ACCEPTING THE MISTAKE

Recently I had been waiting in the lobby of a corporate hospital. It looked very chaotic with people looked restless, some in sober mood, some looking cheerful, some anxious faces, among them I noticed a gentle man walking restless in the corridor. After few minutes he called up an assistant and asked her when he can get the report and how long he should wait, he got an confirmation as ten minutes. By hitting his fore finger on his watch he said “I will wait for ten more minutes, not more than that, enough of this agony” . From their conversation it is understood that he was waiting for the last one hour and he also waited for 2 hours day before to collect the lab reports.

As I was absorbed into the surroundings around, 15 minutes passed away, I was wondering how the gentleman would react now. He looked at the watch and called up the same receptionist and with a controlled aggression he said “can I meet your boss”. She got puzzled and with a blank face she said “Please wait for ten more minutes”. He was in no mood to listen to her, with a red face he shouted at her “call your doctor!!!”. With in a minute she called up the doctor out, gentleman explained his problem and enquired what exactly the issue was to give back the reports. To my surprise doctor listened care fully and with no hesitation accepted it was his mistake and said the reports were misplaced day before evening and requested if he could wait for another 10 minutes. The moment doctor accepted his mistake the entire episode has calmed down and what could had been blown to proportions became normal. Immediately gentleman said “that’s ok, please do the needful asap” and allowed the doctor to go ahead. After 15 minutes he had the reports in his hand.

I was wondering how things turn out once one accepts his mistake. Many a times nobody wants to take the responsibility and blame everybody else to avoid the pain of owning the mistake. I walked out of the hospital thinking that after the doctor apologized, the gentleman would had waited even for another one hour with out any complaint. That’s the power of accepting the mistake and with this learning i would like to be in doctors shoes when ever i need to correct my self....

TURN AROUND DECADE FOR INDIAN CRICKET

I was watching the post cricket match presentation ceremony after India had won the fourth one day match and series, the Man of the match awardee Gambhir in a fine gesture called up Virat Kohli to hand over the award. This was an amazing team spirit from the young lad to show such a camaraderie to another young lad. For my remembrance this was the second time when a senior Sachin did the same to another senior pro Yuvraj. What these incidents are telling us is that the team has immense confidence in each one of them. India finished the year and the decade on a winning note but made me to think what really transpired India to come on mountain top is nothing but this blog.

Any teams win either in sports or in business are the ones which play as ONE team in all conditions. Either home or away, snatching victories from the clutches of defeat, converting small window of opportunities into big wins, coming unscathed from the jaws of defeat are the hall mark of great teams. This decade from 2000-2009, India had progressed from the second last to No.1 in Test rankings. This could be possible only after started believing that they could win in any conditions. The way stroke maker Gambhir played for ten hours to save a test match in NZ May 09, the way Sehwag turned the match in Chennai in Dec 08 with a blistering knock opened up the victory for others to take on

If we observe any of the previous overseas tours, Indian Teams were submissive and hardly played for the win. Except few wins to be remember like the win in NZ in 60’s the first ever overseas win , win in ENG and WI in 70’s and win in ENG 80’s are the few remembrances. India was always seen as Tigers at home and Lambs at overseas; the reason could be pitches, system, quality of players, conditions, mental toughness etc. But things have changed in this decade, India went on to win 40 odd Test matches out of that 20 are at home and 20 in overseas in all Test playing countries. India has been playing Test Cricket from 1930’s , after playing for seven decades only last month India reached 100th Test win, out of this 40 Test matches had been won in this decade. This sums up the story of the Indian cricket journey in this decade.

This is a remarkable achievement for a Team that was at the bottom of the table. Thanks to the shift of the epicenter of the game from northern hemisphere to the southern. The quality of young talent that got produced after the 1999 youth world cup win in Srilanka. Establishment of National Cricket Academy in Bangalore made the system more robust. In this decade Team has been led by some great leaders like Sourav, Kumble, Dravid & Dhoni,. Some of the glimpses here mentions their leadership qualities like in case of Sourav, , the way he led in the Steve Waughs 2001 Last Frontier Series set the path for the decade,he pushed himself above Sachin in Brisbane 2003-04 to face chin music and match Aussies mental toughness, Kumble when he gave the famous statement in Sydney that only one Team is playing in true spirit and the way he handled the following fiasco and Perth Test is a perfect example, Rahul Dravid declaring a Test Match in Pakistan when Sachin was 196* was an example of how team is more important than an individual score, Dhoni, the current captain is the most shrewd and calm, just an example I would like to mention his post match conference in Hyderabad after India lost the match against Aussies inspite of a greatest innings from Sachin, I was expecting him to go over the top for the way Sachin fought but he mentioned his name along with other team members and showed his disappointment how the Team lost from a winning position. Business means Team win for him. These leaders had lead the path for India to be in No.1 position.

Definitely there will be a cat and mouse game for the top position in Test Cricket in the coming months but it is the time for us to celebrate and bid farewell to memorable decade for Indian cricket and hope we continue the same in the coming one as well…..

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

ANGEL IN CAB DRIVER

I could find my one of my recent angel in the midst of green hilly terrains of Madikeri.When ever i go to any new place, I have a problem in sleeping. Twice I had been to Madikeri and mesmerized by the beauty of this place. The greenery, coffee plantations, culture, peoples affection had just made me to visit again. The lack of sleep and driving back made us to hire a Cab second time. As usual, I could sleep for only few hours and got up early in the morning and started taking few dawn snaps with my Nikon D60 capturing beautiful colors. I did spend an hour or two, ordered the break fast and went to up to wake up the cab driver.

It was a chilly cold winter morning with lot of fog around. As I enquired with the cab driver the previous evening, I knew he was sleeping inside the vehicle, I dabbed on the vehicle door but could not hear any signs of movement from inside. The windshield and window glass of the vehicle are covered completely by dew and could not see anything inside. I almost yelled but in vain. Waited few minutes and dabbed once again, this time a bit harshly. As I was wondering for sure he might be sleeping some where else because of the damn cold, slowly I could hear some sounds and door was opened. It was a shock for me, he just pulled his seat back, put the seatback flat and slept in the driver seat with such sound sleep. It immediately shook me with the reality that with a room with four walls , bed, fan, blanket, bed sheets, my sleep was half where as he with a very bad weather outside, single digit temperatures, had a very sound sleep.

I went on thinking what could be the reason, in the end could found a reasonable answer which satisfied myself. Sleep comes when both mind and body are in rest even if ones body is tired but without minds rest seldom one can sleep. The only way to make the body relax is by relaxing the mind first, once thoughts are kept out , the relaxation comes which is the first step for sleep. The sleep is always in sync with rest, when body needs rest, we need to relax, for the body to relax we need to relax the mind, to relax the mind we need to put our thoughts off.

It is said that if the last thoughts before sleep are good thoughts a sound sleep is guaranteed, but what is important to know that the nonstop thoughts puts off sleep. Found my personal angel in the form of a cab driver and made me to think beyond what I could had thought about ‘thoughts’. These angels come in casual contact with us in personal lives in many forms, from which few lessons can be picked.

MERRY CHRISTMAS:HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON

MEET THE GURUS

Hall mark of any great personalities is the simplicity. This faith re-affirmed to me in witness as one of the invite to a program last week. This is the first of such experience which prompted me to put it as a blog.

We had an opportunity to attend a program “Meet the Gurus” which was attended by few hundred other invitees to listen to the gurus. In Sanskrit the word Guru is, ‘Gu’ means darkness and ‘ru’ means dispel . So the word ‘guru’ simply speaks of one who dispels the darkness and brings more understanding and light”.

This function was conducted as a part of felicitation to Prof.Mahabala and Dr. Mitta. As an organization we had been associated with Prof for last ten years, who happens to be the first person in India to start Computers. It was an honor to be one among the invitees for a glittered function with stalwarts from industry, academics and technology who were honored with highest civilian awards in the country. Our association with Prof. is for many years now, many of his lectures on the technology, innovation, product development; product testing is part of our learning’s.

We also had the opportunity to witness in person one of the most respected personalities in the country. For the last few years I had been collecting his speeches and thoughts over the net or following his rare interviews on the television, the most admired by many people in India and many other countries in the world, who rubbed shoulders with many prime ministers and presidents of the countries, who is seen in comparison with Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, the most respected man in the industrial circles, whose name come like a flash when somebody talks about corporate ethics, who has been an icon to millions of people like me, he is none other than Mr.NRN Murthy. He remains an example for many generations to come. The amount of value his company has provided to the customers, employees, stake holders, investors, share holders and promoters is immense. He was one among the students of Prof. in IIT Kanpur. Now looking at the icon from such close quarters in person with whom we have been associated with, is a life time moment for me. These people have been grown from stature to stature but their simplicity, down to earth personality, humbleness remained intact.

I also witnessed an inspiring speech by Dr.Mitta, how he pursued his dream of becoming an electronic engineer from the age of seven and went on to become one of the renowned names in the field of Information and Technology in the country. From his presentation it shows how a kid from a small town connect his dream to become what he want in life , even though his family did not understand what he was doing. A lot about him was written in inspiring book “Go Kiss the World” by Subroto Bagchi. One of the chapters “Learn to Listen” is totally dedicated to him .As per the author, he was treated as the god in his division who had all the time in creation, big and small, and he knew all the answer for every question. He was a friend, philosopher, guide to every one and people knew that he was the man in charge.

I started walking out from the auditorium thinking that it was a dream come true to be in live of such wonderful event to listen, learn and get inspired from the GURUS who had inspired many a people in their life time…

MACKINAW BRIDGE OVER LAKE MICHIGAN

SUNSET IN WESTERN GHATS

ISLAND OF BIRDS

LEADERSHIP INSTINCT

Read in a column that the fast bowler who played in Kanpur Test against Sri Lanka was picked up by the captain’s instinct. He was always in the news for all reasons other than cricket, but on a flat pitch the same fast bowler bowled India to 100th sweet cricket Test victory. Leaders do take the decisions many a times instinct and back them to the core.

One of the charismatic captain and all-rounder from across the border led his country to victory many a times by backing his decisions. He picked up a 40 yr old left arm spinner in 1987 tour of India against criticism and fulfilled his dream of beating India in India in the last Bangalore test. Similarly he picked up a 19 year old lanky batsmen in 1992 world cup and with the same batsman’s contribution in two crucial matches went on to win the world cup. He picked up a fast bowler from a club level and played him in the Test level, who went on to become a “Toe Crusher”.

The point is, the Leaders weigh their options and go with their instinct and umpteem times it proves right than wrong. One is taking the decision and then backing it up all through the process. These kind of decisions are taken on intuition which is backed by experience and gut feel. It requires no data.The recent indian cricket skippers are giving away from the traditional paths and the results are shown on the field and the statistical data. In many other domains too similar kind of leadership is being shown and probably this is what it is all about Next Gen India...

FIVE LIFE LINES IN AN (MY) ORGANIZATION

As I was walking in the alley in my office on Friday , I noticed the food committee meeting in the conference room, which gave the birth to this blog. In the knowledge economy the main assets of the companies are people, to maintain and run these assets at the optimum levels, organizations has to use some life lines which are as important as other functions.

These life lines which takes care of the employee from the time he enters into the office to the moment he leaves. Read in an email, though the companies are a non living entities, there is lot of life in them apart from the people. Off course people are the main life lines in an organization but in my organization five such life lines which are helping people to do the intended tasks. This looked as perfect example of how companies provide these life lines to the employees to make them better professionally and personally.

First and foremost is the ‘intellectual’ which is the main life where the knowledge is shared across the people in the form of Monday meetings, Friday Discussion Forum, Project meetings, Project discussions, Game changer series on wide varied topics, Web conferences with across the world, these have become an integral part of the organization. They allow in understanding the innumerable points, weigh the options, identify the problems and arrive at the actions.

Next life line is the ‘body’ for which food is the fuel, we are served with an hygienic food constituting salads,fruits,curds and carbs in the afternoon and snacks in the evening. A food committee is constantly looking at the opinions of the employees and keeps changing the caterers to suite the taste buds. Diet is an important element for a human body which allows to think better to perform better.

Next life line is the exercise and yoga, this has become a life of few engineers. I fear if yoga stops, they may stop feeling better. For last four years very few Mon-Wed-Fri days are left without a yoga class. Breathing and stretching makes wonders to individuals. As the company is spending time and resource, lot more people need to participate in this program.

Next life line is the mind and thoughts, we had four-five IP skill programs conducted in last four years, given by different personalities with the backgrounds varied from the Defence, HR and Spirituality. No doubt these skill sets have changed some of the lives forever for producing better thoughts, better discipline and better equipped to face all kinds of challenges.

Last life line is the soul, which gives the mission, vision and values in our organization. Every six months either from the chairman, VP or MD will give a corporate presentation showing the vision of the company its objectives , achievements and forthcoming challenges. This puts all on the same board to have one common objective.

In my view these five life lines have become panch koshas in the form of Vignanmaya ( intellect),Annamaya ( body), Pranamaya (Breath and Yoga) Manomaya ( mind) and Anandmaya ( soul). Company has provided access to each of these levels to perform better.

There are another five important functions in any organization they are HR, Admin, Finance, Quality and System Admin. The above panch koshas will not function properly without these support functions. These guys just relentlessly serve the organization to a team which is bigger than any other team within and many a times their services needs more appreciation than they are.

WALKING IN WOODS