U me aur hum - A review

CRAP

Mr President

The office bearer elections have been held and the executive committee has been formed.

We are a full fledged Toastmasters club now.

I have been elected as the President! The election was conducted as transparently as possible – with an advanced Toastmaster who was not going to become a member of the club, chairing the meeting. Even I didn’t know beforehand who had nominated himself/herself for which role. However, immediately after the election, I faced an ego issue among some people.

We had 3 nominations each for the roles VP-Education and VP-Public Relations. Since the work required is huge, and so as not to disappoint anybody, we decided, in fact I decided to ask the runners up to take up the backup roles and

The eventual winners, who just previous to the elections were expressing interest in resolving the roles amicably without an election, were now taking on airs and refusing to work with the runners up.

I had to call separate meetings with respective parties and had a polite but firm talk with the team members to ensure that they work together. The situation seems to be under control as of now. Let’s see what the future brings.

The whole experience has been so enriching. When we started off, just 3 or 4 of us had the faith that we would eventually make it. But today there is a palpable enthusiasm running across the office. Many people are approaching me as well as the other office bearers about joining the club. It’s very encouraging. In fact there were various people who initially said that there’s no place for such whims in our office. The same people are now approaching us again wanting to join the club. I guess this is basic human psychology. When there’s no structure, people don’t want to get their hands dirty. But when they see a set stage they also want to share the limelight. I guess it’s an achievement on all our parts that we have successfully effected this change in the people.

Hope to have an even brighter future.

Approval

Well, tomorrow's the big day and here I am writing my blog which I'm sure nobody will ever read. Ah well, for posterity may be.
My flight starts at 7:35 in the morning tomorrow.
The sad part is that I'll arrive at the new Hyderabad airport which is around 1.5 hours drive from the main city. I'll be alone and bored for most of the day. The return flight is at 8:40 PM and going by last time's experience, it's sure to get delayed. Today I'm feeling a bit jaded due to the heavy hours I've put in over the last few days. Let's see what happens.

It sure isn't easy to to live a dichotomous life. Here I am, going to Google 2morrow but spending the entire day to finalize toastmasters club processes.
We got the green signal last week from the top mgmt. Yippeee.
3 cheers to all members of our team who done much.

Over and out for now.

Going to Hyderabad

Next stop Hyderabad!
I had the telephonic round on Friday. The interviewer was a s/w engineer from US. There were some good challenging questions on core java and 2 puzzles. The only bad planning on my part was that I kept the interview at 10:30 PM! I could hardly keep my eyes open when the questions were being asked. Well, as they say, all's well that ends well. Got a call today from my HR contact point informing me abt the onsite call. This means that the tele round went quite well as otherwise they hv a second telephonic round. Ah well....

Hope to have a blast at Hyderabad next wk.
Fingers crossed!

Contradictions

Our lives are prefect examples of contradictions. On a day I lost Rs 10K +, out of nowhere, a Rs 1 million opportunity was staring at me right in the face. Well, to be honest, it’s not worth a million. As the Mastercard ad goes, a bad day in the stock market: Rs 10,000; on-site opportunity: Rs 10lakhs; an interview call from Google: priceless. When everything in my life and career seemed to be stable, when I had worked out every minute detail of the next career moves I would make, there comes across an offer I can’t refuse. Though Google wasn’t around when Godfather was released, they have perfected the art of making offers one can’t refuse. Technically it’s just an interview call, and in all probability the dream would remain just a dream but it does feel good to know that you have what it takes to be considered for employment by the world’s very best.

I find myself asking: What do I really yarn for? Why do I indulge myself in so many activities? Why do I always reshuffle the pack of cards? Why can’t I just settle and let things be? Is there anything called moksh?
The partial answer to those is that I am curious. I am curious to know what I am capable of. I am curious to see whether I really CAN make a difference. I am curious about this world we live in, about the people that inhabit and about the depth of mysteries that reside in the penetralia of our mortal existences.
So has Google appeared as Deus ex Machina? Is it going to be a case of 2nd time lucky? Well I don’t know. But I’d rather have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Previously when I went to the Googleplex in Hyderabad (in Jan, 2007) I was grossly unprepared. I had to pack in 4 years of IT curriculum into 1 week of preparation. Just one bad interview (out of 5) and I was out. More importantly, I didn’t really believe. I was so overawed by the company, the place, the people. I didn’t realize that my interviewers were going to be my teammates. I didn’t believe that I belonged.
So what has changed? My outlook, for one. Now, I think that I belong.
However, I’m very happy in my present company. I got a major breakthrough on Thursday when the no. 2 man here agreed to meet me about the budget approval for our Toastmasters club! Such is life.
So I go to Google for just the experience. Their hospitality is amazing. A fully paid trip (even the food is paid for) to Hyderabad, a night’s stay, another peek at the googleplex, an afternoon with some of the smartest people in India (probably the world as well) is certainly enticing.
To sum it up…
Am I taking it easy? Heck no. Not in my nature. I’ll prepare to the best of my ability.
Would I have gone if it was any other company? Absolutely not.
Do I want to change? No.
If made an offer, would I take it up. Absolutely.
Contradictions!

A special Sunday - Jagaran

Well Sundays will be Sundays and Indian Cricket team will be Indian cricket team. Yet another lame loss and snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory. The same pugnacious Dhoni who refuses to own up to his own mistakes and continues to play the blame game.
But that is not what I want to write about here. Last Sunday was special coz I had an amazing experience. As part of Jagaran (the awakening) (http://www.jagaran.org.in) , I, along with some others, went for the mid-term evaluation of beneficiaries. A little background information: Jagaran, an NGO, was set up in 2006 by Infoscions - mainly JU passouts. It seeks to provide a platform for poor but meritorious students to live out their dreams. Jagaran financially supports aspiring students, mainly school students. Other activities include career related coaching, mentoring, development of school infrastructure, spreading awareness about environmental protection, etc. There are already over 500 members with over 150 beneficiaries all over the country.

Since all of us are working professionals, it is difficult for us to directly get in touch with all the beneficiaries. So we take the help of experienced NGOs having direct access to the needy students. We provide funds to the NGOs and they supply books and pay the school dues and tuition money for the students. Twice a year, we, the members of Jagaran, visit the students at their homes to evaluate whether the funds are being utilized properly and the students are getting the desired benefits. Last Sunday, about 6 of us jagaran members went to evaluate 3 students in and around the Dum Dum area.

First, we visited a girl named Joyeeta. After walking for more than 15 minutes through a maze of narrow lanes and by lanes, we reached her 1 roomed shanty. She studies in class 11 and lives with her parents and kid brother. Her father is a carpenter and barely manages to earn Rs 1000 a month. But the spark in her eyes is impossible to miss. She scored over 80% in her std 10 xams which is quite an achievement considering her circumstances. She wants to get a PhD in Bio-Medicine in the future. Wish her luck.

Next up was a chirpy boy named Idris, also studying in std 11. In fact all 3 of the students we interviewed that day were in std 11. Idris' family's financial condition was decidedly better than Joyeeta's, TV fridge, etc. His attitude however, was circumspect. His performance in exams was on a downward curve and all we received as explanations were nothing but lame excuses. After some more prodding, we came to realize the main cause ... he hardly studies at all! At most he puts in 3.5 hrs of study per day! After getting a piece of our mind, he promised to study harder. Let's hope he does, for his own sake. For education is the magic wand that can transform our lives. My own life stands testimony to that. It is the only way through which a person coming from a middle class background can seek to touch the stars - to live out his dreams. The only way out of poverty is through sheer dedication and hard work. I hope I was able to put this across to Idris.

The 3rd and last person on our list was Imran. In Urdu, "Imran" means "exalted nation". Well, we were certainly in an "exalted mental state" after meeting him. His behaviour and his attitude set him apart. We came to know from our local NGO contact that initially the NGO used to sponsor Imran's books as well as his private tuition fees. After a few months, Imran had turned down the aid for tuition fees while continuing to receive books for his studies. When we asked him about it, his answer, accompanied by an understated but charismatic smile, stunned us all. He said that he finds it immoral to ask for tuition aid when he can very well manage on his own! The facts support his quiet confidence. He has never stood 2nd in his school and was a consistent top performer even in std 11. Here was a person who lived his life out of just one dank room, where his parents, his sister and he vies for each inch of space, who cannot even afford to replace his worn out shirt, yet he dared to refuse aid for something that he could well do without. We had set out in the journey that day to give something to others but this soft spoken, charming, bespectacled boy of 15 gave us so much.

His long term goal is to be a Robot Scientist. When I asked him how he came to know of this exotic profession, he replied that once in the Calcutta book fair, he had bought a book on Robotic Science authored by an IISc professor. That book had really inspired him. Well Imran, it is YOU who inspire all of us. Wish you all the best.

TM: Birth

On Friday, the first TM session, though informal, was held. Our L&E head was very supportive of the idea when we spoke to him but tried to stymie our initial enthusiasm and urgency by citing the upcoming appraisal season as a reason why things have to slow down. He promised to hold a demo session towards the end of March, when some senior executives may join us. But the proposed course of action would inevitably be blessed by some political dilly dallying which would delay the whole thing further. So we went ahead and continued our preparations, urging people to develop capabilities in their individual roles. On Friday we held our first full session. It was a major success – very well managed and coordinated.
I gave the only prepared speech on that day as the other person wasn’t prepared. The Table Topic session was a laugh riot. ‘AG’ did a commendable job. The topics for impromptu speech included: “If electricity depends on electrons, should morality depend on morons?” and other such gems!

Given below is the text of the speech I delivered on that day:


Money:It’s a crime

Money, it’s a crime.
Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.
But if you ask for a raise it’s no surprise that they’re
Giving none away.

Ahh, “Money money money, if I had a little money, in the rich man’s world”.

We are human beings: the smartest animals on the planet. We are born with the mission to improve ourselves/ our conditions. Our lives are like a complex web of emotions, relationships, aspirations, dreams, heartbreaks and well, money.

However vehemently we try to deny it, everywhere we look, there’s the bait of money and there’s corruption, for money. Take the most powerful man on the planet who, as a hobby, attacks a new country everyday for the sake of its rich oil reserves and in the process kills thousands of innocent people.
Look at a poor government official who is corrupt as it’s the only way he can send his child to a good college. Turn on the television and you would be bombarded with thousands of ads asking you to buy this hot looking car or that cool new TV. Take a look by the roadside and all you will see are hoardings advertising your dream home for a huge chunk of money.
Money drives us all!

Or does it? Did Mahatma Gandhi not have enough money to buy a shirt or a pair of trousers? Why did he spend most of his adult life clad in just a dhoti? He promised to his motherland that unless his countrymen have the means to cover their body, he himself wouldn’t do so. What inspired him to lead the life of an ascetic when he had the opportunity to live life king size as a lawyer?
Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Noble laureate, was born in a family richer than that of many kings. His grandfather, prince Dwarkanath Tagore once had lunch with the queen of England. But he spent the later years of his life in a small hut in Shantiniketan among friends and relatives. Much of Tagore's money including (entire Nobel prize money) and time went towards Vishwa Bharati: an experimental school he founded at Shantiniketan, based on his ideals of an enlightened and free-thinking. What inspired him to do that?
Why did innumerable freedom fighters sacrifice their lives to free India – a freedom they themselves could never witness?
So is there any pattern here? While some people sacrifice their all for money, others sacrifice all their money for a cause! This disparity is due to the characteristic of money. Aristotle once remarked, “Apparently money is not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.” Two points to note here:
1) Money is merely useful and
2) Money is for the sake of something else
Money is undoubtedly useful as it allows us to live out our dreams. It gives us the power to buy what we want, to do what we like and more importantly, it allows us not to do what we don’t like. But in all the cases, we are using money FOR something; it is not independently useful. For example, if you were offered a bag full of cash but left stranded in the middle of Kalahari Desert, the offer would surely be an evil one.

Speaking of evil, what about the common refrain, “Money is the root of all evil”? Or as George Bernard Shaw put it, “Lack of money is the root of all evil”. Well, have you ever asked what the root of money is? Money is nothing but a tool of exchange. It is the material shape of the principal that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Man makes money; money doesn’t make man. Money will neither give a downright corrupt person a lofty set of moral values nor will it turn
a saint to a sinner.

But where does the common man stand in all of this? As Woody Allen once said, “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons”. Well, personally speaking, I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something. No, seriously, my bank balance seems to be static at the end of every month! It even decreases sometimes!
Jokes apart, whenever we talk about money, we have to put things into perspective.
We live in a country where nearly 30% of the population lives below the poverty line. I spend Rs. 100 to watch a movie at a multiplex whereas nearly 80% of the population earns less than that amount in a day. Hence the colour of money may not seem identical to all and sundry. Most of the people in this country and the world at large spend their lives in pursuit of money - in pursuit of a better standard of living.

At the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to: pursuit of a better life. Money can only take you so far in that regard. To have a remotely possible chance of a content life, one needs, among other things, professional success, a loving and supportive family, a reasonable, secure society to live in and of course, money. Each of life’s components must be given due weightage for us to be happy. Just like in a symphony, each instrument must independently produce coherent music so as to give meaning to the complete composition; each of life’s components must also independently produce its own sweet notes to allow us to sing the complete song of life. John F Kennedy, in a completely different context, once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!”. I’ll conclude by saying this: Ask not what you can do for your money; ask what your money can do for you!