist (2002)
The Sting (1973)
Leben der Anderen, Das (The Lives of Others) (2006)
The Apartment (1960)
Office Space (1999)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Cast away (2000)
Man on the Moon (1999)
The Insider (1999)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Midnight Run (1988)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Memento (2000)
Sideways (2004)
Heat (1995)
Wall Street (1987)
Men of Honor (2000)
The Departed (2006)
The Straight Story (1999)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
The Notebook (2004)

Good Movies:

Serpico (1973)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Before Sunset (2004)
Inside Man (2006)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Just Like Heaven (2005)
The Girl Next Door (2004)
Carlito's Way (1993)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
The Hurricane (1999)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
What Women Want (2000)
A Walk to Remember (2002)
Anger Management (2003)



That's all I remember now... Will have to keep updating this post. The distinction of the movies might be different for you... I made the categories as per my thinking about the movie. There are a lot more movies I could've mentioned... but they're too common.... (again it just might be me)


Your movie taste meter increases as you recollect having seen one of these :P
Ok I know there are much better movie connoisseurs than me and that I've to watch a lot more greats yet.. ... but what the heck :)

Please fire some comments and recommendations.

I gotta go watch a Movie now... Seeya

--> Last Updated July 18 2008

Privacy and Controls on Orkut.com

I don't know if this will be read... but I guess I can take a chance, even if it is miniscule.

Coming to the point, I really feel that Orkut.com should not be a completely open environment. It should give users some control, by giving them the option of restricting access to their profile and scrapbook, since its very personal. There are many people including myself who wish that their profile/scrapbook should not be viewed by everyone, at least not by those who are not in the circle of friends or the "network".

One thing that I feel that would really improve privacy in Orkut would be the denial of access to view a profile for someone who is on the ignore list.

I understand that it restricts the purpose of Orkut as a free environment wherein you can find your old mates by just searching and looking up their profile. But I feel that we can always use the power of a "network" ( friends of friends of friends ) to look up old mates. If anyone is really serious about finding their old mates, they can always look up their friends' lists. It almost always works. Orkut.com can also have the search option modified to search only the user's own "network" instead of the entire database.

I agree that it would be a complex task to implement, considering the efforts needed to be taken and the layers of security which would be required.

But I feel that it is a necessity considering the kind of impact Orkut.com has made in the social networking scene and "lifestyle" in general. I don't feel confident about the safety of the users, especially when details about them and their lifestlye are thrown open to everyone. You really do not want some peeps to know what's going on in your life.

If anyone does want to make pen pals all over the world, they always have the option of joining "communities" containing people with common interests, although at their own risk, because then again their profile would be thrown open to everyone. To tackle this problem, Orkut.com can have the concept of Open and Closed communities, meaning just what the names suggest. The result of the explosive growth of Orkut.com is that almost anyone who uses computers for networking is on it and there are countless communities on almost all aspects of our world - A case of 'you search it and you find it'

I appreciate the "Don't be evil" motto of Google.com, but its not enough to deter anyone from being evil! There have to be more controls in place than the existing ones.

Especially when people start interacting and living more on Orkut.com than the real world!!!!

And when you know there's a small evil side in each one of us :)

Random Thoughts

There's so much disparity in this world when it comes to the rich and the poor. Imagine this - A celeb blows up more money in a single night than a poor man would earn in his entire lifetime. The definition of power has changed over the years. Power is being abused like anything. Everywhere. I wonder when righteousness will prevail.

I sometimes wonder... how we manage being chained and live life by the same set of rules, doing the same mundane things and doing what everyone thinks is right for us ... instead of listening to what our own heart says. I wonder why we try to play safe all our life.

If only it was as easy to get your thoughts and feelings across and act at the right time, life would be a whole lot different. Think about it.

I realised that such thoughts strike like a bolt out of the blue, sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes after watching a movie....... and I find them worthwhile enough to list them here. ;)