Where are the stars ?

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So first time I am experiencing this unique thing when you live so close to North pole. Where are the stars these days!! The reason for this is that there is no more night in Finland. I have been noticing this since the last one week, till 11.30pm I can see the sun’s rays falling on the Cathedral dome, around 12 midnight it will be something like dusk and voila! around 1.30 to 2.00 am again the sun rays!

The window of my room is on east, so when the sun comes up I get to have rays in my rooms filtering the blind , around 6 am the sun rays bounces off the lake and enters my room in full quantum and there is no question of me getting any sleep after 6 am. When I come from work I can see the sun rays falling on the buildings just outside my window. My apartment is situated on the top of the hill from where I used to have fantastic view of whole Hameenlinna town at night, alas that has gone too. The evening lights are barely noticeable when there is no darkness.

This Friday I had gone to Helsinki and while coming back I took the bus at 2345 hours in it was getting dusk at that time, I reached Hameenlinna at 0115 hours and by the time I was getting in bed at 2 am it was already sunrise.

It is kind of funny, when I cook my dinner at 9pm I have sun rays falling on the hotplates and the pan. Finnish people have their dinner at 4pm and supper at around 8pm ( if I am not wrong) so it might be more funny for them, hard to make out whether it is lunch or dinner !

The downside to this is that if there is no night then in winters there will be no day, why didn’t I notice it then in the winters? I analysed a bit and found out that this happens in November and this time it was cloudy and raining for most of November so I didn’t notice that the phenomenon of ‘no-day’ is due to clouds or polar nights. Whatever, but I dread the month of November, the most depressing month in Finland.

While typing I am seeing the clock on my computer it is showing 11.09 pm and I have not yet switched on the light in my room, the light coming from window is still sufficient, though it being a cloudy day today.

I am thinking of pole star, where it would be? I am not sure if there is any planetarium in Finland, will find it out tomorrow from the colleagues. It would be interesting to spend one night err... day there.

Pictures from Netherlands

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As I wrote in my earlier post, I didn't get much time for seeing around and clicking pictures, nevertheless I have taken few, which are here.


This was the fountain outside the hotel in Amsterdam, it was feeling so good to see water coming out on a cool serene summer morning.



This is the hotel where I stayed for the first and the last night in Netherlands



The following two pictures are of the nice view I had from the guest house in Eindhvoen, one good thing was that all the three days I stayed in Netherlands, the weather was so good and all the time it was bright and sunny.





The following two pictures are the skylines of Eindhoven , taken at the time when I was going out for lunch.





This is the colorful view of Amsterdam Centraal station taken at 8 in the evening, it looks as colorful as an Indian temple.



This is me standing in one of the squares of Amsterdam


This is one of structure which I can't read what it was ( written in Dutch) but other tourists were taking snap of it, so I also took one



This is the top of one of ancient building in Amsterdam



This is one of many streets in Amsterdam but the unique things about this was that it had mostly chinese shops and that too eataries.


This is one strange mannequin I saw in one of chinese dress shop, I just now noticed that the word "mannequin" has etymological roots in the Dutch word 'mannekijn' meaning little man



It was midnight now and it was time for me to get back to hotel and get ready for next day's flight. The last picture that I took there, it is again one of the many streets of Amsterdam

Finland habits

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Things that will change in you after you have stayed in Finland for 6 months:-

• You will reach all the airports 30 minutes before the departure of you flight. This is the time you need in Helsinki-Vantaa airport

• Four people will seem to be a crowd.

• 75% occupied bus, train or flight will seem over booked

• Someone talking in the back seat of yours will irritate you, you have got used to total silence in bus, trams and trains in Finland

• You will always look for empty seat far from others to occupy in bus, tram or train.

• If you are stuck somewhere while getting ticket or something else, you will never seek other’s help, cause your Finland stay has told you that there won’t be a soul around or if they are there they don’t speak English

• Some one drinking just 2 mugs of beer will surprise you

• You won’t believe a tourist place which does not have a Sauna

• Lastly you will really miss Finland.

Busy weekend

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I have just returned from the two day trip to Netherlands and I can say that this was the most busy weekend I had in last six months. I spent the whole time either at office or in traveling.

Friday(20th)

1.Hameenlinna to Heslinki-Vantaa Airport by Bus

2.Helsinki to Amsterdam Schipol – by SAS flight

3.Amsterdam Schipol to Hotel Ibis at night 10.30

Saturday (21st)

4.Hotel Ibis to Schipol- WTC office at 9AM

5.From 9.30am to 6.30pm at office

6.Amsterdam Zuid WTC to Eindhoven by train at 7 pm

7.Reached Eindhoven at 8.24pm and then checked in Transit quarter
of the company, had pizza for dinner and fell to sleep almost instantly

Sunday(22nd)

8.From 9am to 4.30 pm at the conference hall of Holiday Inn at Eindhoven

9.Eindhoven to Schipol by train, started at 5 pm and reached at 6.30 pm

10.From Schipol again checked in Hotel Ibis at 7 pm

11.Went to Amsterdam Central from Hotel Ibis for seeing places in Amsterdam returned half hour past midnight.

Monday (23rd)

12.Got up real early at 4.30 am and then checked out of Hotel Ibis at 6 am after having breakfast.

13.SAS flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen (Denmark) at 6.55 am reached Copenhagen at 8.20 am

14.SAS flight from Copenhagen to Helsinki at 9.35 am and reached Helsinki at 12.10 pm

15.Bus from Helsinki to Hameenlinna at 12.15 pm reached at 1.35 pm

16.Reached my office at 2.30 pm

It was indeed a hell like hectic schedule for the three days and lots of things happened in between. For catching the early morning flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen I checked in just 25 minutes before the flight and then when I proceeded for the security check I found such a huge line that I lost all my hope of catching the flight. Somehow managed to clear the security gate and then the gate B15 was so far that I had to run at the airport. I was running and could hear my name being called on the PA system of Amsterdam airport for boarding the flight. I entered the flight just 2 minutes before the departure time and the moment I entered the gates were closed and plane proceeded for take off. The crew was so kind for keeping the door open till the last few minutes for allowing me to board. I learnt a lesson though, I will never go for an early morning flight and if I have to take one I would reach airport at least an hour in advance. I attribute this also to my 7 months stay in Finland.

I thought that I will get some time to see around Amsterdam and Eindhoven but managed only few hours to see around. I had taken my digicam with me but was not able to take pictures except for few.

Trip

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It is about a week when I last posted, there were reasons, got busy with work then I was preparing for one presentation this weekend etc.

I was doing some major changes at my work front which thankfully got completed today and just need to see things go fine tomorrow. This weekend I would be in Amsterdam and Eindhoven, leaving by tomorrow evening flight and coming back on Monday morning.I had to do some preparation for it as I am not going for sight seeing but for some official work, hopefully the evenings will be free for sight seeing. I am excited about Eindhoven cause I wish to see the headquarters of consumer electronics giant Philips. Return flight has stop in Copenhagen but it only of one hour so I won’t be able to go out and see around.

Well I have my exams on June 11th in Stockholm, have booked the tickets but I am really afraid that my studies are not up to the mark and I might fail. Last weekend I studied for a decent amount of time but from Monday I got busy with work. I had planned for my work but as Murphy’s law says “ If something has to go wrong it will go wrong “ so this is what happened. There is a fair bit of thing I wish to write about consulting, let me come from Netherlands and then I shall write about it.

I have some stuff to do, packing casuals are always easy but formals require some thinking. Just remembered that I have to put the cell of my digicam to charge incase I wish to take some snaps there and one more thing which is unique to me, I need to clean the desktop cause I don’t want my messy desktop with hundred of files to be seen on projector. Eeks, I think it is violation of the security guidelines also to keep files on desktop, seems I am getting paranoid these days. Will post in details once I am back.

Tribute

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This post of mine is tribute to those who are studying and writing their exams. I know how difficult is to study and write exams, while the world is enjoying. There is a reason for me getting this sudden englightment. Here it is .

It happened so that I was getting bore with my work life and thought that I should start studying something.Promptly I registered for a certifying examination related to my professional field. There are five papers to be cleared before I could get the certification. I registered for two papers both on the same day, in morning and afternoon session. I bought books from Amazon and with much enthusiasm I started studying. Now it is two years that I completed my study and started working, I find it so difficult to study. I always start procrastination at the thought of studying, in evening I think I will study in morning, in morning I think that let me carry my book to work and may be during lunch hours I would scan some pages, during lunch hour I think I would study in evening. Damn!, it is so difficult, I can’t imagine I was studying two years back and writing exams!.

I am afraid that I would fail the exam, lose the huge amount of money that I paid for it and also cut a sorry figure in front of all those who know that I am writing the exam.

Now I know and understand the chivalry of those who are studying and writing exams, indeed it is a task of Byzantine proportion.

Salutations to all of them!

The Interpreter

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I just completed watching this movie "The Interpreter" which was released on April 22nd.I had kept this movie to watch on saturday while I lazed around. With PG13 ranking, I thought it will another run of the mill Hollywood movie, but I am impressed with this Political thriller.

Anything about Africa always interests me, be it the medical detective fictional novel about Ebola virus (I can't seem to remember the name), or the movie "Black Hawk Down" about the UN operations in Somalia.

This movie is based on a fictional African country and it's fictional dictator.Though one statement in the movie could be taken as controversial there wasn't any other controversy in it. It was expected or else getting permissions for starring UN would have been difficult, the movie is shot inside the UN building.

Nicole Kidman looks cute :), the african interpreter, who works at UN and believes in diplomacy, power and sanctity of words. The accent of Nicole is the another aspect of her which has always been admired.

Seeing life from a different angle is Sean Penn,whom I still remember as the pathetic loser in "The assasination of President Nixon". Sean in this movie, played the role of a depressed secret service agent who was dumped by his wife, had nothing else left so was putting everything in his job.

The caring relationship between the two protagonist was manifested in the movie but it was refreshing that it didn't end up in another love making scene. The intense bond between them was subtly potrayed.

The movie keeps the audiences attention due to the tension and suspense, sometimes seeming similar to Hitchcock style.

Overall a good movie to watch, good acting by academy award winners Sean Penn & Nicole Kidman and good direction by another academy award winner Sydney Pollack.

It is quarter to Nine in evening and sunshine is still there,I wanted to go hiking in the forest behind the castle, but the movie was worth my time.

Do we really need these many Holidays ?

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Mine this post is not to offend anyone's feelings,it is just one of the another whining and ranting session from me.

My one hand is paining, one ear is charred and is fuming(smoke is also coming out). It happened so that last week we scheduled one call for today at 2pm Finnish time, little did I know that today was holiday. When this Monday I got the information that today our office would be closed, there was hardly anything I could do. The call can't be rescheduled after it was confirmed by everyone else. Now I don't have a landline phone at my home, I have a cell phone and so no speaker phone. There is no way I can enter my office during holidays and weekends. All the two hours I had to stick my phone with one hand to my left ear and the other hand at computer. This was not an entertainment call so I had to listen and react and so whole duration the phone was glued to ear. After 15 mins the phone become hot but nothig could be done? I was much relieved when the call was over but my ear and hand is still paining 2 hours after the call.

I don't find any reason to have so many holidays, I don't know when do we work?In my office the first thing I was told that you can't stay at work after 8pm cause after that if anyone is left behind an alarm will go off and security will be alerted and they will come. They only can then open the door to let me out but only after the security formalities has been done. I never stayed beyone 8 pm though sometime I really wished to complete my work and then go home.

There are always so many holidays, people leave work at 4pm sharp and they take so many vacations. Well most of the time it isn't a problem but when things are going global, you are dealing with people across nations, across different time zones so you need to be a bit considerate.

Finland has a population of 5.2 million, far less than the city where I used to live previously, so it is obvious that the market of Finnish goods and services has to extend beyond the country. You can't depend on your own country, as the market is so small, that you won't probably break even, let alone profit. So when you are doing business inter-country and possibly inter-continent, you need to be flexible and bend your rules a bit. The world is not going to sit and stop working just cause you are having holiday.

The business scenario has changed considerably in the last decade or so, the competition is much more intense now. The firm for whom I am doing project has 96% of their customers outside of Finland,I think it is the same with other big business houses of Finland, Nokia and Kone to name a few. Nokia is already facing stiff competition across the world and Kone also sells more elevators outside Finland then in Finland.

I don't wish to say that today should not be a holiday but atleast it could have been made an optional one.The problem of thursday being holiday is that everyone will take friday as leave to have a perfect 4 days extended weekend to go to their summer cottage and enjoy the sauna. I am sure that tommorrow I am going to be the only person working.

Ok I end the rant now. Once again no offence intended but it was no holds barred.

Managing uncertainity

Some random thoughts are crossing my mind, which I am sure are nothing new to anyone, but none the less I will put them here.

There are few not so good things which can't be eliminated. The best way to manage them is to accept and deal with them. One such thing is 'uncertainity'. Come to think of it, for a business, managing uncertainity is one of the biggest cost drivers. Businesses come up with several ways to secure whatever amount of certainity they could. And this comes at a price. We see such examples in our every day life. The cheap flight tickets when booked months in advance, the early bird tickets for concerts, group bookings, long term contracts with utility service providers, etc are all an attempt to garner some certainity. There is whole world in financial domain to manage this uncertainity, which can't be even touched in this post.

In today's intense competitive scenario, many times, how well a firm can manage its certainity, defines it success. It is in this thinking lies the intrinsic risk of things going wrong. An overzealous business might think of totally doing away with this uncertainity. This can prove disastrous. How ever one might wish, 'uncertainity' can never be eliminated. There are numerous such analogies. For example in manufacturing, for a process whenever there is a variation from desired, an analysis is done to find out if it is chance variation or assignable variation. Nothing is done to eliminate the chance variation, it is only assignable variation which is eliminated. This is true for all kinds of uncertainity.

Not surprisingly all those organisations that have this uncanny ability to estimate future and manage the uncertainity are the ones which stand out and stay forever.

Dream

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One more day and one more morning,it was the usual morning for me,got up from bed,checked my mails and then straight to bathroom.After this got dressed and went to kitchen prepared my breakfast, put on my shoes, packed my laptop and went to work. I reached office, plugged the LAN into laptop and then the phone rang.

The buzzer was shrill and when I tried to pick the phone I found I was in bed !!!Damn, whole time I was dreaming and I was aware what I was dreaming? It was late, 8.15am and normally I get up by 5 am. I can't reason it out till now that how can I be so aware of what I was dreaming.Anyway was a really a nasty thing to happen. I had to skip my tea and somehow prepared bread toast and came to work. There is nothing like I have to come to work by a fixed time ( I am usually the last one to leave for the day) but I hate to come to office when everyone else is leaving for lunch :d.

Right now I am blogging, and also thinking how silly I can be to dream and be so aware of what I am dreaming.

GreenSatya

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This weekend, I was thinking why did I choose 'greensatya' as the URL for this blog? It is not only here, but there are other discussion forums where I use the name as 'greensatya', (there are few more forums where I participate, whose names shall remain discreet, even there my user name start with 'green'). The places where I use 'greensatya' are listed here all the instances are indeed me.

I have been blogging for a year now, though the pace picked up after I came to Finland.When I failed to get my own name as name of URL (I envy those who have it, you know who you are :)), I chose a complicated username. After a month I changed it again to something. Later some sections of Indian media, indulging in servile flattery, patented that word for one of the politician. This politician is some one whom I abhorr. Consequently I had to change it and from then I am having 'greensatya'.

The question still remains why 'greensatya' or rather why 'green' as Satya is understandable. Dictionary says 'green' as being naive, and the life that I have faced till now has definitely proved that I was way too naive. Being Naive can be a debatable topic, but I don't think it is good in today's world. The disadvantages weighs heavier. That day I was so angry with myself that I felt like swearing at me and so came the word 'greensatya'.I like this one and kept it. It deoes help me in reminding my weakness and thus keeps check on me.