Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Massa Delivers a massive blow!!!

The Bahrain GP was a different story altogether. Mclaren's rookie Lewis Hamilton outperformed his illustrious teammate Fernando Alonso and also his more experienced rival Kimi Raikkonen. but the winner at the end of it all was Ferrari's Felipe Massa. With a cool and calculated drive, he not only outperformed Raikkonen in the qualifying but also went one from strength to strength to claim his maiden victory this year. He was denied this in Malaysia. Hamilton created history by finishing on the podium on the first 3 races of his career. This means that there is a 3 way tie for the leadership after 3 races. And this is the beginning. One thing's for sure, Raikkonen and Alonso never saw Hamilton coming!!!
Andy

Monday, April 9, 2007

Mclaren Hit Back!!!!

History repeats...

If this is the history of things to come...then this season will be the CLOSEST in the history of Formula 1. For the simple reason that Mclaren have come out stronger than ever with the World Champion in the cockpit and a superb rookie assisting him. The 1-2 finish at Sepang was in many ways better than Ferrari's finish at Melbourne. For one, it was Mclaren's first 1-2 since 2005. Which speaks a lot about their roller coaster ride as a team. But not only this, it's the sheer strength and reliability that Mclaren displayed at Sepang that makes things edgy.

Raikkonen admitted that the Ferrari wasn't at its best during the race. And that was shown in the first corner itself when Felippe Massa lost 2 places and also committed a mistake which cost him 2 more.

The stage is set for an epic season in which two young turks will clash to claim the place vacated by a Titan.

May the best driver win!!!
--Andy

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Memoirs of an MBA...

got this as an email attachment...

Memoirs of an MBA...
July 26
Dear Diary,
I can't hold myself down. My FIRST day on the job!! And I like it already. "Assistant Junior Deputy to the Vice Chairman - Manufacturing". My dad was thrilled when he heard my designation. "What the f!@#!!!" were his exact words. Oh I love it when my parents are happy...
Need to meet HR in half an hour. I cant wait to get my first Employee ID Card and cubicle. I hope Parthasarathy Whatayblouse Crappers is the beginning of great things.
P.S. I have brought my favorite textbooks back from the insti. OD, OM and HR should help me grow rapidly in the organization. And I WILL handle soft issues before facing hard issues here at PWC.

July 28th
Dear Diary,
Had a lot of fun with HR yesterday. The guy who had recruited me had left a month ago. So they didnt know I was joining. We had a hearty laugh over that one.
I'll get my cubicle in a few days time. For the time being I am sharing a nice one with Claire. She's with Corporate Communication. The phone doesnt work though...

August 2nd
Dear Diary,
Met my boss today. He spend a lot of time with my CV and then asked me how I managed to get a job with them. (Even he knows how lucky they are to get me..) He told me to review our material ordering system in the err... umm... the... the "big yellow and blue noisy machine section" of the plant.
Claire is working on an "Our Employees Love Us" campaign. The office boy had just resigned. So she got me to pose with an apron and a tray of cookies for a photo. They are going to call me Ramon and use it for ads. I am going to be famous.

August 7th
Dear Diary,
My first breakthrough. I have decided to order nickel ball bearings using the EQO.. QEO... whatever formula. It takes into account item cost, holding cost and weight of ball bearing I think. The purchase guy gave me a funny look when he saw my annual requisition contract form. He is obviously not an MBA...
Claire resigned today. She told me carry on with the "Our Employees Love Us" campaign.
P.S. Lesson for the week. You cannot order 0.7564 of a ball bearing. It has to be in whole numbers.

August 11th
Dear Diary,
I just got a shipment of 4384 ball bearings. I checked up with Engineering. They said that should be enough for around 14 years of requirement. I gave them 3 and stashed away the rest in a cupboard in my room. If prices of ball bearings go up, I see a lot of potential savings.
I have decided to develop informal channels of communication. From tomorrow I will spend a little time next to the coffee machine to understand the unspoken messages within the underbelly of the firm. (That OD book is good)

August 14th
Dear Diary,
I sent my first official letter today. It was to our Facilities manager Merry Le Bian. She is a hottie. I told her that the Coffee Machine takes too much time to reheat between refills. Wrote it in a WAC format and all with a table of contents and everything. She is sure going to impressed!! I spell checked it in MS word and emailed it to her an hour ago. No reply yet.
They scrapped the "Our Employees Love Us" campaign. The photo shoot was taking up too much time, and people were being forced to stay late without extra pay. Someone finally went and vandalised the banner. It now reads "Our Employers Shove Us". I offered to model for all the snaps and videos. They called me a dickhead. I was delighted. Dickhead is internal slang for "Big Stud". HR told me. Everyone calls me that...
P.S. One more shipment of ball bearings came. Again 4384. The contract can't be changed now. I dont have too much space left in my cupboard.

August 25th

Dear Diary,
My letter came back. It had a pink post-it on it from Merry. "Please proofread" it said. It was CC'd to my boss. How was I supposed to know MS Word would spell check her name and change it to Merry Lesbian????!!!! Where's natural justice?
Today five minutes before a meeting the cupboard door broke open. It took me ten minutes to pick up all the ball bearings from the floor. I had to run to the board room for the meeting and slipped on a bearing which rolled under the door. I fell on the coffee machine and tipped coffee powder into the polymer mixing maching tray. Noone saw anything.
P.S. Sorry for the long break. My computer crashed. There was a mail from an old friend. She's now married into the Welchia family I think. Crashed after that. Strange name that Welchia...

September 2nd
Dear Diary,
My boss told me I may not last the probation period. I was mighty thrilled to hear that. Imagine!! Permanent in less than three months!! That should be some sort of company record.
I made a presentation to all the staff yesterday. Some 300 people were there. I think I sent good vibes. Everyone was smiling and nodding their heads during the presentation. Someone later told me my fly was open the whole time. But I don't think anyone noticed. The presentation was on "An Open Culture: Let the feeling show!!"

p.s. 17156 ball bearings. I floated a scheme to give each employee a ball bearing for every year of service. The HR manager immediately convened a meeting with my boss. Every suggestion counts here at PWC.
September 4th
Dear Diary,
I have been transferred to the office in Sub-Saharan Africa. I will be heading the Room Heater and Hot Water Geyser products division. They have also told me to pay for all the ball bearings I bought. I think it speaks much of the entrepreneurial spirit. I have been told to leave immediately for Kujumbinana.
P.S. A foreign posting in under a year!!!
September 5th
Dear Diary,
I am in Kujumbinana. We don't have a branch here.......

Monday, March 19, 2007

Coach down...


Something is terribly wrong somewhere. I grew up believing, and I still believe that games and sports are necessary for our complete development. They not only help us stay healthy and active, but also make us mentally strong and help us become good human beings. But if this is the case, why did Bob Woolmer leave us behind, helplessly questioning the very beliefs that define us? For someone who was instrumental in making the South African team what they are today, i guess he was not new to failures and heartbreaks on this world stage of cricket. He had gone through similar situation when in the '99 world cup semis, South Africa fell after a terrible run out in the last over.

Yesterday was a sad day for the cricket world. One of the few good men has departed.

Rest In Peace, coach.

--Andy

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Melbourne marked RED!!!


Well, has a new era begun???

The F1 season began today with the circus on display at Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. It was a thrilling race for sure. Just for the fact that it was the first race of the season, it got the fans' adrenalin pumping. Kimi drove a fast race, cold and calculated. That man's a racing machine, everything's being calculated in his brain - real time. That is perhaps the most striking difference between him and Schumi. Where Schumi is passionate and expressive, Kimi's cold and straightfaced.

Is this post Schumi era goine to be the fight between a rampant horse and a silver arrow??? well the horse has 2 of the best jockeys while the Arrow is guided by an archer with Robin hood's legendry skills. Where does that leave a certain Renault??? all these questions should be answered within the next 3-4 races.

lets see what comes next.

By the looks of it... a lot of circuits are gonna be marked red....

n that means conquered.


--Andy

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Speed Trap...


It is coming...

for the first time in 15 years, there will be 22 humans racing each other in state-of-the-art machines to fill a void created last year by one God. critics may say that it is a fair race now...everyone being mortal. These racers will try to pick up where God left. At least they have the confidence that they can. they will try to prove themselves worthy of carrying forward the legacy, the perfection, the precision and the passion to win of a great legend. Oh they'll try so hard...

They will all fail...

Because there may be many religions and may Gods, but when it comes to Formula 1 Racing...

there can be only one God...

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Flexing my fingers here....

I wont even comment on the contribution of these girls!!! what pillu said when shen pushed me to create this blog was something like this...'andy we'll create a blog n write fundu stuff there...'
fundu for her is a iir report i guess...n su is dunno where...
so that leaves me...n all this space is mine. I can write about my favourite topics here without anyone labelling me 'boring' or such stuff...
so watch out...
Andy