Litter, litter everywhere!

For some time now, I have been thinking of writing something serious and society-conscious. There are ever so many things that hurt me/my fellow citizens. So, was pondering which would be the most apt subject. I am no eco-savvy buff, here. But yes, I am a responsible citizen to say the least. Not just because I pay my taxes regularly but because I have a huge longing for a clean, hygienic and litter-free world! Of course, I do my bit but just that it is not sufficient.

About 2 decades back, when I stepped out of India first, it was to Singapore. This in size and population is just around the same as our own Chennai. What awed me when I stepped out of the plane onto the airport Changi, was just not the grandeur but also the way it was maintained – spic & span! In fact my awe started there and continued until I left after a 4 months stay there! From the moment I stepped on the land of S’pore, I cringed within myself thinking of My India. We were so bad, even then,  in every aspect of cleanliness and maintenance from the word go! My longing to see a cleaner and greener India has not subsided since then a wee-bit but only has been increasing by the year!

Reckless citizens, who care not even to keep their own homes clean, will never even think of maintaining our motherland. It is not just the education, I think, though that is an important factor. It is the willingness to keep our city/country clean. We can notice even stinking rich people, bring down the glasses of their multi-lakh worth car, drop shreds of papers/cans/bottles as they whiz past the city roads. Joggers/walkers, one can observe, spitting and littering the pathways. I am assuming these are “responsible” and possibly “educated” citizens. What can we say of the lesser mortals who know nothing of self-hygiene in the first place, leave alone environment cleanliness?

And one thing that irks me is the usage of plastics. When a small place like Ooty can say “No” to plastics, why can we not bring that as a rule across the state/country? In retail shops, they charge extra for plastic covers. Instead, let them supply jute bags and charge extra for the same. It will make both business sense and eco sense.

There are ever so many organizations/NGOs which strive hard for keeping city clean. But until we “educate” people on the harmful effects of lack of hygiene and littering around, how will there be any change in our city/country?

How do we effectively promote this? Does anyone have an idea? I am all game to help/support the cause. But how???

Acha - My tribute to you!

Either we talk of the world famous M-I-L, D-I-L squabbles and quarrels, or we wonder how this duo make life heaven for the sandwiched man. Rarely in a marriage there is any mention of the person called the “father-in-law”. If at all, it is very limited. Or there is quite a bit of character assassination that this particular role goes through. So, when I got married, I too had very less expectations from my own father-in-law.

My hubby and sisters called him “Achan”. And, I followed suit. He was a man of few words. I had attributed this to the facts that we did not know each other’s languages and he must be a closed person. And hence, I don’t think I made any attempt to strike a conversation with him in the initial stages. As I write this post, my eyes are getting moist. If God took away my father at a very early age from me, I did not realize, He had given me this F-I-L who was multiple times what my own father would have been!

In the first 2 years of my married life, his role was very limited. He was staying in his hometown. So, we used to meet only once in 3 months. He would ask cursory questions and we would get on with our chores. Very gradually, I started building my rapport with him. I saw him cleaning the toilet one day and was quite surprised. He had come to visit us for a week then. As soon as he came home, he looked around and started the cleaning process. I did not expect him to clean our toilets as well!

Just while I tried to put this across to him struggling to explain this in his language, he kind of gave an understanding smile and said “You both are working. It is our house. We should not see dignity of labor. It is ok. I must be of some use, after all!” All this my hubby translated later on. I was moved. I started seeing the principles behind this man!

My first son was born and I needed support in raising him. So, my in-laws migrated to “our” house. We, in this generation, the supposedly highly-educated, computer savvy, IT folks do not see most things at face value. Our analysis-paralysis gets applied at the home front too. We are actually meek-minded and we think there are calculations behind every step that people take. We don’t spare our own parents and in-laws also from this suspicion. We cannot think straight. We are used to reading between lines. Simply put, we are not simple…but a bunch of simpletons! What else do you call people who keep sensing hidden agenda behind every move?

I was one! But time taught me (though early on) how sacrificing and selfless my in-laws were. The kinds of sacrifices that they made just to ensure I continued with my career are truly immeasurable. All my guesses about them were absolutely wrong. I was put to shame by their generosity and large-heartedness. Now, I am not sure if I would be saying “they” had it not been for a person like my F-I-L.

Every time there was a tiff in the house, every time my M-I-L and I fought, argued, cried, ranted, my F-I-L was the referee. He would be so just. He would command my M-I-L to shut up. That gave me great pleasure. He would advice me in a very kind tone. He would take me aside and tell me, “You are highly educated (!). You are seeing so much in the world. Your M-I-L is totally ignorant. She knows nothing but the four walls of her house, her only son (my hubby), her two daughters, her husband (in that order). And hence there is no point in making her see reason or rhyme in any kind of a dealing. So, it is better that we decide whatever is good for the family. There are families where the M-I-L & D-I-L cannot even see eye to eye. Fortunately, you both bond very well otherwise. These are trivial things. Can you not just ignore and get on with life?” Now, how would one react to this kind advice? He has never raised his voice even once. But he has always made me see what is right and wrong in a very logical way. He has been extremely patient in handling 2 strong women, both of different ages and groups, very successfully. The family engine was well-oiled by this NLC foreman, who was not a great academician but a sound rationalist and abundantly well-read person.

Not only between his wife and me, he settled scores between my hubby and me, he ensured both his daughters lived a normal life with their husbands. He used to take the right examples and explain any tough concept to one and all at home. Such was his wisdom!

When we try to contact an electrician to fix a fan, he would resist. He will sweat it out and fix it himself. If it was a plumbing problem, he will ensure he sets it right. Some carpentry to be done? He would be right there with his tool-kit. Garden is shabby? Don’t know where to put what in the garden? He was the go-to person. Child not behaving properly? Ask Achan. He will know how to handle. Problems at work? Check with him. He will know what kind of action can help. He was truly a “one-stop-shop” solution for all issues at home.

No one would believe that he had 3 huge ailments – BP, Diabetes and Asthma. He was so active till his last day. Yes. For a man who had been suffering health problems for more than 40 years, the single biggest medication was practicing Yoga and Meditation. Every morning he would perform this yoga/meditation for an hour. And then only have his morning tea. Such discipline is rare to find! Whenever his health goes down, we would recommend we see a doctor. He would decline. He would say, “For such small disturbances if we end up seeing doctors, there is no point at all! Let me treat myself with home remedies.” He himself would tell us when it is time to get to the doctor. And that will be when he cannot take it any further. He did not want us to spend our time, energy and most importantly money on him. There are times when we have feared the worst. But he would pull out all his IV fluids on day 3 and tell us, “Let us not help the hospitals become richer. Discharge me right away.” The next day morning you can find him doing his yoga-as-usual!!!

May be this confidence and conviction that he had about his own health is what made us laid back?! He was active till his last breath. Last week, as ill-luck may have it, while he was all alone in Kerala, he had breathing difficulties and an elevated temperature. He visited the doctor as an outpatient. He called us on a Sunday and said he is getting worse. We could only tell him that he had to get admitted. He did after much pleading and persuasion. He suffered for 2 nights and 2 days in the hospital. The 3rd night in the hospital he passed away peacefully! While we were still traveling to get to his place and be with him as moral support, he did just what he believed in. He did not make us run around. He did not allow us to spend on his medication. He did not stay bed-ridden for even a day. He was moving about till the last day. As we were told by our relatives who were attending on him, “Even when we got him to the ICU, he got down from the stretcher and lay down on the bed himself. He did not expect help.” What do we call this man? Is it an exaggeration to say he was my best friend, great philosopher and unassuming guide?

Kadak...kadak

The hunt continues…

After experimenting with so many maids, we thought we should try out male cooks. We had observed, during our college days, men from Nepal made great cooks. They made titillating dishes as we watched drooling, the affluent gobble up such delicacies. We could neither afford to cook such wonderful meals (students of residential colleges suffer this fate) nor able to try out those yummy food. So, when it came to employing a male cook, we thought that would be a good idea. We were imagining a Nepali cook make hot, soft rotis and mouth-watering side dishes.

It was quite a bit of hunt to get a Nepali cook, I must admit. My better-half went to the extent of checking with watchmen who look like Nepalis to find out if they had their clan looking out for jobs as cooks. Luck (or was it really?!) struck us finally! We got a Nepali cook home and I was truly glad that we zeroed in on one.

He looked a typical Nepali, quite tall and fair-skinned. The initial conversations were pleasant. Anyway, what could be unpleasant about asking him his name and family details! He could speak some broken Hindi. We also tried asking in our disfigured Hindi as many details as possible. We made out that his family was in his hometown (now, don’t ask what/where that was…we could not understand). He had one wife (surprisingly) and 3 children! Boys were in big classes and the girl was small. He wants to earn for them. We had moist eyes on hearing how he managed to stay in a strange place to make this money to fend his family. Until the end of this conversation what we also did not understand was his name! After quite a struggle we got his name, Kadak! Yes. His name was Kadak. Difficult to digest…err..sorry…pronounce.

He said he will make rotis for dinner. My hubby and I were controlling our excitement to eat his fluffy, puffy rotis. So we said, “Ok! Go change your clothes and start work.” We gave him “his” place in our place. He arranged his things neatly. He had a shower. Then, to our surprise, did a pooja. The whole house smelled of the Agarbati fragrance. I was so happy that we not only got a Nepali cook but also a religious one at that. Wow!

He came out of his pooja in a weird shorts and T-shirt. And a handkerchief (which we did not realize was a multi-purpose cloth).  Then he rushed to the kitchen and started making rotis. We were quite impressed so far. Rotis also were not bad. So, we thought, we finally got our catch!

The next day morning he was up early. And my mother-in-law who cannot speak his language or understand what he says had to struggle explaining every detail of the morning chores. She tried hard but gave up. She said he could stand next to her and observe what she does. That way he will pick up. It was quite funny to see her yell at him. She called him “Kadai” in a typical Mallu accent. Did it matter? He would respond in his typical accent (like the mooing of a cow) “Maa”…

Day after day, we saw him stand next to her obediently, hands tied and watch what she was making. He enjoyed her preparations and told us how great a cook and a person she was! He would drink the sambar she makes even before idlis (at least a dozen of them) were served. He would eat like a glutton. He kept praising her sambar skills. We were amused. But still thought we will give him some time. May be one day he will make sambar as delicious as hers!

A week passed by…weekend approached…he was gearing up. We assumed he wanted to astonish us with his Nepali cuisine. Only on that day we had some time to talk to him after his first day. And to our surprise, the guy said he had never cooked a meal in his lifetime. He knew only to make rotis. We could almost hear our hearts break out of disappointment! Through the week we were assuming that we had a Sanjeev Kapoor in the making. We thought he was trying hard to get an understanding of our cuisine and taste buds!

On top of this, he said he had to have an afternoon siesta since he wakes up early.  We observed this trend anyway for a week. He used to go to bed earlier than us. He said he wanted to take one day off every weekend. He wanted to go out on Sat’day nights and said he will be back on Monday early mornings.

For about 2 months – about 8 weekends – we had different interesting episodes. He obviously knew neither the location nor the language. So, as expected, first weekend, we did not see him until Monday evening. One of the weekends, we insisted he returns by Sunday night. He did come, but was sloshed. And he slept outside our house. We found him the next morning snoring on the lawns.

To add salt to the wound, he picked up quarrels with my maid as well. She was fuming seeing this guy who did nothing but eat 3 courses of meals and 2 to 3 huge glasses of “chai”, had every weekend off and on top of it earned a handsome! She used  to scoff at him and keep abusing him in the local language. Thankfully he did not understand. He used to give that dumb smile (or maybe an intelligent one) which none of us understood and mumble something in Nepali.

At the end of the eighth week, we did not see even an iota of progress with Kadak. With our bubble burst big time, we decided to throw him out! End of Kadak…no more Nepali…no more men cooking. Enough was enough! Kadak taught us how “kadak” it was to employ men in household chores.

Now, was that not enough of a Kadak, kadak?

Horse-riding and Management lessons…

It is quite fashionable nowadays to tag anything other than learning of “true management” to management lessons. And so I thought I should also contribute to this confusion (read innovation) and in this post will attribute my horse-riding lessons to how I think they can be mapped to some management lessons.

“Why horse-riding of all other hobbies and sports?” you may ask.

Let me come out clean here. One, I want to tell the world that finally I am learning what I loved to do always – control an animal (that is tamable). And two, why not? This is a fairly expensive sport, alright. But so are classical dance classes and golf classes!

Riding a horse gives me a sense of utmost freedom and a spirit of holding the reins (in true sense!). And so, hearing me rant about this life time wish of mine, my hubby gifted this course as a surprise on my birthday. Mind you, only the initial deposit and first month fees are from him as a gift. I have to manage the monthly fee myself, on an on-going basis.

Management Lesson #1:

Listen to the coach. Now this is absent in most of our systems. I mean the “listening” skills. We assume we know everything. Only when we actually start the job we realize how much there is to learn to become an expert. We can avoid quite a few mistakes if only we “listened” to our coaches, as they advise, rather than on hindsight.

Management Lesson #2:

Learn the basics well and thoroughly. This is important. Most of the times, we imagine that we can manage without knowing what it takes to build software or what it takes to manage finance. This is entirely a wrong approach. I think it is a must to know the basics. Else the horse, over a period of time, will push you down.

Management Lesson #3:

Don’t ever try to overdo at least in the initial stages. Learn slowly but steadily. Overdoing in the initial stages causes a lot of harm than good. This is personal experience. In our eagerness to learn and implement all at the same time, we do not realize that we are putting quite a few stakeholders in trouble. Also, it is difficult to retain the same pace after we start full-fledged. Expectation setting is a must to avoid burn-downs. Go slow, but be steady and focused.

Management Lesson #4:

Observe from other riders (both their mistakes as well as their expert strokes). As I ride, I made it a habit to look around as well. Their seating posture, the way they hold the reins, the way they trot, the way they keep their feet in the stirrup, the way they hold the whip… especially from ace riders, there is a lot we can learn just by observation. In fact, I had video shot myself and started checking my mistakes. If only we could do that in the real life corporate management (I mean the self video shooting)!!

Management Lesson #5:

Go with the rhythm. There is a certain rhythm in everything we do or see. We need to understand and imbibe that. In fact, the very 3rd class, the senior most coach commended me on my rhythm and he said that was the most important skill in horse-riding. Getting right the balance and the rhythm of the place where we are is a key to success. Drawing comparisons to workplace, we need to see if the culture and the values of the teams that we are in, are in tune with our own. Where the rhythm does not coincide, it is sheer cacophony!

Management Lesson #6:

Do not lean (forwards or backwards); sit upright and be alert. While riding, this is one important thing to maintain – the posture. If I lean forward, my coach keeps shouting “do not lean; sit back straight”. Does he realize that my back is breaking?! He knows and he says learning to ride was my conscious decision. So is management! No manager can afford to stoop (read crumble or lose balance) as he is running his team. This will result in the manager crash landing on the team’s neck and choke them as well. How true! Remain balanced; Be alert!

Management Lesson #7:

Hold the reins firm…else you may be in danger. Please read this again. I have not said hold the reins tight. I have said hold them firmly. We maneuver with the reins. If we lost control or hold them back tight, the results will not be what we desire. We should know when to hold firm, when to let slightly lose and when to pull back!

Management Lesson #8:

Stay connected to the horse. Stay connected always with the teams. This is one of the biggest secret recipes to success. Knowing the pulse of our people is essential. We should know (like the back of our palms), how teams will react and who in the team is our spokesperson and who is not (and why). This is possible only if we stay connected.

Management Lesson #9:

Nudge and/or whip the horse when it slows down; don’t beat. My coach taught me how to nudge the horse on its belly with my heels and how to whip in such a way that it does not hurt the horse (really) but makes it run/trot. Key thing here is to pass the message without a lot of heart burn and still get desired results/productivity J

Management Lesson #10:

Show the horse some carrots (at least occasionally). The very first class, my trainer told me, “Next time, get some carrots for your horse. It takes all your burden and runs. Show some kindness in return”. Can we show the same carrots, again and again, over a period of time to the horse? No way! It has to be fresh carrots every time! Got the message, yeah?!

Management Lesson #11:

Realize when your horse is tired. You don’t have to neigh but make sure you understand the horse’s language. Surprisingly, after learning all the tricks, I realized that to whatever extent I used them, the horse refused to move after let’s say a 40-45 minute ordeal of me trying to trot on it. That’s when the trainer said, that the horse gets tired and that I should know it by now through its body language!!! Tell me how many of us truly realize when our teams are worn out or burnt out? Do we even stop by to check on them? This is an extension on my Management Lesson #9 (if you have forgotten, please read this again) J.

Management Lesson #12:

Make it appear pleasurable and effortless. Can you imagine someone riding the horse sweating and fretting and giving you an impression that he/she would fall-off any moment; the horse might tumble and fall down right now? What does it indicate? It is not a pleasant sight, right? Holds good in terms of Management as well! Who will want to see a team run by a panic-struck manager/management? It has to look effortless but the biggest of crisis should be solved. Possible? Why not!!

Management Lesson #13:

Finally, don’t blame the horse if you don’t win! Do I need to explain this further?!

PS: I realize that from every aspect of what we see in life (from the holy books to something menial) there are quite a few hidden treasures of management lessons. If only we cared to understand all those and implement?!

The rodent hunt...

Have you ever been part of a “rat hunt”? I mean, not in any jungle or deep forests. In your own house? Have you tried chasing a rodent away? A big fat one at that? I have witnessed this in my house when I was in class VIII. My father was the protagonist.

It was around 10:00 PM and we had done with our dinner. My siblings and I were sorting our books for the next day school and my father was finishing up with his office work. Unusually, my mom had hit the bed early that night. Both my siblings, my father and I were in the living room of the small but beautiful house in Chennai. My mom was in the bedroom. Suddenly, we saw a creature cross the hall in between my sister’s legs jumping across my brother’s books. When we realized what it was, the screams and the mini-marathons started. My sis climbed up on the sofa; my brother on the dining chair. I was prancing around frantically not knowing where to land. My father got up from the chair and the first thing that he did was - latched the 2 bedrooms and opened the front door. All this he did jumping across the mess of books on the floor, making sure he does not stomp on the poor rat. The sight was hilarious, to say the least. Me being the brat of the house, kept giggling at this sight. I guess that must have irritated my father more.

He took a long, fine stick (an antique asset in the house) and started attacking the rat. I think he first wanted to chase it away via the front door. The rat was going in circles. It would go near the exit and immediately take diversion into the hall again. This happened for about 30 full minutes. Whether the rat was tired or not, my father was absolutely exhausted. Then an idea struck him. He asked me to get the insecticide which is used to kill insects and roaches. I promptly fetched that for him. My siblings were still atop their perch. My father hit the spray fierce fully on the rat. It started moving slowly now but did not give up the race. My father, who had followed non-violence until that night, switched to violence in that one hour. He started poking the rat whenever it went to a corner of the room in its dizziness. In fact, he kept stating “you die, you die…I will kill you…you stupid beast”. All this, made the 3 of us laugh more hysterically. Do you think the rat died? No way!

At this point, the night watchman who does his rounds around this time saw that the lights were on in our house and it was so noisy at that hour. He stepped in to give some unsolicited advice. Very casually, he said “Why don’t you pour water on the rat? Usually rats faint when water is poured on them.” We also like dumb-fools, immediately cleared the floor of our books and brought in buckets of water and splashed on the rat in those odd hours. Whatever little dizziness, the rat had due to the spray, the water-treatment cured that and the rat started running more energetically now.

Finally, after about one and a half hours of violent chase, my father managed to send it out of our house! Phew!! Wait – all was not over! Throughout, there was this soul from the bedroom, which kept asking us what was wrong and why she was locked up. We just said that there is a huge rat and we are chasing it. That was all! When we opened the bedroom at about 11:30 PM…guess what we saw?! There my mom was… shivering and standing on the cot, lest the rat would enter her room!!! That was the best hilarious sight I have seen till this date!

Anyone asking what can a rat do? It can cause a rio(a)t!

Surprises...sky is the limit!

Have you had surprises in life? No. Not the nasty ones. I guess we all have our own quota of those. I am referring to the pleasant surprises. You know what the word “surprise” means? Astonishment? Revelation? And all the positive synonyms of the word rush to my mind when I think of the one that I received for my birthday last, as a gift from… none less than my darling hubby.

Usually, we have the midnight 12 O’clock birthday surprises where I get loads of gifts ranging from tangibles to intangibles…varying from dresses to jewelries to cakes to cards…This past birthday was different! Also, when the day dawns I look forward to my mom’s wishes first. I always think that I owe every birthday of mine to her and am quite sentimental about that.

My last birthday…I waited with bated breath for 12 midnight. The excitement was too much! I was assuming there are gifts tucked around every corner of the new villa we moved into recently. To my dismay, there were no wishes, no cards, no gifts, no messages, no mails…I was so troubled. I slept to hide my disgruntlement. Next morning, while still in bed, I was wondering why my mom did not call, my hubby did not wish, my relatives did not bother…As I was pondering, there was a knock on my door…

Now you should know some background to follow the rest of the story. I have been brought up in a very orthodox culture and my hubby, just the opposite of it. He hated any of our rites and rituals. He discourages religious sentiments, beliefs, practices and the “must-do”, “must-follow” culture. He is more of a free thinker and does not even believe in idol worship. We have these mini-wars waged at home all the time. Though I have been brought up in an orthodox culture, I am very tolerant and strongly feel one should not be fanatic about anything. Hence the wars at home used to reach some heights when both forces oppose strongly on some contention!

And since ours was a love marriage, we always used to support the spouse within our own families though we fight with each other for little, trivial stuff ourselves! That is love, you see! J

Back to my last birthday…I was pondering deep on why the whole world pretended to have forgotten that I was born on that day! The knock at the door stopped my thoughts. And who enters my room at 7 AM in the morning you think? It was my MOM! I could not believe my eyes. I instantly started weeping. Just as I tried controlling my tears of joy, my brother was behind her! Then my sis-in-law with both their kids!! My tears were rolling down my cheeks uncontrollably now!! Then enters my sister, her hubby and her 2 children. Now all this happened in less than 10 minutes. I went crazy crying. The photos could tell you stories. There I was crying and all my near and dears laughing their hearts out!

Wait! That is not all. We had just moved in to our new house and we were waiting to do the house-warming with some rituals as I insisted that I wanted it that way. My hubby was not for it but he was contemplating if he should really please me.

My mom asked me to peep outside the balcony. And, I saw that there was a huge canopy put up outside our house! She ordered me to stop crying now (maybe they were tired?) and go and have a bath. And so I did!

Once I came out dressed, she asked me to step out to see what arrangements were made. My heart almost stopped beating when I saw what was getting ready in my own house. I did not even dream that this would happen. Yes. The entire setting was changed to reflect a typical orthodox house and the ceremony was about to begin with flames of fire being invoked to start the holy rituals. Not an exaggeration…but I could not breathe!

On top of this, he had made secret arrangements and flew my friend down from the neighboring state. She is the one and only CLOSE friend that I confide in. And there she was smilingly waiting to see the surprised look on my face.

The rest of the day went by in smaller and larger surprises. Nothing to beat this birthday of mine and nothing to challenge the depth of surprises that I received that day! I think I will remember this day until the end of my life…

Now whenever I fight with this darling devil of mine, the whole house goes (I am in a joint family)…”don’t forget your last birthday…don’t forget how your hubby has ‘adjusted’ his policies to arrange for all those things he never believes in just to surprise/please you…don’t forget….” It goes on…

I am stumped by his love for me! And also by the kind of things he can do without my knowledge!! I better watch over, yeah?! J

In different States…in different states…

Noticed the capitalization of the proper noun and the common noun of the word “states”? Before you guess what this post could be about let me clear any air…this is about my travel to the US that lasted 2 weeks. No, no…not a boring travelogue…but just my mental conditions before and during the journey as I travelled across…

The itinerary was crazy. I had to visit 4 groups of customers across the East Coast and the Central US. Not being a big time travel buff myself, I was kind of half-hearted about this entire agenda. Checked if I could drop a couple of places but as luck would have it, I could not change much on the calendar. L

In a jiffy, would just cover up the places I visited and the routes. Hopped on to the flight from Chennai-Heathrow-Boston-New York-New Jersey-Chicago-Iowa City-Chicago-Indianapolis-Boston-Heathrow-Chennai! Huh!!! Tired, already? Imagine my condition…

Leaving 2 kids and a loving hubby back in India, boarded the flight in a ‘state’ of depression thinking about the temporary separation. Though I think they were rejoicing about my absence?? I could see that naughty smile on my hubby’s face and that mixed emotions in my sons’. J Such separations are blessings in disguise. We understand the need for our space and start falling in love with each other all over again!

From Heathrow to Boston, I was throughout traveling in a ‘state’ of expectation. What will my customer want to hear from me? What is my team waiting to understand from me? What will be the perception? What should it be once I complete my visit? How will I achieve this? How will I present the status to the customers? Too many ‘whats’ and a few ‘hows’…

Being a foodie and only a strict vegetarian at that, my next ‘state’ was that of hunger. Will I get food today? Indian? Vegetarian? On time? Forget tasty…just something that is edible!

Boston treated me well. Rather, I should say, my teams treated me well all across. I was hosted for a few luncheons and a few dinners. Awesome, man! I really know what our food means to each of us! From that ‘state’ of tummy-needs fulfillment, then my ‘state’ moved on to that of boredom. What will I do over the weekend? No family…no friends…what do I do?

My boss and my peer came to my rescue. They offered to take me around the city of New Jersey. Needless to say it was so much fun! That wish also fulfilled… I was now in a ‘state’ of mission half-accomplished.

I still had a week to go. Moved on to the ‘State’ of Iowa and had a hectic schedule there too…what with 10 team members to talk to and 5 important meetings in just over 2 days?! But this was thoroughly revealing and immensely useful. By now, I was in a ‘state’ of skepticism. Will I be able to complete the rest of my meetings as planned before I get back? Will I accomplish the targets set out?

I did! Changed the schedule a little bit to accommodate a couple of meetings in Indiana. Around this time, I was rest assured that the trip has been near successful. But the best is yet to come! I had to meet one of the key customers in Boston and that too on the day I planned to leave to India.

That was the climax meeting and it went on all too well. But by now along with a complete sense of accomplishment, I was also pushed to a ‘state’ of exhaustion. I think the trip had started working on me! I started feeling like a zombie and dizzied! What brought back the energy in me was the feeling that I am going to be back with my family in the next 24 hours…

I wrote this post as I am waiting to board my flight back to Chennai. Now, I know, my mental ‘state’ is that of the excited one! Can’t wait more to be back with ‘my’ family, ‘my’ team and eat ‘my’ food, in ‘my’ own India…

I am happy that I am returning to the ‘State’ of Tamil Nadu…J