Cafeteria food

I rarely eat in my office cafeteria , but often observe what the others are being served. Of course on business trips and other location visits, I am often compelled to eat in the cafeteria. I have come to the conclusion that Cafeteria food sucks (In varying degrees) in all parts of the world. Also, they are quite pricey, considering that they have no capital expenditure (infrastructure is provided by the office), and lower operating expenditure.
Here are four of my points to investigate the economic reasons for the same. Please debate on the merits of my arguement, and suggest how this can be improved.

A. Cafeteria vending business is monopolistic as many of the offices have a single vendor. While the employees may have better options outside the office, often the cost of going out (In terms of time, weather conditions, etc... ) makes the employees decide in favor of the cafeteria. The monopolistic nature leads to lower quality at a higher price

B. The market for an office cafeteria vendor is captive. Since there is little opportunity to grow the focus is on profit maximisation.

C. The people who are in charge of managing the cafeteria vendor does not have an incentive to control the quality. On the contrary, the may have vested interest to side with the vendor in order to receive favors (best case) and a profit cut (extreme case)

D. Another type of economics work, in countries like India. While studying for my engineering degree I often had to visit factories. The food in the cafeteria, which are patronized by the labourers are excellent. Guess why! :-)

Do Something You Love: Bad career advice ?

A few days back, I came across the article by Chrissy Scivicque : Bad Career Advice: Do Something You Love
I believe, that you should always make a career of what you love. To quote from a widely popular Indian Movie "Three Idiots": You should aspire from excellence, and success will follow suit. And it is obvious: excellence comes easily if you are doing what you love.
Let's go back to the fundamental question: what motivates an employee to make a meaningful career. I will refer to Maslow's hierarchy of needs as the starting point of this discussion. While there is some argument on the exact hierarchy of these needs, the needs still serve at great pointers of studying behavior of employees at work. I will club these needs in two levels - the first level being the "Physiological" and "Safety", and the next level being, "Love & Belonging", "Esteem" and "Self Actualization". The first level is basic, i.e. for most persons must be met before the other level even comes into picture. Once the first level is met, every person will have different priorities for the second level. I will establish through examples that whatever is the priority the subjects in my example is following their heart - doing what they love!
But first, let me start with the shocker! The case of an inventor, without whose the modern civilization would not be the same. I am talking of Charles Goodyear, who suffered extreme poverty and humiliation, just to make the process of vulcanizing rubber. To quote his exact words (thanks wikipedia). “Life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard of dollars and cents. I am not disposed to complain that I have planted and others have gathered the fruits. A man has cause for regret only when he sows and no one reaps.” Clearly he followed his dreams of "Self Actualization", even before his basic needs.
Another case study can be of Steve Jobs. He was fired from the Company he built (Apple). He founded "NeXT Computer", and bought "Pixar", companies who focused on excellence. He came back to an ailing Apple when the latter acquired NeXT Computers. The rest is history. iOS has a cult following with people proudly showing off their iPODs, iPhones and iPADs. He desired to follow his dream and the rest is history!
The last case I would like to put may be taken to be a pinch of salt, being a lot of hearsay. During my assignments in overseas locations, I often heard about an old man who was an independent consultant working with our client. I heard that he had started his career with Mr. Laxmi Narayan in Tata Consultancy Services. He took his career as a job and went independent which at the short term made a lot of money. Mr. Narayanan stayed on with Tata Consultancy services and later on, after a few career moves, is currently Vice-Chairman of Cognizant Technology Solutions! I leave the readers to come up with their own inferences!
Crissy talks about deadlines, bosses, commitments in order to prove that you would stop liking what you enjoy. I believe that it is taking a narrow view of things. Obligations would always be there. You should manage it effectivly, and apply your love in what you do. If you love something, the obligations will stop bothering you. There is a lot of new discussions on how millennial work. Look at them and see how they maintain a balance.
Also, on another note, let's assume that someone has a job, which he does professionally, and has a love outside his sphere of work. He will still have family commitment, clean the house, take the kid to school. If he cannot balance his love and commitments in office, can we expect him to maintain the same balance in his life? I would like to end this post with this question, and look forward to some more interesting debates.

A friend in need

I put the gear lever on neutral and slowly pulled over by the side of the road. I glanced at the side. My wife looked up at me. Her eyes seemed to say, "I told you so". She did not say anything though, and went back to review the vacation photos on her new smart phone.
I asked, "How are you feeling now?"
She replied sportingly, that she is all right. Her face told me a different story.
We were returning from a beach vacation. It was really late when we started; I wanted to drive by the beach at moonlight. Now, five hours later, we were almost lost, in the jungle, and the fuel tank almost nearing empty. To the make matter worse, she had a throbbing pain in the stomach and we had forgot to pack her medicines.
I shut down the engine, and immediately we were engulfed by an eerie silence. I looked at the illuminated dial of the smart phone. It said 3:15 AM in the morning. The moon has almost set now, but still the last rays falling on the trees created a cris-cross pattern on the road. It was all very beautiful.
I should have listened to her, I thought. We found out that the medicine was missing three hours ago, when her pain first started. She asked me to go back, but I knew there was a big town with an overnight medicine shop on the way, and had decided to continue. Somehow we have completely missed the town, and landed ourselves in this mess.
My indecisiveness made me open the door and step out. I slammed the door in frustration. The noise disturbed some of the residents in the jungle. The birds started protesting; I have woken them up. A jackal howled in a distance.
The sounds woke my son up, who was sleeping in the back-seat. He rubbed his eyes and asked in a sleepy voice: "Daddy where are we?"
To this quickly explained him the situation. He suddenly became very alert, and I seemed to see a mischievous smile on his face.
"Daddy, if I get you out of this mess, will you allow me to get a smart phone for myself?"
I made a feeble attempt to negotiate, but I knew he had me, so after minor protests I allowed him to take charge of the situation.
"Have you tried the GPS feature on your smart phone?", he asked.
"Well no, but I am on the correct route, just missed the town with the overnight medicine shop".
"Have you tried looking up the medicine shop in your phone? You know that your GPS contains data for over 2 lakh points of interest all over India, and it can guide you to your chosen point of interest?"
All of you have now guessed the happy ending. My wife got her medicine, my son his new smart phone, and myself a small hole in the pocket. In case you are still curious what did my son buy, you can look it up here. Tata Indicom One touch phone

Having a baby will teach you true multi-tasking

I try to spend my weekend nurturing my hobbies: which currently include blogging, photography, and trying to write an AI (Artificial Intelligence) file for Age Of Empires II - The conqueror's campaign. I also have a small baby who is about 10 months old. This has actually taught me multi-tasking. For example I am trying to write a blog-post, when my wife would come and ask me to hold our son, so that she can do some chores. Earlier, when the baby was younger, I would just hold him on my lap, and go on with my stuff, but since now the his is more active, I would play with him, or carry him around the veranda, till the time my wife is back from her chore. This would go on and on, with me switching context every few minutes. I would suggest everyone to have a baby, having a baby is an amazing experience, and you will never stop learning with him.

Down with cold

Down with cold this weekend. Could only manage one post in my photo blog http://cshubhra-photo.blogspot.com/2009/01/photographing-abstract.html

A fine balance

A heavy feeling on my mind,
things are not going where they should be.
Yet, I am the one to blame...
coz, I know the rules of the game.
Why I play it on my terms,
and feel bad, when there is a setback?
I am the master of my own destiny,
maintaining a fine balance where there isn't any.

My cribs about my city

I have a blog specifically to crib about my favorite city, Kolkata It is not being pinged by Technoratti. I believe that is probably because it has not gained popularity.
See it here My cribs about Kolkata

Creativity and Toothpaste

I have undertaken this awesome resolution of managing all four of my blogs and have planned to undertake atleast one post every week. Now that is a tough assignment on myself ... don't believe that creativity is like toothpaste: it's not that you press the tube ... and voila ... out comes .... no not the toothpaste ... the blog post.

As I have this new zeal of popularizing and publishing my blogs, I was looking around to see what others are doing. I saw that very few blogs have original content. Don't know whether I will have the same fate... the very reason all my juices had dried up, though I had been one of the first kids (read man) on the blogosphere, blogging away since 2005, (Earlier I used to blog on rediff, which I lost contact with) I have not created much content till date.

See, I have been posting meaningless stuff in this blog since I resurrected it from the ashes this year. The poet in me is hiding away, from the tasks of a demanding job, a wife, an infant, mother, family, photography, books, games and other activities with which I cram my days. The prose writer in me is hammering away in the keyboard, but really not sure what kind of "toothpaste" coming out.

Creativity

I think I am creative. It is manifested by the fact that I try to write poetry, prose, photography, painting, etc... The problem is that with creativity comes fickleness... the poet within me stopped working in 2007. After a small lapse, the photographer took over, which explains the big gap in my posts for this particular blog.
This year, I have planned to make amends. While the poet is stubborn and moody, refusing to pen out even a single line, the prose writer must take over.
Lets see how this goes this year. In the meantime, you can visit my photo blog. http://cshubhra-photo.blogspot.com/

New year 2007

A new year, a new beginning.
I look forward to you.
My heart ever filled with optimism, drives me on.
Yet I have changed ... I no longer wish the things I wished before.
(Or maybe I do) I just don't express them anymore.
Why then I feel a rock on my brest,
A dull pain trying to come up, and get out of my throat.
My lonely evenings hammer a nail through my head.
But yes, I do want to be lonely.
My free spirit will not be harnessed again,
This new year, I will live, may be a coward's life.
But I will live, I must live...
and make my days colorful again.
It may be a drug induced halucination,
It may be booze soaked starlight
but that is my world, my destiny
and I will live on.

Midlife crush

I saw you the second time today,
Rather you saw me,
you called me, and my heart was filled with joy.
I almost ran away from you,
I know you are just being a friend.
I wonder how my logical mind have a crush,
at this age ... I am surprised,
and happy that I really am living.
I know not your ties, I don't care...
I just want to drink the few moments ...
I talked with you.

Leave me please

Leave me please...
We are not together anymore.
No longer I hear your voice on my phone,
the memory lingers on though.
I often look at my phone,
half expecting that it would ring again.
Your aura still surrounds me,
it does not let me sleep.
I bleed, I cry from within, no one sees me do so.
Leave me please,
I want to live again,
without you.

Life-Part Two

I still walk the life ... yes, all alone.
I don't long for the things I dreamt, and missed. Not anymore.
I will go forward, ever onwards.
I don't know my destination,
yet my passion drives me on.
I have turned on the cruise control,
not because I am afraid to drive,
but I no longer feel the urge to step on the gas.
Every cloud has a silver lining,
and my journey will touch the horizon again.
When two roads will become one ... again.

Life

I was walking the life, all alone,
When I met you; and then everything were different.
The grass were a shade more green,
The sky was painted a shade more blue.
The world danced around me in a brighter shade of the rainbow.
Music appeared from the mundane sounds of the streets.
Come to my arms my dear,
And lets walk together.
Hand in hand,
Along the sand,
In moonlight,
Your crooning breaking the silence of the night.
Stand by me when I need you.
And let me stand by you.

On a dark night

On a dark night,
I will extend my shoulders for you to rest.
On a bright sunny day,
I will give you my hand to walk together.
On a rainy afternoon,
My arms will shield you from the drops.
On a chilly evening,
I will give you warmth of my heart.

Colors

My world is vibrant with colors.
Green, after the raindrops wash away the summer heat.
I take a deep breath in the gray earth.
The sky looks an azure blue, speckled with white clouds.
The trees bloom in shades of orange.
While I paint your pictures in rosy pink,
And sign my name with scarlet ink.

Let me hold you

Let me hold you, the princess of my dreams.
Do not say anything,
Listen to the sound of breathing in the dark.
Look into my eyes.
Read my mind,
Touch my heart
And let the moment last till eternity.

Twilight

In the twilight,
I think of a promise: the sun will rise again as usual.
A new day will dawn,
A new journey will begin, full of hope,
Of challenges, of vistas hitherto unexplored.
Fear I know not, I trust my heart.
And I know you will be by my side.

Invisible Wires

There are invisible wires
That gather in a bunch
And Form a complex network of patterns.
The pattern is not very clear to the eye.
Yet, if you look closely, you would see
There is a wire, which ties my heart to yours.
I can hear your heartbeat. I can feel you near to me.
The sense of togetherness lingers to infinity.

Looking at the rain

Looking at the rain,
Outside my window pane
I wonder;
And Ponder,
the promise of a beautiful day.
The feeling in my heart makes me say,
Over and over again.
It will be glorious, in this rain,
When I play hide and seek with you,
And as usual, I have no clue.
My heart will lead me on,
Towards your scent, towards the dawn.
The symbol of the rainbow,
The seeds of the world we are to sow.
The small plant will grow to a tree,
And at last we will be free.
It’s a long journey, our odyssey.
Passion is the key.