Work Life Balance Hypocrisy

Recently I read a top high management professional talk about how he has realized the real meaning of PTO is total switch off and enjoy the time off in a very true sense. He was talking about being completely away from the work laptop, not even checking emails on phone or not taking work related calls at all during the break. He said all we need to do is delegate it to the right person who is responsible during your break time. How wonderful is that and I could see a lot of people commenting and saying positively about it. Well, I am of the same opinion and agree hundred percent with what he said. But it would be hypocrisy if all those who agree to the opinion of enjoying their time off fully and completely, would be happy when others, especially their subordinates or the junior most member of that hierarchy does that. I personally feel that it is a crime to ask someone to work on a weekend. An IT professional works hard 5 days a week so that he can enjoy the two days of the weekend fully with his/her family, doing whatever he likes to rejuvenate and relax. And if their boss is asking them to give time from that weekend again to work, it is no less than a crime.

 

I would like to ask the people in the topmost positions to think seriously about this matter. Just imagine that you are enjoying a game of cricket during your weekend, and you receive a call to work on something urgent and important. Would anyone not get pissed off with that. Every human being is equally important when it comes to relaxing and rejuvenating themselves and having their own personal time. There should not be any exceptions to that. I have seen people in the US and Europe are true to their weekend culture and they won’t work on a weekend or a holiday and there is nothing wrong with that. They have all the right to happily enjoy their time. Only thing that is not right is discrimination with India. Why do Indians have to work on weekends and sometimes even on Holidays when the bosses in US never would do that.

 

On the Labor Day weekend top US bosses talk about how to enjoy me time and digital detox etc. and their own subordinates in India must work over the weekend for a so-called patient safety issue. And mind you, even though the issue is patient safety and even though everything is done and ready over the weekend, it would not be deployed to the hospital since no one in the US will work on the Labor Day holiday. How ironic is that? So, something that would be delivered on a Tuesday morning in US is being worked upon during Saturday and Sunday in India even though there are two full weekdays (Monday and Tuesday) available to India team. I feel this to be gross injustice to those people who had to give away their weekend for something that could have been easily done during the weekdays. Time once gone is completely gone. You can't compensate it by giving a compensatory off on a weekday. Well, who are you going to play a game of cricket with on a weekday? Everyone would be working, and you would be all alone as even your family members would have their own weekday engagements.

 

So that's why it is no less than a crime to take away anyone's weekend. And those in the position of authority should always take into consideration whether something they are asking their subordinates to do over the weekend can be done during the weekday. Because this culture can change only from the top. People in the position of authority should make it a moral obligation that they never bother any of their team members during weekends. Mind you there is nothing so urgent as people make it to be. Somehow today’s people’s managers have completely forgotten the fact that they are responsible for their team, and they can become good managers only by earning respect from their subordinates. Just following orders from the top does not make them good managers. I personally do everything I can to never bother my team members unless I have no other choice. I have always been told by my bosses that you could ask your juniors to do the weekend work, but to me that is a crime. And if I am preaching something, I need to first follow it.

 

So next time when you think about digital detox and completely switching off to get your own personal time, please think of their subordinates and try to make their life better at least on weekends. Everyone is human and everyone deserves to live life to the fullest possible extent. Every one has an equal right to Work-life balance.

Whatever Happens, Happens for the good

There is this saying in Hindi which was made famous by the one and only Amitabh Bachchan. He says these are the lines said by his father Late Shri Harivanshrai Bachchan.

 Mann ka ho to achcha, aur man ka na ho to aur bhi achcha.

 It means that if something happens according to your wish then its good, but if something happens against your wish then it’s even better. The reason is that, if something does not happen as per our wish then it’s God's wish. And God will never do anything wrong for their children. This is a wisdom of life, and one should always be positive about things happening to him/her and this kind of ancient wisdom always helps us to stay positive under all circumstances. And these sayings are not just sayings they became wisdom only after many people experienced such things in their own life. I remember one incident in my life which reminded me of this same saying. I am sure everyone must have had at least one such experience in their life which can relate to this title.

 This is an incident of the time when I had completed my graduation and I had the long summer vacation before I could make any decision for the next phase of my life. I never felt that I was worth getting any admission to professional colleges, so I just wanted to spend my time playing cricket. Cricket matches was the only thing that was important for me back then. I had an important match coming up in the weekend and I was very excited about it. When I returned home after playing in the evening that day, my father told me that we must go Ahmedabad to visit my cousin brother's place for a few days. I casually told him; I am not going you all can go as I have a very important match in the weekend. My father told me that we are going in our car for the first time and so we might need you also just in case there is anything going wrong during the journey. It would be better if they have me with them as my elder brother would be driving. In those days once my father demanded something then it was final, we just could not go against it. I was furious. No one cared for my important match, and I threw all possible tantrums for not going with them. But finally, I had to oblige as I had to obey Dad's wish even if that meant that I had to miss the important cricket match.

 With heavy heart I went with my family to Ahmedabad. The next day morning I read an advertisement in the Newspaper. Gujarat University MCA admission forms are available at the university office. As I mentioned earlier, I never thought that I am worth getting an admission to MCA, so I just ignored. But suddenly my dad said that why don't you go and get the admission form. You can think later whether you want to appear for the admission entrance exam or not later. Well, when my father asked me, I had to oblige. So, I went to the Gujarat University and brought the form for me. I casually filled and submitted it as I thought what the harm is in trying. Then after 3 months I appeared for the exam just as casually as I submitted the form. There were no thorough preparations or any detailed studies. I was always knowing that I am not going to clear the entrance exam. But one thing led to other, and I submitted the form, appeared for the exam and then to my utter surprise, I GOT SELECTED! I could not believe that I could get an admission to the MCA course of the prestigious Gujarat University. I was so casual about it, and here I was with a chance to live a completely different life. Getting admission in a course like MCA was a dream of many, and I just got it through pure luck.

 My mom teased me look you were not even ready to go to Ahmedabad because of your Cricket match but see now what has happened. I was awestruck and had a realization that OMG! this was God's wish and that's why somehow my dad forced me to go along with him. I would have had a completely different life, had I been adamant and stayed back for the match. Life has a way to surprise you always. And this was my destiny. After that incident, whenever in my life I face a situation where I feel that something is not happening as per my wish, I try to think positive and believe that it is God's wish and when God wishes something for us, it is always good in the long run.

It is indeed true that, whatever happens, Happens for the good!

And here comes another Last day email

Its like a farewell season going on these days. In about 2 weeks’ time I will be attending a third farewell party. Sometimes similar things happen back to back that it makes you believe that well is this some plan of the Almighty that he has planned all the farewells one after the other. There are close friends and colleagues who are planning to change their jobs, one of them planning to move abroad for long term. Then there is our veteran talented bond of Config Management who has taken a decision to retire from professional career, even though he spending half the day was able to run the business on its own.

So, I have seen so many last day emails recently and literally all of them having same or similar content. I had been through the same cycle of reading last day emails earlier as well. That was the time in 2007-2008 when Financial Banks were making a huge loss and every other day, they were being bought by one or the other bigger banks. I was working for Countrywide financials and we were sailing in the same boat. People were looking for jobs outside and every other day one person or the other was sending this last day emails. I was getting bored of reading the same stuff almost on a daily basis. I know people are emotional and most, if not all of them mean what they write in their emails. They all want to put their best picture in front of others, by talking all good things and thanking one and all. I did make a promise to myself that, when my time will come to write the last day email for countrywide, I won’t bore anyone with routine stuff. I will try to make that email memorable or at least make people laugh or smile while reading it.

Things happened fast and I did not get enough time to prepare when I actually had to write the last day email. But I just wrote it in a single sitting and sent it to all my buddies in Countrywide financials. I made it a point off course to exclude senior management, so as to not offend them with such a straight forward, sarcastic and funny email. I still read that email at times and have a big laugh at it myself. So, without wasting too much time let me copy paste the email here, so I don’t have to search it time and again into my Gmail account when I have to read it. The email is in my most favorite language, Hindi so those who don't know or understand this language, please pardon me. This one is more for me than for anyone else. I would love to come back to it and read it when I grow old.

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Subject: इस email id से आखिरी ईमेल

मेरे प्यारे भाइयो और उनकी बहनो ,

वैसे मौका आ गया है की मैं भी एक आखिरी दिन वाला email  लिख डालू .....

इतने दिनों तक तैयारी की, लेकिन जब लिखने का समय आया तो समझ में नहीं आ रहा की क्या लिखू | वैसे ख़ुशी तो बहुत हो रही है की तुम सब पकाऊ लोगो को और नहीं झेलना पड़ेगा, लेकिन ऐसे मौको पे सच सच बोलना शोभा नहीं देता ; इमोशनल होने का दिखावा करना पड़ता है, और झूठ झूठ ऐसा बोलना पड़ता है की तुम लोग बहुत अच्छे थे और तुम लोगो की बहुत याद आएगी, तो ऐसा ही कुछ समझ लो| और लोग तो थैंक्स वगैरह भी बोलते है ... तो भाई क्या करे, परंपरा है तो में भी बोल देता हूँ की तुम लोगो ने मुझे जो पिछले दो साल पांच महीने और आठ दिन तक पकाया उसके लिए तुम्हे बहुत बहुत ... कीड़े पड़े .. @!#$@#%!@#!%@

अरे माफ़ करना मुझे यहाँ धन्यवाद बोलना था, तो भाई वैसा ही कुछ समझ लो|

बहुत बत्ती लगायी हमने CFCI और उसके projects की, और उनकी बहुत धन संपत्ति ख़राब की, लेकिन enough is enough! और लोगो को भी तो मौका मिलना चाहिए | और अब और लोगो ने हमें उनके projects और धन संपत्ति ख़राब करने के लिए चुन लिया है | क्या कहे उनके फूटे नसीब|

अंत में अपना personal email id और phone no. दे रहा हूँ | मुझे मालूम है की बहुत काम लोग उसका उपयोग करेंगे, लेकिन .. अब वोह कहते है न की परंपरा है तो करना पड़ता है |

तो भाई यह है मेरा email id: r***.***@gmail.com

और यह रहा फ़ोन नंबर - 89800*********

जानता हूँ की बहुत मुश्किल है फिर भी कहूंगा की  keep in touch.

Seriously मत ले लेना. अरे भाई परंपरा है तो ऐसा कहना पड़ता है.

अलविदा दोस्तों

Rushikesh

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All my colleagues and friends had a really good laugh reading this email. And the smiles and laugh at their faces when I met them in the Countrywide office for last time made my day.

Locals Vs Outsiders

The other day we were having some conversation over drinks. And Yes, you guessed it right, when there is conversation on some topic over drinks, it is bound to become passionate. The topic was about that if you are an outsider, you ought to give more chances to the locales irrespective of their service. I was kind of taken aback by it. I am proud product of Kendriya Vidyalaya and we in K.V. are always taught that we are Indian first and we have to treat all fellow Indians equally, irrespective of their cast creed or locality. Me being one the so-called outsider was dissapointed at the thought that how can any educated man have a biased thinking. If people from outside come to Pune, off course Pune gave them opportunity, but the people from outside also give something back. It is not one-sided it is always mutual.

My friend's argument was when you made the decision to come to Pune, was it for yourself or was it for giving something to back to Pune. I agreed that it was solely for me that I made the decision irrespective of thinking about how the people in Pune will treat me. He said when Pune gives you some opportunity to earn a living, you ought to pay back to Pune, by providing them the opportunity to earn from you. And you should always be biased to give more opportunities to people who are local and belong to Pune. I could not understand that. For me being an Indian always comes first rather than being a local or Marathi. I told him that when I have to choose the vendor for any of my requirements, I could never choose based on cast, creed, locality or language. All humans for me are same, and selection will be purely based on the quality of the service and money I would be spending for the service. It has to be value for money for me to make a choice of any vendor. For a person like me, I could never say I belong to a particular locality. I was born in Madhya Pradesh, brought up in Gujarat and spent my professional life first in Gujarat and then in Maharashtra. So, when someone asks me where do I belong from, I always reply, I am from India. And I am proud to be an Indian.

My point is how can we be biased and not give someone who is deserving an opportunity just because he is an outsider. The argument was about the Marwari community and other business vendors who would eat up all earning opportunities for the locals. To a certain extent I agree that it is a case, those people who come from outside may be giving opportunity to only their people and then even though they are earning from Pune, they are not hiring people from Pune for their shops and jobs they create. It could be true, but I bet that if someone is capable enough it won’t take long, before someone would give them an opportunity purely based on their talent and hard work. After all we the so-called outsiders were chosen for working in our company only because the interviewer found the right kind of skills that he was looking for. Being an educated person how can I be biased. That just does not sound right.

To me it is just like reservation. Reservation in education and govt jobs gives opportunities based on caste to those who quite often do not deserve it. If we all feel that reservation is unfair to the people deserving it, then how can we be the one who follows the same principle. Professionals who come from outside of Pune do pay taxes which goes to the central govt. But, ultimately the state budget is allocated from the central govt to the state and tax paying people do play a part in helping build the nation overall. I concluded with the argument that we all are Indians and being an Indian we can't discriminate between fellow Indians. If everywhere in India we will have people thinking that only locals should get the opportunity, we can't become a country of unity in diversity. The local people will have to show the required skills for a job and should get a job for their skills, quality and hard work and not because they belong to the locality. If this closed-minded attitude will not change, it would be very difficult for India to make a progress on the global scene. We all are Indians, and everyone should always realize that all Indians are equal come what may, and there should not be a biased attitude towards a specific locality or community.

Effectiveness of Voting

Effectiveness of Voting

Voting-A fundamental right of every citizen. All the fundamentals of democracy rests on the unique keyword, Voting. Every citizen of a country understands that as soon as he becomes an adult (Legal age 18 in India, may vary in other countries), he/she will get the right to vote and they are so excited about voting. How many people are really excited about voting in terms of choosing the right candidate? Not sure of the number, and even most people do not understand the seriousness of voting. The point I am trying to make here that even though it's a democratic and fundamental right of every citizen, it is not really effective in terms of choosing the right candidate. The fact there is no difference between a totally uneducated person and a highly intellectual individual when it comes to voting makes it totally ineffective specially in a country where percentage of literacy is 74, and mind you by literacy they mean only read and write. Literacy by no means, means education. Literacy is actually the very beginning of education.

So, this such a strong opinion that Voting is not a very effective instrument in terms of choosing the right candidate. We all know how much it takes to get a simple Job in a private company. The candidate has to go through various aptitude tests, then a series of interviews and post that HR rounds and what not. It takes so much for someone to crack a govt Job interview (unless he has the caste certificate of a reserved category off course). In every profession be it Medicine, Engineering, Civil services, etc., it takes a hell lot out of you to get the desired education and get the Job. When a person clears the IAS interviews, he//she has to serve under a Minister who was elected just by the voting of individuals, and that too, those, who are unaware of what voting really means or whether they are choosing the right candidate. People hardly know and those who even know they hardly care about it.

I am not saying that it’s a piece of cake to get elected in an election, No, that is not true. But, to me getting elected is all about doing the right marketing. It's about how to brainwash the voters. It's about how much money per vote, or how much liquor per vote. The person who can do all the above would finally get elected and then when in power, they will make all the attempts to recover the money they spent to reach there, and would try to accumulate as much as they can. I would like to compare voting with an analogy of the various competitions that are held in colleges and offices for fun. The result of all such competitions are based on the number of likes or comments that person got. Do you know what those participants do? They start the marketing and networking and ask people, friends and friends of friends to give them a like so that they can win the competition. How ridiculous is that? People who don't know or understand the meaning of the competition will be liking your entry just because you asked them to do so. Will this ever be able to find the deserving winner? I am sure you all would agree that it won't. Elections are exactly like that, albeit on a much larger and grander scale. The candidate who is elected, is not because he is deserving, he is only elected because he could afford to market himself better than others.

So, voting is really not effective to choose the right candidate. This is not just in India, even in America where everyone is educated, not all people feel that the deserving candidate always wins the presidential election. I would say voting should be there, but, decision of electing or selecting a candidate should not depend entirely on voting. And to me for getting the fundamental right to vote there should be some eligibility and even some basic examination needs to be taken to decide whether the individual is capable enough to make the right decision when he is voting. It still needs a lot of research to understand and implement a better strategy to elect someone, but mere voting by pressing of a button is not going to get you the right person for the position.

Having said that, I am not concluding that voting should be avoided. In fact, voting for an educated and intellectual person is that much more necessary because when they choose someone they at least think about the reasons before choosing the right candidate. If even an educated and intellectual person decides not to vote or votes blindly without thinking, then he is doing more harm than good to the society. So, every individual should definitely vote, but, please think before you vote. If everyone thinks before giving the precious vote, I am hoping that I will live to see a world when I would change my opinion that Voting is not so effective in choosing the right candidate.

Can you afford fear?

What is fear? A quick search of the word fear leads to the following result.

Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organisms, which causes a change in metabolic and organ functions and ultimately a change in behavior, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events. The keyword here is p-e-r-c-e-i-v-e-d. Most often than not, its just a perception which is only psychological. By affording fear, I mean to say that the perception of fear is only with those who can afford it. If you can't afford the condition that fear of something or someone brings with it, you will not be afraid of that something or someone. Sounds confusing is it?

Let me try to explain it with a simple real life example. We all have female member in our family who would scream their lungs out when they see a cockroach. Same was the case in our family. When I was a school going kid, I used to believe that all females are afraid of cockroach. I believed it because I was told so. One fine day another such incident happened in front of me. My mom was screaming at the sight of a cockroach, and generally she was calmed by my father who used to throw the cockroach out of the house. But, this time since dad was not at home, the drama continued for longer than it generally does. Fortunately, there was our maid who had come to work at our place, she saw my mom screaming, calmly picked up the cockroach and threw it out of the house. I was watching in utter disbelief. I could not believe that a lady can do such a thing. I had to ask her how and why she is not afraid the same way like every female does. She simply said, we can't afford to be afraid. If we are afraid of cockroaches, we wouldn't be able to live. There were hundreds of those tiny creatures at the places she stayed and since she was a widow she had to deal with those herself. Her answer really taught me a big lesson at that young age.  Yes, she was right that she can't afford to be afraid of those creatures. Same logic applies all kinds of fears. Fear is anyways a fake psychological perception. Only those people who can afford to be afraid are afraid.

There are tons of examples in this world to prove this point. Most of us are afraid to go near the dead or be around a dead body even when it's the body of our own family member. Have you ever imagined what a person whose job is to assist in doing post-mortem of dead bodies go through? Can they afford to be afraid of dead bodies? The answer is a big NO. They have to do their job without any fear and only then they can provide food for themselves and family. Can a watchman of the cremation ground afford fear of dead bodies? Absolutely not. So, it is only because we can afford it, we are afraid of fear. We can actually apply this to any kind of fear that we have.

So often the fear of failure keeps us away from trying. But, again we will only fear till the time we can afford it. Once you understand that your fear is more harmful to you than the consequences that you are actually afraid off, you give up your fear. There is so much material available on the internet on how to overcome your fear and there are people available for help. All you have to do, is make up your mind and ask yourself, can you really afford to be afraid? Once you figure out that the answer is NO, you will be the first person to help yourself give up the fear and then go ahead to win over it. And believe me there is no bigger win than winning over your fear. As someone has very rightly said in Hindi "Dar ke aage jeet hai!" meaning there is victory ahead of fear. So, lets overcome all our fears for now and for always.

Every picture tells you a story !

I am sure that someday when I grow old, I will come back at this blog and smile when I look at this pic. This picture was taken at the very beginning of of our Raireshwar trek on August 18th 2018. A trek organized by our company Allscripts's sports committee. When we got down from our bus, as soon as I saw this smiling person, I asked him to get one pic with us. He did not understand much, but was smiling even more when we all surrounded him. To me this is the pic of the day. And when I was looking into the camera to get that perfect pic, the old man was talking to me. He was saying, it has been raining for so many days now and he had been stuck indoors because of rains. He wants to be outside in the midst of nature, but rains kept him inside. The rains had stopped for only about 15 mins and he was out. I loved the energy and the youthful smile that he possessed. Our group was interested in listening to his story, which you can notice from the pic. Nikhil and Rohan are looking at him while he is explaining his wisdom about nature. Lovely snap taken by Nitin. This was an awesome moment. Loved it. The pic set the mood for the trekking trip.

From left to right Prajit Save, Rohan Basankar, Nikhil Deopujari, The model of this pic,Yours truly and Varun (Mr. 45 kg) . Pic Credits, Nitin Lohar