WhEn GoInG GeTs ToUgH, ToUgH GoEs FoR a CoFFee BrEaK.

How simple & uncomplicated sentence which says it all, Why to take things so seriously in life that by the time we make life uncomplicated we are serious(ly) ill or suffering or just fighting to stay fit. Now isn’t that a thing so boring to think?

Yeah, thought of why not write something easy & meaningful. I know one has got to struggle in life, to dream & then to live those dreams. Oh! you know while writing this what came to my mind just now, Saif Ali Khan from the movie HumTum, saying “Ye Zindagi bahut badi hai aur hamare paas time bahut kam”. Bingo! Incidentally, we all agree to this but we keep forgetting the first half and keep struggling on the later part. Don’t you think it’s been a while & you should have some fun may be a recreation trip, a get together, a novel, a trip with friends or may be something just like that!

The title of this article is been picked from the status message of a friend, guess he must have kept it on an obvious situation at work. But it clicks; I mean there is nothing wrong. Do we actually remember about the last time when we were just ourselves, out of the mad rush of money, status & making a place? I know it’s easier said then done but the point here is how many acknowledge this loss and at least make an attempt towards this. Very few and most of them understand, acknowledge & then get back to work.

Have been reading a lot lately and from no where this thing came to mind, that it’s important & good to realize that making it to it is not everything in life. Living up to it is life. We have been watching our previous generations, getting on the job, reaching a point, saving and settling their kids and then they feel they are done, when their body & stamina tells them its done too and let me bring this here – that their lifestyles were far better then ours so we are more prone to risks and need to be careful.

I don’t say one should stop dreaming. Only point I am trying to make here is realize the hardships to attain those dreams and let there be no cost attached. I remember reading somewhere, ‘Its better to live rich then to die rich’ and I solely agree to it, one must live rich in terms of money, health, attitude & values because that’s what makes a difference. Rich pockets are an important ingredient of a good life but they do not essentially assure a rich life.

Recently was watching one of the SRK’s interview, and when asked about his fitness, he snapped I have been thinking better- thinking positve. Even if one can’t think good things about a certain issue, one must not let the bad things too. Yet again an easy task to do! All one needs is to drain out the negative thoughts, the uneasiness of life goes away with that, try to feel healthy & make an attempt. Think you are happy & make an attempt. Have a routine, have priorities in life and ignore the unnecessary stress and above all keep smiling, yeah always!

Enjoy the Coffee!!

My Experience - Khublei Shillong

Cntd...Picture this...my previous post..

When we are excited, there is a danger that things might turn a little wrong. Exactly, the same way I began my journey. First we went to the bus stand and realized the bus I have got my tickets booked will go from another one, i.e. some 7 kms away. Bingo! We had to rush and we could make it on time. Then while on my way to Delhi, we got stuck into a huge traffic jam. Yeah we were at a standstill for 5 hours and I could hear my fellow passengers canceling their air tickets and some even smiling (though it was tough for them). Of course I was nervous, wondering what next? I called up Rohit to check, whether I too should cancel my tickets – Halo effect I believe! But then as always, he told me to keep some patience. I remember by then I had even asked my neighbor the procedure to cancel my tickets :-

Anyways, I reached the Delhi Bus Stand at around 8.45 am (btw my flight time was 11.20am) and I rushed to home, got ready and rushed again. Thanks to my friend who was there on time to accompany me till the airport and it was fine because I was busy talking then looking at my watch again & again. And believe me having breakfast in the auto is not that bad. Finally I was there at terminal 1 at 10.50am. Huh! I was actually going to Shillong :-). The flight was smooth and nice and we din’t faced much of air-traffic. I reached Guwahati in the afternoon and I was at Shillong at 6pm. It was a beautiful journey but by this time very-very tiring. It was a warm welcome and I was pleased to be there. I stayed in one of the guest faculty apartment. It was a nice and cozy apartment and I was really happy.

One of my students of CRM came around 8pm to take me to the IIM Shillong mess for dinner. We had some healthy discussions at the dinner table and I was escorted back to my apartment. Next morning, we had a quick meeting with Col. Biswas who had taken the initiative for SERM course from Assam Rifles. I thank him for he arranged a vehicle for sight scene in and around Shillong. Believe me, it’s a beautiful place. I am sure I know why was called ‘The Scotland of East’ few years back. One of the interesting things I learned about Shillong was about ‘quawaye’ – a Pan leaf with lime soda powder which we refer to as ‘chuna’ in common parlance, is one of the main serving with tea or a gesture of respect to your visitors. On enquiring I found that, at times when poverty ruled the households, the locals over there decided that a person, who is not economically sound to serve delicacies to the guests, can serve ‘quawaye’ with tea as a sign of respect and thankfulness. Interesting & nice concept it is, also a tradition of the common households of Shillong.

I also did some mystery shopping, as that was my plan for the session I had prepared. I had to give my audience some local & relevant examples. I knew those examples would even help them in doing right comparative study.

Now coming to the sessions, they were good and I am sure I could make them interesting as well as interactive. I can say so because my session got stretched from 2 to 3 hours and they were still ready to sit. I was overwhelmed and thankful to all of them. I hope to get even more such chances to help people understand things better.

Lastly, I learned a beautiful word – Khublei meaning, thank you. And with that I decide to wrap up this journey through the memory lane.

Khublei Shillong :-)

"Picture this: Jigyasa teaching Retail Marketing at IIM Shillong"

"Picture this: Jigyasa teaching Retail Marketing at IIM Shillong "
Difficult na ... i also thought so .. untill recently ...

People say that a keen interest and willingness to learn takes you to places. Plus, persistence and eagerness to learn is the key to keep us keep going. Also the past activities bring the effect to them in future – sooner or later.

Well, I guess God considered all the above aspects and when he decided the above mentioned role for me. Yes, I was there for taking two sessions as a part of the corporate lecture series of their Accelerated Learning Program. I was so glad and wanted to give my best shot. It took me few days to believe that I am finally going and have lots to do in terms of the requisites of a proper corporate lecture. Since, my motto was to design a very interesting & interactive session with lots of examples.

Opportunity & a U-turn

Life doesn’t offer a second chance to everyone. I hope you agree to this and eventually I too had the same thing in my mind while preparing through the opportunity after the tiring day at work. Plus, I got a sprain K , God keeps checking his children on their tolerance & persistence. I somehow managed and by the time I was done with 75%of the subject provided to me, it got a U-turn. Ah! They changed the topic!! Incidentally, it was Retail, the one I am always ready to talk & learn for. But it was no pancake; I needed a proper flow, implementation tools etc. I remember I was quite panicky but slowly I collected my positive attitude & energy to go ahead.

Preparation

This was not so tough but demanding in terms of timelines, may be too tough with office and it’s ever increasing issues. I started slow and was trying to excel. I started with a blueprint of the plan, then did some data collection and in 3 days I realized, there is no stop to reading good stuff, so one fine day I decided to stick with the data I had till that day, my job was to get that in good shape & size – to make it more interesting, to bank it with more, relevant examples. I must say, it was too much of reading & observations in detail. I was excited and had to put that excitement onto my slides & hand-outs. By this time I had decided that I will be covering the “Emerging Trends” in retail industry, largely the
Retail Formats,
Visual Strategy & POP – as the face of retail,
Private Labels &
Mall Management in detail.

Now once I was on the job, slowly my concern was the time period allotted per session; I wanted to discuss too many things. That shows – I was gaining confidence. Well, I thought so!

About the entire experience at IIM, you will have to come back and read my next post…..but before I sign off….let me thank my Prof. who chose me for the reason, my friend Hemant for some critical inputs & timely help and my better half Rohit for helping me in domestic chores and then with the preparation. These two people actually made the whole thing like a project work for me. Of course a critical one ;-)

There is more to life then increasing its speed.

This is just an e-mail I recieved but its surely worth a read. Despite some practical truths!!!

A tourist complimented the fisherman in Goa on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

'Not very long,' answered the fisherman.

'But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?' asked the tourist. The fisherman explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The tourist asked, 'But what do you do with the rest of your time?''I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play guitar, sing a few songs... I have a full life.'

The tourist interrupted, 'I have an MBA, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.'

'And after that?' asked the fisherman.

'With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mumbai. From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.'

'How long would that take?' asked the fisherman.

'Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,' replied the tourist. 'And after that?' 'Afterwards? Well my Friend, That's when it gets really interesting,' chuckled the tourist, 'When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!''

Millions? Really? And after that?' asked the fisherman.

'After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like with your buddies.'

'With all due respect sir, but that's exactly what I am doing now. So what's the point wasting 25 years?' asked the fisherman. Know where you're going in life. You may already be there. Life in the present world is indeed a rat race. Many do not know where they are going in life.

-- Words & Hearts should be handled with care. Because words when spoken and hearts when broken are the hardest to repair.

Mein Jigyasa...!!!!

Mein Jigyasa

Mein jigyasa
Sochu apni paribhasha
Kuch sehmi, kabhie nidarr
Kabhi nathkhat, kabhie niraash
Pairon mein zanzeerien par sapna mera chand ke paar,

Aaj khush hun….to jee jaungi..
Kal dukhi to….toot jaungi..
Chahun na koi sahara…samjhu khud ko besahara
Koi shaq nahi khud par…Shaq karti hun mein kismat par…
Udne ko parr failayun….aur hawa ke rukh ko badla paun…
Aasan manzil ho jati hai mushkil….
Jaane jeekar kya ho haasil..
Khushi se jeene ki har koshish…
Upri haansi aur andar kashish…

Chahun sabko hasta paun….
Kayi baar chahe apni khushi gawaun….
Rakhna sabko khush na paun….
Is dukh se phir bikhar mein jaun…
Kuch na kehkar mein gussa dikhaun….
Gar keh bhi du to khud ko akela mein paun..
Seham kar zindagi se; chup ho jaun…
Aur phir jeene ki alakh jagaun…

Mein jigyasa
Sochu apni paribhasha…
Khud mein khud ko dhoondti hun…
Mein murjhayein phoolon ko bhi umeed se soongti hun..
Hansti hun choti si baat par…
Kisi aur ka dukh dekhkar ro deti hun…
Kehti phirun mein sabse….khud jee sakti hun
Sab hote hai sang mere….
Lekin, akele mein khud ko mein tanha paun
Aur is tanhayi ke liye kuch kar na paun..
Thak kar apni in baton se….
Mein phir se khud ko samjhaun…
Khush rehne ki alakh jagaun
Aaankhein moond apni khushiyon ki
Muskaan liye sapno ki duniya mein kho jaun


Mein Jigyasa
Sochu apni paribhasha.......:-)

The Culture, Contempt & Helplessness

Yesterday a quick interaction with a friend made me think hard on our discussion. I was at work, I met the deadlines and finished my days work but at the back of my mind these thoughts were on like the background music score. I had decided that I am going to blog it, once I reach home. And then from last 2-3 hours, I was thinking for the apt title, it has got to convey the message or at least trigger the visitor to read and react to it. Because its everywhere, we have all faced it but just ignored it, may be!

We were just talking about a usual boss-colleague interaction and suddenly my friend

R said: “He was flirting, girl”

Response: Let him flirt then, how it affects me

R: But tell me, does it happens with all girls out there?

Response: Depends if the boss is like that, you get to realize that he/she is flirting

R: But I sometimes wonder, in sometime even I will marry a girl who will be a working professional by all ways, will she be facing the similar things? I wonder….huh

Response: Well might be, but that’s completely fine till the girl can handle such things, stays dignified and confident. I think nothing can go wrong that ways. And in extreme cases, one always chooses to quit.

R: But you know, we men especially Indians, know about the world out there, and feel helpless at times. Basically we want to protect our partner from all such things but then why to take the liberty to work from someone who is not at all wrong.

Response: Till the time one is confident about his/her partner, I don’t see a reason to feel contempt about this, because else one will have to change the world which is not as easy as said.

Well, on this note…….we could reach on a conclusion that what we are discussing exists, needs to be corrected or not – I am not so sure about that, but there is absolutely no need to feel helpless about it. I realized that it’s our culture and the values, we have grown up with, the contempt because we would love to be righteous which we know is practically not feasible and helplessness, because we let our self feel helpless for the entire thing, despite knowing the fact that we shall not let this affect us.

I don’t know if I have conveyed the concern rightly but it kept on hovering over my head, that if it is actually a feeling that raise contempt in the minds of Indian men. I don’t see any such thing, because its everywhere. And I believe a girl who takes a stand to move out in that world is well aware, careful and all set.

As for those who feel contempt and helpless, I have a saying I took from R only,

“We cannot direct the wind... but we can adjust the sails.” And I am wondering, we can try to fight them at least!!!

TAGGED OnCe AgAiN :-|

TAGGED - By VS again!!!
This is the Immediate Response to the Tag VS, I hope no complaints now!!

The extra mug of beer....
Na na na na re re.......

The weather here:
Dekho zara dekho boondon ki ladi.....

Waiting for someone:
Nahi saamne ye alag baat hai...
Mere paas hai tu....mere paas hai...
Mere saath hai!!

Life:
Jaane kya dhoondta hai ye mera dil.......tujhko kya chahiye zindagi!!

Just for you:
Koi kahe kehta rahe...kitna bhi humko deewana

Love of my life:
Kabhi neem- neem, kabhi shahad shahad......

Me and O3:
Hans ke tu dekh to ek baar....khud hi aa jayegi bahar!!

Main aur meri tanhayii:
Tanha dil...tanha safar, dhoonde tujhe phir kyun nazar

Some Plans:
Chand taare tod lauun......

My Scooty:(Gaddi)
I walk a lonely road..thats the only main I walk alone!!

This second mug of beer :
No ways!!!

Right now:
So ja....so ja chandni, chand sitare so gaye!!!
Arey bhai........kal office jana hai!!!