Unreal Blog

Pointers in surviving the corporate jungle. Newspaper column in Today on 14 June 2008.

[...] In the unforgiving, dog-eat-dog corporate jungle, you need to be sure of the welcome. More importantly, you need to prove yourself worthy of it. Fear not, I am here to help you through it. And I will gladly accept all credit for your survival, if you care to make it public. But I regret that we (this newspaper, me, our family members, dogs, lawyers and so on) cannot be held responsible for any untoward consequence of applying my suggestions. Come on, you should know better than to base your career on a newspaper column! [...]

Read the rest of "An Office Survival Guide"

How to market sophistication, a la francaise! Newspaper column in Today on 5 Jan 2008.

Sophistication is a French invention. The French are masters when it comes to nurturing, and more importantly, selling sophistication. Think of some expensive (and therefore classy) brands. Chances are that more than half of the ones that spring to mind would be French. And the other half would be distinctly French sounding wannabes. [...]

Read the rest of "Sophistication"

Newspaper column in Today on 1 Sept, 2007.

[...] A normally aggressive soul, on the other hand, may become an obnoxious sender of what are known as stinkers. Stinkers are emails that are meant to inflict humiliation. [...]

Read the rest of "Office Email Wars"

This concluding part of the philosophy of money (to appear as a column in the May issue of the Wilmott Magazine) shares my private disappointment that whatever I wrote up may not have been as original as I expected it to be. But the concept of money has been around for a long time now, so I should not dwell on it too much.

Read the rest of "Philosophy of Money – IV"

Having looked at the how of money in the last post, here is the why of money in this third post in the my mini-series. Why do we want it so bad?

Read the rest of "Philosophy of Money – III"

This repost was originally a column piece, published some time ago in a Singaporean newspaper, it is my favorite, my pride and joy. For that reason, I may have sent it to some of my readers before. Here is hoping that you would enjoy a repeat read…

Read the rest of "La Sophistication"

This second post of the mini series based on my upcoming column in the Wilmott Magazine looks at how people make money in a scalable fashion. It was posted earlier in this blog.

Read the rest of "Philosophy of Money – II"

Here is another mini series of posts based on an upcoming column of mine in the Wilmott Magazine to appear in their May issue. I have posted similar ideas here before, but this series will put them together, hopefully as a cohesive whole. This first post of the series looks at the unphysical nature of money.

Read the rest of "Philosophy of Money – I"

It is a jungle out there. Do you have what it takes to survive? If not, don’t worry, I’m here to help.

Read the rest of "An Office Survival Guide"

For corporate success, we may need to hide our technical knowledge at times. When it comes to techie-ness, we should know when to hold, and when to fold. Here is my take on how best to use (or hide) technical knowledge, originally published as a newspaper column.

Read the rest of "Techie’s Dilemma"

Bush has just left the building. Perhaps the world will be a kinder, gentler place now. But it will certainly be a less funny place. For life is stranger than fiction, and Bush was funnier than any stand-up comedian. Jon Stewart is going to miss him. So will I.

Read the rest of "Bushisms"

This one is a hilarious piece I found on the Web. If you really like it, you have to wonder — am I still doing too much techie stuff and too little management?

Read the rest of "Meeting Bingo Game"

Only my fellow Malayalees can enjoy this hilarious email I got, unfortunately. If you cannot read Malayalam, please ignore this post.

Read the rest of "For Malayalees Only"

Here’s an IQ question to help you decide how you should spend the rest of your day! [...]

Read the rest of "Trick Question"

If you have to ask what in the world a Malayali is, then this post is not for you! This one came as email flotsam and was too funny to pass up. In other words, if you are a Malayali and find this one a bit offensive, trust me, I didn’t write it! Must have been a North Indian lobby!

Read the rest of "Are You a Malayali?"

Another one of my early “redactions” describing a rich girl’s perspective of what poverty is all about. Enjoy!

Read the rest of "La pauvre famille"

One of my “redactions” for my French courses. My fellow students and teacher loved it, hope you will too.

Les fermiers aux Etats Unis ont de la chance – ils ont de grandes fermes. Ce n’est pas le cas en Mexique. Mais, le Mexicain de qui je vais vous parler, etait assez content de sa ferme. Une fois, un fermier texan est venu chez notre Mexicain.[...]

Read the rest of "Les fermier"

Another one of my “redactions” for my French courses. My fellow students and teacher loved it, hope you will too.

En Inde, on mange ce qui s’appelle des “chapatis”. C’est un peu comme les baguettes en France.[...]

Read the rest of "Les chapatis"