Nanopolitan for Best Topical IndiBlog
Mridula for Best Travel Blog
Varnam and Falstaff for Indiblog of the year
Indian Writing for Best Entertainment Indiblog
Shoefiend for Best Humanities Indiblog

The blogosphere moves so fast, there are so many blogs nominated that I haven’t yet visited. This should serve as a great surfing list when time permits.

Here is my view of Generation Y. They are just like all the generations that went before, only they have got smoother skin and less experience and spend more time on Myspace. As employees they want the same things as everyone else: a good salary, interesting work and recognition. Any company that makes clear it is offering those things may find some genuine talent - young and not so young - comes knocking at its door.

I bet its not as simple as that. What DO we really look for in our jobs?

This blog turned out to be a much better experience than I could ever have imagined, mainly because of the many unexpected visitors and commentors I had. I appreciate it, thank you.

Some of you emailed me and we continued our conversations beyond the comments on this blog. Drop me an email, if ever you feel like. I think I would really like that.

Some of my long lost friends found me again after they stumbled upon my blog. Lets not get long lost again.

As I realise and accept once again that change is the only thing that is constant in life - the silence of silent eloquence will just be yet another change.

Auf wiedersehen..and I pray our paths will cross again.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

Shakespeare (Hamlet’s Soliloquy)

Update: And the answer is..Not to be.

“ If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number”.

393 bombs exploded in 63 districts out of 64 districts of Bangladesh.

Is it just me or doesn’t this sound like important news to anyone else?

Update

The Acorn writes on the Bangladesh bombings and their possible motives.

The terrorists who set off explosions all over Bangladesh warned the American president and the British prime minister to get out of Muslim countries, asserting that ‘their days of ruling over Muslim countries are over’. The terrorists think that setting of explosions in an already impoverished Muslim country, terrorising innocent people, a majority of who are Muslims anyway, will strike fear in the hearts of the United States and Britain.

Given the news interest that it generated, I would say, ‘What were they thinking!?!”

BTW, Bavaria is wonderful - I finally felt like I was in Germany. Everything I had imagined about Deustchland before I got here - fairy tale castles, lofty mountains and green valleys, little white and yellow alpine flowers, men in Lederhosen and women in huge white skirts and even remnants of the horrible concentration camps - southern Germany has all that and more. Munich definitely has a flavour of its own. Since my mind often refuses to work too hard in the summer sunshine and tends to wander into lands faraway, I will make use of this time of the year to catch up on all the travelogues I had promised myself I would write.

While we are on seasons, the fall collections are out in the shops. I was passing by Koeningsalle, which is THE fashion street of Germany - and saw a lovely lovely lovely Oscar De La Renta piece. Of all the seasons, I love fall the most when it comes to fashion. It always has the classiest, most beautiful and sophisticated designs among all the seasons. If you love oggling at beautiful clothes, check out this link here

As someone who used to think working 12 hours a day and then some more on the weekends was pretty normal, I can easily say the one thing that took me the longest to adjust to here was the “work/life balance”. I am a total subscriber to it now, but the passage wasn’t easy and there is still the odd day or two when I send email after email after phone call asking the same question, emphasising the urgency of the situation - until I pester someone into responding. I could not agree more with Andrew Hammel’s advice, which applies not just to Americans moving to Europe, but pretty much anyone not used to working less than 40 hours a week:

I don’t want to quote the whole thing, but heres a brief. But do scoot over to get the real thing.

* Don’t brag to other people about how hard you work. [..]
* Learn your environment. [..]
* Change your standards. [..]

[..]enjoy your free time! [..] spend lots of time with their friends and family, they pursue hobbies much more complex than catching up on all the episodes of Sex & the City, they visit museums, read complex books, drink a whole lot, go to parties, fairs, and circuses, and take lots of vacations.

And I have discovered a wonderful blog - a fellow Duesseldorfer too - boy! its made my day!