tarunkush

I am not sure its just my patriotism that watching Indian Team compete in any tournament and doing good I am overwhelmed with emotions. These emotions at the moment have been triggered, when devouring the works of Indian Hockey Team wrecking yet another team in Asia Cup in Malaysia. Thanks to two sports channels forecasting the matches.

Contrast to this, the Women Trio of Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Rimil Buriuly have returned triumphant after winning the World Series Stage IV crown after defeating Korea in Poland. Not only the matches were not telecasted on any National Sports Channel but also there was a very mild reception at the airport. Adding to the woes, President of Archery Association of India poking the sentiments with ruthless and insulting remarks.

I personally believe, there has always been a push culture wen it comes to feeding news/thoughts to the masses. Whenever there is a twin country cricket series there is live coverage not only on Sports Channels but also on News Channels. Even the Channel owned and run by Indian government shows live coverage of the game. There is session by session analysis of performances – individual/team, strategies and impacts on News and Sports Channels. During the times, when the media and the government in unison are promoting just one sport, Cricket, then how can other sports survive in this nation?

We won the cricket world cup and each player was awarded many laurels along with monetary benefits and many government organizations offered senior positions, even Indian Army and Police to the players. No such things seem to be in picture for games played on an international level like Chess and Badminton and for dying sports like Kabaddi which is even perceived to have originated in India.

On one side, there has been an organized effort from the Chinese government to promote sports and target every sport not just athletics or soccer. China as I hear have started training athletes from a very tender age. These kids know sports and just sports, which makes them thorough professionals. And the results have been good, the whole world is witness to it.

On the other side, in Europe and America, sports are being reared along with education. One sport being compulsory for each kid to play. And none can deny the dominance of nations like US, Russia, Germany and others on a global level for a very long time.

I am not sure when are we going to learn from such good examples. It is very hard to believe that a country with a population less than no country other than China is unable to produce sportsmen and sportswomen who can pip world records and outshine other sports persons.

A paradigm change is the demand of the hour not just in intentions and on paper but also in actions. Just the government alone cannot do it. We as families and friends need to promote talent. Making studies as a mandate to be successful or being a good match for life is strangling the future of sports in our country.

“No matter how much money you have, you can’t buy more time”.

Reading through one of the blogs from Bill Gates, this sounds absolutely apt for the current business scenario. If I try to generalize this not just for the CXOs but also for a common employee for any company, it reminds me of one of the subjects from my MBA – “Waste Management“.

What exactly, makes a successful man really successful is their time management skill. They realize value of time very early in life and manage time until they want to remain successful. This fact does not just apply to businessmen but also to world class leaders. Apart from hard work, as they say it, more important to do is smart work. Which, in my opinion, is removing wastage from ones life, avoiding reworks.

I remember reading through the daily schedule of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru who stands out as a pillar of Time Management. He used to start his day not at 9-10 AM like to present day leaders but at very early 6 AM, when he used to meet people from among the public who wanted to have a word in person with him. And then the rest of the day followed.

Smt. Indira Gandhi was another lady, whom I don’t fail to admire time and again. She is not only known for her prowess as a strong headed leader who believed in leading from the front and for backing up her decision with “balls” but also for her vast political and historical knowledge. How did she managed all that amongst all the traveling and rallies and her responsibilities as the PM of India she used to organize? She managed this because she was an ardent reader and anyhow managed to plan her time for reading.

As Bill Gates mentions in his blog “Three Things I’ve Learned From Warren Buffett”, Warren Buffett never allows his calendar to clog down with useless meetings. Riding on the riches of his investments in business, surely leaves no scope for wastage of time. He has to spend right amount of time with the right people.

Crux of the matter I have learnt from these examples is…..just stop wasting time……even my mother, a homemaker, and has been shouting this on me since my childhood days! Its high time I implement this in real life! 🙂

What did I miss….

Tucked in my sofa…my elbows resting on a cushion…breath held back in my lungs at each appeal in the lndian Innings…watching India pip Aussies in the World Cricket World Cup…

I think this is what each one of my batch-mates at S.P.Jain Center of Management and many others would have imagined. In the death overs, even a blink could make me miss a crucial wicket or a pressure releasing boundary. But the question is- “Is it what I am really missing?”

I remember missing a small fundamental point in Financial Accounting Class by Professor Indu because of a sigh of frustration of not being able to balance sheet. That missed fundamental costed me 10 easy points in my Final Exam. I recall I was flustered even more and only thing that could save me was the news that there are friends to give me company at the bottom of the list. The question again arises that “Do I really miss that fundamental point?”

It was sixteen days back when I was standing outside P-13, France Cluster, Dubai International City surrounded by 20 odd boys bidding adieu to me and couple of more friends. I was smiling and laughing, cracking jokes and pulling legs. But even then I knew it, I am going to miss them a lot long after I am gone. The most surprising thing is, I didn’t know that I would be nostalgic at its height just 2 weeks into the much much long awaited vacations before I am lost into the wilderness of my Karmabhumi, Mumbai.

Interactions with my friends located in distant locations and close by tell me I am not the only one to miss them. This feeling is mutual. I am wondering whether I would ever be able to sustain the nostalgia or the pain of missing my fellow stream mates, batch-mates, the leg pulling, commenting, birthdays, parties especially placement parties where ones who never drank were seen sunk in liquor, sutta points in Singapore, group works, sheesha meetings, latest movie downloading, blaming Acadcom for everything and what not. The list is probably longer than the Great Wall of China.

Thanks to all my batch-mates, professors and my decision to join SPJCM for giving me such a beautiful and enjoyable time. This is what I miss and will miss till I die…

“Hey Placement season is full on.”

“Which all companies are coming to recruit?”

“DHL, FedEx, Unilever, P&G, Damco and many more you ever dreamt of”

“What is the average package they are offering?”

“Must be around 12,000 UAE Dhms.”

“That’s great!”

It rarely ever happens that a probable employee ever thinks of whether the company would do all duties due to the employee. The employee once enters the company becomes a part of the company and adopts the culture no matter what is right or wrong. There are very few people who fight hard to change things and try to change the system.

All companies claim to climb or even move mountains for society but what actually they do for their own employees is a different story all together. What are these responsibilities that, I am talking about here. The few basic things that an employee demands are-

• Right wage for right work
• Safer and healthier working environments
• Right to privacy
• Freedom of conscience

Many global companies have been striving hard to achieve employee delight, but still many loop holes remain in the system. Many companies have a policy to keep their wages in top 5-10% of highest salary payers like Shell, BP etc. At the same time many good companies exist which are not very well known for their salaries like Wal-Mart. And some also exist which have been exploiting employees for years.

Safe environment is the key to lesser Days Away From Work Case (DAWC). Lower the DAWC and higher the productivity. The companies which realized this have been doing wonders by optimizing the employee availability and health. I worked for BP Shipping for around five years and am a live example of the same. While working on board as a Second Officer the safety standards which I found are unmatched as compared to in the industry. Company not only keeps a close track of the health of personnel but also programs like “No more smoking” Programs where free of cost Nicotin inhalers, medicines and patches were provided to the employees who showed willingness to quit smoking. Amidst such companies also exist other companies which in order to inflate the bottom lines sacrifice safety and welfare of the employees.

Some companies have even gone a step further to take care of the families like teaching the spouses of employees how to drive, safety precautions in kitchen and also approving life insurances only when cars, with proper safety gear like safety belts in rear seats, air bags for both front seats and fire extinguishers, are bought.

How does it feel to know that your computer or network is being surveilled by nobody but their own employers? I guess nobody will be comfortable working in such a working environment. Even on social networking sites activities of the employees are tracked. Privacy rights are more or less non-existent in private-sector.

The most important of all, the freedom to conscience, is now-a-days going down with the increase in competition among employees and among the companies themselves that has made them to prioritize smart tactics to pip the competition. Has Right or Wrong no clear boundary left now? Nobody is ready to take a stand for the good of the self and the society at the same time. I must illustrate an example which I faced while working. This incident surely made me realize that the boundary between them is not yet non-existent. I worked on Oil Tankers which plied all across the globe. And as a part of the voyage we were planned to go from Indonesia to Iran. The customs are required to give the vessel clearance so that the vessel could discharge cargo. After arrival, I was informed “customs on board”. When I went down it seemed that a whole regiment of customs has marched into the Ship’s Office. The customs as usual wanted to be well taken care of. In spite of having a clear No Gifts Policy in place, mass offerings were made to the today’s Gods of foreign trade. Being first time on board, I was shocked to the soul. Captain signed off in Singapore on the way to Iran.

The new boss seemed to be stricter in all respects. We all had a “good” time till Iran. As I started to forget about Indonesia, history repeated itself just to remind me of the old saying. Another shock was waiting for me, when I found out that Captain has refused to offer gifts and the ship has been put on hold. We stayed at anchor for a week and a half. In the backstage, the company had already warned the government to phase out business with the country. Customs had to give way and future vessels coming over to Iran will have a dilemma free life. Conclusion: one man can pip a whole organization, if the employers support.

Even though such working conditions seem real only in fairy tales, they do exist, although rarely. Formulating employee benefit policies should not just be show pieces in the reception hall while hiring people. These policies bear fruit in the long run in terms of low attrition rate, better employee engagement, productivity and above all employee satisfaction.

I wish this waiting period could be avoided….

This day does not mark the  commensuration of the fruition of the tree that was sowed on 5th of April, but signifies the take off of the Google MBA April 10 batch. The day we waited so long by not waiting but living the wait. This bang will be heard miles away and oceans across the world. The Epicenter is of course S.P.Jain Dubai. This day will be embossed in gold letters in bold, italics and underline in our hearts as our first warrior finds the flag to fight for.

But this wait for the time fight my own flag is very painful. I remember one of my captains saying “Any professional training is like a pipeline. Once you enter you will exit as the professional you aspired to be.” This pipeline seems to be a long one with a million turns and there seem to be more exits, where I am in a dilemma which one to choose. Still I am too sure that the flag I choose would be worth fighting for.

Amidst all this, I am sure each one of us will be able to break the bonds of mass misery. The misery being floated in our hearts by rumours like markets are saturated and double dip and NO JOBS for us in this recession.

I still prefer this wait could avoided like a traffic jam using a by-pass. It leaves our hearts pounding all the time, that when I would join the elite club. All that remain to support us are our friends, family and …

This is a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle.

Three Cheers to our small community of Warriors.

Time   : 0915 hrs,

Date    : 08th January 2011

Venue : LC 1

And he enters, our beloved Professor. Before any of us could even react “Good to see you b*****ds again”. Though crude, but overflowing with affection, those words established the connection once again. First class after a month and a half and knowing that this experience would not last longer that an week or two, we all try to sink into the topic rather than dozing off or yawning away.

Is it something special that such Professors teach that they leave a mark on the mind of their students? The theory would have been the very same if some other person would have come to “act” as a professor. Is it the pedagogy or the voice quality? I feel it is the approach which matters and make them sweethearts.

The approach, many would wonder what the heck is different, is “Customer is the CEO and Customer pays our salary”. Customer focus makes them so special. In an institute the students are the customers and hence CEO as well. Customers are happy when the services, education in this case, are imparted to them in the best possible way that adds value to their personal self.

It is not always when you see students from diverse streams, smokers or non-smokers, flock around a simple man smoking his cigarette of the break to listen to “gyan” instead of pappu-shappus. I had a similar experience when I was at school. Our mathematics teacher Mr.S.K.Mondal used to teach the same topics as the others but something was different in him than others. And this difference made all the difference for all of us. Most of us still remember the Pythagoras Theorem, Trigonometry and the likes till date. No or little need was required to go back home and practice.

Today teaching remains just a profession, not a passion. The customer focus is gone and CEOs are getting much lesser ROIs as it used to in early days. Those days are long gone when students were known by names of their teachers and the days have arrived when you find most students are proclaimed to be self-made.

This is a tribute to the teachers who left a mark on our minds and more to say on our lives. These are the employees who are not Slaves.

It seems like yesterday, when I boarded M/V Pacific Oasis on the 29th of November 2004. Butterflies in tummy, didn’t know how to react and what to talk and how is it going to be. Will I be able to face the hardships of the rough-tough sailor’s life. It started of on a high note-the Marine Life.

Nostalgia is back while I rummage through my lexicon to find right words for the right expressions to deliver this first piece of blog. “Inspirations drive inventions” sounds most suitable right now. Another challenge, another ocean to scale. I drew my inspiration from a few blogs that I happened to read and feel. The Latest one being ‘Balancing Act’ @business2buddha.wordpress.com. Thanx to KRD Pravin, a veteran blogger to me, for that.

I just hope that you all enjoy reading me now and in future.