Leadership OR Netagiri

The real incidents and events are covered using fictional and dramatic stories.

I decided to tell the system administrator about the bug as clearly as possible. I decided to talk about exact concerns that I and others have about the bug. But then I was stopped by someone who said the following thing "You have right to talk about your own concern and issues and but you are no one to talk for all the people. Why should you involve yourself in Netagiri stuff?" This is when a thought emerged in my mind. Do we belong to a culture where standing for others is having a negative connotation? The word "netagiri" is correct and exactly fits with the role that I wanted to play in fixing the bug. But then why this word has a negative connotation? This is another bug that I descried in the system.

Oh let me tell how get into the above situation.

I am in a system. There are many others, if not exactly like me but quite similar to me, in the same system. System is fine and it is working. System is quite acceptable and fulfills all the expected needs. I have certain comfort levels with the system and that is why I won't like to leave this system in search of other. There are many things that I like in the system. And there are very few things which I wish should not have been there. In my daily routine I hardly notice those 'few things' that bothers me somewhat. So the day is great and I fill satisfied with the system. But there are times when I have to interact with those 'few things' and again I wish if I could change them. I call them bugs. Just like many other people I mostly contend my urge for revolution (bug-fixing) just by talking about it to other people. I just some how feel comfortable that even other share the same opinion about bugs. And then I will talk about the bugs, complain about them, scold few system administrators and move on to my comfort zone. This is usual.

Then I detected a bug. This bug makes me quite uncomfortable. Actually if this bug would not have been there in the system, I could have had some financial rewards from the system. And that is the reason why I want to fix it. There are some others in the system who might be having undue advantage because of this bug. They might be using this bug to do get some unfair financial rewards. I don't have any proofs for that but I have strong reasons to believe so. My reasons include the concerns shared by many others in the system. These people are also in similar kind of disadvantage because of this bug in the system. After hearing from these people, I decided to fix the bug. I had some personal reasons as well. But this time my urge for revolution was higher because of public interest in fixing the bug.

And this is when I decided to tell the system administrator about the bug as clearly as possible. Then I heard the dialogue stated in first paragraph.

So are we creating a system where we are trying to kill "netagiri" instincts of people? A system where everyone accepts the system the way it is. Some people tell me that it is necessary to do so to sustain the system. Some say that if allow all the netas to put their ideas in public openely, it would lead in crashing the system. So by killing the "netagiri" instinct, they are basically trying the save the system and retain its present state. I guess this "netagiri instinct" maps directly to the "leadership skills" of the person. And the way I hearing the buzz word all around me, I guess that every system is looking for people with "leadership skills". I found the situation quite amazing, just think about it.

Every system out there is looking for people with leadership skills. And once these systems have such people, systems do not want them to play "netagiri" roles. I just wonder why then we are having all this drama created? Why can't system go out there and ask for people who are ready to accept the system the way it is. I am confused.

Age of Empires - FALL OF A TITAN

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FALL OF A TITAN

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Please read CHAPTER ONE - RISE and CHAPTER TWO - MY EMPIRE before reading this.

Ayesha was invincible in the map. He was the best in the institute. He was a star. An honor to his hall, batch, department and institute. The real world was too boring. In real world Ayesha was a loser. His studies were all bad. And grades were difficult to get. Ayesha wanted to take every one of those real world champions to this new world, where he will kill them. He will kill them badly. Ayesha had fantasies of locking the enemies such that they can't do anything. Ayesha would lock enemies' men by the wall so they can't move and then enemy would have to kill his own man by himself. It was a gratification for Ayesha, and great humiliation for his enemies. In usual conversation with his friends, Ayesha would tease his friends "Meet in AOE". And then they would say "Ok. Fine. We know you are the best.” Ayesha would laugh.

Slowly and steadily, He became haughty. Ayesha would not play with bad warriors. They were not up to his standards. They were all easy to defeat. Ayesha asked bad warriors to come in teams. He would play one Vs many and still win with ease. He would despise those, who were learning for a long time and still can't stand his first attack. He would mock those who were senior and old TITANS after defeating them in the game. It was all for fun and nothing else. But it was too much fun. Bad warriors would play against Ayesha, because they did not want to be humiliated. So Ayesha didn't play with newer generation. And then the fall had begun.

Bad warriors playing among themselves, learned new ways of the game. They came up with newer strategies. They became faster and good. And It all happened when Ayesha was not part of those games. Some of those came to play with us, in our grounds when we were short of some players. Those kids, good for nothing according to Ayesha, started playing with TITANS. These kids started building armies that can stand against Ayesha's syths, but still, not for long. And then he faced the first defeat. Two kids attacked Ayesha with their archers, 50 of them, while they were in bronze. Ayesha had to leave his base and run for a hide. Ayesha had forgotten the art of resource collection. For past many weeks, Ayesha hadn't collected resources. He didn't have to. His allies used to give him all the resources. Ayesha tried to increase the population but all in vein. Enemies' archers enjoyed finding and killing Ayesha's men. My team LOST. Not that my team lost for the first time, but this time was special, because Ayesha could not stand against kids. I guess I will refer them as 'prince' TITANS from now onwards.

Ayesha tried to learn new ways, but princes were too good. Ayesha could never come out of his own way. He could not leave "the way", which brought all the fame and victories. He would still try to reach Iron as fast as possible. If he reaches iron, with some resource, he will become invincible. Everyone knew that, even enemies. Enemies started attacking him while he was in tool. The only intention was to delay in reaching iron. And if he could not reach iron, he was very bad player, a resource sucker of the team. He tried to go back to the role of resource collection for his prince allies. But he found it humiliating. After all he was a warrior, not a resource collector. At the same time new world came as warcraft and AOE II. Ayesha was a bad player in the new world. And he didn't want to loose to princes. And thus Ayesha LEFT. A TITAN, who thought, that he was invincible, lost interest in the game. And thus the TITAN fell.

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October Sky

October Sky

"October Sky" is one of the best inspirational movies, seen by me. This article is not about the movie. There are two reasons for that. First, I can't write anything better about the movie. So who are interested in the movie should watch it. If you want to know more about the movie, check out the imdb link "http://imdb.com/title/tt0132477/". Second, I had something better to write about, something good about money and investment. I can see twinkle in your eyes. Alright I will stop boring you. Let us get down to business.

Two investment opportunities:

1. Bangalore lands
Every year after the month of October, real state prices in Bangalore rise. There are differences of about 2%-5% in the prices of 'lands' and 'apartments'. why is that?

There is only one reason. US VISA allotments are announced in the month of October. People do not invest their money in real estate, if they are hopeful about getting their VISAs approved. And once that hope is gone, people want to put their money in real estate.


2. American skies
This is December. There is something going on Job Market. Are you observing it? No? Hmmm.

There many consultant firms, say about 15 of them, who are looking for software professionals. These firms have a plan, which might interest you. They want to place these software professionals in US as consultant on a work VISA, H1B to be specific. There is bond, or service agreement as they call it, which would ask you to go to US, if your VISAs are approved. This bond will also cover a time frame, for which you would have to stick with the firm. But don't worry bond also specifies the money, which you would have to pay in case you want to switch firm or don't want to go. Money could be anywhere between 40,000 to 100,000 INR. So say you will get a H1B for about 80,000 (avg.). Good deal. Right?

You might want to consider that if you don't apply this year than you won't be able to get a Work VISA till October 2007. That means you can't go to US for work till January 2008.