May 31, 2005

Thinking Straight !

Cognitive therapy seeks first to identify dysfunctional thought processes, and next to correct them. Important dysfunctional ways of thinking include cognitive distortions, repeated intrusive thoughts, unrealistic assumptions, and others.

More here .

A good article on Dysfunctional thought processes , explained in a very lucid manner. Achtung !! As with any other articles on Psychology , this too will make you feel as if you have all the disorders !

Digression : Why did Hindu stop publishing those wonderful supplements ? I collected all those Folio magazines. Articles and Photographs used to be too good in them.

May 13, 2005

Daily travails of a s/w engineer

9.30 AM : Swipe in.I show my access card to the proximty reader and get inside. I slump into my chair cursing the Chennai traffic and the unforgiving sun. Unlocking the idiot box , i check Outlook. Good....no new bugs, no escalations, no input from onsite abt the feature i am coding. So it is gonna be yet another No Action day. Next , i go on a mail checking spree in all my Web accounts.

9.50 AM : I seem to receive less emails than i used to. Folks , write to me. Itz time to engage my two best buddies. Yahoo and MSN messnger. Next 30 minutes just melts away exchanging sweet nothings with all my friends around the globe.

10.20 AM : Time for blogs.....i fire up Firefox and hit bloglines. I subscribe to around 50 feeds and today there are about 100 posts to be read. Anybody who is somebody in the business world seems to have taken up blogging. Good.

11.00 AM : Tea time. I go to my friend's cubicle to collect him for tea. He as usual complains abt some pending check-ins. Some ppl always manage to stay busy ! God help them !

11.30 AM : Tea wakesup my grey cells . I vow not to waste time in office again for the God-knows-how-much th time. I google for some tutorials in .net and start reading a promising article. Attention span is less with web pages..... i click a series of hyperlinks and suddenly i dunno what i started reading in the first place !!

12.30 PM : Time to decide abt the restuarant for Lunch. After many missed calls , IMs later we settle to the usual Sangeetha in Greams road.

1.15 PM : After a sumptuous lunch, here we r in the cool confines of the Fruit shop . We know the menu by heart now. After ordering , we settle into a thought provoking conversion abt office politics !

2.00 PM : Ah..another one of those lean , languorous time in the office . I seem to be brain dead. Cat napping to the sweet lullaby of Illayaraja's songs.

3.00 PM: Status Review meeting. I begin to suspect that the whole team is cooking up something to show that they r busy all the week ! My entry is simple .... Bug fixing 8 hrs per day for 5 days. Nobody raises an eyebrow on that .

4.00 PM: Coffee break. Oh....anything for the sweet aroma of coffee to lift me out of slumber. Caffeine takes hold and i am intelligent again.

4.30 PM: Again more vows on Time management .Begin to wonder whether i wud get anywhere in life if i continue like this , whether doing an MBA wud brighten things , whether quitting wud help . Thousand questions but no answer .

5.30 PM : Time to say gud bye to my idiot box. I take a couple of print outs , just in the remote case i decide to read in home. Swipe out.

Phew...... what a tiresome day !

May 10, 2005

a weekend in Bangy

It is almost an year since i visited Bangy last . So thought of making a trip to meet up with friends. Mysore Express dropped me in Contonment at 4 AM. Riding in an auto at that unearthly hour along unlit roads with many barricades and armed police around was not quite the welcome i expected.

Bangalore hasn't changed much since my last visit there . Heavy traffic , alarming levels of pollution , erratic drivers honking away to glory, unfinished Fly-overs , long serpentine queues in almost all the restaurants.......hmmm...only things have gone from bad to worse ! Has FoodWorld in Bangalore forayed into Liquor business as well ?!?! Surprised to see Gins,Vodkas there. Though a teetotaler myself , i always like to see my friends carefully choosing drinks for the thanni party.

My bangalore trip is never complete without a stroll in MG Road and a cup of Coffee in that quaint Indian Coffee Board. Honestly , i never liked the coffee served there but somehow like to sit in their antiquated furniture ,sip the hot liquid and watch the colorful crowd in the sidewalk.

Overall, it was a gud weekend. Met many of my friends , hanged out in the hang outs and travelled around a lot ! Itz back to the grind here in Chennai ! Thanks bangy folks for the gr8 time !