We’re just food for worms...

Think whatever one may about themselves or plan what one may to build empires, establish dominions, leave behind a legacy, immortalizing their names by extraordinary feats.. lead people, go about making the most impact on the world... at the end of our lives when our soul departs from our bodies, we're just food for worms!

Give a thought to what happens to you after that?!

Attacks on Christians: Phobia or Hatred!?!

After the Orissa row of killing Christians and destroying Churches, it's spread over to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and many other places which the mainstream media has failed to feature and provide adequate cognizance to the general public.

I woke up to the news which reported "7 churches were attacked in Karnataka". I look up on the internet, and the numbers range from 10 - 14 churches being vandalized, and nothing less than that. From the gruesome Graham Staines' killing nearly about 10years ago, and the raping on nuns, and ransacking Christian homes and churches working in tribal areas in various parts of certain states, the violence has been only setting ablaze more parts of the nation with hatred against Christians and their activities.

The response from Christian community against the accentuated persecution has not come as strongly (without any violence) as against how other religious communities would have come back. Nevertheless, the Church in India took a stand when they announced all Christian institutions will remain closed on August 29, 2008 as a sign of protest against the killings that took place in Orissa after a Hindu leader named Laxmanananda Saraswati was murdered.

This one act of peaceful protest has called for the State Government's show-cause notice demanding explanation as to why the schools were shut, and threatened to withdraw funding and dire consequences. Well, if the state gets involved in the harrassment, what say?

Phobia and Hatred, I believe they are the cause and consequence of each other. Here, the issue in question is Christianphobia and Hatred against Christians. Given the outcome of these attacks, the inhumane acts against humanity and the unapologetic faces of the people involved only point to one thing - Wickedness! And none can justify the cries on the suffering lips! Is this not the shame of unethical religion? Is this someone's religion?

By the very Hindu philosophy of Karma, they shall surely reap the fruits. But Christians, we pray for their forgiveness. We pray that even the persecutors be touched by the love of Jesus which keeps us marching onward in fulfilling our cause towards all humanity!

Called to be faithful, not successful!

In a fast world, where competition is the order of the day, to rise over another and be successful comes to all naturally. But, as a young Christian, I am touched by the thought Mother Teresa puts across "I am not called to be successful, but to be faithful."

That's the essence we all, who believe, need to tell to ourselves time and again. It's not success that should matter to us, but how faithful we are in obeying God's word.

I start this blog in a hope that this goes on to be a rich blessing to all.

The tragic depths of human wickedness!

"Delhi also had 3 serial bomb blasts" Sweeharan Aunty informed us and asked us to pray for the affected. It was 'also' because recently there have been bomb blasts in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and in Mumbai a while ago...

We had just finished praying for Bihar disaster, the persecution of Christians and atrocities against humanity in other backward areas when the news arrived. We also remembered the situation in Jammu & Kashmir which had swollen up to a level that, at least I kept thinking will become the next 'Godhra' act! Before we bowed down to pray a friend just told that she was returning from Connaught place (where a blast has just occured). I remembered that last week I was at Connaught place and Karol Bagh with my family last week the same time. As we prayed for the blasts affected people, we thanked God for the mercies He shows towards us, and also gave Praise for He controls all of the situations in His Divine plan that He has for each of us...

In the meanwhile, it's just the tragic depths of human wickedness keeps bothering us. Please pray for that!

Dabbe ka Funda: Dabbawalas of Mumbai

Though the journals, business articles, chain mails, even blogs have now made them something ‘common’, but meeting them leaves anyone overwhelmed. Here’s my encounter with the Dabbawalas while working at Infosys on September 5, 2008.

‘Astounding business run on Simplicity & Basics’, that’s what I gathered as Manish Tripathi Dabbawala wearing a Gandhi topi (cap) concluded his presentation. The most amusing fact among the many was when he stated that “all dabbawalas are ‘suitably’ educated.” The next best is when he claims “Prince Charles is our brand ambassador’.

Though the media has uncovered much about the Dabbawalas’ business, here go the same again—

• The Dabbawala’s business dates back to 118 years
• The inspiration / idea was conceived from a Parsi who ‘loved his wife’ and only preferred food prepared by her.
• The business today generates Rs. 55 Crores, employing about 5000 people
• The company employs no Chartered Accountants to manage their finances or other functions
• All dabbawalas are shareholders in the company
• The backbone of dabbawalas’ business is Discipline. In Manish Tripathi’s words ‘Dabbawala minus Discipline equals zero’
• A business that boasts of ‘Generations of customers’
• They owe a lot to the local trains running on time & cycles are their common means of transport for business.
• Their six sigma winning coding system is a very simple combo of 3 codes including Area Code, Dabbawala code & destination building code’.
• The values that run the system: Discipline, Work is Worship; Anndaan hi Mahadaan; Taking responsibility seriously

The company is featured in many world-known world-class documentaries, journals, magazines, shows including Harvard Business Review, Guinness Book of world records, Ripley’s believe it or not and many many others…

I heard they were to start their supply chain management consulting, but the latest from Manish Tripathi Dabbawala is that they’ve been invited to Australia for a seminar on ‘Going Green’ for contributing towards running their business without adding to pollution.

To close this, I'd share this part where Manish proudly exclaims "Richard Branson got clicked with a group of our Dabbawalas, and when asked by reporters why, he responded saying "I'd like to show this back to my folks as a sample of how one should be working"." Great going guys!

What are problems?

Sharing this from my school-time collection...

It's within you!

A business executive was deep in debt and could see no way out. Creditors were closing in on him. Suppliers were demanding payment.

He sat on the park bench, head in hands, wondering if anything could save his company from bankruptcy. Suddenly an old man appeared before him. "I can see that something is troubling you," he said. After listening to the executive's woes, the old man said, "I believe I can help you." He asked the man his name, wrote out a cheque, and pushed it into his hand saying, "Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today, and you can pay me back at that time." Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come. The business executive saw in his hand a check for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, then one of the richest men in the world!

"I can erase my money worries in an instant!" he realized. But instead, the executive decided to put the un-cashed check in his safe. Just knowing it was there might give him the strength to work out a way to save his business, he thought. With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals and extended terms of payment. He closed several big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

Exactly one year later, he returned to the park with the un-cashed check. At the agreed-upon time, the old man appeared. But just as the executive was about to hand back the check and share his success story, a nurse came running up and grabbed the old man. "I'm so glad I caught him!" she cried. "I hope he hasn't been bothering you. He's always escaping from the rest home and telling people he's John D. Rockefeller." And she led the old man away by the arm.

The astonished executive just stood there, stunned. All year long he'd been wheeling and dealing, buying and selling, convinced he had half a million dollars behind him.Suddenly, he realized that it wasn't the money, real or imagined, that had turned his life around. It was his new-found self-confidence that gave him the power to achieve anything he went after.

Have faith in your self as only that counts.

Shared with me by my friend Vikram Singh Parmar. If this is copyrighted or should this be removed from this place, contact the blog owner at manohr@gmail.com

What's next on my blog?

There's a lot much going on in my mind to write, so here's what I expect to be up..

• Orissa attacks on Christians have always been a concern, and I wanna write as to why Christians do conversions, so that my friends and readers here can understand

• August 29th, from 00:10 hrs to 03:50 hrs I have had almost an adventure on the roads of New Delhi when I walked all the way from Malviya Nagar to Nasirpur, Dwarka after a friend's birthday party.

• When I was in XI standard, I did some findings of 'Modern Discoveries' which were already authored in The Bible, I'm searching for that piece of paper.. once I find it, I'll put it up.

• Coming to HR subjects, I've been thinking of how bosses have a larger image in the eyes of their juniors that even the company looks smaller infront..

• Syed Ahmed, my friend from IIPM has been trying a great deal to convert / accept Islam and Mohammed as a prophet by bombarding me with mails, links and Video CDs. But, since I've read 'The Shade of Swords' by MJ Akbar, I really wanna pen down some thoughts or excerpts from the book. 

• The August 29th walk also reminds me of my walks in Estavayer-le-lac in Switzerland in 2006, once where I was escorted by police back, and the other was another adventure, first of its kind, I'm sure.. for anyone.. 

• I again fell for another MLM pitch by a dear school-time friend... and I really wanna write about those very Spirited MLM meets and why they suck
  

For my Experiences Pictorial--

• My Malaysia tour
  
• My latest trip to Naukachiatal & Nainital
  
• My Jaipur trip pics
  
• My 27th Birthday pics
  
• The Rajahmundry visit & Godavari Barrage
  

As time permit, I'll do these all at first...

Employee Value Proposition or Capitalist's Value Proposition...

Visiting D-75, Malviya Nagar (The VADHMN den) always results in some post of mine... We're a bunch of professionals from Sales, Operations, Finance & HR from Banking, IT-ITeS, Manufacturing industries and we caught up chatting on various trends across our respective organizations and sundry..

I got to know of a leading bank where an Manager committed suicide due to work stress, another manager who's psychic behaviour gets all his juniors go bonkers; Companies where benefits being provided earlier are being withdrawn, and new leaders taking over at the top and not taking employee-friendly decisions... and many more...

The question here is: Do companies really mean to assess the value proposition in their decisions or the impact their decisions might make for employees at all?

Maybe, it's just another HR tool to sugarcoat the bitter truth. But, does HR too own those decisions? Questionable. Well, the matter of the fact is, without any doubt, that the first assessment of any initiative is to know what's the value proposition for the shareholders? If that's good enough, everything else is overridden. If, as a byproduct employees benefit out of it, the companies encash it as a 'EVP offered at XYZ Inc.,' Way to go guys, what say?!

So, next time you hear that 'EVP thing', ask yourself, if it is EVP or CVP?

When Bosses play God!

Being a manager is quite a privilege. You're in authority, you've got the power to influence... and most importantly you've got subordinates to manage, get work done, groom and develop. But, is it that simple? Being an HR professional, I get to interact with Business Heads, Sr. Managers, Managers & TLs who play a significant role in shaping people in organizations both at strategic and operational levels. Apart from work and styles, what strikes me most, is the 'God' like feeling that these people fantasize.. Ugh! It certainly gets the HR loathing..

Here's what my few experiences of Boss playing God have been--

• They'd like to enforce a certain career path (change in role / domain / department) with a negligible attitude towards individual consent. They feel the individual will see the benefit later (how they wish the employee stays after such humiliating act)
• Overriding a senior's instruction to be carried out, or manipulating the same at own discretion to influence the outcome (and expect the juniors' support if it gets screwed up)
• The biggest show-off comes when the bosses talk about how they can, in a positive or negative way influence the appraisals, progression and salary increments (as if an employee's future is in his/her hands)
  

As I write, and ask for some examples from Joy, she says, "It's little virtual, but they think that ways all the time." Well, the above mentioned are few actions manifested in different forms when it comes to practical application.

However, if we talk of the end, in a world like ours, when we're questioning the existence of God Divine, can we really expect little ones as our managers and bosses to play god with us really? At least with the class of 'somewhat' self-aware people (including myself) I hang out with, they perform miserably, and lose whatever little credibility they have in sight..

TDTY - Pursuit '97

11 years of Pursuit... the memories of it still keep coming back...

Pursuit camps were always organized during mid-August to take advantage of the extra-holiday... I can still remember how I reached my school with a bag, and afraid of not knowing none at the camp, and was walking towards the canteen, and soon I was greeted by Peter Banerjee, Venkat Uncle and with introductions, soon everyone was pals...

Ice-breaker, yes, it was there that I heard that word the first time!!! Uncle John Samuel did it for us, it was the rabbits chasing game.. and everyone just loved it... I got to know some really really amazing people, Anita Paul, Benita Paul, Christina Dhas, Peter Banerjee, Abhishek Gier, Corrie Susan, Judy, Alfred Allan, Rajeev, Celestina, Christina Rayalu, Sherry Thomas, Jerry William, Abhy, Moses, Prashanti so many... I can't just forget it!

Thanks to Evangelical Union (EU), I got introduced through Venkat Uncle & Lata Aunty; Mrs. Parrot & Mr. Sahayam few years before that, and that's how I got to do Pursuit '97.

The first day session by Uncle Gier, and the following discussions with Anita, two by twos with Judy, Alfred (our friendship is in the skies), and the last day session where Prasanna Kumar uncle asked us all to share our learnings, and man, everyone was sinking in grace of God, and each could feel the Spirit stirring our hearts...

I still remember how Christina, Myself used to take walk in the night beyond norms, and share how God's helping hand is with us... Throughout the camp, if I could say something it's only that we were soaking in the love of God. No cares of what was outside the school walls, no news from outside world, nothing... And, guess what, we had camp parents... and... at the end of the camp, no one wanted to leave the school campus, no one wanted to leave each other... That's how bonded we got. Perhaps, we got a taste of what heaven is!

But, that's not what God made us for, right? He wanted us to go out and share the love... so we all dispersed from the camp, we again had a camp follow-up meeting at the same place, most turned up, few didn't. A few among them including me, Christina, Jerry, Rajeev, Celestina/Christina, Benita became committee members and led few camps following the same theme Pursuit for couple of years. I even had the opportunity to go for Committee Members Training Camp (CMTC), with Amit Paul Kerketta in Kotagiri where only handful from across India get to go... till I got into graduation and soon I became too (conspicously) busy in other things...

That one camp, was such a gateway to so many opportunities of learning, and most of all to grow in the knowledge of the love of Christ, that I cannot ever forget it! Perhaps, more than my formal education, that's by far, one of the greatest milestones to my life!

What's Pursuit '97?
While still studying at Faith Academy, Prasad Nagar, it was my first Evangelistic Camp I ever attended in my life. I just passed into XII, and had only joined this school a year ago. Haven't really gelled well with the folks around, except for few... My best friends Satish & Vishnu had left Delhi; had it not been for Krishna, I would've been very lonely then...

Thanks to God's abounding grace to provide me more than friends, and worthy purpose to use me in some manner for His glory in those days... Pursuit '97 has been a great blessing in my life! It keeps me amazed, how God, in his grace, keeps me loving a wretch like me... and I just can't help, but fall in love with him over and over and over again!!!

TDTY - To Nainital and Back...

This day, That year - It was the year 2005, this very day, about almost the same time we just landed (Manohar, Nadeem, Vikram) with our aching bums at J2/30, Malviya Nagar after our 3-day bike-ride from Nainital.

Conversations with Nadeem has resulted in this blogpost TDTY, thanks to him.. or I would have only just kept thinking of this trip.. here's a bit from our write-up of that trip...

A calm surrender to the awesome grandeur of the mountains,
The gratification of senses from the breath of a cloud,
Pine crests, misty roadways, deep valleys, the shimmering sun,
The very knowledge of your presence in the moment was blissful,
The sound of a stream drifting by, echoes in wilderness,
To stand on the highest rock, gaze down on everything else belittled…
A walk in the clouds! Halfway to heaven! Euphoric!

The wind was cool, summer sun dimmed and the rain forbearing.
It was as if the gods have blessed our trip.
Three angels, three kings, three musketeers,
The number was perfect; it was the ‘Three of Us!’
Everything worked out so fine, not a flake of obstruction all our way…
That was what our trip to Nainital has been.

The whole trip detail, and the pics are available here on: My Travel blog

Funny how excited we were then to plan another bike ride 2 years later, but now, Vikram's happily married, Nadeems taking a GMAT run, and me blogging away to glory!

India flags, made in China

It is Independence Day celebrations across India Inc., today, and we ordered for pin-up Indian flags to be distributed and worn by all at our office today. The flags were bought by our facilities folks, and here’s what they looked like – bemusing saffron & green, the Ashok Chakra with 4 spokes only… and guess what? The flags are ‘Made in China’ ;-)

Wonder what's next!