Follower or a Leader?

I gave my GRE and got 1080/1600 with scoring least in English 280/800.  I was walking back home after exam… the marketing team of various institutions gathered up to distribute pamphlets “a business strategy”

Fuck u all…. I’m not interested … coz I fucked up my exam.

The English section no longer looked English as all questions were new to me…. And the old computer with black and white screen… all together got me fucked up…. But then the reason for failure was lack of practice.

I should have “followed” guidelines during preparation but now it’s over…

I became placement co-ordinator in my final year of engineering… I had to update information about placements to friends… Our sir called it Labour job…

Yeah!!! The work resembled though…

But there was learning which helped up the team to stay close…. We were actually helping our friends, building relationships and understanding people around… We were leaders…

With great responsibilities come great difficulties… we co-ordinators team had to work day in and day out to sms, keep friends informed about the upcoming placements…

As our college had brand identity, we had plenty of placements… and that stretched up us extra on work…

The challenge ahead was to control friends…. To sit for other placement when they already had an offer… 

If I were in their shoes… I too would scold the co-ordinators for their authoritativeness…

But then we were meant to authorize…. We were meant to hurt some for benefit of others…

I did terrible mistake of hurting my dear friends… who looked at me differently thereafter…

But then I had no choice…. I failed as a “leader”

When I joined a company and was asked my Ramesh Sarin, Ex-ED, ITC… what are your aspirations from the company?

I answered I want to support organization in achieving goals it has set up….

He poked back saying “So, you are a follower not a leader”

As every human defends himself when attacked… a natural instinct…. Here I was attacked with a question

Are you a Leader or a Follower?

I gave diplomatic answer… saying I’m learner now and later would become leader…

Yeah!!! That was the dumbest answer any would give…

Leadership is not a promotion you get after following for few years… It comes from excellence in thoughts, views, behavior, actions and most importantly body language…

A true leader would be inspiring, a role model, an innovator and a hearty human being…

So guys, ups and downs come in life… but all pains should be crossed to become what you want to be…

Good friends like I have… would accelerate it as they had belief in me… they see me as a trusted friend… so get trusted!!!

Empathetic Listening

After waking up early to get dressed for office it was my basic instinct to be late…

But then… my friends were still lazy… they did not even start from their dormitories.

And it took long time to gather them up at one point as they were new to Hyderabad.

It might be easy to help out differently able person rather than friends who look at Telugu as some nomad language.

But then the tougher challenge was to make them identify the landmarks….

I had to be in their shoes for that reason and guide them… f**k it’s hard to speak in Hindi though I was from a Muslim minority school all through my childhood.

I too was no different from my colleagues… I mixed telugu, hindi, Marathi and English into paste and used it…. “Tehimaen” was the language I was using… They even nicked me “nakko” means nahin actually a Hindi term meaning “No”…I derived “nakko” by mixing Marathi and hindi….Thanks to my skills…

I was cornered for the same….But then I was comforted when my friend vivek during Chennai trip who pretended that he knows Tamil… but there was this incident which proved that he was just patching up.

We were all hungry after an exclusive shopping at spencer’s plaza, Chennai.  Hmmn… girls looked good but not great than AP ones… but they were lil bit modern in their dressing…. I was impressed…

We ordered for some Arabian dish to try out different…

Waiter took long time than usual… We never wasted time so just peeped through all corners to scan through… Guess u got it… if not u r dumb***

Time passed…. We were still waiting for our order to arrive….

Vivek in haste yelled “Speeda Bringa” to the waiter… He just added ‘a’ at the end of ‘speed’ and ‘bring’ to sound it like tamil…  After that we made great fun of him… “Speeda Bringa”

So, back to my reason for this article…  I was getting ready for office as today we were meeting… Birla… our chairman… oooooooooophhhh… grt man….

The things went great and we focused on our work which was to build up strategies to defeat vivek in age of empires game…. Yeah… we got moved from NFS to age of empires … for change…

After formal meet… we the strong minded employees did not waste time… went on with great lunch… Everything was great right from…. Soup, veg bullets, stuffed naan, gujrati items to hyderbad delicacy biryani…. I even liked the plate they served us on….

The highlight I would say was the “garam garam jilebi” it was hot!!!… And sweet ;)

After a great day… we were awaiting for next day…coz we had training at Green Park Hotel, 3 star one…

It was an interactive session where we played games to understand the ways things happen in corporate…

I was excited about games… rather than the presentation that followed each game…

Game

We were given… 20 small wood blocks numbered from 1 to 20… to build a tower

4 teams each of six was made and we had to follow instructions given to us

Instructions:

1)      Each one would be given set of instructions to construct tower.

2)      One should be dumb all throughout the play and should not share their instructions with other team members.

3)      Time limit was 20 min

We skimmed through instructions and started building tower…. Guess what happened…

We saw our team members fighting….. as each one wants to build the tower according to instructions given to them…

Then people started using weird symbols to help each other… yeah, it did not work as well…

The instructions were also confusing as one says

“The bottom level should be prime numbered”

F**k … it not only means that blocks should be prime but also the number of blocks used to build bottom should be prime… we were so intelligent to get to know the trick after 15 min of start….

And other instruction to a friend said only he can build and rest are there to assist… but you know… we were not listening to freaking KungFu acts he was doing to explain same.

After 15 min everyone cooled down… as we were not moving more than 1 level… and rest of the teams were giving finishing touches to their tower…

Somehow we could make it in the end 5mins… but with a mistake… oops…we managed to correct it when no one was watching us… :D

Here… the game was not important… the learning’s were important.  They were

1)      Trust your team

2)      Communicate better to get noticed

3)      Seek first to understand, then to be understood

4)      Team effort, goals are important than individual opinions or desires

4)      Team effort, goals are important than individual opinions or desires

This is called “Empathetic Listening”… means Listen from heart

In short… or in a rude way it can be better termed as…hey! Dumb***es you fu*kin know how to work in a team…..

I got my learning…. Have you???

Pavan- The wind of Change

A boy entered our class of 7 to make it mighty 8…. But he did not seem mighty to us with his impeccable looks.

But then he joined the school… I too was new to school

Now, we were 8 boys only in the class.

Dinesh – an Introvert at Lunch

Nikhil – Bumpy boy… Man!!! You should have a look at least once in a lifetime

Rohit – Russell peters

Sunil – the play boy

Sushanth – gajini

Siddanth – the ghee baby

Pavan – the wind of change

Sai (myself) – ranchoddas chachar (its my blog… im pumping up myself)

But then I might be tagged “the silent killer”

Only 8 people in a class!!! Why?

Our school was looking for closure…. Could do nothing but put our classrooms in bedroom without beds of course.

Our school was a 3BHK flat with a very long hall which we utilized effectively for playing cricket with paper balls (to not to hit glasses) and occasionally rubber balls.

One day Nikhil on way to catch ball for an awesome catch missed it but correctly hit the tube light to make way for punishment.

Pavan all the long was with us in every good and bad deed (peeping at girls).

There ended our school life… and after 2 years of +2 …some entered engineering and some medicine.

In the mean time, pavan transformed himself into a dynamic personality, who was now still a boy with no moustache but a GF (occasional), film maker (short films only/-), Business man (small one).

Rest all were still the same….student.

One day… asked about what his goal is… I was expecting mba from IIM… he said degree in hotel management and setup a restaurant “Chicken Hut”. (WTF)

I too thought of setting up a poultry farm as I had great belief in “Chicken Hut” which would increase my sales. ;)

Today is Pavan’s Bday…

I wish him good luck for moustache…

My First Salary

The room was full… all were eagerly waiting… but then I was not because

I never think of results… that made me feel relaxed even in tensed atmosphere…

At last, the HR announced the results and I got rejected.  My friend who got selected had his face glowing like 100W Surya Bulb… With a sense of achievement in his walk and attitude…

Now he turned into sadhu baba teaching me “Lifezlesson”…

Its k sai be cool… I was… It happens…

This job is meant for me and fully deserve it… what do you say?

“Yeah… true”, I said… to keep up his tempo.

That evening seemed silent than rest and I could feel “Inner Peace”.  What’s this?

The time you are pushed down to ground… u don’t have to worry about anything anymore… coz already you are on ground level zero… that fills in feeling of peace in us…. Make us more sensitive.

As the time moved on… all were blessed with job and soon we were into job…

All enjoyed… first month… which would generally be termed “Honey Moon Period”

No work-sleep-new friends-Money

Yeah… I got my first salary…

Hmmn… nice to see good balance in my atm…. Had never before… My package was 25k per month as they said before… but then…

Gross salary                        25000

Provident Fund                    -6000 (u have to increase it avoid tax)

Gratuity                               -1000

Tax (if you saved)               -  700 (govt. is here…to even take tax of 10 paise if you earn a rupee..)

Fixed Deposits                    -1000 (goes to savings… even if you don’t want to)

Insurance amount                -2500

Transport facility                 -1000 (they knowingly… got established in outskirts)

Extra work we do               -3000 (they don’t pay extra if we work extra… coz we are in training period)

Net Salary                          9800 (Im really  getting F**cked of my 25k)

I was happy when I heard it was 25k but what I actually get is 9800/- only… but then there is some thing I forgot….

Head ache, Back pain which you would definitely get… later you will be used to it…

Doctor Fee                          -200

X-ray                                   -300

Urine Test                            -100

Blood Test                           -100

Now its, 9800-700=9100

Gym                                      -500 (coz you would be having a belly)

So, now my earnings sum up to be 8600/- only

F**k I don’t like the word “only/-“after 8600.

Hmmn… In this I have to give party to my friends… buy formals (it’s not even a dead asset)… get something to my parents.

So… people… it doesn’t end here…

You even miss the loved ones… who are invaluable…

Take time out of your social network… to chat with parents and neighbors…

Sunday

I was driving Yamaha FZ-S bike on 4-lane road cruising at 120 kmph keeping past bikes, cars with swift turns and shifts.

And then…

I went out of the road with bike in air and any guesses…. I too was flying in air with bike… I could see whole road stretch and cars slowing down to watch me… flying… there was no expression in my mind… And it stood still not triggering my neurons for action… I was helpless…

And then…

I remembered that I have to go to office…

And then…

I woke up… saw no sign of disturbance or noises in our house.  Now a neuron in my mind got up and said “Hey buddy, chill man… why do you bother us even on Sundays”

And then I realized…

Its Sunday today… … I got so F**ked up that I was thinking of work even on Sunday… Shit

This is what happens when you do work for 6 days and given a rest… its hell

As Brooke committed suicide after he was sent out of jail after 30 years in “Shawshank Redemption”. He was more comfortable in jail than outside.

The same was with me…But

What do I do at work?

1.       Need for Speed Racing on LAN

2.       Chat with G-F

3.       Check Mails

4.       Spend more time for lunch

5.       Borrow i-POD from friend and charge myself to not to go to sleep after heavy lunch

6.       Most importantly open facebook and chat

7.       Attend Meetings, give presentations… with no audience to listen to

All shit right…. That’s true… “Being Professional” sucks

Being Professional

I woke up early than usual and saw the culinary session got started and was in swing...

What's so special?

This was the day I'm going to be a professional(yeppy)

I took head-bath and headed for temple... after full pujas and all was late to home and work

I was the last one to reach company... and all exchanged hand gestures.. I was familiar with most as i poked them on Facebook.

I learnt Facebook profile pics are not the same as people in real(1st learning).

The conference room where we sat was all silent as all were busy... somehow i did not like the silence.  It was boring.. i started to test the chair... its strength... ergonomics and all such.. and chair made weird noises... The silence was broken.. all laughed for some time... again silence... WTF silence

Let me tell you something about my attire, I was wearing newly brought Oxemberg shirt and pant.. with my dad's shoe on it.  Took long time to tuck up shirt and i was sweating all the time while dressing up for office. At last i was done... took blessings from my parents and was feeling heavy though it was just another day.

Back at office, we had our boss with deceptive smile on his face... assessing us all the time...And my colleagues are all from different parts of country which showed all Indians at conference.. 

Let us talk some thing professional, what do you think means being professional?

1. Dress neatly(no ones bothered about inner wear)

2. Smile at everyone though you hate him :D

3. Walk confidently and don't show ur belly as an asset

4. Don't laugh at joke... just smile

5. Stare at girls and smile... stop it right there

6. When boss asks howz the company? say, its f**kin' grt and then criticize the company in the manner u desire.. professionally

7. When your GF/BF calls you, say you are busy though you were googling

8. Have coffee and tea for free 3 or 4 times a day 

9. Just be little close to HR ppl, they are your godfathers

10. Offcourse, don't do all work right from start as you will get dumped later.  So, do what's important and urgent.

At the end of the day, you would feel that a day was wasted.  Don't worry you have so many days to get past.  This is what professional meanings... 

Copy paste the work, you get appraisal

Don't be yourself, people will follow you

I don't want to be professional.... I still crack jokes and laugh at them loudly do you?
Be childish than a professional coz otherwise kids would call you uncle/aunty... :P

"Uncle hato na... i too wanna board bus"