A Strange but “Innovative” Idea

It was a routine morning, and I was on my way in the train to office listening to Mumbai’s very own RJ “Malishka” (love the way she says her name). After the Blasts in Delhi, it was being talked about everywhere in media ; radio, TV, Newspapers etc.
Malishka then gave a very interesting thought which I wish to present here based on my understanding. It goes like this
“ When a blast happens and a terrorist organization claims it, what is their basic objective? Not only creating the terror but also letting the whole world know about it. What if a blast happens and its now shown anywhere. I mean the news about the blast is not published in any of the media forms. The whole objective of the Terrorist organization would be beaten. I know it sounds crazy and not practical but just think about it…. If the whole media unites for this cause and tries to do that.. what would be the implications? “
This came across as a very interesting and path breaking idea to me.. and it somewhere clicked that really can this be done? Will it somewhere hit the root cause of all these issues?

Let me know your thoughts…

Cheers


The “Pratham” Experience

Now this has to be one of the best and the most fulfilling experience of my life. All thanks to my sweet friend Mr. X (Name not mentioned due to security issues.. he is too good and I don’t want him to be harassed by girls..:) ). Not that too many girls read my blog anyway… lol.. but just in case.

As a kid when we all dream to do something different and contribute to the society, even I had similar thoughts. These thoughts became more profound as I saw so many of my MBA friends in Toronto being active in contributing to the society and people around them. My friend X had been part of this NGO called “Pratham” in south Mumbai where they used to teach small children English & Computers.

I was interested in joining this NGO and I got that chance few weeks back. As we got out from the Taxi in the Masjid area in south Mumbai, we went through this tiny walkway “Galee” with small shops on both sides and a huge crowd. It was so bad that we had to walk like snails through that crowd. We finally reached the building which is called “Musafir Khana” (meant for people who are travelling via Mumbai and want to relax for sometime in the area of the Mosque). The Mosque had given the top floor of the building to this NGO. Obviously there was no lift, so we walked our way through the old building with those stone stairs. As we went inside all the kids (age 5 to 15) had already gathered and sitting on the floor with some of the other MBA students. They were too busy in their notebooks to even look at us.

My Friend X had plans to teach them India’s Pledge in English. Some of these kids already used to go to school and knew some ABC.. The room was like those old house rooms with stone flooring. we started sentence by sentence of translation of the pledge from Hindi to English. “India is my country; All Indians are my brothers & sisters”. The first thing to notice was many of us MBA graduates didn’t remember the pledge fully. However this fact re-enforced the urge to remember it and teach it to these kids.

The kids started on their note books and the most amazing thing I noticed was they were writing the pronunciations of those words in hindi below the English sentence. That was something they did on their own. It was helping them remember the pronunciations. Overall the 2 hours went in a jiffy.

The Sparkle in their eyes and their willingness to study so eagerly on a Sunday (when some people want to leave job early even on a Friday) was amazing to see. I truly enjoyed teaching them and wish to continue this and may be do something on larger scale.
I believe if we have the talent and some time, why not put it in a good cause. The pleasure and sense of satisfaction you would get then you see them standing in front of everyone and speaking the Pledge out in English would be much more than you can imagine.
Hope that more of us get involved in nourishing the true future of our country (i.e children)


“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. “

-William Butler Yeats

Questions in my mind

“Jor se bolo Jia Mata Di” “Sai Baba ki Jai” some of the enchanting we get to hear at various places in India which are of religious importance. This is common site Temples, Gurudwara, Masjids and all the other places of worship.

I have been thinking on this for quite a while but couldn’t find a way to explain it. I am trying to do that through this blog. Looking at thousands of people standing in the queue at Sai Baba temple or Tirupati temple, I wondered what was the outcome of these efforts other than some mental satisfaction? That too was taken away from the large queue and mental stress to even reach the temple. My friend who had gone for a trip to south for holiday also went to Tirupati. However his experience in Tirupati was the worst of all the places he visited. Reason again rush of people, wait times, lack of arrangements etc. Why do people spend so much time and energy waiting for a 10 second look at the image of the God or Goddess? The reason for getting this thought was “Law of conservation of energy”. This energy spent by lakhs of people everyday, what does it get converted in to? What happens to all this energy spent by those devotees of Shankar (called Kavidiyas in delhi) to walk barefooted to a city in North India? Similar are the cases in Maharashtra as well.

What if we could convert this energy in to something productive? How much energy will it generate to solve the energy issues India faces today? Is it even practical to think on these lines? Can people be made to do things which they are oblivious to?

I would love to know your views on this. Please note the more creative you get the better the result would be.

Keep Smiling J

First Day @ Work

Sooooo finally after a month long search (actually 3 months considering my in between visit to Toronto) I finally decided on Joining Bharti Telesoft in Mumbai. Last one month in Noida was so much fun… The Great India Place (a huge mall in Noida) kinda became my second home.. so much so that the security guards had started recognizing me by face and if I would have stayed for few more days the restaurants would have started giving me discounts..

Rides in Delhi Metro were good too (I miss it more now that I am traveling in the wonderful Mumbai local trains where people almost sit on each other and it’s a celebration if u have empty space of 1 feet around u)…

BUT the best part in Noida was spending time with my niece.. she is a sweetheart….

Ok after all this background…… let me go to the first day..

I was told by the HR guy in Delhi office that there were some important training sessions scheduled so I have to be in the office from 11^th. I rushed to Mumbai on 10^th evening. It has been raining badly in Mumbai for last many days. And my first day was no different….I hate these rains.. honestly the kichad, getting wet in those nice formal office cloths… I mean whats so gud about it unless u r just sitting inside your house having garam Bhajiya. Don’t you think so? Or may be its just me!!

I reach office and I was the first person (of course after the watchman and the office boy)…. The HR girl to whom I was supposed to report at 9 AM had not arrived even by 9:30 .. before u start thinking of her wrongly .. later I discovered it was because of the rains that she got late… my boss (who took my interview) was in early and gave me some nice intro to the company and client … the office was almost empty till like 11… I was cursing the HR guy in Delhi who said there was some “IMPORTANT” training that was going to happen…. Grrrr I felt like showing him my training of kung fu.. but he got saved..

No training and I couldn’t even get a company laptop or Desktop (so I had to use my own personal laptop.. which I m still using as I write this blog.. hopefully I will get it soon..

The icing on the cake was knowing that GMAIL, YAHOO, ORKUT everything is blocked in our office L (God I miss my old job for this). I mean isn’t it like a ritual to visit your orkut page or yahoo mail every half hour.. I mean how can one survive without that.. but guess what I m surviving.. and I m sure there are many of you who are… but tomorrow when I have my own company I wont do this.. at the end of the day it’s the work that would matter.. and if the work would be interesting for the people they wont have time to go n waste their time on these websites..

By the end of the day I had made two nice new frens in my team, both are quite sweet and friendly and new to the company like me (so we shared the starting blues). So the day had its highs n lows.. still getting used to being here.. and I am sure it will be an interesting and challenging journey…

Do share any first day stories u guys might have..

KEEP SMILING :)

Interesting end to a Journey

Again real life stuff, I don’t know why such things keep happening to me….. but this is really interesting…

January 2005, on my way to Abu Dhabi (UAE) for a commercial product launch of the project on which we had been working for last 5 months… I start my journey at 6:00 PM in Baroda (India).. my flight to Mumbai is just 45 mins.. those were one of the most uncomfortable seats, and no prices for guessing the airline… “Indian” … Anyways.. reached Mumbai around 9 PM. My manager was in Mumbai for some work so went to the hotel where they were staying…

I wasn’t new coming to Mumbai.. but I don’t know why I took the cool cab.. and the meter of its meter was running faster than the scoreboard when Sachin is batting in full flow.. I ended up paying 150 bucks for something which should have cost me 50 bucks in a rickshaw.. I couldn’t help it .. bcoz the meter showed it and of course the Mumbai taxi guys wont let u go without paying luggage even for 1 bag… so not a gud start to the journey..

My Flight was around 7:30 in the morning so I had to get up early n reach airport around 4:30 , so no gud sleep. Normally the flight to Abu Dhabi is just 2.5 hours but the one they booked for me was via Muscat … so it was going to take 5 hours… not used to long flights.. I somehow reached Abu Dhabi around 10 AM (UAE Time). I was out by 11:30 AM.

The driver was waiting for me and I had some relief. As we reached the city, he stopped at a hotel which is owned by our client. I was surprised on why isn’t he (driver) taking me home after I have traveling for last 16 hours without much sleep…he said my manager is there and wants to talk about something. I thought may be just some 5 min welcome talk.

Now here is the biggest twist of my life………………

I go up stairs to a conference room and as soon as I enter the guy standing there says “ Here is Mr. Rahul and he will give us the presentation on UAEX Application and its launch” …. And I had 25 people sitting in front of me………

It took exactly 30 sec for me to close my mouth which was open because of the shock and another 30 seconds to come to senses. And the first thing that came out of my mouth was “Can I please wash my face because I am coming directly from the airport”….lol. now it sounds hilarious but trust me it wasn’t if you were standing in that situation with 25 people looking at u …

While washing my face I tried to give all nice blessings to my boss for not informing me of this meeting. So left with no choice I had to present to these people for another 2 hours. After which they enjoyed nice lunch in the same hotel and I was just looking at them standing (I couldn’t eat because I had not even brushed my teeth)L .

This was a horrifying experience but I some how managed it. Presentation went well and I gave some hearing (if not a lot) to my manager for not letting me know in advance.

Hope this was an interesting read…

Keep Smiling J

CCD Rocks

This is just couple of days back, I was sitting all alone in a Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) in Noida, Delhi. Now i am a big big fan of Cafe Coffee Day. While sitting alone facing a wall, which had a notice board kinda thing, I saw that people had written some quotes on paper Tissues and pasted it there. What i read there was one of the funniest ones... girls might not like it.. but its funny and totally logical in the way it is written...

Girl = Money X Time

Time = Money

Girl = Money X Money

Girl = (Money)2

Money is the root of all evil. i.e. Money = root of Evil

Girl = (root of evil)2

Hence, Girl = Evil

it was so logical and funny. Girls please don’t get mad or offended, try and think of something like this for guys.

Cheers

Adventurous Exam Day….

Now this is my first attempt at blogging .. hope its easy read....

Ok.. now this is about a real life incidence.. no filmy story…one of the most important days of my life.. my GMAT exam.. Living in Baroda (a small city in India) I had to go to Ahmedabad, (2 hours drive)…. Everything was going all as planned.. I left early reached the exam centre 1 hour in advance and went to the exam room just 30 mins before around 10 A.M…. little did I know what was coming my way….

As I enter the centre… I show my exam card and then my ID (PAN Card)..and she comes back…. Sir your passport.. I m like this ID is acceptable right? GMAT website said any government ID… then I heard the most annoying “NO” of my life….. she got the GMAT Manual.. and a fine print (like the smallest font it can get… like those “conditions apply” ones..) said Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis must show Passport as the Photo ID. The feeling was much worse than how u feel when u get ripped by one of those fine prints on the product offers..

Forget being nervous about the exam, I started thinking about the solutions for this mess now. Being 2 hours away from my house there was no way I could get the passport in time…. with my techie brain.. I started giving her options.. XEROX copy of the passport? Again NO… scanned copy of the original passport.. that was a new one for her … so she called the head office in Delhi and got a NO again… soo now I thought I had lost it totally.. and would have to re-schedule the exam (which means losing on $80 USD)……

Then from somewhere, like Krishna Bhagwan in Mahabharata.. a professor from the college came to my rescue.. he gave me an extension of 2:30 and allowed me to start the exam at 1:00PM. Some ray of hope… I called up my friend in Baroda and told him abt the mess… the only way now I could get the passport in time was if he would come to the exam centre with the passport…. Which would mean him having to skip office work…problems problems… I got some nice hearing (including all the nice sweet swear words).. from my friend…

Now I must say, he was one “JUGADU” (someone who can get work done). What he did was the riskiest but most effective solution…….

Can u think of anything……………

…………………………….

He went to the bus station in baroda and straightway went to the bus driver of the next bus for Ahmedabad… he gave my passport to the driver and called me to get me talk to him.. the bus was supposed to reach Ahmedabad by 12:30.. just in time for me… there was no other way out…. So he had to give my passport to a total stranger..

The bus started from Baroda, I ran to the bus station in Ahmedabad.. Eagerly waiting for the bus….. … Finally the bus reached.. I got hold of the bus driver… and thank god…. I got the passport…. (Time 12:30) I have to be at the centre by 12:45… I rush in a rickshaw….. literally running to the centre… and as soon as I enter the room… the girl is like smiling at me asking….. “DID U GET THE PASSPORT?” and ………..

Finally I had the smile of relief…… to say “YES”…..

Cheers

All this mess… and now an exam for 4 hours……..an exam which was soo expensive that I could not afford to give it the next time if I failed…. Thank God… I scored decent… infact the best score out of all the mock tests I had given…..

So the end of it all gr8… but the day was one of the most adventurous...

Do you guys have any such adventurous exam day stories………….

Hope this wasn’t too long to read….