Gurgaon - site of the new Global Support Desk operations

Finally........ concrete steps are being taken to initiate the team for the new Global Support Desk which I have to start up from scratch. After posting the vacancies for 3 weeks, we have enough candidates to warrant a face to face interview in Gurgaon, India.

Arrived on 24th Feb night - to utter chaos in the Indira Gandhi International airport. At the immigration checkpoint, people were stacked up on the stairways leading to the immigration desks. Took me a little over an hour to get past the immigration checks and get my bags.

Monday started with a meeting with HR to clarify the parameters for my interviews and agreements on uncertainties like

- would I consider lowering the levels of freshers from ICB to ICA (yes I would)

- Specifying operational shift times beyond the regular shift times practiced currently

- can an ICB intermediate career level be a people manager (unusual but YES), etc..

All the activities were carried out in the Gurgaon, IRIS site. Looks like they have some unusual part-timers!! :)

In previous hiring situations, I worked alone and only got HR involved after I had interviewed and made up my mind for hiring. This time around, the Gurgaon HR assigned 3 people to work with me to get the hiring and interviews completed. WOW!! Both the Rashmitas took turns to accompany me during the 3 days of interviewing 15 people. They were certainly helpful to clarify the local perspectives, policies and practices with the candidates. At the end of the long 3 days, I settled on 6 of the candidates to be hired. I am still unable to get a suitable candidate for the crucial team leader role. We shall reword the scope and role of the team leader and reopen the posting.

Cristina Knebl was kind enough to loan one of her project managers to help me through with setting up the team and operation from scratch!!. Since I was remote in Malaysia, he was certainly a much needed ally for all things local.Param has been absolutely helpful. I had the plan all in my mind and in discussing with Param my plans, he was able to help place my thoughts on paper - repositioned as a project.

I also took the opportunity to meet up with people with whom I had dealt with. Pranavi Singh - I thought she was a guy until I met up with her face to face!!

Hridya!! I am seeing a lot of "modern" Singhs in the India of today.

In fact the India today is seeing a lot of changes. Compared to as recent as 1 year ago, there are a lot more "luxurious" cars on the roads in New Delhi. I saw many Toyota Innovas on the roads and half as many Toyota Camrys. I was told that the Innovas are used to ferry workers to work, especially in Gurgaon where many BPOs operate. The BPOs are essentially call centers setup by corporations in USA and Europe. That was where a majority of my candidates came from.

Slums which were common all over India are much less now. I remember that about a decade ago, when I was staying in the Hyatt Regency (same as during this visit), I could look out of the hotel windows and look upon a nearby park with many cardboard tents where the poor and destitute lived. Today, I still see those slums but they are a lot less.

I'll be back in a month to welcome the pilot batch of 6 support agents.

Malaysia- the 12th Election is upon us

This Sunday, 24th Feb is designated as nomination day for the whole of Malaysia, except for the State assembly of Sarawak. That is when all parties, government and opposition officially put their candidates up for nominations so that the people can vote and elect their legislative representative.

I shall also be flying off to New Delhi the same evening and miss out one week of electioneering campaigning. This time around, I personally feel that the opposition has a realistic chance of denying the current ruling party their 2/3 majority and even has a slim chance of coming to power with a simple majority. The 4 years of abdullah badawi's rule has caused a lot of of the socio economic structure to deteriorate - very much like the structures built to house them, e.g. Parliament leaks, New Judiciary buildings leak, structures collapsing before building has been completed.

Crime is rampant and statistically has increased significantly over the past 4 years. While the official inflation rate says that inflation has been low, the reality is that cost of living has gone up significantly. We even had a run on cooking oil. Can you imagine - a palm oil producing country like Malaysia running short of cooking oil?

Islam hadhari?? To me those are the body snatching, force religion up your ass religious zealots. The talibanization of Malaysia has started and must be stopped with this election.

There are numerous emails making their rounds to remind many of us of the follies of this current government. A sleeping flip flop PM with a power crazy son-in-law lording over everything and grabbing every and anything he can lay his hands on.

I have no idea how many of you who reads this blog are Malaysians and even if you were, did you register as a voter and would you be voting? All I want to say is that come 8th Mar - vote wisely. As one former PM says - you get the government you deserve.

I know I will be voting for the opposition (who may just turn out to be the government in waiting). Even if that opposition is PAS or PKR or DAP .

Vote for CHANGE!!

Hiring - a difficult choice

This Sunday, I'll be flying to India to (hopefully) interview enough people to fill 6 positions for my new team. The past 2 weeks has been really difficult to be motivated at work. Candidates were plentiful, but candidates applying for those positions were either too inexperienced or totally out of scope. Most are not what I have in mind.

If I have to make a decision based solely on what they have submitted as their resume - possibly only 2 candidates will get past my scrutiny. What am I to do?? My self imposed milestones are:
- Interview by end of Feb
- offer the job beginning of Mar
- Have physical warm bodies in by early Apr
- Training during the whole month of April
- Basic operations by beginning of May

That is already 1/2 year too late for some countries!!

Added to that are complications on routing calls into the call center in India. Only confirmed HOW that will be done as of yesterday. Cowabunga!!!

Civet cat in my garden - again!!

Furious barking from my dogs at 5am this morning woke me up. Went down with a 6 ft long 1 inch thick rotan and found the dogs barking at a cupboard that I use to keep my gardening tools and misc. Could not see what they were barking at until a quick shadow moved across the top of the cupboard.

Berry, the long haired dog pounced and there was a squeal. Berry came out happily with a furry something in her mouth. Barely breathing!!

It was a baby civet cat!! All 9 inches of it including the tail.Very much like the one in this picture. This is the second time that we had civet cats visiting our garden.

Wonder where they come from??

CNY 2008 - day 4 (updated)

Okay - this is NOT about day 4. Rather, it is about things happening over the last 4 days of CNY 2008.

First of all - looks like more relatives has been showing up than usual this year. I think much of that was due to my acceptance of Kit into the family fold. I guess most of my uncles and aunts did not expect this. There is still much that they do not know about me and the way I think. Accepting Kit into the family was not an issue. Accepting him when his old man was alive was a major issue. So, now that his old man is dead and gone, no issues. Here's Kit with both the aunts (7th and 8th).

Day 3's visit brought us to Pastor Jeffrey's house. Unplanned for, but what the heck, the people I wanted to visit were going there, so a change of plans was necessary. After downing fried noodles, red bean soup, chrysanthemum drink and CNY cookies - everyone was full up to you know where!!! Thanks to "Mook Si Leong Leong". That's when Grace Thiong brought up a dream that she had. She started just like Martin Luther King - I had a dream!!!

She dreamt that while leafing through the New Life Voice newsletter/ magazine ( a publication of the New Life church), she saw a familiar figure in the center pages (centerfold may not be the right word here) - a bible in one hand, preaching to the multitude (her words). That person was ME!!! Darn!! I got stuck with the group calling me Pastor Tam the whole day and even today in church. Someone in Church even said that that was prophetic!! They will have to wait quite a while more to see if this comes true. I still have personal and faith issues that needs to be settled.

Grace - I am worried for you if you start dreaming about me!!

We had a group photo taken and I can truly say that everyone was happy with the photos taken both inside and outside Pastor's house. The "whale" provided the much needed balance in the photo :). You can even see that the level of "happiness" in all the group was genuinely high and even. This particular one is now known as the trinity. As Esther remarked - Pastor needs someone with "kun leong" to complement him in the photo. Mook Si Leong Leong asked me why I did not include the sisters in Christ in my blog. Sorry ah!!! Here it isWe even had the young ones in this pose which was very "wong - as in yellow" and "hoong- as in Red"

Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone

Chinese New Year 2008

Today is already the second day of CNY and it has been busy and tiring so far. Day 1, we visited Yong Soh, my former landlady and benefactor. Her youngest son was at home with his 2 kids, along with her sister and mum (93 years old this year!!). The younger kids had a rabbit and a white hamster which they proudly showed to Alex and played with them in the garden. Sad to say, after we left, the rabbit and the the hamster were left in the garden in the extremely hot sun and died that day. I feel so bad that we had somehow contributed to the demise of those poor creatures.

As usual, the next stop was at my brother in law in Bandar Sri Damansara. The other bro-in-law also went there. After a couple of hours, we went home as the sun was really beating down. HOT!!!

Which was a good thing, as, unlike past years, we started having visitors right about lunch time. Most years, visitors only come on the second day. In the past 2 days, we have had the Tham uncles and Tham cousins (2nd uncle, 3rd uncle and 5th uncle), Tham aunts and spouse (7th aunt and 8th aunt and spouse) and of course my brother - the first time he join us for CNY.

Elaine and family also visited on the second day. So did Frankie and family, Lee cousins and uncles. Even 8th Uncle in law's brother in law and family turned up!! Chinese families and their relationships are complicated!!

I prepared steamboat for visitors on the second day and it was well received. Mostly seafood (variations of fish paste, fish balls, fish anything) and vegetables (which includes mushrooms). The preparations were minimal and it was easy to cater to the different times that the visitors popped up. We had steamboat available from 11.30am to almost 6pm.

The most interesting visitor was an eagle looking bird that decided to checkout my chiku tree. The tree has been very popular with a variety of birds these past few weeks as there was an abundant produce of chikus - really sweet despite it's smaller size this year.Anyone know what type of bird is this??

To the gym!! to the gym!!!

I had stopped going to the gym for almost 16 months. Sure - I had loads of excuses - work related travel being the prime one. It was like 3 weeks out of the country and 1 week back almost every month. On top of that I had sprained my left foot such that the Achilles tendon acts up once in a while. Doctor claimed that it was an inflamed tendinitis. Medication did not really help. So I can be walking alright one moment and hobbling the next. I would have to stretch my heel against a wall to get it okay again. So I quit the gym since I could not use it for one reason or another.

I guess they missed my money (not me really), and they made me an offer in the last 3 days of Jan. Come back, all is forgiven. Just pay monthly fees. No additional fees. Heck - I knew I was packing in the pounds (or kilos) since stopping. With my new job, travel will be a lot less. So what the heck, let me go back and try to get sub 100 kg again.

Mandy, the fitness consultant who attended to me was adamant that she could not reduce the monthly charges. Not unless I was her husband. Then it would be RM90 per month. I told her - okay, let's get hitch that day, sign up and I'll divorce her the next day (after getting what's due as the husband!!). It was worth a try!!. It also reinforced what someone else had told me about the way I looked or how people perceive me. Apparently I look all serious and stern (that's what Mandy said) when I first meet up with strangers. Within 5 to 10 minutes, they realize that I am really a pussycat who can joke. I was putty in her hands. So no surprises, I signed up.

Today, I went in for my first session to re-familiarize myself with the workout instruments. I manage to put in 15 minutes on the cross trainer at level 8 and an average 120 spm (speed per minute?). 10 more minutes on the treadmill at 5.5km/hr. I stopped at 10 mins because I felt a slight cramp creeping up on my calf muscle. Long time no brisk walk - that's why. I even managed to row 2000m on the rower.

As today was the first session, I did not want to overdo it. So I cooled down and went home.Starting stats:
- Weight 114kg (ouch)
- target weight 96 kg by end December 2008.
- Methods include giving up the group breakfast during office hours at the risk of being anti social. No indulging in the company provided breakfast in the morning. Lunch with the group limited to once a week ( 2 max under special circumstances like overseas visitors).

I have at least one auditor to make sure I keep to this. Ian - do your stuff

Bus Crash no more - sign the online petition

Recently, there was a brush crash near Slim River which robbed 3 people of their lives. The worst part of the whole incident is that the driver has multiple traffic summons issued against him.

There is an online effort to get people to sign a petition. Please see this link at Zorro Unmasked for a pretty good write up - http://zorro-zorro-unmasked.blogspot.com/2008/02/three-lives-snuffed-out-no-prosecution.html

Go to this site to sign the petition - http://buscrashnomore.blogspot.com/ . I first got to know of this petition from my friend's daughter's blog - and she was in New York at that time! I have signed as no.954.

Do your part and sign this petition. If it can prevent one more needless death, you have done your part.

God Bless and have a prayerful Chinese New Year.