Destination Infinity's Blog, page 67

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I’d like to write about an interview experience of a friend, before many years. Both of us were studying in college back then and one fine day he decided to find a part-time job – more for the experience, and then for some pocket money.

So he applied to Dominos Pizza and got a call for the interview. At that age, as college students, we were casual and had an uncaring attitude. What we didn’t know was, our attitude reflects in our dressing/grooming, and interviewers are sharp enough to identify them. In fact, the way we present ourselves in an interview is an important factor considered for selection!

My friend went to the interview without much of a preparation, and they asked a few things to which he answered. Then suddenly they asked why my friend had not shaven that morning (as a small stubble was visible on his face). He didn’t expect this question at all, and ended up giving an unconvincing reply that he was watching a cricket match late in the night (on the previous day), and hence he woke up late and had rushed to the interview.

They advised him against going to interviews without shaving in the morning, but gave him the job anyway. But my friend didn’t know that something he considered a small/inconsequential factor (shaving), would play such a crucial role in interviewers’ judging parameter. From then, I am sure my friend never went to an interview without properly shaving in the mornings

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PS: I was tagged my Manogna M, to participate in this contest.

Disclaimer: This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette.

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When Telling the Truth Helped Me!

Before becoming a ‘Professional Blogger’ I worked for a few years in Sales & Marketing. We were selling Computer Networking & related equipment to enterprise companies and organizations.

I was working in a company that had a national presence. Since it was my first job, the salary was not good. So I was looking for a change. During that time, I got an interview offer from a popular MNC that was well-known for its employee policies. I decided to go to the interview.

On the day of the interview, there were a couple of rounds (written test, first-level interview) and I cleared both. Then came the final interview. They asked me some questions and they seemed to be fine with my answers. When the interview was coming to a close, they asked me if I had any questions for them.

I said yes, and proceeded to ask about the job profile (which I considered very important, even more than the salary package). They said the job involved channel sales (selling to partners) and not much of direct sales (selling to customers).

But my experience was in direct sales and I wanted more experience in it. The consultant who had set-up the interview had mentioned to me that this was a direct sales position, but clearly there was some communication gap.

There I was, on the verge of getting a job in an MNC with a better pay package, and only one thing stood between me and the job – the job profile. Frankly I didn’t know what to do.

After a few seconds of hesitation, I finally told them I was not looking for channel sales, but preferred direct sales. They were taken by surprise and told me that both profiles were similar and I would become familiar with the new profile within a few months. But I persisted. I wasn’t ready for channel sales yet, and I wanted more direct sales experience.

I knew saying the truth would mean losing a lucrative opportunity but I did it anyway. Just as I was about to leave, one person on the panel told me that his friend in another company had an opening for direct sales job, and gave me his contact details.

I thanked him and approached the other person on the next day. When I called, this person said – ‘Yes, my friend told me about you, come down for an interview’! I thought ‘Wow, half of my work has already been done!’. Needless to say, I got the job in the new company.

Many times, we hesitate to tell the truth, especially when it comes to big decisions in our life. But I have realized that honesty may set us back immediately, but on the long-run it will be more beneficial.

So be honest to others, and more importantly – to yourself! What you think you need desperately, for which you are ready even to lie, may not be what you actually need.

Have a look at the Kinley TVC which has a similar theme: 

Destination Infinity

Disclaimer: This post has been written for an indiBlogger contest in association with Kinley.

 

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Steve Jobs in India

Did you know that after dropping out of college Steve Jobs, who created many innovative products at Apple Inc., briefly worked in Atari Inc. – the video game maker, and then traveled to India in 1974, as a 19-year old? He would stay for seven months in India wandering aimlessly (as his biographer puts it) across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh (mostly). But why did a broke Steve Jobs travel to India in the first place and what did he (hope to) learn?

Influenced by the Hippie movement of the 60s/70s, Steve Jobs took a Spiritual journey to India in order to find/connect with his inner self. He was seeking enlightenment through deprivation, simplicity, and ascetic experience. He came to meet a popular Guru (Neem Karori Baba) but the latter had died before Steve even arrived in India. He tried seeking a spiritual experience from other Gurus, but was not convinced with any of them.

Before coming to India, Steve had read many books on eastern philosophy and Zen Buddhism, and was also influenced by the Hare Krishna movement. The Indian trip was recommended by a college friend, Robert Friedland, and Steve was joined by another friend Daniel Kottke, who traveled with him to many parts across North India, mainly in buses and trains.

Steve Jobs traveled to Nainital in the Himalayan foothills. He rented a room there, with just a mat to sleep on. Since he couldn’t find his Guru, he traveled to other places, most notable being Haridwar, along Ganges river, for the Kumbh Mela carnival which saw more than 10 million saints gather.

Steve got to read ‘The Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahansa Yogananda and was highly influenced by that book. His biographer says that he kept reading it at least once every year, until his death.

As you can expect, the journey was not exactly rosy, with Steve being affected by dysentery (among others) and losing 40 pounds. His friend, Daniel Kottke, who was later the first employee of Apple, lost all his money and travel cheques (they were stolen), and Steve helped him by paying for his travel and food.

I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes in Steve’s own words on his travel/experience in India, as told in the book – ‘Steve Jobs’ by Walter Isaacson.

“Coming back to America, was, for me, much more of a cultural shock than going to India. The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead. Intuition is a powerful thing, and that’s had a big impact on my work.”

“Western rational thought is not an innate human characteristic. It is learned and is the great achievement of Western civilization. In the villages of India, they never learned it. They learned something else, which is in some ways just as valuable but in other ways is not. That’s the power of intuition and experiential wisdom.”

I have read the book – ‘Steve Jobs’ by Walter Iccasson, and would recommend everyone to read it. It contains the biography of a tech wizard who redefined computing and design. This book will inspire you to do whatever you are doing, better. I have reviewed the book in my technical blog.

Also, don’t forget to read this interview of Daniel Kottke, Steve’s companion in India, immediately after Steve’s death, on what he remembers about their journey in India.

Destination Infinity

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Christmas Decoration at Express Avenue Mall, Chennai

Recently, I went to the Express Avenue Mall in Royapettah, Chennai, and I was treated to a beautiful Christmas decoration with Santa, gifts, stars, props, and large air balloons! I took a few photos there and have presented a few here for you all to see and enjoy.

 

 

 

Howzzitt?

Destination Infinity

Photo credit: By Destination8infinity (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Oruthi Mele Mindum Mayyal Aanen – Jeeva (#Song of the Week)

I have started a new category ‘Song of the Week‘ where I will feature one great song I discover, every week. That way, you’ll get to listen to a great song every week, and I’ll force myself to find great songs to show you all. Feel free to give me song suggestions in the comments section. 

The first song is a great Tamil movie song I discovered recently from the movie Jeeva – Oruthi Mele Mindum Mayyal Aanen. The music for this song has been composed by D. Immbrilliant an and it has been sung by Abhay Jodhpurkar.

I have been listening to this song many times over the last few days, and each time I end up liking it even more! The lead singer’s voice is excellent but more importantly, the song conception and music by D. Imman is brilliant. Now I will listen to other songs in this movie shortly.

Destination Infinity

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The Men with Blue Dots (Mongol Movie Review)

The Men with Blue Dots is a 2012 Mongol movie that was screened as a part of the recent Mongolian Film Festival in Chennai, India. Of course, the movie had English subtitles (unlike the above embedded trailer) so I was able to follow it. This is one of the better movies I have seen in the recent times. 

The protagonist was born and brought up in Rural Mongolia and hasn’t been outside that area. His brother, settled in France, wants to see him. So the protagonist leaves his village and travels to France. In the airport, since he doesn’t know where to look for his brother, he misses him. Just then he sees someone speaking in Mongol and leaving in a car. That person holds a plaque in his hand with the name of the protagonist. The protagonist realizes he just missed his brother!

Now he is lost in a Foreign country without any knowledge of French! Then he meets another man who speaks Mongol (and French) and offers to help him. Obviously that man tries to take advantage of the protagonist’s situation. In the guise of searching for his brother, he makes the protagonist work and takes all his salary. Then they meet a girl, stay in her apartment, and everyone gets into trouble trying to make money.

What happens after that? Are they able to get enough money? Is the protagonist able to rejoin with his brother? That’s the story.

The story is excellent, and held my attention throughout. The revelation near the end is too good – that surprised me! The movie is (partly) humorous and I did laugh at times. It’s more of a parody on immigrants living abroad which clicked well with me, as I live in a similar (developing) country where many people ‘dream’ of going abroad.

Do see the movie (with English subtitles) if you can get hold of it. It’s good

Destination Infinity

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Dario’s Cafe & Restaurant, Chennai (Review)

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Dario’s Cafe & Restaurant is located in a lane off Kasturi Rangan Road, opposite to the Russian Cultural Center, in Chennai. Actually, I went to watch a Mongolian movie, and was searching for a suitable place to eat lunch when I found this.

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I bought a garlic bread with butter and pickle, and then I bought a vanilla milkshake. The garlic bread was OK, nothing special about it. In fact, the bread could have been fresher. But the pickle (side dish) went surprisingly well with the garlic bread. The vanilla milkshake was nice – I just wish the quantity was more

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This place looks good and is neatly maintained. The prices of food items are quite high, but for the area and the ambiance I guess it’s justified. The best thing about this cafe (like most cafes) is, you can order dishes, work on your laptop/tablet for a long time, and go back at leisure. That came handy for me as I had two hours to kill and one blog post to complete. Perfect quiet place for leisurely work

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Photo credit: By Destination8infinity (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Mongol: The Rise of Chengis Khan (Movie Review)

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Photo taken at: Mongolian Film Festival, Russian Cultural Center, Chennai, India. Present at the Diaz are: Sanjaasuren Bayaraa, Ambassador of Mongolia in India & Mr. B. Sashi Kumar, President of  South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce.

To encourage cultural interaction between India and Mongolia, the Mongolian Film festival was held recently at the Russian Cultural Center, Kasturi Rangan Road, Chennai, India. They screened four films, and I watched two. Here’s my review of the first film screened on the day the film festival was inaugurated – 

Movie Trailer:

Mongol: The Rise of Chengis Khan is a Mongol movie released in 2007. This movie was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language movie. The version shown to us had English subtitles so we could follow it. It’s an excellently made movie (technically) and had me hooked to the events and happenings. 

It seems, the movie is a semi-historical file. It chronicles the early life of the well-known Mongol emperor Chengis Khan, who lived in the 12th Century. I am not sure how much of this movie is based on facts and history, but it seems to be a romanticized version of history that seeks to portray him in a positive light. Maybe he was really like that, we can’t be sure.

My impression about Chengis Khan was a ruthless conqueror who is obsessed with conquering the world (forgive my limited knowledge of History). But nobody becomes ruthless unless life (and people) force it on them. That aspect, the devastating early life of the Khan, has been brought about very well in this movie. Be it losing his father and Kingdom at an early age, escaping from his captors multiple times, losing his wife and children to enemies, etc. One can’t help being sympathetic to his apathy.

But extreme disaster (if you survive it) makes people stronger, and even ruthless, and forces them to take difficult but inevitable choices. That’s exactly what happens to Chengis Khan as he turns against his saviour and (soul) brother, who eventually becomes his biggest nemesis in uniting Mongol territory.

At one point (in the movie) his wife points to him that people were only stealing and killing each other in Mongolia, and he determines to put an end to it through strong laws, and in his own words – “Even if I have to kill half of Mongolia to achieve it.”. This is the case with many civilizations – we have paid a huge price to achieve order and discipline.

This is one movie that everyone needs to see to understand the adverse situations faced by the Khan that made him a ruthless conqueror. And yes, we can’t judge his activities as we were never in his shoes, but this movie does an excellent job of putting us into his shoes as much as possible.

Technically, this is a very well made movie, and it held my interest throughout. I just felt it could have been more honest right from Khan’s character selection (who looked softer), and not try to justify the King’s actions. At least I thought the movie makers were trying to do that! Also, some more light on the various war strategies and techniques invented and used by the Khan could have been included.

Verdict: Excellent storytelling. If you want to have an emotional experience and get ‘moved’, this is THE movie to watch. However, read a history book or Wikipedia if you want to get a more authentic account.

Destination Infinity

Photo credit: By Destination8infinity (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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My Autobiography: A Risk Worth Taking!

Photo by Anto475 (Own work) [CC BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

I didn’t have a special connection or passion for English (subject) until my ninth standard. Until then, I treated it as one more subject to memorize and score marks.

But in 9th Standard, two things happened: NCERT (CBSE)  changed the English syllabus and evaluation in a good way where we didn’t have to memorize anything anymore, and I started reading Enid Blyton books. (Yes I know that was late, but better late than never!).

Suddenly, I fell in love with English. Until then, my creative writing endeavors were reserved to Tamil, my second language. I thought only a few English teachers had a passion for the language. With Tamil, it was different.

Anyway, once I like something and I determine I am passionate about it, I indulge in it wholeheartedly. I don’t care about mundane things like marks, etc. So during the 9th and 10th Standards, I just loved the English syllabus and English exams. The syllabus and testing methodology was conductive to exploring and encouraging creativity.

In the 10th Standard, with the public exams and all that hype, I decided that marks were important and I wanted to score good marks in English too.

Just before the quarterly examination, my English teacher asked us to write an essay based on some prompts given by him. He asked me to stand up and read my essay. I did. After listening to it, he rightly pointed out that I did not use the prompts, and I had written the essay based on my own pointers and imagination.

That was a revelation to me also, but I didn’t find anything wrong with it. To me, the prompts were optional, and I decided to use it only if I ran out of ideas. Like now, even back then, I never ran out of ideas or opinions! But the teacher specifically told me that I had to use those prompts if I wanted to score good marks.

Now I was in a dilemma. Do I write what my heart wants to, or do I write what will (presumably) give me more marks? Heart or Mind? My decision, of course, was to listen to my heart. That’s what I’ve always done, and that’s what I do even today!

So I decided to ignore his advise and write what I thought was important and relevant to the topic. I mostly ignored the prompts given in the question paper.

Obviously my teacher didn’t like my attitude. It was not only dissonance, but also insolence, and disobedience. No wonder my marks were just average during the mid-term and half-yearly examinations.

But I followed the same strategy in the board exams too. Guess what, I was the top scorer in my class (for English) in Tenth Standard Board Exams!

This habit – following my heart over the mind – continues until today. Only, success is not as forthcoming now! But success (or the lack of it) has never determined my path.

Destination Infinity

This post has been written for an indiBlogger contest in association with Mountain Dew (Facebook page).

Have a look at this Tamil commercial for Mountain Dew (featuring Arya) on taking risks and rising above fear:

 

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TiE Villgro UnconventionL, Chennai: Social Entrepreneurship Event

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Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen.org

I went to the TiE Villgro UnconventionL event on social entrepreneurship @ Taj Connemara, Chennai, India, held on Wednesday, December 10, ’14. Here’s the list of speakers and agenda.

Social Entrepreneurship is doing business with a Soul. While most people want to work for large companies or start their own business, there are a few who opt to become social entrepreneurs to provide affordable products and services that will benefit the masses in the low-income group. In this business, in addition to profits, people want to create an impact and better lives with their work.

Micro-finance to fund rural businesses, building toilets where there are none, healthcare for people who can’t afford, reaching education to the poor, solar lights for off-grid homes, etc. are all examples of social/impact businesses.

The TiE Villgro UnconventionL event seeks to connect all stakeholders working in the social/impact business space with investors, and create a vibrant ecosystem for social businesses to thrive in India. They are holding this event in multiple cities across India, and this event was held in Chennai.

I don’t want to start a business in this sector, but I went there to learn about businesses that are making their mark in this space. I want to give a short introduction to some interesting and useful social/impact businesses in my blog. I did learn much, and I’ll share a few stories in the future.

Around 170 people had submitted their business ideas, and the top three were honored with cash prizes in today’s event. I don’t remember who won, but among the finalists – one was developing affordable digital X-Rays, another an automatic feeder for people without hands, another an automatic reaper to help farmers reap the crops, etc.

There were a couple of speeches by the organizers and discussion sessions with business owners, angel investors, and investment bankers that threw more light on the sector and clarified the process of getting funds for social/impact businesses.

Technology, products, and services should not only benefit the rich, but it should also reach the masses and poor – they need it more. Basic amenities like food, toilet, education, healthcare and energy – all that we take for granted – has not reached millions of people but we choose to be blissfully ignorant. I’d like to see more among us getting involved in the social/impact business space. Not just because it’s good Karma, but also because it can be profitable. At the least, we can spread the word about people and businesses that are making a difference to the society.

Destination Infinity

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