Power Play At Office

I watch with great amusement at how people play the power card in their work places.

A few months back I had the opportunity to observe this phenomenon unfolding even if I was very much unconnected with the whole thing.

Sometime in the 1st week of November last year, X who had resigned due to disagreement with Y, her boss, got reappointed and was made an executive who would report to Z who is her ex-boss' boss! The reappointment itself was on purely sympathetic grounds.

During the initial weeks she was so meek and timid, not quite sure about the power which she could throw around being officially close to the number one. Many were expecting some kind of 'weight throwing' yet nothing happened, so everyone started 'throwing their weights' instead making her look like a poor choice for the much-coveted post.

Come X'Mas and New Year Eve, on behalf of her boss, she was involved in receiving and sending greetings, gifts to so many high level officials. Soon the sheer power of it all began going to her head. Her manner, her body language, her speech, underwent a major change from being timid to one who knew, who she was!

Now I see her wielding power and attracting those very people who ignored her in the beginning. Not in the positive way but in a negative way.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Until the bomb called boss decides to explode in public view over some trivial matter or non-performance of the executive. This is like fodder for hungry cattle and is enough for others all around to gossip in whispers. In most cases, i'ts just a matter of time for such explosions to occur!

It is hard to be just yourself and carry on with work rather than walk into or allow the traps of power and posts go to one's head. The lower the post, the more the head-weight (read as being on an ego trip).

It is not the person we look up at, it is usually the chair which seats that power we look up to. Remove the person from the seat of power and very soon (s)he is forgotten. In the drama called life there's another new person being feted by all until he or she is replaced by yet another.

Power has been doing strange things to people from time immemorial.
It is up to us how we handle power thrust on us.

Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.

Going Back Home.

My sister left for Canada.
My eyes were brimming with tears on 16th at the thought of her leaving us all so soon but I consoled myself saying she has a family back home who would have missed her and will be eager for her return.
We have both been very close to each other right from our childhood. Asha, my youngest sis has been my dear pal first and then only everything else. We shared so many things between us which I may never think of sharing with anyone else.
Her kind and helping nature, humility, good thoughts, inner strength, always keeping her promises at any cost, are some of her strong points.

We always think of our own homes and family responsibilities. Our priorities change when we start a family of our own despite being very close to each other.
Asha came for 3 weeks and time flew like no one's business. Yet we had been there and done that in the short period she stayed with us.

I have a habit of returning back home even if it is a late hour as I like to return back home. To my familiar surroundings, my kitchen, my computer, to the comfort of my bed and my soft pillow.
Only when I have to travel away do I compromise on all these.

Asha said she was happy to stay with us. She must also be happy to be back home with her family now. Glad she called to say she reached safely with all luggage intact.

I shall miss her but I am happy we got time to catch up on so many things in person though she and my other sisters will always remain in my thoughts each and everyday.

Cheers.
Mahalakshmi.

The Bill Amount

Today being Pongal, I was expecting a few knocks on my door with requests for tips.

There was a knock alright but it turned out to be the newspaper boy with December's bill for Rs.95/-. I gave him a hundred and as expected he started searching for Rs.5to return back, I merely said, 'Happy Pongal'. He flashed a million dollar smile in gratitude for the small tip which for him meant 'keep the change'.

Met up and chatted with guests who came to greet, took up all the time today.

We all ate sweet pongal and vadai. It's all about special food that is made during festivals.

Mahalakshmi.

The Auto Driver And The Raddiwala.

These past three weeks, my sister and I have been hiring a known auto driver to take us around for our shopping sprees as autos can wind their way through the traffic more easily than a car.

The auto driver's name is Siva. He seems to be a decent and a well-mannered guy but comes a bit costlier than others. This is the first time that I am hiring him for many trips. For 5 to 6 hours of trips anywhere across the city, he charges us
Rs.600/-.

Glad I could cover most hotels like Sri Krishna Sweets, Mathsya, Sanjeevani, Suriya Sweets, Pizza Hut, but could not take her to Radisson Temple Bay due to time constraints.

I asked Siva to drop me off at the office today. Before I got down he quickly told me that he needed Rs.1000/- as a loan to buy clothes for his kids for Pongal tomorrow. I told him to come home late evening to see me about it.

I finished work early. There was a little more shopping to do around the Adyar area and the time was close to 8.30pm. I pushed away doubtful thoughts from my mind, just handed over the money to Siva, relieved him for the day and asked him to rush to get clothes for his kids before the shops closed for the night.

I have had bitter experience after lending to a known auto driver, a newspaper vendor and a maid servant. They never returned back the loan. Never came back after they took loans. Yet this time I had matured more. I know it may not come back as promised yet I am willing to give him the money just so that his kids can wear new clothes for the festival. He's watching us binge, spend money on so many things and must have thought Rs.1000 may not be a big amount for us.

Whatever may be the reason, I have parted with the money, least expecting him to return it back. If he returns it back as promised within a week, I will be happy. If for some reason he does not return back, I will be happy for I have given it with full knowledge that the money lent may never come back. This preparing of the mind for eventualities makes things so much easier.

But in my heart of hearts what I really fear is the habit of some people returning the loan amount but then soon after, ask for higher sums on a regular basis. I hope it does not happen this way.

On another occasion our raddi-wala (who barters plastic buckets for old newspaper and old zari sarees) was once crying that he had lost his son to snake bite in his village. Only a week had gone by and he came on his business as usual saying he had to earn something to do the rituals on a later day. I sympathized and gave him
Rs.500/-. This man comes back after performing the rituals, saying he had to spend Rs.3000/- due to pressure from his relatives. I told him at the cost of being a little rude that the relatives should not be consulted for such things and we should spend well within our means. Otherwise he may have had plans to extract the remaining Rs.2500/- also from me. Its been 8 years after that incident yet he appears at my doorstep every month, knocks on the door, demands that I give him the old newspapers and old sarees in exchange for his plastic buckets. At this rate I would be walking only on buckets at home. I try to scold him and send him away saying I will have to buy sarees and newspapers everyday to give him every month. These past few months, I just hide in a room and ask my husband to send him away with some reply as I don't want to unnecessarily get into conversation with him anytime. I can hear my husband being plied with questions about "where is amma? She had asked me to come today!"

Being kind does have its disadvantages with your have-nots.

Anyway two kids will be happy wearing clothes which their father may have hopefully bought at the nth hour for Pongal.

Happy Pongal and may happiness and prosperity brim over for all of us.

Mahalakshmi.

T.Nagar Shopping Spree

Its been a whirling past week with shopping and more shopping with my sister.

Asha, I am not a team leader. I freelance and take up projects from time to time. I shall upload my profile asap. I am still a student, studying and learning in the school called life hoping to pass exams as and when they come.

Went around shops buying up things big and small. Trying to pack in as much weight as is permissible.

So many thoughts rush through, my fingers ready to type but the mind is tired and I realize I need my beauty sleep for yet another busy day tomorrow.

Cheers.
Mahalakshmi

Importance of Team Work

I must thank Asha for hoping that an opportunity comes my way to see the Taj Mahal. We never know. It might just happen, God willing.

$$$$

Team work is important. It teaches all of us to work together, even though we may all differ in our views on just about anything.

This write-up is about team project work.
Engineering students are required to work in teams on projects in their final year, in a company of their choice but related to their branch of engineering.

4 years back a team of 4 students (let's call this team 1)took up a mechanical engineering project as dissertation and 2 students (team 2) took up a refrigeration project in a nuclear facility, some distance away from our city. These 2 teams would travel by bus every day, report at the site, do their work and return back late evening. 1 gate pass was issued to one team which meant all the members of the team should report at the site together to pass through the security gate, unless 1 or 2 were absent and were not going to report later that day, at the site. It was tricky and these things were explained well in advance so that all of them understood the importance of starting together at the same time each day. So the team spirit had to start right from there! Working together would come later!!

4 students coming from 4 different backgrounds. In team 1, 2 came from the villages of Andhra and were staying in a rented room in T.Nagar. 2 were residents of Chennai.
All of them had to assemble at a particular bus stop at 8am. It can be expected that initially all will have problems with the time schedules. For 2 days they struggled, fought over this and that. Their guide was very strict that all 4 should come without fail unless very sick. Otherwise they would not get through with the project. As young lads of 20 tempers are supposed to run quite high but how they all managed to control it just so that the team finished work at hand was a revelation to me. They would comment badly in whispers so that the bad one never heard of it so that there was no spoke in the wheel at any time. I will quote just one major instance in each team.
On the 3rd day the T.Nagar guys din't appear at the bus stop even by 10am! Despite repeated calls to their mobile phones there was absolutely no response of any kind!! So these 2 din't know whether to proceed without them or not. Eventually they decided to go in person to T.Nagar and find out the reason as it was really too late to report at the site that day.
When they reached the place they could hear the other two talking quite loudly but when they called out to them and knocked at the door, it was opened by one fellow while the other fellow was covered with a blanket from head to toe! All 3 chatted for about 3 hours arguing about wasting a day and all the while, the other fellow slept through or at least pretended to be in deep sleep :D
The other guy said once they both knew it was going to be late they just din't want to even respond to calls as they were afraid of what the other 2 will say. That was the excuse but he promised to 'tell' the sleeping beauty about it and assured that this will not occur again next time.

Later it was decided to take up a few rooms near the site itself and stay there itself until their project got completed which took about a month and more.
This seemed to work better. They finished it though with so many complaints amongst themselves, yet one thing that emerged from this exercise was that they learnt to adjust somehow with each other's failings or shortcomings in that period. It was a good thing to have happened especially since all were on the verge of starting a career. Unity in diversity.

The 2nd team had only 2 guys. One would work very hard at the project while the other would prefer to roam around the city in his motorbike which meant 1 fellow was left to do all the work and include this lazy guy's name also in the project. There was so much heart burn. Towards the very end the other guy read up the report and starting projecting as if he had been instructing this other guy over phone at every step! This made the hard worker even more angry yet peace had to be maintained at any cost for the sake of project.

How teams were formed seemed to be god's handiwork. They just joined in!

When it was time to face the viva voce, those who worked hard were able to answer questions from the external examiners better than those who showed scant interest or merely submitted their copy of the same project report with all their names on it as a team.

Even if its the same project, same age people working in the same place, some put their hearts and souls into their work, some run errands, some just watch as if it din't concern them at all. But when its time to answer questions, it shows who worked!! So no one can fool everyone all the time.

The true nature of the person comes through in such situations so very transparently for everyone to see or feel. Teams, Families, Office... it's all about the same thing. How we see, place, depend, perform, behave when we are put together for a purpose.

It's a good learning experience of how many kinds of people we may have to come across in our lives - project or no project.

Mahalakshmi.

The Taj Mahal

Among some of my desires is to see the Taj Mahal, visit the Manasarovar and Brindavan. Revisit Hardwar and Rishikesh. Go around Jaipur to soak in the colors and beauty of the city of ancient palaces.

Had the opportunity to attend my nephew's wedding at Faridabad 5 years back.
Since there was a whole day for us to see places, our family planned to travel down to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and on our way back to see the Brindavan before joining in the baaraat, late the same day.

It was Friday and our Scorpio speeded towards Agra which was just a few hours away from Faridabad. We reached Agra and I was waiting to feast my eyes on the marble inlay work which have enamel motifs and floral designs. These are shown on TV documentaries sometimes but they would be 2 seconds shot and not enough to soak in the artwork.

Alas, it was closed as it was Friday. I was very disappointed. But a guide told us to take a rickshaw through the narrow lanes to reach the rear portion. We were taken to the banks of the river Yamuna behind the monument.
We could see the imposing Taj from an angle though separated by its imposing compound wall. I had to be content with this sparse view. I promised to come back another time on another trip and spend a whole day drinking in the beauty of the architecture and artwork of this beautiful monument.

On our way back we had enough time in going around the famed Agra Fort. We saw sturdy centuries' old grape bushes, fish ponds and the royal entertainment inner courtyards, the big durbar hall with hundreds of pillars which was an engineering cum architectural marvel, etc.

It was getting late for the evening function so we had to skip Brindavan but we stopped the car to buy some Agre ka peda and some pethaa on the highway near the place.

After the wedding, we proceeded to Delhi to stay at my sister-in-law's house for a couple of days. She recommended that we don't miss Hardwar and Rishikesh. So we booked for a single day to cover both places.
I was overwhelmed at the sight of huge mountains on the way up and the gush of the holy Ganges flowing down at great speeds to somewhere southwards.

It was a humbling moment to stand like a puny dwarf before the mighty mother nature.

God willing want to go visiting the Taj, the Brindavan, but when is the big question with so much happening in our lives at the moment.

Mahalakshmi.