How do you hold your own in the corporate world?

So we have recently graduated from our B-School and have joined our new workplaces post MBA! All raring to go again, awaiting to give the corporate India a passionate embrace. Suddenly, a close friend sends me these questions on mail and that get's me thinking... Here I share her questions and my reply. Hope it helps...

Q - "How do you hold your own in the corporate world? How do you find the balance between your uniqueness and imbibing the corporate culture? Most of all, how do you pretend to 'like' everything?"

Response - I truly believe that organisations mirror society. You'll find all sorts of people there. We have worked before MBA and during Summers, this exposure might have helped us form perceptions, notions and beliefs. Adding to that, each organisation has a unique culture. Some respect hierarchy more stringently than others, some crave for newness in thought and action, and there are some who are in transit, in the process of moving from one pattern to another.

It is quite easy for us to get lost in this chaos. However, I followed these simple tenets in my stint which have helped me a lot. Sharing them with you, hoping they might add some value:

• Shed the baggage of the past, but not completely. Identify what worked for you previously, see if it can work again, if you feel it can't dump the funda & move on.
• Identify as quickly as possible - "How exactly does the company make its money", "What are the things that matter most to the organisation. Talk that language. You're more likely to get better attention from people. You'll make more sense to them.
• Informal mentors - Identify people you can connect with, people who've been in the system, who can help you understand how you can get embedded in the system without losing your identity. (typically college alumni or an ex colleague, friend or an acquaintance)
• Expand your internal network as much as you can. You never know who can help you when. Be friendly, wish people good morning and generally look at things with an optimism.
• Be patient. Don't jump to conclusions. Don't judge too soon, give everything time.
• Don't wish to change the world in your first stint. Look at simple incremental changes which will help the org better existing processes rather than proposing big revamps.
• Figure out what you want to do the most, be true to yourself. Don't think any work assigned to you is small or insignificant
• Your Manager is your best friend. Make an effort to build a rapport. Share, voice, suggest, learn & initiate.
• Ignore the small talkers, gossip mongers, and the Cynics & the "NO" people (The one's who always think, act and behave in negation). Trust me every company is full of such cartoons. Avoid them, look at them and smile, they are your source of competitive advantage! :)

Most of all..... SMILE - It always works!

Bollywood for life...

There are things that affect us.. and then there are those that mould or change our lives forever. Bollywood for most of us has just been a source of entertainment, for some even obsession, however for me, it has often been a great source of learning.

There is a great body of recognised / unrecognised work which has gone into making the hindi film industry what it is today and I'm sure there are those who realise that there is a great deal of quality which has also churned out of this dream weaving factory.

Today, I list 5 bollywood tracks which have shaped my outlook towards life. These songs embody the ethos, the spirit of life for me. These are gems which act as a beacon when I'm lost or just plainly down and out. These songs surely entertained us in the context of the films they were a part of, but for me, they did just that little bit more... they taught me how to live my life....

1) Kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nisar - Anari
2) Ae zindagi gale laga le - Sadma
3) Aane wala pal - Golmaal (When I write Golmaal, I always mean the old Amol Palekar one!)
4) Zindagi ki yahi reet hai - Mr. India
5) Yeh safar... bahut hai kathin magar - 1942 A Love Story

Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai....

Friends are like umbrellas. They save us from being soaked when life pours itself upon us. Friends, some of whom we flaunt akin to expensive art collected over the years, valuable for our social status, but we don’t know a thing about them. Some others, we meet very rarely, almost as elusive as sunshine during rains. Lastly, there are those who stick by us like our shadows, making themselves visible when the sun burns overhead and happily fading away while we comfort ourselves in the shades of our happiness!

Friends are thus as dispensable as the breath we take; reminding us of their importance every living second of our lives, in their absence we’d truly be dead.

Capitalist & entrepreneurially fertile minds have increasingly found ways to monetize this emerging need for socialisation, affiliation and addiction to social belongingness. All of us need witnesses to our lives, nobody wants to die unnoticed. We all want to archive our lives, want to preserve it for posterity and subconsciously hope someone would find it interesting enough to revisit it while we are gone. All of us are born to tell stories, we are born to listen to them.

This has created an entire psychological ecosystem whereby we ‘share’, ‘connect’ and ‘express’ ourselves to everything and everyone around us. This craving of over 800 million people has found great manifestation through Facebook. A platform which helps us chronicle our thoughts, emotions and feelings all at the same time, while enabling us to get instant feedback on it from people who matter to us. This fills a deep psychological lacuna which has existed for centuries together – ‘Our need to express ourselves and to know how people react to our expressions.’

Facebook and its IPO will be as significant a breakthrough in the history of mankind if not more significant than us landing on the moon. Come to think of it, this is the first time the human feelings, emotions and thoughts are going to be valued. Facebook’s plan to raise $5 Billion through stock sale will dwarf the $1.7 Billion raised by Google Inc. in 2004 or the $1 Billion recently raised by the gaming firm Zynga.

This is not the only mind boggling number, a peek into the draft IPO filings reveal staggering valuations Facebook is asking for. Analysts suggest Facebook could be $75-100 Billion Company. That’s 100 times the company’s annual earnings and 27 times its revenue at the higher end of its valuation. Interestingly, it translates into $125 per user. That is what my life, emotions, thoughts and feelings are going to fetch Facebook as on date, just because I chose to share my life with the world through them.

While it may seem totally out of sync with the peer Google Inc’s current Price to Earning Ratio of 20, Google too entered the market with an IPO price that was 218 times its earnings and more importantly it lived upto the hype. We now await more miracles of this capitalist day and age which will monetize more of us in times to come and show us the true value of what we’ve always considered the intangibles.

Hope now you know why, “Har ek friend zaroori hota hai!”

Why do you write?

"The question we writers are asked most often, the favorite question, is: Why do you write? I write because I have an innate need to write. I write because I can’t do normal work as other people do. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can partake of real life o...nly by changing it. I write because I want others, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live, in Istanbul, in Turkey.

I write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all life’s beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but—as in a dream—can’t quite get to. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy."

 - Orhan Pamuk

This is why he is one of my all time favourite authors!

Milkshake - Street Poetry - Before Sunrise

One of my favourite poems - "Milkshake" from one of my all time favourite movies... Before Sunrise... It's about two souls who accidentally meet and enjoy the virtues of a journey rather than the destination! 

Oh! for this vagabondish disenchantment....



Daydream delusion

Limousine Eyelash

Oh, baby with your pretty face

Drop a tear in my wineglass

Look at those big eyes

See what you mean to me

Sweet cakes and milkshakes

I am a delusion angel

I am a fantasy parade

I want you to know what I think

Don’t want you to guess anymore

You have no idea where I came from

We have no idea where we’re going

Launched in life

Like branches in the river

Flowing downstream

Caught in the current

I’ll carry you. You’ll carry me

That’s how it could be

Don’t you know me?

Don’t you know me by now?

 

Power - My Take

Power is... when you get a call. You cut the call. Instead of you worrying about the consequences, the caller worries about them. This is called Power! 

Losing to win

This article, written by Raghu Krishnan appeared in Times of India on Jun 13, 2011

It has had a profound influence on me, hence I thought it deserves to be shared:

The 2011 French Open tennis championship will be remembered for the final between the then-five-time men's singles' title-holder Rafael Nadal and the winner of 16 Grand Slam tournaments, Roger Federer. It will be remembered for the 220-minute semifinal which Nadal in almost journalistic style previewed as "a match between the world's best tennis player (Novak Djokovic) and the greatest player in history (Federer)". However, the real champion of this year's French Open was neither Nadal, nor Federer, nor Djokovic, and not even the other semi-finalist Andy Murray, but the virtually unknown Michael Berrer.

It was while playing Berrer in the third round of the French Open that Murray twisted his ankle while rushing to return a drop shot. When the match resumed, Murray, with a heavily-strapped ankle, limped through to a three-set win by going for his shots so that he did not aggravate the injury by staying too long on the court. Until the injury, Berrer had been playing drop shots to exploit Murray's reluctance to leave the baseline. He stopped playing drop shots once the injured Murray returned to the court. Berrer later explained that he was reluctant to play drop shots against an injured opponent who could not move freely.

It is only over the last few seasons that the 30-year-old Berrer has graduated from the level of a journeyman, meaning someone not in the top 100 of the fiercely-contested ATP world men's singles rankings. After reaching the third round of the French Open, Berrer is ranked 79. That could have been much higher if he had defeated the injured Murray, ranked four. Weeks ago, Murray had tormented an injured Gilles Simon with drop shots and been booed off the court at Monte Carlo. Which could explain why the Guardian's tennis correspondent Kevin Mitchell described the 24-year-old Murray's French Open triumph as "a distinctly odd win over Berrer who took compassion for his fellow human beings to heights only Mother Teresa would understand."

Khwaishein... (A wish...)

यह सारी करामात कम्बक्थ ख्वाईशों की है...

जब भी मन बहला के उन्हें सुला देता हूँ....

यह कम्बक्थ दिल की पुकार से....

फिर जाग जाती है. 

कुछ लोग उन्हें सपनों का नाम देकर नकार देते है..

कुछ और हमें शेख चिल्ली पुकार लेते है... 

इनकी अटखेलियों का मिजाज़ खूब है... 

हाथ आते आते कमबख्त... फिर आगे भाग जातीं है... 

इनके जलवे देखें है कहियों ने...

इनका सजदा करते है सभी... 

कहतें है ताकत बहुत है इनमे... 

मौत के मूह से यह कभी... ज़िन्दगी के दो पल मांग लाती है..  

यह सारी करामात कम्बक्थ ख्वाईशों की है......

(Image Courtesy: Google Images)

Child from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory...

There's a child in each one of us. There are people and situations which often catalyze our interface with that child within us. Yesterday, my best friend Olivia took me to Crossword bookstore for therapy. She had carried with her the proof of her brother's employer's benevolence. 


Yes, his company had given him a Crossword Gift Voucher worth Rs. 2500 which the bike junkie had even more benevolently passed onto his little sister who since birth is an epitome of everything Mother Teresa ever stood for. Well, with so much good going around, someone had to agree to be the beneficiary, so I rose to the occasion!! ;-)


Here's what happened when I got a chance to feel like that child from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory! :D

What does it take to be happy?

This was a thought I’d been harboring for a while. A cheerful smile, a jog for a mile, a warm hug, a beer mug,  a cute pooch  who licks or random chick flicks, the variety  of things that make us happy have never ceased to amaze me. It shows how different we are from each other.

The pleasure of the small pleasures of life is in recognition of the fact that they are small yet pleasurable. So how do we know when we are happy? How do we know what exactly made us happy, when we are happy?

In my own assessment and my fetish for theorizing and creating frameworks, I’ve classified the sources of pleasures into the following broad categories:

·       Intellectual Pleasure – This kind of pleasure refers to the happiness one derives from getting intellectual value additions. It is either through assimilation of knowledge, insights or realisations which make one feel a sense of achievement or a mild enlightenment. It is the euphoria of fulfilled curiosity, of a question that gets answered. Thinking, reasoning, analysing and learning are the fundamental traits that separate us, the human creed from other creatures of nature. This is that fundamental pleasure which seeks to titillate the intellectual senses of a human being. It broadly refers to the topmost layer of Maslow’s hierarchy of perceived learning or Self Actualisation. That’s what scriptures have glorified as ‘Nirvana’ – The eternal state attained by the ‘learned’

·         Emotional Pleasure - This kind of pleasure usually refers to feeling of being wanted, loved. We feel emotional pleasure when our deeply entrenched needs of association and belongingness are fulfilled. Be a compliment from a loved one or just an “I Love You” does it for us. As per Maslow’s hierarchy, the pleasure one experiences upon fulfilment of the emotional safety, security and socialisation needs.

·         Physical Pleasure – The absolute crude bodily pleasure experienced by us would be categorized under Physical Pleasure. These pleasures predominantly deal with the happiness one experienced through any of the 5 sense of (Touch, Smell, Feel, Taste and Sight). It could be a pleasure of getting a spa massage or the taste of your favourite chocolate or the fragrance of your preferred perfume. These pleasures are highly dependent on choices or preferences of each unique individual and any generalisations would not be fair.

·         Materialistic Pleasure – The happiness derived out of material tangible possession is the source of this pleasure. This pleasure is highly relevant based on the financial power and desires of an individual. Materialistic pleasure can be derived from anything ranging from a lollipop to a private island. It is the joy derived from possession and ownership of material things. 

Amazing words from an amazing ad - AIRTEL - Express Yourself

Recently, I got a chance to work an Advertising project. This project gave me a chance to study the trends in Indian advertising, study some of the best ads and the thought process behind them. I personally found myself attracted to this particular campaign by Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile telecom operator in India. The campaign was very famous when it was launched and I particularly love the copywriting done... the words are just superb... they mean so much!!!

Nigaahen nigaahon se milakar toh dekho, naye logon se rishta banakar toh dekho. Khaamoshi se kab hoti hain khwaishein poori? Dil ki baat batakar toh dekho. Jo hai dil mein, usse kar do bayan. Khudko ek baar, jatakar toh dekho. Aasman simat jayega tumhare aagosh mein, chahat ki baahein failakar toh dekho. Nigaahen nigaahon se milakar toh dekho... Dil ki baat batakar toh dekho!!!