Final Transit

Come September and the trees start shedding their leaves. Soon they are robbed of every trace of green; something that makes us wonder if the tree is dead. By December, it starts [tag]snow[/tag]ing and the brown tree struggles to support the weight of snow on it. Water, which had nurtured the growth of the tree from a seed, has now become its enemy. The tender [tag]Cherry[/tag] which had just grown is scared to death. One wonders if water has turned into a demon.

But can a mother hurt her child? The evidence of this demonic love is seen in the picture. Look how tenderly the cherries are covered with [tag]ice[/tag]. It protects the seed inside from cold dry winds. Soon the Sun God will be back beaming with his warmth. The ice will melt away into water but that’s not the end of it. It will help sow the very seed it had protected all this while.

Funny story, isn’t it?

I’m resisting an urge to preach lessons from this. But it’s a lesson everyone has to learn themselves.

PS: This picture is not taken by me! I just got it in some email forward

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• We Indians know that the right side to drive is the left side. But here in Canada, they think it’s their right to drive on the right and that’s the right side to drive.
• We put in the key to unlock a lock and turn the key clockwise. Guess what happens.
• I searched the whole house for a 3-pin socket to insert my electrical equipment, but I never found one. Later I discover that the circular pin is on the lower side, hidden by the contours of the socket
• You go to a restaurant – they give you a check which is really a bill and they expect you to pay bills (cash).
• If you are late for class, the professor won’t question, you can eat in class, laze (sometimes sleep) but nobody cares. While answering a question you don’t need to stand, and the most difficult thing is, that you address the professor with his/her name
• Interrupting or jumping in while the other person is speaking is considered normal here, in fact, if you do that, the teachers think you are actively participating.

Ok then the door knobs are reverse, keys go in upside down, screws get fastened when I try to unscrew them, and so goes the list.

It’s funny how it hits us when routine things change, isn’t it? We take many things for granted and this little experience has taught me to pay attention to them. Extending this to the business world, I think it’s quite likely that our assumptions could turn into contradictions without us being aware of it. Maybe two people having radically different perspectives on the same issue should think about this.

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From notebooks and workbooks in primary school to machines and chemicals in engineering.
From a kid who fumbled with his underwear in kindergarten to an executive who is trying a perfect tie for his formals.
From the time you prided yourself on writing a book report to the time when you were skeptical about that project report.
From the days when you walked your way to school to save a couple of rupees for the evening snack to the days when you had lavish parties with glasses of booze and all the junk food.
Things change so fast, and no sooner than you start understanding them, bang! they change again.

Tomorrow is my last day at work before I take a 2 year break for higher studies. It’s been a memorable journey of three years as a Planning Engineer, starting from Aker Kvaerner and ending at Tecnimont ICB.

I’m going to miss the life of a [tag]work[/tag]ing man. I surely am.

I’m going to miss the bus ride to office, I’m going to miss the [tag]cubicle[/tag] and my [tag]desk[/tag], I’m going to miss the free telephone, printing and scanning facilities, I’m going to miss the arguments and discussions, I’m going to miss the endless [tag]meetings[/tag], I’m going to miss the pressing deadlines, I’m going to miss the bar charts, I’m going to miss the occasional pizza with the [tag]project[/tag] manager, I’m going to miss the long chats over cups of tea, I’m going to miss my colleagues, I’m going to miss the receptionist.

But the most important thing I’m going to miss is – my [tag]paycheck[/tag]! (No points for guessing this)

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When I was a little boy, my mother once asked me to wash the dishes.
“It’s not my work”, I complained.
“Fine.”, she said. “It’s not my work either! Should we let the dirty dishes remain as they are?”
That was when I got my first lesson of collective [tag]responsibility[/tag]. My parents brought me up in a way that made me share the responsibility of anything that we did at home.

But that was family. It’s a different story at work.

In the professional world, the situation is complex. A lot of our work depends upon others. If we get stuck at some place, we can either wait for the input, or do it ourselves. Depending on the criticality of the [tag]inputs[/tag], we decide whether to hold or to take [tag]control[/tag] in our own hands.

Often people adopt the approach depicted in the picture. However, I strongly feel that we shouldn’t be over dependent on others for simple tasks such as these. At the same time, if we keep doing others’ work, albeit a minor one, it still has the potential to make that person unaccountable for it, and we would end up owning the responsibility for the same. So, at the end of the day, it’s always safe to say, “Not my work”. Isn’t it?

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There is excessive [tag]economic disparity[/tag] in Mumbai. It is a known phenomenon but never did the reality hit me so hard than the other day.

I was traveling in the second class compartment in a crowded [tag]local train[/tag]. Every now and then, a [tag]salesman[/tag] would board the compartment and advertise his wares. These salesmen have innovative strategies to attract the bored commuters’ attention. It’s definitely an art!

A [tag]perfume[/tag] seller got in at Thane and soon the whole compartment was filled with a sweet scent. Automatically people’s curious heads turned and he captured their interest in no time. He started speaking.

महिन्याला दोन हजार कमावता, दहा रुपयाचा परफ्यूम का नाही परवडणार? राजा सारखे जगा, घामाने भिजून कामाला जाण्यात काय अर्थ आहे? हा परफ्यूम वापरा आणि बघा सगळे कसे इंप्रेस होतात ते. तुमचे साहेब केबिन मध्ये बोलवून तुमहाला प्रोमोशन देतील! गारंटी देतो, घेऊन तर बघा.

(You are earning Rs. 2000 a month; why cant you afford a perfume for Rs. 10? Live like a king, whats the point in going to work smelling of sweat? Try this perfume and everyone in your office will be impressed. Your boss will call you into his cabin and give you a promotion. Just try, it works.)

He then went about offering free samples to everyone who stretched their hand. Within minutes the guy sold about 15 bottles and happily exited to the next compartment.

What left me stunned was his line ‘You are earning 2000 per month’. How can people survive on such a paltry amount? Initially it was self-denial, ‘nobody earns so low’. But dammit, there ARE people who work in my office doing odd jobs such as cleaning the tables in the cafeteria, or keeping fresh stacks of paper near the printer. These guys earn an annual [tag]income[/tag] less than my monthly [tag]salary[/tag]. And yet they are much better off than the daily wage workers, who not only toil physically all day, but also wonder at the end of the day where their next meal is going to come from.

Yes, there is lot of money in Mumbai, and if you are hardworking and educated, you share the pie. If you are not educated and lack communication skills, the pie is a distant dream. Of course, I’m making this sound as simple as two plus two four, rather than talking about the grim facts. Things are getting increasingly polarized and the economic divide is staggering.

The perfume seller spread fragrance in the train, but thinking of all these things raised a stink.

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