I almost forgot!

I almost forgot... I happened to complete 2 years in blogosphere. It has been such a revelation for me till now. Got to discover some wonderful people through this medium. I take this opportunity to thank all of you for being so encouraging. Blogging has been such a wonderful medium for me to let out all my feelings candidly. I just can't imagine my life without this blog of mine. It shall continue to be a part and parcel of my life:)

Just came across this wonderful song from the movie Anari (1959). A very meaningful song by Mukesh. Hope you enjoy it.

~IT's My Life

What does financial independence mean to you?

A freedom that brings with it more responsibility!

Disclaimer: This post has a lot of indirect references to experiences from my personal life. I am just making an attempt to connect those innumerable dots and trying to make sense out of it. The following is an attempt to answer one such question that has haunted me for quite some time now. I have tried to put forth my point of view on this subject.

My current mood is one of total discombobulation. As I wrote before, I have been constantly battling out with my mind to find answers to a few questions in my life. I some how have figured out a logical reasoning to a few of them but a lot of them still remain pending for a more profound thought process.

One thing I always have found necessary is that if ever you want to feel independent, it almost always begins with you becoming financially self sufficient. Financial self sufficiency not only gives you a sense of freedom but also gives you an inexplicably great feeling of security. The feeling of having the choice of to decide what you wanna do with the money you earn is simply great! You bid farewell to those good old days where you are dependent on someone for your pocket money. Suddenly you start to take ownership of all your expenses. When I look back at the day I got my first salary, I still remember how happy I was. I sensed a true feeling of independence. I also happen to realize that I had gotten a bit more responsible as well. It had brought in me a great confidence, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of subtle joy that I could, from there on take on bigger responsibilities and help my parents in whatever the small way I could, to make life more easier for them and for myself.

I somehow feel that every individual at some point or the other would want to take charge of their lives and decide for themselves as to what they would be doing with their lives. One of the basic requirements for such a thing to happen is financial self-sufficiency. When you are confident enough to say, "I will take care of myself, come what may!", life suddenly begins to appear so different. You will start to realize that life offers you with a great chance to choose. And I swear... If there is one thing you would ever want to be gifted with for a life time, it would undoubtedly be the ability to choose, for life is all about choices!

Don't you think you would appear very fragile and helpless if you are financially dependent on others? I strongly feel that at least after a point in life, when you are very much capable of making a livelihood of your own, you should start to take things seriously and act up on it. If you don't realize that, gradually people around you would start to disrespect you and even before you realize what damage you did to your life, you would have reached a point of no return! Trust me, it kills your confidence.

Having said so much about removing the financial dependencies from your life, I strongly believe that it shouldn't isolate you from the other relationships in your life. Having read multiple times about how the same 'financial independence' has resulted in shallow marital relationships, I feel that it should handled very carefully. If you start to exercise your freedom a bit too much, you definitely might land yourself in to trouble. One needs to learn how to strike a balance between his freedom and his duties.

At the end of the day, what one would need is a confidence to say, "I am in charge of my own life. I'll take care of myself." It is very essential that one should learn how to use this independence and not abuse it.

I would love to hear your views on the same as well.

Note: It is a humble request to all those readers of this post to please read through the comments before they comment. B'coz you know what? I'm tired of making myself clear on this one!

~IT's My Life

Ten things you wouldn't find me blogging about.

Niveditha has tagged me yet another time. I had the option to choose between two tags. I chose to do the following one.

10 secrets that I’d kept out of my blog:

1. I am not a great fan of cricket. If you ever happen to find anything referred to cricket, even remotely, just check if you hit the right URL.
   
2. I ain't a great cook. So all you tindi potas out there you better not expect a post or two from my side on how to prepare new dishes!
3. I hate hypocrisy. Period!
   
4. I actually follow a lot of blogs that aren't listed in my blog roll.
   
5. The person who inspired me to kick start blogging is in my blog roll. I shall leave the better half of discovering who it is, to you guys!
6. I hate politics to the core. So if you happen to find anything on politics on this blog, let me know. I shall delete this bullet.
   
7. I hate to write those "Ten things to blah blah..." stuff of my blog, even if it costs me dearly in terms of my page rank. Google adsense isn't helping me pay my bills anyway!
   
8. I always try to look at positive side of things. For eg: Dwindling comments on your blog is actually a healthy sign for you. In the long run you might eventually get inspired to quit blogging and do yourself a great deal of favor. Not to forget, this entire blogosphere as well. That's optimism for you guys!
   
9. I actually want to rant a lot about some funny stuff I read about meta blogging.
   
10. 95% of what I write is straight from my gut. The rest is truth!

This one goes unnumbered. Something like, "You know that is larger than being bulleted kinda stuff." I actually hate those captchas that appear at the end of a post in blogger. They are rendered so horribly.

PS: Being humorous is one thing and being pathetic is another. If you figured out the difference between the two by now, it's good. Else god bless you!

~IT's My Life

Value (for money) Lanes - A perfect team outing!

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are purely personal and does not reflect the views of the organization I work with. I have made a sincere attempt to collate all the learning I picked up during our team outing. For most part of this post the pics are gonna do the talking while its author hunts frivolously for those charming one liners!

Ever since I joined this wonderful team, I was looking for an opportunity to know my team members and understand them better. The opportunity finally presented itself in the form of a team outing to Value Lanes on 16th April 2008.

On your mark @ MTV Banashankari - (6:35 am - 6:50 am)

We were asked to assemble at MTV at sharp 6:35 am. But people kept trickling until 6:45 am. We finally pushed at 5 minutes to 7 am. Everyone appeared really excited and all set to have a gala time. Little did they know that value lanes wasn't a resort!

Did someone really say "smile please!" I can't quite recall...

Did they know that it wasn't gonna be a joy ride altogether?

Ek Do Teen and wheels went rolling... (7 am - 8:45 am)

The bus we had hired was a 20 seater and was almost jam packed with excited souls. The driver gave the journey just the perfect start by playing some really good songs from the movie Gaalipata. The title track for sure left everyone enthused and geared up. After a while we all decided to play dumb charades. It was funny to see people at their creative best trying intemperately to convey the name of the movie. How can I forget my own desperate attempt to convey the word 'life' of the movie 'Life is beautiful'? It was simply superb!

Value Lanes ki daire main: (9:00 am)

We finally reached our dream destination at around 9:00 am. We were pretty hungry. Col Arun Dhar and Major Vibhav Kapoor received our team. The weather showed all signs of being unmerciful for the rest of the day. What seemed to be yet another bright and sunny day, was soon gonna show us true colours of a typical day in summer! After serving themselves with the morning breakfast and nimbu pani/ tea/ coffee, everyone relaxed in the shade for a while.

Ah! You guys got a challenging day ahead. So you better buckup!

Thodi si briefing and thodi si sneak peeking! (10:00 am - 10:30 am)

Soon after assembling at the specified venue for an introduction, we were given our chest numbers and a cap! Then we were split into 2 teams. Major Vaibhav Kapoor asked for two volunteers to lead the first event of the day. Venkat and Abhilash came forward to volunteer. They went with major Vaibhav Kapoor for a briefing on the first task. In the meanwhile Arun Dhar shared with us the story of how Value Lanes was conceived and also the success story of various organizations who were benefited by this corporate Training and Development venture of theirs. After 20 minutes, Venkat and Abhilash came back with Vaibhav Kapoor. They seemed very eager to explain to the team what the first challenge was. Arun Dhar left us with the task of discovering one fact about each team member which no one in the team knew about.

Dynamic Obstacle Course (DOC) : (10:30 am - 11:40 am)

Our first task of the day! All we had to do was to move a bucket of water from one end of the course to another by overcoming the dynamic obstacles. Both the teams agreed to complete the task in 45 minutes. The record time was 33 minutes. After planning and building a killer strategy for 10 minutes, we were all set to rock. We finally got going when Vaibhav Kapoor blew the whistle. The task seemed to be a child's play in the beginning. It was only after the actual execution began, we realized how over confident we were. After grappling really hard with time and resources we had, we only managed to complete the task half way. Even though we had asked for an extra time of 25 minutes, we weren't able to complete the DOC challenge completely!

Key takeaways from the exercise:

• Plan while you plan and execute while you execute. Don't mix them up!
• Always make notes while gathering the requirements. Don't rely only on your memory power.
• A great leader is one who can bring the best out of every team member.
• Situational leadership is the sign of a healthy team. Don't curb it.
• Avoid resource idle time.
• Even the best laid plans fail. Always have a plan B.
• After a failure it is extremely essential to do a route cause analysis.
• Make the best use of the most important resource you have. The human resource!
  

Time for some feedback and not to forget The Johari Window: (11:45 am - 1:10 pm)

After finishing the first task of the day, it was time for some analysis. We were all eager to know how we had fared in the challenge. Dhamu and Vaibhav Kapoor shared their observations with us and gave us some valuable feed backs. After that Major Vaibhav Kapoor briefed us about how to give and receive a feedback. A few things about feed back.

Key points on giving a feed back:

• Give a feed back only if the other person wants it.
• Validate your feed back with immaculate data and specificity.
• Convey the impact the current behavior on you.
• Avoid sounding advisory in tone.
• Never give feed backs in public. They should always be given one to one.
• A feed back can also be positive!
• For heaven's sake avoid passing judgments while giving a feed back.
  

Key points on receiving a feed back:

• Receive a feed back with an open mind.
• Never take comments made in the feed back personally.
• Look for patterns in the feed back. May be you might have a grey area that needs an urgent attention.
• Always look for the source from where the feed back is coming. If you feel it is genuine, then go ahead and work on it!

We all know that every team invariably involves a great resource called human resource. It becomes essential to deal with this valuable resource with utmost care and diligence. Having an insight on a resourceful tool like 'The Johari Window' really helps.

Johari Window - A cognitive psychological tool

Lunch Break: (1:15 pm - 2:00 pm)

After what can be arguably described as an excruciating first half, we all deserved a good lunch. So we hurried towards our rooms to freshen up a bit and off we went to serve ourselves an awaiting déjeuner. After relishing the luncheon, I had a couple of glasses of nimbu pani. I must confess at this point in time. I never had these many glasses of nimbu pani in a single day. (Nope! Not even on ram navamis...)

Keyboard: (2:10 pm - 3:00 pm)

Post lunch session promised to be more 'hot' and 'happening'. We were again divided into 3 teams. Three from each team viz. Deb, Laxmi and Vidhya volunteered to lead this event. They were briefed quite in detail by Vaibhav Kapoor. After gathering the requirements, each of the team leads went back to their teams to explain the task.

The task assigned involved punching 40 cards (serially numbered from 1-40, without duplicates) sequentially in 30 seconds. A warning whistle would be blown at the end of 25th second after which the teams would be expected to evacuate the place, failing which entitles them for a disqualification. After 3 attempts, we were able to punch a maximum of 19 cards. The other teams managed to punch up to 25 cards. But one good thing about each team was they improved after every attempt. In the end the three teams entered the place together and managed to punch about 33 cards in 30 seconds!

Key takeaways from the exercise:

• Meticulous planning always helps. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
• Divide the task in to sub tasks so that you get tangible touch points to quantify your goal.
  Managing the time and resources at disposal is quintessential for the ssuccessof any project.
  

Rapelling - When I bid farewell to the acrophobic in me. (3:30 pm t0 4:45 pm)

In this task, each one of us would be rappelling from a height of 65-70 feet. This activity mainly aimed at building your self confidence. It was an extremely good exercise which helped everyone to discover the unknown adventurer in all of us. Okies... The pics will do the rest of the talking!

After that, there was no looking back...

Joy - The satisfaction of a job well done :-)

Key takeaways from the exercise:

• Every task seems big and daunting in the beginning. It is only when you get into it, that you discover that it is do-able.
• Everyone enjoys to be in the comfort zone. But it takes a hell lot of courage to step out of it and perform in zones of discomfort as well.
• Joy is best described as the satisfaction of a job well done :-)

Rafting in manchinbele lake - (5:00 pm - 6:15 pm)

This was allegedly the last challenge we had to complete. We were divided into 2 teams and each team was asked to present the design of their raft in 10 minutes. Our team lead by Suhas and the other team lead by Parthipan submitted the design within the specified time.

After the final approval from major, we went ahead with the actual task of building the raft, which was allotted a time slot of 25 minutes. Our team (Mermaids) built it in 24:14 minutes. The other team (Columbia) built the raft in 24:32 minutes.

Major finally blew the whistle indicating the beginning of the challenge. The rafts were carefully guided in to the luke warm waters of Manchinbele lake. We had awesome fun rowing the rafts built by us. Both the teams completed the task satisfactorily. It was a thrilling experience to row the the raft.

Rafting - Columbia v/s Mermaids (trailing)

Yep! We did it :-) Koi hain jo humse takkar lena chahega?

Key takeaways from the exercise:

• Trust your team members. It can work wonders.
• Give your best shot in what you are assigned. The rest will fall in place.
• Always try to minimize the resource idle time.
  

Time to windup: (6:40 pm - 7:15 pm)

After serving ourselves with some snacks, we assembled back at the place where we had begun the day. Arun and Vaibhav summed up the days learning. Dhamu shared with us his observations during the raft building activity. He was as articulate as ever. After that the teams were asked to jot down what they would take back as a learning and implement them at their work place. Every team explained in brief the key take aways from this team outing.

But one task was still left over. It was the task of discovering a fact about your teammate that no one in the team knew about. Arun gently reminded us the task and asked us to complete it on our way back home. With heavy hearts and mind full of learning, we left the place at aapproximately7:30 pm.

On the way back, each one in the team shared with the rest, a fact that no one knew about them. I must say that it provided just the perfect ending to a great day. I got to know my team members from really close quarters! Thanks a lot to the c2 team for organizing such a wonderful outbound learning activity.

PS: Ma'm was absolutely right when she had mentioned during our previous outbound learning activity; it is during team outings that people shed their so called 'concious IT sheaths' and show their real self. I, for one tried to be so! Hope the same happened with others as well.

~IT's My Life

Times of Mind - Subroto Bagchi speaks

I happened to visit MindTree's official site. As I was navigating through various links, I clicked this link under knowledge center where Subroto Bagchi shares with us some of the valuable learnings of his life. Read on...

~IT's My Life

Challenging yourself...

Forget about challenging others. Have you ever challenged yourself? When was the last time you told yourself, "Look I don't care what others are aiming at. I just wanna achieve this within this particular period of time." For a long time I seemed to have forgotten the real fun one gets by challenging oneself. I think an opportunity has unfolded itself in front of me. Work place main nayi challenges! I'm loving it. It is surely pushing me to my limits. I am infact discovering how far I can stretch. Trust me. It is difficult to win over yourself than winning over others!

I watched the movie 'Race' the other night. I liked a quote which roughly reads, "Winners win because they play to win. Losers lose because they play to defeat others." Many a time the intensity and the appropriacy of purpose with which you enter the arena matters a lot in ensuring your victory!

Well I surely seem to have gotten both of them straight and clear. Let's see if I can live up to my challenges.

PS: By the way my stint of hitting the gym is still on. It has been over 2 months now. I am enjoying it to the core. My motivation levels are pretty much the same as they were on day 1. I shall share my experiences about the same shortly.

~IT's My Life

Tagged - Yet another time:)

Niveditha tagged me on her blog. It is just a 'small questionnaire'. Just spilling my mind out. Lemme see how I perform!

Disclaimer: I am not sure if I have gotten my choices in the right order. I'll leave that to you to figure out!

• Ten things you wish you could say to people right now (don’t take names):
  

1. Live and Let Live!
   
2. A smile costs nothing, let go your khanjoosi for a while :)
   
3. Never compromise with your dreams and goals in life!
   
4. I am music freak, so guys please bear with some loud music when I am around!
   
5. If you haven't understood me still, don't worry... you have an entire life time to figure out!
   
6. I am aware of my responsibilities. So stop sending those reminders!
   
7. Life always offers to you in abundance. May be it's the appropriacy of the 'merchandise' that you have issues with!
8. Receiving an appreciation in the right way is an art. You better cultivate it!
   
9. Load balancing in life is an essential evil.
   
10. A few people have really inspired me very subtly in life. Thanks a ton folks!
    

• Nine things about yourself:

1. I am a blogger. (Just a gentle reminder)
2. I don't like music, I just love it.
3. Of late staying fit seems to have taken me in its stride. I'm loving it!
   
4. I watch too many movies.
5. Strange but true. I don't follow cricket religiously.
6. A TV remote controller is the last thing you will find in my hand!
7. I like reading a lot. Time is a big constraint though.
8. I hate travelling. Smitten by inertia!!!
   
9. I am an optimist to the core.

• Eight ways to win your heart:
  

1. Comment on my blog! (I tried be more meaner than that. But failed as usual!)
2. I love people who are simple.
3. A never dying smiling face :)
4. Passion towards life.
5. Love yourself. Be what you are:)
6. Music somehow creeps in. It truly binds hearts.
7. They say, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach". Thank god! Mine isn't a round about.
   
8. Willingness to share things in life with the much needed!

• Seven things that cross your mind a lot:
  

1. What's the purpose of my existence?
2. If people could interpret my comments in 10 different ways, why is it that they tend to embrace the one that misconceives my comments the best?
3. Why do some people come in to your life and stay, while others leave?
4. Why is our education system so hell bent on quantifying intelligence and calculatedly curbing creativity?
5. Why do some people do things just for the heck of it? Is it because of the unavailability of choices?
   
6. Why don't people use the words "Thank you" and "Sorry" more often than they swear?
   
7. Am I doing things that I always wanted to do in life?

• Six things you wish you never did or want to do:
  

1. Innumerable typos.
   
2. Get stuck in an elevator. I am a claustrophobic!
   
3. Put on some weight!
4. I wish I had judged a few people in my life better than I did.
5. Miss an exam for no fault of mine.
   
6. Stop blogging!
   

• Five Turn offs:
  

1. Hypocrisy.
2. Cynicism
   
3. Bad sense of humour.
   
4. Untidiness.
5. Lack of respect for others!

• Four turn ons:
  

1. Open mindedness.
2. Smiling face:)
3. Simplicity
4. Music!

• Three things you want to do before you die:
  (Some things -> infinity!)
  

1. Wanna visit some beautiful places (ek lambi list hai) in this world with my love!
   
2. Learn how to dance well and play a musical instrument, preferably guitar!
3. Wanna enjoy even the smallest of the joyous moments in my life:)
   

• Two smileys that describe you:

:) :)

• One confession:
  

I seriously felt that clearing the SCJP exam is more easier than completing this questionnaire!

I would like to tag Vidya and Karthik. Over to you guys...

~IT's My Life

Have you earned your quota of happiness?

Have you earned you quota of happiness?

I read this article posted by Vidya on her blog. I completely agreed with her views that one essentially needs to be happy from within in order to give happiness to the world outside.

Today we had a program called 'Learning from unusual sources' where we had the privilege to meet Dr. Neha Vakharia, a trustee of O.A.S.I.S. She has dedicated her life to serve the under privileged people in the slums of Bangalore. Oasis movement is involved in the propagation of various concepts and lifestyle for the development of better human beings and a society at large. It was an extremely touching session that we had today. I made a comment saying, "We need to be happy ourselves from within before we give happiness to the world outside." Dr. Neha too indorsed my thoughts.

After the session was over, I had a small talk (almost a debate) with my PAL over the comment I made during the session. But my PAL had a different view. She quoted me with the example of Charlie Chaplin, the greatest comedian of all times, whose personal life was an utter tragedy. She was suggesting that my comment wasn't a universal truth. There could be exceptions to it. That left me thinking for a while. It was already getting late and I had to leave the office. But she did manage to leave that 'worm' in my head to bug me for the rest of the evening.

But on the way back, I reflected deeply over it. The more I thought of it, my conviction only grew stronger and deeper. I figured out that I was probably right in a sense. I felt that whatever may be the case, you essentially need to earn your 'quota of happiness' in life, before you give it back to this world. I feel it is something similar to the Conservation of Energy kind of thing. You can neither create one nor destroy it, but only transfer it from one from to another. I feel that Chaplin found happiness in entertaining others. I believe that he wouldn't have given his best in acting, if it hadn't helped him earn his 'quota of happiness'. Though his personal life might appear to be a tragedy for the entire world, for Charlie, entertaining others was the only way to get his 'quota of happiness', which he seldom found in his personal life. It probably helped him subdue all the bitterness he got to taste in his personal life. I feel that Charlie Chaplin tried all his life relentlessly, to prove this very point!

If I could draw a parallel with this thought of mine, I would quote what our Vedas and Upanishads have talked about the 4 different phases (ashrams) of life.

1. Bramhacharya Ashram
2. Grihashta Ashram
   
3. Vanaprasta Ashram
4. Sannyasa

The above 4 ashrams need to be practiced in the same order, to achieve salvation or eternal happiness. In order to appreciate the essence 3rd and 4th phases of life, one need to experience the materialistic and family bound happiness, before even deciding to move to the others. It also explains why people who are forced to take up the role played in 4th phase of life soon after the 1st phase, find it extremely challenging to control their innate needs.

It is human nature in general that largely certifies my claims. I for one, surely believe that unless you are happy, you can't make others happy. Our mind sort of tries to do this balancing act. When it feels that the 'unhappines quotient' is on the rise, it tries hard to find unusual ways to release that negative energy out of our body and gain some positive energy in the form of happiness. If you observe, the most happiest of the faces in this world are the ones that hide the bitterest of the pains in life. It is just that their mind might have discovered an unusual way of earning its 'quota of happiness'!

I am not sure if I am right or wrong. I would love to hear from you readers on this topic. Kindly pour in your thoughts as well.

~IT's My Life

It's all about the TEAM!

Ever since I joined MindTree, I have had innumerable opportunities to work with different teams on several of the initiatives. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been a part of few exciting initiatives like MindTree Mini Marathon 2008. Every time I volunteered to be a part of any team, my sole motive was to understand the quintessence of working in teams and what it takes to play your role effectively and deliver your best. In my quest to discover that magical formula behind what defines a successful team, I happen to figure out quite a few threads that were common across several events, which I was a part of. I have made a sincere attempt to share all of them with you, in the context of MMM 2008.

MindTree Mini Marathon 2008

If the name is misleading, blame me not; for the event was definitely magnanimous in all aspects! It was after a gap of 3 years that MindTree decided to host another event of this sort. So we were all geared up to ensure that this event was a grand success. When I first received an invitation mail from Murthy R K (who himself is an avid marathon runner) to volunteer for this event, I was pretty much skeptical. My final assessments (I was in the yellow band) were due to kick start shortly and I doubted if my decision to volunteer was prudent. But nevertheless I told myself that I shall not hold myself back and let go any chance where I can contribute (in any small way) to make an event successful. The success story of MMM 2008 speaks for itself. I have made a small attempt to collate a few observations I made while working with an extremely vibrant team.

Role definition and leveraging experience:

I have always believed that the very first step towards ensuring you formulate a winning combination out of any team you work with, is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each member and assign roles to him/her which would maximize their contributions to the team. I am not against experimenting with assigning people roles that they have never tried a hand at before. But when time is a constraint; go with the above mentioned thumb rule for role assignment. That’s exactly what happened with our team. Murthy had loads of experience about marathon and was undoubtedly the ideal person to guide our team. We realized what each one of us would do and chalked out plans as per the requirement. We as a team ensured that we leveraged his experience to the fullest.

Trust your TEAM:

Once you have formed a team, the first thing that a team as a whole needs to do, is to pledge that there shall be no ‘secrets’ as such. Say no to all shades of grey in your team. Everything should be in Black and White! I emphasize this fact for the simple reason that once you bring candor in to our team, you are invariably instilling tremendous faith in all your team members. Mutual trust is such an impetus to any team that it can work wonders. Once you bring it in, you shall notice that people will be all the more willing to contribute proactively and shall also volunteer to go that ‘extra mile’ to ensure that your venture is a grand success. As long as you have an environment where people feel very much a part of the team, things will never go wayward.

Appreciation is good. But please accommodate constructive criticism as well:

It is human nature to crave for appreciation when they deliver something commendable. Your team members are human beings and let’s not challenge the basic law of nature. I feel that a healthy team always has its team members back patting each other whenever they achieve something; no matter how trivial it is. As long as it doesn’t take away your focus and you don’t lose your ground, a few doses of applause and appreciation is good for your health!

Having said that only reminds me of the other extreme of the spectrum. The side effects of excessive appreciation and applause can deafen your ears and render you blind. A more long term effect of this unhealthy team culture is that your team, in the long run might in fact lose the ability to question things and be critical of other people’s work. I feel that another important trait of a healthy team is its openness to criticism. A good team always encourages its team members to criticize constructively; for it knows that the source if authentic! I feel that we as individuals should be open to criticism (don’t take them personal) and work sincerely towards setting them right. I would in fact go a step ahead and say that every team ought to have some people who blow whistles just at right moment and help circumvent any mishap.

Even the best of the plans fail. Always have a plan B:

They say, “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. It’s not axiom folks. It’s just a quote! Quotes aren’t infallible. You shouldn’t dare to question the veracity of my statement if you have seen the true colors of IT industry (or any industry for that matter). A few glimpses of how circumstances caught us off guard during MMM 2008 and how we managed to cope up with the sudden mutation.

• The walkie-talkie issue:

As you might be aware, this time we had three check points; each located 3 different corners of the marathon circuit. We had rolled out a plan initially that we could borrow walkie-talkies from the security and ensure that all check points are well connected. It was crucial for us to establish this connectivity for two important reasons:

• To keep other checkpoints updated about the positions of runners at regular intervals.

• To reach out for immediate help, just incase of any unforeseen emergency.
  

But when reached the venue on the day of the event, Murthy informed us that we couldn’t get the walkie-talkies for reasons best known to the security personnel. Thanks to our commonsense. Fortunately it never let us down. All check points had a sheet that contained the contact number of every member of the organizing committee. We somehow managed to update each other through our cell phones. But it was a lesson well learnt!

• Bib numbers ki dastaan:
  

If you had been around on the day of the event, you would have noticed a glaring design glitch with the bib numbers that we distributed to the participants. Boy! There were smaller than the volunteer badges we wore on the final day of Osmosis!! We were taken aback and caught off guard, when we discovered this fact. We started worrying about how we would note down the numbers when people crossed each check point. If that weren’t enough. It also had MindTree spelt incorrectly on it. That’s something that doesn’t go well with any MindTree mind! I quote what Murthy told all of us, “Look this is a classic example of what happens in the IT industry. Client asks for something, you deliver something else. He then comes back to you saying… Boss I didn’t ask for this!” But the only difference was that in our case, it was just too late to question the designers of bib numbers, about the erroneous design.

• Behaal @ registration counter:
  

At the registration counter we all had a print out of an excel sheet containing the list of all the participants who had enrolled themselves for the event. But you know what? The list wasn’t sorted at all. We had initially decided to either sort them alphabetically or as per the employee ids. But we hadn’t done it! Volunteers at the registration counter had a harrowing time figuring out the names/employee ids. So we quickly decided that we would just note down the name, employee Id and their bib number for the moment and then map them on the excel sheet, offline. When time is a constraint, people often tend to overlook the obvious and might land themselves in situations completely out of the blue. Not every time does a situation offer you an option for last minute tweaking, so watch out for the obvious pitfalls!

The bottom line is even the best laid plans fail!

Give due credit to every soul that worked for your team’s success:

If there is one thing that really turns off team members, it would undoubtedly be their efforts going unnoticed. When your team is in the spot light for any achievement, it becomes the duty of the team to ensure that people do get their due credits. A moment shared in spotlight might go a long way in motivating your team mates to deliver better results in future as well. Over and above, it gives everyone in the team a true sense of gratification and an unwritten acknowledgement saying, “Boys! You are on track!” A nice way to cherish the feeling of accomplishment would be to go out for a team lunch or a dinner. That’s exactly what we did. Murthy treated the entire team of MMM 2008, and trust me we had a ball.

I feel TEAM stands for the following:

T – Tenacity

E - Enthusiasm.

A – Attitude

M – Motivation

I firmly believe that if your team symbolizes these traits then it is undoubtedly a healthy and high performance team.

~IT's My Life

Main aisa kyu hoon?

I am confused!

It has been almost 4 months since I moved to Bangalore. I am gradually adapting to this kind of life style. But trust me I am yet to digest the fact that; gone are those days when we friends would plan for the first show of a movie and the strength of a cricket team could be expected at the ticket counters of a cinema hall in no time. But come to think of it now, the whole idea of meeting up at one point, in large numbers seems close to an impossibility. This new life at Bangalore has definitely taken a toll of my personal time, patience and not to mention complicated my agenda for weekends.

It wasn’t long ago when I could spill out my schedule for an entire month, without any difficulty. But now I find myself caught off guard when someone asks me to meet them over a weekend, because I just am unable to commit to anyone for any sort of engagements. I just can’t predict what’s going to be the agenda for the weekend, even a day before. Such has been the nature of my life on personal and professional front. A subtle feeling of guilt haunts me every time I commit to a friend of mine and am unable to make it.

Today is a weekend and I was supposed to be at V’s place to meet his mother and his brother. It’s been over 3 months since I have been to their house. One might ask me why I didn’t call them up at regular intervals, if I was so desperate to meet them and speak to them. Well that exactly is the problem with me. I get engrossed in to something I do that I completely forget everything. I mean everything! It almost becomes like I wouldn’t have spoken to the best of my friends for months together. I don’t know if it’s a terrible habit that I have cultivated over a period of time. But having said all that, I would clarify one thing that my concern or affection towards people who care for me wouldn’t have changed at all. I am absolutely comfortable if a close friend of mine wouldn’t call me up regularly or send me a good morning or good night sms if he is really busy. I am unable to understand this whole thought as to why people jump to conclusions and engage in to the act of shaking violently, the very roots of your friendship, which had been built over mutual trust, when you happen to stay out of touch for while from them? Does distance really matter to the strength of a friendship? Does calling your friend every now and then, even though you don’t have anything significant to share, reinforce the credibility of your friendship? I definitely don’t think so!

See that’s Suresh for you folks! He might not send you a sms nor give you a call over a weekend but would still be caring about you. I don’t know how to describe this behavior of mine. Ever since I have been here, I have struggled like hell to meet my friends who stay in various corners of Bangalore. Like others, I also get only 2 days in a week to do things other than the office work. Sometimes even those days are mercilessly gobbled up by some work at office. I know that you would hit me hard saying, “Dude you got to get used to this life style. You got to manage your time well. Otherwise your personal relations are going to go for sixes.” It’s not that I haven’t made an attempt to plan my weekends. But all my attempts have failed every time I have tried that. I have kind of given up planning my weekends!

I don’t know if this has happened to you as well. Sometimes situations are such that you feel staying silent is the best reaction to it. Your relationship with someone is resting on such a delicate thread that you are utterly confused about the way you need to handle it. I am currently facing that with a few of my friends. It’s like, if I speak, what should it be about? And if I don’t, will it convey to them that I no more care about them, and I have begun to kind of show attitude. The fact is folks, I simply don’t know. But I care about them. I feel I just don’t know how to express my concern and care!

My state on the personal front as of now, is one of utter confusion. If anyone of you have been through the similar situations kindly share your experiences with me. May be I can take cue out of your experience. I am badly in need of help! Life just seems to be so confusing and relationships, even more complex!!!

~IT's My Life

Baazigars of Orchard

My sincere apologies for not posting the reviews of TZP which I had promised in my previous article. Something euphoric and sensational happened on 10th evening. I am sharing with you the same. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

After being to a great cultural extravaganza and the allegedly ‘joy-house-won-the-house champion’s-trophy-again-it-seems-dude’ episode and not to forget that close to a 30 minute bindaas Naach Gaana after the cultural events yesterday evening, I jot this article completely impromptu, spilling out all my emotions that are a homogeneous mixture of nostalgia and irrepressible euphoria.

As we finish with our 8 weeks of learning sessions at MindTree, I make an attempt to recollect those golden moments I spent here. I am sure all of you are going through the same sense of collective nostalgia as well. This article is an attempt to offer a small tribute to all those who, with their hardwork, sheer commitment and ever smiling faces made this whole journey of learning sessions, a jovial ride. Sirs and Madams this one’s coming just for you.

Joy in MindTree's truest colours!

I had written about the concept of houses in MindTree, which was started recently to ensure that the transition of a student from campus to corporate is smoothened. We have three houses at MindTree viz. House of Imagination, House of Action and House of Joy, each symbolizing the DNA of MindTree (Imagination, Action and Joy). Each house is assigned a PAL. After the house allocations were made, I got in to the House of Joy. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have got a wonderful PAL like Sudha Selvarajan, who took great care of all the 190 odd students (in fact it has now crossed a whooping 1000+, as she continues to mentor campus minds from other houses not only from the current batch but from the previous batches as well. To say it in her own words, she has been playing the role of ten times of Gandhari...) Don't even think of matching her sense of humour! The whole concept of PALs, in itself is really innovative and is MindTree’s way of ensuring that every campus mind who joins here feels special and nurtured, to face the challenges in the corporate world. The role of a PAL (Parent, Anchor and Leader. Also a true pal) is to ensure that they address the needs of all the campus minds and be there to resolve any of their problems, literally 24/7. They are one stop solution to all the queries which crop up in the ever inquisitive campus minds. I remember having read Sudha Madam quoting in ‘Circle of Life’, “I used to do this mentoring role informally earlier as well. But with the introduction of the concept of PALs, my role as a PAL has just gone a step ahead and is now official.”

Orchard - An entire floor dedicated to nurture campus minds!

As I had mentioned earlier, ours is the largest batch ever to have been assimilated by MindTree in one shot. I was skeptical about how we all would be handled by the company. Trust me when I say this, it’s no joke to keep all the campus minds enthused and engaged meaningfully for over 2 months. All credits to the visionaries who came up with this great concept of PALs and for dedicating an entire floor in phase II at MTW. Orchard, as it is called is the hub of all the action and fun. Come to Orchard and I shall promise you that you would be reminded of nothing short of your college days.

Activity room - A room for stress busting! (Right side)

It’s so very well planned and designed that you would always hanker to be here 24/7. We got our own lockers, an activity room where you can burst out all your stress (if any)!

Having spoken so much about PALs, I would like to share a few things about our PAL, Sudha Selvarajan. I start off with her for the simple reason that I got to interact with her more than anybody else. She is such an amazing lady with a great experience behind her. Not many people know that hers has been a life full of battles against all odds, where she has emerged victorious every time. I have never met a lady in my life of her stature and caliber. She definitely commands respect and not to mention undivided affection from all the MindTree minds. What’s so amazing about Sudha madam is, in spite of performing exceedingly well in her role as a technical director, she never allows you to get a feeling that you are actually interacting with some one so higher in the hierarchy of an organization. She ensures that she comes down to the level of campus minds and is always there for you and resolves all your queries almost instantly! (yes that also includes guiding the auto rickshaw guy figure out the exact destination over the phone when a campus mind, who is stuck in the traffic and is unable to convey where he/she intends to go.) She also shares with you her experience both in corporate life as well as social life and can guide you on any topic under the sun! I always call her a mobile encyclopedia. As I had mentioned before, each house activity organized by MindTree across the 3 houses, carried some points and at the end of the learning sessions, the house with the maximum number of points will be adjudged winner. Since we were the defending champions, Sudha madam had made it loud and clear on the very first day itself that she was not gonna let that rolling trophy out of her chamber, come what may! All the campus minds of joy house had promised Sudha madam to retain the champion’s trophy. Ghar ki izzat daav pe thi yaaro!!! We couldn’t afford to lose it at any cost.

But dunno why. Right from day one, inspite of being the defending champions, we were never looked at, as the hot favorites for repeating the dream run which the July batch had cherished. In fact we had given up all hopes of defending our house champion’s trophy after losing terribly in activities like house decoration. A slightly modified cliché from OSO, “Kehte hai ki agar kisi chees (read it as house champion’s trophy) ko dil se chaho to poori kayanat use tumse milane ne ki koshish main lag jaati hain.” Trust me. We all were hoping that the destiny conspires against all odds, yet another time to ensure that we defended this trophy. Until very recently, our house was trailing by miles. Thanks to some brilliant performances on the field and some majestic show put up by singers and terpsichoreans of our house, we finally managed to rise like a phoenix, after almost literally banished from the race for the champion’s trophy. Yesterday was the D day for all the 3 house to make it big as the activities organized by the MindTree for campus minds would officially come to an end. House of Joy was leading by a meager 400 points. A straight win by Action / Imagination house in signing, dancing and debate would have ensured the trophy in their basket. But when the results were finally out, our happiness had no bounds. Our house, which was the least sought after house for the winner’s slot, was declared victorious. A good bunch of campus minds (that included me as well) who were eagerly waiting for this official announcement to take place, literally jumped on to the stage and cheered for our house. I could see the excitement and a sense of accomplishment in the eyes of all the people of our house. What really made us happy was not just the fact that we won, but the way we won it. We had managed to bounce back so hard that other houses just couldn’t recover from the set backs they suffered in the later stages.

Madam, we have finally kept our words! I am really happy that we finally answered all the skepticism that lingered in the minds of all the campus minds of other houses, about our so called co-ordination, our ability to deliver under pressure and above all display great energy levels.

I think the entire campus batch of October 2007 has displayed great sportsmanship. We all have proved right once again, yet another bollywood cliché, ‘Kabhi kabhi jeetne ke liye harna bhi padta hai. Lekhin jo haar kar bhi jeete unhe baazigar kehte hain.’ Three cheers to the true baazigars of Orchard – Sudha Madam, Krishnan and Naveen! You all rock!!!

I would also take this opportunity to thank whole heartedly the PALs of other two house viz. Krishnan and Naveen, who have done an equally commendable job as PALs of Imagination house and Action house respectively. I also would like to extend special thanks to Nagan Gowda, and Chandru of PF team and the entire C2 Team, who ensured that everything went on really smooth during our learning sessions. If not for your sempiternal inspiration and dedication we wouldn’t have been where we are today! Hat’s off to you.

PS: I am sure now madam that you would have no problems in saying, what you love the most “Chalo guys go ahead. No issues!” We still remember what you used to say whenever we were planning to go ahead with things, “Arey! Thoda hatke socho yaar. Otherwise you will not stand out of the group.” Madam thank you so much for teaching us so many things so subtly!!! We shall cherish this relationship throughout our lives.

~IT's My Life

Impressions!

This might sound as a cliche... But do bear with, one last time. "The first impression in the BEST impression." Not really! It can be a bit deceiving at times!!

Yesterday I happen to speak to a colleague of mine, who spoke about a facilitator of his, whom everyone considers 'shrewd' a.ka. the villain! He told me that the facilitator was open enough to accept that he would be termed the 'Villain' of this story, popularly called 'Learning Interventions' at MindTree. The facilitator was well aware of the fact that people would find it exponentially difficult to understand the intentions behind his way of doing things. The facilitator, on the very first day made it loud and clear that the trainees should adhere to a list of 'rules' to be followed, to ensure discipline and decorum in the classroom. The facilitator didn't give a damn about the minority of so-called 'Boy! I'm not impressed with this facilitator' group. Unlike many of us, the facilitator was ready to stake his image of 'He is a really friendly person to approach' kinda image, that most of crave to build up, when we introduce ourselves to new people! He firmly believed that as long as his intentions were right, and he was successful in achieving the objectives (in his case... it was to ensure that he imparted right concepts to the trainees with full vigour), it was absolutely okies with him, even if everyone considered him 'shrewd' / 'unapproachable'. The facilitator 'promised' to take them all on a 'jolly' ride in 'hell', during the training. That's scaring!

But what he said in justification made absolute sense. He said, "For you to appreciate the comfort of being in heaven, you need to know how difficult it is to be in hell."

That really put me in to some serious thinking. What really bothered me after I ended the conversation with my colleague was, "Is the first impression always the best impression?" "Could it not be the BEST wrong impression you build about a person?" Come to think of it, you would realize that many a times we crib about an acquaintance, at a later point in time, when we realize that the so-called first impression we gathered about him/her was actually a myth! How many of us have the guts to say to this world at times, "Look... this is the way I do things. Take it or leave it. I know that my intentions are right, so I don't give it a damn, if you differ with my ways of doing things!" Trust me, many a time we compromise with end results (which should be the center of focus) by doing things which are influenced by this fear, "Oh my god! What will people think if I carry my self this way? Will I be able to convince everyone around me?"

Why does it happen?

I feel that you should to give any relationship a real good time to settle, even before you think of building up an impression about it. If you fail to do it, I can guarantee you that you are surely gonna crib about that relationship, some time or the other. It is absolutely okies to carry a neutral impression about people when any relationship is in the stages of infancy.

So the next time you pass a judgement about a guy/gal, being 'nice'/'shrewd', please ensure that you know their intentions pretty well. Everyone has a right to do things, the way they like it! If you feel someone is shrewd for all the right reasons in this world, then try to appreciate the good intentions behind it. I'm sure that they too would appreciate, if you could respect the candidness in their approach to life!

Statutory Warning: If you happen to be a first time visitor to my blog, wait for a while (read it as 'walk through my archives') before you build an impression. If you have already built one, don't go by it. Your subsequent impressions may change!

~IT's My Life

Ek nayi safar...

"oru messge ille, oru phone ille, oru missed call ille, oru scrap ille, oru e-mail kooda ille... Enaku rumba bayamarku... Nee thirumbe zoo ku podiya???"

I received the above sms from a friend of mine. I was wondering if he was eagerly waiting to hear from me. Well my friend, zoo waale itne kush nasib nahi yaar! Main aaj bhi khule aam aazad ghoom raha hoon... I probably gave TMI about my whereabouts...

Pata nahi yeh kaisi feeling hai. Lekhin jo bhi hai, badi hi confusing hai yaar. The wait has finally ended and I'm all set to start a new journey in the professional arena.

Kuch ajeeb sa lag raha hai mujhko. I have been staying here in harihar for the past 20 odd years and have zillions of memories attached to it. At this nick of time, I'm feeling very nostalgic. The time I spent at my school and those 4 golden years that B.I.E.T., has given me, will be something that I will treasure for an entire life time. Hailing from a close to sub-urban kinda place, I'm pretty much skeptical about of my life saving adaptability skills at a new place like bengaluru. But I have no choice but to get used to this life style sooner.

I know that I'm stepping in to a world where everyone is out there to prove a point and make a mark for himself on the professional front. I am optimistic about my chances as well. I hope that I would be able to meet the challenges posed by situations both on the personal and the professional front.

This is probably gonna be my last post from my harihar. The next post shall be definitely posted from somewhere in bengaluru. Till then have a great time and don't forget to wish me good luck:) Ha Ha.. (Abh yeh mat kehna ki saala kitna maangta hai... Wishes maang ne main koi burayi nahi hai yaar! Aur use dene main bhi!)

PS: This is not 'that' post which is supposed to have been resting peacefully in my fully packed computer's hard drive. It is yet to go public.

~IT's My Life

Winning – A counter perspective!

I received a sms from a friend of mine, which said, “Winner can show you the way to success, but a loser can make you aware of all the ways leading to a failure.” What a beautiful thought isn’t?

It has always been a mystery to me as to why people always turn up to only the winners (or toppers) to get the much needed tips for success. When I was in school, a lot of my friends used to approach the toppers of the previous batch and enquire about their methodology of preparation and the way they managed their time. They used to run behind them and ask them about the strategies they adopted to succeed. I didn’t see anything wrong with that. That is exactly how the world goes about. People always turn to winners for advice.

You might have already begun to feel that I’m some kinda rebellion or something, who is all set to break the norms of the world. No!! Not actually…What really bothered me then were questions like, is that the only way to succeed or achieve your desired goals? Aren’t there any alternative approaches to do the same? Amidst the devouring eagerness to achieve success, what my friends usually forgot to enquire, was about the set backs he/she faced while achieving the same. I was pretty much sure of one thing; success isn’t always a cake walk! There ought to be hard times and there ought to some sacrifices behind great achievements. But unfortunately the world around us barely seems to acknowledge the same. We all feel it pleasing to know about the brighter side of the success story.

Labeling winners as a different breed of species altogether isn’t fair enough. At some point or the other, they too would have begun the race as beginners, just like anyone else. Then what is that makes them stand out of the breed? It is their ability to hold nerves till the very end, when others failed to do so. Sometimes I really feel that what one needs to know about winning is not what he/she has to do, but rather what he/she must rather avoid doing!! With this very logic in my mind, I would often consult a lot of my seniors who, not necessarily had topped the class but rather failed to do so. Trust me folks, I always managed to gain more information from them than what I actually got from the so-called winners/toppers. Those whom I approached, told me clearly what-not-to-do, rather than what-to-do. As I used to implement those tips, I would discover that it was those crucial don’t-do-these set of tips that helped more than the lambi list of must-do-these ones!! One mustn’t blindly follow the tips given by a winner for success. He or she must have the patience to analyze the situation he is currently facing, along with his/her limitations. When you know precisely what you can’t possibly do, then it becomes very easy to build a winning strategy that would suit you perfectly. When I see parents forcing their kids to run behind a topper to gather those precious pearls of success mantras, I feel sorry for the poor kids. The mantra for success isn’t that generic folks! Remember that what’s good for someone might be fatal to the other!!

Now having spoken about a counter perspective on winning, I would leave you with the following set of questions to think about:

Is it always a winner who can enlighten you about the infallible ways/secrets for success? Aren’t failures aware of what it takes to win? Isn’t he/she worth being consulted for an opinion or guidance? Don’t you feel that all winning strategies are unique in their own sense?

Just a tangential thought!

They say that the most successful people in this world are those who have handled their failures far better than they handled their successes. It isn’t a crime to approach a failure for guidance. Is it? Think about it… You might actually be seeking a piece of advice from one of the most successful people in this world!! Trust me, by doing so; you would be doing yourself a great deal of favor!!

PS: I remember having read this long time ago on the cover page a note book, “I cannot give you the formula for success but I can definitely give you the mantra for failure, try to impress everyone.” See it’s as simple as that!!

~IT's My Life