Your true status...

You are sitting in the new Mahindra XUV 500 and you think that tells the world about your status. While sitting in that expensive car, what do you do with the chocolate wrapper... will you chuck it out the window or keep it with you till you reach your destination? That talks a lot about your status...

You are driving a BMW 6 series at 2 am in the night. You are standing on a signal and there's no traffic cops... Whether you stop or jump the signal will be the true indicative of your status...

Unknowingly you jumped a signal and got pulled over... Whether you accept your fault and pay the fine or try to buy your way out of the situation, will speak a lot about your true status...

That Cashier in the supermarket just gave you an extra 20 bucks in change... by mistake of course... Whether you give the excess change back to him or not... will speak about your true status...

You have an appointment at 9.00 am, whether you reach at 9.00 or at 9.02 will speak a lot about your status... Even louder is that statement when you reach at 8.55 am.

Eventhough you might have the biggest bungalow on the street, how you dispose your garbage bags will talk about your true status...

Material objects are an indicator of status only to those who see with a materialistic view. Materialistic status symbols are important but I think I should also be spending time on raising myself higher as a person. Raising my status for myself.

This is strange...

Dondu got his first car. An entry level hatch back (a small budget car). Excitedly, he took the delivery and left the showroom in his shiny new car with a ribbon across its bonnet and a big “L” pasted on its windshield. (“L” in India indicates that the person driving has learnt driving just recently, so that people can maintain a safe distance)

As he was waiting on the signal, a Mercedes S class stopped right beside him. Dondu admired the Merc standing next to him. The Mercedes was 1.5 times longer than Dondu’s car and costs atleast 12 times the cost of Dondu’s car. Dondu couldn’t help staring at its beauty.

The owner of the Merc saw Dondu in his new car and said “Nice car… Good choice… Congrats…”. The signal went green and the Merc shot off from the signal. Feeling good about himself, Dondu reached home.

When he parked the vehicle, his neighbor uncle saw the car and hobbled up to Dondu. (This neighbor uncle hardly ever spoke to Dondu).

He congratulated Dondu with a beaming smile kept his hand on Dondu’s head and said “God bless you my boy, take your parents out on a drive and make them happy. Let this be the first of the many cars you will buy”

Dondu was pleasantly shocked to see the Uncle was capable of speaking more than one sentence. He had hardly ever even smiled to Dondu.

Later that day, Dondu posted a pic of his car on Facebook. All his school friends who had not met him for ages, distant friends of friends liked his pic and posted nice comments.

One day, this elderly relative of Dondu came home and Dondu showed off his new car, the relative started off with “Why did you take this model, you could have gone in for a better car, what a waste of money. The music system is looks shabby, you don’t even have power windows, what will you do without ABS… blah blah blah blah blaaaaah”

Dondu was feeling so miserable, he felt like he had made a mistake.

A few more “close relatives and friends” came and did similar damage to Dondu’s joy by finding faults with his choice.

Then, one evening, the neighbor uncle again visited Dondu. Dondu was not that excited any more, seeing Dondu down, he asked him what happened and Dondu told him the whole story and how he thought that buying this car was a mistake.

The Uncle, took Dondu’s hand, took him to the parking lot, asked Dondu to sit in the driver’s seat and sat next to him.

Sitting there in the car, in the parking lot, the Uncle told him – “I was a teacher all my life, for 35 years I taught and I retired from the school owning only a Scooter. You have already achieved more than me at this age, and this is only the beginning. For every success of yours, there will be a few people who will be very happy and excited and will stand with you. And, there will be a few people who will try to put you down by downplaying your success. Strangely, it is always the strangers and those far away from us who are more excited about our growth, and somehow, our close relatives don’t seem that happy.

If you have some relatives who actually feel happy about your success, hold on to them, they are a rare species and you won’t find many.

End of the day, it is only YOU who knows the true value of your success. Nobody should be able to put you down in your moments of success and joy. This is only your first car, I want you to, stay hungry for more.”

With this, the Uncle got out of the car and hobbled away for his evening walk...

Meaning of Life Meaning of Hammer...

Dondu: (Sipping a cup of coffee and getting philosophical) What is the meaning of life?
Pandu: (in half a second) What is the meaning of hammer?
Dondu: What?
Pandu: What is the meaning of hammer?
Dondu: I heard it the first time, I mean, what is the relationship between life and hammer?
Pandu: Full meaning hai boss... If you can explain to me the meaning of hammer, I promise I'll give you the meaning of life.
Dondu: (Ordering an expresso grande) Lets do this one... I've got all evening...
Pandu: Alright then... tell me the meaning of Hammer
Dondu: A hammer is a tool for making items of furniture.
Pandu: That's it?
Dondu: Yep
Pandu: Does the hammer do work by itself?
Dondu: No, someone has to use it.
Pandu: Can a 3 year old use the hammer to make furniture?
Dondu: No way... a 3 year old will probably drop it at the first opportunity and maybe end up with a broken foot. Someone grown up has to use the hammer
Pandu: Ok. 14 years is grown enough... Can a mischievous 14 year old use a hammer to make furniture?
Dondu: Obviously not, he'll probably use it to break things and do more bad than good.
Pandu: So?
Dondu: Alright, I get it... Only a person who knows how to use a hammer properly can use it to create something. Anyone else will only use it for destruction...
Pandu: This sounds better... So lets see if we can define a hammer in a better way?

A hammer can't do anything by itself. All of us get one hammer. What a hammer can do depends entirely on the person holding it. One person uses his hammer to create beauty, to create value, to create something that someone can have and use even after the person is gone. Another person could use it to destroy anothers' creation. How you use your hammer will define you and the way you use it could be an inspiration for another few people.

With the right knowledge, anybody can learn to use the hammer well. We can either learn to use the hammer ourselves... or find a teacher who could train us to use a hammer...

Either ways, our objective is to make the best use of the hammer we have... Are we constantly improving the way we use our hammer?

Still want to know the meaning of life?

Don't correct the mistake...

Dondu and Pandu are both working in different companies as office clerks. Every evening after office, they sit together over a snack. Dondu was feeling especially down today as he got a firing again. He had made a mistake in writing the monthly rent cheque and wrote an extra Zero. Problem is that he had made the same mistake a couple of months back and this time, his manager really lost his temper calling Dondu a good for nothing, idiot and stuff like that. Dondu was quite upset because he writes more than 500 cheques a day and just because he made a mistake in one cheque, his manager called him an idiot. That is not fair. Further, he has been trying his best to avoid any mistakes.
Pandu tried to pacify him saying "Just imagine what would have happened if that cheque was encashed, your manager has a good reason to shout".
Pandu then continued sharing his experience, he had made a similar mistake once. He had once spelt a name wrongly on a cheque and the cheque came back dishonoured. The manager called Pandu that same day and introduced him to a friend (also a consultant) who will fix the problem and Pandu was responsible to ensure the same error doesn't repeat.
Pandu was initially confused. A wrong cheque doesn't really need a consultant.
Over the next 2 weeks, Pandu had to work with the consultant on installing an automated cheque printing system.
Today, almost 400-500 cheques are printed in less than 2 hours without any errors.
Dondu's manager tried to correct the error but Pandu's manager corrected the system.

I made the same mistake once. I had a colleague who used to make too many mistakes in his documents. I explained to him and then fired him a few times with not much results. Then I figured a much easier and peaceful solution.
Everytime the guy came with the document, I would just ask one question "Did you run spell check on the document?" If the answer is yes, I'll review the document else I would simply send him back.
Trust me, it saved tonnes of corrections, work and above all brought a lot of peace to me.

Infact, this was around the same time I got a lot of rubber stamps for entering repeat data. (refer the sharing titled Stampify)

Pandu's manager did one smart thing, he didn't run behind fixing the mistake. He fixed the system before it grew out of hand.

Even today, when I come across a mistake or any issues in workplace, first thing is obviously to fix the issue and then the next question is "How do we make sure it doesn't repeat? What system changes can we make to prevent this from repeating?"

You can either be Dondu or Pandu... Actually even better... You can either be Dondu's manager or Pandu's manager...

You can either correct the mistake or correct the system.

Weekend Rest...

What is your definition of rest?

Most of us will instinctively respond – “Lots of sleep”

If that was your answer too, welcome aboard… we are on the same team… still learning…

It has been a mega long, super busy, ultra hectic week for you. You come home on a Friday evening (those who work 6 day weeks… Saturday evening) and sleep properly. You sleep well into the next day… probably get up only for lunch and then back on dreamline express. And this goes on through the weekend.

Come Monday, you have to wakeup at 5 in the morning (ok… 6.30 for you). And you find yourself with a splitting headache, grogginess and unable to get the sleep out of your head.

I know, it was a long week and maybe you haven’t slept more than 4 hours a day, but you compensated it with a lot of sleep during the weekend, right? Then why the grogginess on monday morning?

Lets assume I’ve starved for 2 full days… is it okay if I eat 6 times the normal meal size just to make up for all the starvation? Will it be correct? Isn’t that what most of us do in the matter of rest also?

This was one category…

There is another extreme who go full steam even on weekends and stay active 18-20 hours a day without taking any rest at all. That too is like starving the body... starving it of the rest it deserves.

I think it is high time we understand the right meaning of “rest”.

A weekend or a day off is definitely time for us to invest in recreating ourselves. To fix the damage done to mind and body during the week. But sleeping is not the solution.

I did a bit of searching through my circle of friends and family and realized that there is a common pattern across people which defines whether they are lethargic or energetic on a Monday morning.

Category 1 – Sleep latenight on Friday evening, getup at noon on Saturday, watch tv, eat lunch, sleep, getup at 7 in the evening, maybe go out for a movie, or play games, eat dinner, watch TV till late night and repeat the same thing on Sunday.

Category 2 – Sleep latenight on Saturday (I guess that’s deserved), getup by 8 or 9 next morning, get fresh, go for weekly shopping / finish pending activities, have lunch, sleep for a couple of hours, getup at 5 in the evening, go to a park or place of worship with family, sleep early, getup early on Sunday, take up a social responsibility or learn something during the morning, sleep a couple of hours in the afternoon, evening family time, sleep early and get up fresh on Monday morning.

No prizes for guessing who is a better person on Monday morning.

To me, Category 2 looks a lot more balanced in terms of quality of life. A person has received sleep, family time, growth, completed works etc and still comes back fresh on Monday morning.

Category 2 above is just a sample list of activities, there can be any number of other activities, physical, mental, spiritual… anything is fine as long as one continues to grow during the weekend and come back as a better, improved and more energized self on Monday morning.

Even if I can’t do all of the things that are discussed in Category 2, I think I’ll start growing the moment I decide to even move from my current routine to this new routine.

Thanks to a few feedbacks and mails I received on an earlier sharing, these questions came to my mind, I became more aware and have started working on it. I think my plan for this weekend is going to be much more positive and the monday is going to be much more energetic.

What’s your plan for the weekend???

Sign of a man...

I still remember that expression of freedom on my classmates' faces when they started smoking for the first time. We were in 8th grade back then. Strangely enough, the most common experience all of them shared was that they felt like a man when they were having a smoke. A lot of my friends got into the smoking habit that way only.
Lets face it, if you are a smoker, your first cigarette was not bought from your own money... one of your friend pushed you into it and in order to be accepted, you probably started off.
"Smoking is a sign of a man..." I can bet that was the slogan given to a lot of us.

Same is the case for drinking.

We were a few friends sitting over a coffee and the topic came to the kind of dresses worn by girls nowadays. At times, some girls could dress in a way which you and I could feel inappropriate. Whether it is right or not is a different question, but lets face it, there are times when most of us turn back and look at that ultra short skirt passing by.
So the argument was whether to look at such beauty created by God and revealed by a person or not. Obviously, the moment one looks, one is not having any pure thoughts.
One of my friend actually told - "If you don't get thoughts by looking at a very beautiful girl, then you are not a man, something is seriously wrong with you... you can't be a man if you look at her and still not get "feelings"" (you are free to interpret what he meant by feelings)

But, this got me thinking... What is the definition of a man?
What are the signs of a man?
Do I become a man just because I'm able to drink or smoke? or just because I'm able to enjoy the beauty which the opposite sex willingly / unwillingly displays?
Or do I become a man just because I'm able to become a part of a group of men by doing what they do?

This also brought out the most painful part of our society - Peer Pressure but that's probably for another sharing.

Interestingly, I found my answer in Bhagwat Gita.
In one of the chapters, Krishna has explained the meaning of Brahmachari - A brahmachari, is a person who when unmarried, doesn't look at another woman; if married, he doesn't look at a woman other than his wife. This really clarified the meaning of the word Brahmachari to me as it shows that even a married person can be Brahmachari by mastering his thoughts.

After some thinking, I realised that I can extend the same logic everywhere.
The sign of a man is not in looking and getting thoughts, but in controlling the look and the thoughts. You obviously can't walk with your eyes shut, but how fast can you look away... keeping your thoughts in control...
If one is a smoker, then smoking is not a sign of manhood, but if one can pick up a cigarette, light it up, and throw it away without taking a puff, now that is the sign of a man.
Being a drinker, drinking doesn't make one a man, but taking a glass, filling it up, and throwing it away without feeling regret makes one a man.
Being a non-vegeterian, if I can look at the most deliciously cooked chicken and still walk away from the plate without feeling a craving, I think I can be called a man.

Ultimately, the sign of a man is not any of the above discussed habits. The true sign of a man is something inside, something which everyone cannot see and you need to be very close to a person to experience it.
Its a man's heart. The heart of a man makes the man. (What were you thinking?)
How much a man is a man is shown by the way that man treats the woman in his life.

Am I a man? I don't know...
Am I a Brahmachari? I don't know...

But, thanks to a few of my friends... I got a few questions, a few thoughts and now I'm on the way to becoming a better MAN.

How much time do you have!!!

"If you write it more than twice a day... then stampify it"... this is a rubber stamp manufacturer's ad I saw in a newspaper in late 2005.
Even though my boss had said it a few hundred times before that, this was an ad which changed my entire attitude.
Till that day, I used to write the cheque numbers on each and every bank deposit slip. I used to write my name and membership number everytime I signed and about a dozen other details on various documents which I write multiple times a day, every day... so much time used to get wasted and there was no guarantee for accuracy.
On that single day, I ordered more than 20 rubber stamps. Everything from account details, membership details, beneficiary names, client names, anything which needs to be written more than twice a day was in the form of a rubber stamp.

Today I work in an organisation where I don't do much of writing but work more on the computer. At times we need to run programs 10-20 times a day. Each run may 5 minutes of setup to get a result. This means one could take upto 1 to 1.5 hours a day just doing setups.

Personally, I'm an absolutely lazy guy, so obviously I look for ways to automate such activities... at the same time, I'm not willing to compromise on the results.
As a result, my knowledge in automation has gone up significantly in the last few year and I'm able to do much more in much less time.
That apart, the accuracy goes up manifold because you have removed the human element thereby removing the greatest cause of errors...

Whether you are in business, working in an organisation, teaching, any profession... you need to ask yourself...
Are you spending too much time doing the same thing everyday?
If yes, is there a way to automate it?
If yes, why not automate it?
It could be recording collections, tracking your employee attendance, entering accounts, writing up cheques / deposit slips, sending reminder mails, client update mails, entering time sheets... it could be anything...