Accounting

You dont need to take a Management Accounting class to understand the terms "Profit Center" and "Cost Center". Your organization could be broken down into business units that either are revenue generators or revenue sinks. For example Sales is always a profit center since they solely focus on their quotas to generate revenue ( as a side effect commisions) whereas HR is always a cost center because they dont generate any revebue but cost the organization some revenue to do whatever it is that they do.(While it is interesting to compare the mentalities of people working in either center, I shall refrain from that digression - for example cost center folks are usually content, laid back , easy going versus hectic, hungry, aggressive profit folks)

In a recent internal company meeting one of the directors nailed me as a "non revenue generator",( that translates into not being one of his folks, who are consultants billed at an hourly rate). I was doing Sales Consulting in my previous life and I do understand the luxuries of being one of them. At the end of the day given the pressure to meet targets, some things would be sacrificed. While this sacrifice is Okay to some and are very happy as to what comes with that territory, I couldnt actually come to terms to a job partially done. Something essential to the work-well-done-feeling is taken away, thanks to the negotiations on the deal.Sorry. I cannot be one of them and Hence my move to this new job where I could do what I want to, to my heart's concern.I have become an accidental engineer because I could not become a scientist or a mathematician :(

Half a dozen retorts came to mind but I resisted ( My favorite one was that we are a profit center with a profit target of zero and we are consistent with that.Beat That!). Luckily to my rescue one of his own team called him their "pimp" (there's a certain element of truth to that :) and we'll lay matters to rest here.

Thinking about this on my way back, I could picture my economics instructor at high school explaining me an isomorphic (read: similar) concept of certain profit and cost curves and their intersection. This was in those days when whiteboards and sketches werent common and good old chalk piece with a blackboard was the standard display medium in schools. While the economics teacher rambled on, I could see the chalk particles from the writing slowly come off.
Have you ever seen that the fall of chalk particles observes a certain parabolic trajectory? ( Incidentally she was talking about the breakeven point of some sort). The particles at the vertex of the parabola take the most air-time. Similarly there seems to be some other "____ center" which could be defined as neither profit nor cost but nevertheless gives us the best of both worlds. Till I figure out that part, I'll have to carry this cross.

Bliss

is to do nothing
on a sunday afternoon

watching clouds move
leaves waving
paper flapping

a plane glides through
a fig incense burning
my favorite song playing

book open and unread


-Anonymous

Kalakshepa a.k.a Timepass

Hurrah! Long Weekend is here.After days of chasing bugs, playing heck of a lot more sports than I am used to and constantly being occupied by something or the other, I finally find some time for myself. Feels like paradise.Sleeping at 4:00 am in the morn, waking up and walking to starbucks followed by a "tiffin" (as desis are wont to call it) and having a dip in the pool just makes the cut.

Now I am suddenly at a loss to do something.Nature abhors a vaccum,right? But then wait, rushing myself to do something is only gonna take away the flavor of a vacation.Having offloaded something like 300 odd Hindi MP3s to the Pod, my mind wanders at a time when none of the things I am used to in this world were around (like pools, chaat bandis, iPod, etc).Wonder what people used to do..Lets see what my mind seems to dig on that score

(a) Recitation of Stories, Some peccadilloes of certain gods followed by some eccentric sages cursing the crap out these immortal gods and their opponents trying to get the throne,etc

(b) Some Music possibly with some earthy tones.

(b) Lectures on Metaphysics , pondering over philosophical questions and solving them by adding a layer of metaphysics to justify them and playin with some imaginary structures

(c) Possible some time studying the cattle and other miscellaneous domestic animals or in the course of domesticating some other wild animals

(d) Alchemy : Assuming some metalheads were present in the ancient society, somebody trying to convert somebody's gold to dust.(Later it was supposedly reverse)

(e) Finally among other unimaginable pleasures probably there's a place for a hearty roll-in-the hay sex.

Anyways there's one particular form of entertainment that struck my fancy in my childhood. That being called "HariKatha". In this particular medium you need to write your own narrative based on some popular story, have some music, make people laugh, make sure the lyrics carry with the music, etc to completely engage the audience with the performers' own creativity.Ok.Here I go to get my Violin to do something like that..Till then you folks have a wonderful and a fun-tastic weekend.