The situation is the same as above, just from a different view - get up in the morning, prepare breakfast/lunch (most times without any help), pack hubby/kids off to office/school, leave for office, come back, prepare dinner - and repeat most of this on weekends too. While husbands take refuge in the fact that they do not know how to cook ..or that they are tired having been in office a bit longer ..

All of the above, IMHO, are the real superwomen (and not just of any month). Titles mean nothing to most of them, and giving a title to one of them is non-consequential in the larger scheme of things. Given that such programs and initiatives in most organizations are part of promoting gender equality (a very noble cause), the target audience needs to be refined. There are other social strata (less educated, rural/semi-urban areas) where women are not given their due, and these programs should target them. Bringing such events in big programs is largely like preaching to the choir.

Footnote: I’m not sure how many people realize that women and men can never be equal (in the literal sense of the word). Why compare them all the time ? It makes sense where uneducation is rampant or the social system is still archaic - so just target that segment.

Courses I have taken this quarter:

• Spreadsheet Modelling for Business Decisions (SMBD) - A good analytical course which focuses on solving problems using spreadsheets. The problems range from Finance, Marketing, Risk management. Very interesting, especially for me as I have been exposed to spreadsheets right from the DOS days of Lotus 123 - when having 512 kb of memory meant you were a millionaire (almost )
• Brand Management (BM) - A fitting climax to all the marketing courses I have done, probably. Very enthusiastic professor who keeps us on our feet with his questions and comments. A good subject with an excellent blend of theoretical frameworks and their applications - in fact, the first presentation is on Cisco v’s HP’s Brand Identity w.r.t the Telepresence offerings
• Social Entrepreneurship (SE) - This is a “bonus” course, as I am only required to do two courses to complete the credit requirements. Thought of doing this course to learn about the “other” India, which in fact is the bigger reality rather than our IT and “India Shining” tirades. The professor is one of the most active persons in crusading for social and political reforms, and was instrumental in getting the Right to Information (RTI) act to be passed.

Not sure how useful or different it will be though - we all know who wins in the end in such quarrels

While I still stand by the statement, given that my company is providing a great gym facility - and my work hours are such that I can manage getting an hour out in office much more easily than out-of-office - I decided long back to work out there.

After numerous logistical and planetary interruptions which prevented my gracing the gym, finally made it today. Was very tiring (which I hope is good )

Target weight loss - 6 kgs in 6 weeks. Is it do-able ?

However, I recently chanced upon an excellent way to search for print ads. The Times of India has an ePaper website, which allows full text search of all articles - and more importantly - ads ! So, when I wanted to search for the various ads on Sony Bravia LCD TVs over the past couple of years, I just keyed in “Bravia” with the appropriate date range, and was able to search the Bangalore Edition of Times of India, including supplements, over the past few years, and get all ads printed ! These can then be saved, converted to PDF, etc - very handy for research required for courses like AdMan, ProdMan, and ConB.

Wish I had known this earlier …

Other courses were Product Management (PM) - a decent course in terms of workload, but not as insightful as the others (probably because I have done enough marketing courses already). Still, was a good refresher of the Marketing 101 concepts.

No course, though, can beat the best course I did - Leadership and Organizational Change (LoC). While I generally stay away from hardcore HR/OB courses, this was one exception and definitely worth the effort. The classes were very interactive and discussion oriented, with a lot of CP (class participation) gurus being present. Our personality review paper and presentation (on Dr. Verghese Kurien) was very well researched by us.

One more Q down, with only two courses required - Spreadsheet Modelling and Brand Management. Can take up a third, if I find it interesting. That will leave me with only a project to do in the 3rd Quarter, after which everything will be over

Still .. given the less involvement required from this Q onwards - am already considering the course to be done - and planning to get back to life

This is one of the movies which highlight human perseverance and the will to succeed, despite all odds. Burt toils over his motorcycle for 25 years, before traveling to Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah all the way from New Zealand, on a shoestring budget, to participate in the “Speed Week“, the World Cup of motorcycle racing. His adventures on his trip, and the help he receives from strangers on this journey, is heartening.

He battles a weak heart, regulations (he misses the registration deadline for participating, and then his motorcycle -  a relic of the past - fails safety tests),  but finally gets to achieve his dream of racing at the Mecca of Motorcycling.  The buildup of suspense, and the subsequent climax, are very effective in keeping one on the edge.

Overall, a great movie.

Trivia : The Salt Flats are also the location of other movies, including Indpendence Day and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

This goes on for 5-10 minutes (around 2 kms). Evidently done with the news (it was more like one of those supplements with more pics than content), he moves to his cell phone. Again, while driving. Fumbles it a few times, so that his attention is diverted from the road ahead, onto the floor of the car.

And such people will come to office, and make a hue and cry about the traffic in bangalore, how cab drivers and office shuttles need to drive carefully, and how Bangalore traffic is going to the pits.

The center is housed in a grand architectural marvel bigger than Rashtrapati Bhavan in size.

From the article:

The GEC imparts centralised residential foundation programme for Infosys employees, including generic and stream-specific training in various technology areas, apart from soft skills and leadership programmes to fresh engineering graduates who have joined Infosys.

It is great that Infosys is working towards keeping itself competitive, but effectively, the implication is that most of us engineers who come right out of college are unemployable, and need “real” training to be billable or productive.