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 Being a 90s kid, in whose childhood, cassettes were not outdated, but constituted a very important source of musical entertainment, I rewound this cassette of three amazing years in my mind, whose melody was not always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

Lost in Global Village

I have read that watching foreign language movies is one of the ways to relieve stress. To strictly practise what I read, it was my German movie Saturday afternoon, though the language is no more foreign to me. The themes of German movies range from history to various social issues. The theme of the movie that I watched was ‘Migration’. It was about a Turkish family which moves to Germany in search of better jobs and better lifestyle. The family integrates quite well in the German culture and eventually receive German passport, officially gaining citizenship of the country. However, even after several years, the family finds its deep roots and warmth in their Turkish village of provenance. The movie was an engaging entertainer portraying the challenges the immigrants face in a foreign country, especially the cultural differences.

Before watching the movie, I had read one German write-up which explained how Germany became a land of immigrants. In 1950s when Germany was at her summit of economic prosperity, she needed more workforces to work in her industries and improve the infrastructure. Gradually the Gastarbeiter or ‘guest workers’ as the Germans liked to call them, started coming from countries like Italy, Greece, Spain and later in 1961 from Turkey, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia and Yugoslavia. In 1964, the millionth guest worker, Armando Rodrigues from Portugal was welcomed by the minister and was gifted a moped. The article also threw light on how the rules for immigration changed over the years. Soon the workers brought their families to Germany and settled there. As a step towards better integration, mandatory German language courses were facilitated to the immigrants. Till date, the Turks constitute to be the largest number of immigrants in Germany.

The article and the movie took me back to a definition, which was still lying at the back of my mind: Globalization is the free movement of goods, services and people across the world in a seamless integrated manner. My mind was focused on the word ‘seamless’. Like goods and services, can movement of people from one country to another be really called seamless? We are human beings who grow up in a particular environment, culture, traditions and values. Globalization also means movement of all these intangible factors, though their movement may not necessarily be ‘seamless’. Over the years, surely we integrate with the foreign culture and become one with them. Isn’t why there is a term called as cultural exchange? I believe that adapting to cultures is the biggest challenge in globalization. Of course, languages play significant roles in bridging this gap. As Indians, most of us are fascinated by and exposed to a bigger, modern world. In India, the basics of globalization can be learned from localization, thanks to our 29 distinct states, their unique cultures and vast number of languages. We are drawn towards the foreign lands like we are attracted to the foreign brands. We start getting a better view of the world and have a checklist ready of what we lack in our nation. We all have our own scales of measurement, don’t we? These individual scales lead to brain drain, in search of better opportunities. But how is life exactly when people land in their ‘lands of opportunities’? It is definitely not a smooth ride in the initial days. It is similar to a newlywed bride adjusting in her new family. Thanks to the adaptive ability of humans, the foundation of globalization is not shaken easily. Foreign and globally accepted etiquettes and manners become the way of life. We move from being intercultural to international. There is betterment of thought processes most of the times, depending on how well the new culture treats you. We build relationships with people of different nationalities. We become one with the world and realize that there are so many varied facets to it. Slowly the affinity towards something, which is once upon a time, ‘new and foreign’, grows and soon it becomes own. Adaption turns into adoption. A foreign land, a foreign culture as though transforms us in some or the other way.

When I thought of this theme, I remembered an article written by Swaminathan Anklesaria Iyer in which he wrote how his children had gone to various countries to study or to work and blended with the countries and married people of different nationalities . He said in that article how his children, i.e. the next generation of his family had gone international, whereas his own generation had gone inter-caste or rather intercultural. He beautifully states in the article that he therefore is a citizen of the globe now and feels one with the world. He feels at home and has a sense of belongingness in any part of the world. He still reminisces his days in his village in Tamil Nadu, where he enjoys eating food from a banana leaf with his hands.

The recent cases of Indians being shot dead or racially abused in some parts of the world, I view this as the ugly face of globalization. The ‘seamless’ process is hence distorted by such incidents. Globalization should not result into cultural conflicts or developing hatred for people having a particular skin colour. People move in quest of livelihood, so that the families back home can reap benefits and get a better taste of life. When one actually deals with the practicality of living in a foreign land, one can use the same scale of comparison and check if perceptions are better than reality or vice versa. Integration not just remains a word, but is a whole painstaking process which involves acclimatization as a major factor.

 I learned two unique or rather two profound German words during my studies: ‘fernweh’ and ‘heimweh’. Fernweh is a feeling, an excitement to travel to distant countries to have new experiences. Heimweh, on the other hand, is the feeling of homesickness. Globalization, according to me, is a process of feeling ‘fernweh’ to ‘heimweh’ at some point of life. It also means a phase when the faraway land becomes home and home becomes a faraway land. To look at the brighter side of globalization, your original home also visits your new home one day and that is when you are glad to see Indian restaurants in any part of the world that you go. Yes, we Indians are large in number and we do carry our cultures, traditions and most importantly our food and cooking methods wherever we go. And looking at this new scenario, where your birth motherland meets your adoptive motherland, one hums the melody by the singer Sia, ‘I found my way….found my way home…’

An Ordeal to Excel

In our lives we make a lot of friends – Real and Virtual, both. These days our number of virtual friends has gone up thanks to social media. These virtual friends help us to get glimpses of lives of our real friends, even if we are not in touch with them.

I made one such virtual friend, not an ‘online’ but an ‘offline’ one, since I became a working professional. This friend of mine has a plethora of friends all over the world as it strives to be ‘user friendly’. It is none other than Microsoft Excel, hailing from the famous Microsoft Office family. Excel has been my ‘friend-in-law’ as Elaine in the famous sitcom Seinfeld would say. It is my ‘friend-in-law’ as it is friends with many of my colleagues. “It is our bread and butter”, they often say.

Microsoft Excel has been my acquaintance since school days. I remember that in Class 8 we were taught some basic functions of Excel. Soon it became a faint memory. During MBA days, I got to know it a little better. But again it was buried under the heap of other subjects to be learnt. We were better friends with Excel’s brother, Microsoft PowerPoint. As MBA students then, PowerPoint presentations were a hope to get better marks and a means to articulate our ideas well. In an effort to look creative and professional at the same time, we resorted to Prezi presentations once in a while. I remember how much I enjoyed making presentations, even as a school kid. Creativity is better displayed. Since writing happened to me, Microsoft Word became my amigo fulfilling my desire to save papers. Though I missed my handwritten drafts with umpteen cancellations and alterations, typing my thoughts on a laptop reminds me of Carrie Bradshaw in the series Sex & The City.

So, let me get back with ‘How I Met Microsoft Excel’. Let me quote it like Ted Mosby, “Readers, today I am going to tell you an incredible story, the story of how I met Microsoft Excel.” In fact, it is a journey with several ups and downs, like any relationship. In Finance world, Excel holds a position of supreme importance. Graphs and pivot tables help to get a bird’s eye view of the huge data that forms its basis. I could understand the significance of Excel better only after ‘diving’ into it, as it is believed to be an ocean of countless functions. It is said that it is nearly impossible to master entire Excel. My knowledge of Excel could be considered smaller than a drop in this (Pacific) ocean. Functions like Vlookup have become daily colleagues, coming to rescue and fill in the blanks of huge data. However, the ominous appearance of ‘#N/A’ values come as a huge disappointment as it requires further digging for data from other sources. Excruciating scenario would be to enter the #N/A values manually! With so many keyboard shortcuts, working on Excel can be quicker and easier.

In my professional experience of 10 months now, Excel has taught me an important virtue -- Patience. Immense Patience. Often we work on Excel files which are loaded with information involving thousands and lakhs of rows, making it slower to open and operate on. They remind me of women in Mauritania. As the tradition in Mauritania goes, girls are force fed by their families in order to look presentable future brides hailing from well-to-do families. As a result of this force feeding, women suffer from obesity and other health disorders, which refrain them from carrying out daily household activities. Similarly, Excel sheets of huge sizes suffer from low, tortoise-like speed! Many a times I stare at my screen blankly, listening to the gasping sounds coming from my computer as it tries hard to process the data that I (force) feed in it. My eyes are fixated at the bottom of the screen looking at the words ‘Calculating: (4 Processor(s)): 1%, 2%....’ till the calculation reaches 100%. A sense of relief finally sweeps over as work regains normalcy after a much longer wait. Sometimes the wait is as long as 10 to 20 minutes or even more, in worst case scenarios. In the meanwhile, sitting at my desk, an avid reader like me engages herself in the fictional interesting world residing in a novel. The distraction is much needed when time comes to a standstill. In a fast paced professional world, such moments of waiting act like hindrance.

There are times when Excel retaliates through non co-operation movement when there are problems with the server. After working on the file by investing significant amount of time, I  proudly hit the keys Ctrl+S with a sense of accomplishment. As though with a vengeance, Excel comes up with a heart shattering message: ‘Document not saved’. Still, not losing my hope I try to save it on my desktop. But Excel plays dirty further by not letting me save my piece of work even on my desktop. There are also times when I am busy working on something and Excel suddenly goes AWOL by saying ‘Microsoft Excel has stopped working’ and I am left with my mouth agape. If I am fortunate enough, some of my data is recovered, like an aftermath. The sentiment is similar to a calculator which stops working during an Accounts paper! If Excel is an ocean, then such sinister messages can push you into the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth located in the Pacific Ocean. Then again follows the drudgery of redoing some of the work done!

Nothing in this world is perfect, be it humans or machines. Yet we accept the people around us along with their imperfections and build lasting relationships. My journey with Excel so far is filled with bittersweet memories. As an amateur, I am still delving into the depths of Excel. It is a golden rule, that to master anything, start from its basics. If any tautological relationship can be established, I would put it as learning the alphabets and roots of a language before learning words and then going on to be proficient in it. I see my colleagues everyday working very efficiently on Excel, as though they have befriended Excel since childhood. ‘Experience teaches you to be better on Excel’, they say. The ease, with which they hit the keys and get the accurate results, truly marvels me. I silently mouth ‘Bravo!’ when they solve my queries when I am caught in the net of doubts.

Now as I finish my litany of experiences with Excel and come out of my reverie, I stare back at my computer screen and see that the Excel sheet I have been working on has finally ‘processed’ and it smiles at me for having done my work. I brace myself to work further on it, trying to understand it better every time. I am sure that some day we will be the best of buddies, enjoying each other’s company. Let’s see how many more lessons I get to learn from this ‘user friendly’ application the world knows of!

How Old or Modern can History get?

Quite contrary to the ‘bright students’ who excelled in Mathematics and Science, my favourite subjects were Social Sciences and Languages. While History, Geography and languages were Achilles Heels for most of the students, I considered the very same subjects as my forte. Still, I considered myself a bright or rather an exceptional student because I could achieve the unachievable or unfathomable. Anyway, that is all in the past. It’s History, which brings me to the present theme for my very first piece in this fresh year 2017.

As rote learning was inevitable in almost every subject that we learned in school, definitions had to be written word to word in exams to gain complete marks. Keeping that in mind, we reiterated every definition like a parrot, something which the coaching classes particularly emphasized on. One such definition which I remember till date is that of History. I still remember it, not because I am blessed with elephantine memory, but it made me look with a wider perspective at history. “History is the coherent account of all significant events of the past”, said our textbooks aka our Bibles in school. They further elaborated on why one must learn history- so that we learn from our past, they said. Past helps us to shape our present and future.

History is divided into ancient, medieval and modern. Evolution of man, the Mauryan and other well-known empires of India dating back to several centuries formed part of ancient history. Maharashtra’s deity, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his formidable feats against the Mughal Empire were chapters of medieval history. Several chapters in our textbooks covered the onset and expansion of Mughal Empire in India. Not limiting our view of history only to India, we learnt American, French and Russian Revolution as well. I remember how I loved reading about Renaissance and Reformation in the 14^th and 15^th century Europe. Modern history constituted Indian freedom struggle and the world destiny changing World Wars.

Present of those days are today’s past. When I think that our generation too, would be a thing of the past one day, what would our history be like? What would constitute as ‘history’ which our successors would learn about? Certainly, Indian freedom struggle and world wars would no more be ‘modern’ for future generations. In today’s world which is changing fast, any incident which is as old as 10 is also considered as ancient! So, what would be the significant events which could shape the future history? Surely, there have been so many events since Independence which have truly created a mark in history. But have we really learned anything from our history or is it only locked in our history textbooks, with its key thrown away in some deep ocean?

Take for example, the World Wars which happened in 1914 and 1939. The cataclysm which the wars caused could bring chills down anybody’s spine. The wars taught us that there is no victory in war; only despair and annihilation of mankind. Yet we face the biggest war of our times: Terrorism. Thousands of innocent lives are lost all over the world. Violence can never be a way of showing supremacy. We invest millions in arms and ammunitions and boast that we possess arms of latest technology. Similar to Nazis which left no stone unturned to carry out genocide, the world today is bogged down by global terrorism, which aims destruction of certain strata of society. It seems we learnt nothing from history after all.

Coming to Indian history, we learnt about social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dayanand Saraswati, Mahatma Jyotirao and Savitribai Phule who strived to uplift women. If history means learning from our great ancestors, then we have miserably failed in this aspect. In a land of these venerable personalities, rape cases as gruesome as Nirbhaya’s or the very recent mass molestation in Bangalore happen. There are countless silent suffering women whose cases are not even filed by the police. It is ignominious that such cases happen in a society which wanders under the façade of egalitarianism.

History textbooks taught us the about the tyrannical British rule in India, as to how they exploited the people by taking away our wealth and heritage. With so many scams that we read about in newspapers, it is no different than how British treated the Indians. It is true since that era, that those in power robbed the commoners of their money and became even more powerful and richer. We learnt about the Non Co-operation movement, Civil Disobedience and revolutionaries of India in separate chapters. If history were to be written afresh, one could easily list the scams in India in different chapters!

Industrial Revolution which cradled in England in 1850 and spread gradually throughout Europe and the United States can be replaced with the present technological revolution which has eased man’s life over the years. We experience technological strides almost every day, in every field. We learnt about Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Bartholomew Diaz, Amerigo Vespucci who discovered various countries of the world. Today we are trying to discover life on Mars as well! Thus, history has surely given a thrust to technology and encourages us to continue exploring not only the world but also the universe.

In present news we read about Shivaji Maharaj’s memorial to be built on an islet in the Arabian Sea. The government intends to spend generously on it and the memorial is expected to be taller than Statue of Liberty. Given the engineering strength that we have today, it is not very difficult to build a grand structure like this. In one of the many inspiring chapters from Shivaji Maharaj’s life and the forts that he built, my favourite and jaw dropping structure is Sindhudurg Fort. Constructed in 1664 on an islet in Arabian Sea, this fort represents the epitome of engineering of that era and great vision of Shivaji Maharaj. History again taught us that nothing is impossible for human beings, as we are blessed with intelligence and mind better than animals.

Economics, also being a social science has seen many dynamic changes that have changed the face of Indian economy. The various Government initiatives, some notable ones beginning from 2014 to the very recent demonetization surely has taught us a lot, making us a part of economical revolution. We are in a phase where technology and economy are walking hand-in-hand to make a mark in history. From barter exchange to coins and paper money to cashless transaction, we have come a long way. We are witnesses of the new history that is made and will be engraved not only in textbooks but also in our minds.

History urges us to not repeat the mistakes of the past and also learn from the good that happened in the past. Time progresses. We progress, as individuals, as nations and as world. From handwritten letters and texts to emails, WhatsApp and Facebook, we grow, we develop. Some of my handwritten texts still bring me a sense of nostalgia and makes me explore my handwriting once again. I wish that someday I start writing my thoughts on papers, so that some people will explore my texts and preserve them like that Timbuktu Manuscripts!

One should not cling to the past, instead learn from the past and build a better present and future ahead. It is only then that history plays a successful role in reforming the minds. Let’s create history in such a way that when the future generations read about the revolutions we were part of, we only smile listening to them and say, “Those good old days!”

Exemplars of Happiness

A few days back, I read a report on World’s happiest nations. For quite long I was of the opinion that happiness was a state of mind and its meaning differed from person to person. Isn’t every human unique after all? There cannot be a perfect definition of happiness. Flabbergasted by the term ‘happy nations’, my curiosity to find out more about these nations piqued.

In the World Happiness Report published by United Nations, India stood on the 118^th rank. I was not surprised to find India as one of the nations at the bottom of the list. Astonishingly countries which are economically and socially weaker than India fared better in ranks of happiness! People in world’s happiest nations have longer life expectancies, have more social support, have more freedom to make life choices, have lower perceptions of corruption, experience more generosity, experience less inequality of happiness and have a higher per capita income.

Recently I read an article in German, which talked about the Zeitbank or Time bank concept in Finland. The title of the article ‘Helping by gifting Time’ was catchy enough for me to read it with greater interest. Before I began reading the article, I thought of checking Finland’s rank in the list of happy nations. The nation which could conceive such a unique and beautiful concept ought to be among the top happy nations. And my guess was correct. Finland is the fifth happiest nation in the world, after Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway. In Finland, people gift time to others; meaning, people take out some time from their routines in order to do something good for the society.

It had various examples: a man who is an editor by profession frequently visits an old age home and reads out news from the newspaper to a blind old man. This is something which refreshes his mood, he says. The old man, too looks forward to meet this young man and discuss the news around the world.

When people voluntarily come forward to help others, the society in return helps such people. These volunteers can go to the time bank and get the hours of their service credited. The time bank provides help to the volunteers when they are in need. “The help which we provide is not a substitute for professional help”, say the founders of time bank. Yet it is a beautiful way to develop a bond with people, providing psychological support when someone, for example is divorced and needs someone to go for a walk with or go shopping. At the end of the article I was completely awestruck and full of admiration for the Finns. When I related this article to the factors that determined a happy nation, I realized that Finland had scored full marks in all those aspects.

The thoughts in my mind about a happy nation then moved to the perspective of happiness in India. Talking about life expectancy, one of the factors for happiness, it is 68 years for Indians, which I believe is low considering the strides in medicine India is experiencing. However, considering the purchasing power of some, these advanced medical facilities may not be affordable for all. Great personalities like Dr. G. Venkataswamy, founder of Aravind Eye Hospital, have facilitated high quality eye treatment and cataract surgeries free of cost for people belonging to economically weaker sections. Laudable efforts by the Government and doctors like G.Venkataswamy are attempts to improve the life expectancy in India. Having said that, being physically fit is not enough to be happy. Mental happiness too is of a paramount importance.

The other determinants of happiness have a role to play in developing happy minds. Take for example the factor ‘freedom to make life choices’. Often around me I have seen people who are unhappy with their jobs. That is because their passion lies elsewhere and yet they end up doing some humdrum job. The background story before getting a job, i.e. of education is the same: to survive in the rat race and to get into the fields which are ‘in demand’, people often sacrifice their passions to maintain their status in the society. Perhaps for them, more than the happiness of their own, society’s opinions about them matter. We often hear some parents saying “What will people say?” The freedom to make life choices, in many cases, is not present even while choosing a life partner. Career and marriage, which are lifelong and crucial decisions, often are left to the judgment of the society. In such cases, where the heart and mind are not at peace, how can one be happy? Unfortunately, high salary earned in dissatisfactory job also does not amount to happiness. Thus, a higher per capita income does not necessarily contribute towards happiness. Haven’t we heard that ‘Money can’t buy happiness’?

As far as generosity is concerned, deduction under section 80G of Income tax Act attempts to pay respect to the donors, although the intentions of such donations may not always be noble. Nevertheless! Do these donations really benefit the needy or do they only help the rich to get richer, is the question. The problem of inequality of happiness arises in a densely populated country like India, where there are not enough and equal opportunities for all. Lack of opportunities and fairness are the some of the reasons why brain drain can happen. Economic and social factors like large population, high poverty and unemployment- elements of vicious circle, are determinants of adversity, leading to unhappiness among people.

A nation is happy when every citizen is happy, where there is no struggle to make both ends meet and people have the liberty to pursue their passions. That is possible only when creation of opportunities start. To achieve happiness at such a macro level is a Herculean task; surely it will take time to achieve a 100% happy population. At an individual level, we are responsible for our happiness. True, that we cannot always have everything that we want. But finding happiness in whatever we have and doing something that really gives us happiness ensures well being of the body and mind.

Recently I bought me a bicycle and riding it every morning helps me reach a rejuvenating sense of happiness. Reading novels and immersing myself in their stories gives me immense happiness. Understanding German language and delving into its beauty every time I read an article, helps me to understand the world better. Writing helps me to discover my inner self and develops my thought process. Interesting discussions with my friends and family, good food and hearty laugh also define my sources of happiness. It makes me realize that I am the owner of my happiness; people around me cannot decide when I should be happy. And I am convinced of this fact every time I see a frolic bunch of children, laughing and playing. Nothing around them seems to affect their happiness.

In a world of widely prevalent social media, where a smiling profile picture need not necessarily symbolize happiness, it is important to find genuine happiness within oneself. Because many happy individual minds and sanguine mindsets can really build a happy nation!

The Race against Time

As a student, time and deadlines had paramount importance only when exams and presentations used to be around the corner. I remember the times when I used to struggle to complete the never-ending theory papers within the stipulated time. While writing those papers, the attention used to be divided into time and quality of content. I used to heave a sigh of relief whenever I managed to complete the paper by ‘fighting against all odds’. Preparation for the presentations too used to start at the eleventh hour and the graph of panic levels used to rise.

As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, situations do not change, only the face of the situations change. I have been experiencing the challenges against time since turning into a working professional. This holds especially true when you are working in finance department and month end (which always seems to be approaching sooner than usual) alarm bell starts ringing. Being a novice with the financial tools used at work, the time required for understanding them and then implementing them in work is a Herculean task at the initial stages of learning.

After spending a few months in the organization, absorbing its culture and acclimatizing with the job tasks, I was assigned with a new set of responsibilities. That was, I would say, my breakthrough in understanding to complete the tasks on time. When the deadlines are nearby, even the emails in the inbox have exclamatory marks in the subject line, denoting the urgency in finishing the work on time. That is when the wheels have to get churning faster than normal. When I am in such a situation, I feel like the hare in the ‘Hare and Tortoise’ story, whereby I try to finish tasks as quickly as possible and then expect to relax for a while. Alas, Time (month end tasks) is such a tortoise that comes steadily but not slowly! And then I try to change the course of the story and try to win despite playing a hare.

Ideally in our 45 hours of work in a week, it can be said that tasks can be completed on time provided we plan them, to avoid panic. Or as Fredrick Taylor had suggested ‘time and motion study’ can really be implemented to increase business efficiency. If that would have been always possible, maybe the words ‘ad hoc’ or ‘impromptu’ would not have existed. In such a case it’s difficult to answer the question ‘How much time will it take?’ when you yourself are not sure of it and are about to do it for the very first time! It is like asking the ‘exact estimate’!  But giving assurances and promises is something we Indians are really good at and we don’t like displeasing anyone by raising their eyebrows. Therefore, to avoid looking like a fool or to avoid wrath of any sort, some people blurt any number that comes to their mind.

The story does not end here. After all the planning is done, you are set to finish the tasks on time and work towards it like a dedicated professional. On your way to accomplishment there lie various challenges in form of time consuming processes on your system and background files to be prepared which take most of the time. That I would say, is a test of patience. It is as though a dish taking not much time to cook, but its preparation involving painstaking efforts. In both the cases, be it cooking or the job task in which you pour your heart and soul in, the outcome is decisive. You are either praised or are suggested areas of improvement. Trainings too should form a part of routine activities to improve efficiency and also because they contribute significantly towards improving a person’s learning and experience curve.

Whenever we talk about completing things on time, the stories of people waiting back after the working hours are generally applauded. No one usually questions if that task really needed a person to wait back. No one really gives it a thought as to what that person does in the actual office hours. In German work culture working hours mean working hours without gossips or other frivolous activities. In such a work culture it is immaterial if your colleagues give you a perplexed look when you leave sharp on time.

Battling all the deadlines and having a sense of satisfaction that you did well in your work, there wait a loving bunch of people at your home who support you in all your trysts: Family. To ensure their happiness should therefore be on the top of your priority lists. And to spend quality time with our families out of the busy five-day week, we long for weekends. We must thank Henry Ford for inventing weekends in the early 1900s. Though he saw weekends as an opportunity to sell cars to his employees viewing them also as customers, he would not have known then, that these weekends only would provide solace to many indefatigable working individuals. Of course, there are many human machines as well who don’t mind working even on weekends. They are either passionate or megalomaniacs.

As I said that time sprints and waits for no one, weekends too sprint at a lightning or should I say frightening speed, and there comes Monday again. The cycle begins anew once again. Task lists are planned and prepared, accountability of time has to be proved and life simply goes on, forever waiting for weekends or planning for vacations or other passions to be pursued!

An Excursion with Esprit de Corps

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s a Management student, I learnt the importance of team spirit and team dynamics in any organization. Then, it seemed pretty theoretical to me. I wondered if team spirit really existed or was it just limited to Henri Fayol’s ‘14 Principles of Management’ which he wrote in 1916. To me, the meaning of team was only constricted to our group projects where one person working for the entire team was a common picture. In other words, there was ‘One-for-All’ and not ‘All-for-One’ concept. In a business law parlance, it used to be a nightmare when I used to have a bunch of dormant or sleeping partners in my group, who hardly contributed anything towards the project. I used to be skeptical when our faculties used to randomly divide us in groups. Sometimes, to my misfortune I used to have a majority of dormant partners. Our teachers always said, “At work you cannot choose your boss or colleagues, you have to work with them the way they are!” They were right after all.

As an amateur in corporate world and in my organization, I soon got a wonderful opportunity to bond with my team, disguised in the form of a vacation in Hyderabad. Our textbooks would explain the qualities of a leader or a manager, mentioning that ‘developing team spirit’ is one of the qualities that a leader must possess. My team leader gave us the opportunity to understand that. Amicable that she is, she invited our team for her son’s first birthday in Hyderabad, followed by sightseeing in the city of Nizams. It was a trip worth looking forward to, as I could explore yet another city of our diverse nation.

The day of our journey finally dawned. Wading through the daily phenomena of traffic in Mumbai, my colleague and I finally reached the airport. As expected, Mumbai airport was bustling with people everywhere, some in hurry and some at leisure. Life moves at a lightning speed in Mumbai. Our flight was delayed by 40 minutes, but my excitement to go to Hyderabad prevailed. After our plane landed in Hyderabad, one of my colleagues booked a cab to reach our desired destination. In the entire trip I realized that how smartphones and cab service companies have joined hands to serve people better. Such business models not only generate profits, provide livelihood but also provide comfort to the travelers when it is most needed. Such businesses hold customers at high regard, ensuring efficient and timely service.

We reached our hotel and got dressed for the birthday party in the evening. The party had a jungle theme; therefore the party hall was decorated in green, brown and blue with famous cartoon characters like Mowgli and Lion King, just how children would love it. The birthday baby was smartly dressed and he smiled at the guests as if to welcome them to his first birthday. The evening was frolic with some games and lots of laughter. We clicked a number of pictures to treasure our moments. The sumptuous dinner at party had specialties of Hyderabad – Biryani being the most famous one. We relished every dish over a nice chat. It was one of my first encounters with colleagues in an informal occasion. I realized that they were jovial and full of wonderful thoughts and ideas.

Next morning we decided to the visit the most celebrated tourist attraction of Hyderabad – Ramoji Film City. It was half an hour drive away from our hotel. It was literally another gargantuan, glamorous city within Hyderabad. We were provided a map at the entrance so that we could watch the scheduled shows. The first show was a pantomime stunt show. It was truly a show proving that ‘Actions speak louder and effectively than words’. The next show called ‘Spirit of Ramoji’ displayed the amazing dance and juggling skills that the performers possessed. The show ‘Filmi Duniya’ was a train ride to visit the beautifully stationed puppets representing different parts of the world. ‘Lights, Camera, Action’ was another show demonstrating various genres of Hollywood in a hall clad in darkness. The bright props used by the performers exhibited their talent and dispelled the darkness around. The performance was a treat to eyes. As if to reminisce the days of our innocent childhood we went for a show which was meant for children, yet we could enjoy and laugh there till heart’s content. The last show that we attended was ‘Space Yatra’ which could give us a life-like experience that we were in a spacecraft, closer to the earth. Technology does marvels, doesn’t it? To feel chills down the spine, we visited a devil’s house which was made with such lights and objects that it was capable of shaking people with fear. We clicked a lot of pictures in that haunted, brightly illuminated house. We had lots of moments of laughter there as well. Since the rides in amusement parks fascinate me, I was eager to sit in one of the rides to see the world go ‘upside down’. One of my colleagues joined me in that ride. I felt a childlike excitement once again. The ride lasted for 2 to 3 minutes, yet it was exhilarating. Ramoji is known for its sets resembling reality and many Hindi movies have been shot there. Through a bus ride we saw the sets which were used in various movies like Jab We Met, Bahubali etc. I left from Ramoji awestruck, wondering the depths of creativity existing within people.

After resting for a while in our hotel, we headed for dinner at Chutneys, a famous restaurant in Hyderabad. I was astonished to see a wide variety of Dosas and Idlis. Each bite of them tasted like heaven. Food becomes more enjoyable if you have a good company to dine with, and I just had the kind of people with me with whom I could relish the food. After having a wholesome dinner, we went on a long walk to Hussain Sagar Lake, in the centre of which Lord Buddha’s refulgent statue stands. The cool breeze around the lake was soothing. As we walked, my colleagues and I had interesting discussions, be it about the society or Bollywood. I always find it interesting to ponder over people’s opinions, to understand how human minds work. It was late at night by the time we reached our hotel. The city was fast asleep by then, but for us Mumbaikars it was quite usual to be awake and fresh even at that hour.

Next day was our last one in Hyderabad. That morning after having a delicious breakfast of Paneer Dosa, Idlis and chutney, we drove to Salarjung Museum. To get an experience of local transport of Hyderabad, we decided to reach Salarjung in an auto rickshaw. To travel in an auto without a meter fare was a unique experience for me. Haggling for cheaper fare is justified as tourists are often swindled by auto drivers.

Salarjung Museum is a repository of art objects around the world, stretching from Europe, the Middle East to ancient India. The museum is named after Mir Turab Ali Khan and Mir Laiq Ali Khan, the Salar Jungs who belonged to an illustrious family which served as prime ministers to the Nizams. We hired a guide who explained us the significance and origins of the artifacts around. Some of the paintings and statues were mesmerizing, showing us yet another glimpse of imagination and creativity. All the art objects belonged to the ancient times, yet their colours looked fresh and nascent. What intricate art meant, I understood after watching these manmade epitomes of beauty. I stood in admiration for the cognoscente Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, Salar Jung III who was mainly responsible for the collection. He made it possible to bring the entire art world under one roof, where people could get acquainted to the multifarious forms of art and culture.

As Hyderabad is famous for pearls, we went shopping for pearls. We reached the market area near Charminar, which seemed like a hub of pearl jewellery shops. Charminar was horded by people, making it a busy market street. The shops we visited shone milky white. The varieties in pearl jewellery could put any woman in dilemma! The prices ranged from reasonable to exorbitant and we spent a long time choosing the ones that were worth the value. My two male colleagues too thought of buying some pearls for their loved ones and we three ladies were happy to help them in selecting the right ones.After all, women not only love to shop for themselves but for others as well!

Having bought the special gems of Hyderabad, our shopping spree would not have been complete without visiting Karachi Bakery, whose confectionaries are mouth watering. Tempting aromas of biscuits and pastries wafted in the shop. I had heard from one of my friends that Karachi Bakery served finest confections. Gauging from the huge crowd that was present in the shop, I agreed with my friend. A plethora of biscuit flavours were available, making the place a heaven for persons having sweet tooth. We left the shop carrying a number of boxes in our hands.

My team leader, extending her hospitality further, invited us at her home for dinner. Her home is a beautiful abode of two floors. Her baby boy playing a good host with his mother greeted all of us with his endearing smile. He had recently started walking and he exhibited his walking skills, astounding us all. The dinner was a gourmet’s paradise with homemade Hyderabadi dishes. My team leader and her husband, truly living by the adage ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ served us the splendid meal. That day she was only a warm host and friend for us irrespective of the echelon she held in our organization. I savored every dish. It is true that no food other than home cooked food can truly satisfy our hunger. Our hearts were filled with gratitude and contentment.

The next morning we headed back to Mumbai to return to our busy lives. Similar to the sentiments at the end of every vacation, I felt morose that this exciting vacation had come to an end. The moments spent, the jokes cracked by my colleagues and their amazing company was worth cherishing. After this trip, I realized that I now know them a little better than what I did earlier. They are not only good professionals but also good persons. This excursion taught me what the word ‘kennenlernen’ in German i.e. ‘to get to know someone’ truly means. This experiment in team spirit and team bonding was a successful one!