In life, we all have an unspeakable secret, an irreversible regret, an unkept promise, an unheard request, an irreplaceable loss, an unreachable dream and an unforgettable 1st love.. still, life is about being happy anyhow.. because everything in life can be summed up in just three words - “IT GOES ON”

In the past year or more, I have received more then 100+ mails/requests from different sources (excluding of course the Linkedin ones) asking for assistance to either find a job, provide an introduction to get a job. Except some freshers, most of them were from people who were looking for a job in desperation or had been laid off.

Whilst I tried my best, not being in the placement/executive search was not able to do justice to all of them. Observing some of them directly, through friends, on social network, made me realize that it is an social embarrassment in India (though that seems to be changing) which in turn leads to fair amount of negativity and even depression.

I do not profess to be a doctor or adviser, however thanks to experience over the years one can think of the following:

Don’t take a trip into self pity One of the easiest thing to do and which people hate to listen to, leading to your being avoided.

Don’t take things out on your family or kids A fall out from the first point, at times due to expectations from the family, but it is important that you remain calm, seeking their support rather than taking it out on them.

Put things in perspective Take time to introspect, you cannot be right always, see where you were wrong, how that affected your career & carry those learnings forward. Also evaluate if there is an entrepreneur lurking inside you?

Read/Renew Hobbies/check out with NGO’s Join a library, borrow books read; check your hobbies, something that you have forgotten or left aside in your rat race. See if you can contribute positively in an NGO’s - this would keep you grounded when you see people less fortunate than you.

Look after your health This is of paramount importance and should not be compromised at any point of time.

Lastly, Network with friends, acquaintances, your extended family. This ideally should be an ongoing exercise, however in the rat race and whilst in a ‘position’ we normally tend to forget. Keep your ego aside, listen to some advice and move forward.

Do you have points to add, do let me know & would like to add them.

Oh! Don’t forget to keep networked.

It is surprising that in an industry that relies on human contact & touch point, most of my colleagues rely 90% on email and get really upset when I refer it to playing billiards. Email is the safest way of pushing things off your plate, not taking responsibility, accountability, because the moment you click ‘Send’ your job is over.

Of course there is always the Tech team, India’s connectivity problems etc that can be blamed for non receipt of information, further compounded by GPRS, EDGE, dropping signals etc.

But once out of office, on weekends, chatting with friends and all connectivity works perfectly.

Pani Puri Act-1984

One free puri to be served minimum against every six puries, puri may be dry with boiled potato/ ragda and salt on top.

Misal Act -1966

Misal always to be served in a small plate kept on a larger plate.

Limbu Sarbat Act-1955

Empty glass be placed on glass containing limbu sarbat and both be shaken vigorously, at least 10 times up and down.

Rava Dosa Act 1988

A small portion of the dosa may always remain stuck to the plate.

Thali Act -Udipi restaurants of Mumbai-1989

A minimum of 6 vaatis(cups) always be on the plate, at least 4 dishes be recognizable, additional miniscule vaati for Shrikhand.

A couple of days ago, some men took away covers from the drainage in our society. Whilst the watchmen chased them, they ran away & nothing much could be done, since it was 3.30 am

The very next day one of them returned to do some more damage & was caught by the watchmen on duty. Being the chairperson of the society was called down to decide what could be done with the person who was caught….since he claimed to be a “Khabri” (informer) of the Oshiwara police station.

Salim - the so called Khabri of Police

So I called 100 from my cell phone - took 3 tries but managed to get through. Impressed with the efficiency of the constable who took down the details & said somebody would be there within 10 minutes.

Whilst, the druggie kept shouting, I decided to call the local police station - Oshiwara - in this case, just to be on the safe side, After 15 rings some constable picked up the phone. Upon explaining, he asked for the address & then began my problem - we supposedly fell into Amboli Police Station - No amount of arguing, cajoling, GPS, Google convinced him that it was not the case.

So finally took the number from him & called Amboli Police Station, which gave the same run around, with finally telling me that both the police stations are next door to each other in the same compound!

Back, to Oshiwara & managed to convince them to send someone.

20 minutes later finally a cop walked in & started firing questions to everyone generally:

• Who is this?
• Who called?
• Why did you waste time unnecessarily
• These druggies are useless

When I spoke tough with him, saying that the said druggie also claimed to be a murderer & asked for his ID, he said Ok Ok, I’ll take him, but send the watchmen to write a complaint.

Just as they were going out, a police vehicle came up, sent by 100 control inquiring about the incident, upon which our man tried to impress that he had everything under control.

The entire episode took an hour & half, but I was most impressed by the control 100…..with just a bit of more manpower & automation, they can do wonders.

Keep it going Mumbai Police

I have been a advocate of being critical of the variety of Day’s launched, copied, created by Marketeers (moi included).

Some questions that occur:

Does this day mean that the other 364 days you are not a friend? And of course the Archies, Telecom companies coffers are filled up thanks to all of this.

However, playing the devil’s advocate another thought occurs to one & that is - A lot of us are not emotional, lack the necessary courage to communicate face to face etc. this in whatever form is the right opportunity - 25 years ago - there were friendship bands, followed by cards, then email forwards, text, facebook, twitter et all now are the medium to announce.

YES, a lot of people have cribbed about waste of time, money & why should I respond - It is indeed a personal choice & I do not respond to those idiotic forwards complete with the spelling mistakes….But once in a way some original stuff makes its way, that I like & definitely want to share. Some gems that I received today from people who have not communicated for quite some time or have lost touch…

The first today at 8am

A friend in any language means Trust forever -

Afrikaans - vriend

Albanian - mik

Chinese - pengyou

Danish - ven

Dutch - vriend, vriendje

Estonian - sober

French - ami

Georgian - megobari

German - freund

Hungarian - barat

Indian - dost

Irish - cara

Italian - amico

Japanese - tomodachi

Korean - jingu

Latin - amicus

Manx - carrey

Old English - freond, wine

Persian - dust

Russian - prijatel

Sanskrit - mitra

Spanish - amigo

Swahili - rafiki

Turkish - dost, arkadas

Cheers on Friendship day !!!

BP

This was then followed by

Things may change From Classroom to Office, Books to Files, Jeans to Formals, Pocket money to Salary, commission to profit sharing. CEO to partnership.

What will not change is “YAARAN DI YAARI OYE” happy Friendship day Samit.

Yaad nahi karoge toh karwayenge;

Roothe honge to manayenge;

Udaas honge to hasayenge;

Mano na mano hum dost hai apke,

Yaad karne ka haq nahi gavayenge, HAPPY FRIENDSHIP DAY - GOD BLESS Madhurie

So, hate or love these days, they are here to stay….so Accept them!

Yesterday morning a friend from the Press, made my day by sending this lovely photograph early in the morning.

Opening Ceremony BWSL Mumbai Ishtyle

This has been tweeted, long hard & fast….renamed PeeLink etc.

I had been meaning to write this post a while back, but got sidetracked with my daughter’s results, experiment with Twitter so got delayed a bit.

A lot has already been written about how much money all the Franchise, BCCI et all have made; but the common refrain being India did not benefit much. Read the rest of this entry »

An article written by Namita Bhandare forwarded by Kapil Joshi set me thinking.

• Even today more than 85% households in India still believe that a male child is preferable.
• So called Reservation in education takes care of everything including girls, but where is there a followup.
• Politicians appointed as HRD ministers have no clue about what to do? Yes, talk about IIM/IIT & remain in the news is right there on their agenda.
• Yup Girls schools, colleges, are great photo op, after which we meet next year.
• Earnings, Savings are decided by the father & later husband even though they may have no clue of finances.
• They need to constantly thank their father, brother, husband…..is this a trade off to allow them to study? work? In which case why not their mothers, sisters, daughters??
• Can we not portray girl with her mother in advertisements that are relevant & not cosmetic.
• And to top it all, the regressive serials that enjoy high TRP

Expecting Manmohan Singh to do something about it is pathetic. It has to be initiated from every home, every individual for it to gather momentum.

Having worked 80% of my life with lady bosses and enjoyed working with them; superbly supportive wife & daughter (who always join forces to keep me in control) I can say that the first couple of times it is difficult, then it becomes a way of life.

To begin with try supporting www.goonj.info

I am sure, Gandhiji must be smiling his gentle smile up in the heavens.

Just imagine the kind of difference he made for Capitalists during Recession.

Orkut, Chirkut, Facebook, all the social media gurus, bloggers (including yours truly) climbed on the band wagon to write about him - thereby leading to free content, advertisements, subscriptions & what have you.

Debates, calls made money for the phone companies.

Media had a field day for a while when there were no news around….so some jobs were saved for a couple of months.

Principles, Values were/are being heavily debated, so probably some more jobs would be saved since some employers would want to be considered gandhian.

AND just like the reality shows…..post acquisition of the items by Mr. Mallaya….who did not/does not claim to be gandhian follower, so on & forth (enough has been written about him already) there are a lot of text messages floating around….

Sushmay, Dilip, Ashwin, Suresh, Ian, Manny, Vijay, Deepak, Anil, Mohan & many others have been contributing to the coffers of Airtel, Vodafone, BPL, etc.

Gandhi hated liquor his whole life, but liquor king brought his memories back to India. What a contribution from people who drink alcohol. Three cheers

Gandhiji advocated Prohibition, But we needed a liquor baron to bring back his things to India! JAI HO for the craziest place on earth!! 02 Oct NOW KINGFISHER DAY

Dr. Vijay Mallya should now lead a “Malt March to Sabarmati Ashram to lift prohibition in Gujarat. JAI HO!

Gandhiji hated liquor for whole life. But liquor king brought gandhi memories back to India. What a contribution of our people who drink. Thanks for drinking…..Sar uthake peeo.

After Mallaya’s heroic rescue of India’s honor, 2nd October will no longer be a dry day…..:)

Besides the coffers filling in, it was interesting to see the creativity, communication skills employed & at least this year he shall be remembered for more days!!!

Also how does it matter what business Mr. Mallaya is???? Personally I did not hear/see any of the so call principled, gandhian hypocrites trying anything remotely…..maybe I am not privy to such things; maybe they sponsored Mallaya….one does not know.

But this one conveys my thoughts clearly

Indians want Gandhiji’s valuables, But not his VALUES

And Bapu has the last laugh:) after all NALAYAK BETA HI KAAM AATA HAI..!