Religion has always been important part of my life. My mom always told me that God is on my side and that gave me immense confidence. She also used to say that God will power me to fight the devil. The best lesson she taught me was that though God is on my side it can help me only if I do my bit and work hard, if I take initiative and do my work perfectly. She also said that the day I start doing wrong things, start hurting people, cheat or bribe or not do my work properly God will leave my side. All these teachings were engraved in my head from my childhood and made me a god-fearing

If they say Kashmir is heaven than Leh-Ladakh is the corridor to it and the beauty of the place is still secondary. The best part about ladhak is its people, which for me are the symbol of how Indian's creativity, fighting zeal, find ways to live in difficulties and still be able to live a very happy and content life.

Too Long on a job

My boss says I need to improve the accounting knowledge which will help me when I will go to the next level. My question is when will I go to the next level. I have been hearing that I am special and that I will go places but all this has been talks and nothing else. The whole energy is draining and excitement is turning into frustration... Though I totally believe in always working for excellence but when you know that the I can do alot more... Anyways the question I have is from a company's perspective as well what's a good time a  person should be allowed to do? Lets see how much more time it takes them to realize that time for all the talk is over and I need to see some action now??

Q1 Review Learnings

Just back from our Q1 2010 review. Though we had loads of presentations but the great part was that we focussed on what can be done in coming qtrs and past was only referred for and as learning. Hope we will be great in coming quarters.
Learnings were :
1. Develop business what we can control. Build business which is sustainable and locked for more than a year so that we can concentrate on growing somewhere else.
2: Processes and controls are important. Whatever is measured, is actionable and gets improved.
3: Extremely important to know to whom we are selling and what he needs...
4: Also important to provide solution when he needs it...
5: Your work speaks for yourself, so no need to blow ur trumpet...
6: Most important Execution is the key...Karma is most important..
All in all these are simple lessons of life which we learn as we grow up and have forgotten as we get our business educations...

My Canvas

After a long time yesterday, I was just a passenger in my car (in simple language I was not driving) and for the whole distance of 24 kms kept looking out of the window and realized that the window of my car is a series of great canvas of life. I saw from high sky-scrapers of Gurgaon to the wide spread farmhouses of MG road to maddening traffic at ring road to children begging on the signals to GK’s huge and high end bungalows etc.

Starting from the mad city called Gurgaon who can be really proud of its sky scrapers and the glass buildings but must be really ashamed of the back up infrastructure it has possessed. Its like a body without spinal code, mouth and urinary organs. If you go to histories or around the globe I don’t think you will come across a city where there are no road infrastructure, no electricity, scant space for parking, inefficient and almost non-existing sewerage system and scathingly bad traffic management by traffic police. Witnessing all this from my car not only angry you but also you feel so help-less. Its as if Govt after letting these builders making these huge townships, plush offices forgot to create the most important thing that to support a population. Life here is compelled to work and live here and to my judgment running out of excuses to face the deprivation of the basic needs. 

Once you cross the borders of Gurgaon there comes to land of rich and famous though they choose to remain in clandestineness. The farm houses are green but hidden by huge walls which refrain the outsider’s eyes to peek in. The farms are the get-away and nature for these rich guys or its the place to party, weddings etc. They are great place to unwind but also these are the only places after Govt kothis where you find really open spaces in Delhi. These farms also are one of the major investment opportunities of black money for these rich yet non responsible citizens. Life here is cool, relaxed and certainly irresponsibly rich.

The next canvas is historical and spiritual five-storeyed, 72.5 m high Qutab Minar built in 1192 CE, by Ghazni to mark their victory over Delhi and Mahavir’s idol. The two co-existing with each other across the road is a scene that aptly epitomizes the secularism and to the Indian belief that diverse religion, diverse culture can peacefully co-exist and grow together. Life here is proud on being an Indian where all religion, culture and believes stay together.

Delhi with its wide and well-lit roads, architectural marvels –flyovers but its citizens who are doing their bit to pollute it (air, noise, roads, litter). Although I have always thought of Delhi as the most advanced, one of the greatest cities in the world to live and have been always ready to take on anybody on Delhi vs any other city of the world. The only point where I have not been able to amply defend Delhi is its citizen. We are no where near as evolved as our infrastructure in terms of mannerism, cleanliness, respect to other human beings and taking responsibility. It shows in the way we drive only. We don’t care about other people, we park anywhere, we drive in the wrong lane to save a km to U turn, red lights and traffic rules are respected only if there’s a policewala on sight and for some even then rules are for breaking. In case they are caught a 50 or 100 rupees are good enough to bribe the policewala and get away. Metro the new jewel of Delhi’s already swank infrastructure gets no where the kind of respect Kolkata one gets. Life in this metro is comfortable then anyother city in India but needs to be more responsible to its duties towards the city it lives in.

When Slumdog millionaire showed the world India’s poverty, we took it to our heart and made a big issue out of it. Similarly when a foreign tourist watches children begging on the crossings they start clicking pictures which we feel offended to. What we fail to understand there is that this is something totally alien to them to see that human lives are so salve and the living condition in which these children. So instead of blaming them for showcasing it we must do something and by “we” I don’t mean Govt, I mean all of us citizens who still give these guys money when they beg and let those guys let them make money out of it and making it a lucrative business. It just gives us a spiritual satisfaction that we are donating something but actually we are just partners in ruining their lives. If we really want to donate we need to give them education and books and not money. Life should be more thoughtful and not blindly follow.

Living in Present contd…

So easy to beat yourself up over mistakes you've made. So many amongst us live in the past rather than loving the present and building a brilliant future. Some people stay stuck for years over something they did or a failure they've experienced. Sad. A life is a terrible thing to waste.
But let me ask you a question: "is there really such a thing as a mistake?" First of all, no one tries to fail or mess things up. Every one of us wakes up in the morning, walks out into the world and does the best we can do based on what we know and the skills we have. But even more importantly, every so-called "mistake" is actually a rich source of learning. An opportunity to build more awareness and understanding and gain precious experience. Experience that will help us do, feel and be even better. So, just maybe, there are no mistakes. Just maybe what we could call failures are actually growth lessons in wolf's clothing. And just maybe the person who experiences the most wins.

Living in Present

Its not very often that you come across a movie and draw so many lessons of life from it. For starters the most important one- “Study to become competent and not for a job in US”. Though I have changed it to suit myself- “Work for excellence and not for promotion”. Everywhere you see people are working for their next job, without doing justice to there current ones. I see people either living in future or cribbing about their past and present is suffering. Nothing gets done and no problem is solved. Similarly its with the job. Some are working for their promotion, some are ruing their past assignments and rest are not interested in work they are doing, while what we should be working for is “EXCELLENCE”.

Enjoying once job, doing it with passion & focus and not accepting mediocrity at any level is what I call as strive for excellence.

Life’s a Race

No its not that today morning i got this revelation or anything. Its just that while coming to office today I realized how deep this one statement has done into our blood stream. Its not only on vindicated and followed religiously in corporate and education system but also it even shows while we are driving on the road. Don’t let anyone go ahead of you, seize any opportunity to take the place ahead even if this means it will lead to a big traffic jam, if there’s no red light make sure you don’t have to stop on that crossing, if the lane is narrow and two cars are stuck facing each other- well for one to go back is a dent on his/r self esteem. People stuck their cars on a jammed crossing to make sure the other person can not cross them, the point that by waiting for sometime will clear the traffic is a difficult mathematical equation to these guys. Slow drivers are lazy people and if somebody stops, even if his car is broken, is a crime no less than a murder. With games coming in Sept’10 Govt is making an effort through some traffic rules week but its as weak and helpless as the traffic policeman is on the road. It actually boils down to the same golden word- “implementation”. As I say always “we are gr8 dreamers and idea generators..but very poor Implementers…