After a long hiatus

After a long hiatus, I am back to blogging. A lot has happened in the mean time - 

• Bomb blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, and now in Assam. The government seems to be in a total mess and does not know how to tackle terror.
• Lehman Brothers and quite a few companies have vanished from the radar screen, effectively forcing a lot of technology companies to go into a cost-cutting mode.
• A very interesting test series between India and Australia is in progress. The Mohali test match was a great spectacle, and India out-bowled Australia in that match. Brett Lee's wicket (bowled Zaheer Khan) reminded me of Rahul Dravid being bowled by a similar delivery by Wasim Akram in the Chennai test. It was a great exhibition of reverse swing.

Let us dig a bit more into the cost-cutting measures in place, and how people have responded to these measures. Many of the cost-cutting measures in place in my company have been suggested by the employees. Here are some of them -

• No work or work-only-from-home on weekends. This will enable the lab to be shut down. This effectively means that we don't require air-conditioning in the labs for 2-1/2 days. A lot of saving indeed.
• Cut the frills from the beer-bash. Some may argue that beer-bash itself should be stopped, but in our company, beer-bash is more about bash than beer. By removing the chicken-tikkas, and chats from the beer-bash, the frills are gone. Beer-bash is not the same anymore.
• Certain restrictions on food items such as biscuits, fruit juices, certain types of tea etc.

Among all measures, restrictions on food items have created the most flutter in the company. There was a big discussion regarding biscuits, coffee and tea. Some people were of the opinion that there should have been a poll about which biscuits to keep and which ones to remove. The person I guess is too influenced with "America Votes". One guy was upset that Twining's Green Tea was removed from the pantry. One guy probably did not enjoy the coffee from the vending machine, so he wanted somebody to make fresh coffee and serve coffee in the office. One guy was of the opinion that coffee should be served in flasks with a depressor.

I feel some times, no matter how much people earn, they still remain nothing but cribbers and are always game for free food. In these difficult times, I feel one should not crib about such petty things. Take for example the issue of green tea. For God's sake, there is Twining's Lemon Tea in the pantry. Drink that. The coffee is still of 4 types - Cappuccino, South Indian Light, South Indian Strong, and Espresso - and it is freshly crushed and brewed. What could be fresher than that? There are two types of biscuits - Britannia Cheese Crackers and Digestive. 

What more do people want? It is time to increase your productivity, which in my opinion, is the best way to save and make money for the company.  Wasting 6-hrs a day fighting over such petty matters is certainly not the way to go.