Recession is fading out :)

Recession- This term literally shook every employee in the world. Many had a nightmare (including me :P)  about losing their job because of the worst recession that hit the world.I am not fully aware of what the subprime crisis is, who is the mother of the monster, but one thing I know is it had a vandalizing effect .Many of the banks shut down, many companies closed and many acquisitions taken place.
To me it altered the general employee benefits such as transport service, cafeteria and importantly Hikes and Promotions.The companies took up these steps, saying that these are vital steps to withstand the monster which I believe is only a half-truth.Typically companies love to reduce their operating cost by cutting the employee benefits.
After about an year, I am hearing some good news that the recession is fading out. I am still awaiting this positive wave to hit me.Companies are not so active in restoring the benefits as they were in cutting down.
The result is the increased attrition rate :)
Unless the attrition is showed up in your company, it will not bother to provide hikes and promotions and restore the pre-recession conditions.
Infosys has taken up the corrective measures in the wake of increased attrition rate in the company and trying to woo the employees now.I am waiting for my company to recognize it before I switch over to some other company :)

Signing off,

Vish :)

One night @ call center

One night @ the Call Center

By Chetan Bhagat

I love this author. The way this guy describes a girl and every minute detail about her attire is simply awesome. This book is fun to read with a moral about “inner call”. The characters described in this novel are a common face in every office and you will identify yourself with one of the characters.

The dates described in this book are a start point to every boy and gives ample information about shades of a girl. One point I would like to highlight from this book is “The guys are happy before getting into a relation and lose their happiness after getting into relationship”. Just kidding  :D

 

The summary of it is series of  following questions –

 “Are you happy with your life, your job?”

What would you do to make yourself happy?  Think and work towards it.

Listen to your heart and understand what it wants.

Realize no one is perfect and never underestimate yourself. 

 A very contemporary novel and a must read if you have worked in a BPO.  :D

Yours,

Vish

Swot analysis

SWOT analysis of Santa :D

1. Strength : My Wife
2. Weakness : Banta's Wife
3. Opportunity : When Banta is on tour
4. Threat : When I am at tour

The Alchemist

The Alchemist is a journey of a young shepherd named Santiago, who goes after a treasure he sees in his dream and about the life lessons he learnt along the path to his life mission.The human emotions and thoughts when one have to lose one's possession for the achieving greater heights in life is well captured by Paulo Coelho.

I have heard about the law of universe before, but any law is well understood when it is illustrated with an example.

In this book, the author describes how the universe helps a young boy in understanding his dreams and to reach his destiny. 

The following are the wise thoughts on which the story of Santiago is based.

Law of Universe

"When you really want something deep down from your heart, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it".

Personal Calling

It is the path that God chose for you on this Earth and the traveling on which your soul fills with enthusiasm and happiness.

Four Obstacles

1.  Traditional thoughts, prejudice, fear and guilt
2.  Thought of hurting the loved ones in search of one's destiny
3.  Fear of Defeat
4.  Fear of Realizing the dream i.e., losing a purpose for life after achieving it

Few drops of wisdom from this novel

" We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand. "

" Tell ur heart dat the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, bcoz every second of this search is an encounter with God."

" Every search begins with beginner's luck. And every second ends with the victor's being severely tested."

" The darkest of the night came just before the dawn."

"When u possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed."

"Eyes shows the strength of the soul."

" If a person is living out his destiny, he knows everything he needs to know. There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."

" Do not say wat you got is more than you deserve. Life might be listening, and give you less the next time."

This book is so compelling that I finished it in a day. 

But now I feel that I should reread this book to gain more wisdom from it.

This is an ideal book for a person who is in search of his destiny, willing to explore his inner self and importantly listening to his Heart.

Yours,

-Vish

Who will cry when you die?

Yesterday i've completed reading a book called "Who will cry when you die? " by Robin Sharma.By the name it sounds cynical, but contrary to that, this book shares authors opinion on how to lead a purposeful life and discuss various life or personality improvement techniques.

Few points I would like to highlight from this book are:

1. The more you ask, the more you get
2. When you wake up, spend few minutes planning the day how happy and achieving you can make it
3. One is compensated for the amount of value he/she adds to the world, not by amount of hard work they put in
4. If you don't act on life, life will act on you
5. Say to your self- " If it's going to be, it's up to me"
6. Try the technique  " act like that which you most wish to become"
7. Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think
8. It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not date that they are difficult
9. Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind. People grow old only by deserting their ideals and by outgrowing  the consciousness of youth. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.... You are as old as your doubt, your fear, your despair. The way to keep young is to keep your faith young.Keep your self-confidence young. Keep your hope young - L.F.Phelan
10. Be an Adventurer
11. When you love your job, you discover you will never have to work another day in your life
12. You cannot pursue success, success ensues.
13. Happiness is not a place you reach but a state you create
14. The purpose of life is a life of purpose

Over all, this book is a good source of inspiration with lot of quotations and is worth reading.

Finally I would like to end this review with the summary on the art of living by novelist James Michener as quoted by author

   "The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his life and his religion. He hardly knows which is which He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both. "

Yours,

Vish