This month, on the 10th
of May, I completed three years of blogging. With blogging having entered my
life, a new identity, or rather a new title for me came into existence:
‘Student and a blogger’ and since a year, ‘working professional and a blogger’.
I started thinking what all changed in these three long years and how have I
developed as a person and a writer. I went into self introspection and thought
of some significant incidents that had an impact on the way I think and the conclusions
I drew from them. Being a 90s kid, in whose childhood, cassettes were not
outdated, but constituted a very important source of musical entertainment, I
rewound this cassette of three amazing years in my mind, whose melody was not
always pleasant but at times doleful as well. This cassette of memories and
experiences was rewinding in my mind while riding my bicycle, whose wheels and
therefore my future ideas I was pedaling ahead.
The biggest
metamorphosis was becoming a working professional from a student. The entry
into the ambitious, glamorous and demanding corporate world was a significant
step for me. Before entering into this world, there were a number of
experiences and lessons learnt, even as a student. I began blogging as a medium
to express my thoughts to a wider audience when I was at the end of one phase
of my student life and was about to enter the next one. These two years were
going to be memorable ones, with their own share of good and bad lessons. Apart
from the usual academia, there were corporate grooming lessons, which I
particularly found noteworthy. To be sartorially good and sober, the institute
I studied in insisted us to view the corporate world in ‘black’ and ‘white’. It
is during this phase I realized that colours indeed played a significant role
in our lives and there are people who judge you by your cover i.e. your
clothes. Hence, to strictly abide by rules, we always wore white shirts and
black blazers and suited up for companies, who would be our potential
employers. Mind you, black blazer could not be replaced by navy blue and white
was an irreplaceable shade. No matter how diffident or hollow you are deep
inside, the blazer always ensured that you look presentable to employers, who sometimes
pay little attention to your dress code. These experiences taught me triviality
of rules and our ability to question and challenge them. I believe that as we
grow up, we often forget to ask ‘Why’ and demand answers. We merely accept
things the way they are. We lose the child-like curiosity which wants to know
everything that is going on around.
Then finally I entered
the corporate world, in my very first job, with my own set of perceptions and
expectations. As a fresher recently out of college, the world of work looked
magical. For me, this one year in my organization was a roller coaster ride. This
ride gave me bitter experiences as well as some sweet memories. As destiny
favoured me, some of my very good friends became my colleagues as well. Then we
had only theoretically known how an organization runs. We were about to
experience it on our own. I still remember my second day at work, where we as
freshers participated in various team games organized by our department. It
gave us a first practical lesson of functioning as a team and also to build a
rapport with our fellow colleagues.
When I look back at the
one year spent in my organization, I realize that along with your skills and
efficiency at work, it is dealing with people or people management skills that
are critically important. I met some really difficult people here, who tested
my courage and patience. Some really astonishing questions had to be answered,
which made me think of mentalities existing within people. Then I had to work
and interact with people who believed in redoing work as they were of the
mindset that only the work done by them is ultimately reliable. Such people
were totally oblivious to the concept of delegation of authority and
responsibility. Other category of people believed in being pedantic and
therefore attempting to create more work than necessary.
The subject of
work-life balance is always spoken about and is always thought of when employee
welfare is concerned. Unfortunately in India, work-life balance is still a myth
for some. While working with one of the onshore teams, I realized how Indians
are expected to work and stretch for more than working hours. In the developed
countries, the employees leave on time and work can wait for the next day.
However, the Indian leadership believes in working beyond the office hours.
They often expect their employees to bend as and when the onshore demands. I
had to work with one of these draconian teams who expected me to stay back ‘for
as long as I could’. Surprisingly the Indian team here had decided to comply
with this unreasonable demand. The British rule of 150 years in our country did
not really teach us much. Labour, which is an abundant factor of production in
our country, is often exploited as the per capita income is low in our country.
It is similar to obtaining huge discounts on goods when bought in bulk. Such
testing moments taught me to stand firm for my beliefs and not fall prey to
unreasonable requirements. Before the movie Pink
widely preached the famous line, “No means No”, I had implemented this
principle well before in my work life. I believe that none of us is good or bad;
it is the situation which requires us to act in a particular way. Our innate
and acquired traits, our upbringing have lot to do with the way we behave or
react.
Though I battled with
challenges faced, I always looked forward to spend time with my friends, to
have my daily doses of laughter and interesting conversations. Then there were
others who soon became friends from colleagues. In this one year, I could very
well learn the game of masquerades, behind which people hide. The smiling faces
came bearing daggers, ready to sabotage in some or the other way. Instances of
blindly giving commitments without understanding the feasibility were another
sad and disappointing set of scenarios. The word ‘escalation’ which for me, was
only one of the known words existing in the dictionary, soon became the
frequently used and heard word. Mary Parker Follet defined Management as, “the art
of getting things done through people”. Of course the definitions have to be
updated as the quantum of knowledge grows and develops. Therefore, I could
rephrase the definition as “Escalation is the art of getting things done
through people”; if at all my views are asked for revision of this definition. I
would not necessarily term the above encounters as bad. As I said, these
experiences taught me to deal with people; they made me stronger, which no
textbook could have ever done. I view them as case studies of psychological
behaviour.
Winds of change came
into my life, but there were few friends whose support always provided me
relief. These friends are none other than my beloved novels and my German
books. The real world is not utopian; hence I often engage myself in the fictional
world and meet new people in every book. There comes a point when fictional
people seem more real than people with flesh and blood. Some friends go far
away from your life, but you always share a special bond with these friends.
Time cannot tear apart some friendships. German language is one such friend who
could charge me with optimism even after the distance of four years that we
shared. When I opened those books after a long time to embrace and introduce
the language back into my life, the language as though welcomed me with its
open arms. The long lost friends were thus reunited. Now that the German
learning is back into my life, it has planted seeds of hope and positivity in
my life. Most importantly it has given me this Elysian feeling of being a
student once again. These passions of mine teach me that motivation and
sanguinity could come in any form.
When I wrote my first
article back in 2014, I had quoted some of Ruskin Bond’s lines. On 19th
May 2017, he turned 83 and was asked about the source of inspiration for his
novels. He said that the memories of places where he lived and his past gave
him ideas to write different plots of his novels. The line by him which I liked
the most was, “I’m of the opinion that
every writer needs a window. Preferably two. A good wordsmith should be able to
work anywhere- in a moving train, in a hotel room, on board a ship struggling
against a typhoon or under an erupting volcano.” When I write something, the people I spend
time with or I know of, often become the part of the content that I write. In
other words, they are the catalysts of my writing. I implement my experiences
and opinions about them and fictionalize them at times when I write a story.
They can be protagonists, antagonists or simply one of the umpteen characters.
And of course, command over language and inspiration from my favourite writers
always help me to shape my characters.
When I look back at
those three years, I realize that I lost and found many things. I started
seeing world from others’ eyes. Myriad forms of human nature marveled me and
convinced me yet again that each one of us is so unique. In some way or the
other, they helped me to be someone better, showed me that the world is still a
good place and contributed significantly to enrich my thoughts and writing. There
will be many more people in the future that I meet who will have pure hearts or
not so pure hearts. But as an opportunist, these people would be my muses whose
pictures I may paint in various shades of my writing.
