Yesterday morning when I was having breakfast it was told in BBC that psychologists and day experts say Jan 19th is the Blue Monday – the most miserable day of the year. And we scoffed at them saying every day is glorified with some term. I was on relatively high spirits for the start of my Prince2 course. However, the day turned out really miserable for me; an absolute nightmare.
It was raining in the morning. SreeRaj dropped me at the station and I boarded a train to Leeds at 7:45 am. As the course was happening with an external trainer in Leeds I had a map with me to locate the place when I reach Leeds. And I had a well set buffer time as my training was supposed to start only at 9:30 am. The train was on time and I managed to get hold of a priority seat and was very comfy and slowly gone to a nap. By the time I opened by eyes there was no one in train and my mind was on a shock, ‘God, did I reach London?’ I thought I had slept off and reached the final destination of the train. However, I managed to get out and it was only York – only half way through. The station was crowded and from the announcements I got to know that there were no trains running to Leeds due to some fatality. Instead they have made arrangements with coaches to take passengers to Leeds. And we were to board the coach from outside the station. I walked out of the station for coaches and found out that there was a HUGE queue in the form of a flock. Not on the ‘survival of the fittest’ mood, I waited with patience for around 20 minutes there to get in and by the time some coaches have left. It was really a test of patience in freezing cold.
Then there comes the next announcement that rail services will be resumed shortly and no more coaches will be running there after. So I got into the station again and the direction was to board the train in platform 5 to Leeds. By the time it was already 9 o clock, and I got into the train, sat there for around 10 minutes and there you get the next announcement that next train to Leeds departs from platform 7. Good God I thought and walked over to platform 7 and boarded the train there. As soon as this was done all the passengers were directed to move to Platform 9 for Leeds trains. By this I have lost my hope as I was sure I was not going to make it on time for training. Walked over to platform 9 for the train; this didn’t work out as well and another announcement came that transpennine express to Manchester Airport via Leeds leaves shortly from Platform 11. The mob including me rushed to platform 11 now and boarded finally. This train was over crowded and I had to walk the whole stretch of the train to see if I can find a place to sit. Well, the walk was not in vain and got a side seat in the table near a huge man (somehow no one wanted to sit there as you get only a portion of the seat as the other guy occupied more than half of that seat too). All these happened within 20 minutes and by that time everyone in the train was frustrated making calls to their work place cancelling meetings and appointments. I was a bit relieved, ‘Oh, not just me!’ However despite all hopes the train started only at 10:30 am and all were stuck as if in a big tunnel, it was not a pleasant thing to happen on a Monday morning. Meanwhile four different reasons were given for this, ‘Fatality, Signal problem between Church Fenton and Leeds, Signal problem to leave York station, Signal problem to enter Leeds station’!
Meanwhile I get a call from my colleague saying that the course is cancelled as the trainers were off sick. As soon as she hang up realised I didn’t have my office laptop with me and its better to go home and work from there. The train doors were locked at the same second and I couldn’t get out. All I could do was to travel to Leeds now. Reached Leeds around 11:00 am, got in to office and explained the miserable story to everyone. Meanwhile one of my colleagues checked online and told me that I have a train leaving to my home station in the next 7 minutes, otherwise only one after 2 pm. It was another marathon now to ran back to station and catch this one. However, this bit was not bad and I did manage to catch. But, by this I was shattered and couldn’t even sleep because of the frustration. This train ran late for another half hour and I reached Northallerton around 1 pm. I was literally in trains from 7:45 am to 1:00 pm. So, how can I not agree to the predictions of Blue Monday! It definitely was for me!!! However, the second half of the day was relatively better.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Thursday, 15 January 2009
3 more days for PRINCE2
The countdown has started for Prince2 course – 3 more days! And that generates a heat now as I have only started the pre-reading properly this week. There was a time in life when I could literally do a whole text book the day before examination which was sometimes referred to as ‘mugging up’ or been called as a liar for saying I did it only last night. However, things used to work then. But now, there is a limit to which I can take in I guess. I keep on reading the junk but nothing gets registered and there is absolutely no point in that. Having done say a 40% of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) manual by now I am unsure if I can finish off the whole thing in the next 3 days. Especially 2 days being weekend when nothing happens really!
I have tried a sample question paper of 15 questions out of which I scored a 9 which isn’t very disappointing, not very promising too.
I wonder why I opted for the course early this year. Not the right time due to several reasons; but then earlier the better and it is done then. I am trying to ponder with the manual at nights this week, but then really get switched off with everything in a couple of a hours max. I wonder how I used to stay awake the whole night before exams in the past. I hope I can still do a bit of it in the next two days; I have to as I don’t have a choice. What happened during the last week is if I make my brain work for more than 2 hours then I need a ‘quality’ break and this has resulted in watching two good movies. Slumdog Millionaire and A Wednesday! Wow, they were both very good and was a bit of relief from Prince2.
But then reading is not getting on a fast track. If I do a fast track I struggle to get them! I had collected the manual in December thinking that I will work on it during the break. But I had completely forgotten about this until second week of January when I saw one of my colleagues reading it. Again, I started on a slow pace and now I am scared to take sample tests as I havnt done the reading in the first place and has a fobia towards a ‘not pass’! Got to crack this one in three days somehow. The manual is a best medicine if you have a sleeping problem. The fact is I enjoy various aspects of project management starting from initiation until closure and you experience, learn and practise as you do the work. But the theory is so damn dry on this and various terminologies do confuse you at times. And obviously having a problem with choice and part of the test being multiple choice I just hope and pray it is not going to be a piece of nightmare.
Though you are a professional and trying to improve your area of work through a specialised training, the moment you know you are going to be tested based on a exam with a course and pre-reading you get back to a student mind set. And it is much more important here to pass the exam. The start of 2009 is a bit demanding I guess; but no complaints as I have a million reasons to be happy about 2009.
I have tried a sample question paper of 15 questions out of which I scored a 9 which isn’t very disappointing, not very promising too.
I wonder why I opted for the course early this year. Not the right time due to several reasons; but then earlier the better and it is done then. I am trying to ponder with the manual at nights this week, but then really get switched off with everything in a couple of a hours max. I wonder how I used to stay awake the whole night before exams in the past. I hope I can still do a bit of it in the next two days; I have to as I don’t have a choice. What happened during the last week is if I make my brain work for more than 2 hours then I need a ‘quality’ break and this has resulted in watching two good movies. Slumdog Millionaire and A Wednesday! Wow, they were both very good and was a bit of relief from Prince2.
But then reading is not getting on a fast track. If I do a fast track I struggle to get them! I had collected the manual in December thinking that I will work on it during the break. But I had completely forgotten about this until second week of January when I saw one of my colleagues reading it. Again, I started on a slow pace and now I am scared to take sample tests as I havnt done the reading in the first place and has a fobia towards a ‘not pass’! Got to crack this one in three days somehow. The manual is a best medicine if you have a sleeping problem. The fact is I enjoy various aspects of project management starting from initiation until closure and you experience, learn and practise as you do the work. But the theory is so damn dry on this and various terminologies do confuse you at times. And obviously having a problem with choice and part of the test being multiple choice I just hope and pray it is not going to be a piece of nightmare.
Though you are a professional and trying to improve your area of work through a specialised training, the moment you know you are going to be tested based on a exam with a course and pre-reading you get back to a student mind set. And it is much more important here to pass the exam. The start of 2009 is a bit demanding I guess; but no complaints as I have a million reasons to be happy about 2009.
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Start of 2009
Gone are the days of 2008. And now it is 2009!!! Time just simply flies. I have a special likeness for New Year too!
The year 2008 had been really great with us and family, touchwood! And I am looking forward to 2009.
The start is quite good; back to office after the long Christmas and New Year break, still in the hang over I would say. But then work is kicking off well in New Year, projects are starting up, meetings and discussions, keeps me busy through the day with not much time to complain.
The weather has become terrible in England with snow, ice and chilling cold. And is on severe weather warnings everyday! I check everyday before I get out of home if the trains are running and it will be nightmare if they don’t especially in the evenings. And most of the trains are delayed, cancelled or stuck! Despite all these the rail ticket prices have gone UP to around 20%.
There are a lot of bugs going around, winter flu, winter vomiting bug, diarrhoea and even chicken pox. We had been the victims of winter flu early in November and guess that’s the only reason we were saved during the break. Most of our friends had got either one of these; and we stayed away from bugs! So many of the holiday plans were cancelled and it was a quiet one, quite relaxing though!
On an economic perspective 2009 is not predicted to be a great one as recession hits badly. Many shops are on closing down; having been for one of the closing down sales for Woolworths we were on a shopping spree and picked up a lot of junk (from clothes to post-it notes) which we would have never bothered to have a look if it wasn’t for ‘sale’. Oops, it was a purely a stupid shopping spree! However, realising this effect we have decided to stop going for closing down sales (at least for the next couple of months!!!). But, rest of the sales this year for Boxing Day and New Years was not as great as expected. Favourite brands did have sales on, but most of them were ‘upto’ 50% ones. None of the decent things came for a good 50% off. May be it is just how I look at it; I had expected some of my favourites to come down to half price. Having roamed around Debenhams for a couple of hours on Boxing Day I couldn’t find any good deals of my interest. May be it was just that I was disappointed as some of the dresses I expected to come down didn’t!
New Year brings me back to a student life for a month again. I am on my Prince2 Practitioner Course from Jan 19th and have the exam on 23rd. Have a lot of pre-reading to do, have just started with the introduction chapter and I realise now it is high time. May be I should sit with it straight for say a good 3-4 hours; probably then will get the hang of it. This is a two part exam with a foundation and practitioner. I could have done it any time of the year, but then earlier the better; and you are done with it. And it is closely aligned with my work as well; so I expect it to be a good value addition; and of course looks good in CV.
Will come up with a bit more of news later! Happy New Year!
The year 2008 had been really great with us and family, touchwood! And I am looking forward to 2009.
The start is quite good; back to office after the long Christmas and New Year break, still in the hang over I would say. But then work is kicking off well in New Year, projects are starting up, meetings and discussions, keeps me busy through the day with not much time to complain.
The weather has become terrible in England with snow, ice and chilling cold. And is on severe weather warnings everyday! I check everyday before I get out of home if the trains are running and it will be nightmare if they don’t especially in the evenings. And most of the trains are delayed, cancelled or stuck! Despite all these the rail ticket prices have gone UP to around 20%.
There are a lot of bugs going around, winter flu, winter vomiting bug, diarrhoea and even chicken pox. We had been the victims of winter flu early in November and guess that’s the only reason we were saved during the break. Most of our friends had got either one of these; and we stayed away from bugs! So many of the holiday plans were cancelled and it was a quiet one, quite relaxing though!
On an economic perspective 2009 is not predicted to be a great one as recession hits badly. Many shops are on closing down; having been for one of the closing down sales for Woolworths we were on a shopping spree and picked up a lot of junk (from clothes to post-it notes) which we would have never bothered to have a look if it wasn’t for ‘sale’. Oops, it was a purely a stupid shopping spree! However, realising this effect we have decided to stop going for closing down sales (at least for the next couple of months!!!). But, rest of the sales this year for Boxing Day and New Years was not as great as expected. Favourite brands did have sales on, but most of them were ‘upto’ 50% ones. None of the decent things came for a good 50% off. May be it is just how I look at it; I had expected some of my favourites to come down to half price. Having roamed around Debenhams for a couple of hours on Boxing Day I couldn’t find any good deals of my interest. May be it was just that I was disappointed as some of the dresses I expected to come down didn’t!
New Year brings me back to a student life for a month again. I am on my Prince2 Practitioner Course from Jan 19th and have the exam on 23rd. Have a lot of pre-reading to do, have just started with the introduction chapter and I realise now it is high time. May be I should sit with it straight for say a good 3-4 hours; probably then will get the hang of it. This is a two part exam with a foundation and practitioner. I could have done it any time of the year, but then earlier the better; and you are done with it. And it is closely aligned with my work as well; so I expect it to be a good value addition; and of course looks good in CV.
Will come up with a bit more of news later! Happy New Year!
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Influencing Skills
It has been busy, busy and busy over the past few days.
Transition to new job role is working fine, Tier 2 application with extension of visa successful, Santa coming to us in different forms and much more. The year end is keeping us in high spirits till now.
Another one on those Bray Leino trainings – Influencing Skills!!! It is absolutely a great skill to develop (or further develop) in professional as well as personal life. The one which I attended was quite generic; still there were many things which were food for thought. For example what is a fair mix of extrovert and introvert types? The trainer listed down many characteristics for each of them. Certainly introverts and extroverts have their own favourable and unfavourable factors. One among them was Extroverts are ‘annoying’ and Introverts are ‘boring’. Not necessarily always, it depends on contexts/situations they are in. So a fair mix of both should be considered while dealing with people.
You are on managing a meeting or delivering a presentation; and you get a room full of extroverts. The audience are on a race to talk, talk and talk sometimes to prove their point; or to rebut someone else’s. And some techies in the audience try to question the presenter to prove him/her and the audience that ‘I know more than what you know’. There are presenters who take it in a very constructive way, but often I have seen people getting annoyed with that (I have had to deliver only very few technical presentations in my life, and they were when I started my career as a software engineer). Rest of the presentations in my life were more or less on management side. However, no one expects anyone to know everything about what they present – you could very well be frank and say ‘I am not sure about that, can I confirm and get back to you!’. Also getting an audience full of introverts is not very exciting. You need a good degree of challenge to keep you going anywhere.
One of the key points on influencing people, group of people or an organisation is that can you predict or later determine the degree to which you did the influencing? That was a perfect question as I have never given it a thought. Influencing skills in my professional life has had direct results as well as indirect ones. But then, determination of the degree of it isn’t easy. May be it can be measured relatively. For that, you need someone else or a group of people to do the same which isn’t the case often with work environments.
Another interesting section of the training was that the trainer asked everyone to identify a person who has influenced them in their lives. It was a very open question that it could have been anyone in personal life or professional life. It is not a matter of thought for me as I have the clear cut answer for the person who has influenced me the most in my life – that is my father. The group had a wide variety of answers which ranged from ‘my grandson’ to ‘Mahatma Gandhi’. Mahatma Gandhi was identified by many in the room as one with great influencing skills; and I was the single Asian in the group. It added on to my pride being an Indian.
For me, most of the times I realise when I am getting influenced by people. It can be their power, character, efficacy, skills and the likes which have an effect on me. On the lighter side, I have been a victim of these many times. Anywhere any time,
- when I was in school I was influenced my by teacher,
- at home I was the best influenced by my parents which is my pride
- when I grew up though I don’t like to accept I was influenced by a good mix of people – say friends, my crush-list ones, even celebrities and many more
- when I found my MAN in life I am heavily influenced by that person
- In professional life you have many models in front of you who you accept and like to follow; also proud to say they influenced you.
And I am confident on my influence on certain people who I think should be influenced by me. But, can certainly have further development in the area.
Transition to new job role is working fine, Tier 2 application with extension of visa successful, Santa coming to us in different forms and much more. The year end is keeping us in high spirits till now.
Another one on those Bray Leino trainings – Influencing Skills!!! It is absolutely a great skill to develop (or further develop) in professional as well as personal life. The one which I attended was quite generic; still there were many things which were food for thought. For example what is a fair mix of extrovert and introvert types? The trainer listed down many characteristics for each of them. Certainly introverts and extroverts have their own favourable and unfavourable factors. One among them was Extroverts are ‘annoying’ and Introverts are ‘boring’. Not necessarily always, it depends on contexts/situations they are in. So a fair mix of both should be considered while dealing with people.
You are on managing a meeting or delivering a presentation; and you get a room full of extroverts. The audience are on a race to talk, talk and talk sometimes to prove their point; or to rebut someone else’s. And some techies in the audience try to question the presenter to prove him/her and the audience that ‘I know more than what you know’. There are presenters who take it in a very constructive way, but often I have seen people getting annoyed with that (I have had to deliver only very few technical presentations in my life, and they were when I started my career as a software engineer). Rest of the presentations in my life were more or less on management side. However, no one expects anyone to know everything about what they present – you could very well be frank and say ‘I am not sure about that, can I confirm and get back to you!’. Also getting an audience full of introverts is not very exciting. You need a good degree of challenge to keep you going anywhere.
One of the key points on influencing people, group of people or an organisation is that can you predict or later determine the degree to which you did the influencing? That was a perfect question as I have never given it a thought. Influencing skills in my professional life has had direct results as well as indirect ones. But then, determination of the degree of it isn’t easy. May be it can be measured relatively. For that, you need someone else or a group of people to do the same which isn’t the case often with work environments.
Another interesting section of the training was that the trainer asked everyone to identify a person who has influenced them in their lives. It was a very open question that it could have been anyone in personal life or professional life. It is not a matter of thought for me as I have the clear cut answer for the person who has influenced me the most in my life – that is my father. The group had a wide variety of answers which ranged from ‘my grandson’ to ‘Mahatma Gandhi’. Mahatma Gandhi was identified by many in the room as one with great influencing skills; and I was the single Asian in the group. It added on to my pride being an Indian.
For me, most of the times I realise when I am getting influenced by people. It can be their power, character, efficacy, skills and the likes which have an effect on me. On the lighter side, I have been a victim of these many times. Anywhere any time,
- when I was in school I was influenced my by teacher,
- at home I was the best influenced by my parents which is my pride
- when I grew up though I don’t like to accept I was influenced by a good mix of people – say friends, my crush-list ones, even celebrities and many more
- when I found my MAN in life I am heavily influenced by that person
- In professional life you have many models in front of you who you accept and like to follow; also proud to say they influenced you.
And I am confident on my influence on certain people who I think should be influenced by me. But, can certainly have further development in the area.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Braggadocios!!!
Having been living for one third of an average human life-cycle I have developed certain strong likes and dislikes! I think I am going to indite on my dislikes now and this doesn’t necessarily mean or one should speculate that I am a negative person. I am NOT. Well, can’t really say I am the most optimistic too. But, I am sure my optimism levels have improved especially over the last couple of years and I can see I am reaching there to the most optimistic levels.
Now, it is about certain dislikes or aversions I am getting stuck to in a very hard way. The main one on this is on Braggadocio – the word is new to me. But it is all about boasting and the big talks. I just cannot stand it these days and get awfully annoyed by braggarts. It is a perfect abhorrence for me. I have realised that I have started reacting to those of this kind – whether it is genuine or fake. Being a sort of person who is relatively slower in reacting to repugnance and with a relatively higher reaction time I am sure if I am experiencing expeditious reactions with such occasions it is just not me. In simple terms boasting can be of in any form, in all walks of life, anywhere and anything for one to do
For example,
Some people desperately try hard to prove who they are and how good they are. Good on what? Anything! Usual ones being on their brains, academics, jobs, speaking skills, artistic talents, and what not! Even on their swearing skills!!!– If one is good, do they really have to try hard to prove? On a personal perspective I feel if someone is trying to boast on somethingt – true or fake; it is simply because they have an inferiority complex on it, or they just doubt if they are accepted in that way – that is simply lack of confidence.
Some others try to boast on their social set up – Who I am? Where am I from? Who is who? And who are my people – friends, family, colleagues, even their Exs. I pity these types. It is very much true that you should be proud of who you are and on your whereabouts. But it is an absolute ridicule when they go around and exercise hard to prove that.
Another type is on the asset which is now on the material aspects. What have I got? Acres of land, Unlimited account balance, Lamborghini, luxury homes and what not? People here even try hard to prove how great they are by saying their post codes just because it shows how posh the place of your living is! How strange!!!
There are even worse ones – emphasis on how good you look! These types are quite funny because it is one of the eye-front evidence. People can see how good you look – lol! Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and so this one is totally different. There is no point in boasting on this because people feel and think different. And people who find you good looking will keep finding it no matter you keep saying it or not. If they don’t, you can’t just change it too.
Some of the typical statements that I have come across which would like to highlight are
- you know how much I earn? … (are they ready to share it?)
- you know my project will not work/run without me… that is a FOOL (who doesn’t realise the things around...Ha-ha)
- you know I am a …(caste/origin) and my family is …(come on…who cares these days?)
- you know I own a multimillion ….(house/car/holiday home/ lan/jewellery…can be any strange thing in this world)…(so….?)
- you know I have been to ….(places) all these places…lovely holidays…(is that a recommendation to visit those places?)
- you know my friends are all ….(who’s who)…(why should I bother?)
- you know I am a great …(singer, dancer, painter, player …flirt…and what not) and won several prizes…(really???...haha)
- you know I have been educated in …(best schools in Universe)…(Ooooo…somehow it doesn’t show!)
This list is just unbounded. I am not saying mentioning about your holidays or your family is just gasconading. I am sure any human being would have been through situations like this and will be smart enough to figure out what I am trying to express here. It is just how you put it and something on the lines of attitude.
I am not trying to say I am the Ms Perfect and Ms Ideal out here. I must have also done my bits of boasting in life which might have well annoyed people. But since when I realised this is something which can really put people OFF I have not done any deliberate efforts to become a braggart! I am sure I will watch myself as far as I can on. If you can’t just take it yourself, how can others?
Now, it is about certain dislikes or aversions I am getting stuck to in a very hard way. The main one on this is on Braggadocio – the word is new to me. But it is all about boasting and the big talks. I just cannot stand it these days and get awfully annoyed by braggarts. It is a perfect abhorrence for me. I have realised that I have started reacting to those of this kind – whether it is genuine or fake. Being a sort of person who is relatively slower in reacting to repugnance and with a relatively higher reaction time I am sure if I am experiencing expeditious reactions with such occasions it is just not me. In simple terms boasting can be of in any form, in all walks of life, anywhere and anything for one to do
For example,
Some people desperately try hard to prove who they are and how good they are. Good on what? Anything! Usual ones being on their brains, academics, jobs, speaking skills, artistic talents, and what not! Even on their swearing skills!!!– If one is good, do they really have to try hard to prove? On a personal perspective I feel if someone is trying to boast on somethingt – true or fake; it is simply because they have an inferiority complex on it, or they just doubt if they are accepted in that way – that is simply lack of confidence.
Some others try to boast on their social set up – Who I am? Where am I from? Who is who? And who are my people – friends, family, colleagues, even their Exs. I pity these types. It is very much true that you should be proud of who you are and on your whereabouts. But it is an absolute ridicule when they go around and exercise hard to prove that.
Another type is on the asset which is now on the material aspects. What have I got? Acres of land, Unlimited account balance, Lamborghini, luxury homes and what not? People here even try hard to prove how great they are by saying their post codes just because it shows how posh the place of your living is! How strange!!!
There are even worse ones – emphasis on how good you look! These types are quite funny because it is one of the eye-front evidence. People can see how good you look – lol! Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and so this one is totally different. There is no point in boasting on this because people feel and think different. And people who find you good looking will keep finding it no matter you keep saying it or not. If they don’t, you can’t just change it too.
Some of the typical statements that I have come across which would like to highlight are
- you know how much I earn? … (are they ready to share it?)
- you know my project will not work/run without me… that is a FOOL (who doesn’t realise the things around...Ha-ha)
- you know I am a …(caste/origin) and my family is …(come on…who cares these days?)
- you know I own a multimillion ….(house/car/holiday home/ lan/jewellery…can be any strange thing in this world)…(so….?)
- you know I have been to ….(places) all these places…lovely holidays…(is that a recommendation to visit those places?)
- you know my friends are all ….(who’s who)…(why should I bother?)
- you know I am a great …(singer, dancer, painter, player …flirt…and what not) and won several prizes…(really???...haha)
- you know I have been educated in …(best schools in Universe)…(Ooooo…somehow it doesn’t show!)
This list is just unbounded. I am not saying mentioning about your holidays or your family is just gasconading. I am sure any human being would have been through situations like this and will be smart enough to figure out what I am trying to express here. It is just how you put it and something on the lines of attitude.
I am not trying to say I am the Ms Perfect and Ms Ideal out here. I must have also done my bits of boasting in life which might have well annoyed people. But since when I realised this is something which can really put people OFF I have not done any deliberate efforts to become a braggart! I am sure I will watch myself as far as I can on. If you can’t just take it yourself, how can others?
Monday, 1 December 2008
Unadulterated Carnage – Where is it going?
Wednesday night when I was catching up on some of the old Koffee with Karan episodes in Youtube, there was a loud wail from SreeRaj – ‘Look at this – Its in Bombay’. It was on the terrorist attacks in TV – the massacre! And Ommy God – it was unbelievable on the first sight. Bullet Sprays! Grenades! Hostages! And what not – Unadulterated Carnage. We watched the live telecast in Sky news for hours and it was heart breaking.
Next day morning in train I got the metro and there was this huge media hype – inferences and interpretations – One of them said the gunmen were typically focusing the Britons/Americans and asking for their passports for verification! And one of the victims told a fellow victim to say he was an Italian if asked – What difference does it make to the gun points? Did they really target foreigners? Then, they could have manipulated something of the same in a foreign country! When you see the plight of innocent inhabitants in the city from here what more can you do rather than worry on the same. I had checked and made sure my friend who has recently settled in Mumbai and her folks are fine. Thank God – though the incident happened near her Bro’s office they were all luckily saved. And she was mentioning that it was a nightmare and everyone is scared to get out of home even now. The recent forecast says 119 dead!!! And rest of the recent news came upon on the Google search, in fact the initial search results are ‘Mumbai Terror Attacks Hit India Tourism at Start of Peak Season’ and ‘Cricket's future in Asia in jeopardy due to terrorist attacks’. Media covers more on the business aspects and in a bigger picture. Now, how long does it take for the city and its inhabitants to come back to normal life? (Typed up until this on 28th, Friday)
The whole milieu around us creates the effect of the Mumbai devastation - an aura of disasters and nightmares. You get to hear about the incident from everywhere – you call back home, friends on phone, e-mails and even someone new you meet in an Asian shop. My colleague was talking about it this morning. Yesterday when we stopped at Spice Lanka for some South-Indian food stuff, we happened to meet a guy who works with the Cleveland Police – and he was saying that he is totally disturbed with the Mumbai attacks and is sticking to VandeMatharam. We realised the effect is not just there – its all over the world! No matter if you are a Mumbai resident or not! However, the death toll has gone up to 200. Thank God, things are almost settled now and it is repairs time now there for people and place.
Mumbai is one of the places which I have always fancied (for a visit/holiday; somehow not to live). I am definitely going to stop over there on my next visit to India – probably April/August. Seems like a long wait for that though.
Well, here is the start of another week. Ooooo….December!!! And 2008 is going to see its end! Should have to think and analyse my year 2008. May be in another piece of writing by the end of this year. Start of December doesn’t seem very favourable for me. My train was delayed for 25 minutes in the morning. It was snowing in the morning and it was absolutely freezing. As the train was late I got into another train; unfortunately it was one of those cross country ones and I didn’t think much. As I purchase advance tickets from Transpennine the Cross Country Company didn’t accept my ticket. The conductor was quite rude and made me buy another one for which my young person’s discount was not accounted. This was when the train was jam packed; he could have easily accepted (I had a ticket though – I wasn’t travelling for free). However, adding on my frustration in the morning the guy who sat next quite annoyed me with his attitude. This is the last thing you want to happen on a snowy Monday morning.
Next day morning in train I got the metro and there was this huge media hype – inferences and interpretations – One of them said the gunmen were typically focusing the Britons/Americans and asking for their passports for verification! And one of the victims told a fellow victim to say he was an Italian if asked – What difference does it make to the gun points? Did they really target foreigners? Then, they could have manipulated something of the same in a foreign country! When you see the plight of innocent inhabitants in the city from here what more can you do rather than worry on the same. I had checked and made sure my friend who has recently settled in Mumbai and her folks are fine. Thank God – though the incident happened near her Bro’s office they were all luckily saved. And she was mentioning that it was a nightmare and everyone is scared to get out of home even now. The recent forecast says 119 dead!!! And rest of the recent news came upon on the Google search, in fact the initial search results are ‘Mumbai Terror Attacks Hit India Tourism at Start of Peak Season’ and ‘Cricket's future in Asia in jeopardy due to terrorist attacks’. Media covers more on the business aspects and in a bigger picture. Now, how long does it take for the city and its inhabitants to come back to normal life? (Typed up until this on 28th, Friday)
The whole milieu around us creates the effect of the Mumbai devastation - an aura of disasters and nightmares. You get to hear about the incident from everywhere – you call back home, friends on phone, e-mails and even someone new you meet in an Asian shop. My colleague was talking about it this morning. Yesterday when we stopped at Spice Lanka for some South-Indian food stuff, we happened to meet a guy who works with the Cleveland Police – and he was saying that he is totally disturbed with the Mumbai attacks and is sticking to VandeMatharam. We realised the effect is not just there – its all over the world! No matter if you are a Mumbai resident or not! However, the death toll has gone up to 200. Thank God, things are almost settled now and it is repairs time now there for people and place.
Mumbai is one of the places which I have always fancied (for a visit/holiday; somehow not to live). I am definitely going to stop over there on my next visit to India – probably April/August. Seems like a long wait for that though.
Well, here is the start of another week. Ooooo….December!!! And 2008 is going to see its end! Should have to think and analyse my year 2008. May be in another piece of writing by the end of this year. Start of December doesn’t seem very favourable for me. My train was delayed for 25 minutes in the morning. It was snowing in the morning and it was absolutely freezing. As the train was late I got into another train; unfortunately it was one of those cross country ones and I didn’t think much. As I purchase advance tickets from Transpennine the Cross Country Company didn’t accept my ticket. The conductor was quite rude and made me buy another one for which my young person’s discount was not accounted. This was when the train was jam packed; he could have easily accepted (I had a ticket though – I wasn’t travelling for free). However, adding on my frustration in the morning the guy who sat next quite annoyed me with his attitude. This is the last thing you want to happen on a snowy Monday morning.
Friday, 21 November 2008
The new Tier Systems
Well, this week was one of the most confused and indecisive ones. SreeRaj is on a permanent job with an employer’s work permit for the skilled worker. And the leave to remain (called visa) expires on the 31st of December 2008. Our thoughts a couple of years back were to move from UK by the end of this year. But now, we have changed our minds and are likely to be here. So, another couple of year’s extension for this work permit can give us indefinite leave to remain in UK otherwise called Permanent residence (PR- which is different to citizenship). His employer is more than happy to give this extension. As this consultancy group shifted its main base from Netherlands to England, HR department experienced some problems with paper works and they couldn’t apply for the extension earlier (as always!!! I expected this as I had the first hand HR experience –and there is no point in winging or blaming anyone for HR specific paper works).
Meanwhile UK Border Agency has changed the Immigration system to Tier 1, 2, and 5. All the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) people should now be applying through the Tier 1 system whether it is a new application or an extension. A point based system with some bits of difference from the old rules. This one went active on June 2008. One of the striking points of this is on the maintenance funds- the candidate who is applying for Tier 1 should be having at least £800 in his/her bank account EVERYDAY(each single day) for the last 3 months from the time of application. This must have been an unexpected one for quite a few I suppose. And we heard a friend of ours got his application rejected because his account balance was less than £800 for one day in the last 3 months when he made the application; and had to leave UK. And if you have dependants with you, then you should have a maintenance fund of £533 for each dependant; again EVERYDAY for the last three months. Oops– A guy with a wife and 3 children (if above 18) should have £2932!!! Detailed and more information can be obtained from UK Border Agency website. I appreciate the UK Border Agency website as it gives clear cut information including the point’s calculator to check if you qualify for Tier 1 (former HSMP) even if you are from outside of UK.
However, our case falls under the Tier 2 system which is now a new piece of software where the employers can issue a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) , a unique number to the skilled worker they wish to keep with them. For this the employer needs to obtain sponsorship license from the UK Border Agency. This makes it extremely difficult for new work permit applications; in fact the UK Border Agency says 200,000 fewer jobs in UK for overseas candidates, with a point’s calculator again. All this is clear and SreeRajs’ employer who has the sponsorship license is all set to go, and we would (hopefully) not have a problem as this is an extension for the existing work permit; also the points based system seems quite favourable for us. To make a new Tier 2 application the employer will have to prove (with solid evidence) to the UK Border Agency that despite numerous efforts to recruit a EU person to the same skilled job (mainly engineering jobs and certain specialist skills), they couldn’t get anyone. And that is the reason they are offering to a non-EU person and hence need a Tier 2 for him/her (no wonder 200,000 fewer jobs!). This online system was expected to go live months back, but unfortunately it didn’t! Now, this is expected to go-live on 27th November midnight. And by 28th November it is expected that SreeRaj will get the CoS, again it is a Friday and may not be very easy to catch hold of people. So, may be on Monday, 1st Dec 2008. But that leaves us only less than a month of leave to remain in UK to make the visa application.
This morning I rang up the UK Border Agency Work Permits Customer Contact Centre in Sheffield to check if this can be an issue; and they confirmed that as long as you have leave to remain in UK this shouldn’t be a problem. But being a sort of person who worries too much, I explained the whole situation to them including our indecisive situation. I was directed to the UK Immigration Services for further clarification which is a 087...number and I got through after half an hour of waiting time. Spoke to one of the Immigration Services Consultant who assured that as long as you have leave to remain in UK you can submit your application and it should be processed normally. And, confirmed that your application will not be rejected on the grounds that you have less than a month to remain in UK. So, that’s how things are at the moment.
However, need to check more on the Tier 1 system regarding the time frame you need to make the visa application. As both of us qualify for the Tier 1 application, in case if the Tier 2 doesn’t work (I am being on the extreme here I know) can go through the Tier 1 system. There had been a lot of thinking and discussions happening over this last week.
Meanwhile UK Border Agency has changed the Immigration system to Tier 1, 2, and 5. All the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) people should now be applying through the Tier 1 system whether it is a new application or an extension. A point based system with some bits of difference from the old rules. This one went active on June 2008. One of the striking points of this is on the maintenance funds- the candidate who is applying for Tier 1 should be having at least £800 in his/her bank account EVERYDAY(each single day) for the last 3 months from the time of application. This must have been an unexpected one for quite a few I suppose. And we heard a friend of ours got his application rejected because his account balance was less than £800 for one day in the last 3 months when he made the application; and had to leave UK. And if you have dependants with you, then you should have a maintenance fund of £533 for each dependant; again EVERYDAY for the last three months. Oops– A guy with a wife and 3 children (if above 18) should have £2932!!! Detailed and more information can be obtained from UK Border Agency website. I appreciate the UK Border Agency website as it gives clear cut information including the point’s calculator to check if you qualify for Tier 1 (former HSMP) even if you are from outside of UK.
However, our case falls under the Tier 2 system which is now a new piece of software where the employers can issue a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) , a unique number to the skilled worker they wish to keep with them. For this the employer needs to obtain sponsorship license from the UK Border Agency. This makes it extremely difficult for new work permit applications; in fact the UK Border Agency says 200,000 fewer jobs in UK for overseas candidates, with a point’s calculator again. All this is clear and SreeRajs’ employer who has the sponsorship license is all set to go, and we would (hopefully) not have a problem as this is an extension for the existing work permit; also the points based system seems quite favourable for us. To make a new Tier 2 application the employer will have to prove (with solid evidence) to the UK Border Agency that despite numerous efforts to recruit a EU person to the same skilled job (mainly engineering jobs and certain specialist skills), they couldn’t get anyone. And that is the reason they are offering to a non-EU person and hence need a Tier 2 for him/her (no wonder 200,000 fewer jobs!). This online system was expected to go live months back, but unfortunately it didn’t! Now, this is expected to go-live on 27th November midnight. And by 28th November it is expected that SreeRaj will get the CoS, again it is a Friday and may not be very easy to catch hold of people. So, may be on Monday, 1st Dec 2008. But that leaves us only less than a month of leave to remain in UK to make the visa application.
This morning I rang up the UK Border Agency Work Permits Customer Contact Centre in Sheffield to check if this can be an issue; and they confirmed that as long as you have leave to remain in UK this shouldn’t be a problem. But being a sort of person who worries too much, I explained the whole situation to them including our indecisive situation. I was directed to the UK Immigration Services for further clarification which is a 087...number and I got through after half an hour of waiting time. Spoke to one of the Immigration Services Consultant who assured that as long as you have leave to remain in UK you can submit your application and it should be processed normally. And, confirmed that your application will not be rejected on the grounds that you have less than a month to remain in UK. So, that’s how things are at the moment.
However, need to check more on the Tier 1 system regarding the time frame you need to make the visa application. As both of us qualify for the Tier 1 application, in case if the Tier 2 doesn’t work (I am being on the extreme here I know) can go through the Tier 1 system. There had been a lot of thinking and discussions happening over this last week.
Disclaimer: The information presented in this blog are strictly personal opinions and is not a source of any legal information; so no one has the right to use this as any source of proof. Again, these are my personal opinions and hence no one can use this against me in a court of law or in any other way. Thanks.
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