My Share...

Was recently witness to a family fight where there was a partition happening and the brothers and sisters were in 'negotiations' about who gets what. (don't worry, it was not my family). The father had passed away leaving behind 2 factories and a mansion. This needed to be shared among his two sons and a daughter. Oh, there was also the mother who was now a widow, but nobody was speaking of sharing her.
It was complicated to share the assets among the three children and their widow mother because they had to make sure that nobody gets unfairly more or less. They tried a lot of different combinations but every time it resulted in a fight because one of them was getting less.
Finally they decided to sell the entire assets and split the cash 4 ways. Everything was sold, one fourth was given to the mother from which she had to buy a house and take care of herself for the rest of her life. Balance three fourths were shared among the brothers and sister equally and all the children were satisfied.
It's shocking to see how the well educated children had squandered away the wealth created by their father's hardwork. The person who bought all the assets from them has already multiplied those assets to 4 times their value when I last saw that place last year.

Was witness to another such incident. My friend was getting married to his girlfriend, the girl is the only child. At the bachelor's party, I overheard another friend saying to my friend "you are lucky man, rich dad, only daughter, ultimately everything is going to come to you".
I was thinking that even I have one sister and a brother. Somehow such a thought of partitions, shares etc had never crossed my mind. I asked myself as to what will I do when the time comes. The mere thought that I could ask for a share got me feeling bad about myself.
It feels like I'm looking at a pack of vultures.
Vultures and hyenas fight for their share in the carcass after the animal dies. If I had to go running and ask for a share, then what is the difference between me and these vultures and hyenas.
By what right do we ask for share in our parents' properties?
Don't tell me that it is as per law, laws are made by men. And our legal system is flawed enough.
Haven't our parents already given us enough to create our lives independently. My parents invested the peak years and money to get me educated. Today I have enough educational qualification to create a life for myself without anybody's help. Isn't that the most precious heirloom already?
Even if one doesn't have the education, most of us have created some success for ourselves already.
And if you and I have not been successful enough, then trust me, even the share of property will not be useful because we would not know how to use it well.

I have decided that with all that I have already received from my parents, I don't have any rights to ask any more. I will not become a vulture. If possible I will create so much wealth for myself that when the time comes, the 'share' that could come will look too small to even bother about. I'll remain a son and not become a vulture.
I think it's a good time for all of us to decide what we want to be when the time come.
Do we want to be vultures and hyenas or do we want to be sons and daughters?

When you go to the restaurant

When you go to the restaurant, you meet a pretty lady at the door waiting to receive you, she guides you to your seat, a well groomed steward lights a candle on your table and hands you a menu with a list of dishes served at the restaurant.
Be honest and tell me... Do you see the right side of the list first or the left? (for your information, the left side is generally the names of dishes and the right side is the prices)
Almost all of us instinctively see the right side first and start filtering the dishes based on their prices.
I know about a mother and son who once travelled in train for two days with just Rs. 50 in hand. Out of this money, they bought a veg rice and shared the meal between them. The balance Rs. 25 was kept aside for the fare from the railway station to home. I accept that this was a time to see the price before eating.
I know a brother who went to work and ate bread with pickle so his elder brother could complete his studies. That was the time to save money and check the prices before getting food.

I've decided that in this lifetime, neither I nor anyone in my family will ever need to see the price side of the menu.
Of course, this doesn't mean that I'll go to eat lunch at The Sheltons and The Sheratons everyday. But I can atleast make sure that if I ever feel a desire to go to an expensive place and pamper my taste buds, I will not think twice.
Some call me crazy, some foolish for the money I sometimes spend on food for myself or my friends and family.
Then again, those close to me know that if it is Gulshan, the food will be the best whether it's a treat, party, get together or no occasion at all.
It's just a matter of decision that I will grow enough in life that I don't have to see the right side of the menu.

I have a Guardian Angel!!!

It was a Sunday morning and I went down to clean my bike. As I was cleaning the tyre I noticed that a really long iron nail was driven right into the rear tyre and poking out from the other side of the tyre. Somehow the nail itself had sealed the hole and the tyre had not gone flat. The bike must have gone over the nail while driving and the nail probably just stayed there.

I took it to the mechanic next door to get the puncture fixed. While inspecting the tyre, the mechanic said that a certain part from the brake assembly was missing and will need to be fixed. Without this part the brakes can't work.

I actually laughed at the mechanic because that same morning I had been to the airport and pushed the bike all the way to 100 kmph. He said it was impossible because the brakes just won't apply without that part and apparently the missing part and the nail in the tyre had been that way for quite some time.

The mechanic started taking the bike into his workshop and as he was towing it, the entire brake assembly just started falling part by part in front of his shop because of the missing part.

He had not even touched the bike with his tools, so there's no way he could have done anything.

I told the guy about my ride that morning and the expression he had was amazing. He looked at me, then at the bike, then at me again about 4-5 times and finally said - "either you think i'm an idiot or you have a lot of good deeds in your account".

"I guess I have a guardian angel" was all I said.

I guess sometimes we just have that guardian angel looking after us, that Z axis, those good deeds, whatever you call them.

What I also realised was that the 100 kmph adventure that morning was definitely not required. A hundred things could have gone wrong. The missing part and the nail were both independently enough to do enough damage at that speed if it wasn't for sheer dumb luck.

I have become a more responsible biker since then.

I realise that being lucky is one thing, but pushing that luck unnecessary is not correct.

Systems... Can't live with them!!! Can't live without them!!!

Was catching up with a friend over coffee a few weeks back...

He had gone through a personal issue with his manager and he was upset about it.

There was a family emergency and he had to plan some urgent travel. The company does not allow internet access to its employees due to to ensure data safety, so it was not possible to book the flight tickets. He works in 8 am to 5 pm time slot, has lunch break between 12.30 and 1.30 in the afternoon and no other flexitimings. Saturdays and Sundays are off. (for most of us, it is a dream to get this kind of work hours.)

During the lunch hour, he went to get the tickets but ended up coming back at 1.45. 15 minutes late meant that half day was knocked off his account as unplanned leave.

Since I was with him that day, I was at the receiving end of the cribbing.

Can't they have a little flexibility?

Will it kill them to give me a 15 minute permission?

Hitler is dead and we got freedom 60 years ago, still it feels like we are nothing more than highly paid glorified slaves...

Anything I could say could not have helped to stop his complaining spree, but at the same time, I also think that I would completely agree with my friend's company's policy.

I was involved in decision making once and I would happily welcome anyone to take that seat and make a policy that could have everyone satisfied.

You will all agree with what is coming next if you look at it as an employer and policy maker:

1. If you were to allow internet access to employees, 80% of them would be spending time on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, or making travel plans for the upcoming long weekend.
2. If you were to allow flexitimes / permissions to employees, 80% of the them will utilise the permissions for the lousiest reasons ranging from paying electricity bills, phone bills, getting the vehicles serviced etc, everything during office hours, most of these jobs can be done by just going online in evenings or on a saturday.
3. If you were to allow flexi lunch timings, 80% of the employees would use one and half hours for lunch.

To avoid all these issues, wouldn't you make the kind of rules which will make sure employees don't misuse any of them? Wouldn't you be turning into Hitler then? Employees may not be happy with the systems...

But if you create the systems to be flexible, then employees misuse the system in unfair way... You will not be happy in that case.

What I understand is that before complaining about my organisation's System, I should place myself in the system maker's place and ask if I made it more flexible, will 80% people use it or misuse it?

Every system is created for a reason. So there's no point in being a part of a system and complaining about it:

If I don't like something about the system. I have only 3 options:

1. If I have no choice but to be a part of the system, then I should not complain about it.
2. If I can't be a part of it, I should get myself a spine and get out of it.
3. Or Be a part of the system, follow the system and grow enough into the system to reach a stage where I can change it into what I feel is right.

Make a choice dear... there's no point in sitting around and just complaining.