Please Vote For Me!

Well, I participated in a writing contest with Indus Ladies for Mother’s Day and my post is listed among the few selected for voting. 

Will be glad if you take the time out to vote for me. Please Vote for me (Adastrian)  if you like my post. Click this link: http://indusladies.com/partners/poll.php

Thanks!

 

Summers and Train

My earliest memories of travelling by our Indian Railways has been that of the unending journeys between Dehradun and Hyderabad, mostly during my vacations. I have loved the journeys in Second A/C and Gandhi class or Second class has also had its own charm. It is very interesting to note the change in topography as one traverses from the North to the South Central regions of this vast and varied land. 

With the prevailing heat and current conditions I find it impossible to travel in some regions by sleeper class. Thankfully, back in the late 80s and 90s, global warming didn’t cause temperatures to soar to these unseen levels and we could travel in sleeper class with some discomfort. It was a high treat then to be allowed the passing cutlet or samosa and my favourite breakfast in the A.P Express has been Bread Omellete. Don’t ask me why, it was just that then. Trips to the pantry were another interesting timepass during the long journey between Delhi and Hyderabad. 

I can’t remember how many friends I made in the train, but one thing was for sure, somehow never contacted anyone later. It is strange how the train associations seem to end with the end of the journey. Lack of internet could be said to be a cause, but not really a good one. I somehow can’t imagine travelling by sleeper class in the current summers.

The Garib Rath concept of the Railways is pretty good; affordable A/C travel. Though the train is pretty comfortable and nothing really Garib about it, I find the name irksome. More such trains would help the common man. The side middle berth which was introduced to increase capacity, isn’t too bad as it seems. Change is not palatable to any of us and I found this concept tough to digest till I actually got to see it myself. 

For all the travellers heading out for a summer vacation, take care of the heat and have fun!

 

Freedom Writers

 

 

Freedom Writers

 

 

It is not often that one happens to see an excellent movie and Freedom Writers was definitely one. I can rate it among the top 10 I have ever seen.

The story is about a school teacher who at the cost of her personal life spends time, effort and money on her students to improve their lives. These students are part of a reputed public school, because of some recent rules that makes it compulsory to have under-privileged children too. The general attitude of all the other teachers is extremely discouraging. They do not trust these students and do not even give them good books. In fact the whole set of such children are put into one class. These primarily constitute blacks, Asians and other origin children from the lower level of the society. There is considerable animosity among the class members and this is something their teacher deals with beautifully. The story is about how this teacher commits to their development and improvement in their general behavior and grades and makes them realize that they need not die like their friends in their neighbourhood. They need not continue to live in poverty and squalor, but rise above it to be someone important. She shows the importance of graduating and pursuing studies beyond it; instills confidence and pride in each one of them.

Her way of teaching is very unique and different. She encourages them to maintain a diary and write in it daily. Later on these accounts are compiled to be published as Freedom Writers. She introduces the concept of holocaust and relates to their existing lives. Makes them realize the importance of voicing their concern and doing it the right way and finally teaches the “Unteachable” lot.

Hillary Swank plays the role of the young teacher. The director of the movie is Richard LaGravenese and the movie won Humanitas Prize in 2007 under the Feature Film category.

Watch this movie, for its content and strong portrayals and you’ll love it. 

 

Mama Mia!

I had one of the rare opportunities to see Mama Mia, performed live at broadway and what can I say that it was splendid. I was blown away with the way the actors performed. They sang and danced to the famous ABBA songs and the best part of all this was that the stage had very few changes, all through. Just by rotating some aspects of the set and elevating thigns here and there, the whole effect of a Greek island and a home cum hotel was reproduced.

This famous musical has been made into a movie – Mama Mia! Starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth. The story is about a girl who is raised by her mother on this Greek Island and is now getting married. She wants to know who her father is and hence invites three men to her wedding. 

 I just happened to see one of its trailers once more, I suppose it is time I catch up with the DVD.

 

Ahead of The PM

For a change today, it was good to see an interesting picture on the front page of the Time of India. Our Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh was standing in line with his wife to cast his vote and ahead of him in the picture were three ordinary denizens, looking most bewildered.

Looking at that picture, it just made me think, as to what would I have said if I were among those three there. Well, for one, after the initial shock, I would have exchanged some pleasantries, enquired upon his health. Well, may be something that one wouldn’t do, but I would have loved to do it, take his autograph. We do take autographs of all those glitzy hollywood/bollywood stars and well the cricketers then why not of this gentlemen who has held so many important positions and is called the father of liberalization?

I still wonder what those three did. Most likely, just kept looking back, with a stren face or a bewildered expression and went about their business. 

What would you have done?

 

PS: Will try to upload that picture.

 

Harry Potter

With the release of the seventh and final book of the Harry Potter Series over two years back, I presume the Pottermania has come down. As a result making Ms.J.K.Rowling, extremely rich and the another possible good out of it could be that, it made many children read. Children of today hardly know of Enid Blyton’s and no wonder being a soft skills trainer, I have some work to do. 

I initially took to books pretty late in life and was skeptical about Harry Potter too. My cousin who is a big, big Potter fan or rather wizard got me reading the first book and finally after two years of the final come out I got the time to start with the last book. 

The easy and simple writing style that is called low fog index and a desirable quality in good writing is one of the primary reasons for HP’s phenomenal success. No wonder Panchatantra stories and Mahabharata and Ramayana epics have been such a big hit with the hids. All the wizardy or the magic involves makes these book surreal.

I like them because they feed the imagination for the child within me. 

If you haven’t read it, I think you should. No reason why you won’t enjoy and for all Potter fans – Happy Potter Mania!

 

Clear That Clutter

The ever changing, competitive world expects a professional to be a person who is organized, abreast and in control of everything around him/her. The single most important tool to manage oneself most efficiently is to remove that clutter and simplify.

Staying organized doesn’t take too much of time, if you have taken the first steps towards organizing that desk space or book enclosure or for that matter maintained your files in ordered organized fashion on your computer. With the flooding of information that happens day in and day out, you can never predict when what might be required. To stay organized and to remove what is not required form time to time helps maintain a healthy environment. This concept is also applicable to one’s home space. A clutter free home is much more inviting that one which has objects all around.

I find it impossible to search for an object. Even if it is right in front of my eyes, I sometimes don’t see it – can’t fathom why. So I organize my things and keep the ordering simple. This helps me to go back to the place where I would usually keep things and yes, I find it there.

Simplifying the way you decide to work, without making things cumbersome, can happen only if you learn to organize and then the thoughts and ideas would come in easily. I have never understood why some people dwell only on making things seem so difficult and complex. I think the genius is one who gauges his/her audience and works at that level. Simplicity is one level that would be a hit with any kind of audience.

Effective organizations have realized this and put in processes that make things easy – simplify. But this is not a norm and many find it tough to relate to. I agree that one has to keep revising these processes as they tend to get outdates pretty soon, but if one understands the importance of processes, one would love to enjoy it.  My work at Infosys has taught me to be organized and I have learnt to simplify work over time. If every single person works similarly imagine what we all can achieve.

Simplicity is not easy and most times doesn’t come naturally. Companies tend to grow and complicate things. They add new products in the guise of diversification and after a while do not realize where they are going.Whether it is that dirty closet you have or a department or a company you manage, clearing the clutter from time to time and maintaining simplicity should be the mantra.

 

Two Precious Lives

Post for Mother’s Day Competition at Indus Ladies

Please Vote for me (Adastrian)  if you like my post. Click this link: http://indusladies.com/partners/poll.php

Ma is probably the first word most children learn to utter. It is the easiest word or may be it is easy because the mother and child are connected in that very special way that no other relation can compete with it. I would say, I am lucky, because I have two such wonderful relations in my life – my mom, who gave birth to me (Amma) and my other mom with whom I grew up for the better part of my childhood (Mummy).

The interesting part of the whole scenario was that at all times I have had the benefit of both moms in my life, adding different perspectives and caring for me in their own special ways. They both are sisters and married to two brothers and due to a quirk of fate (which I consider to be quite lucky), I got to know both my moms intimately. Though both the ladies are sisters, they are different in many ways and have always added value to my life at every stage.

Amma, who is my biological mother, is an ambitious lady, who instilled in me and my sister to be absolutely fearless and independent. It is because of her that I have independently taken all the major decisions of my life and never had the smallest regret. She is one of the best story tellers I have ever come across and she was the one who introduced me to the world of Jeffrey Archer through ‘As the crow flies’, book. It is not the book that I enjoyed, but it was the ambitious and never say die attitude of the lead characters that has always inspired me to achieve what I want in my life. She is the one who has always listened to the unending dreams/discourses/plans that I have made for myself and in time supported them all.

Mummy on the other hand is a wonderful cook and the person who taught me to be myself. Unknowingly, she taught me the love for cooking good food and to take care of a whole lot of things that are needed to create and maintain a home. Her unconstrained, unbridled way of life has always helped me to do what I please and yet maintain the sanity in my life. Her green fingers were the one that taught me how to love nature and everything in it. To cater to sweet-peas and dahlias in the winter or calendulas and zinnias during spring, it is all her love for the plants and nature that got transpired to me – without even a single spoken word.

If one mom has taught me to look after home, surroundings and its affairs then the other has taught me to face the big bad world with a confidence and optimism that are unshakable. I enjoy the best of both worlds and I am a witness to two precious lives, who have made me what I am today.

Happy Mother’s Day to you both – Amma and Mummy, for always taking care of me and preparing me to be a good mother too.

 

The Indelible Sign of Democracy – Voter’s Ink

We exercised our franchise and then upon a relaxing day, a talkative set can get into numerous discussions. Chief among which was the composition of the Indelible Voter’s ink. We thought that the civics book of the school days had supplied us with that trivia, but then do have some consideration, it has been many years since we left school, so memory fades.

I remember seeing the index finger smeared with a black ink, but at the voting center, the lady applied a purple colour ink. I thought that there might be some change in colour, due to the excess of ink requirement. But then the colour of the ink changed to black in due course. Though the exact composition of the ink is not out in the open, I assume due to fierce demand and competition, but the basic compound used in Silver Nitrate. If you remember your Chemistry from school, Silver Nitrate was always stored in dark brown bottles, as AgNO₃ could react with ultraviolet light and change composition. So coming back to our Indelible Voting ink, it is also transported in darkened bottles, to prevent any composition disruption.

Tentative composition: Distilled Water + Silver Nitrate + Diluted Alcohol and Dye (colour). 

The Voter’s ink or Election Ink is a simple and effective way to ascertain that a person has already cast his/her vote. It is applied on the left-hand index finger at the cuticle and this time onwards slightly extending upwards. It is a semi-permanent ink and remains on the skin from a period of 72 hours up to 30 days also.

An interesting in Business Today about the facts and trivia about one of the leading Election ink manufacturers can be got from this link – http://businesstoday.intoday.in/index.php?issueid=53&id=10763&option=com_content&task=view

 

 

Client & Customer Service – Little things that take you a long way

In this ever changing and highly competitive business world, marketing aims at making the consumer want and then buy things that they don’t ideally need and customer service goes a long way in establishing the market for your brand/product, long after the marketing stint is over.

Historically, in the India post independence there really has been no concept of customer service. It probably is because of the License Raj and all impositions in place then. Even getting extra milk packets was an issue. Though the times have seemed to change drastically, post-liberalization, but our Government offices have and are doing their best to preserve sloth and zero service mantra. After all a Government employee, who is termed public-servant, has it ingrained in him/her to be known as the King/Queen and are preserving their culture. So when malls and huge department stores came up, how can the ordinary employees with zero exposure to the outside world realize what they should do, what customer service is and why is customer service even important for their work in the store?

I am not denying that there aren’t any sales people who are genuinely nice and helpful, but the numbers are still pretty small. If the Marwadi community flourishes in business it is because of the kind of customer service they offer. We had a trusted super market guy and the only reason we loved to go back there was the way he treated his customer- as kings/queens. If there was an item with a defect he would take it and replace it, without saying a single word. He is not looking at the cost of that object you are returning but instead what goes in a long way of the trust and the clientele he is building that will more than cover for his present loss.

Another genre of sales people are those, who promise you the moon without checking out the actual facts that the company/store can offer. Let’s say you fall for the item and buy it, trust me, the moment you walk out that sales guy would have forgotten you. And, by a stroke of misfortune, if you had to go back to the store for a replacement or any such thing (which happens more than 90% of the time), you will find an absolutely new avatar of this sales guy – extremely hostile. An example of this is what happened to my mom, when she was being offered an insurance policy by ICICI phone banking sales girl. She got an unsolicited call with this ‘brilliant’ offer that seemed too good to be true and when at the end of a considerable time and thinking, she decided not to go with the whole offer, the lady at the end seemed extremely miffed. Prior to that, she had promised that my mother could call off the deal at any time, after the payment was made and when she finally sees the actual papers and when it actually happened, the sales girl had the audacity to talk rude. I agree they have their own targets to meet, but no one can show their anger on others and least of all on your prospective customer. These phone calls with brilliant insurance policies are another farce –beware! Once the money is paid, one can never know what fine-print will be brought out to trap you. The real estate market is another murky market and deserves another blog.

A recent example of pathetic customer service would be the car sales man at Honda (Pride Honda) showroom in Hyderabad. We were checking out the new Honda City and this man was so highly disinterested, wavering eye-contact, depressing body language and minimal details that I didn’t even feel like taking the car out for a test drive. He totally sapped my energy and interest in checking out the car. I suppose the attitude of this gentleman remains that if a customer has the money and has decided to buy a car, then he/she will eventually and he need not as much as fret.

 It was only when I stepped out of India that I realized what customer care really was. With the fierce competition in place, it is equal to the biggest sin to commit, if a customer ever complains. Sadly here, we have to yell for things to get done and the only way for the things to move is by complaints. In the US, we had a similar experience at Walmart stores. We bought a water filter and after taking it out of the cover realized that it won’t fit our tap. Due to various reasons, we delayed and eventually after six months went back to the store to return it and to top it, without any bill. The sales person scanned the item and returned our money, without asking for any explanation. I had heard that they do it, but was so pleasantly surprised that words seem few to describe the elation. I have known cases, when people have misused this trust and returned used and perfectly fine things. Now that is unethical and if in India there are sales people and shopkeepers who don’t trust their customer, then the fault partly lies on us too.

At my course at Harvard, I came across this case upon motivation among the employees of Nordstrom Stores in USA and we had to evaluate what was right or wrong with the current policy. More than the whole case, what struck was the fact that this store is famous for its customer service. When a store opened near our house, we went to check it out. I was amazed. Each section had its sales men/women dressed accordingly, a formal section had formally attired sales guy and a casual dress section had a sales guy dressed in casuals. They are with you the moment you step in, always with a smile, extremely pleasing and very helpful. Apparently, there are services like thank you cards and drop off and many more free services performed. That store was the ultimate of all customer service I have ever seen and their loyal customers never shop anywhere else. All this also comes with merchandise that comes at a hefty price, but the point is more about the kind of treatment that you as a customer will get, when you walk over that threshold.

To run a good business, an organization needs to maintain high-quality, good employee satisfaction, a standard of ethics, fair corporate governance, marketing, branding and the list goes, but catering to your client needs is the highest priority, right next to employee satisfaction. As they are the people who put in the money into your business and can make things happen for you. This was the first rule I learnt at my work, to understand and follow the client requirements and irrespective of the industry and field, this rule prevails and repeated over and again as a mantra to remember.