VIP treatment

Spending 18 yrs of my life in Delhi made sure that I had witnessed VIP treatments at their best and especially when it came to VIPs traveling around the city. Given Delhi traffic jams, everyone wishes that they had a colored light on their vehicle and a siren to sift through the busiest roads of the capital in a jiffy. It was always great to imagine how vehicles on the road would move aside to give way to your vehicle as if you own the road.
I never thought one day I will get a preferential treatment on Delhi roads...it was a cold winter afternoon in Delhi and I had to travel to southern part of the city from my locality with my father...I gave a call to the respective agency and a vehicle was available at my disposable in matter of 10 mins. Soon we were off on the road and traveling on the busy Delhi roads. No surprise that the traffic was heavy and blocking at major roads on our way to the destination. However, this time around our vehicle had the light and the siren which demanded authoritatively for the space on the road on preferential basis; traffic signals were not for us and we did take few wrong turns as well to make shortcuts...and no questions were asked; no rules broken...I remember looking outside of the vehicle and watching the look on the face of various people stuck in a usual traffic jam...they gave us the way and watched us pass by....in a matter of 40 mins we had traveled around 25 kms on busy traffic jammed roads of Delhi as we reached our destinations... As the vehicle stopped, the people already waiting for us flung open the doors brought in a stretcher for my dad and soon he was taken into the emergency ward of the hospital...as a kid I did wish for VIP treatment on Delhi road but this was something I really did not ask for...

when without rest i got refreshed.....27/jul/07

it was a tiring day in office...i had reached home and we had planned for a movie, for which we had to leave in an hour, i was feeling knackered so thought of catching up with some sleep to suppress my tiredness when the phone rang....it was my sis, Eli, and when i picked the phone she said Avi speak to mitthu (my niece), mitthu is 1.5 yrs old and the little time that i have spent with her while in india was when she was too young to speak anythin, i said 'hello mitthu'...she said 'maama'...it tell you boy it was ecstasy...it was so nice to hear THE word from her mouth...i asked her 'mama kidhar hai'...she told me 'Door Door'...then Eli pitched in to ask series of question which mitthu answers daily so that i can hear her voice...it was so nice and refreshing....i cudn't control the hapiness on my face...i had forgotten every burden that i have on my mind and heart...such was the magic of Mitthu's words....its so nice to see the next gen growing up...even the simple thing the kid does means a million to you...

motivation...

...well this is amazing thing...its a driver, a differentiator, a reason to live, meaning to each day...but wat is it...how come some have it and some don't...some keep on searching for it while some find it sooner or later... its instrumental in getting what you want...its courage to go through the hard days....its a friend when no one is with you...it is your alter ego.... but what is it about motivation that makes us achieve that otherwise we might not have...is there a mental thirst associated to motivation...is this thirst even bigger than what you ever wanted....
what hapens if motivation doesn't lead to object of your desire...it never happens...motivation may be sub dued but it will not die till you achieve what you set out to...and after that it wont live another day... is motivation a firefly which keeps on burning to give you light till the day breaks...and then it dies...n u r so excited to see the first ray of the sun that you dnt even notice that firefly has given itself to guide you along the path to light..... what do you think about parallel motivation...well there can be multiple motivations but then inside your mind you do a priortization...which object do you want at the earliest does the sorting of your list.... till now i hvae been talking about motivation leading to objects of desire... what do you think about the vice-versa....well this one is a gem... is there an object of desire which can give you motivation for achieving/attaining other objects/goals??...well for me there is...so it does exist... now try to go aainst my above mentioned statement...lets complex the equation...how should we do it..hmm..???..what if one object gives you motivation to achieve another object but as soon as you achieve the second one you start loosing the first one...this has become so very common...personal life..professional life...more you indulge into your work farther you are from your loved ones....so you balance...you dont take best of any...you compromise...n at this point you hv killed your motivation...so there are other factors working against motivation as well...feelings, responsbility....you want to achieve something but there are frictional forces working...having said that..these two are not always frictional...they can also act as wind in your sail...so now its you how you position yourself against these....ok...that is it is a game of mind... so is it every individual who consciously or sub-consciously sets this up in his/her mind and then dances to the tune... what do you think???? Do you wanna dance to your own tune??? At the end of this blog it seems i m lost...i need motivation but i m not sure whether i can get it externally or can i play with my mind to set the tune....honestly speaking while typing the last 20 words i have just realised anothe angle...heart...if the person i love wants me to achieve something it will surely motivate me, give me a reason to live, a reason to put up a, fight a reason enough to reach top of the world... well its pretty late n i need to be in office tomm...so to end the blog You be my side, I will set the tune....

adios

One totally confused, lost and hopeless fella....

Kid inside us

Well inside each one of us there is a kid...kid who wants to break free from the routine...who wants to do watever he feels like....who just wants to be careless...no worries are for him....but somewhere as we grow up this kid gets suppressed and lost...the routine comes in...we become more mature and at times are even ashamed of leaving that kid out even fo r a while...

All that is remained is the sweet memories of childhood...wat all u did...even the small things brought you so much of hapiness...now all has changed...u can't be that kid again although u so much want to be the same kid at so many times of your life....

But then one fine day that kid breaks the chain and comes out...you suddenly do something that you enjoy...u r carefree...u dont give a damn about wat world thinks of u...n u enjoy the time...every moment of it....u r flying...u reach cloud no 9...

But then after a while you have to comeback to your own old self...lock the child again inside you but you promise him that you will set him free again...let him do watever he wants again...u gonna break loose again...

After all you love this kid and you like let him do wat he wants...and who hasn't doen this till now...take this as food for thought...

Working from Home

The concept of 'Work from Home' is really interesting...the first impression that you get when you hear it is...an employee working from all comfort of his home...far from the madding crowd of office....no distances to travel...doesn't hv to get up early to reach office....no formal wears required...seems cool...

This first impression is very much there when the company and employee have Western culture....so it suits pretty well...but as Indians do...they Indianise everything to suit their taste.
An Indian employee is not suppose to have such a comfortable life unless he is a public servant...so for people like us Working from Home is like a sweet poison.

Lets see the difference in concept 'Work from home' from Western and Indian perspective.

Western Perspective: The company needs to cut cost so it uses this concept.

Employee can work from home.

He is required to work during normal working hours on weekdays only.

The company pays for his telephone bills and Internet access charges.

Advantage to the co.: It has saved money by saving office space.

Both the co. and employee are happy. Company is able to cut the cost while employee is able to meet his personal obligations. Moreover, company can also use this to improve its image by showing how flexible it is and how much employee friendly it is.

Indian perspective: The company needs to dig more out of the employee so it gives its employee a PRIVILEGE.

Employee is given a privilege to work from home during weekends.

He can work from home on weekdays only when he is sick. Sometimes even a sick leave may be deducted from employee's account, depending upon how much the employee and his manager can put across their point, mostly the manager wins.

Employee needs to work a bit more than usual hours(usual hours is 9am to 9 p.m.) as he is sitting in comfort of his home and wat difference it makes to wrk for few extra hours when he is home.

Employee is expected to be available at any point of time, he should be ready to start work on something at 2 a.m. in the morning as he has got privelege of working from home.


By the way did I mention, as 'Work from Home' is a PRIVELEGE and you are the chosen one amongst many to have it so you should be kind enough by paying your telephone and Internet access bills, anyways you use both of them for your personal purpose as well....

Advantage to the company:

Company save costs, as the employee cannot present weekend cab and food expenses to the company.

Employee works lot many extra hours both on weekdays and weekends.

Employee is available 24x7 to work.

The company is able to project the image of a flexible company to attract talent.

Advantage to the employee:
If you are an employee, you must have realised by now that there are no advantages here!!!!

If you ar an employer, you always knew that there was no advantage for the employee!!!...why r u reading this section still !!!!!


P.S.: Even I work from home. I work for an Indian company at a Client location(which has western culture).

Result:
Clients employee/contractors have the work from home in the western way...
We work from home in Indian fashion....this is the worst scenario because you know there are people in your office who are enjoying the better perspective....you always tend to compare your situation with your surroundings dont ya??

Day of Upsets

I used to be a big cricket fan sometime back but offlate thanks to gr8 performance by Indian team my interest in cricket has gone below zero levels...well as i am surrounded by cricket lovers, its tough to escape from watching it...

Today would have been a quite a boring day...17-Mar-07, two insignificant matches...India vs Bangladesh and Pakistan vs Ireland....very much a cakewalk for India and Pakistan who are old hand at the game...while the other two nations are minnows in current geography of cricket world...but the Old hands made sure that people had some interest in the matches...

India lost against Bangladesh...full credits to Bangladesh who outperformed the Ace in every department of cricket...Bangladesh showed that they have come up and are improving...even though their batting showed few weakness but still for a minnow they have become a formidable side....they ain't no walkover anymore...somehow during the whole match i could not help smiling and enjoyed the match(even though i am Indian)...guess this is the slap Indian cricket team required so that they keep their head on their shoulders and play to their potential....

Pakistan match was very sad, full credits to Ireland again who got Pakis out cheap and then batted through. In between rains were there but still ireland would have won by D/L rule...but the game was sad because one of the good teams is out of world cup...Irish batsman hit a 6 to attain victory...i wonder where Pak cricket team goes from here...

Alarm bells have rung for both India and Pak but Pak team is going home...worst part there wont be any India vs Pakistan match in this world cup, the match that is hotter that the final itself...

A day which has upset many hearts, while many would cherish this day till they live...but for me its sad that i wont be able to see the most waited India vs Pak match during this WC.

Usual Weekday Morning

its 7:15 a.m. my alarm is ringing and i hear its cry from some miles away...i m somewhere in my dreams...n i want to keep it that way...but somewhere inside me its written with invisible ink that YOU NEED TO BE IN OFFICE BY 9...another day, lot of things to be taken care of...everything zipping through the mind in a nano sec....and the large cry from the far comes again and somehow it is louder and the source has somehow come closer to my ears and my mind...and for once i want to crush the noise..but then inner voice shouts it loud again...YOU NEED TO BE IN OFFICE BY 9...and i hate it...it is 7:30, i still wonder how come the time moves so fast on a weekday morning...i thought it was nano sec and somehow earth started rotating so fast that 15 min hv passed by....from half sleep i ask my flat mate to get up...n start getting ready...he replies from his bed...(i knw he is also going through the same weekday morning trauma)...."Its your turn today, you go in first"...i try to search for a damn reason so that i can push my flatmate to get up n get ready so that i can hv an excuse to sleep for 20 more minutes...but my silly brain is dead as usual in the morning and can't think of any excuse...so finally i request my flatmate to go in first and promise that tommorrow i will go first...dunno why he agrees but he does and somehow i get 20 more mins of pleasure....but wats this in 20 secs i hear from my roomie that he is done n i should go in...guess earth is still rotating fast, very fast...i gather up all my strength and courage to get up...finally...i am able to get up...my eyes are still closed...somehow i manage to reach the bathroom...as soon as i reach there i become very active...realising that its already 8:05...for next 15 min i use my superhuman capabilities to turn a zombie that went in into a human with some hangover of last night's drink....its 8:20 now...dnt hv time to iron my clothes and i m lazy enuf not to keep them ready...so i put on a pullover...and i rush for office in pretty casual ware...but i say to myself every1 else also goes thru the same thing every morning so they understand this pretty well....8:30 i m ready n i m rushing to catch the shuttle that will take me to office....as i reach the junction, the place from where i catch the shuttle, i find out a long queue of ppl waiting for the shuttle...i knw i hv to be a bit ill-mannered and break the Q in case i want to attend the call at 9...but it seems every1 has a call at 9 and then i watch the shuttle to get full in my eyes...n leave for office...m left behind waiting for the next shuttle to come in...this time i m officially number 2 in the Q and i m gonna get this ride....meanwhile i ask my colleague who caught the previous shuttle to connect me to the call...thanks that mobile phones happened...otherwise i was screwed big time...finally its a gud morning...i take the call while travelling...and reach office at 9:10...i say to myself hey i we can be in by 9.30 so its cool i m 20 min early...n nyways i hv met my official obligations so chill...then so much things starts happening in office that we forget everything else but wrk...n the day continues as usual.....