Birthday DENTS !!

30-Aug, it was my birthday and on that morning Mom gifted me a black dial -wrist-watch :-). After answering to all the birthday wishes, I set to office and joined a meeting. I got a call from Mantu (my co-brother) when I was in the meeting; I disconnected the call, telling him that I would call back after some time. After the meeting, I called him and got excited when he told that Shruthi has sent a gift to me and he asked me to collect it from MIT College (near Srirangapatna). I was lil’ busy and I told him that I would meet him at 4:00. Mantu was also busy and he was there in the college for a workshop. At 4:00 pm, I started from office and by that time, Mantu was also done with this work. He handed the gift to me and it was Nokia E63! I happily received it from him, rang Shruthi and thanked her ;-). The gift was not a surprise to me as I got few indirect hints from Shruthi the previous week ;-)


I invited Mantu and his colleagues for a coffee near Mysore, Mantu got into my car and I was taking out my car from the parking area. At the same time, few KSRTC (state-run) buses entered the campus and the students started boarding the buses. They were flocking near my car and I had no choice other than stop my vehicle. 


Suddenly from no-where one KSRTC bus came in a reverse gear and hit my car's left gate! The students were yelling at this reckless driver to stop and even I was honking, the driver didn’t hear the yelling and he had no conductor to guide. Even I could not move the car back or front as the students were around my vehicle. The bus just crashed the left gate and made a big dent!


I stepped out of the car and yelled at the driver and literally pulled him out! I asked him to come to the police station along with me. He admitted his mistake and was ready to come to the station. But before that he wanted to report this incident to the college Principal and request him to make some alternate arrangements. We met the principal and he just cut our reporting and asked me to report the incident to the bus depot manager and not to pull / link this incident with the college, as the bus is run by the state transport service.


We called up the depot manager and the driver got blastings from him. Then the depot manager requested me to settle the matter at the spot and not to drag the case to the police station. I thought over it for some time and following things came to my mind:

• This college comes under the jurisdiction of Srirangapatna police station and I have to complain at that police station.
• Both the vehicles have to be parked at the police station atleast for a week.
• I might have to forget the spare parts of my vehicle!
• The RTO inspector would come from Mysore and he would take his own sweet time to come and inspect the vehicle.
• I might have to bribe him and others in the station to take my car out.
• The case will be filed at Srirangapatna magistrate / civil court and I have to hunt for witnesses from the college.
• This whole process would take more than a month and every time I have to go to Srirangapatna for all the court hearings / dates.
• Even otherwise I have to claim for the insurance, plus I have to shell extra bucks from my pocket. If I go to police station, I have to spend more than the car repair expenses.

So going to the police station was a very bad Idea, then I diverted the discussion and I asked the driver to compensate for the losses. Fortunately, he agreed and started from Rs. 500/- and finally agreed for Rs. 2,500/- The driver had only 1k with him and he got the rest from the college accounts department and then paid me the amount. I knew that the compensation was small, but I could make out that it would be difficult for the driver to pay back! I was sad while taking the amount from that poor guy, the feeling was sadder than what had happened to my car. But I thought this would be a punishment for his reckless driving and next time he would be more careful :-)


This way I got birthday dents on my car !!!

"Aal izz well" attitude !!!

Though the phrase is from the famous movie "3 Idiots", the attitude is from a typical Indian. In the movie Aamir khan narrates a story of his town - the people in his town used to sleep peacefully by hearing the Gurkha’s (night watchman) call - "Aal Izz well" (all is well), thinking that he is there to watch. Once a robbery happened in the town and later the people came to know that this Gurkha is blind.
 
People will not wake up / act, unless it’s alarming or things have turned worse and have come to their neck. Assertiveness, examination, backup option, taking initiatives lack in many people. If few things are moving smooth (good / bad) leave it as-it-is, unless something major happens with the system. 

 

Take this most irritating unscheduled power cuts in Karnataka; as an interim arrangement the state govt thought of buying power from “power surplus state” Gujarat. Gujarat govt (after its survey) announced that the state is ready to give power, but Karnataka is unable to do so as transmission arrangement is not in place. Now, the Karnataka govt is acting on this issue and planning to put the system is place. But this will take more than two years!! I guess these guys are maintaining this sine Sir MV’s time! So the govt's "Aal izz well" attitude has pushed the state in longer hours of darkness for two more years.
 
You would say this is the attitude of govt in all the sectors. But consider a common man - during the recession many lost their jobs and they were not having any alternate options / plans for their future. Even though the job market was down and many companies were laying-off their employees, many were waiting for their turn to be sacked! People did not look-out nor had an alternate arrangement because of this attitude. People didn’t even try to save their jobs by performing well or taking some extra initiatives in the company to prove their value.
 
This attitude exists in all of us to quite an extent. So folks when-ever you take up any major tasks / decision make sure that you do it right keeping the future  impact / use; only then this “Aal izz well” attitude will hold good.
 
This is nothing to do with pessimism; this is being alert, assertive, futuristic and being safe.
“Aal izz NOT well” should be your attitude!

For those who came late....

This used to be the starting line of the famous comic book - The Phantom. This is how the stories of phantom used to begin. I used (still am) be a great fan of comic books.

How I used to like all those books - Amar Chitra kathas; the Panchatantra stories, the mythological characters, the superheroes like Phantom, Mandrake 'n Luther, Flash Gordon... 'n the list continues. My aunt gifted me a huge collection of Disney comics; who can forget those characters - Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Daisy, Minnie....

During our summer vacations me and my bro used to rush to our close-by circulating library to get the latest Tinkle, Archies, Tintin..... We were fantasied by these stories and characters. I'm sure most of my time guys used to do the same.

Hey, but hold-on; why am I giving this title for my post? This is for the new generation who are less / not exposed to these characters / comic books. This is for the children who came late [new generation]   :-)

All these comics were a lot of time pass,  had mythological tales, GK, moral stories....

Gone are those days of comics; this new generation are less exposed to these comic characters. Off-course few are still alive on the toon channels, but that kind of learning, fantasies is less now. 

The below is just for fun... how those characters would look like after 60 years...

Hmmm.. to revive back those days, I gifted my son few comic books for his 3rd birthday. He loves them and he wants me to narrate those stories to him daily :-) and I love doing that !!!

Lets tell these comic book stories to those who have come late !!!

Blaming others - a criminal act

Lets understand the definition of this crime; Blame is the act of censuring, holding responsible, making negative statements about an individual or group that their action or actions are socially or morally irresponsible, the opposite of praise. When someone is morally responsible for doing something wrong their action is blameworthy. By contrast, when someone is morally responsible for doing something right, we may say that his or her action is praiseworthy. There are other senses of praise and blame that are not ethically relevant. One may praise someone’s good dress sense, and blame the weather for the crop failure. (this defn is from from Wiki)

Why do people blame others?

• When there is a fault / error / mistake and things have gone out of their control.
• When people want to hide their mistakes.
• When people want to take advantage of a situation / play politics.
• When people want to play prank on others.

But when blaming, do you really think of the implications? The implications can be:

• The blamed person may not be the actual culprit / has fewer roles in the mistake. In this case, he/she will get a bad name and it might result in distrust on that person from others.
• You will be caught some or the other day for this. The blamed person may start hating you.
• When your crime is revealed, the blamed person may also play against you and fix you in a similar situation.

Think before blaming?

• Before blaming just check your conscious whether your doing right or wrong.
• Try to avoid the mistake and handle the condition to your best possible extent.
• If a person has to be blamed, then warn the person about this (if he /she is the culprit before) and then blame.

Be a gentleman not a hypocrite.

Awesome Mysooru City Dasara lightings

Today, I was home a bit early; had plans to go around the city to see the lights. My parents were waiting to join me. [Shruthi and Yashas are in Chickmagalur for Yashas's Dasara vacations :( ] On my way I picked my granny from her place and we all set out to view the lightings.

I saw the distant Chamundi hill's outlined lights. It was looking as though an elephant has kneeled down to carry Godess Chamundi on its back (could see the temple on the elephant's back) This was my imagination though, but the lights on the hill are splendid.

We followed the lights starting from JLB road (from Hyundai showroom) and we reached the City Railway station. I feel, this the first time the city has more lights than every before. The Railway station circle lights were very beautiful.
We entered the Sayyaji Rao road and this road was looking magnificent; five columns of serial lights were hanging over the road. It was truly a majestic feeling !!!!
Though its a Mysore road, the traffic made me feel as though I'm in Bengaluru !!! It took me 20 mins to reach the end of that road.

From there we crossed the palace, opp to Dasara Exhibition ground and reached Harding circle. We turned left and drove in front of the Balarama gate of the Palace. The circle lights (opp to town hall) were not so special so also the KR circle lights.

From there we headed towards DD Urs road. The showrooms on the road were specially decorated with disco lights and all kinda fancy lights !!! When I was heading back to JLB road, I remembered my friend telling me, therez a chaat mela at the Metropole hotel. I told my dad we can try out something and it would be fun to have chaats when its raining. When I went inside the hotel, I came to know that the chats would be served only between 5 to 8:30 PM and it was 8:40. With a disappointed heart (appetite rather) we came out of the hotel and headed towards Saraswathipuram.

We heartily ate at the road side chaatwaalah (my regular hang-out) and turned towards Kuvempunagar double road. The trees on the road were also lighted and the bright green light in the middle of each tree was an anomaly to a cherry on an ice-cream bowl :)

It was 9:20PM and we decided to head towards home. This drive was truly memorable to all of us :)
Heading back home, I was praying to God - On this Vijayadashmi, let everyone be Victorious over the evils like H1N1 and over this crazy recession !!!

Be Victorious !!!

Paperized with Papers

The literal meaning of Paperized is getting married, so you may ask me whoz marrying the papers ?!!
In India, many offices / people working in them cannot live without paper. Forget about govt offices, the so called ITans use paper for their referrrrenccce !!!
I'm working in an pvt IT co. (laid out in its factory campus) and people maintain papers in all the departments as RECORDS. You apply for leave on a paper, take permission to go out ('coz its a factory campus) on a paper. LTA application, make your travel claims, apply for additional hardware items etc etc ...all on papers !!!

Imagine even having so many automated systems at the office, finally you have to take printouts of the final FORM, get signatures from multiple people (on multiple copies for multiple departments) and submit !!!
Lets come to govt offices; the project I'm working on, is for govt utilities. Can you imagine the final output of the product? PRINTOUTs (filed) !!!! of all the reports generated from the system.
The govt office maintains all the reports (duplicated from the server database) in the records section. Off-course, the utilities want to produce some of the reports in the court (if required) as evidences. To avoid / prevent these people to take so many print-outs, we in turn tried to make convert the reports into records by providing digital signatures / date and time stamps with watermarks in the reports, so that the utilities can take printouts of the only the required reports (which would be used as evidences). But the utilities DO NOT care about this.
We are now trying to put more data in a single report (by changing the format of the reports) to avoid the reports spanning to multiple pages.

The IT revolution for creating automated systems and paperless offices remains a Myth (to some extent - I can say, atleast 50%).
Why we should care so much about this...
Here are some typical calculations on the number of trees cut to make the papers.
1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees.
1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees A "pallet" of copier paper (20-lb. sheet weight, or 20#) contains 40 cartons and weighs 1 ton.
Therefore, 1 carton (10 reams) of 100% virgin copier paper uses 0.6 tree.

So now you can imagine the number of govt agencies, different departments are responsible for cutting trees / forests for their RECORDS

The only way I feel to stop this deforestation is by changing the attitude of these people, so that these people can change their way of working.

So next time you take a print-out, you do mind for the trees !!!

Try to unmarry / unpaperize the papers !!!

Matching behaviors

I am not sure whether this particular subject has been explored / discussed / debated upon. If not this might be a very interesting psychological subject. Though I am not a student of psychology, this particular subject fascinates me a lot. I’ve often observed and wondered when I see people having among commonalities in their physical appearance and their behavior.
You might agree with me on this that you have observed many people resemble each other on their looks / physical appearance. But have you observed they also resemble the behavior and attitude they carry!!!! Yes, it is true!!!! I have seen people resembling on their behavior and attitude.

If a person is a stranger to me… or recently if I have acquaintance with him / her…

I try to match his / her behavior with people I am close with or known from long time. This helps me a lot to predict the persons behavior and also guess his / her thinking.

Sounds interesting… explore more on this and let me know what YOU feel. Start matching the behaviors !!!!!

Make you team feel valued

How you manage your human resources and handle their conflicts and goals directly influences the company climate. When companies recognize employees by offering tangible rewards, the business becomes more productive and better at retaining talent. In addition, setting policies that make employees want to stick around is cost effective. Besides boosting profits, a stable staff cuts the costs of recruiting and training and avoids downtime and irate customers.

The route to making employees feel that they matter takes some attention, which, of course, will pay off for you. Here are some proven strategies:



Recognize the individual: Let each team member know that their individual contribution (how ever small) to overall output makes a difference

Be responsive:If you solicit ideas from your team members on any subject like team work or how to do a particular task in a different way, follow through. Don't just ask for feedback or suggestions and then simply ignore it. If you are unable to implement their suggestions, do explain them about it.

Tap your top performers as teachers: Have your team share their expertise by training or mentoring their colleagues Along with improving the skill sets of the team, this knowledge sharing will make the team member feel more important and valued.

Interact with the team:Once in a while stop and chat with your team instead of rushing through the door and immediately heading for your desk. This will go a long way in building rapport with your team.

Give comfort zone to your team mates:Create an environment of comfort and ease so that your team feels free to approach you. This will not only make you a popular leader by also inculcate team spirit.

Create an atmosphere of trust: Team members don't like secrets or surprises. Don't spring things on them or make changes without communicating first.

Don't turn into Super manager:Ask for help. Brainstorm with the team and ask for their input to solve problems or develop strategies. It might help take a bit more time, but you'll end up with a happier, more productive team as well as some great ideas.

Appreciate: Do appreciate your team members for their contribution. There is an adage - praise in public for reprimand in private. Reprimanding your team in front of other teams / managers can be counter productive.

Criticize the act, not the person: Do not criticize the person but criticize only the act like don't say you are unprofessional instead say the particular act is done in a very unprofessional manner. It will send the message without ridiculing the person.

All these acts would help you build a better and productive team :)