Be Thankful...

It's easy to be thankful for the good things in life. But a life of rich fulfillment comes to those, who are also thankful for their setbacks. The following lines make us aware of those things that are valuable to us, but we don't realize their importance.

Thanks to my friend Prashant C P for sending the same :-)

Be thankful, that you don't have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful, when you don't know something.
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful, for the difficult times.
It is during those times that you grow.

Be thankful, for your limitations.
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful, for each new challenge.
For that will build your strength and character.

Be thankful, for your mistakes.
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful, when you're tired and weary.
Because it means you've made an effort.

Fire exit not for customer..!

When we are in business, each and everything, that a customer sees about us, makes a deep impact on his perception of ourselves. Recently I went to a restaurant with my team for lunch. There, the fire-exit door caught my eye. Below is the pic of same:



Now, is the message clear?

Learn from others' mistake

This is the story of 2 friends; Ginny & Cathy. Both worked in the same firm, and liked each other a lot. Ginny had migrated from her home-village, away from her parents, and earned a living by working for this firm. Cathy was the only daughter of a wealthy businessman of the town. There was no need for her to work, as her father earned enough for the family. But working for the firm gave her confidence in self, and she enjoyed working with Ginny. As Ginny was poor, sometimes Cathy used to give her a drop in the evening to his lodging on her bike. The ride used to take 1 hour, and gave ample opportunities to both of them to discuss their joys and sorrows with each other.

Ginny considered their friendship as sacred. She knew that she had got a good friend, whom she should not trouble at any cost. Cathy too shared this view.

Soon there was news that the firm was going to hire some new workers, and the current workers can bring in their friends, and relatives who may be hired. Cathy knew one girl, Tina, who lived near-by her house and was looking out to work somewhere. Cathy spoke to her when she got to her home, and then next day Tina too came to the firm to apply for the job. Fortunately, she was hired on the same day, and told to come to work from next day onwards.

Tina joined the firm next day, and Cathy introduced her to Ginny. Ginny was impressed by Tina's personality and was happy that such a good person has joined the firm. As it was her first day, she helped Tina in whatever way she could, to get her familiar with the work. In the evening, Ginny asked Cathy to drop Tina to her house, as both of them stayed near-by to each other. Ginny had no problem in going by the local bus. She had been used to it for along time.

Soon Tina became an integral part of the firm. Everybody liked her serene nature, and she made many friends in short time. Still she did not forget the help given to her by Cathy and Ginny, and used to spend time regularly with them.

After some time, Ginny began to notice a change in Cathy's behavior. She started leaving early in the evening, and won't even ask Ginny as to what time will she leave, and could she give a drop to him. Ginny also noticed that Tina accompanies Cathy more often to her home. When Ginny asked Cathy about this behavior of hers, Cathy smiled and said “It’s between us. We both are good friends, and there are some things that we cannot share with anybody.” Ginny was surprised with this response, but did not respond. After all, he thought, Cathy is happy with her new friend, and that is what Ginny wanted.

But soon Ginny found out that she did not have time to speak to Cathy. During the day, both were busy with their work, and the evening ride, that was the time when they could speak to each other, was no more existent. Ginny started feeling depressed about it, and felt that there was no point in speaking to Cathy anymore. When Cathy will greet her in the morning, she would not reply to her properly, pretending to be extremely busy. Then in the evening too, when Cathy will come to say good-bye to her before leaving to her home, Ginny made it a habit to go to some-body else’ workplace, so that Cathy won’t find her.

The one day suddenly Cathy came to Ginny during working hours. Ginny could not believe that Cathy has come to meet her, and not just to say good-morning or good-bye. Cathy looked very upset. Ginny asked her, “What happened to you? You look terribly upset.”

Cathy said, “You know Ginny. Yesterday I had to leave early. Some guests were expected at home, and I had to go and help my mother prepare dinner for them. So I could not wait for Tina to finish her work, and drop her. Now she is so angry with me that she has not spoken to me since morning. She even refuses to look at me. Is that how friends are? Till yesterday, she used to tell everybody that I am her best friend at the firm. Does her speaking to me depends upon whether I drop her or not?”

Ginny knew her mistake immediately. She too had fallen in the same trap in which Tina has fallen. She too had stopped interacting with Cathy since she had stopped dropping her to home in the evening. The only difference between Ginny and Tina was that Tina had expressed how she felt, but Ginny had not.

Ginny now realized that he could still learn from Tina’s mistake. She will prove herself better than Tina. She will speak to Cathy, irrespective of whether she drops her home or not. She had finally learned a lesson from somebody else’ mistake.

The above narration is a real incident, to which I have been a witness. I hope Ginny, Cathy & Tina are listening...

"Malls threaten local market". Really?

It was nearly one year ago. I had read a piece of news in one of the national newspaper. This piece of news mentioned a mob consisting of local traders attacking a newly-opened shopping mall. The so-called leadership of this mob had proclaimed that they want to protect the local market from this western culture. (Click here to read a related article. I am not able to find the one which I read.)

The news made me wonder as to how a mall can threaten the local market. If the mall sells the items cheaper than the market, then it can endanger the existence of near-by shops. But again, the quality of the items matters. If the local shops sell good quality products, then the customers will continue to go to trusted shops. And in the end, competition is good for everybody.

It was not until many months later that I learnt the exact reason for this outburst from my mother. She told me the way traders and shop-keepers continue to cheat the customer. One of the easy way is to have the good-quality items displayed, in small quantities, at the front of the shop. When the customer decides to buy one of them, the shop-keeper goes inside the shop, where the larger stock is kept, and give it to the customer. The quality, of course, will not be the same. Another way, which is very popular among the fruits and vegetable vendors, is worth mentioning. If a piece is rotten, it is kept in such a way that the customer cannot see its rotten face, but the vendor can see it. Later, when the customer is selecting the best pieces and putting them on the weighing scale, the shop-keeper 'assists' the customer, and puts the rotten ones too, and then hurries to pack the entire lot, and hands it over to the customer.

Compared to this, in a shopping mall, the customer is not hurried by anybody, and s/he has enough time to select the best pieces available to him/her. The only demerit of a mall is that the customer has to wait in queue to pay the bill.

I don't know whether there is a future for another mall in that area. In the news item, to which link has been given, the State Govt. has requested the mall to be closed due to the disturbances caused in the area.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday we had a special team-lunch. The QA team in our organization had been declared as an independent body few months ago, but there had not been many occasions to get together on a personal front. All we had done earlier was to indulge in meetings that were meant to discuss pending issues and difficulties. But yesterday’s was a fun outing where the members got to know each other on a personal front rather than professional one.

We journeyed for around 20 minutes to a well-known restaurant, and sat down as a group (9 of us) on 2 tables that were placed next to each other for our convenience. As we were going through the starters, our QA Lead, Ravi, came up with a unique activity. He asked everyone to get up from their chair, walk up, and thank the person who has helped them most in the last one year. He also told that he should be counted out of this, and nobody should come and thank him.

Then followed what can be described as moment to remember, as each one of us went round the table and shook hand with the person who has helped us most in the past one year. One could see the joy on the person’s face who got up to thank, and an equal amount of satisfaction on the recipient’s face. This exercise gave all of us an insight into the helpful nature of people whom we know just as colleagues and professionals. The entire exercise lasted just 5 minutes but it had a huge impact on everybody present. Those who had helped others were much more motivated to continue to do so, and broaden their spectrum on this arena.

There was, however, one particular trait that came out of this exercise. If the person A was thanked by B and C, then A will invariably go to one of them to thank him/her in return. There was a mutual feeling of helping each other among the group. This reflects that well-known saying that what you give comes back many folds to you.

May be you too can try out in a team-meeting of yours. Do not get shocked if you get surprising results.

Customer Delight

Today I went to a road-side shop with my friend to buy a tender coconut. The shop-keeper was a lady, around 45 years of age. The shop was nothing but a pile of coconuts kept on a plastic carpet, under a shade. My friend ordered a coconut. The lady picked the one chosen by my friend, then sliced it enough so that the water within can be sipped using a straw, and handed it over to him. My friend sipped the delicious water, and then handed over the coconut back to her. She again sliced it open so that my friend can eat the content within. For eating that my friend had to use his hands. Once he was done, the lady opened a water bottle, and helped him wash his hands too. That was all over, and we walked away.

It was after some time that I realized the extra effort that lady had put to delight her customers. I have visited a lot of similar shops to buy tender coconut, but never I saw any shop-keeper offer water to customers to wash their hands. Every time, I had to wipe my hands clean with my kerchief.

How much effort does it take for giving water? But it makes a lot of difference…

A not so good experience in KSRTC Volvo bus

Am I right when I say that people, in general, are greedy? You may not agree with that. Let me share a recent experience of mine, then you decide whether you agree with me or not.

I was taking a bus from Puttaparthy to Bangalore last Sunday. It was a Volvo bus, run by KSRTC (Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation). This bus is a luxury bus, and passengers are charged a premium. Of course, the expectations from the passengers are also high. They expect a good-service, which includes on-time pickup and drop, well-mannered staff, and the other freebies, like the mineral-water served to each passenger, and a good movie, which may be played during the 4-hour journey.

One special feature of this bus was that there was only one staff member allotted. He performs the role of the driver as well as the bus-conductor. When I boarded the bus, he checked my ticket, and then made a note in his record-book. I made my way to the seat allotted to me, and settled down comfortably. Soon all the passengers were on-board and the conductor (or the driver, as we may call him) came to check whether all seats were occupied or not. He came near my seat, and then looked up at a lady who was travelling with her 2 sons. She was in her early 30s. The conductor asked her to as to who were the children with her. She pointed out both of them to him. The younger son was around 6 years, and the elder 11.

The problem started regarding the elder son. The conductor refused to believe that the elder son was 11 years. According to him, he was 12 years old, and she should pay extra fare for him. (Bus-fare for children below 12 years of age is half the fare of an adult passenger.) The lady refused to do so as she insisted that her son was below 12. She had booked the ticket through the Internet, and on the KSRTC website there was no indication asking the passengers to carry any proof-of-age. Thus she did not have any document to prove that she was right. The conductor was not ready to give up. The matter erupted into heated argument, till another passenger interrupted. He was a decent looking man with an air of authority around him. He softly, but firmly, told the conductor that he had no choice, but to believe the mother. No rule exists that will support his cause as mother's word will be taken as the final one in front of any authority of the law. The conductor continued to crib, said that they might encounter a problem on the way, and then left. Soon the bus started, we reached our destination 4 hours later without any discomfort.

I wondered what was the real motive of the conductor to raise this issue. Did he not know the rules? Or was he trying to get some 'extra income'? Did he target that woman because she was without a male escort?

I went to the KSRTC website, but did not find a link where I could register my complaint :-(

Do we lose our identity when we change ourselves?

Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine. (Let us call him Ram.) It was just a casual conversation. We were asking each other as to what is going on in other’s life. He mentioned that he had been through a rift with one of his friend, and had sorted it out earlier in the day by talking to her.

It popped out during their conversation that Ram's friend wanted him to change some of his ways of doing things. But Ram was reluctant to change. The reason, he cited, was very simple. According to him, if he changes himself, he will lose his identity, which he did not want to. If he changes himself for sake of just one person, he will not remain Ram. He will not be the same Ram whom people know. For all his friends, Ram stands for something; a particular type of behaviour, a particular way of speaking, walking, eating habits, and other dimensions that make up his personality. If he starts changing these traits, just because one person out of billions on this earth asked him to do so, is it really worth it?

The conversation ended at that and I was left thinking about what Ram had said. At times, others ask us to change our particular personality trait. At other times, we admire people around us, and we wish to become like them. I have personally experienced this situation. I used to admire one senior student in my college days (I still admire him today). He is very popular among people around him. He has a very good sense of humour, is very helpful, and a good singer too. He also meets everybody with enthusiasm, and has never been known to become angry. I wanted to inculcate the same personality traits in me and become as popular as him. I knew I cannot become a good singer overnight. But I thought I can copy his other traits and embed them into my personality. I did that & failed miserably. The reason being the difference between my nature and his nature. I realized that my way of approaching people is slightly different from the way he approaches others.

When Ram spoke to me, I was reminded of this failure of mine. Most of me agreed that he Ram has got it right, but somewhere at the back of my mind, I knew that I had missed something vital. I discussed this point with a colleague of mine. I know her as an open-minded person, & whom I admire for simplicity & clarity of thoughts. Thanks to her, I learned the following lessons:

• Change is inevitable. Whether we like it or not, we change; our personality changes regularly. We are not the same person what we were 6 months ago.
• If somebody has asked us to change a particular habit of ours, which means that he wants us to become a better person, and thus he cares for us. We should be thankful to that person to bring it to our notice.
• We should not hesitate to try. If we change that particular habit of ours, and other people around us give positive feedback about the change, the change is worth making. On the other hand, if the people around us say that they did not like the new change in us, we can revert back to what we were earlier (which will be very easy).
• When our friend sees that we changed after he has asked us to, he realizes that we value his words. In turn, he too starts giving value to our words.
• People around us see us as a more flexible and open-minded individual.

In conclusion, I would say, when we change our personality after somebody’s feedback, it is not that we become somebody else. But, our personality becomes better. Others may start liking us and then they may like to become like us. Overall, we gain more friends, and become more popular.

Ram….are you listening?

Helping a stranger -3

I have written about my encounters with strangers very often. This is another one in the chain. All of these encounters are similar in nature, where the person wanted some help, and the following one is no different.

I was walking after leaving the office, and then suddenly this man stopped me. He was well dressed, around 30, and had a confident air around him. He told me that his pocket had been picked earlier in the day, and he had no money to go ahead. He needed to go to the Main Bus Stand in Bangalore (fondly called as ‘Majestic’ by the local people here), and from there he wishes to go to his home. He also told that he was an IT professional, working in a well-known company, and he will return my money.

The story was OK so far. But when he asked me to give Rs. 60 for the fare, I was a bit surprised. I told him that if he needed to go to Majestic, he needed just Rs. 10 as bus-fare. And if he wishes to go somewhere else from Majestic, still the bus-fare will not exceed more then another Rs.10. So, I gave him Rs. 20 as the total bus-fare for his journey. He thanked me & moved on his way. I moved ahead on my path. And then it struck me!

He had told that he had lost his identity card too. In Bangalore, most of the companies issue identity card so big, that it will not fit into a wallet. Secondly, most of the employees wear the identity card at home before starting to office, and take it out only after they are back at home at the end of the day. There was no way this man would have lost his identity card. So, I concluded, his entire story was phoney.

And at last, I concluded, I have been cheated by him ………………..of Rs 20.