What they dont teach @ IIMs : How to survive @ Amrita

Hi, a lot of students and other random people ask me about my days at Amrita. I had just one word to say "AWESOME".
They would give me a puzzled look and tell me you are the only person whom i met gave me an answer like that.
I told them because i knew how to survive in Amrita with an awesome set of friends :)
Then they asked me about the tips for the survival.
so i gave them these :

1. United we stand divide we fall

Well to give an explanation on this. Let me tell u a story.
Year 2004, my 1st yr of college life. There was strike in the college hostel where we decided to stay away from mess food for one whole day since our hostel was denied the 5 o'clock snacks while every other hostel got them without fail.
Everyone including those stingy ones who never used to visit the canteens, hit the canteens on the day and decided to shell out some extra bucks to have food from canteen or the dhaba outside. The warden tried shouting on the mike asking us to come
and have the mess food which obviously sucked big time. Everyone gave deaf ears to his voice. We wanted the mess in charge to come and find a solid solution to this issue. And there he was, the dark and short, bald headed goonda looking guy
who was the mess in charge of all hostels in front of us asking us to have the food which was served. He tried to pull out a few tamil guys and later northie guys by speaking in their mother tounge hoping that he would be able to use the divide and rule policy. But we stood together like those strong crowd you see in front of a tasmac in TN or beverages corp in Kerala. And the result we won. Hot cutlets with tomoato sauce was served to all at sharp 5 pm.

the take aways from the story :
- U learned that united we stand and divide we fall
- Conduct strikes so that atleast once a while u get good food
- U get to know more batchmates since u fight for a single cause
- Improve Leadership and Negotiation skills (Essential Management Skills)
- Plan out team strategies (Teamwork skills)
- Make the stingy ones get to see the canteen menu
- And moreover have fun while conducting strikes.Fun level increases if there is a fight also involved :)

2. If no homepass, then have fun inside.

The main reason a student goes home for the weekend is to have home food and get his clothes washed. Sorry parents i had to admit it. If you are denied gatepass never mind, have fun inside. washing clothes - we used to have this game of washing clothes with all friends coming together with their tees,shorts,
shirts,and other stuff, u know ;) And we used to sing songs together,crack jokes, discuss about chicks, share movie updates, and have water balloon fight (don't have a bad feeling that u are wasting water, anyway the water coming through the taps
are recycled treated ones, so basically the water cycle takes care of it :)
and also you get to bathe those stinking water allergic guys who takes bath only on their birthdays or special holidays.
To make full use of the last point u can throw the excess water after washing on these people so that they get washed with the detergent and such soapy substance.

Home food - Here though the options are less, you can always visit a dayscholar friend's house and grab some treat from him, even that is home food. Make sure you dont visit the same friend more than once so that you dont lose your respect.
Then i would highly recommend you to get cup noodles or such fast food so that you wont remain hungry late nights. Also if you are good at smuggling, get a kettle or small toaster stuff into the hostel it may help in future also
since girls of today do not know how to cook. ;)

the take aways :
- We get to learn to wash clothes
- actually get your clothes washed
- make more friends in hostel during the water fights
- be updated about latest college news and gossips
- wash up the stinking batchmates
- make friendship with day scholars
- learn the value of mamma's food
- learn some cooking
- have double amount of fun :)

3. No study leave for exams - finish it off in one go!

I used to complain initailly that i was not able to perform well in the periodical tests or semester exams since there was no study holidays like the students of other colleges had. But i stopped complaining once, when the college gave us study
holidays for few days before the test and i scored even worse for those exams!! Later i realised its better to finish off these exams in one go rather than wait for the deadly days to get over. We also get to do some good time management. All the crazy creative ideas pop up during the exam preparation time.
And i bet my friends would agree the drama scripts for which we started planning during the exam time was the major hit with beautiful ideas coming up from all corners of the mind since everyone's brains worked well and fast in the short
time period :) And moreover we get more days in the form of sem holz to spent time travelling or have fun with friends.

the take aways :
- learn time-management (again management skills!)
- teamwork in the form of group study
- better prepared since mind is fresh
- high creativity during exam time (very important)
- short visits to library and xerox shops is made ensuring we know that it exists in campus
- More time in the form of semester vacation
- have triple amount of fun :)

4. Having teachers in class who are really dumb but trying to act smart? Well, Teach them a lesson!

Time for another story. Year 2006, 3rd year, i do not remember the subject or the teacher (*to avoid furthur casualities*).
There she came into the class sharp on time after the 1st hour was completed. Asked everyone to open notebooks and take down notes. Few guys start towards the door to go out and drink some water and also empty the bladder.
She shouts and asks everyone to return to their seats. The guys (almost all) pleads ma'am for a 2 min break after a boring 1st hour class. She shouts again and asks everyone to settle down in their seats.
"Acting so smart? We'll teach you a lesson ma'am" the backbenchers decided.
She opened her book with notes and the prescribed text book and started her usual class with by hearted lines from the notes. Normally after 20 mins of the class she usually gives a 2 min break so that she can go through her next set of notes and
get ready to vomit the remaining by hearted lines. And 20 mins was done. she told us that we can take a break now. "NO maam we don't want a break, U continue with the class" the back benchers shouted in union. She was shocked!She once again told, "You guys can take a break now, its ok". This time the whole class joined in
"NO maam we don't want a break, U complete the session".She didnt know what to do and tried to tell something but no words were coming out of her mouth ,and the guys laughed seeing her fumble like this.
Finally she said "YOU HAVE TO TAKE A BREAK!!!" and without waiting for a reply she took her note book and moved to the corner of the class and started reading without minding if we are in class or moving out of class.
She has never denied us a break whenever we asked for ever since that incident! The rest as they say is history.

the take aways :
- stand on what you feel is right
- Each teacher is different, learn to manage them (self taught HR management)
- Never attack a teacher alone, u may lose your internal marks (refer point one: united we stand divide we fall)
- be strong on your basic concepts, most teachers are bad at it. (there are teachers who belive that,in a computer only 1
process run at a time)
- Have fun.This is the most funniest thing to do in a classroom.


5. No jeans allowed? Go traditional.

Jeans the best clothing material invented by some guys from the wild west has this ability to withstand almost anything. Even if it gets torn or wrinkled or faded, the fashion quotient increases. So it was preferred by all guys and many girls
during the college days since it need not be washed so often, can be treated roughly, take on pressure from birthday bumps from friends and a lot more other reasons. But our college considered it to be a taboo if we were wearing jeans inside
the campus.And moreover a lot of administrators and other pricks who held high posts in the college felt jealous since they couldn't wear it during their college days and hence found the pleasure in blasting anyone who they found wearing jeans.
Ya i too was a victim when one such prick caught me wearing jeans on a holiday and roaming around in campus. Thanks to global warming wearing jeans doesnt make me feel that good other than when im travelling. So the best way to avoid being the target of these blasting and instead getting praised is to wear the brick colored dhothi/mundu which the so called yogis seemed to be obsessed of. And the advantages are many not just for the people who wear them but also for
the onlookers.

Advantages :
- Earn respect
- Feel extremely comfortable (even Amitabh Bacchan praised mundu for giving an air conditioning effect)
- And since global warming is on the rise, to protect our future generations (i hope i dont have to explain in detail!!)
mundu keeps it cool!!
- Can be used as blanket at night
- Can be shared with buddies since it has no particular size variation
- Give the female onlookers a chill by showing off some hairy calves.
- Quoting the article Legendary Lungi by anonymous : " It also has recreational uses like in 'Lungi/mundu pulling',
a pastime in households having more than one male member. Lungi pulling competitions are held outside toddyshops all over Kerala during Onam and Vishu. When these lungis are decommissioned from service, they become table cloths.
Thus the humble lungi is a cradle to grave appendage."

6. Talking to girls is banned? And no mobiles allowed? Get back to 70's style

There was a time without existence of mobile phones. If you can live playing with toys, you should be able to live without the toys too. Ask your parents about their college days. I dont think they would have had a great time flirting
with girls or boys like our times. And phones (forget mobile) were quite rare during those days. They all used to share their chatting/ flirting through hand written letters and eye contacts when their paths crossed (Check out the 'Kangal Irandal'
song of Tamil movie 'Subramaniyapuram'). Make use of those techniques so that you get to know how stupid the other person is ;) and may be it will help to improve your handwriting and english too. Also it may discover a poet or story
writer in you.Ahem.. Yes.. its true :)

the take aways :
- Rediscover the retro style
- Be a little more romantic
- Get to know a person better
- Improve english writing skill (seriously helps you!!)
- Find a writer in you.

Finally you feel you are in a jail? Trust me guys, you've learned to survive in the world outside the college.
Everyone including me felt that we were in a jail, maybe a jail with the most beautiful surroundings.
Yes its true, but guess what, by the time you are out of your college, you would have experienced so much pressure,been with
people with no logical mind or forward thoughts, fed with tasteless food, suffered to organize an event such that you will
will learn to survive in today's world of rat race. Best of LUCK!!


Authored By
Kannan Kodoth

Kerala Cafe - Movie Review

Probably inspired from the 'Dus Kahaniyan' in Hindi but better executed, Kerala cafe is a set of 10 short films set in different backgrounds.

The movies:

Nostalgia :
A movie about an NRI who goes into nostalgic mood when he hears an old song sitting in his apartment but starts complaining about everything from the moment he lands in his hometown. This story represents every upper middle class Indian who is settled outside the country, who is in a hurry to make money, who sends his/her children to the boarding in an International school, who wants to get his parents moved to a old age home so that he can turn his old house in the village to a resort. Meaningful. But too many dialogues.

Island Express :
A tribute to the ones who lost their life in a train accident in Kollam. The dear ones of the people who died come together on that same day at the river side to pay tribute. Makes one realize about how fast time heals but still we hold the memories of the loved ones whom we lost in the journey of our life.

Lalitham Hiranmayam :
From the director of action movies, one is surprised to see a different take from him. The story speaks about betrayal.Emotions of the actors was the only plus point. The story seemed inspired from the malayalam serials of today.

Mritunjayam :
A short horror flick with interesting plot and fine acting. The audience in left to think about 'what actually could have happened in the end?'. Movie is about a daring attempt by a journalist to stay overnight in a spooky home to make a documentary on it.The movie itself was a daring attempt!!

Aviramam :
This one is about how the recession affected an MD of a IT firm. It tells us success is not permanent, you can lose everything with a single full stop, but a winner is one who takes failure as a stepping stone. Though quite predictable, it shows
you to be humble when you win and accept when you lose.

Makal :
With most of its dialogues in tamil this movie is an eye opener to the people who believe India is shining. It shows the intensity of relationship between a mother and a child, a brother and a sister. Tells us that poverty is the root cause for all the problems in the country. Could have been better.

Happy Journey :
This journey was interesting and engaging. It shows about the problem faced by a female traveller during a evening bus journey and how she overcomes it.
A middle-aged man sitting next to her intrudes into her privacy with his camera mobile and tries to flirt with the young lady with nonsense talk. But there is a turn of events happening here leading to a intelligent climax which stuns both the viewer and the man sitting next to her.


OffSeason:
can be well described as 'Millionaire Slumdog'. We consider every foreign tourist we see to be millionaires. But in reality some turn out out to be the poorest in their countries. Shot in the beautiful location of Kovalam beach, this one was a feel good movie with the climax having a diffrent style of rendering the evergreen song 'Manasa maine varoo' of 'Chemmeen'.

Bridge:
My favorite of the lot. This has all that we expect from a short film. The cinematography, the dialogues, the acting, the direction and the climax. Two stories combine to give a common climax. Watch it even if you have to buy the original dvd.
You'll never regret it. For aspiring short film-makers this one is the best reference i say.

Puramkazchakal:
This one also qualifies as a clear winner with beautiful visuals and a script with a surprise element. Though the viewer finds a little difficulty in connecting a flashback being shown in the beginning and the climax which has almost no relation to it, the surprise element makes you feel you have to rewind and watch it again
to feel what the character in the movie went through. I would say it leaves a message like,"Never judge a person on meeting him for 1st time, You have no idea what the other person is going though."

Overall, it was a refreshing change in malayalam cinema due to the effort of 10 creative directors and the man who brought them together. Thanks for the movie Ranjith & friends.

Doordarshan golden days

"Alif laila alif laila alif laiaiaila".. I wish i could sing the tune over here. This is one of the lines which comes to my mind when i think of the old Doordarshan days.Even though the only knowledge in hindi was through the school textbooks and hindi movies and songs, everybody in the family would be in front of the idiot box for the few hours when there was something to watch. We used to love watching the ads too. I still remember that we kids used to stare at the rainbow colored screen saver kind of screen hoping that it would change any minute.

The serials Ramayan, Mahabharat and later on Jai Hanuman, Om namah shivaya, Sree Krishna were watched by everybody crossing all religious barriers.
The sundays which screened ramayan and mahabharat used to leave the streets empty as whole family used to be in front of the tv.Also the arabian tales of 'alif laila' which was screened in the night was eagerly waited as the family members used to finish off their dinner as early as possible.While Serials such as Chanakya, Tipu sulthan showed the brilliance and valor of historical figures, those like vikram-bethal,alif laila,chandrakanta,malgudi days entertained us. My dad's favorite used to be 'Wagale ki Duniya' which showed the life style of a middle class family. We kids used to get up early on weekends to watch Mowgli, He-Man and Disney cartoons and Duck tales. I also remember watching this english serial named 'Street Hawk' with a cop on a ultra speed motorcycle with a cool background music. That bike was like the dream bike for all students during those days.

Being a fan of good ads i would still rate old vintage ads something which created a bond between the customer and the product.
Nirma('Wahsing powder Nirma..'),Liril('with a bikini clad lady ;)'),Santoor soap,Nerolac paints(i loved the music so much!!),Parle G,Amul Doodh,Vicks action 500,Fevikwik,Lijjat pappad, Ajanta clocks,Vicco vajradhanti,Cinthol soap,Vimal suitings,Fevicol('Zor laga ke'),Colgate,Surf,Complan,Goldspot,Lifebuoy('Lifebouy hain jahan thandurusthi hai wahan'),Cadburys('Kuch Khas hain hum sabhi mein'),Bajaj ('Hamara Bajaj'),Titan (oh i just love the music!!),Rasna ('I love you Rasna'),Pepsi('yehi hai right choice baby' campaign) i could just go on. These ads brought us close to the products. Then there used to be this small ads and cartoons which spread social messages like 'consider both girl and boy child as equal', 'send kids to school', 'give polio injection to new born', 'Do not spread rumours' etc.Mostly these were presented in the cartoon form or as small ads with beautiful music.Then the songs 'Mile sur mera tumhara', 'Vande Matharam' which used to be aired in Doordarshan during early 90's were a phenomenon.

Another programme which glued every family member to the screen was Rangoli and Chitrahar. The presentation of these programmes used to be so different every time that it never got bored even when the songs were not being played.Unlike nowadays a lot of people used to watch informative programs such as 'Surabhi', 'Turning Point','Sports Talk','Krishi Darshan' ,'Bharat Ek Khoj' and even the DD News which had crisp and 'to the point' information presented with elegence. Even though i never used to understand a word i used to sit next to my dad and watch it just for the feel of it. :)

During the summer vacation and other festival vacations when we used to visit our grandparents in the village, there used to be tv only in the house of our gulf returned neighbour's house. So we used to go there in the evening to watch serial or movies aired in the doordarshan. Almost all the village folk used to come if it was a movie which was being screened on a sunday.

Doordarshan and Akashvani were part of our daily life. It was the only connection a person in a south indian state had with the north indian counterpart and vice versa. Since it was the only channel present during those days and the programmes were limited to certain hours, everyone had enough time to spent with family, friends and carry out other hobbies. God!! I miss those days. Its sad that the new generation will never get a taste of that life.I end this post Wishing for a time machine to get back to those days. Its time for the last song from Akashvani :)

Staying connected

Facebook, orkut, twitter any idea what i'm talking about.Yes, social networking one of the ground breaking innoventions of the last decade. After i opened an orkut account during college days i used to log in every week to check if any friend request has come, or anybody had written a scrap to me or if there were any photo updates by friends.Orkut seemed interesting.People with similar interests joined communities online and discussed about them. Some even got their long lost friends whom they had forgotten the faces of, through simple searching.Reunions of old school and college batchmates were conducted easily as everyone around the globe could be informed.It was a different experience altogether.

After i joined work i opened a facebook account since most of my friends were moving to facebook and orkut started to get boring. Facebook was a better and flexible version of orkut. Chatting was easier and updates from friends was received in jiffy. There was less of private stuff and more of public stuff happening in facebook. But even facebook ran into trouble due to privacy issues.

The creators of Twitter would have never imagined that it would grab so much attention in the media and parliament such that it would even result in removal
of a cabinet minister. Just a status message named 'Tweets' with 140 characters from this microblogging or social networking site created news on daily basis.It was like the wishes granted by gods in the mythological stories. Even the gods wouldn't have imagined that the wish might turn against them any time.So celebrities and others alike started posting messages on twitter after giving a second thought about the post.

Even though call rates had dropped, since most of the friends used to come online after work, chatting became more common. Other than speaking to parents or few elder relatives or a boyfriend or girlfriend there was less calls made and even lesser smses sent. More network providers came into market and brought out new offers to encourage more calling among students and professionals. But still none of them seemed to create huge impact since more people were moving to multimedia handsets or smartphones which made them 'available' on net through facebook, twitter etc.

Lets rewind the time to ten years back, 2000. That was the time when i started using internet, when i opened a hotmail and yahoo account. Keeping in touch with old friends was never a big task. You just needed to have an email id to mail, chat, send photos and it seemed very easy. The school projects were completed in less than a day when compared to weeks spent on project work in primary class days. Mobile phones market started off killing the pager industry.A person could be contacted even when he was travelling. The world became a smaller place.

Lets rewind 10 more years back,1990 when Letters were the life line to stay connected for people far off. The writing itself was a lovely thing. Taking time
to make no mistakes, be it a love letter, letter to friends or parents or relatives. It felt nice to write thinking and taking time. Even the wait for the reply only increased the interest in the writing. Collecting the stamps of the letters received was also a hobby. Writing to people whom you have never met was also interesting. We could share a lot of things with Pen-pals what we couldn't share with others whom we know.Since the STD charges were also high during that time, calls to relatives or friends outside the state was very rare. Most of the villages also didn't have telephone network as seen nowadays. Calls had to be made to the post office or village office where a phone would be there.The purity of the relationships were very evident in those days. We kept in touch with those who were special to us.Moreover it was a great feeling to read it over and over again looking at those beautiful handwriting and feeling the aroma of the ink thinking of the person who wrote it to you.I don't know how many of you reading this has actually written letters. But i tell you its a wonderful experience.

Think of the last time you took a pen to write a letter. Can't remember? Well i think it could be for the last english exam you wrote in school or college. I
won't say e-mailing is bad or anything. It is the best way to communicate and get replies ASAP. But when you have the time and you feel like writing to your
special ones even if it is just few sentences, take an pen and paper and write to them. Give them a chance to read and cherish your letters forever. I bet it
will do wonders.I have decided to write a letter or send a greeting every month to my special ones. Let's cherish the good moments. Back to the good old times. :)

With Love
Yours Sincerely
Mayavi
08-Jul-2010

This part of my life is called Happyness

I'm gonna make this post quite informal. Jus like i'm talking to you.Bear with me if you find it crazy.i know u will :). Well coming to the point, I had this list of mine, nah.. not 'had' i stil have this list of mine which basically is about the things i want to do/achieve in life. Well if u ask if its like a bucket list..hmmm.. i cannot totally say 'its not', but i had this list long before i saw the movie Nicholson, Freeman starrer 'Bucket List'.Talking about this list,i have not written it down anywhere, but its a list i created in my mind long back.Some of the things in the list i acheived are : completing my school life with decent grades, getting a bachelors degree with not so decent grades and getting a job. You might be thinking these are some of the common things in everybody's life. But as a person who takes life as it comes, these things mean a lot to me. And i believe, being able to acheive these goals was not as easy as it seemed to be.There was hardwork, luck, persevereance, commitment, prayers and a lot more stuff which lead to all those achievements.
When i was studying in college, some of my friends bought bikes and scooters with the money given by their parents.I used to be a pillion rider on my friends vehicles most of the times.My parents asked me if i too need a bike.But i had a different thought, a wish actually. A wish to own my 1st vehicle with my own hard earned money. Even though i'm not a person who believes in materilaistc happiness, this was actually a dream which i held on to from my childhood days. Something which fuelled me or inspired me to work harder and achieve it in an appropriate way. And ladies and gentlemen, here i am today, a proud owner of a Honda Aviator, bought with the savings of 2 years of my working life. As i add 1 more feather to my cap of dream achievements i would like to share my 'happy'ness with everyone reading this. Wishing everyone would achieve what they dream in life. Dream more, and chase your dreams to make it a reality. Don't take shortcuts to success even if there are any, trust me this is more fun. All the best!!!

Engineering Bro Code - First Edition

1.Thou shalt study for exams only on the night before exam and after 10 pm coffee along with other bros
2.Thou shalt store maggi and prepare and share with thy bro when hostel food sucks(almost always!!)
3.Thou shalt write thy assignments by copying from top bro
4.Thou shalt do the point 3 only during sleepy class hours
5.Thou shalt have 90 percentile attendence in canteen on any day in a year(most important)
6.Thou shalt give proxy attendence for bro when thy not present or is sleeping
7.Thou shalt always confuse teachers by asking doubts during viva (very useful)
8.Thou shalt have atleast 1 arrear in thy engineering life
9.Thou shalt never get records signed on time
10.Thou shalt wait in queue with thy bro for taking xerox of notes, which will never be read,on day before exam
11.Thou shalt treat all not-so good looking girls as thy sisters and thy bro
shalt treat all good looking crush's as thine sisters (very crucial)
12.Thou shalt have uncountable crushes in the countable years of engineering life
13.Thou shalt learn abuses of other languages from bro's of other states (very useful)
14.Thou shalt never have more than 10 rs in purse while in campus on any day in a year
15.Thou shalt treat the fresher as atm machine whenever spotted in canteen

Authored by
Sir Kannan Kodoth
Signature

Being a Resource - An Appraisal Chapter

All charcters in the below story are imaginary. Any resemblance to people dead or alive is purely coincidental.

PM: Good Morning dude.
SE: Morning boss.
PM: so how are you?
SE: Doing Fine sir. How about you sir?
PM: Very fine man. So let's start.
SE: ok sir.
PM: I went through your comments for the 'tasks' assigned to you for last cycle. You were on bench for the last two months right?
SE: yes sir.
PM: i find that being on bench (refers to time spent without a project assigned.Need not be sitting idle.) you haven't contributed anything for the company.
You have just attended some technical sessions and submited few knowledge sharing documents.
SE: but sir, being on bench how can i do some work if i've not been assigned anything. and i wasn't sitting idle sir. I was involved in giving KT (knowledge
transfer) sessions to newcomers.
PM: Man. You have to be 'Proactive'. Ask for work. Get ur 'utilization' level increased. No use of just sumbitting few docs or taking KT sessions even though
it maybe useful.
SE: But sir, i was told that there was no project as per my previous experience or training.
PM: No man, there are projects for you in 'pipeline' (trying to show that the horizon has a silver lining!!) but the point to be noted is that you have to set an example for others being more 'motivated' in your work. Show more 'analysis' capability.
PM: Ok leave it. i see that you have worked on a support and testing project the 4 months prior to that. You haven't done any development? There was a 'scope' for 'automation' in the work you performed.
SE: The project demanded only support and testing work sir and apart from that automation and development work was done by the IT team of client side.
PM: Man. That's not an excuse.You have to 'delight' the client by taking up automation work proactively. You could have 'brought business' from the client side like the onsite folks do.
SE: But sir you have never given me a chance to go onsite or have an interaction with the client team.
PM: You are giving lame excuses man. And I see that you haven't appreciated the work of your teammates. You haven't 'nominated' anyone for 'spot awards' or shown any 'leadership' skills.
SE: sir i'm just a SE(Software engg), i don't have the privilege to nominate anyone for awards. Others in my team are either my level or higher.
PM: You haven't shown interest in taking additional responsiblities of the team like being the CC or QA or KM. (hard to explain!!)
SE: but sir we already have team members assigned for these tasks.
PM: but you should have asked proactively to take charge of these roles.hmmm...No use of telling you.and by the way, you have to get used to working in mainframe development for your next assignment.
SE: that would be little difficult sir considering my previous experiences in support n testing.
PM: (losing temper) you are not at all 'flexible' man. you still want to be working on some crap support n testing projects which does no good. I can give you only a rating of 2 on 5 considering your 'peer group' is having team leaders and senior members.
SE: (standing up) you say i'm not flexible!! i was trained for 3 months in java and when i joined production you asked me to do Dot Net coding for 6 months initially with no one to guide or support.You said it was due to some urgent requirements.
after i learn everything and complete the major assignment on Dot net you asked me to to switch to Open systems, where i had to learn all the unix commands and oracle from scratch. Once i was getting settled with the support you assign the testing work also to me saying we can't pull in more members due to 'billable issues' and ask me to be familiar with writing test cases and working on testing tools. Now you want me to learn age old mainframes to do some crap work for some stupid company who can't spend some money to update or migrate their software to the latest platforms. And on top of that you say i have been doing crap support and testing work. do you remember the time you addresed everyone in the project mentioning that we were doing excellent work working day and night and even come to office on sundays to give weekend support. And now you say i was doing crap work and i'm not flexible.
PM:(surprised) what happened man. You are losing your temper. You shud be ready to take up 'challenges'.Be ready to 'work under pressure' to give 'quality' product. I know you are an exceptional 'resource' and a very good 'team player'.(changing track!!) You are an asset to the company.
SE: Yes i'm a resource. just a resource. Just like any of the computer or printer in the office. You provide free coffee vending machines to work day and night and at the end of the month give us peanuts in return for the hardwork we put in. I'm done sir. This resource is happy to announce to you proactively that he is not anymore a resource of this company. I submit my resignation. And by the way i have given a feedback about you to the HR yesterday. He said he'll mail you. Check your mail box may be you'll have your appraisal scheduled soon. GOODBYE:)

p.s. the words in ' ' are those used by Project managers to trick the juniors to show that they know everything, just to create some impressions. If you hear any of these words from your manager be sure that he is lying :)