service and smile

I like, no no lets rephrase that, I love… that’s better… I love low points in life. That is what defines my high points. Whenever I have felt low is when I fight back to get my high. Till about a minute back I was low. Shit in office, shit everywhere. That has helped me define my high. I am suddenly on an adrenaline rush. I am giving shit back. And how! I could not have felt better. In the words of the Mask – Somebody….stop me.

I am just back from a trip to Geneva, Brussels, Antwerp and London. All official. Yaya… I am the lucky guy. One thing I figures. British Airways (BA) is a piece of shit. The brits have not learnt anything about service. They cant service to save their asses. I have always believed that good advertising will come to naught if you don’t follow through on the service. This is a classic case study. BA will have all the classic ads that have service written all over it. They believe in service they say. They will have a chick air hostess in a namaste. The stupid agency wont even get the bow right. The namaste in India is not like a western ‘hi, how are you doing?’ it’s a more submissive gesture (full of reverence) for Indian. Complete dickhead of a job and some amazing dickhead of follow through. For breakfast as we were reaching London, they served us milk and muesli. And I liked it and dared to ask for more. MORE?? Now I know what Oliver Twist felt like. They said they don’t have more. What the hell? They don’t have more food for someone traveling in Business Class. God knows what happens in Economy. Do they just stand up and start laughing. “hey somebody look at this guy. He wants MORE. Hahahahah.” On the way back I wanted to go to the pee pee. The seat belt sign just came on as I stood up. The steward told me to get back to my seat. Not do politely of course, but hell he is a BA staff. He is obviously near God. Then in about 10 seconds he tells me that if I want to go to the bath room I got one minute. That’s about the time he is going to take. So I better hurry up and get it done with. OK sir! Thanks a lot. Wow….that sure saved from pissing in their Business class water bottle. What a bloody piss off. I am not traveling BA again ever. I would not advise anyone either. The option – the best service I have seen is Jet Airways. Good old humble service Jet. They are way above every one. Not that BA is too difficult to top. I have asked for more in domestic flights in economy and have always got more in return. Ask for one small after mint and you always get two. Aks for a bottle of water, you will get two. That’s the way dude. Service is king! Someday the rest of us mortals will get it as well. I also have been in many hotels, no one even comes close to the Taj hotels. We do a lot of stay and banqueting. The Taj is head over heels compared to anyone else. Well its interesting that home grown Indian brands will teach eth world what service is like. Mr. Goyal, I don’t care what anyone says. I believe in you.

Coming to something else. People in office around the world are generally short on humor. I put an out of office mail that I thought was very average and not really funny. But I got a lot of kudos for it. I got people forwarding the out of office mail to others, I got people just mailing to check the response, and of course a few conversations begin with the topic. Here it is. You judge you decide. But one thing it has given me for sure, and that’s some more confidence to get whackier! Somebody Stop me.

(I have masked the phone numbers. This is the internet after all)

Hi,

Since you have got an out of office reply – well, I AM actually out of office. Cool nah?
I will be back on the 27th of September 07.

Since this is a tour on official duty you may contact me on my official cell. But before you do so, kindly keep in mind the following pointers:-

Think of the obscene roaming rates before you try my cell.
If you still want try and contact me please buy some telecommunication stocks before you call. Somebody must benefit in the bargain I guess.
Before calling minus four to five hours from Indian time and think a bit if you really want to wake me up for I can return the favor five hours past your bed time.
Try calling Ritu (XXXXXXXXX) for international work, Venkat (981XXXXXXX) for Wealth Management work and Manish (981XXXXXXX) for all the other group work.
And if everything else fails, have faith… for this too shall pass.

Have fun while I am hard at work

Jaimit

thats a fast one

We are jains but I am a little bit of a radical. Yah sure I believ in god and some super human power but going to temples for prayer is not my scene. The mega jain festival – paryushan is on. The seven days of fasting and I assume austerity is on. But there is nothing austere about it. It’s as in your face richness and silkiness (paradoxically for Jainism) as any other hindu festival. The temple is decorated with lights and pandals. Women and men roam around in their finest marriage finery with goady jewelry. People moving form one temple to another, form one golden idol to another. The orgy of flowers decorating is so sickening. The power of context is at its bets here. I would loved ot see flower décor but to see it in all splendor at a Jain temple is somewhat a bad idea. We gloss over the very principles we are celebrating. I even remember having a fight with my mom for letting me and Jasmine watch a movie during this stupid carnage festival. She said that its not right and you must not go, and for the hell of me I could not figure out why? I love Jainism but I hate the Jains!

I normally won’t even know when the festival is approaching. Tomorrow is the last day and if somebody would have told me that I would be fasting, I would laughed my head off. But wonders never cease. I for some whacked off reason have decided to fast today. I don’t know why the thought popped into my head but no food today only water. There is definitely no religious belief – DEFINITELY NOT, but I wanted to know what it is to fast for a day. How does the body react, how does one feel, what is the meaning of craving. One can read tomes on hunger but one has to feel it to understand it. I remember I used to try and do some fasting as a kid. I remember giving it up at night and having food. How would I feel today? It’s a normal day as ever. I accidentally popped a small ginger chip in today, so I have definitely missed the religious angle. I have always believed on learning something new regularly, doing something new, something else. This defines us and shapes us as we go along. One more learning, one more step. Right now it’s fun to feel the stomach grumbling, making weird noises, asking for food. Good cleansing for the system. A bit of detoxification never hurt too many.

hush my boy, the puppies are shrinking

Does your foot actually shrink after a certain age... after lets say 32 years! Well that’s what happened to me, if hush puppies are to be believed. I have been wearing large sizes. Sport shoes typically are at ten and half, even 11. Most formal shoes are at 10. My last hush puppies were 10. So this time I walk into the store and ask for 10 in a particular type. I want the simplest one with no extravagant designs. He gives me a size 10. hmmm feels very roomy. My toe ends way before the shoe ends. Haan sir, is mein ek size chota hi chalta hai. Ok. Give me a size 9. whoops.. a little roomy again. Errrr… size 8, I ask sheepishly, a little hesitant. He checks for my foot size on his measuring scale – it shows a ten. He gets a size eight nevertheless. Size eight I keep thinking. The last time I wore 8 was probably when I was 13 – 14 years old. Size eight is just a little narrow, but marginally so. Funny. This is ridiculous. I wear 10 in hush puppies! I can’t believe it. I try all the other types, I ask for all the different sizes in the others. I cant just wear these new Italian styled narrow pointed ones. My feet are way too broad for that. I probably need to wear size 15 in those and end up looking like Ian Thorpe (the Australian swimmer, duh). While I am trying out all the others, I look at the poor size 8 hush puppies and decide to try them again. My wife is not a bit fazed. She had budgeted a good one hour as she knew I have to buy shoes. She has been through many of my show buying sojourns. I could buy a shirt and a tie and a suit fast but shoes take forever. Sport shoes, formal shoes, simple sandals, they all take a looong time to buy. I guess it’s my foot contours that make the entire thing difficult. They are definitely not the average Joe ratios for sure. So I pick up the size 8 and they seem definitely more comfortable than the others. Oh what the hell, let buy them. I have been wearing them now for three days. They sure fit well. So much for standard sizes!

morning musings

There are many benefits of coming in early to office, but there is one clear big one. NO SWEAT. Yes, no grimy dirty stinky sweaty people. It’s nice and cooler in the mornings so the people are also cleaner, still fresh from their daily lirils and pantene’s. The women with their hair freshly washed and brushed still smelling of fragrant shampoo. They keep the hair open probably because its cooler (heat means tied hair) and they need to dry out form the washing. Its so much a better smell than the silly pungent perfume that use after they reach office. Ya. I could stare at a women’s freshly washed, dry and clean hair for the entire bus journey. Well it does not last more than 7 minutes in the morning though. It’s nice to see the various cuts and styles. Men hairstyles by that yardstick are extremely boring and ugly. I always wanted to learn to cut style hair. It’s so much fun. There is always a style that changes the way people look and feel about themselves. But surprisingly I am quite irritated with my own hair. If I have to comb it too much I just go and cut it. Short – really short! What good for the goose is not for the gander.

Jo bhi hai… on another note I sometimes wonder on the pressure that I am putting on myself. It surprises me how my life has changed, my thinking has changed over the last ten odd years that I have been working. I still get worked about important presentations. I still don’t sleep well before them. Not that I get nervous. I don’t think that’s the issue, I am pretty secure, but the fact that my brain refuses to let it die out. It keeps that top in the mind, constantly thinking, constantly ticking, pushing the bar, improving…. Constantly. Move, shove, push, move, forward… every time. Constantly… PUSH…one day I will tire and rest. I hope I rest content. I cannot imagine resting but someday I hope to. There is also another side that says that I will push on and never rest. I hope never to rest to constantly push, push harder and harder. I like that T shirt sign with Gandhi on the design – ‘my life is my message’. Bang on! Like something profound that I learnt in Jainism (a nice book – a journey through Jainism). In Jainism we go to the temples not to pray and ask but to see the idols of great souls who have given it all up and get inspired by them. By their actions they teach. They do not preach they only do – it is up to us to follow. What a lovely thought. Tough on the others but brilliant. I have always learnt by watching and not by following what people teach. Watching and imbibing is the bets way. Many times, in cricket, in life, at work, i could visualize what the bets in that field would do and try to emulate. It’s like the story of eklavy and dronacharya. By having a statue of the guru is enough to learn. Its not important for any of my guru’s to be physically in front of me. Their images in my mind is more than enough. After all what’s the bloody brain for?

Yesterday was a high point for me in my life at this company. The company did something I cannot disclose but proved to me that I was valuable to them. In fact amongst the top guys in my division (strength 250 heads). That felt good. Emotional. That’s the bond which I have with my organization. That’s what makes us tick. Strong emotional connect? I dunno. Will tell you and let you know when I find out. I think it will be years before I understand, and I would have lost the question as well. So if you are reading this 20 years on and want to know the answer, let me know! I will tell you what I know at that point of time. The fun thing with perspective is that it keeps on changing. Just keeps on changing. PUSH PUSH PUSH…..

lots to talk about

Wowie.. Finally some time to write something here. Been some time now. Work pressure starts from the moment I step in. lots of things happened from the last time I wrote in the blog.

I had been to Turkey for an offsite.i hardly took any snaps of the place. I find it quite boring to do so. I prefer clicking peole I know. So that’s what I did. In the process I clicked some nice snaps of people inoffice. Ofocurse th women make prettier subjects than men but, hell I am gender neutral. I prefer anyone who is expressive. In lesser light conditiond I prefer the women as they are ones who are quite ready to pose. Some reason is vanity and some reason is charm. But who’s complaining. I am clicking and loving it. The best thing about clicking is to click and then pass on the snaps to the relevant guys and if they love themselves then that’s more than enough. Most people are so critical of themselves when they see their photos. Give yourselves a break guys! We love you when you are expressing something, that’s all. You are pretty the camera is just capturing it. I got the idea for my desk board. I am going to only put up photos of people that I click. I would like to call it the wall of vanity. We might have more women than men there but, who cares. I have clicked an large number of nice photos of guys. Sab daalte hain.

The photos I really hate to click are the silly ass photos of people outside monuments. I have been there type of photos. If you see orkut profiles of people that the first thing that you see in Indian profiles. Pictures of people next to monuments / sights etc in phoren land. I guess it’s a huge mindset issue. Phoren travel is still aspirational and the fact that you have traveled might be a point of pride and differentiation. You are not going to see pictures of me in front of monuments for sure, atleast not in orkut profiles. Pagal gaya hai kya? I rather have pictures of the monuments in interesting angles. That’s my type.

Taxi’s seem to be an issue when I leave early to drop Jispa to the bus stop. So jasmine’s been ferrying us. I ask jasmine to drop us before so that Jispa and me cross the road and have fun walking and spending some quality time. Today I taught her to jump from a height that she was not used to. Street jumping. Good. She was walking up the steps on her own. They were a little high and she wante dot do it without my support and without touching anything with her hands. Slowly she managed. Then we learnt jumping by slowly giving less and less support till she jumped on her own. Time will come for her to jump on her own, to fall down, cry a bit, wipe her own tear and dust herself off. And I will have to let go. Another step in growing up. Different times of our lives as parents we will let go of different things. This is one small step. One small step.

Check the pics. The first one she is climbing, the second one she is about to jump. Its no small step. In five minutes she went from being terrified to bold jumping. I could actually see her conquering her fear. Go Jispa GO.