Villages of India- A trip to my home town & more...

Hi,

Let me say Sorry for the long delay to those who were waiting for this post ( I know some of you were, as site-meter tells me few people do visit this blog regularly).

Last couple of weeks were too busy, I went to my hometown 'Barghat' then went on for 3 days long residential training program and after that found my self loaded with so many projects, somehow all of them have a coinciding deadline. I am feeling busiest in last 4 years nowdays. Being busy was always a good feeling but somehow; nowadays I get a bit worried about completions. Anyways.. I was also feeling burdensome because of not posting on my blog. Believe me, I don’t know how much others read it, but its more of a self help activity for me, at least I feel relaxed and contented after making a Post.. so here it is...

As I still have lots of work pending I will put my experiences in bullets, else i would have framed it like a story, anyways...

Reaching Barghat:

Whenever I Go barghat, It reminds me of that "Swades" Movie's promo in which Shahrukh was shown coming first by plane, then by train, then by boat, then sharing a two wheeler... Its not that difficult to reach barghat (neerav & bhuvan would agree, as they have visited couple of times) but there is a huge differece between villages (small towns) like Barghat and the same like Baroli (near Indore) or Najafgarh (Near Delhi) or Badalpur (Near Mumbai).

India has two kinds of Villages, the one which are like a satellite to a big city or a metro city and the others like lost stars in a galaxy. Villages which are near to a big city are not actually villages, if the world allow me I will call them SAZ or SRZ (Special agricultural zones or Special rural Zones), which looks similar to a village but receives signals of Radio Mirchi, Have farm house of Virender Sehwag, seen Malls & Multiplexes and believes that Heroines in movies are not goddess but exists on the earth only.

I know its too challenging to improve all the villages of India, but Govt. must try & improve the small cities in those pockets so that nearby villagers can have a satellite connectivity to the urban world, keeping their rural identity & grace intact.

Working in my own garden:

It was a great experience, I remember my Father used to shape up our garden, I have helped him many a times, This time I tried it alone, It was a soul touching expeirence.

Sleeping on the open roof:

India ka Sabse Bada AC.. sleeping on the open roof, I couldn't do this for last so many years. When lying on the cot, you see endless spread of the sky and a big full moon accompanied by lovely natural breeze, you realize how comforting the nature can be.

Power Cut:

Barghat is in M.P., a pioneer state in terms of Power cut. It will be an injustice if I say Power cut is a part of life, Power cut is like your life partner. You are incomplete without it. No festival, wedding or any other occasion is complete without power cut, be it for a couple of mins only but power do take rest there.

New developments:

Now in Barghat you have ATM, any GSM sim can work on roaming, Paid internet facility is there, You can access broadband too, if you have a BSNL Landline or Reliance data-card ( I didn't have either). I have also seen lots of DTH dishes in barghat.

12*7 ATM:

One great thing I observed, that by mutual consent of all, the ATM shutter gets down at night, though they do not lock it, if somebody is in genuine need to access, he can open the shutters. I initially laughed at it, but realized later that they really value their facilities and electricity.

Thanks to PSUs:

though we crib a lot about PSUs in cities, but they are really doing a great job in rural India. No they do not provide better services there but the point is 'they provide services there' irrespective of profit or loss. BSNL has shown the people of rural India what mobile is, and now connecting people via broadband. SBI has established ATMs and Doordarshan still has got viewers.


Sapney aur Sitarey

To my surprise i found people readinf my blog, though they might not be regular or a follower but they do visit these pages.. really a great satisfier.

Genda phool:

Neha has really enjoyed this visit, she wore saari everyday, went to Mandir sat & sang bhajan's with ladies... all in all had a nice time.

An interesting incident happened on the last day when we were getting ready to leave. My Buaji came to our place. she must be around 90 years of age. Very old yet very talkative though she has trouble in hearing.

Neha feels very comfortable with her, as it reminds her of her daadi who is of similar age and nature. She was taking special care of buaji, suddenly she thought of entertaining her by making her listen some songs on I Pod and she connected ear plugs to buaji. Buaji was confused what is going to happen then my Jijaji has conveyed her that neha has sung & recorded some songs in her own voice and going to play it. Neha played 'Genda phool' and 'Aarti' from Delhi-6.

After this Buaji was too happy, this was visible on her face, and the praise for neha in her eyes. she kept on praising her, for her singing skills endlessly. I can not understand why past generations used to look for singing skills in their 'bahu' but I rfelt that it was like a proud possession for them.

I think its too much for now, will post again if any more incidents i can recall or re-feel...

Bye for now...

Luv

VT

Absense

Hi,

Last week i was on a trip to my native place and just after that got engaged in a residential training program.

Both the places i mentioned have limited (almost) no connectivity hence there are no post for a long time, have many thins to write about...

wait for some time will be back with a lot of new stories... some really interesting ones...

Luv
VT

A Beautiful Message

Hi,

Good Morning.. This morning I got up to the SMS beep of my Cell and received a Beautiful SMS from Manav. Manav is formally known as Ratnesh in this world. ( 'Manav' is the name given by me to him inspired by movie "Taal" in which Akshaye Khanna's Character was named "Manav". Ratnesh has many similarities with that Character). He is my school time buddy. He always come up with beautiful Thoughts, messages and poems.

I don't know what is the origin of these thoughts but he always has something amazing to share.

So, here is that beautiful Message which made me ponder a while in the morning...

"We die to finish school, die to start college then die to start working then die to marry then die to retire and finally while dying we realise that we forgot something... We forgot to Live."

Another beautiful Poem which he shared with me few years back, the first 4 lines of that poem are still imprinted in my mind... Really a masterpiece. I tried a lot to find out the author of these lines but couldn't find yet. Anyways.. who so ever is the author, must be a great man/woman.

The Lines are..

"Seekho Pahle pyar Ki Baaten...

Phir Karnaa Adhikaar Ki Baaten...

Kuchh Apne Bhi Sukh Dukh Kah Lo..

Roj Wahi Akhbaar ki Baaten..."

I Believe that above mentioned line describes "Emotional Intelligence" in full, You don't agree?? Ponder a while...

Bye for Now. :-)

Luv

VT

The "X" Effect...

Hi,

The "X" Effect, was the subject line of one of my mails, which I 'sent to all' in my Dept. It was the first mail which I sent to all, just after my transfer to Mumbai and my posting as "Training Manager".

I thought of sending an introductory mail about me, but the same formality was done by HR and I wanted to mail something more impact full.

I thought about a story which I read in Shiv Khera's 'You Can Win', though this story is very common and we all must have heard it somewhere or other. But I was not able to get any other story as this one was most relevant in mentioning 'importance of training' and its regular requirement. As usual to gain attention I popped up the subject line which is the title of this post and have added a couple of paragraphs in the end of the story.

I was skeptical whether my added paragraphs are making sense or not, as the mail was going to hit many Seniors mail boxes too. But finally I clicked on 'Send'.

I got few replys telling me that mail was good, excellent etc. Some of the known colleagues have called me up to convey the same too. But what makes this mail so special for me is that even after months, many of my colleagues who do not know me in person, come across and after formal introduction recall- "Oh so you are the one who has sent 'The X Effect', that mail has really touched me, you know that day i really did this...that..etc...after getting inspired by that mail"

The mail has nothing special for those who are enjoying their life and work, doing something they like to do and are still connected with their friends. But havimg these luxuries is really a Utopian dream in today's work life.

Pasting the content of the mail below, just checkout how the last couple of paragraphs have made people feel so touched...

Sapna, Ramesh, Steve, Meera, Matthew, Vikas and so many others in the organization complained of work pressure, unachievable targets, peer pressure, time management and loss of work life balance. Despite working hard, their performance was going down and impacting organization’s bottom line.Who is to blame for poor performance of employees and business? Ask line managers; they blame it on HR for poor hiring. Ask HR; they blame it on line managers for poor management skills. Ask me, I would say, the Axe???? Now you will ask what (the h*ll) an Axe has to do in performance management? Let me tell you a small story… Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job to a timber merchant, and he got it. The pay was good and so were the working conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees “Congratulations,” the boss said. “Carry on that way!”.Very motivated with the boss’s words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could bring only 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but could bring 10 trees only. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees. “I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought.He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on. “When was the last time you sharpened your Axe?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen??? I had no time to sharpen my Axe. I have been very busy trying to cut more trees for you.”Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don't take time to "sharpen the axe." In today's world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever but less happy than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay sharp? If we don't take time to sharpen the axe, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

This “Axe” includes some truly important things in life. E.G. taking time to pray, to read and study scripture or to listen to good music..

In Organization context “Sharpening the Axe” means revising your fundamental skills and learning the new ones. We at Training team will insure the best of the training inputs from our side, at the same time asking you to re look at the novel you bought six months back and didn’t read,

Visit the nearest music shop to search your favorite title of your college time.

Also reminding you to make calls to your old fellows whom you have missed to wish on their birthdays in last 5 very busy years…

Smile please, Have a nice time, It’s a good day today…

Luv...

VT