Ek raat: Chai, maggi, madira aur 6 dost

What do you do when you and your friends achieve what they have been longing for a long time? This can be anything, what is more important is the feeling of achievement and happiness you all have. They know they have put in so much hard-work and smart-work and you know that you also have been anxiously waiting for them to do the same what you have done and have been waiting for them to cross the line and be on your side. So when all of you are on the same side of the equation, you enjoy, you celebrate and you have fun. This is a story of 6 people and one such night. I am not counting one or two more people as they did not fulfill the minimum qualification to enter the circus. They at best can be counted as guest appearances. For our ease let’s give names to these people, A, M, G1, G2, N and A2. To make the story more interesting I will surely exaggerate a little bit here and there, but most of it will be true. And I will surely try to explain people’s behaviors in technical terms, so bear with me.

The story opens with A and M returning from some official dinner when other 4 ppl are waiting for them with full plans for a fun filled evening, rather a night which ultimately culminates into morning. So after some initial hiccups with some of them having to attend some useless Peecha-pani meeting with some nice looking seniors etc, all of them reach A’s room with booze and beer. Now all of them being MBA students, you can’t expect things to go smoothly without ego clashes. G1 ordered Smirnoff but for some goddamn reason wanted to drink whisky which G2 was firmly appalled off. Theory of economics: When you have limited resources, you do not like any sort of competition. Before I forget him, there was one guest visitor sitting who was playing the role of moderator and to an extent a role of a spy. Ultimate motive, get some cheap thrill out of 6 drunk people. Theory of marketing: You always try to leak off extra information about your competitors for an added edge. But learning from the theory of adaptive learning, these 6 people let him down and forced him to go back. Important learning, without core competency it’s difficult to succeed only based on insider information.

Moving ahead, these 6 people finish off their spirits and suddenly feel hungry forcing them to eat. Mind you these people are on high and are becoming dangerous to the common man by the minute. They eat maggi and for some god forsaken reason drink tea. People do strange things, right. They all are happy and hence it doesn’t matter. Now, comes the best part. They start discussing Gyaan. Now discussing Gyaan is one thing but discussing under influence of alcohol is different ball game. It can get real heated up and hilarious too. A says something about common people which N and A2 agree too, but G1, G2 and M don’t. A perfect setting for an interesting GD. G2 debates rationally and to an extent agrees to A but G1 continues on his own track. M was always different and continues to be different. Voices becomes loud, patience of all being tested, it becomes interesting. Arguments over difference between arrogance and self-confidence become interesting. Mediocrity and intelligence are compared to each other. Knowledge based confidence and attitude based confidence are also discussed. By this time N has lost his interest and M has made all his points. So it’s A, G1 and G2 who continue to fight. G2 keeps saying, I agree to this entire bit what do we do about it? To this A replies, it’s not my freaking responsibility to teach people and generate confidence in them. He keeps on repeating, until you believe you are better than rest, you can’t be better than the rest. Humility and arrogance are once brought to the table by M who brings in good points to the GD but backs out before discussion actually starts. Things become tense with G1 taking all the airtime despite repeated pleas from A to give him some time to counter others and make a constructive contribution towards the GD. But as they say in Hindi, “Kutte ki  dum hamesha tedhi hi rehti hai”, things continue on the same track for some more time.

N stands up and declares the GD to be over and shows his inclination towards eating something. Group agrees and finally it was M who stopped all that crappy discussion about confidence, arrogance and humility. Looking around themselves, they realize its almost dawn, G1 and G2 for once agree and rush to get their cameras to capture the beautiful rising sun. So now they all capture pictures and leave happily towards their dens, some to sleep and some to write about it.

Alcohol makes you do strange things, some good and some bad. A discussion like that could not have happened without it and could not have been forgotten in the same way as well without it. I may not have been up till 7 in the morning to write the story of those 6 buggers and hence could have missed the beautiful and breathtaking view from hill top. The sun is shining on its full blast now and I feel its time for me also to get some sleep. Even an owl sleeps when sun rises, so happy good night to all of you J 

PS: No offenses to anybody, neither to named people and definitely not to guest appearances in the story. After all, it’s my version of the story and I have some liberty to express my thoughts. And, ultimately what are guest appearances and item numbers for if not to add spice to the story. Attached is a pic of that awesome morning for your viewing pleasure.

Who is more intelligent??? A friend’s dilemma

A friend’s tryst with reality wherein he actually realises what it means to be on the receiving end. Read his story in his own words yourself and don’t stop yourself from laughing;  

How much you think yourself to be a stud at knowing all about certain stuff, all that comes to naught when Mr Knowall personally experiences the situation. All the maturity and clarity of thought goes for a walk as the issues not pertaining to head cannot be ruled by head. but the issue is what to do, what not to do to help achieve the target ? especially since all that you considered as consequential to your “PERSONALITY- strengths” has been put to stake. 

If at all one could disassociate oneself from the present situations and think objectively. Alas once you give in to this temptation the cost you pay is your objectivity, so what’s the next best alternative; go to others, whom you couldn’t trust with such judgment earlier but now feel fraternally linked in such issues as personal experience is what counts not the result. and personal experience is what you don’t have . 

But then when you have put yourself in “okhal” why are you afraid of “moosals”. Its amazing how a clear weather could so suddenly turn so cloudy. The impervious being in you gets brutally and with no regard to self comfort gets dragged, sacked and repeatedly played around with. How much easier could all this would have been with some resource selling the uptodate information to help benchmark the expectations and efforts. But as bad luck would have it the only solace is the pleasure that someone is getting out of it and the only motivation the communication that was beyond senses…… 

End of a Dream

Disclaimer: All characters in the story are real to the best possible extent. Any mistake in assigning the characters with the real life is totally regretted. The case is about a consulting firm based in NY with an office in Gurgaon and having its name starting with I. Read through the case, the name of the firm is given somewhere in the case. Spotters get a box of peanuts as bonus.

How do you react when something you deserve is taken from you in front of your eyes? How do you react to some gross injustice perpetrated on you? How do you react when someone is unable to justify his/her non-sense actions? And how do you react when you face something you never expected can happen to you? Maybe you are confused as to why I am asking you all this. There’s a reason for this. And let me narrate you a story to help you.

Imagine a situation that you are working in a company which is supposed to be very people oriented, very open in its policies and very fair in its review and rewards process. It entices you to work hard, put in everything you have got, think about nothing work etc etc. All this with the carrot that in the end you will be rewarded suitably. So you  being a lesser mortal fresh out of a graduate school you fall into the mousetrap and make office your second home and work your religion. This game continues happily for almost 2 years and I must confess that the company does keep its promise till the end of first year (atleast for some employess). This would be fair and just to add here that all this is done when the company is doing phenomenally fantastic, achieving over 100% growth. Everything and everyone around you is happy, picture is merry and there are all indications that the joy ride will continue.

Then suddenly one day the company is taken over by a BPO giant. You are told that this is the best thing which could happen at this point of time. We will get more clients and more sales and blah blah. Again you being a slave for 30K INR don’t have a choice but to accept and be happy and hope for the best. You continue to slog. You have a hidden desire to become an MBA after seeing your bosses. You try and this time you get admission into one of the IIMs. In the mean time the company has failed to get any clients and 90% of junta is on bench. But you being a senior member, who considers the company as your own, still continue to put in your best. You slog in late nights with no special expectations, expect the fact that you expect recognition of your efforts. Finally you resign and leave for MBA hoping that people at your company will continue to take you in the same spirit as they did when things were good. Then comes the time when your dreams are shattered and reality dawns on you.  It’s the time when things are declared and you are brought to hard truth. You did not complete 2 weeks in the year and hence you do not become eligible for getting the full bonus. Moreover you don’t even get the deserved performance rating. Just because the f***king company doesn’t has the funds to pay you some 20K extra (considering the fact that you were billed at $125/hr when you were there), you are told that this is what you deserve.

You are a person who has always wanted the best for the firm. You are the one who saw the firm grow from 15 to 150, you are the one who is respected most among the juniors, you are the one whose professionalism and commitment to work is unquestionable, you are the one who believed in pure meritocracy and raised your voice against any unethical thing. But in the end, people who cheated in the tests are revered, people who defy their roles and responsibilities are promoted, people who lick the ass of their superiors move ahead and you, the ideal, moral, ethical employee are left with peanuts to satisfy your values.  Just because the company knows you will never come back again they do this to you and on top of it have the guts to say bullshit to explain this.

So in the end, you are an employee who is still respected in eyes of your peers and juniors, who is still talked about, who has an unblemished track record, who finally reach those a**holes can never reach. But you are told that how much ever you may be good, you are not the employee whom the management dreamt about. You just spent 2 years with the firm called Inductis where the average period is less than 12 months, u multitasked between client projects and training people thereby screwing your life, you did what other people can only dream about but in the end you are one who is left wondering what exactly you got from all this. Nothing tangible. Some people may call you selfish but asking for what you deserve is not being selfish. Some may say that you are demanding too much but you also gave too much to a lost cause. And this blame game will continue.

So what do you learn from the story. Never trust a bunch of arrogant MBAs from one of the IIMs who believe that the only to get ahead is via someone else’s head. Never be emotionally attached to you work place. Just do whatever is expected from you. Because in the end, “It doesn’t even matter and it shouldn’t.”

PS: If you are still unable to comprehend the name of the firm, read again. Don’t ask me the meaning of the name of the firm, check wikipedia, afterall people should take initiative and put effort on their own. 

I am back!!

Some of you might have been wondering about my whereabouts since a while. Well, I met with a terrible accident which impaired my right hand from functioning normally and typing. Now things are getting back in place and hence I announce my arrival back. Right now the only thing I can say is that I am at IIM Kozhikode and I am having fun here with the beautiful weather around. It looks more like a honeymoon resort than an educational institute of excellence. Will write in detail about life here some other time.

Right now its time to sleep and I am preparing for an extended saturday morning sleep.

My Farewell, 3 weeks before my actual last day !!

Well, it cannot get more weird than this. Yesterday after reaching office i suddenly got a mail from the HR asking me to attend my farewell from the organisation. This came as a shock since my last day in office is still 3 weeks away. After asking for the reasons for this advance farewell, I got some even more weird replies. This all came with the usual emotional stuff that its your company, we would love to have you aroung as long as you wish, please come back after your MBA, blah blah.

So here I was,  waiting for my farewell and preparing a project plan for the next 3 weeks to train 2 new people on a project. At 5 in the evening, it happened. I was handed over a bouquet with all the “All the best and congratulations” messages. Funniest part, was asked to say something for the occassion. Now you cannot expect somebody to give an emotional speech 3 weeks before he actually parts away from an organisation. I sure feel very sentimental about Inductis, will miss all my friends here, will miss all the parties and  nightouts, will miss all the gossip and cribbing about life and work being so unfare etc etc. But wasnt able to say anything. Guess will have to organise my own farewell to say all this.

 Till then, I am working in Inductis after being given an official farewell.

Journey or Destination – What is more important?

That day, rather night, I was having a discussion with a friend on this topic. She was of the opinion that journey is more important and the end result is only secondary to that. I do not totally disagree with this philosophy but according to me what’s the use of a journey with a pre-defined destination if you do not reach where you were headed to, to be more precise what exactly is gained when the dream you pursued via that journey remains a dream.

To put in my point more firmly, let’s take the example of a bus journey. Let’s suppose I take a bus to reach a certain destination. Now if I keep on roaming around in the bus for the entire day, I may have seen the entire city and I may now know the place better, but did I reach the place I intended to? Will I be happy that after wandering around for hours and hours I am still away from where I wanted to be? The most probable answer is NO. It would have been much better had I also reached the destination I always wanted to reach. I would have cherished the journey and experience much more had that been the case.

A second example can be a job interview or an interview for admission into a B-School. We all prepare for months to crack the interviews. We introspect, we study, and we read what we have never bothered to care about. We know ourselves better; we dig out instances proving we are the right candidates. We try to put on a new avtar of someone who is pro-poor and who will help the unprivileged ones once he is out of a business school. Does this help in becoming a better person? Agreed, it does make us know things we don’t know about ourselves. We become richer in experience. The journey is enjoyable. But if at the end of all this, we don’t have an admission offer, I can bet on the percentage of people who will cherish this journey. How many of them will truly say that even if I am not there, I am happy? How many will say “The journey was very enjoyable so the destination doesn’t matter”? To these people, if there are any, I ask the same question: Did you achieve what you looked for?

A farmer toiling in the fields for months, hoping for a bumper crop is happy only when the crop is good and the fruits are ripe. He doesn’t cherish the journey if the crop is spoiled by rain or by the lack of it. Imagine the face of an employee who after working for one full month is told that since you enjoyed the work, you won’t be paid. After all journey is that what matters.

I believe that “Journey was enjoyable” is an excuse phrase used by people to console themselves once the destination is lost in translation. Even out of people quoting this, how many actually believe in this is questionable. I am sure these people would not want to take this enjoyable journey again if they know that again they won’t reach at the destination. Journey is enjoyable only when the purpose of it is fulfilled. Achievers value destination more, journey being only a medium. Let me see if that friend of mine is a little more convinced about this. That will make the journey of writing this piece much more enjoyable to me.