Who’s driving you?

I always felt that a lot of your experiences and your learning depend upon who’s the driver. Like we are driven by our parents when we are young, then our own-selves drives us and then we also meet influential people who drive our decisions like your partner, boss, colleagues, friends, family, etc. etc. After all human being is a social animal and has to pay price for that.
However, my post is not about all those people mentioned above. It’s about those who are always behind the wheels when you are in the car and won’t ever leave you estranged at any place or time. These are our so called driver kaka / driver bhai (that’s what we call them or what so ever you call them), who drive us on our lanes to office, home, tour. Each driver is having his own story to tell. Some would be eager enough to tell you each and every story in so much detail, that by the time you leave the vehicle, you are ready to write an autobiography. And some would be too hard to be taken out of their bit of aloofness. But, I like first set of drivers. They make you learn so many things filled with new experiences of life, which you could have hardly got, considering the living standards/conditions you are having.
Sometimes sitting at back seat, I feel that how they manage their lives with their occupation. Driving here and there, learning each new route and reaching each new milestone with same eagerness to meet their destination. And still keeping you engrossed in their talks and life empowering experiences. Taking part in your sorrows and joys they tend to forget their and sometimes we too forget about theirs. Have we ever thought what all tribulations they might be facing, by coping with their occupational responsibilities? And still making you reach in time and safely.
I don’t know how relevant might be this piece to your lives. But, I just like these driver kakas for their lovely chatting, their practical advices and their great knowledge which has made many of my trips memorable ones. Hats off to their dedication… :)

The Kite Runner: A Must Read

I might be late in reading this one, but thank god I read it. I thank thousand times to my colleague, who suggested me this book and even got me copy of it. It seems that I am exaggerating the things, but let it be that way. I am so.. so happy after reading this piece of writing. The way this story unfolds is just marvelous.

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, story of a boy who is struggling his haunting childhood event, lives in memories of Afganistan of his childhood and the kind of cruel reality he faces about the current conditions of Afganistan. Before reading all about Afganistan, I had no clue that Afganistan was such a beautiful place before this tragedy and never realized what the people of Afganistan are going through now, in these terrible conditions. Its story about humanity, explores all the facets of human nature be it love, care, hatred, jealousy, fear.

All this forced me to think about those people who are still stuck in those lands where terror is common thing nowadays, like Pakistan, Afganistan, our own Kashmir. How political greed of a few people has led to devastated lives of millions of people, the one who are facing the aftermath of terror or the ones who are direct factors of terror. We talk about world peace, global climate, growth and hundreds of other rosy words… but we only talk. And talk doesn’t give food to a terrorist or to the children who have lost their father last night being hit by a terrorists bullet or may be the bullet of army itself, who were actually fighting against terrorists. When will the ones ruling our nations will realize that a single loaf of bread on which they are spending some 500 or 1000 bucks, actually costs life for a child. We are talking about bright future for our children, but what about those who are getting orphaned every single minute. I might be exaggerating again, but at this point I am just feeling that my exaggeration is a miniscule compared to pains of people living in those war stricken countries. Hope to find some ray of hope for them too…

Jo beet gayi so baat gayi...

Last Friday, Mr. Bachchan recited a poem by Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan, ‘Jo beet gayi so baat gayi…’ on Big Boss, as one of the contestant’s stay in the house had ended. It just struck chord in my heart and I too started reciting the poem along with him. I felt as if, only yesterday I had read this poem. I was so happy after this and couldn’t just stop myself telling my hubby about this poem, which I think was part of our CBSE curriculum of 9th or 10th standard. Simultaneously I felt so sad about not being in touch with such beautiful things and sheer joy of life. In school we used to learn such poems by heart and used to have various competitions. It was simply great to be part of all that.

Somehow, we have come far away from all such beautiful things. Now, we are more inclined towards visual stories and that imagination part is sometimes missing from our lives, as we make ourselves too busy with the materialistic things. Now, our minds get busy in imagining as what boss will be thinking about my appraisal, what shall be the % increment (nowadays its hard to imagine what could it be, thanks to recession) or else where shall I be investing to get max. returns, blah, blah, blah… Oh lord!!! I am just stuck in all this. Have just lost the patience to listen to unspoken words, imagine and read between the lines of such beautiful poems or just sit back idle, doing nothing and let sun set and keep on looking at it. Me and my sis’ used to go to our terrace and watch sun setting behind our house and imagine shapes of clouds, talk about how sun would have felt whole day, is the sun happy today or is he sad… we used talk just anything on earth. Now, we don’t get time even see each other for so many days or say months. However, now if we’ll just sit that way and chat, everybody else will call us…. “ab to bade ho jao…”. Aah... those were lovely days. Won’t say today is not as beautiful, but past had something in it. Or I think we are tend to be like this only, always looking in past and overlooking joys of today. That’s why this poem just correctly says… Jo beet gayi so baat gayi… :)

Have a look at this poem below...
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जो बीत गई सो बात गई

जीवन में एक सितारा था
माना वह बेहद प्यारा था
वह डूब गया तो डूब गया
अंबर के आंगन को देखो
कितने इसके तारे टूटे
कितने इसके प्यारे छूटे
जो छूट गए फ़िर कहाँ मिले
पर बोलो टूटे तारों पर
कब अंबर शोक मनाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

जीवन में वह था एक कुसुम
थे उस पर नित्य निछावर तुम
वह सूख गया तो सूख गया
मधुबन की छाती को देखो
सूखी कितनी इसकी कलियाँ
मुरझाईं कितनी वल्लरियाँ
जो मुरझाईं फ़िर कहाँ खिलीं
पर बोलो सूखे फूलों पर
कब मधुबन शोर मचाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

जीवन में मधु का प्याला था
तुमने तन मन दे डाला था
वह टूट गया तो टूट गया
मदिरालय का आंगन देखो
कितने प्याले हिल जाते हैं
गिर मिट्टी में मिल जाते हैं
जो गिरते हैं कब उठते हैं
पर बोलो टूटे प्यालों पर
कब मदिरालय पछताता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

मृदु मिट्टी के बने हुए हैं
मधु घट फूटा ही करते हैं
लघु जीवन ले कर आए हैं
प्याले टूटा ही करते हैं
फ़िर भी मदिरालय के अन्दर
मधु के घट हैं,मधु प्याले हैं
जो मादकता के मारे हैं
वे मधु लूटा ही करते हैं
वह कच्चा पीने वाला है
जिसकी ममता घट प्यालों पर
जो सच्चे मधु से जला हुआ
कब रोता है चिल्लाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई

— हरिवंशराय बच्चन
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Some New Addictions

These days I am quite smitten by this blog world. Somehow, I am finding quite many blogs interesting and just hopping from one blog to another. (I am cultivating reading habits.... :)) As I was just moving from one blog to another, I felt sad. Reason: I was missing such great things since long. People have such a good ideas, good thoughts about society and many interesting things to tell. There are a few lovely ladies who have got their pens down (say key strokes) for noble cause of spreading awareness about women rights/their empowerment and against gender inequality and there is “Silolo”, whose Peanut got hooked me with her and I feel like agreeing with her opinion (now, that happens rarely with me…). From there I hoped on to Smitha’s blog, where I feel that I am reliving my childhood with Poohi. There I found a lovely lady, and her one blog inspired me so much that I have sworn to cultivate all the qualities of JKG in my son (if, I’ll have any… ;-)). That one took me to V-lokam, I felt like being in Europe. And heyyy, I can’t ignore that Himachali guy, now don’t know hez himachali or not, ya but he stays there. I am kinda so attached to my native, that even after staying away from that place since long, can't detach myself from anything connected to it. But this guy is really cool in his way of writing, (now, don’t think that I am biased) with his if-else loops.

I am about to read other’s also. And will update here, if I got to read more striking ones....

Being Right...

“Managing the things right” or “Managing right things”
What do you think is more important?

Generally management lesson we learn in our management schools is all about “Managing the things right”, which becomes our mind set. We tend to do everything right, we design new strategies and develop new skill set to do the things right, and try to make perfect world around us. But, I feel somewhere or the other, we tend to forget to ask a question, “Are we doing right things?”

So, actually one can’t ignore or give more importance to any one of these ideologies.

I won’t go in much detail about “Managing the things right”, as something I am keener to talk about is “Managing right things” as of now. And this is one of the important lessons, I have learnt from my good managers as well as some of the bad managers, to cultivate “Managing right things” attitude. There are various aspects which are required for this “Right thing”. I’ll put forward some of them and you may add on to this collection:

1. Ethics: I’ll start with ‘Ethics’ as most important factor in managing right things. Ethics drive that a person involved in act, will be responding to certain situation in what manner. If a person gets driven by unethical practices, then he/she is definitely putting efforts in undesired activities, which makes it irrelevant that how efficiently he/she is managing the things right.
2. Habit of Cover-Ups: I read an insightful article about habit of ‘Cover-Ups’, which leads a person to some unwanted activities which may have been avoided if the cover-ups would have not been done at the first place. Thus, providing more space, time and focus on managing right things. (Refer: http://ymadhuri.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/cover-ups-breed-incompetence/ Read the series…)
3. Defining Priorities: In order to get the result of managing things right one needs to define the priorities. Defining priorities will lead to managing right things, at right time. Priorities can be defined based upon the effect a particular activity is going to have after completion. If somebody else is waiting for your output, from particular activity to start his/her activity, then your activity becomes much more important. Thus, you can define priorities based upon the end results of your activity and do the right task at right time.
4. Delegation: In order to get more time to manage right things, you need to perform something very important “Right Thing” of delegating the responsibilities. This activity becomes more and more important as you climb to more responsible role in the ladder. If things are not delegated, then it is never that you’ll be able to accomplish the goal of ‘Managing the things right’. Reason is pretty simple; you are not left with any time to perform the task efficiently. So, identify the person best suitable for the task and delegate it.
   
   There could be a long list to go with either of the ideologies, but I’ll hold myself for now. I wish to have more suggestion on these ideologies and methodology to accomplish either of them.

Life around… Influence Peddling...

Ahmedabad’s sunny days have taken a toll on all of us and there were many of us standing in a queue to get some air pumped into tyres of our vehicles… and suddenly a man with a huge car dropped by, along came a petrol pump boy & to my surprise (rather I should not be surprised as, its just a way of life about which I should have come in terms with … ) and asked the other boy at our counter to get the air filled in the car, before anybody else’s.
I was about to shout… fouuuul…but the basic instinct told be not to do…as I didn’t wanted to spoil my morning…

This is just a simple example from our daily lives….and can be seen everywhere. It’s nothing new... but my very question is, why that man can’t just wait for 5 mins for his turn? Why for such a petty thing hez using his influences… you can imagine at upto level he can go for getting his things done…

Let’s be sincere and respect the sincerity of others…And it’s nothing like, I was on other side and that’s why I felt so bad about it. I felt v.bad when my loan got passed in a week because my father-in-law was an employee of that nationalized bank, while others had been waiting for a month or might be longer than that. You could have seen the snail’s speed at which those people had been working…still in this computer age, they were just using hell lot of manual activities like I had to give them 48 post dated cheques, instead they can easily get the loan repayment done from ECS facility. I felt that, all this just to save job of few inefficient ones…why can’t we be honest and put our best efforts to perform our work efficiently… use the best techniques available to you and you can excel in career and can get rid of those hundreds of files piling up like anything…and provide the same service to everybody. But, I think that drive is missing… ‘chalta hai chalne do’ and ‘yahan to aise hi kaam hota hai, jaan pehchan hai to karwa lo’ attitude…

That bank issue was not in my control, but at least I do make a point to stand in a queue wherever I can, but how many do respect my honesty… then somebody will come, will use his influence and will get his work done first… That makes me sick… We all know what is right and what is wrong, but still we do make benefits out of such situations like getting a blockbuster movie ticket, getting admission in colleges (Ahhh… there you just have to use money power, else no other influence works), or just a small thing like getting your bill paid at the grocery store… (like.. I am your regular customer, get my bill done first…).

We being educated, being knowing best of practices, have access to the information from every corner of the world… can influence people around us to be honest and respect honesty, respect each others work and do not use our influences.. we all need to take this drive… I am trying to contribute my bit …hope some more too…

Step Forward

Taron ko chhune ki kashish, wakt ko bandhane ka hausla…
Har kadam me ek naya sahas, har aawaz me ek nayi udaan…

This is what I felt, when I first entered a Teach India Classroom. As such you cannot call it a classROOM as it was an open terrace of municipal quarters, where there resident kids had gathered to learn something new from their new teacher. But, I will call it a classroom coz that is what they do call it. As that gives them the feeling that they are gonna learn something new, we the teachers will help them to be the better citizens of nation, will help them to grow being rich, famous and to accomplish their goals.
You have to be with them to feel their energy….chirping like birds, hopping here and there like rabbits.. so cute..... and determination to do something and everything they could lay their hands on. Ready to learn new lessons, ready to share new ideas… full of queries…. and that gives the feeling… of life….

These are the moments which make you feel that your life is worth… that you are able to pay back the society what it has given you. That gives you the feeling that life is more than going to office, making money, gobbling up food, and watching TV in the name of entertainment… Rather life is more about working with selflessness, to contribute to build your nation by investing just some hours of your life. We always keep on saying what government has done for country…. but actually have we anyways asked ourselves what we are doing for our nation? We always complain of having increase in crime… but had we took a little concern to give food to that hungry boy who was just about to crash from bike in the morning… no, we never…we were in hurry to meet an important client who is about to give us a big order. Then, how can we think of little boy who had been hungry since 2 days, looking for a single loaf of bread… to be honest. Then, we try to teach that boy the lesson of honesty. We can never achieve anything out of this… Instead of that if each one of us take responsibility of at least a single child, we would be able to give ourselves a much better future… then we don’t have to wait for some government body to come and solve our problems. Reason; we would have invested in the saplings which will be trees to render the prosperity and lay a path of growth for our nation. The nation is built on strong shoulders…. And let us take step forward to give those shoulders to our nation.
Nobody from our generation wants to get into those muddy waters of violence in the name of caste…religion… color.. We all understand that its only the wellness of a being which counts. So, let us start the drive to bring that wellness in our nation. How long are we going to look upon any other country to give us good job opportunities, let us make them here itself.
I know you might be feeling that I am really day dreaming… but how can I fulfill it until I dream of it. I dream of clean roads, I dream of seeing every child in school and dream of every body living happily… I am taking my step forward…and there are many who have already taken, and made us what we are today… so let’s take it to next level…

Here’s glimpse of my lovely birds…