Day 146 - Building The Team!

I write this, while I recover from the exertions of the previous day.  The previous day, was a very enjoyable day spent with my team at an offsite doing a lot of team building activities.

The entire last week was spent chasing various people to get things in place for Saturday, including budget approvals for the do.  Finally we were ready for Saturday; Deven and Sagar doing a great job!

I was picked up in the morning by Roshan, as I did not have my car.  Poor Rampyaari, is in the workshop after I did not notice a pillar in the office parking lot and backed up into it, leaving a huge eye sore on the driver's door!  The seven'o clock start did not deter the team to be there on time to make the trip to Karnala, some of them not having gone back home the previous night as they were doing the US / late EMEA shifts.  I was impressed!

We started the game of Antakshari as soon as the bus started and were singing till we reached the destination, ably led by Renita, Vishakha, Bhaskar and other enthusiasts.  As soon as we reached the resort, I realised why the resort was named as Panaromic Resorts.  It afforded a panaromic view of the famous 'Thumb-Point'!  After quickly freshening up and having breakfast no. 2 (the first one being in the bus itself!) consisting of poha and crispy medu vadas, all of us trudged to the conference room for the serious business of the townhall.  I spoke about the priorities for the year for the team for about 40 minutes.  I hope the team appreciated the effort as well as the key messages in my talk. 

One of the reasons of this exercise was to get everyone within the team to know eachother.  I was shocked to find out over the period of the last few months that even within this team of 70, people did not necessarily know eachother; some did not even know the names of some of their own colleagues.  After my talk, we did an interesting exercise of everyone introducing a colleague of theirs to the entire audience.  This was well recieved.  The idea was to promote the motto of 'One Team, No Boundaries!' and gradually ingrain it in the behaviours of the team.

After lunch, myself, Deven, Arshan and Sagar conducted a couple of team building exercises which had key takeways for the team.  I did see the dawn of realisation in some of the eyes when doing the takeaways session.  After these 'work-play' sessions, the everyone was free to spend their time as they wanted to for the rest of the evening before we returned from the resort.  Water slides and the pool beckoned some; some fell for their love of under-arm cricket.

Having exhausted themselves by doing these physical activities for a couple of hours, everybody then began to gather around the bar counter for a drink.  The DJ was playing load music by now as well, probably happy at being of use for only the second time during the day!  Gradually the entire team gathered at the place and had a blast for an hour and half dancing to popular Hindi, Punjabi and English songs.  I think there was a Tamil song as well in between; who can resist 'Appudi Podu Podu....'!  The team was enjoying the dancing and drinking so much, that we kept on extending the last song for the day for about half an hour.  Finally, I had close the day, regretfully so. 

Tired and exhausted, everyone hopped on to the bus to make the journey back home; half of them wishing that the day could go on and on; only of the do had been an overnight one, etc, etc.  The only sad part of the day was at the end when a colleague, a teetotaller, had had too much to drink, of course, at the insistence of yours truly and others.  The sleep on the way back in the bus, however, did wonders for him and he was fit and fine by the time the bus reached Powai.  He ended up driving his car home, dropping atleast 3 people on his way!

What a day!  The greatest moments for me were when I saw people who had never spoken to eachother starting to speak to eachother.  By the end of the day, I could see the happy camaraderie amongst the people who hitherto had not known eachother. 

A good start to building a great team.  A team that can fight.  A team that can win.

One WINNING Team; No Boundaries.  Take care.

Day 140 - A Heartless City

Remember the famous Johny Walker song of yesteryears!?

....Kahin building, kahin traame, kahin motor, kahin mill

Milta hai yahan sab kuchh, ik milta nahin dil

Insaan ka nahin, kahin naam-o-nishaan

Zara hat ke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay (Mumbai) meri jaan

Aye dil hai.....

How apt!  And this was written so many years ago!  Off late, I have been thinking that Mumbai has changed and the change has only been for the worse.  Mumbai no longer has that old world charm.  Neither does it have a heart anymore.  I say this having seen Mumbai for the last six months, and after a gap of about seven years.  The biggest change that I do see in Mumbai is in the people.  Even seven years ago, I thought the population of Mumbai was a very happy community, opening their arms wide to welcome outsiders, being very accomodating and helpful to others even when living by the barest minimum.  There was a sense of camaraderie in the entire population.

Unfortunately, it is no longer the case.  Some might say, 'This is not news.  Johny Walker already told us so years ago'!  But to me, this is definitely significant, because it has come as a rude shock to me that this is no longer the old Mumbai, that I knew. 

I have been observing how people in Mumbai react in different circumstances over the past few months.  And the biggest thing that strikes me is that 'I' and 'Me' are the most important beings for the people of Mumbai these days.  In the streets, it is a mad rush, with the single objective of being the first and the fastest.  Forget lane discipline, everyone tries to squeeze into the smallest of space available on the roads, often resorting to 'elbowing out' the others.  Nobody stops for anybody else.  Patience is not a word which is very popular on the streets in Mumbai.

Elsewhere, people come to blows at the slightest of provocations, or even the lack of it.  And these behavioural traits seem to be consistent across all types of people and all sections of the society.  It is amazing that the tolerance levels of an entire city has collectively diminished.  Friends no longer just meet.  It takes months to plan a meeting with good friends!  The spirit of Mumbai is often lauded.  I am very sorry to say, there is no such thing in the social fabric of Mumbai today.

How and why has this happened?  It could be a combination of many factors.  First and foremost, the population growth and the inability of the city's infrastructure to cope with it.  This puts so much pressure on an individual to just get by his / her day to day activities, resulting in him / her being on the edge, always.  Second, and probably a offshoot of the population growth, is the competition.  And couple that with limited opportunities.  Naturally, 'I', 'Me' and 'Myself' becomes the most important being.  Third, the world has become a small place, resulting in making us more cruel and heartless.  As we interact more with the western world, the 'Self' keeps becoming the most important thing.  Even if just to copy the westerners.  Everything is wanted instantly.  Everything is needed instantly.  There is no time to wait.

Last, but by no means the least, is the repeated assaults on Mumbai's psyche by riots and terrorist attacks.  These have resulted in a general sense of mistrust that people have for each other.  Everyone is looked at with suspicion.

People in Mumbai live on the edge, perenially.  I think this city and its metamorphosis is a great case study for sociologists.  But I do crave for the Mumbai of the past, which had an old world charm around it.

Take care.

Day 133 - A Boring World Cup

Do you know that the T20 World Cup is on?  If yes, do you even care?  Is too much cricket killing the game?  Why do I get a strange feeling that the way the game is run today by administrators worldwide is eerily similar to the famous story of the goose which laid a golden egg every day?

The current T20 World Cup is a boring affair.  There are many reasons for it:

• It has been scheduled immediately after the IPL extravaganza, which this year was even more hyped due to the off-field goings on.  It is quite difficult to root for the players playing for different countries, when a few weeks back they were all in the same team.  I think there should have been a cooling off period after the IPL.  Moreover, we just had two months of non-stop cricket culminating in the Chennai Super Kings winning the IPL.  Some more cricket?  Naaah.  The players are tired; so are the spectators.
• The World Cup is being held in the West Indies.  Now, I am aware that in the past the West Indies were a strong force in cricket.  However, I am also aware that in the last few years the carribeans have tended to follow other sports more like football and basketball and cricket has been on the decline.  The rains are another problem here.  The West Indies gets unseasonal rains all the time.  Hence, many matches are getting affected.  Resorting to the Duckworth Lewis rule repeatedly to decide the fate of a match is the ultimate way to kill the game.  Moreover, the timings for the matches are weird late night ones.  I know that they have treid to schedule the matches early in the morning to catch the Indian TV audience after work.  However that works only for the first match of the day.  If it is a double header, I would be interested in knowing the TRPs for the second match late in the night.
• Another reason for the World Cup to seem boring is the performance of the Indian team.  Cricket fatigue is probably taking its toll on the players.  So, is the inability to adjust to the wickets in the Carribean.  It is a selfish reason, but isn't that natural? World Cups are played on the premise of national loyalties.

I am intentionally not mentioning the other oft-spoken reason for the Indian team not doing well in the World Cup.  Money.  There isn't enough in the World Cup compared to the IPL.  But I think, money cannot be a bigger consideration to joy and pride of representing your country.  But then, I might be wrong.

Personally the last week was interesting for me.  Friday and Saturday were especially enjoyable.  Friday due to the news that Suryanksh got the admission in Bombay Scottish School!  Couldn't wait to get back home to kick off the celebrations (pizza party at Papa John's).  However it took me 60 minutes to cover the 3.5 kms from office to home, because of the insane traffic at peak hours in Mumbai.  Saturday was good as well.  The townhall was well conducted and I am told that my presentation and speech was also well recieved.  Had a good time dancing with the team after the presentations, though a lot my bones did complain the next day morning.

I expect this week to be busy as well.  Have a few hurdles to cross this week.  If I get through them without any major blowups, I will be a relieved man by the end of the week.

More about that, next week.  Take care.

Day 124 - Weekend Mania

A weekend comprises the two traditionally non-working days in a seven-day week.  This is the Wikipedia definition for the term 'weekend'.

Wondering why is this the subject of my post today?  Simple....the term is all over the place.  Just look at your Facebook news feed and there is a torrent of 'sigh of reliefs' caused by the onset of the weekend!  Go to any workplace on a Friday and the atmosphere is so very lively caused just by the anticipation of the upcoming weekend!  Everyone is found wishing eachother a good weekend!  There are weekend getaway holiday packages being sold by almost all the travel portals and operators.  Long weekends (when one or more additional adjacent day to the weekend is also a holiday) are cause for festive cheer and sometimes delirious celebrations! 'TGIF' (Thank God It's Friday) is a common and well known phrase; even a brand representing the idea of taking time off and relaxing.  Sunday evening is dreaded the most as Monday morning lurks close by.  I find this a very strange (and interesting!) phenomenon.  I call it the 'Weekend Mania'. 

Even about 8 - 10 years ago, this phenomenon was unheard of.  I do not recall looking forward to the weekend during the early years of my work life.  Nor do I recall anybody else lamenting that the weekend was too far away!  In fact I used to hate most of the weekends because I would not have anything to do.  Of course, I did travel a bit during the weekend, went on treks and caught up with friends and family.  But I missed being at the workplace.

So what has changed?  I am no sociologist, but I believe a few questions would need answers when we dwell on what might have changed.  Are we are driving ourselves too hard?  Is it the case that competition at all levels is ensuring that everyone puts in their best efforts all the time?  There is no let up.  The pressure is just too much.  Either you slog and go up or you get left behind.  But then, I remember, this was always the case.  Is it that the younger generations have been pampered by chunky starting salaries at the start of their careers, causing them to think about concepts like 'work life balance' (the phrase deserves a whole post for itself) rather than worrying about slogging and earning their way up?

Another angle to this is that 'weekend' is a foreign term to India, imported into the corporate lives of Indians gradually over the last decade, as Indians started engaging with the western world more and more, due to the economy opening up.  'It is almost weekend' has become a very well-used phrase for bonding across boundaries, suggesting that 'I am as tired as you'.  A few years ago, it was normal to go to work on a Saturday, for some a half day, but still a work day.  Nowadays, the idea of working on a Saturday is frowned upon; do not even suggest a working Sunday.

The jury is still out on whether this is a healthy trend or otherwise.  The weekend is generally meant to be spent with friends and family and doing things which are important to you.  The assumption is that it is a contributor to improving the quality of our personal lives.  It is time meant to be spent bonding with those who are special to us.  I wonder if that is really the case, looking at the increasing divorce rates, suicide cases, fractured families and dysfunctional relationships.

Oops...the weekend is almost over.  Need to prepare for tomorrow and wait in anticipation for the next weekend.

Take care.

Day 119 - Expectations

Last week was such a disappointing and depressing week.

The week began with THE event, which a lot of people in the organisation were looking forward to for a long time.  Monday was spent doing nothing but distributing envelopes and talking to people.  The one word which was heard time and again, was, 'Expectations'.  Interestingly, in different connotations too.  Someone said their expectations were met, some said their expectations were largely met, some said not really and some took the road of 'I have no expectations'!

'Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed'!

Is that really true?  Did all the colleagues who said that they had no expectations really mean it?  Is it possible to live in this material world and have no expectations?  By the looks of last week, yes it is.  Difficult maybe, but not impossible.

Expectations, I think, are manifestations of our perception of our own self and the environment around us.  Hence logically, if we are able control our thoughts and focus them on the present rather than extrapolating the past into the future, we might be able to get rid of undue expectations. 

On the other hand, we could argue that whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.  What is the point of living if you do not expect something from life and are keenly looking forward to it?  I know this is very abstract, but so is the eternal mystery of expectations.

The mystery of me being very disappointed and depressed might also just be a case of misplaced expectations.  Who knows...

The rest of the week was not very uplifting either.  The IPL cesspool continued to get dirtier by the day.  Look what two people with big egos can do.  And more importantly, look what a megalomaniac can do, if not governed adequately.  The good part though, was, my prediction (and wish) came true.  Mumbai Indians played Chennai Super Kings in the final and the Super Kings became the Kings of IPL!  My loyalties were divided, but I did realise that somewhere down there, I do have an extra special soft corner for Chennai!

I will be there at the end of this month.  Should remember to congratulate my friends in Chennai on the victory!

Appudi podu podu podu.....

Take care.

Day 110 - (Un)Common Sense

It has been an interesting week.  I did find a way out of the maze of priorities that I found myself at the turn of the last week.  Help came in the form of Sukumar Subramaniam! 

However, the more interesting happenings for me this week have been outside the ambit of my life.  The IPL and its workings are being unravelled as an outcome of the Tharoor - Modi war!  And what a cesspool it is!  The brand is taking a beating.  I am absolutely certain now that some of these matches (if not most) are actually staged and fixed.  Alas, cricket is no longer a gentleman's game.  The other interesting stand-off has been between two regulatory bodies in the country.  SEBI and IRDA are at loggerheads on who should be regulating the ULIPs.  Assume there is more to it than just jurisdictional insecurity.  Ego is at play; otherwise this one would not have been fought so publicly.  Poor Pranabda has a task at hand now.

We celebrated Priyanksh's birthday on Friday with friends and family.  After the cake cutting, along with the dinner, some very dangerous rides were on the menu at Hakone!  Some of our heads are still spinning.

Drove to Pune on Saturday, to meet the in-laws, and especially my father-in-law who is recovering from a cataract operation.  And it was while driving through the dark tunnels on the Mumbai - Pune Expressway that I decided I was going to write about traffic in Mumbai and the infrastructure thats supports it.

Traffic in Mumbai is insane.  I remember telling a few foreigners about the difference in traffic between Mumbai and Chennai.  Mumbai has more vehicles on the road but the flow of traffic is more organised than Chennai.  I would now like to retract that statement, which was based on my stay in Mumbai during the early few years of this decade.  Mumbai traffic is insane.

Everyone drives very aggressively; like there is no tomorrow.  Everyone wants to be ahead of the other vehicles.  There is no lane discipline, especially on the wider roads of the Eastern and the Western Expressways.  Sometimes, the distance between the vehicles while overtaking etc. actually scares me.  The margin for error is very less.  A millimetre here and there can cause an accident.

Add to this the infrastructure that supports road transport in the city.  There is no doubt that India as a country builds infrastructure on a lag basis, when there is a demand for it.  There is no proactive planning involved.  However, the issue that bugs me is the way the infrastructure is built.  There is no common sense used.  Everything is bare minimum.  There is no thought given to illumination levels, signages, reflectors, etc.  Suddenly, out of nowhere a divider comes into being; there is no reflective paint on it and hence so very difficult to recognise it at night.  Moreso because the illumination levels of our street lights are not only inadequate but pathetic.  Add to that the penchant for drivers to use the high beam (part of the reason to be using it is obviously the inadequacy of the street lights), with no element of common sense in it.  When driving at night in Mumbai, you are practically driving blind, atleast in most of the places.  Lack of adequate signages, and more importantly, inappropriate placement of signages can easily confuse a commuter into taking a wrong exit / missing an exit.  I definitely think people in Chennai who built these have a little more common sense.  It is definitely not due to their liking of the colour yellow that most dividers, reflectors, etc. are well painted in that colour!  :-))  Not sure what can be done to make the authorities smoothen these rough edges when they build roadways.  Hopefully common sense will dawn and prevail some day!

If you are driving in Mumbai, please take it easy.  Life is precious.  Drive safe.

Take care.

Day 103 - Here, There & Everywhere...

This last week has been really hectic.  At work and otherwise.  Even the weekend has been the same.  The reason:  Too many conflicting priorities and pulls.

1) Have to plan to be in Chennai as soon as possible to complete the formalities of the house sale.

2) However, the next week (and the one after that!) is very busy at work. Can't spare even a day except for this Friday.

3) However, Friday is Priyanksh's second birthday and I want to be at home with him.

4) Am looking to buy a house in Mumbai, however cannot move forward unless I complete the Chennai sale!

5) Amongst all of this, I have to be in Pune next weekend.

How do I go about resolving this maze of priorities?  Prioritize, some would say.  How to prioritize when all of the above are equally important, and more importantly, inter-linked?

While my small little brain struggled with matters of such great significance, I did visit the MCHI Property Exhibition at BKC on Saturday.  The real estate market sure has hit boom time by the looks of the crowd that was in attendance at the fair.  Bad news for me.  However, I think the trick here is to look for good value for money properties after cutting through the hype. 

Did the same on Sunday.  Took off to Girish's place to look at various properties in Thane.  Was dead tired by the end of the day; more so due to the blatant hard sell of the lady broker accompanying us rather than anything else.

I expect the next few weeks to be equally tiring and busy.

Take care.

Day 100 - Shubh Yatra

Keeping very much in line with my last post, I travelled to Ahmedabad with Priya and the kids.  By Indian Railways!  After a long time I decided to travel by train and there are multiple reasons for it.

It has been a while since I had travelled by train to anywhere. 

1) This was because I was based in Chennai for the last 6 years and travelling by train from Chennai to Ahmedabad (or anywhere up North / West) would have been too time consuming.  However, due to the fact that I spent a huge amount of my student life and early work life travelling by train and hence was longing to do a train journey again.

2) The kids were very small, hence long duration travel would have been a challenge.  Now that the kids are a little bigger, I wanted them to experience the joys of travelling by train, even if it was just a night journey!;-)

3) From Mumbai to Ahmedabad, it makes sense.  Saves time, saves money.

The journey itself was very uneventful.  This could be due to the fact that I played safe and travelled by First AC.  I do remember feeling a bit claustrophobic in the coupe initially. The kids did like it till they fell asleep!

Even after travelling by First AC, I do still think a lot can be done to improve the services and enhance the experience of travelling by Indian Railways.  The hygiene can be much better.  The ergonomics and the core service as well.

But then, I never ever gave all of these a second thought when I used to occupy 1/7th of the upper berth every morning to get to Nadiad from Ahmedabad, in my student days!

Take care!

Day 89 - Incredible India!

Yes, Incredible India!  That is the thought that comes to my mind again and again, since the last couple of days.  The trigger being my visit to Goa this week for an offsite.

Though the visit itself was very hurried and hectic (spanning a day and a half), while travelling from the Goa airport to the hotel located in South Goa, near Palolem, and back, I was amazed at how rich and more importantly, how different the landscape was. 

The point is, India is such a big and diverse country, with so much to offer.  It is said that the dialect changes every 500 metres in India. Not sure if this is an exaggeration, but it goes to show how different a different part of India might look like to someone who has lived mostly confined to his surroundings.  While on my way to and from the hotel, I could see a Goanese influence on so many things.  The style of architecture, the colours that locals use to paint their houses: vibrant and typical of Goa, the bill-boards, the dressing styles, everything had a distinct Goanese influence on it.

After this experience, I have promised myself that I will try to explore more of the richness and diversity of India's culture, geography and demography, going forwards.  It is a shame that I haven't yet seen the Taj Mahal!  In the next few years, as the children start growing up, I am going to explore India along with the family.  It is an incredible country and there is so much to experience as a proud citizen of this country. Incredible India, here I come!

By the way, the trip itself was fruitful, but quite tiring.  Was at work till 11.30 in the night and then had to catch the 6.00 AM flight.  Friday evening was good.  Once the working sessions were over, the drinking and singing sessions started.  Everyone had a fun time, with me finally retiring at 3.30 AM in the morning.  No prizes for guessing that I gave the yatch ride and the jet ski a miss the next morning.  This was my second visit to Goa.  The first time being for Zulu and Ryan's wedding four years ago, when me and Pince were there with Suryanksh, who was not yet born!

Take care.

Day 82 - Too Much Of Anything; Good For Nothing

I am refering to our country's beloved sport: Cricket!  And the context of mentioning it now is the ongoing IPL Season 3. 

There was a time when I would bunk school to be able to watch cricket.  Not in the stadium, but on television.  There was so much more anticipation before any game of cricket those days.  Waking up at 4.00 AM in the morning to watch the Benson & Hedges World Series matches was so exciting!

Nowadays, there is so much cricket being played and telecast, I do not really care who is playing whom, unless there is a match of great significance being played. 

I believe that too much cricket is not good for anybody.  Not for the fans, not for the players, not for the administrators in the long run and certainly not for the game itself.

Too much cricket doesn't give enought time to players to recuperate from slight niggles and they tend to play with minor injuries which make things even worse, sometimes, career threatening.  I do not remember Kapil Dev, a medium pacer; workhorse of this times, ever getting injured and missing a match due to that. 

For the audience and the fans, we get to see time and time again the same players and teams battle it out against each other and it becomes repetitive and boring.  Interest in the game wanes.  For example I was so very excited when we had the first season of the IPL.  By the time IPL 3 has come around I do not think I have the same fascination for the event anymore.  2 consecutive matches every day is causing cricket fatigue for me.

One might argue that this is all good for the administrators.  More cricket translates into more money.  But the point is that they are all killing the golden goose!  So much cricket is taking the interest out of the game which is not good for sponsors.  The administrators are sweating the game too much.

All this cricket has made the game very different from what it was twenty years ago.  The pace of the game has changed.  The experiments in batting, bowling anf fielding are coming thick and fast.  As of now no one is complaining, but as this goes on we might see something similar to a baseball game on a cricket pitch very soon.  There is a need to preserve the classic form of cricket.

I am defintely not looking forward to a game of baseball.  Take care.