Hello! Can You Hear Me?

I saw the documentary 'An Inconvinient Truth' yesterday. A TV channel was airing it on the occasion of Earth Day. Let me start by saying it is a must watch.

Al Gore is as much at the centre of the documentary as global warming. But, I didn't think of him as a distraction. Both of them deserve your equal attention. Al Gore because he is really pushing for the cause and global warming because, well, you want to live, don't you? And so do your children and their children.

The most shocking fact for me in the documentary, other then the statistics that Gore presented, was when he talked about how the last ice age swept Europe and rest of our planet. It took just 10 years. Can you believe it? It just a short span of 10 years Earth went into an ice age for a normal climate like ours today. It just shows that mother Earth can change her mood just like that, showing no mercy to any of her children.

Global warming is a very relevant issue for everyone of us. Most of us believe that we - ordinary men and women - are incapable for doing anything to fight it. No doubt, a big part of the onus lies on the governments and policy makers. But this is really something that every individual has to take up at his or her level. We need to review our lifestyles and habits, and change ourselves.

Please discuss about global warming with your family and friends, create awareness and act. Otherwise, a few decades away, we may not have any family or friends left.

It is annual appraisal time at work. I am playing the role of an appraiser for the first time. As I go through that process, the process of appraising other people that is, I realise more and more that it is not an easy job to do. It is very difficult to give feedback to anybody. More particularly when you are appraising somebody for a duration as long as one year.
Most organization have some form of ranking or rating system. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking of just the feedback part of any employee appraisal. The challenges I feel are these -

a) To give an effective feedback you should have observed the person very closely throughout the period.
b) Since human memory fails more often than not, you will be required to make notes of your observation. This is very difficult to practice sincerely.
c) Regular feedback will build to a cumulative feedback at the end of the year. This, again, is easier said than done. Regular feedback, I believe, will bore the appraisee equally. A need based feedback may be a better answer. But then, with a need based approach, it is possible that you see the need only when there is a negative feedback to pass.
d) Not everybody likes feedback or takes it in a healthy spirit. Everybody agrees, on face, that feedback should be accepted graciously as a gift but there are very few who can do that. Feedback flatters and it hurts.

There are more, but I'll stop at the above points. For my first time, all I wish is that my appraisee believe that I'm taking this process very seriously and that I'm honest about whatever I'm telling them and not faking anything.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 cricket tournament has started. I saw a few matches and then I realised this - I have lost all interest in watching cricket. Watching cricket on television was one of my favourite pastimes. I was passionate about the game. I had a lot of facts relating to the game on my fingertips. But amazingly, all that has gone.

I'm thinking hard but I cannot point to the precise time that this happenned but here is where I am. Does it happen to others? Something that they loved so much suddenly holds no interest for them any longer. I think the need of the hour for me then, is to find something else. Something that will excite me just as cricket did not long ago.

For others, who still love cricket, the game is on in IPL.