Mumbai was rocked!!

I am sure there are so many blogs about Mumbai attacks but what I am writing here is something slightly different.

All of us are aware on what happened in Mumbai few days back.

I was travelling outside India for few Business meetings and unfortunately, my all meetings with my customers started with the topic of "MUMBAI". Unfortunate not because of I was ashamed of what is happening in India but because my mind was not letting me talk happily to the customers and still I was there doing business meetings.

About 5 months back whenever India used to have terrorist attacks, I used to feel bad about the attack as any Indian and used to think for a moment about those who lost there lives and then used to immediately call my known people in that area / city and check about their whereabouts!!
After all this, for me it was just a news and probably consumed about 20 minutes of time on that day only.

But then, something happened that changed my process of how I take news like these.

One day I was driving back from office and as usual was listening to the FM radio.
The hostess that day was talking to callers. The show was getting hosted 5 days after the recent Delhi bomb blasts in Connaught Place.

Everything on the FM calling was going fine till the time a girl called the FM station.
She started her talks with hostess with crying. Then she narrated her story over the radio which was about her acquaintance with the Delhi blasts.
The girl was about to get married and her only friend (girl) was also supposed to get married same date. Both the couples went for shopping in CP on the D-Day and then for sometime, she went with her friend's fiance to a different shop and then booooooooooooom!! the bombs went off and her fiance n her friend died!!
With this narration of her side, the girl was cryin, cryin n cryin!!

I then realised that what was just a news for me, was a complete change of life for someone.
And then I realised that I need to give much much more value to it than just a news and 10 minutes. That is the least that I can do.

Dont think that I am talking some emotional funda!! when you can appreciate Peter Parker realising that "someone else's problem" can be "his problem" when the theif he had left after the fight with bonesaw, shoots his uncle Ben, then why not us!! though we have no intentions to climb on the walls nor have I ever been to a DNA lab of spiders!!

but the point is that do all of us give the due concern to events like this? I dont think so!! I realised that after hearing the story of the girl over radio that day.

I was actually so concerned about what was happening in Mumbai that I got the guts of watching India TV kinds of news channel too outside India.
Though how irrseponsible, therereporting was something that I would talk about later but the point is that I really felt bad about what was happeneing in my country and to our people.
It affected me and so it should to all of us. Thats the least we can do being an Indian.

Then in 1 of my meetings, a customer asked me about Mumbai. The lady had told me earlier that she plans to goto India sometime.
During the meeting I asked her if she is planning to goto India anytime?? She said, "NO".
I felt bad .............. terrorist strikes had ensured that people think twice before coming to our country. I just asked her one thing, "Have you stopped going to US after 9/11?"

She dint say a word after that!!

End of the day, I took Mumbai Terror very seriously. It is happening in the country where I live. That fact makes it great enough to be worried about!!

Dost badal gaye ........... ya main

Alive for last 26+ years ........... what did I do in my life in relation to friends??



Probably did a segregation ........... of friends ............. like school friends, college friends, Sify friends, Verizon friends, Nucleus friends etc etc!!



And guess who helped me in doing that ........... probably tools like Orkut, LinkedIn!!



Coming out of the talks of IT in the world, let me come back to what I want to write.



So, as I used to brag a lot in front of my later part of life friends, my school friends core group has always been there and till date we are so closely knighted that all of us are aware about where abouts, feelings, thoughts, developments, achievements, disappointments, love angles, love failures etc etc etc etc etc ............. of each other so much that we dont feel that we have been together for last 22 years!!



But what I brag, I still believe in. But for last few weeks, my thoughts are changing, or the conditions are, or my friends are, OR IS IT ME?



A close old friend of mine (for last 22 years), recently bought a car and did not tell us. Also one of them has been going around with a girl for last 5 months and on the verge of a break-off and we came to know about this recently.

So when I asked these chaps on why didn't u tell us, they said "yaar, itni badi baat bhi nahin thi!!"

Come on guys ................. first car ............. first live-in (if I can say so) ............ are these news not BIG enough to be narrated to your 22 year old gossip group? We are friends!!



So I was angry ............. as in I really am.



But then I thought, am I expecting too much? Probably news were actually not big enough to be shared!!



Then, after thinking about their point of view, I analysed them as me!!



Even they have a classification of friends ........... school, college, room mates etc etc!!

And a mathematical formula:

Tendency of sharing stuff (anything and everything) increases with the decreasing age of the gossip group!! i.e. if the gossip group is 22 years old, you would share with them less as compared to the gossip group which is say 2 years old!!



Not that they dint want to tell, but just that they share it more with a new gossip group!!
Which I now feel is ok .............. why not?? even I have changed .............. I also tell few things to my older gossip group .................... may be not everything but yes ................ most of the things are shared with the newer gossip group!!

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE WORD "GOSSIP GROUP" HAS ABSOLUTELY NO LINKAGE WITH LITERAL MEANING OF THE WORD "GOSSIP".

So it took me sometim to find the hidden truth in me about me changing and thinking that only te world around me has!!

Dost nahin badle ................. or rather .............. SIRF dost nahin badle!!

Sab badle hein ............... but 1 thing where I still differ is the understanding of an individual about what is important and what is not .............. as per me, if I was trying on a new girl (which most of the time I am :-)) .......... is a news to be shared ............... as per few of my friends it is not .......... but guess that is what we call as an individual ............... and people have to be different from eacch other ................ otherwise .................. you become the bat in cricket ............. all looking same ............. doing the same job (I dont expect any expert cricketing advise on how and why bats differ from each other!! It is just an example!! May be a wrong one, but who cares :-))

thats it from my side ............... now its ur turn!!

Facts about Job

A saturday and me thinking about job ................ wow amazing!!



In 5+ years of my job 1 thing that I have learnt, understood and believed is that there is a personal life and a professional life ............... give ur 100% in each ................ dont mix .............. once ur out of office, u r in ur personal life .............

as one of my ex-boss used to ask me ................. when u say something as urgent, do you really mean it? If you do then not everything can be urgent.



Point is that in our history of professional lives have we ever gathered the maturity of understanding that un-necessary pressure would not yield result.

Typical syndromes that I have noticed:
- Not delegating work
- Not trusting your team after delegation
- Pressing Panic button even if there is no need
- Interfering even after delegating the work
- not waiting for the deadline but to keep checking on things even in between for a delegated work
- always being pain in the A**

I have had worked with about 5 managers till date and this blog has inputs from all of them (right!!)

A manager used to teach me on goof-ups ............ what happened if there is a goof-up? maximum what will happen? you may looseur job. Even then what? You can always find another job. You are not dead. So dont take tension and pressure.
This has made me learn one thing ............. what worst can happen if things go wrong? you always have an option to press the restart button.
This one thought gives you a lot of patience of letting things happen at their right pace and also ensure that you dont stretch stuff too much.

Another thing that my job role (sales) has made me learn is that everyone on this earth at everytime is actually doing sales ................ sales of material, service, thought, emotion, perception, perspective etc. etc.

coming back to the topic of job related syndromes ............... m sure all of us somewhere feel during our working hours that ............. "whats the hurry dude" .............. cant this wait?? i.e. when u know that things can wait ................ pressing panic button when it is not needed ............

I believe that few people in every organisation some how dont grow-up ............. though everyone in their childhood have read/heard story of the old lady and her hoax call for villagers even when wolves were not there .................. just to refresh, the villagers did not turn up when the wolves actually came in.

People with low maturity forget that when everything is escalation then nothing is, when everything is in panic then nothing is .............
People with various years of experience on their CVs miss out on this basic fact of life ............

dont you think so?