Happy Holidays and Happy New Year

For those of you checking this blog on the new year's eve, Wish you & your folks a very happy and fulfulling new year. A year is just 365 days, 24 hours - Enjoy every moment of it..

As usual, we have a 10 days winter break. Last 2 years we did not go anywhere and this time. We did not want to break the tradition this time. It's just another 2 more days to go and we have spent all the time at Seattle itself. Except few outings to the local stores and downtown, we are pretty much at home. This holidays was different from last one, my daughter is here to play with this time!. We've had a wonderful family time coupled with meeting my local friends who came over to spend some time with us. Known for my sudden and unplanned trips, few friends called to enquire if we are still at Seattle. My daughter has added few more activities to her list. She now knows where her tongue, head and nose are!. In all, it's been a wonderful relaxing holiday - looking forward to get back to work soon and head out to another holiday break (shh....suspense, you will know shortly)

Over the holidays, few more things accomplished: Sorted some of the paper work and getting rid of old / wanted papers(still in work).

How's your "happy holidays" going?

Music director Pairs of Indian Cinema

I was watching an old kannada movie Kittu-Puttu and the songs were simply superb and I looked up who the music director was. It was the famous Rajan-Nagendra who composed those melodious numbers. For those who are not familiar to Kannada cinema, Rajan-Nagendra is not one person, they are in fact 2 people and they are brothers!. It is quite common in Indian cinema to find such a 2 person team in the music director seat. I am not sure how many such duos exist(ed) in kannada movies but there are a lot in the hindi movies. Just to name a few: Laxmikant-pyrelal, kalyanji-Anandji, Jatin-Lalit, etc. There might be few more additions to the list, I have not kept myself updated on the latest entrants...

Following link provides more information on Rajan-Nagendra. In the earlier days, radio was only popular electronic media and hearing movie songs was one of the favorites for many people. Just before a song is played, they would announce names of the lyricist, music director and the play back singers. Some of the melodious songs were repeated for a long period. Probably, this repeated mention made the music directors get mileage and made them popular. Current day vibrant FM stations are more interactive, play songs on request but do not always provide the information about the people who created that music. However, the good music directors are still in great demand. As melodious numbers are key to any indian movie's success, the popular music directors are in great demand. Their names are now prominently printed on the movie posters and gain significant attention in the premieres, and pre / post release press conferences.

More to come: Indian movie related posts...

My days as a production engineer

One of my posts regarding the early morning commute to work brought back the memories of the days when I was the production engineer

Here are the things I liked with that company;
a)One uniform dress code for all employees including the CEO
b)Once a year allowance to buy new uniform(with free dress material), new pair of shoes, nope no receipt required
c)Daily stand up meetings the managers had with their supervisors discussing the production, rejection and other matters. Display boards in each production area offering production and rejection rates. CEO, in his early morning walk around the plant would stop occasionally at such boards and ask the nearest engineer or manager to explain the numbers!. Managers spent significant time in reporting such metrics and preparing for any surprise questions.
d)Excellent food & snacks at rock bottom prices - Just Rs.1 per day (It is approx. 2 cents (USD) in the present conversion rate!) which included unlimited breakfast, lunch, coffee / tea./snacks during the two breaks. During summer, fresh fruit juices were an additional choice during the break period
e)Yearly gift to the employees – Usually a household item like designer cutlery, refrigerator, etc. The management and the employees chose the gift jointly and this was well appreciated.
f)Drop by car option for managers and engineers during the night shift, provided to those whose homes were far away from the bus stop and for those who missed the bus due to some pressing work.
g)A well-organized family day visit to the manufacturing premises during the Ayudha Pooja day. Welcome package included a full breakfast, sweet box for all the visitors

Some or all of the above might sound ordinary compared to the current scenario where some IT companies take good care of its employees. The point to note is the willingness of such manufacturing companies to provide these things in spite of relatively low profit margins