My Reflections , My insights

  It's not about right or Wrong  #Breaking the Bias This year's IWD theme is #Breaking the Bias. So let us understand and talk about the same. I always talk about being non-Judgmental and gave the example of Sridevi’s Movie, English-Vinglish. In that movie, we saw how Sridevi broke the Bias and took up the challenge to Break the Bias. But why, in the first instance, people judge? Why do people get biased? And What are these Biases?     There has been a constant and conscious effort by corporates, Society to remove, break and Stop the biases. But old habits die hard; we all have to deliberate in what we do in our daily lives. Last year, the Customer documentation team sent a notification restricting the usage of a few words, like whitelist & Blacklist, Master & slave. From ages, we have been using those words. How come we were using these for so long, as my title says, it's not about right or Wrong; it’s all began due to our social infrastructure and the ...

  Waiting and Waiting For When the farmer sows the seed, he has to wait for the plant to sprout. That’s already been work in progress, but if he becomes anxious about why sprout has not come and daily checks, he will become stressed. Things will happen at their own pace and time.             There is a subtle difference between “waiting” and “waiting for.” Which leads to peaceful progress and Stressful success ; if we keep thinking, why isn’t it happening? Why not yet? You will get stressed, and, even if seed eventually sprouts, farmer has traded peace for success.             You might have seen people waiting for an elevator; they keep pressing button to call the lift as if it will come fast. It will arrive at its own speed. They lose their peace. If you have gone for dinner and ordered, you have to just wait … waiting for the waiter will make the wait exaspera...

  Self-Discovery Have you ever been in self-Realisation or discovery mode? I think as age progresses, it automatically comes to you when you sometimes take a pause and think, introspect. And the same happened to me around a year ago. Mind is like Parachute; it needs to be open to work. This is what exactly meditation is. Reflect upon your negative thoughts and reframe them into positive thoughts. I will bring up a recent use case that has taught me many things. A year ago, there was a surge of attrition in my team. (I will not go into WHY?), will focus on what elements it has taught me during that course. I thought all was within my Control, OR I would say I was controlling things, but indeed that was not there. I was trying to control everything and failing and then blaming myself. A sudden surge of Self-Doubt occurred to me. Is it because of me? Whether I can handle the situation? And in this scenario, I tried to be judgemental. I started thinking I did so much for them,...

  Discovery During a visit to the NASA space centre in 1962, President John F. Kennedy noticed a janitor carrying a broom. He interrupted his tour, walked over to the man, and said, "Hi, I'm John Kennedy. What are you doing?" "Well, Mr. President," the janitor responded, "I'm helping put a man on the moon." To most people, this janitor was cleaning the building. But he was helping to make history. This is the power of a leader who provides purpose to all the people around them; He radiates the mission/vision to people around them.              The most misused and overused word in our corporate industry is Leader . People casually use the Leader and Manager interchangeably. But there is a     difference, although both have their importance and needs.   As a Manager, you are nominated or appointed by the corporate or Authority for some task or assignment; he gets Authority by title bestowed upon him...

  I want to see chips flying There was a woodcutter who was very sincere and hardworking. He used to make his living by cutting wood and selling across. He was happy with his work, and life was going on. One day a businessman came across and liked his work; he said, “I would give you double of what you earn, come and work with me. “             Seeing the double salary, he happily started working for him. Woodcutter gave the axe and asked him to cut the wood from the round end of an axe (from the other blunt side). The woodcutter was puzzled, but he didn’t think much as he thought he was getting a double salary, so why bother.             Continuing with the same work, day by day; eventually, he got fed up with his work. He quit the job; the businessman asked why so, as he is getting a double salary, why bother. He said, “ he loved seeing the chips fly. I want challen...

  Work Martyr                81% of salaried employees in the US report that they work outside of their standard work hours (~8hrs), with 29% doing it three or more days per week , according to New Study by Workforce Institute at Kronos. A work martyr is defined as  someone who feels a sense of shame for taking time off. They are driven to overwork out of fear that they're disposable or otherwise not valuable if they aren't burning the candle at both ends.             How many of you have even consumed 50% of your annual leaves last year? How many of you went on holiday with your families and spent time with them? (this doesn’t include visiting your hometown for festivals). We all are in the same work-life balance predicament, which needs serious thinking. Working too hard is a recipe for burnout. After the initial praise and recognition fade, can you re...

  When it matters most I distinctly remember that beautiful, sunny Sunday morning; the cool breeze was blowing across the lush green ground of Wiltshire county cricket club in the UK when I was in   UK Swindon and was participating in corporate cricket league    Finals.     Although I may not look like one, I was a decent medium-paced bowler when I was there. I had a pretty good season and was the highest wicket-taker. Captain trusted me and handed over the ball to me to start the innings.   Excited and confidently, I took the usual run up and came down the pitch, bowled the batsman, and immediately looked curiously towards the Umpire. He expectedly brought his finger UP, and slowly unexpectedly, he brought another one; the ball went out of the boundary for a six. And the same treatment was given to my 2 nd ball as well. I failed to deliver when it mattered most.   It may sound familiar, as we had seen with teams like South Africa / England...

  Seven Vadas Once a starving man was walking on the street looking for something to eat and, he saw a “Vada” stall by the side of the road. And a lot of people we around busy in savoring the Vadas. He approached him and asked him, “ Will this Vada Satisfy my hunger ??”   And what are the charges for it? “    Vada vendor replied, “ Yes definitely for sure and quoted the rate Rs10/-.                 Hungry man ate one Vada, and he was still hungry; he ate 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th, and likewise, after having 7 th Vada, he felt full and satisfied. He then handed Rs10 to Vada Wala; He got Zapped as he was expecting Rs70/-, the hungry man replied, “Haven’t   I asked you whether your Vada will satisfy my hunger and to that, you said   Yes. When I ate the first six Vada, I was still hungry; only the 7 th Vada of yours’ s satisfied my hunger.   Hence only 10 Rupees for 7 th Vada. So, the...

  Memories Memories are the Mental impressions that we leave in our minds as we grow and days pass by. We always say OLD is GOLD, and it is so true we have so many golden memories with us.                Our brain is so strong that it records everything from our childhood and creates folders later to be accessed, called Memories. Whenever we get any occasions, we should create memories to be relished in future. It's not living in the past; it's just reliving those cherished moments. Nowadays, we click photos and have them on our phones ( I don’t know if people revisit them, but they feel they have captured them ). Best memories are captured in your mind; enjoy the moment when it comes instead of just clicking photos.                Few of my earliest memories. 1.      One of my earliest memories is, which my parents ...

  Getting the World Right                A man was reading a newspaper on a Sunday morning. He was leisurely sitting beside the window where the sunlight was coming making him enjoy the experience. He was so engrossed that he could not pay attention to his little daughter, who insisted on him playing along with her.                As he was in the middle of paper reading and wanted to complete it. Still, at the same time, his daughter insisted on playing. To buy some time, he saw a newspaper ad with a world map of a courier company. He tore the paper into several pieces and told his daughter to arrange and solve that jigsaw puzzle.                He thought he got enough time now to finish his paper, but within 10 minutes, his daughter solved the puzzle and insisted him...

  When the Wind Blows, I Sleep                A farmer was looking for a helper for his farm.   He was not getting a proper person for farming as farming in that area was challenging. It used to flood; the Wind blows heavily, the storm comes, so they end up doing a lot of work to wrap up the destructions caused by the storm.                One day a boy came offered himself for the same job to the Farmer. The Farmer was inquisitive & puzzled, as he had been searching for the person for such a long time, and this boy came voluntarily and offered to do the job. He explained to him the work and warned him that this would be challenging for him; as he is a boy, it would be difficult to do this job. But he insisted on having the job. The Farmer gave him the job. He was very hardworking, laborious, and used to workday and night.  ...

  Who’s Packing your Parachute   Charles Plumb was a US Navy Jet Pilot in Vietnam. After several combat missions, one day, his plane was destroyed by a Surface to air missile. Plumb Ejected and parachuted in the enemy's hands, and after six years of captivity, he was released. He shared his experiences. “…. I was a Fighter Pilot, and he was just a sailor.”                One day When Plumb and his was sitting in a restaurant, a man came to their table and said, “You ‘re Plumb, whose aircraft Kitty Hawk was shot down. “                “How on the earth do you know this?” Asked Plumb “I packed your parachute.” the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked !!!”. Plumb assured him, “It sure did; if your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”    ...

  Big and Small   Ramayana Stories have such deep insight, sharing one of the insights below. From the incident, the Monkeys were making the bridge over sea to go to Lanka to fight with Ravana. Rama asked his army to build the bridge over the sea. Monkeys pulled the rocks and stones from mountains and started making the bridge. It was a tedious and challenging task; thousands of monkeys were on the job. Rama was blissful seeing the effort and love for him which made them do this.                One day Rama saw little Squirrel carrying small pebbles in her mouth and dropping it onto the sea. As Monkeys were holding big stones, little Squirrel was dragging small pebbles and dropping them onto the sea, little Squirrel was coming in between the path, and monkeys had to take care so that they didn’t step on the little Squirrel. One of Monkey shouted in his booming voice,” hey little thing, you are coming o...

  Four Pillars - 4Ts (Time, Talk, Trust & Touch)   The people who make a difference in your life are NOT the ones with prestigious awards and have loads of money!!   They are around us, our family, friends, colleagues!!!   Cherish their crucial relationship!!   Hold Them Tight.   Relationships are machines that can break down and need maintenance. So, we need to take good care of the Same.                Some time ago, in a usual evening, I was relaxing on a cosy sofa, in my drawing-room, with yellow lights from chandelier making patterns on the walls, enriching the ambience around me.   There was murmuring on the TV, I was checking my WhatsApp feed, and suddenly one ghost type image covered me, don't worry she was my wife, (and BTW she is pretty J as an angel ), she was standing nearby me, without being noticed by me.   She skeptically made eye contact with me....