Keeping time

Recently I was scheduled for a meeting for 11:00 am at office. Mind you, this was one of those high precedence meetings, which have an imposing agenda and priorities of no less than saving a planet sort of list. This being one of my latest assignments, I sought after making a remarkable impression.

Life can become a cakewalk when you smile a lot, attend meetings in time, stick to deadlines, follow your work like religion, keep high energy levels, love your coffee vending machine at office . So, bearing this in wits, the prime concern was to get to the meeting and be the torch bearer.
One of the things on my agenda was to dress well, pick up keywords and address the issues in a right and straight way. Peter Drucker says "Efficiency is doing better what is already being done." and I was straight away going for that. I was bingo, at the meeting room ten minutes before the meeting, at the door of the Meeting room and tried to get inside, only to figure out that there was another meeting was in progress there and I have to wait. Not baffled by that, and sticking to my plan, I waited for this meeting to get over and shared the room with my meeting partners.
After the meeting got over, one of the managers coming out gave me a amusing smile which told me "come on, you can pull it on as ever" and while I got into the room, I took a deep breath and reflected at my watch just to keep a tab, which pointed me towards 2 mins before striking that 11 am when all come in. Wondering why no one had turned up, I settled into the chair, a nice cushioned one.
It was a while as I was sitting into the room alone waiting for these two folks to join in, and checking out the room and its decor. I was beginning to get aggravated with the delay and I missing out on my coffee for the sake of this meeting, but then you lose some, you win some... it was this 11:15 when I lost it and left the room, only to discover that the folks who were supposed to be joining in for the meeting were stuck in the traffic driving to the office and they had completely forgotten to check their calendars and this meeting details. Nodding my head, moving towards the cafeteria, realizing that all management talks and trains people about keeping their time but fails to instill this habit and probably everyone ends up keeping a watch, instead of keeping time.

Confusions & CrossRoads

It’s been over a week I wrote something. The reason behind that was an hodgepodge of bad health due to the never ending throat infection, thanks to "Namma Bangalore traffic", oodles of work at the office and also some bewilderment which has started its dingdong once again.
It’s not a recent confusion but one which has been lingering since last probably 7-8 years. Now don’t apprehend me for trying to quote that I have been into the corporate world since donkeys years, but that 7-8 years mean that during my graduation I was game for starting something on my own, started too, moved on and then while I was into my computer majors from Madurai, always back of my mind was whether this would be a technical De-tour to my own fantasy land of starting some business. As I plunged into my job, the only thought to spend sometime and then run out for my MBA and start out. But soon I realized that I should be spending some quality time in the corporate sector before seeking out for a eminent college in the country. Accepting the fact, I moved on but always boiled seeing the business models and team integrations and wondered if that was what I was built for. I never felt that I would want to fix code or provide any technical support, when the only support I could provide was to me and that too morally. I was thoroughly inclined towards a business orientation and so did the job give me an option to move on.
To sum up my confusions in a single go, I have been an avid reader, and love to write too. I started writing a book during my sabbatical out of my graduation, finished some 200 odd pages and then things got pushed due to my entrance tests clouding in. I started some couple of websites, did some freelancing for almost 3 years, earned some quick bucks and quite an amount of publicity, and could not mature the idea of going entrepreneur and making it big. Still the idea of starting a web dev company haunts me and I appreciate the fact that now I can club thinking about business models to top any such ideas. Then its just thousands of potential ideas which strike in and out and get confused with. I was pretty amazed by the speech of my director here at my Red organization, where he stressed the point stating his own examples that one should try to find that one thing which one love and should go for it. He even quoted that he spent 20 years moving around, hoping jobs and trying to explore himself and see exactly where his interest and happiness lied.
At times my mind gives me great ideas about developing a small food chain and growing it big, then a company which specializes into web development, and trades on supporting business ideas do throng in. At times since I have edited some articles and even started a small journal kind of stuff back at my colleges haunts me and gives me confidence that I can start up a magazine and if I can run it and make it big, this would be something of my utmost love. I am already going ahead for a management journal, just out of my sheer love.

And then the ground reality strikes where the decision to quit and chase something like this without having a reasonable investment backing up hits hard. I am sure anyone who starts or plans something of this sort, would or may be going through the same confusion, but I would really like to get inputs on how do people plan such decisions and if any suggestions can get the ball rolling.

Serenity

“The serenity of mind, gentleness, silence, self-restraint, and the purity of mind are called the austerity of thought.”

"Nothing is worth more than this day."

Goethe
"Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it."

Brian Tracy

"There is no greatness where there is not simplicity."

Leo Tolstoy

A life saver-less engaging

Its a blood donation camp operating at my company's recreation room today and we have been receiving mails for reminding people about coming forward and registering for the same. After i went and donated my share of units of blood, little did i realize how worthwhile the effort can be, especially when you see someone suffer and die without blood.
Mine was a first experience and i saw only 15 folks enrolled for 40 mins time slot. No wonder few minutes back there was another note sent out to the global mailer, requesting all to come and donate blood and also a photo from the mornings donation being pasted into the mail, which makes it more convincing. I was a feeling well but i could see lot of people tensed out, being regular donars too. Probably the sight of blood and needles around make people skip few beats. As i filled up my forms and got my blood group confirmed with a medical test, was amazed by the smooth conduct of the officials from the Rotary blood bank and the way whole thing was getting together. After my Blood pressure check, was waiting for my turn when i got to meet one of the colleagues who was also a first timer and was a bit tensed out. We shared few small talks, and then i was called for.
I was smiling and as the lab assistant got the blood bag ready and took out a new needle, he asked me if i was feeling fine and gave me a smile. I was already glaring and seeing across the room where few people after donating, were sitting and sipping some juice and some volunteers were collecting details of others. It pained a little as he pricked the needle into my vein, but then it was OK afterwards. I was enjoying my blood go off, when i was given a stress buster type ball, so that i could keep pressing it for continuing the blood flow. Meanwhile, as this process went on, one of the older volunteers, from Rotary TTK blood club, came across and stood by me. We exchanged smiles and she asked if i was a first timer. Upon a positive nod, we started discussing about blood banks and their roles. I never miss a chance to gather such information & discuss and it was a great opportunity to hear from this lady who had been working with the blood bank as a volunteer for the past 29 years. As she started telling about her experience, and especially the functioning of the blood banks, i realized that blood banking is a noble but a very serious cause. They are really choosy about from who they draw blood. She also shared this piece of information, that normally during any emergency, they do not recommend people taking blood from their relatives, as that is a circle of influence where people are not transparent fully. There is a severe chance that one of the relatives of yours, has been suffering from some ailment which may not let them donate blood, but just seeing the emergency they gulp the truth down and it can be risky for both the parties at the end.
As the talk went on, i could not resist asking her about how much response they get of people while they conduct such camps. I could see the statistics myself though, out of our whole organisation, almost 100 had only registered which is just a meager number. She also explained the similar situation, where they have visited any and every IT company, colleges and factories at Bangalore but they observe that normally 10-15% people only turn up. Considering that any point in time, 15-20% would be suffering from something or the other which would not let them donate, but then out of the remaining 80-85%, the turnout is quite less. But she was quite optimistic and that's what i liked about the whole group. She emphasised that they need to have more volunteers and spread the word so that more no of people could be roped in to satisfy the requirements.
Also after i donated my share, thanked this volunteer and relaxed for sometime, sipping apple juice, another volunteer explained about their operations in Bangalore and also about Stem cells from blood beign collect by Apharasis, which is a technology geared way of acquiring Blood steam cells which can be further divided into its classifications and donated to people suffering from severe dieseases. That discussion was really an eye opener and i could feel that how much more volunteering is needed to set the record straight.
As i left the room, commit ed myself to donate blood after regular interval and wish this post gets few more to come in and volunteer and helps spread a word.

Some basic details which i learnt from them, are shared here for your reference.
The amount of blood drawn and the methods vary, but a typical donation is 500 milliliters of whole blood.
Donors are typically required to give consent for the process.
Normally at a given time, a person has 5-6 ltrs of blood in the body.
Components of whole blood-usually red blood cells and plasma.

for more information, please visit Rotary Blood Bank Website

A trip to Hesarghatta and NtriyaGram

As the weekend approached, we had been long planning for an outing. As the last planned outing was washed with one of my previous post. We had dreaded over the fully planned trip to Mysore where the rain had played spoil sport. The weather looked good on Friday evening as I left my office with the printout of a map of place called Hesarghatta.
Early morning as the alarm rung at 5 am we got up and took to our journey to Hesarghatta. The intention was to have a good day out and capture some scenic photo and quite a few birds too. It was an quite early start and the road was empty. We hit the outer ring road as the clock struck 5:30. After some time; as we crossed Hebbal flyover, we hardly knew that it was going to be a never ending journey. The Goggle map helped little as the road started going through lot of villages and we had to take directions from lot of people. In the middle of the journey; we started feeling if we were going to the right place or not? Finally, somehow after driving of one hour and thousands of route changes; we reached a small village called Hesarghatta. It looked that our journey had come to an end and we were in for a surprise.

This was the place where we could also see the same road leading towards Narityagraam which is a dance village. After few minutes drive; through the cloudy weather, we reached this huge junction which you will normally have at the bank of a river or a canal. Few of the villagers were standing there going for their nature’s call, were a bit taken aback of surprise by their early morning visitors. We parked the vehicle and rushed upstairs. As we reached at the top of the bank there was another surprise waiting for us; An awful one . It was a huge river bed without a river or a lake in it. We could hardly believe our eyes and took a round of this whole place to discover nothing more than few birds. The place indeed was very green and scenic but hardly close to anything we expected. After spending few minutes and a couple of shot; we decided to move along the same road and check out the Narityagraam. we went past a poultry form and turkey center, and we came across a film training institute. After a few minutes drive from there we reached the famous Narityagraam and a very beautiful Taj Kutiraam. The place was a treat to eyes and satisfying. But disappointing too as Narityagraam showed up a sad board of being closed due to vacations till 1st Oct. We checked with the manager at Taj Kutiraam about the famous Hesarghatta lake. To our surprise; He told us that the lake has already gone off since last 10 years. Before that Yes it was famous for River rafting and birding. We spend some time and captured few birds and started back home. It was indeed a disappointing drive and I was wondering How the websites have been supporting photos and details of Hesarghatta.

A king fisher captured our attention and then as we moved around the lake, here is one of the birds which i caught at hesarghatta lake. Few birds were around there and most of the crows and brahmin kites were making rounds of this place. Unforntunately i could not get hold of any of those.

As we had come out of the NrityaGram, Outside the compund wall, could see these few birds and could not resist capturing them. I am sure these resorts, like the one besides Nrityagram, TAJ KUTERAM make lot of contribution to the nature in a way to lure guests and in return nature comes back visiting them with full bloom and makes the spot worth paying for it.

And this one was a beauty. I spent sometime running behind these, as they wont stick to anything for long. tried spot metering these brids and if you could observe the beauty, the bird at first looks like it has its mouth opened up in a howl posture but actually its the crown in its head. I am still not sure about their names. So any comments about the same would be appreciated. I am planning to visit this place again, but for nrityagram and probably would check in at the TAJ KUTERAM as it is an awesome place to spend time at the outskirts of bangalore.

Need Inputs-A new change, a new name

Its been ages since i started using my blog for writing out my feelings and talking to the world outside. I still have those memoirs of the website and the excitement it created for sometime among my friends at college, and around the town getting huge hits and lot of emails of congratulations and Kudos. I took to publicising the website, used that odd friends cyber cafe and posting a note there to put small advertisements across the local free ads.
but now, as this is a different genre and lot has changed, this is the time when i am getting back to writing to my blog and preparing to commit that i write daily.

Also this is the time when learning out of my management studies and corporate boardrooms, I am planning to launch a monthly journal on business management and wide spectrums to it. I am not sure how much readership i currently have and how many inputs do i get for this, but i am looking for name for my Journal. Any suggestions. Please feel free to suggest a name also write to me what according to you would be an ideal read in a business management journal, if i could call it so.

Season of Wait

Jack Canfield once said "Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it. "

"The quieter you become the more you can hear."

That was the same we experience when we a gang of Five, planned to go to Mysore on bikes. We planned, packed, stuffed and drove but to no escape as rain caught us at lot of spots and made us to reconsider our decision of not yet driven 140 Kms. We choose to return back to the comfort of home made food and Hot cup of teas.
But the post is dedicated to one of the co-trippers who was left high & dry with the change in plan, and was caught on my camera sighing. Check out my flickr link for more.