Go to court, if only required

"Lawyers take a different course, 50% prefer not to practice law", report in Times of India today. This is happening at GNLU. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Lawyers-take-a-different-course-50-prefer-not-to-practice-law/articleshow/31189240.cms). I am sure scene is not much different in other parts of India. Should we blame the law students for this?

My father's elder brother was a lawyer. A famous criminal lawyer. Even at midnight he could get criminals out of police custody on bail. Such were his capabilities, network and influencing skills. I believe my father went to study law, did not complete. He got a lucrative job in Indian Railways with hefty salary those days!, so he discontinued law.None of my close or even distant relatives pursued law. My daughter is studying law, but I am not sure she will be willing to practice once she completes her course.

We had a house in the home town while we were staying in railway quarters. My father took loan from all corners to build the house. Since there was no need to shift to the town and rent could partly cover his liabilities he decided to give it for rent. When we gre up, we wanted to shift there as better schools and colleges were nearby. But this tenant refused to vacate. Father had to go to court. Due to inefficiency of the lawyer or court or judge or was it just a norm, it took long 8 years to get the case closed and verdict was in our favour. I am sure my father never wanted to go to a court or approach a lawyer after that in his life time.

I was riding my two wheeler and as I approached St Marks Road Cubbon road traffic junction, the traffic light suddenly turned red from green, no amber in between ! It took me by surprise. Since I was going at a slow speed I could stop at the signal, but cut the pedestrian line. Cop came. His boss came. Took my license and bike keys. I tried arguing him in English that it was not my fault. He told some thing in Kannada, as such I knew only a few bad words in Kannada that time, now I know many more ! But I clearly heard the word "court", immediately I agreed to pay what ever be the fine ! I didn't want to go any way near that place.

Haven't I met lawyers in my life ? Yes. As many as in four occasions. Twice to get a notarised letter to correct the birth certificate details, once to send some affidavit again notarised, and once to give a bond to bank, again to be notarised. This is one system I still don't understand. I have to demonstrate to somebody as how I sign and then pay him some money for watching it. I do not see any other value in that notary process.

Off late I have seen courts interfere more occasionally to improve our way of life. Good thing. Supreme court has banned tinted glasses on vehicles. What else it can do? Since the law and order department is not able to take any preventive measures, the court is asking people to at least display what are they are trying to commit so that public can interfere and stop it before it gets completed. Cops are so vigilant in enforcing that law, as fines are involved if violated. Means more revenue for them. But there are other orders the courts have released, for example improve the road conditions. I am not sure concerned authorities give any damn to these court orders, as it does not excite them.

We should not make these courts look like they are "impotent" ( shall I use this word in this context ! already enough debate is on usage of this word! ). We can live with no government. We can live with no politicians. But it is utmost important that our judiciary works well and it is respected, yes we are the largest democracy in the world.

Before I  talk  on the pitfalls and lacunae in our judiciary system, let me close. Madras high court already banned a website . "A Tamil website, 'Savukku' which means whip, found itself on the wrong end of the whip on Friday, when Madras high court banned it with immediate effect for being vituperative and tarnishing reputation of several judges, IAS/IPS officers, advocates and others.".http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Ban-vituperative-Tamil-website-Savukku-orders-Madras-high-court/articleshow/31184839.cms At the least I may be banned from writing my harmless blogs, if not there is more severe punishment.

Did I violate any of court order willfully by writing my thoughts, I hope not. Today, the Supreme Court has sent out a loud message that unconditional apology after willful violation of its orders will not entitle those facing contempt proceedings to any mercy. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Contemnors-cannot-get-away-with-apology-Supreme-Court/articleshow/31191053.cms

Try your best. Not to make others drag your feet to a court. My lawyer friends may not like this. This is what I have been taught in my child hood, never tell a lie especially in front of a doctor or a lawyer !

Know your hidden potential

“Consider each one of you as Hanuman” hearing this we looked at our back to reconfirm that we don’t look like one at least.  “I am Sri Rama”. The next sentence followed. These words were told by our chief executive (CE) during one meeting. The meeting was to discuss as how to face the quality process assessment by an external agency. All of us in that meeting had undergone training and briefing on how the assessment would be done. We were unanimously against having such an assessment. “Nothing is in place as far as processes are concerned, we can’t think of having an assessment at least for another 6 months” that is what all of us had to say to the CE. After seeing our reactions, CE had to say those two sentences. And he continued. “Hanuman did not know his true potential that he could jump, cross the ocean  and reach Lanka. Rama had to tell him that he could and he did. So I am telling you, you can face it, you are good to go, we will be assessed at a fairly high level”.

The mood of the entire group got changed in a split second. All of us were trying to explore those good things in our projects! And yes, we did well. Level 3 in that 5 point scale, initially we had thought we would not even cross level 1.

Millions of people in India did not think they had the potential to fight against the British to get freedom. Our leaders of freedom struggle demonstrated, instilled confidence in people.

People say an elephant is big but it does not know it. True. At least in case of those tamed ones which are brought in our festivals, processions. Have you seen those mahouts?  They are so skinny and lean people, one push from you or me- need not be by elephant per se-  is good enough for them to collapse. Or is it just an illusion as any human being of any size will look like such in the presence of that huge fellow? Whatever be the case, these mahouts with that small frame of body are able to manage elephants, make them do all the work. But you never ever attempt to go near that elephant to tell him that he has much more potential than he thinks. You would realize his true potential even before you try to open your mouth!

So how do you come to know your hidden potential? Sadly there is no easy way. Keep your ears open while other people talk about you. Look for that catchy word “potential” and see whether they are telling one thing good about you in those 15 items that need improvement.

If I look back that assessment exercise, it was not only because we did not know our true potential. Partially it is because of our own fabricated imagination of high expectations from the agency. They were clear upfront that they were not interested in our grey areas, they were more interested in our strength areas. Their philosophy was if one can be good in one area, then there is every reason to believe that the goodness can be replicated elsewhere. We chose to ignore that philosophy, we were overly worried on our “have nots”.

Does it not happen quite often? We tend to raise expectation much higher unilaterally. The other party would have never dreamt of such high expectations. For example, if I were asked to deliver a  key note address at my wife’s school annual function( I have high hopes !!!) my first reaction would be “no, I can’t”. I would start comparing me with Obama addressing school kids in East Africa!  I need to interact with the students, wave my hands once in a while, need to have a smiling, pleasing face et al. From school’s perspective it could be another ritual, which has been followed for the last 25 years. The speaker can stand behind the podium so that his trembling feet will not be visible to the audience. The speaker can read out from a written speech on any topic, no need to have eye contact to anybody. The speech can just be for 5 or 10 minutes so that they can proceed with more important stuff like prize distribution and performances by students. Actually if I had understood their expectations properly, I would have readily agreed as it would be one step towards preparing for my next speech with more stable feet on the ground!

But setting expectation low by self is equally bad.

Yes, I had represented my Lower Primary school in district level school athletic meet ! (Govt Lower Primary School, Mannar – village in Kottayam District)  That too for 100 metres sprints. My friend came first and me second in our school selection, so both of us got selected to represent at district level. As such we did not have any school ground, our practice was in that barren paddy filed waiting for next monsoons. As the day came closer, we intensified our practice, from 15 minutes to 30 minutes per day! I started eating one additional dosa at home everyday ! As I stood in the start line I realized that all others are at least 1 foot taller than me, much heavier and muscular. Where is the comparison between my dosa/sambar Vs their Chicken/Mutton Biriyanis ? I didn’t bother to do those warm ups which they did, I wouldn't have been able to run at all if I had attempted that. As the whistle blew, I saw that rope held tightly at the finishing line by two guys, eagerly waiting to know who would come first. That’s the first and last time I saw that rope. By the time I reached the finish line, rope had vanished, people came 4^th place and below vanished, the celebration by people who secured 1,2,3 spots just got over !

Do believe that people on the other side have realistic expectations from you. Do believe that you have potential in so many areas which you haven’t explored or you are not even aware of.

Make them Robin Hoods

“Are you looking for any gold coins?” I asked my good old friend Sridhar. I meet him quite often these days during our morning walks. Normally a good morning or a nod or a smile - that would be the protocol. He was surprised today with my question. He was more surprised as he did not understand my question. Not his fault, it is mine. Many have told me that. But he was a different Sridhar today. He had his pet dog with him, 4 month old golden retriever, first time I am seeing him taking his dog. Moreover he had a polythene bag with him, may be to clear the dog poop, I appreciate his gesture. As he lived in the US and Japan for many years, I don’t doubt his good intentions. I elaborated my question “Are you taking dog with that bag also in hand to look for those gold coins as happened in California yesterday”. Luckily he had read about that news. He could understand my question better this time. Those who hadn't heard about this, a couple in California found gold coins worth 1 M USD while they were taking their dog out for a walk.

People get money unexpectedly like this. A few of us would have got money like that. Majority of us earn money by our hard work.

From March onward Indian Railways is going to stop providing refund on unused tickets, once the train has already departed. They used to refund 50% of the value 2 hours after the train has departed. This news reminded me of an incident happened many years ago.

I was traveling from Ernakulam to Bangalore by train. I occupied my seat much earlier as the train was starting from Ernakulam itself. As there were 5 minutes to go to start the train the Train Ticket Examiner (TTE) entered our coach and started checking our tickets. Quite unusual, this must be a dedicated TTE. Normally they come once the train reaches Aluva the next major stop or Thrissur which is next to Aluva. He completed the job quickly and vanished. We reached Thrissur. Another TTE appeared. “You have ticket only till Aluva that too a normal unreserved ticket” TTE told the person sitting in the side seat. That passenger kept on telling that he had reserved ticket till Bangalore, did not know how this happened. Rules were rules, those days there was no computerized reservation systems, no use of having photo ids! He had to get down from the reserved coach. We all thought he was just trying to fool the TTE.

A few weeks later I narrated this incident to my father over phone.” No wonder”, he exclaimed. There was a news item in the daily that day that a person was caught who was trying to collect refund for a ticket which he had not bought! This was his modus operandi. He gets in to the train disguised as TTE, just before the train starts. While checking your ticket he cleverly gives you an unreserved ticket for the next stop, which he would have bought for a few rupees. He retains your original ticket to Bangalore, heads towards the reservation counter. Submits that ticket there to collect the refund money which could easily be around 150 rupees !

People have innovative ways to cheat somebody and make quick money. These people are extremely shrewd, they know the vulnerable targets and also know when somebody can be vulnerable.

 Once, my uncle had an experience. While walking from office to bus stop, somebody approached him and had a deep conversation in those ten minutes. He took 10 rupees at the end of it from my uncle with a promise that he would return it next day. Reaching home, my uncle was so upset, annoyed. While he was trying to recollect who this friend was, he just could not. Once he started analyzing what had happened in those 10 minutes, he realized that that person just called my uncle by his name. Then on he was skillfully building up the case and familiarity with whatever information divulged by my uncle. It is not the question of that small amount of money, but the way he was duped that annoyed my uncle.

That night around 10:45, I was waiting in front of Hotel Leela Palace on old airport road. Not to watch the beauty of that palace in late night, not to watch those “interesting” people who would enter or exit ! To pick up my son coming from new airport in the airport Volvo bus, the bus stops in front of Hotel Leela Palace. As I was getting impatient as the bus was not coming, I saw a young gentleman approaching me. “Do you have 50 rupees on you, my wallet is stolen. I need to reach Banasankari, I am working in an IT company in Electronic City”. His executive appearance and command over good English was so convincing. I almost felt paying him 50 rupees, after all he was also a “poor” IT guy!!, but luckily I hadn’t taken any money with me. He just cursed, “I know you would tell that” as he went off, when he heard  my reply “Sorry I don’t have”. Then I started analyzing what had happened. Why should he be on old airport en-route Bhanashakari, which is totally on the opposite direction, he might say he had to meet somebody here – granted. Then why couldn't he call one of his friends and ask him to pick him up, he might have said his mobile was also stolen – granted. Even then he could have just got into an auto and reach his or his friends /relatives house and ask one of them to pay the auto fare , he might say he does not have any friends/relatives – not granted but then he deserves those 50 rupees.

Would I have gone through all these series of thoughts while he had asked the money? The answer is no, he presented himself so nicely that he did not give any time for me even to think!

I watched a talk by Daniel Goleman on  “why aren’t  we more  compassionate” shared by my friend Ganesan yesterday. (http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goleman_on_compassion.html).

Similarly I am sure study on brains of fraudsters of the kind I mentioned earlier would have been done. Scientists would have found out that these guys are extremely brilliant, high IQ and there is that 24mg piece of their brain that makes them think innovatively to cheat other people. We need such people. Probably an NGO, you might have heard of NGO boom is happening in India, what else one can expect when the Government does not govern, perpetually ! This NGO should catch these fraudsters young, under all legalities.  Provide them a cozy jail, for life time. Provide them the right environment to stimulate that 24mg part of their brains. And who should be the target of these fraudsters ? Those politicians, those bureaucrats, those industrialists who have stashed crores and crores of rupees of our tax money.  Let them use their brains to extract the money innovatively and let the NGO use it for a good cause.

In short, make them Robin Hoods of this era. Let fraudsters tackle fraudsters. “Mulline mullu kondu thanne edukanam”, there is a saying in Malayalam – Thorn (stuck in your foot) needs to be extracted using another thorn only!

Be cautious !

He put his steps like a tiny robot. He was so tense till he got each foot on the grass as he moved forward, shaking his body discretely. And tremendous joy on his face as he kept each foot down. Yes, I am talking about a little boy who is about to start learning how to walk. Last evening I saw him in the park, trying to walk in that green lawn. But there were two super efficient and cautious big robots beside him, both sides. They were his parents, preventing him from not falling on that smooth lawn but also literally not allowing him to walk freely!

I had to go to Annamma teacher’s house to fetch milk in the morning at 5:45 every day, she was moonlighting with her cow business! This was in my village when I was just 12 years old. Teacher’s house was 2 KMs away from my home. There were 2 big challenges on the way.

First challenge, I had to go through a paddy field of 200m stretch, walking on that bund. I myself had seen snakes crossing that bund couple of times. If one of them bit me, and if I shouted, there would be nobody in that stretch to hear my shouts, but for those snakes, who do not have ears anyways! What I used to do was run as fast as I could, to reduce the duration of “scary period” and also to make sure that if at all I stamped on a snake, it should not get enough time to bite me! No snake bit me.

Second challenge was a canal, water body. It was around 12 feet wide and could be 5 to 6 feet deep. I never used to look on the other side of the canal to see how far it was. I never used to look below and see how much water was there in the canal. My focus was only on the next step on that bare minimum flat surface available on that perfectly cylindrical coconut trunk of 1 foot dia, which was used as a bridge ! I never fell in that! (I didn’t know swimming, don’t know even now. Not that I didn’t try to learn, narration of those episodes later! Purely out of context now!!!)

Were my parents concerned about my safety, yes they were more than anybody else. But such accidents or fatalities were not heard of in the area. Not only me, many children of my age used to do those things, more often than me. There was a general sense of confidence that nothing will go wrong, the environment made them believe so.

What is the scene today on a busy Bangalore road? When a school child tries to cross the road in a traffic signal that too in a working condition, with two cops stand alert to make sure that people give some respect to those green/amber/red lights, the parent holds the child’s hand tightly and guide him/her to cross the road. One may say, it is required in this era and under these conditions. I agree. But, that snake on the bund or that narrow cylindrical bridge on a water canal was no less life threatening than the fast approaching red Air Conditioned bus on the street today. But, we parents of these times keep hearing accidents or crime incidents every other day, which makes us less confident than parents of those days.

I had a college friend who was extra cautious. Anything he buys he will inspect thoroughly. One day he bought a text book. He literally went through each page to check whether if it was printed fine, for that matter if all pages existed continuously! It took some time. He returned to hostel to realize that last chapter was missing! He forgot to check whether all chapters did exist! So one needs to be cautious comprehensively covering all dimensions.

Be a little more extra cautious from April onwards. Regularly check your bank transactions especially if your bank is a public sector one. Microsoft is getting cautious. They say the Windows XP ( Do you remember this operating system?) support will be withdrawn from Apr 8th as XP is vulnerable to security threats. 35% of systems in banking sector still use XP. As such after working on this system for 12 long years, some of the staff are still struggling to press the right key on their keyboards. One can imagine the complications involved, once they migrate to Windows 7/8. There is every likelihood that your money gets transferred to my account, without your knowledge. So be careful. Me too!

Indian cricket team needs to be much more cautious now than ever. “Beating India no longer an upset” says one of the rival fast bowlers, that too from Bangladesh!

Yes, one needs to be cautious. But remember that generic rule applies here also, like for any other man-made or natural phenomenon. There is an optimum level, below or above that level, it may no more be efficient. You would have seen your speedometer in your car. There is a green zone 35-45 KMPH. That is the speed range at which one gets maximum fuel efficiency. So try to pedal smoothly at that range while exercising caution, optimally. Of course one can go only at 25 KMPH on many of the Bangalore roads. Of course one has to go at very high speeds while chasing a thief or while participating in Grand Prix. ( Today I heard somebody drove a racing car at 435 KMPH breaking the previous record of 431 KMPH ). One can’t look at efficiencies while being cautious in such extreme conditions! All other times try to be in the green zone, be cautious to the best level required.

Exercise caution optimally. Lead life happily!

Sunlighting

“We will have tug of war this time” a much elated Rangasayee told us. It was my fourth annual cultural meet at my housing colony. I had attended all of them in the last 3 years. It was highly predictive as what it would contain. Invocation song by Sangeetha Aunty from G block, Twinkle Twinkle little star dance by tiny tots of that year, “jeena yahaan MORNA yahaan, jiske SHIVA jaana kahaan”, highly accented Hindi song by Mukherji babu of C block, if it is not exam time then a bharatnatyam performance by some older girls followed by vote of thanks by Mani uncle which would always cover importance of free India and freedom struggle.

But that year was different. The existing organizing committee decided to give the mantle to a new one and made Rangasayee the chief. Rangasayee did not agree first “ I have been working in machine shop. If you ask me to make a complicated part designed and machined, and I can use all my brains and those lathes and milling machines to deliver you that part quickly. But not this cultural event, for that matter I have never organized any event in my life”. With a lot of persuasion he agreed. He did a super job in planning the event. Magic show, mono-act, a few new items got planned. He could not remove Sangeetha aunty and Mukherji Babu and Mani uncle, he had to honour the eagerness of those senior citizens to participate. Tug of war was his innovative introduction. Though he was almost 6 feet and 100+ KG in weight, contrary to my guess ( I don’t know when I will stop this guess work !!! ), he admitted that he never ever participated in a tug of war competition.

The day arrived. First item was tug of War. The problem was getting a rope. Rangasayee roamed around and managed to get one by 4 PM. We were all set. G block on one side and C block on the other. I took the front position, I wanted to see that kerchief tied on the central part of the rope while pulling. The rope was pulled to make it tight, warm up done. “the number of people is not equal on both sides”, somebody noticed. We relaxed. Head count taken and corrected. We were ready again. The referee tried to blow the whistle. It is not blowing! Somebody went in search of a working whistle, we were relaxed again. We had to relax once again at the last minute, as the kerchief was not tied properly. It took almost 30 minutes to set everything right. Yes, the whistle was blown. In a split second, many from both sides fell on the ground, rope just broke in the middle. One with sprained ankle, one with bruised elbow, one with swollen left eye – causalities were many. I was lucky since I took the first position, no body fell on me ! Later some experts told us that the rope could not have taken the force of even three people on either side! Rangasayee, for that matter any one of us around did not know that! The function went on well, but we missed that Hindi song as Mukherji babu refused to sing that day as he was the one who had his left eye swollen!

 They picked me up as the lead singer. In the final day of our batch in the institute. I told them that people had spotted at very early stages of my life that I cannot sing! They did not give up. Finally I agreed. It was “pennaale pennaale” song from Chemmeen, the award winner Malayalam movie. The song was composed by Salil Choudhary and it is folk song, with catchy beat. One does not need to know Shankarabhrana raga to sing that song, 5 others would be behind me on stage to sing the chorus part, so I felt confident. Only plus point we had, was one of us could play guitar. We brought one keyboard player and a tablist from some other batch. I was not fully recovered from the blow from volley ball I got on my chest by left hander, gigantic Moses, who had represented for the state. It was during our venture into play a game with the other hostel team on the previous day. Still I managed to rehearse well, both male and female part of the song was by me. We were on the stage, my guitarist friend said “Scale, scale”. I was looking around the floor to see whether any scale or ruler available, as I thought he wanted one to fix one of those strings on his guitar. He was just pulling my leg to check how much I know about music. Song went on ok, no hiccups. It was not super as expected, but some people enjoyed. But this adventure helped me a lot in the near future.  One of them who enjoyed it was dean of Mech dept, being a Mallu he could enjoy it more. When I went for my project viva, (as such I was under prepared because the project was done while I was on the job), I saw dean of Mech as the chief evaluator. Not only did he ask me simple questions, but he prompted me to answer some of the tough ones that were asked by other evaluators. That “pennaale pennaale” rapport helped me a lot to clear the viva!

“Two Indians were arrested in Singapore for Moonlighting” I saw the news last evening. I had never heard of this term earlier so googled and found the meaning - “Moonlighting is any job you have secondary to your primary job. It doesn't have to relate to your main job”. (Apparently they were doing barber’s job while on a construction labor visa which is illegal in Singapore) I wanted to write today something about moonlighting. But I could not get any good thoughts or incidents on moonlighting. Then, I thought why not some incidents where one is forced to take up something which is not his mainstream, not a job per se, not for a long duration, not secretive, not illegal- but some role unrelated to what one normally does. For lack of any better word, let me call it “sunlighting”!

Sunlighting is good. All of us have inertia to take up such secondary roles. Be fearless. Even if you underperform you will not get the stick as in the case in mainstream job. The joy you get out of it cannot be explained, but has to be experienced. And it can have far reaching benefits which you would have never thought of. Pick up the next opportunity and let the sunlight fall on you!

Feed differently Back strongly

“How is this saree ?” my wife asks me when she is ready in her saree to go to attend a function.

She wants a feedback!

She would be looking at the mirror checking whether everything is perfect while asking that question. I would be watching at my mobile. I will say “It is good” without removing my eyes from the mobile phone.

Her question could be loaded one. It could mean she is just asking whether the color of the saree is good on her. Wrong person to seek opinion, but for red and green, I cannot distinguish between other colors in broad day light ! I have that non-curable deficiency - color blindness. If her question is aimed at getting feedback on how well she had worn it, again she is a better person than me on this, as she has been wearing saree for ages, not me. If the question is much deeper than what I thought – how good she looks in that saree – then do I have choice to tell her the truth, if at all it is bitter!!

Most of the times, I get away with that “It is good“ answer with no meaning attached to it. But at times she had caught me red-handed. Then I look at her and suggest some minor cosmetic changes in wearing that saree which would settle the issue. Actually, I know she is not serious in receiving feedback from me, she needs an appreciation from me. A dumb person like me does not understand it as I am busy with my mobile !

To me feedback is a process to “feed” the other person something differently if you perceive that the current one is not good. And “back” the things strongly which you think are the right ones in your view.

“What is your feedback to us” GM of the unit asked me in my exit interview when I quit my first job. I really enjoyed working there and I was quitting for a better salary.

But when that question was raised my mind went 4 years back. After putting a lot of pressure by me I was allotted a company accommodation, old independent house in that colony. I was thrilled. I went and locked the house with that copper-rich 9 levers Godrej Navatal lock, decided to move in there in a few days' time. Next day I went to have a second look at the house, I saw the lock was mercilessly broken. That was the only expensive item in that house!

 I moved in though.

A few weeks went past with my locking and unlocking the house with no major issues. Then one day I found the electric bulb (the cheap incandescent one which generates more heat than light ! CFL was unheard of in those days ) in the front veranda missing. I put another one. With in 2 days that also vanished. Then onwards I religiously used to take it and keep it inside in the morning and used to fix it back when I returned in the evenings. On such evening, I just fixed the bulb, went in, washed my face switched on. No light, I found the bulb is missing by that time. Petty theft was rampant in the colony. Water used to come at 1:00 AM for 25 minutes, it used to fill a 20 liter bucket in 7 minutes. There were no ceiling fans. As summer set in I got one fixed in my bedroom after lots of follow up. One day it also stopped working. Again after following up continuously, I found the company electrician in front of my house that day morning. He looked at the fan, suggested the capacitor and few other parts need to be replaced. Might not be available in stores, if I wanted to have a quick fix he could buy from outside. I paid him some money, need was mine right? I came back in the afternoon to check whether the fan was fixed and to get some cool air. I saw this electrician happily sleeping on my bed, fully drunk. I woke him up, I could easily make out, he did nothing but got drunk with my money. I shouted, threatened him that I will report to higher authorities. He just blabbered “Last 15 years I am working here. Nobody can touch my skin” in Tamil (actually he did not say “skin” but much more delicate stuff that grow on human skin, a bad slang in Malayalam and Tamil !). I did report this incident, nothing happened, unions were strong as usual!

Coming back to my exit interview, I thought I will suggest improvement in company provided accommodation. “Over all good but the condition of company accommodation needs to improve” I tried to start telling. “You do not seem to be appreciative about what we are doing, blah blah blah “ the GM took off. He was in charge of staff welfare function as well in addition to computer services. Obviously he knew what I was trying to “feed” him might not digest well. So he cut me off, without getting into details.

While seeking feedback, get it from competent person in that area. More importantly you should believe in that person that he would give a matured feedback, candidly. As such, people with this combination are rare. And do not have a closed mind. Do not expect people will only “back” your good ones. They might “feed” different alternate things for your bad ones which you may not like.

While giving feedback, open your mouth only if you are sure of what you are telling. And also you are sure that it would help the other person. Of course, even otherwise you can open your mouth just to say “It is good”!

And no restrictions in this exceptional case here, you need not give a comment about this particular blog "It is good" !!!

Bingo !!

I was relieved yesterday. Fifteenth Loksabha ended forever. No more chaos, no more fights. Atleast for another few months.

I am relieved much more today. I tried to do as much I could do by last evening, but could not. I tried to eat as much as I could, but could not. I was worried by night. “Kal ho na ho?” End of the world predicted for Feb 22^nd Saturday with epic battle between Norse gods Thor, Loki, Odin, Freyr and Hermóðr as per Viking apocalypse. I had heard these types of predictions earlier. I am sure I would hear those in future too. But I was a little worried.

This morning when I woke up first thing I did was login into FaceBook. Yes, people as usual are still posting selfies, veg/non-veg jokes, sharing interesting pictures and stories and “liking” other's posts. Yes, world did not end. I was lucky, we are all lucky that it didn’t happen.

Luck – whether it is good or bad will be remembered for ever.

“Bingo” I shouted sitting in the car. Why? For what?

It was a rainy day. As I started driving home from office with my friends Naveen and Sid Shah, we realized that the Hosur road was fully blocked. Water logging, nothing new in those days. One of them suggested that we should take the central jail road who was more familiar with the road but not the jail per say.  Though that road was narrow, I took that diversion to reach faster, as I knew the traffic would be less. As I drove a few KMs, we saw a huge jam there as well. It would mean we have to wait for an hour at least. We were so unlucky; we could have continued on Hosur Road and reached faster.

What else to do, I increased the volume of FM 104, Radio fever! I saw Sid typing some sms. He was responding to a game played on the air. It was a game where a counter will randomly keep on telling a number starting from 1 to 10 lakhs. It could be like 10, 150, 3000, 6005, 150100, 800000 like that, purely at random. The person who calls in should shout “Bingo” anywhere in between as he wishes. He will get that much money which the counter just announced, eg: if one shouts when the counter tells 150100, then the counter will stop and the person will get that much money. There is a catch though. There is an inside alarm set again at random which can pronounce “Bingo” by itself during this journey from 1 to lakhs. If that happens, before you shout Bingo, the counter will stop again, but you get nothing!

I also sent my sms, as nothing else to do. Naveen too did send sms. We forgot about that, traffic started moving, I crawled and reached Marathahalli. Guess what ? I am getting a call from RJ Rajesh from FM 104 ! He says, I am selected for this game and he would call me back in 5 minutes to start the game. I could not believe my luck. I did get a call after five minutes. The counter started 12, 350…and reached 26000+( twenty six thousand + only !). I decided enough is enough. That is why I shouted “Bingo” for that money, sitting in the car. Just to let me know RJ continued the counter and the”Bingo” inside alarm went at 40000+ ( forty thousand+ only). I felt luckier, I would have felt otherwise had it touched 10 Lakhs !!!! As promised to RJ, I threw a party to some of my friends at “Legends of Rock” at Koramangala. We had a rocking time, those who did not get my invite, my apologies first, then it’s your bad luck – I hadn’t won 10 lakhs that day !!!!

Bad luck turns to good luck, it can happen other way round too.

During my visit to Leeds, UK at a customer location I had a one-on-one meeting with my team members at onsite. Deepika, she had received excellent feedback from customer for her work. She was extremely hardworking, sound in the finance domain and technology. She said to me “I am happy here. But I am not as lucky as my friends. They all are in the US. I also want to go there. I need the immediate next chance. Help me with that”. I gave her all good fundas on Leeds - small country town, old and ethnic look, peaceful, lots of greenery, etc  etc. I also gave her all “not so good” fundas on US, mugging, shooting, fast paced down towns, lots of coke, pizza etc. Just to see whether she might change her mind, knowing fully that both places are equally good. I told her to continue for the next six months as promised to the customer. She honored that. When she returned to India, I immediately transferred her to a US based customer account. Last I heard from her was two months after that, she had sent me an email informing that she would be flying to NY that weekend. I never ever thought that she would be one of the four missing from our organization in the 9/11 incident. Extremely sad. She was so unlucky. I sincerely hope that she is just missing and she is still alive somewhere.

Let me loosen up myself little bit, “jo honaa hey, woh ho jaata hey”, it happens which has to happen. Now I will tell about a prisoner. It is a joke shared by somebody. The prisoner was  sentenced to death. The King asks him “Do you have any last wish?”. He tells “Is there any way I cannot be hanged?”. The King replies “I will give you one month’s time. If you can make those horses outside fly, then I will order not to hang you!”  Prisoner readily agrees.

Seeing the prisoner relaxed, other inmates ask him “are you mad ? you will be hanged anyway after a month. How do you think you can make those horses fly”? Prisoner replies – “ In one month’s time many things can happen. If I am lucky, I will die naturally in the prison itself. If I am luckier, the king himself may die. If either of these two things does not happen, still there is a hope. If I am the luckiest, those horses might start flying themselves! Who knows?”

When one is optimistic, he always thinks that good luck will be on his side.

When your friend by his smart work and brilliance achieves much more than you, then you tend to console yourself – he was extremely lucky. When you get sidelined for your lack of interest as you are not focused, you again try to console yourself - My bad luck!

One can be lucky or unlucky, but one cannot run away from his duties to be successful!