The Dark Alleys of the Webspace

just a thought that crossed my mind a moment ago: a fleeting thought about something I noticed around me and I wrote it down in a diary or a notebook and kept it for posterity. The only trouble is that the habit does not persist and the notebook has more empty pages than full. Then, many years later, I rummage through my belongings and find that special notebook and choose to either fill those empty pages or dispose it all off!

What happens to web spaces that we once so ardently occupied and contributed to? They continue to float like spaceship garbage in zero gravity with no lookers or takers. I transitioned from Orkut to Facebook a few years ago and left my Orkut Account to die a slow death. The social site Hi5 went through the same treatment , before Orkut came into the picture. And the same holds true for Messenger applications, blogs, web pages, photo galleries and videos.

Imagine the kind of clutter we create everyday in this space. In 2009, over 126 million blogs were tracked by blog pulse. Assuming that only 70%* of them still have activity, we have 151.2GB of space turning to "ghost spaces" each day with no one to edit, update or create new posts. We have always been in the habit of utilizing resources from a region like a parasite and moving on since the advent of the industrial age. With the virtual space now opened to us we only make it worse!

So may be you should go back to your blogs and galleries, profiles and web pages and see what you have left behind and maybe make something of it!

* as per standard statistical probability.

A 'You'nique Experience @ Work

I thought of beginning this blog with an aspect of Human Resource Development which I consider core to any organization: Employee Satisfaction. Since the beginning of the Agricultural Age and civilized living and even through the advent of Industrial Age, humans have always felt the need to organize themselves and pool resources to form teams with a common goal.
And with the delegation of work began the endless trouble of matching the right person to the right job. Understanding talent and identifying potential became key qualities in managers and with every passing day this need has only increased in intensity. No employee ever seems satisfied with the work at hand and no employer has a clue of what makes his employees happy. It all seems like a lost cause. It did to many thinkers like Karl Marx as well who found that business concerns and private landlords were exploiting the workers in London and felt the need to raise a voice by solving the capitalism problem. But not even socialism could really resolve the issue of lack of satisfaction among employees.

I believe the problem could be in the fact that an employee's job is not looked at as an experience he has during his life in the organization. Marketing Gurus speak of giving customers an experience through their product or service and they say that the consumer will buy the product. Why not apply the same principle to the human beings on other side of the product and service life-cycle: the employee. And the need for every employee is just the need of every consumer that is to have a unique experience at the workplace with the work they do.

A high value and expectation level is set with a job that can provide such en experience to the employee. A manager's job has a higher level of uniqueness than a worker's and a company head's job has a higher level of uniqueness than the manager's. Thus as we move up the corporate ladder and get higher responsibilities added to our job, we invariably end up having a greater level of uniqueness at our job. But this need not be the only way in which one can find uniqueness at the workplace.

The workplace has long been looked at in the image of the famous industrialist Henry Ford: the Conveyor Belt. This was where things moved in as raw material and after a million melting, moulding, hammering and polishing the final product moved out of the workshop. And in this image of the moving product, somewhere the employee lost his power of being moved by the virtue of the work he puts into his creation. And as days go by the hammering only gets more monotonous, the moulding only get more mechanical and the melting only gets slower. The conveyor belt may be automated now, robots may have replaced man at the workplace, but in many jobs the feeling of monotonicity has not moved out.

As you read this blog, go back to your workplace and try and recall the most mundane part of the job and you find that it is that part of it which is most monotonous as well. It may not be the part that frustrates us but it certainly is the catalyst in your losing interest in your work. Managers need to look at these areas and understand how can they change this about the job. Many times this may not be possible as the activity is most critical to your work. In such situations, the best recourse is to making the office environment one where the employee has a Unique & Pleasant Experience.

Many offices look at In-Office fun hours during the work week, Office Picnics, Lounge Areas and Meditation Spaces, Sprawling campuses and Activity Center. But we need to think of a lot more such unique experiences from which the employee can choose. Why not a Wallpaper Service that an employee can subscribe to in Office which will load a new image and quotation for him on his desktop when he logs in. Or a forum which the employee can join and participate in. Or a new language, dance form, musical instrument he can learn from an expert. Or just providing a box of doughnuts to the employees at the coffee machine one evening.
Most employees in our organizations today fail to see the beauty in anything. Bringing uniqueness to their work would enable them to see that beauty once again: in their work and in themselves!

We Are Family!

its been 2 weeks since college began for me at XIMR and I have started to feel like I have known my classmates for years! In this 'fortnight of fun' I have already acquired (started to use business lingo already?) 2 sisters, 2 walking-to-CST partners, a few admirers, some heartfelt talks, lots of interesting views, umpteen laughs and thousands of moments to cherish.

After almost 20 years of nomadic existence through educational institutions and work places you kind of get comfortable with meeting new people and learning new things. From my first day at kindergarten to my first day at XIMR and everyday in between at School, Diploma, Apprenticeship, Undergraduate and Infosys some things have certainly changed, but some things, I came to realize, never will. Like the intoxicating mix of excitement and anxiety of attending the first day, like introducing yourself many times to many people from your class, like trying to remember the names of all those you met, like sharing your lunch with a group of complete strangers.

And yet despite all the unfamiliarity, there was this sense of deja vu with this class. It could just be my imagination or maybe the universal human need to find patterns in everything. I found a lot of my past in my present class. A lot of wonderful people willing to help and wonderful to talk to. and in just 2 weeks we have developed a familial bond between all of us. The Khandala trip strengthened that bond and broke that little ice that was between us.

With such a good start I am certain there is only way this class will go: Up! There are many more days to follow, many more memories to be lived and cherished. I hope I can live up to what my new family truly deserves from me!

What Happened Was...

i was partying this week and like most other parties, this one too needed individuals to come forward, take the initiative and organize things within it. But that was not to happen!

What happened was one of the Project Managers from my project called me to his desk and told me that we have gotta come up with a party plan for next week. We had only 2 weeks to plan the thing before D-day. But I was not very sure if it was possible and so kept the idea on the back burner, thinking that the idea will simmer there and I won't have to struggle with it. But that was not to happen!

What happened was 3 days before D-Day our Senior Project Manager called for us all to his office and we sat for 4 hours working out options and looking at possible options for this Quarter's Project Party for 180 people. "180 People! Isn't that too many to party with? Is that even a legal number to party with?" I thought to myself. But deep down inside I knew that more people means more money to bill since many of those will not be able to make it to the party since they are on leave/not interested. That meant more money for those coming. I know I sound very cruel while saying this but trust me, it is the best way of getting more funds for the people coming in for the party. So we plan for a movie: 'Raavan' on a Tuesday and are extremely happy about all the arrangements we finalized after breaking our heads in the meeting room for over 6 hours with 3 other options and trying to squeeze out every paisa of value from the venue. But that was not to happen!

What happened was, Raavan was a dud movie! Even the father in Amitabh Bachchan could not find words of appreciation for the movie in which his son Abhishek plays the lead role! I was only a mere mortal and so were my other project mates. How were we all to survive the ordeal churned out by Mani Ratnam's Madras Talkies? So we did what any other team would have done. We changed the movie from Raavan to The Karate Kid, the venue from Chinchwad to Deccan, and from Adlabs to City Pride. And all of this was done one day before D-Day. Yes, we dumped the entire plan we had made so patiently and painstakingly and took up the new plan. We sent out emails and informed all members certain that everyone will welcome the change of movie. But that was not to happen!

What happened was, some people still wanted to watch Raavan and called for their team to be split from the party group. What! You can't do that! We would have to re-plan the whole budget and see what we can and cannot arrange for in the mere Rs. 300/- given to us per person for the party. So we re-planned, re-budgeted, re-adjusted, re-emailed, and re-coaxed everyone to join us for Karate Kid. Some stuck by us (A Big Thank You to them for that), but some didn't and just re-rejected our idea. It was Monday night, and I was back in Mumbai for my passport work, and the rest of the organizing team was back at the office trying to sort the mess out. It looked like it was going to be a Terrible Tuesday for all of us, with brickbats galore from the 160 team members and a load of unhappy people. But that was not to happen!

What happened was everyone enjoyed watching Jaden Smith kick butt and Jackie Chan in a sensible role after years. Everyone enjoyed the samosas and cold drinks at the theatre and the luxury of being an exclusive group of people watching the movie in the theatre. Everyone enjoyed the Extra Large Value Meal at McDonald's: with 93 Burger, Large Fries, Large Coke and Ice Cream. And everybody had a pleasant bus ride back home. And I thought to myself, "Wow! That was a struggle totally worth it!" And it did not end there. A lot of money was saved on the whole so we had Pizza Party the day after the next with 128 Personal Pans, Garlic Breads and Choco Lava Cakes. And we still had some Pizzas and Cakes left over.

It just reminded me of the miracle of the 5 Loaves of Bread and 2 Fish and how the multitude of people was fed to their heart's content by the act of sharing the best that Jesus got from a little boy. All one has to do to is to try the impossible, to have faith in oneself and one's abilities in getting the best for the people who entrust their Good Times on you, to look for a little more for your friends from every slice and every bite of every moment that they entrust you of their Party Night! With the little we have we can get so much more Only if we Believe!

Everyone in the organizing team concurred that we literally looted the various venues of every fun we could for the money we gave them (Rs. 485/- worth of value for Rs. 300/- per person to be exact ). I believe What Happened was nothing short of a miracle!

Why do I Hate Holi?

come March or April and one of India's most colorful festival is celebrated. Ideally, Holi is a time of welcoming Spring into our midst with the Holi Fire on the night before, stories of Pralhad & Holika and her sacrifice, making of colors in the early morn of Dulhendi out of colored leaves and flowers which have been dried by powdering them and the consumption of Thandai and a tad bit of Bhaang as the playing of Holi progress into the noon with singing, games and jokes!

Spring is also a season that drives hormonal urges to the hilt with it being the mating season from birds to flowers to fish and animals and everything natural in between. Can humans stay far behind? And in the Holi that we see today, we find a perfect excuse to exercise our macho demeanour onto others with artificial colors laced with intentions that are neither fully innocent nor completely vile. The festival of family and friends has now digressed into a field day for the desperate and chauvinists, evil pranksters and inconsiderate bums. And the colors of Spring have given way to muddy waters to make permanent the chemical stains on your face and on your self-esteem!

And they carry along this behaviour with them to the workplace where all you hear are screams of girls pleading with men not to color them: all but in vain and laughing men who take the golden opportunity to have their way with colleagues whom they don't even know very well. The lame excuse you hear from one and all of them is that it is a day of colors and they cannot go without celebrating. I believe if you feel so strongly about the festival and the season of spring you would take the day off and celebrate it at home or with family and friends in an apt environment. But I guess it would not be as exciting as seeing the fear and disgust and helplessness in others' eyes while you approach them in their cubicles with an impish grin on your face and Synthetic Gulaal in you hands!

And just when you think it couldn't get any worse, you get hooligans who think to themselves that if the respectable lot can act like this, why can't we take our own liberties? And that is when you get stories of people who have been hit with balloons filled with sewage water, stones, feces and urine. Tell me what color is this that we are giving to our so called 'sabhya' culture?

I had a Hindi Teacher who would celebrate the festival in its purest form with the natural colors and sweets and beverages and hospitality with which we welcome spring. Reminiscing those memories I ponder what was it about that Holi that I loved. Sure it was the natural colors and natural feel of the festival. It was also the warm reception we got as students and guests. But most importantly, it was this space given to everyone to choose if they wished to partake in the festivities. I think the general population would be irked if I went around force feeding Pork Meat and Beef all Vegetarians or Spiking the Drinks of the Teetotalers with Alcohol all with an excuse to get them into the 'Festive Spirit'. And I think this is where the festival transcends the religious beliefs to an opportunity to showcase the values and culture attached to the festival.

I for one hope we all can rediscover the lost values of the festival, give everyone the freedom to choose the time and place to participate and fall in Love with the 'Holi That Was' once again!

Power: The Rate At Which Work Is Performed!

power is the rate at which work is performed.
REPEAT
Power is the rate at which work is performed.
REPEAT
Power is the rate at which work is performed.

It's funny what you tend to remember from your life. After all my struggle in my 10th Grade Public Examinations, all that I can remember word for word is this seemingly innocuous statement. Little did I know its true meaning and connotation in our world and in our times!

All through history, man is known to be a social animal. He is called so because he needs others for his survival, sustenance and relevance in this world. Survival and sustenance relate to the bodily and physical needs of man, which can be (it may be hard to believe but it is true!) satiated. But it is this sense of relevance which makes things ugly for humanity and the world that is left in its care. This is a need of the mind and unfortunately, its control mechanism is something men and women are not born with but built like skill with time and experience and choice! And so came into existence Power: The rate at which work is performed.

In the field of physics, Work is Energy put into use. So anything that has Energy has the potential to carry out work. In that context, power also becomes the rate at which energy is put to use...

If you have a problem with what Shah Rukh Khan says, go ahead and stage a protest in front of his house, get violent and threaten his family, abuse him with the choicest expletives and tell him to get the hell out of India because he is a traitor! Who cares if he lives in a free nation that gives him the right to free speech and express his feelings in a decent manner. You can and will bully him. That's Power, right?

You have a problem with migrants coming to your city, which you look at like a Goose laying Golden Eggs rather than your Home and taking away the jobs which you thought were yours by birthright and which no one else, is ready to perform better than you, has the right to claim as his own. You can beat him to death and chase him out of your 'territory' which is part of his nation. That's Power, right?

You have a problem with progress and change the world over, which you need to stop so that your dominion of fear and terror can rule over the masses, and you want to disintegrate every evolved civilization and culture to bits! You go right ahead and declare a filthy 'Holy War' on them just like a jackal kills a sheep by disguising itself in the skin & wool of its previous kill! That's power, right?

You have a problem of fear, which is understandable yet beyond its limits, with your prejudice towards Muslims and so-called 'Third World Citizens' and you wish to end this fear. So you decide to massacre the religion and race, culture and civilization with your discrimination and injustice and torture in the name of security checks and measures. That's Power, right?

Power is the rate at which energy is transferred and true enough all these actions do give the initiators a sense of power and control over their subjects. But they are like the jolts of electricity that Lightening possesses: Powerful and awesome yet Useless and Self-Centred. Real Power may seem powerless and ordinary but in reality, it is Fruitful and Benevolent, Inspiring and Transformational...

True Power is what will light your world forever. It takes true power to embrace others' views and accept them not despite their differences but for them!

True Power is what will inspire a generation. It takes true power to accept one's shortcomings and work towards building a better tomorrow not just for One but for Everyone!

True Power is what will lead you to progress. It takes true power to give up the wrong ways and pledge to work for all of humanity in the way God wants us to: with Peace and Love!

True Power is what will quell your fears. It takes true power to live with courage and stand for justice for all when your fear is at its worst!

Power...the rate at which you enlighten, inspire, lead to progress and quell fears: with justice, peace, hard work, acceptance and love! As I said, it's funny what you tend to remember from your life and it's even funnier how you find its true meaning with time and experience and choice!

Happy 2010

it's that time of the year once again when we say, "Out with the old and In with the new!"

It's that time of the year once again when we sing 'Aud Lang Syne' (I always wondered what it means... apparently it is something about not forgetting those whom we have forgotten and forgetting those things we should but cannot)

It's that time of the year once again when we party and dance senselessly.... okay, when Others party and dance senselessly.

And it's that time of the year once again when I go for Holy Hour and Midnight Mass while most people are dancing the night away.

Most of my friends think I am being highly religious by this act, but I do this out of a need to be all by myself in the last few hours of the year going by and the first few hours of the year that is to come. Being left alone is something that comes naturally to me. I always preferred being alone in a crowd and observe the things happening around me. And it is in this silence of the hustle and bustle around you that you start seeing things about people that you would not otherwise notice. Like the glow on their faces when they meet someone they love or the pale smile when they encounter someone they don't. Or the way a child enjoys troubling his/her mother while prayers are on and creating all that fuss just to get the attention of the woman they love more than God Himself. Or the way an aged couple bow their heads in prayer when they pray for those who have gone before them to their heavenly abode and yet their face reflects the good times they have had with those friends who are no more.

_____________________________________________________________________

This New Years Day I indulged in an activity I have never done before: checked My Inbox on my Rediff Email Account. Its been some 7 years since I have started the account and I usually keep all my emails that mean something to me (in other words, meaningless forwards don't exist on my mailbox for long!). So I sat down and read through some of those emails that I received in reply to my stupid ideas back then as a teenager. I remember making this email ID for my placement purposes in Diploma in 2002 and it was identity for another 6 years till Gmail and my kennybaba pseudonym took the top spot.

But as I read through the emails, I was amazed at the way I wrote emails back then. My language and tone was so childish and the Forwards were so pointless. Looking back I know I would have said a lot of those things differently; like criticizing in private and appreciating in public, being sarcastic only with those who use, understand or appreciate it and many such things. Some of the things have just changed just because of my office life like I now sign off with the words Regards instead of Love: even with family and friends.

I am waiting for this blog to mature for a few more decades and I am certain I will be amazed by the words I write here today and see how I have grown (hopefully) as a person with time.