Performance Based Evaluation - A Review

It is an increasingly competitive world. And, competition knows only one direction - Northwards.

Global business is a crowded place. With companies vying to gain a bigger share of the pie, they are definitely feeling the heat. "Innovate or die" is the new mantra. It demands that the companies have to perform better and constantly improve. This heat has nowhere to go, but upon its (hapless) workforce - till the grass roots of the corporate "food chain".
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Team vs Individual
An interesting, but conflicting thoughts, are at work, constantly. While the organizations understand that gone are the days of individual brilliance. "Team Work" is the mantra. However, at the same time, the individual contributions could not be condoned. It is indeed a tight rope walk - a delicate balancing act that many organizations falter upon.
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Forcing your own Talent Landscape
Many organizations have a some sort of performance evaluation process in place, which is revised and "upgraded" every few years. It is more likely that they copied it from other successful companies or from one of those management books. Invariably, people are rated on a scale of, say, 1 - 5 or
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Read the full article here.

Taj Mahal - A Beautiful Scar ?

Recently, people all over the world voted for the New 7 wonders of the modern world. Amidst much glamour (read as clamour), it was unveiled in Portugal. It is no surprise that our very own Taj Mahal featured in the list of nominations.

Understandably, people (especially the youth) of this country went gung ho about this - millions would have cast their vote, zillions of bits were exchanged (avalanche of SMS messages, flurry of emails). All this paid off - Taj came 4th on the list of new 7 wonders!!.

No doubt, they were expressing their "Nationalism". As it happens with cricket, this too assumed patriotic proportions - soon it became a matter of national pride. Taj is indeed beautiful, no doubt - A marvel that has attracted people for centuries. But, what does the Taj stand for? Going by popular belief, it stands out to be the epitome of love, as expressed by the Moghul emperor towards his wife.

However, if some historians are to be believed, this love story is simply not so romantic. Perhaps, it is all made up!. Even if it was true, that is not all, there is more to it. Some people even claim that the workers who built this majestic structure were treated inhumanely and their hands were cut off after the monument was complete (to ensure that nobody else would employ them and build another similar structure). If this is to be believed, it is unfortunate that the such cruelty lies alongside this wonder, overshadowed. Ironically, Taj is one of the heritage sites recognized by UNESCO.

Is Taj Mahal a wonder or a blunder? Could it possibly be "A Beautiful Scar"?

A Prayer

ನೆರಳಾದರು ಕೆಲವೊಮ್ಮೆ ಎನ್ನನ್ನು ಹಿಂಬಾಲಿಸದಿರಬಹುದು,
ಆದರೆ ಅಹಂಕಾರವೆಂಬುದು ಸದಾ ಕತ್ತಲಿನಲ್ಲೂ ಬಿಡದೆ ಬೆಂಬೆತ್ತಿಹುದು

ಸ್ವಾರ್ಥ ಅಸೂಯೆಗಳನ್ನು ಜೊತೆಜೊತೆಯಲ್ಲೇ ಕರೆತರುತಿಹುದು

ಕಾಮ ಕ್ರೋಧ ಲೋಭ ಮೋಹಗಳನ್ನು ಕೊಂಕಳಲ್ಲೆ ಹೊತ್ತಿಹುದು

ಪರಮಾತ್ಮನನ್ನು ನೂರು ಯೋಜನಗಳಿಗಿಂತ ದೂರ ಇಟ್ಟಿಹುದು

ಸುಳಿವೆನಗೆ ಸಿಗುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡು ರಾಘವೇದ್ರ, ಶ್ರೀ ಹರಿಯ

ಸುಳಿವೆನಗೆ ಸಿಗುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡು, ಸಂಸಾರದ

ಸುಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಲುಕಿಹೆ ನಾ

ಅಳಿಯುವ ಈ ದೇಹವೆ ಶಾಶ್ವತವೆಂದು,

ಬಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಹೆಂಡತಿ ಮಕ್ಕಳು ನಿತ್ಯಾನಂದವೆಂದು,

ಶ್ರೀ ಹರಿಯೆ ಹರಿಯನೆಂಬರಿವು ಅಡಿಹಡಿಗೆನಗೆ ತೋರಲಿ ಗುರುರಾಜ

- Krishna Vaasudev

Cricket & God

(These are just my thoughts. Hopefully my near future convictions also)

Our imagination has no bounds, but our mental space has. The mental space of every individual is a fixed quantity, for it is based on Time and not the boundless Ether. Hence, it is a determinable factor. Here, time means our allocated total life span and mission / purpose. The word 'Cricket' is symbolically used. It could be baseball, movies, betting or any other source of earthly pleasure or entertainment that will 'help' us to keep ourselves away from God. It is some sort of cleverly cultivated habit to spend most of our free time, so that we will have lesser and lesser time to spend with Him. Many times it so happens that we allow these 'habits' to totally control us, rather than we control them.

I begin to feel that yielding to such habits is an escape route, that we constantly use, to stay away from God or reality.

I do not mean that man should not have even healthy recreations. Anything that refreshes the human mind and increases hunger for God is fine.

- Krishna Vaasudev

Re-Orient-ation

Hi Sumanth!

Here is a small reminder: when using the word 'orient' in the sense of 'The Eastern,' it always ought to be capitalized. So also the words west or east, when they refer to regions or peoples, rather than mere direction.
So the blog would have to be 'The confused Orient,' or even better, 'The Confused Orient,' to write it in Title Case.
I'd request you to give us an introduction as to the purport of this blog, and the significance of its title. Why this particular theme--any strong reason?