Statistics ...

Betaal moved with his infamous smirk on his face to Vicky's office.
There was a test on his head ! For sure and he knew Vicky this time will flunk !

Betaal - "How you doing Vicky ? Long time no see".

Vicky - "Could be better. A lot of engineers calling in Sick this Friday. I can not understand what is that on a Friday one would fall sick ? I am convinced 99% of them are healthy and just making it a long weekend by calling in sick. And with media reporting H1N1 at this rate, no one can really question it. One never knows if someone is really sick. But productivity and deadlines taking hit."

Betaal - "Good Vicky ! I have a story for you. Let me know what would you do in this case. And I am sure you would do the right thing"

The story goes like this -

"A modern busy executive with family and kids, employed a driver to help with household chores. The driver has a weekly off day, Sunday. One Saturday morning he called in saying his mom is doing some Puja and he needs a days off.

The next Monday he called in to say he is sick.

A week later he called in saying his grandfather died and needs the Saturday off and Monday too. All within a span of one and half months. "

Vicky ! What is your take ? Is the driver telling truth ? He can fall sick, he can lose an elderly relative and has to be there with family mourning. He has to be part of family celebrations too. Should the executive continue to keep him on job ? He has no way to verify all these things. And firing a help over seemingly natural and plausible reasons is not humane. What should he do ?

Vicky did not have to do a lot of thinking. He said - "The driver should be fired. Just because of one fact. The death of grandfather. This is 99.9% of time an excuse used by helps. And if he is fired for telling lies to take off most of the days, the executive would be 99.9% right. And 0.01% wrong. Simple statistics says that this is a lie"

Betaal - "But what if he is not telling a lie ? The guys entire living comes from driving his employers family around".

Vicky - "Yeah ! There is a slim chance of that. Very slim".

Mourning through work

I ve nothing against the fallen hero of Andhra Pradesh (YSR).
Mainly because I do not know him. Not known his work and never lived
in the state he has administered.

Nevertheless, I trust the media outcry, and truly mourn the
loss.

But here comes the sad part. The govt. in this neighboring state
declared holiday for govt. offices as well as schools on a
Friday.

Which is supposed to be a very eventful day for the teachers.
In India it is celebrated as "Teachers Day". I grew up chanting in chorus
with other calss mates "guru bramha guru vishnu gurudeva maheshwara" on this
day. And speaking up in the assembly about the life and work of
Dr. Radhakrishnan.

With the evolving time, last year, the teachers of my LKG going kid, had a
fun day where they presented Bollywood dance numbers to a auditorium full of
4 yr olds and their parents. Fun and full of activities.

This year, none of that. All preparation went in vein because YSR is dead.

And Govt. employees got one holiday to mourn.

Now, this reminds me the events at Toyota in Japan in early nineties.
When the labor union and management could not come to a conclusion on wages
after a long strike, the saddened laborers took up a strikingly the different
approach.

Instead of "idling" to bleed the profit of the company, they decided to
work long long hours and build up inventory so much that, the prices of the
product dropped and created pressure on the management.

That was some counter thinking and act of "expressing sadness through work".

And here we are stuck to doing it by NOT doing work.

Can we switch to mourn / express our humanly emotions of displeasure by working more
than required for a change ? Even if it means dancing to Bollywood numbers and not
chanting "Guru Bramha ... " !

For a few dollars more !

This is not Betaal's usual dose of corporate gyan ! This is a true life experience that came last evening, when I was jogging on the shoreline of a lake, while my kid was in a near by tennis class.

100 meters from the lakes, sky scrapers, India's upwardly-mobile upper middle class residences. Rich, civilized and law abiding citizens.

In the 100 meters between the sky scrapers and the lake, are small patch of slums, narrow un-motrable roads, a temple. A stark contrast with the richness and posh-ness few meters away. The slum holds India's poor. The one's who work as domestic helps few meters away, in small temporary houses.

Nevertheless, its a good place to jog in the evening. Because of the lake and road that are not frequented by vehicles.

Yesterday's jogging was not usual. In my second round, I saw a small gathering on the road. 5-6 people from rich side of the line and 5-6 kids from the poor side of the line, all gathered to watch a drunk man beating a woman brutally.

All spectators from a distance to this act happening out in the open on a road.

Took me by surprise. Some people even watch it for a few moment and then walk away. Small motorbikes watch, honk and pass through the live incidence as if nothing is happening.

I stopped and asked the man, why is he beating the woman. The man said, with a brick in his hand, - "I would smash your head if you interfere. She is my wife and I can beat her anytime I like".

I persisted on knowing the reason. So much so that he engaged with me in a conversation. Something that I wanted.

I took the opportunity ! Asked him a few questions -

Me - "You from Rajasthan?"

Man - "Nope ! Nepal"

Me - "That was my second guess. I am from a place very close to Nepal. I love visiting Kathmandu, but with all recent violence in Nepal not been there in last few years."

Man - "There is no tension now. All settled in Nepal"

Me - "Very happy to know that. How many kids you have and are they here or in Nepal ?"

Man - "4 kids. 2 sons, 2 daughters. They are here. I am 40 yrs old. I was born in "Falguna (Spring)" of 1970. My name is Saran Singh. And sir - if you think of calling police (pointing to the phone in my hand) I do not care. As even police has given up hope on Saran Singh. I can beat up police too and put my khukri through them if they interfere"

Me - "Great. You look so strong. And you are like my younger brother as his name is also Saran. And he is around your age. By the way, I also have 2 sons and 2 daughters. Are your sons elder ? "

Saran - "No. Girls"

Me - "Mine too. Girls are elder. By the way, if your previous slap would have hit your wives eye who would take care of four kids ?"

Saran had softened a bit by then. The woman's crying has subsided. The crowd was thickening a bit.

The conversation went on for almost 30 mins more. But it was completely irrelevant to the act. In the mean time, I asked the woman to go to her job for which she was getting late. She requested as she left, to drop the Saran at his house. I walked with Saran to his house as he was explaining me the reason why he was hitting his wife. It was for Rs. 100. The man gave her Rs. 500/- and asked him to pay back Rs. 400/- to another person who will come home to pick up some dues. And keep the change Rs 100, for his drinks in the evening as he needs it to recover from 3 nights of continuous work he has done for that Rs. 500 saving.

The woman by mistake has given all Rs 500/- to the due collector.

Rs. 100 ( $2) has cost her some blood and pain and cost the man his only means of recovering from long hard 3 days of work.

I saw him off at his house and asked him to try solve problems without violence one time in life. Next time I see him, I ll ask him that. He said, 'certainly' !

That extra *something* ....

Some wise guys said long time ago "If you keep doing whatever you are doing, you will keep getting what you getting".

Well ! That's right in most cases. Unless you are a gold digger and actually find gold one day on that sandy beach !

Something, my gym trainer helped me to understand in a very hard way !

When he says I ve to do 16 reps of a particular weight, and I am *DONE* by 14th, my engineering head tells me - "what will go so right with just 2 more reps? I ve gotten enough". But then he explains, those two are the most valuable ones.
As they are right beyond your comfort zone. Right beyond what your muscles are used to. If you give up at 14, the muscle wont feel the need to get stronger. You did not stretch it.

Makes sense now !! YES ..

And, amazing parallel I could draw to the corporate life. People who grow successfully, stretch that comfort zone of developing / testing / deal making / decision making ! One notch at a time. And many other wonderful employees stay where they are, still doing excellent job within their comfort zone.

Associating .. Can save lives !!

Met a fellow country person abroad ?
Reacted to the very small news in Boston Globe that talks about fire in an "Indian Grocery Shop" ?

Even if you do not know someone, have you felt warm just seeing a person wearing "your" company T-Shirt in a crowded shopping mall ?

All human beings look for a reason to associate and a reason to differentiate, themselves from others.

But I associating could save lives, came to me as an extreme example today.

Bunch of internationally renowned academicians are in Bangalore for IEEE conference. One of the papers being discussed here among these research oriented engineers / academicians and mathematician, was rather interesting.

One Electronics prof. along with a psychologist have come up with a case study if human behavior during catastrophic incidents and the case study is largely based on the world trade center fire on 9/11, post the terrorist attack.

And the most simple yet eye opening conclusion is - "The floor where the entire floor was the same company, casualties were the minimum. People helped each other. No stampede. No chaos. The floors where many small companies rented space on one floor had maximum chaos, stampede and casualties."

Amazing reinforcement of a basic human property. This can directly map to a typical corporate job as a tool for better collaboration.

Change your next call with AS / CA / TAC even demanding customer (the other teams) to a video conference or meet them personally. Talk about something that associates, than something that differentiates.

Most likely the heated debates, that are norm, will trend down !

Doing Good ! Bollywood style ...

Generating Awareness !

.. otherwise called "Promo" in Bollywood ! One of the leading businesses in the field of entertainment !

The week long headlines about Swine Flu, today was replaced in all major dailies with one of the superstars being detained by US Immigration official for questioning.

Big enough news to throw swine flu out of headlines - headlines that has created enough panic about age old "cough and cold" and pushed more people to "get it" by sending them to long govt. hospital lines to get tested. Forcing healthy people to go mingle with sick people using "panic".

And a superstar managed to reduce the panic :)

Post the newsflash - he comes on TV and says "I was discriminated because "My Name is Khan" " .

Wonderful ! This is a crazy coincidence that his forth coming movie is named "My Name is Khan".

A complete novel way to "promo" a movie. Bollywood has figured out a real innovative way ! And unknowingly did good to nation too - by reducing the panic about FLU.

Cashing on "Basic Instincts" !

While the whole world is going crazy over "weight reduction" and "diet plans", comes the study that says this ... (on one of the major dailies with bold headline)

"Blokes with beer bellies can relax. A new survey has revealed that women find manly men complete with hairy chests, messy hair and a beer belly
attractive and prefer them to so-called metrosexuals. "

Until you read through few more lines where you find this ...
"The study, which was carried out by Lion Bar ice cream ... "

While there is a billion dollar industry trying to shape up human race for better attention from opposite sex, this one is sponsored by a high calorie ice cream bar, to do the reverse. Stay the way - eat ice cream and you are better off ! ;)

Any which way to grab that dollar. When you can not fight, join them !

One striking similarity is around "being attractive to opposite sex" ! That one is really age old and the most basic instinct !

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Full story here