On Hat-trick of Enrichment & Learning

This month, on the 10^th 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 Being a 90s kid, in whose childhood, cassettes were not outdated, but constituted a very important source of musical entertainment, I rewound this cassette of three amazing years in my mind, whose melody was not always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 19^th 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.