LOVE AAJ KAL…!!!

What women want? Is it a rocket science???? I don’t think so…..there are many things they surely want, however,  I would like to touch upon a few important ones. They want respect , creativity in keeping her happy, love the way she is and last but definetley the biggest one is “confidence in your approach”!!!  to put it in Ranbir kapoor’s style….”keep it simple silly”!!

Who is the hero? Who is a dream man?? And who is adorable???  It was distinctly categorized that a man who rescues , who is romantic also listens to his girl fits in the complete “raymond” man!! The ladies who belong to my generation will vouch for this, because good = heroism in our days.  A  bad Rajinikanth is guided by his wife / girl friend and turns into a nice man, is what we enjoyed in our hay days sorry younger days!!  We would never bother about the villian, he was always projected as a heartless, cunning, blood thirsty wretch!!! 

However, time has changed now. My big question to these young girls is….why are you getting attracted to negatives? A  person who has more dark shades in his personality has the maximum girls in his arms, contemporary movies are made on anti hero subject and which is a huge hit among the youngsters. Of course I do agree that a girl can make or break a home, but the latest trend is the girl herself getting onto his path, which is really a wake up call for all of us.  A boy who says that “I am bad” is considered as the best person on the earth for any girl, as she thinks that he is being frank. Girls have to realize that by uttering the statement the boy is very clear of what he wants!!! However the girls are perplexed and   succumb  to his demands  at the end.

Another unconventional thing which is prevailing in our young minds is “ love for vampires” !!! It has won many hearts through the latest “Twilight series”. This shows the height of boredom in their life and people want to explore eccentric things! Our old novels have to be face lifted and made to  appeal to the young generation, at the same time….we should not forget the basics.

 I have mentioned in my  introductory lines about the four  things  which are very important to win a girl. To emphasize  more on that, Be creative and confident in your approach. Girls dn’t want your macho or dominance in your attitude.  Create your own  brand image, they just want a honest, secured love from her man.

And for the girls…..do not jump to glorified stuff, all are short lived. Be with a man who says the world looks beautiful because of your presence. 

Men are from mars and Women are from venus…..but they live on the earth! 

Games That My Son Wants To Play!!!

Hello…..friends,

Dreams are Desires….as a facilitator I constantly  advise my students to have concrete goals. Of course goals will keep changing from time to time.  The most embarrassing  question  for any child is “ What do you want to become in future?”  
When I was a kid, I often spoke about becoming a secretary in a very big Multinational company…..i wanted to swish in good stylish clothes,  articulate in immaculate language, earning a hefty pay package and shouldering lot of responsibilities of the organisation!! However all this changed when I came into my final year at college…. I started dreaming about getting married and settling in life!!! “Being a house wife” was my dream then!!!  I think  God knew that I would be  a “misfit” in the Multinational companies…..and…..he had his own plans! I was married at the age of 20.
Life has changed after marriage, we think more about kids than about oneself!  I strongly believe that “success is a journey and not a destination” ….the Indian team has won the world cup…it was a great moment to see the winning sixer shot  by Dhoni. I have read interviews of Yuvraj Singh and Gautham Gambhir’s mothers!!!!! And of course another article by famous  writer Shobha De writing about Dhoni’s mother, I did not find any depth in her write up though!!!
I begin to ask myself “Will my son become a crickter?”

Personally speaking I wanted my  son to be called as DR. SIDDHARTH, however he disagrees by saying that he wants to become a cricketer. Slowly….now I have reconciled and decided to give importance for his passion towards this game. This is so because….as  a mother I can feel the grin on my face when he explains the rules of the game and the names of the new players.  Though the path is tough, I would make the necessary arrangements for him to take up cricket as a profession….now  this is my dream as well.  Doors are open when we start attracting the positives!!! Now… I am dreaming as though Shobha De is writing about my parenting skills and media is taking interviews as a cricketer Siddharth’s mother!!!

Now….a new goal is set!

Extra time for cricket!!

No more conditions when he goes out to play!!!

Waiting for my “Big Day”

AN UNCOMMON EXPERIENCE........!!!

Hey..another experience I wish to share with you all  Though it happened in 1993 and 1994…(of course very old!!!) it is still vivid in my mind.  As  you are all aware that I was born and brought up in Chennai..a city with conventional people and strong belivers of traditions!!! Mine was a typical arranged marriage, I was a newly wed .. with lots of dreams in my heart, I had travelled to Mumbai with my husband in 1993 to…..Mumbai a city of dreams…where people love fast life and you can find heaven if your pocket is not barren!!!

The local trains are a common medium of transport for any Mumbaikar. I was totally new to this kind of life style..  it took a while to get adjusted to Mumbai. It was during my transition period. Once my hubby and I travelled from VT to Kanjur marg ( where my in-laws stay) by the local train. Most of the ladies travel in the ladies compartment  but since I didn’t know the stations , my husband suggested that I be with him. A true military officer is promising…I just obeyed him!!! When we were about to get down, he instructed me to get down first and I did just that, but because of the crowd he couldn’t do so and the relentless train started moving and I was left all alone at the station!!! As usual people came to console me and a railway employee helped me and said that I should not get worried. I was feeling miserable and wanted to rant with my husband later. But my agitation did not last long……my poor husband caught another train and reached the same place where I was standing!!! Like a child, I was much relived to see him. He assured me that nothing would have happened to me and I must take it as a learning experience!!! I was happy at the end!!!!!!

The story did not end with this………..in 1994 exactly a year later….the same incident happened, we were travelling in the local train with a lot of luggage and we were not able to get down with all our stuff. I got off with a suitcase and the train merrily moved leaving me at the station!!! But I had become smart by then, I did not panic. I came out of the station and took an auto rickshaw to reach to my in-law’s house. I informed my parents in –law about the incident and they took it coolly.

Time was passing but there was no sign of my husband coming back home and I was getting paranoid. Four hours had passed, he was still missing. I could not eat anything as I was feeling very bad from inside as to what would have happened to him… and later in the evening, he emerged like full moon with a long face, and totally angry on me!!!  He started arguing, “How could you leave the station just like that?” as he searched for me for a very long time and this made him sad and angry. I tried telling him that I had been smart enough to manage things without panicking..but in vain!!! He was totally not in sync with me, men have strong hearts and especially military men have stronger ones!! I was only one year old married….so finally I said “sorry” to him. But jokingly I also said that he should take it as a learning experience to cope up with a young chennai girl!!!!

Now, I can confidently travel by the locals and get down at the right station…but this incident is a joke for our children as they still wonder how could this happen to their parents????

AT THE TOUCH OF LOVE.... EVERYONE BECOMES A POET.......

Come february, love is in the air…….

It is the time no one can scare…..!

A SMALL POEM TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN LOVE………!!!

If I was an LG TV, you would have said,   I am “digitally yours”. 

If I was “Johnson and Johnson” baby soap, you would have said,  “No more    tears”. 

 

If I was Tata sky, you would have said,  Life is “jinga lala”.

If I was Coco cola you would have said,  “open happiness” that’s the formula.

If I was Nokia , you would have said, “Honey let us “stay connected”.

If I was BSNL, you would have said, Bubbly “you are the best”.

If I was brand Philips, you would have said, “Let us make things better”.

If I was brand Videocon, you would have said, “you are my leader”.

Don’t be like Pizza hut, making me thirty minutes wait!

Even two minutes Maggi  sounds so late!

I m just a “muggle”………!

Really cannot juggle…..!

Let me put it clear……..!

Will you be my valentine for ever???? 

HR Round- Ease your tension........

When December knocks the calender, what I can possibly think of is, lots and lots of hoildays and festivals. However, this December is special to me because my dear students are being tested to step into the world of responsibilty, discipline and professionalism.  An offer letter from a reputed company judges their dignity  and  boosts self confidence.  That is why, I decided to share my experiences with you all-  to guide you for the Interview.

There are five type of HR questions.

Type 1

1.       Tell us about yourself

2.       What is your most memorable moment / embarassing moment in your life?

3.       What are your hobbies?

4.       What are your strengths and weaknesses?

5.       What are your favourite subjects?

6.       What motivates you / or demotivates you?

7.       What is your opinion on success?

8.       Who is your role model / ideal person?

9.       What is that one thing you want to change  in yourself?

10.   What is that onething that makes you feel that you are unique?

These questions are to check the basic communication skills, confidence, how well the candidate know about himself, about their personality which includes traits like transperency, loyalty, honesty, creativity and their clarity of thought! These are all personal questions ... please do spend time and get to know yourself.

According to me, the first impression is the last impression. You won’t get a second chance to make the first impression. Therefore, your answer has to be  impressive. For eg, the answer to the  introductory question must consist of your name, your father’s name and occupation(optional) and your acedemic details. Then, choose from any of the sub headings like your project work, strengths, achievements,  interests and hobbies!!! Please remember to select only one from the above mentioned list.

Type 2 ( JOB ORIENTED QUESTIONS)

1.       What motivated you to choose this job / career?

2.       What are your goals?

3.       Are you a goal oriented person?

4.       How did you plan to achieve your goals?

5.       What is your recent accomplishments?

6.       Where can we see you after 5 years or may be 10 years?

The objective of these questions is to check the clarity of the “goals and career objectives” of the candidate.

Note:  1.While the candidate is answering any of the above questions, the Interview Board would always countercheck or would be keen to know how much he is interested or focused to secure a job in their orgainsation and to understand if he or she is planning to build a long term of strong association with them!

Hence the candidate, while answering the above questions should convey a clear message that he is very focused towards the new opportunity. He/she should also make the board understand through their answers that he/she is very keen in sharpening their skills and improving their knowledge and want to grow in the orgainsation.

2. Also to check his planning and Execution

3. The above questions are  asked to test the analytical skills towards his goals.  How realistic or practically it can be worked out to achieve the goals.

Type 3

1.       Did you have any conflict with anybody?

2.       What was your worst situation and how did you handle it?

3.       What was the biggest problems that you handled so far? Were you successful?

4.       Can you handle pressure?

These are to check the candidate’s skills in ,

1.       Adaptabilty to a situation

2.       Leadership qualities in Issue resloving

3.       Candidate’s personality in terms of people’s management!

In case if the candidate has mentioned that they are adaptable and flexible in their strength column…..then they have to support it with reasonable examples, Here conflict means  general misunderstandings  or any problem which deals with Interpersonal skills. So please remember to quote only work realted scenarios and not family issues.

Type 4

1.       What motivated you to do this project?

2.       Why should I hire you?

3.       How would you prove yourself right now that incase we dn’t hire you, the company would at loss?

These are targetted to know the ,

1.       True attitude and convincing skills.

2.        

For this question, one has to market his talents in a very professional way by highlighting the acdemic details, soft skills and adaptablity.

Type 5

1.       Are you willing to relocate?

2.       Are you willing to 24/7 if business demands?

3.       Are you willing to work at night shifts?

4.       Are you willing to travel?

The above mentioned questions are to check the flexibility of the candidate. It is also an indication that the candidate is being considered in the selection list.

IMPORTANT QUESTION

                WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE COMPANY?

                 This question is to check if the candidate has done his basic home work about knowing the organisation before going for the Interview.

So my dear………..show your go getter attitude, win the race and join the gang of professionals!

Smile- it is your birth right and maintain a calm composure during the Interview……..ALL THE BEST :)

MY JOURNEY TO “GITAM”………

We came to this city of destiny Vizag in 2007. I was coming from Mumbai, therefore I was mentally prepared that I will have different experience in this small town!!!!!

Then, my job hunt started from Dwarkanagar to MVP colony. Though I could impress the employers, but I didn’t find the “Mumbai pay” here! After a few days, I reconciled myself and not to search Mumbai in “Vizag” in terms of everything.

And the change in my attitude helped me to get into a B.School, as a faculty for communication skill subject for the first year students. My first day in the class…..

Can’t forget!!!!!!!

First of all, I was really nervous as they were taller than me!!! and passing comments in Telugu, (Thank god, I didn’t understand) But students are students after all…………. So I won their hearts and continued teaching rather communicating with them effectively.

And my Mumbai friends started teasing by calling Professor in Pink!!!!! Life was going on smoothly and I was brimming with happiness! VINDYA ON CLOUD 9”

Once in our Naval party, I was bragging to people that I am a trainer and take classes for MBA students! One intelligent officer asked me whether I was teaching in “Gitam college”, and there.......I had a mild heart attack and came to mother earth also realized that I need to achieve more!!!!  So my journey began but in full swing now! I left the job in the B.school and looking for good opportunities. In the meanwhile, I got an offer to work as a camp in charge for a summer camp project for children up to 15 years at Yoga village. It was a huge success. However, my heart said, “go girl ………….find your real happiness and that was an official entry in “Gitam college”!

True prayers are always answered, so I got an opportunity to interview the BBA students for a Mock session. I felt like flying in the sky with my Dream man (MS Dhoni) Yet, human mind is never satisfied so as i!

And finally……..I got the CHANCE to come to Gitam to teach!!! And that too for Engineering students. Wow……….. my first class was ECE branch. As expected, Students were very obedient and intelligent too! I needed an ice breaker to tune them to jump on the bandwagon of my kind of teaching. I played the “signature game”, nobody came to take sign from me!!!! and I felt that “yes! Lot of tuning is required” However, I got the feeling that they enjoyed my session at the end! Teachers are Psychologist at times…………hahahaha!

And the next day, another big day for me as I went to EIE class………ooohhh! They all looked at me as though a queen has entered their kingdom! The enthralling welcome by clapping and whistling!!!!!!!! And I was completely flattened also skipped heartbeats and confessed to them that “UNFORTUNATELY I AM MARRIED”…….It is one of my memorable experinence.The journey continued with Mechanical engineering students totally challenging me with their questions. I had a wonderful time with the all of them. At present, I take class for all the students irrespective of their streams. I have become a popular face in “Gitam” now. And I feel that I am one among them. I am their guide, teacher; friend , special friend for some of them, counselor and the list goes on! I proudly say that Gitam is like my second “Home” now! And my dream came true!!!! Hope this journey will continue year after year till we leave vizag officially!

BEAUTIFUL STRANGERS!!!!

Hey all, being a Navy person’s wife, I am bound to travel to different parts of the country. The Navy bases are placed in all developed towns or cities, unlike most stations of the Indian Army, where one will have to look for the map to locate the destination. I would like to share with you all my experiences with strangers I met and how they judged me!!!!!!

In 1993, I was a newly wed lady and Goa was our first posting. When you hear the name “GOA” everyone thinks that the life out there is “JAZZY”! Yes………however my experience was entirely different. One weekend my husband told me that we would go out for dinner at a beach shack (In Goa, one can find lots of Restaurants on the beach). We went to “seagull”, which popularly was known as “JOHN’S”, as the owner is more famous than the Seagull. My mind was placid and assured as we headed towards “John’s”. After gulping Pepsi for a while, it was time for us to order dinner………and the glossy menu card was placed in front of me.  I literally fixed my gaze at it with lot of curiosity and a watering mouth to decide my dish for the evening. But………… gosh! There was no vegetarian dish at all!!!!!! Being a god fearing Tamil Brahmin, I felt as if I had come to an alien land. To make amends, my warrior hubby asked the steward to make any vegetarian dish. But he was smarter than us and educated me that “Madam, take out the fish from the curry and it will become ‘veg curry’, so that you can eat it with rice!” Wow!!!!!!!  For a second I was wondering whether I was in India as there seemed to be no such concept as Vegetarian. So this was my experience with a person who could not differentiate between veg and Non veg, and revisit it every time I have a hunger pang. But now……..things have changed in this regard, and John’s offers one of the best veg cuisines in the locality!!!!!!

Few years later we moved to Cochin (kochi), the beautiful city surrounded by greenery, famous for condiments and heavy rains, with lots of movie halls and “veg” restaurants. Life was happy as I could converse in Malayalam as well. I used to tell my naval community friends that it was like was living in heaven. One day, I went to the Vegetable market and was bargaining in Malayalam. I was utterly shocked when the vendor got angry with me, and replied rudely in Hindi that he would not come down to my price. I was taken aback by his reaction and was aghast to hear what he said to his fellow vendor in malayalam “These North Indians learn our language and trying to show off to us!” Then he sternly insisted that I do not irritate him by talking in Malayalam. I was really surprised! However, I tried to tell him that I was a South Indian and I knew Malayalam. But the stubborn vendor kept giving me a blank look. I will never forget this stranger with a strong opinion.

Subsequently we moved to the city of destiny, Vizag, in 1998. We stayed in Vizag only for a year as during Kargil battle my husband had to move to Mumbai in mid 1999. Vizag exposed me to a different experience. As we were in the waiting roster for a naval house, we had to put up at a hired house. After a lot of thought, we took a house on hire in Sriharipuram, which was close to the Naval area. It was a MIG colony mostly consisting of god fearing people and we had a Brahmin family as our neighbor (who incidentally never spoke to me for a very long time). My husband was a young officer then, and had to do a lot of night duties and he hardly stayed at home!!!!! Besides that, his ship sailed left, right and centre keeping me puzzled with life in this small town. The only bright spark in my life was my daughter who was 4 years old then. Me and my daughter explored the markets and tried to make the most of life at home. Surprisingly nobody in the colony was warm with us, or for that matter even spoke to us. We were left alone like accused people. As for the cold treatment from my neighbor, I was totally confused as to what was going on in their great mind!!!!!!!

In the meanwhile, my in-laws came from Mumbai to stay with us for a few months. And when my mother-in-law befriended the Brahmin family, we learnt that all the people in the neighborhood thought that my hubby and me were leading a live-in relationship and were not officially married. This was so because he was seen only occasionally, that too coming and leaving at odd hours at times. Therefore they concluded that “SOMETHING WAS FISHY IN OUR HOUSE” and that is why they kept a distance with us……….heights of suspicion!!! I realized how people formed an opinion just like that! My mother-in-law became my savior and helped my neighbors to come out of this web of confusion. This town had all “judges” around and they branded anyone so easily! However, when they came to know that we were a legally wedded couple they became good friends and even allowed their daughters to speak to me! In this whole episode, my hubby was the only one who was unaffected and merrily sailing for the “INDIAN NAVY”.

Thereafter we stayed in Mumbai for a long time! It is a concrete jungle. We could see snazzy buildings and glittering malls! People mend their own business, no time to make an opinion on others! Typical people with lot of energy. ………to earn and enjoy!!!!                

I had the opportunity to meet many small and big time celebrities because of my job. I came to know their fake attitudes and selfish nature. Actually, most of them are arrogant and I learnt one thing from them, “ANY PUBLICITY IS GOOD PUBLICITY”. So here, I branded them, and formed my own opinion.

Recently, I had been to Singapore………I was so… so……happy. The warmth of the people is commendable. They were very friendly, trustworthy and approachable. Once I had traveled in a taxi all alone at around 10pm in this foreign country without any fear. While on the way, I was talking to my husband in Tamil on the phone. When I finished the call, the driver asked me in Tamil whether I was an Indian. I felt very happy. It is a great feeling to meet a fellow Indian in a place away from your country. I told him proudly that “yes” I am an Indian. We exchanged pleasantries and he told me   “JAIHIND” when I got down from his taxi. It was superb……I am proud to be an Indian.

It is nice to reminiscence and cherish my experiences with these “beautiful strangers”!