UID - Is it really possible?

My recent interest and thought process about the data warehouse, BI & related domains led me to a very interesting discussion with one of my long time friends today evening. Must say that it was a productive evening spent after ages!

We were actually discussing the nuances of the data storage and auto-scalability of the database designed for the highly ambitious Unique IDentification (UID) project of Indian government. With more than 1.2 billion people spread across a geographical area of 3,287,263 square kilometers, data collection would be a huge problem no matter how many parallel processes you run. By the time you collect the data of an area, there would already be a new person on-board! Hence you need to get into the depth of analyzing the frequency of birth of a given region (assuming that there would be region wise managers appointed for monitoring and that they would do they job J). A simple query run over a few days (however optimized the query might be) will give them this result; no hi-fi statistical tools are required.

Luckily for them (or may be planned - not sure though), the 2011 census is just on its way. Hence getting the basic information about majority of population should cover up in the cost allocated for census (or have they considered this streamlining - well, not sure again!). But, the major task is to collect the iris details, finger prints and other details which the census would not cover. Now, there is an interesting scenario - Say the above mentioned query is run; even then, they have to re-do this analysis of who is the new born? In a country like India, getting a birth certificate is not a mandate for a lot of communities! Over that, there are a lot of mishaps which happen in the due course of issuance of the birth certificate (due to government job issues etc). So, this leads to a lot of data inconsistency w.r.t a real time physical data. This is where government policies come in handy. One very straight forward solution which strikes me is the mandate of UID at various critical point of contacts (banks, Income Tax, Ration Cards, Voters ID cards etc) in which case atleast some sort of inconsistency is covered. But again, there is still a work around for this. No prices for guessing - CORRUPTION of course!

This is when the equation in my mind got really complex and I asked myself - 'UID - Is it really possible to an extent what it is dreamt about? Are they really going to make it large?’ - Well I really hope they do so; time will anyway answer the question!

PS: I haven’t read any facts about UID as such. Just penned down my thought process for today. Would love to know more - technically, politically and managerially.

Inquisitive Innocence

Wanted to break the silos of writing only management thoughts and thus doing injustice to the title of my blog! I had reduced the frequency with which I travel and meet new / old people. Just getting back…

It was a colleagues’ marriage in north Karnataka and a few of us at office decided to board a train for the travel. A last minute entry into the train saw us running towards our seats before settling down. Next to our seat was a 6-7 year old kid (or should I call him a BOY :D) of one of our other colleagues who was trying to unwind into his own world. A quick talk and play with him and we were already friends since ages (thanks to the innocence in him…)!

Sitting near the doors of the train next to him proved to be a killer step in befriending him as he hadn’t experienced it ever in the past. But to my surprise, this made him become inquisitive about whatever he saw outside. How is the mud formed? Why is the coconut tree having a body which looks like a stick? Why is the Sun moving behind the clouds? How is water formed? What is a train made of? Given the shape of the railway line, how are the wheels? Why are there stones in between the tracks? Etc etc etc! These questions seemed to never end for the rest of the day.

Though the trip ended last Sunday, I still had these questions running in my mind and the thought of schools shutting down this inquisitiveness cluttered those thoughts! Though there are a lot of schools coming up these days which cater to fill the gap mentioned above, I feel that it surely isn’t enough. Any kid should be given opportunities to explor(d)e, learn from their own mistakes (in which case it should be put into situations where mistakes are bound to happen), question, vent out into areas unknown, etc. The inquisitiveness should not be crumpled because of the shear need of a foolish society! Hope to see a new thought process to arise…

Motivating the support function

I always used to wonder about solving the mystery of motivating a support function (HR, Finance, administration, security etc) of an organization. Though these categories of people are paid a lesser amount of salary when you compare it with the ‘Billable’ resources, they form the most integral part of completing an organization and often act as engines to drive the company forward. But unfortunately not all organizations give importance to them and seldom take pains to motivate them; they are expected to be a set of self-motivated individuals being the reason!

In the due course of demystifying the motivational parameters for the backbone of an organization, I bumped into the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. For the ones who are new to it, just refer to the diagram below:

But you cannot have a direct mapping with the hierarchy as it is. Hence, I tried changing it to map it with the dimensions which would probably motivate the support function.

The Impact

McKinsey Quarterly early in the morning has become a norm for me now. In one of its latest reports on the public sector - 'The Market State', they have tried to describe the state of the society existing in the market. In the due course of doing the same, a few analysis on the unemployment issues existing across the globe (esp post recession) stuck my thought process.

"While Japan and most European countries don’t share Spain’s punishing 20 percent unemployment rate, they have sacrificed GDP growth to support a robust social-safety net." Well... there are as always two perspectives to this statement.

Looking at the brighter side of the coin, the social welfare is still protected even though the markets have created havoc. The interest of the society is maintained to an extent where people can lead their day-day life without having to bother much about their daily bread. They will have to eventually find a job in the given time span for financial coverage. But with recession hit countries, the span has been stretched after the government has realized the fact of jobs not being available for the locals. Obama tried bringing in a few laws for local employment at US. This did prove to be a success to some extent though there were certain communities apposing it! Even during my days at the UK, I figured out the fact that the government did offer a financial cover to its citizens for a certain period of time so that their daily bread is protected.

But an economists’ counter argument would be ‘Look at it with the magnifying glass of the world! People in the globe are working.’ He is definitely right in his perspective of a boundary less operation. But, with the political scenario existing, it might not be a near possibility. Coming back… With the world getting flatter by the day, it is becoming a very challenging task for countries to create and maintain jobs locally. Hence these measures are proving to be a boon to the society. But by doing this, can the countries sustain for long? Won’t the debt of the countries increase to an extent where it is not returnable? Taking a pessimistic view, to answer these questions, I tried drawing the ‘MR=MC’ curve.



Consider MR (Marginal Return) as a parameter for the income from taxes and other governmental cash inflows and MC (Marginal Cost) as the cash outflows in terms of infrastructure development, Social welfare, R n D etc. Now, if a percentage tolerance to the point MR=MC is provided (point ‘Z’ in the above graph), the countries can probably control the amount of debt which might impair the growth. When the countries have decided to sacrifice the GDP growth due to social issues, the tolerance level just increases and hence the uncertainty of growth.

But whatever be the decision to go ahead with, the complexity in terms of the number of diversified parameters involved in this is huge! Hope that the political heads won’t screw up things by taking undesirable decisions…

Managing without the power of execution

Can you do that?? Do you have enough patience to be sandwiched? Can you deal with the top as well as the bottom layers? Can you be a football for the rest of the players on the field to play? etc etc...

In the quest for beating the rest in the rat race and 'Growing' in the industry, one has to deal with the mid-management layer. As my idle days at office continued, I pondered over the career progression offered by the industry. Well, it makes a lot of sense. Though Elliott Jaques considers this as one of the factors for the occurrence of Midlife crisis, it definitely is something which one has to go through.
Usually in this stage of the career, a person gets into a lot of gray areas which tests his patience. The interactions with BOP seem to be obvious; the interactions with the TOP seem to be ridiculous. Though he might know what has to be done to get things done in the right way, he might not be given powers to implement it (strictly coz of the fact that the data available to the guys at the top is very much different). This raises the frustration level and thus might affect his contribution to the company.

The best way to deal with this problem - 'Think in their shoes. Wear a different shoe when you enter into a different discussion...' and Voila! It works! While the concept of 'Six thinking Hats' deals with the different angles of decision making; it is highly applicable for the day-day situations that a person at the mid-management level undergoes. By doing this, unknowingly, he will be grooming himself up for the growth. Having been at the lower levels more recently than his managers, one should be in a better position to strike a connect with them in order to understand them and sync with their thought process. In the quest of growing up, one should be in a position to strike a chord with the top layer.

The question that people at this level often go through is - 'Do I have to really go through all this in order to earn a few bucks?' Well... yes my dear friend; you have to! That is when you will be broadening your reach, getting to understand the different angles of the human psychology, understanding the bigger picture, polishing yourself etc. These are just a few essential traits to deal with the issues faced by the top management. Either you startup someday or grow in the industry to reach the top; immaterial of the path taken, these traits are highly essential for an individual.

The Finance function...

Another day of idleness at office and I started thinking about the working of a Finance function in an organization. Since I have the liberty of walking down to the highly co-operative Finance team and getting the details from them in a generic perspective it made it a lot easier.

After having seen the Q2 results of various industries over the last month, I was in particular wondering about the amount of impact forex rate fluctuations can have on the balance sheets of an organization which is locally registered (and hence the balance sheet should reflect the local currency). It is a no-brainer to guess the fact that the magnitude of the impact is in direct proportion to the size of the deal. A 10 paisa (INR) can make a difference of 100 million in a $1bn deal! Now, though the amount looks to be huge, an organization should concentrate on the factor - 'Percentage contribution of the revenue'; Saying, what % of the total revenue is this 100M contributing to. For a SME, yes it is a huge %; likewise for a larger enterprise, it might not make a huge difference! The enterprises usually get into a contract with the bank where they agree on a future rate in dealing with the currency conversion. This way the risk of currency fluctuation is mitigated to some extent.

During the conversation, I also was informed about the way bank accounts are created in order to avoid the conversion rates (forex transfer rates). Since the % deduction in the forex transfer depends on the bank, it becomes fairly important to avoid this. A forex account specific to the currency of operation is the answer for this. By making this forex account local to the client site, it only avoids the transfer rate. However, the macro-economic parameters (service tax etc.) are country specific and viewed with a bigger picture. Here, it depends on the kind of work being done. If it is a bodyshopping (the service provider just provides resources and are not responsible for what work is done by him), services taxes are most likely to be applicable depending on the country's corporate laws. If a complete development work is done, there might not be a service tax. But all this highly depends on the country with which the engagement happens.

I also worked out a high level Team structure for an IT industry which has to be in place for smooth operation. The team size and intermediate hierarchies depend on the size of the organization.

It's never too late...

After almost an year of experimenting stuff on the field... just when I took sometime to relax and realize a few things, I saw a huge wave of guys bumping on having LOADS of dreams in their eyes... The realization of 'Your boss isn't always right' seemed to be at its peak... Hopes its just not one of the trends of the Hype curve thou :D. Was just pondering over this concept of people getting into enterprenuership offlate... A lot of them have realized the fact that what ever they work for; rather whtevr they are paid for is just a percentage of the bulky stuff! Not that, the situation was something very different before... but people have been bold enough to take a step forward and experiment in the market. This has created a whole lot of enthusiasm waves!

Any organization to sustain over a long period of time with the same amount of motivation in the people has to grow horizontally! Should get into unknown areas of operations... It might take a few bucks and a few more scars on the face but that really is the only way out! If it doesn't succeed to do so, the whole drama of the top notch creaming off starts! When an enterprise doesn't start getting its work done by guys risen from the Bottom Of the Pyramid (BOP), it just cannot deliver new stuff! It always goes by the saying - 'You cannot expect things to change if you don't change the way of dealing with it!'

Having said all this, the whole thought process which was running through my mind since a week was the appropriate time for starting up! Well... the only answer which came out all the time was 'There is no std ans for this!' It seriously is never too late! I have come across people starting up at their 50s. At the same time, have come across people starting up rt after college... So, it precisely is an output of an individual's risk appetite. It all depends on how much can a person bear in order to get into what he is passionate about. Kalyan Verma for example - He just knew that he wanted to be the 'Mogli' of the jungle and entered the Western Ghats and learnt the tricks of the trade on the field for sometime... Then came the boom of photography (thanks to IT...) and boom he clicked his way out for existance!

Many more such examples are there... Hence it is never too late... Just start off with the intial set of ideas and things may fall in place at some point of time. Having worked in unorganized sectors for quite sometime now, I have realized the importance of getting your hands dirty when it comes to on the field jobs! It is always easy to play a blame game and works very well in organized sectors. But, to get things rolling whichever may be the sector one has to roll on the floor and get dirty ... aakhir - 'daag acche hai' :D ...

So guys who want to get out and get going, just do that if you feel you can sustain for sometime financially!!

Cheers,
Shreyas

Groom to grow...

After pretending to be busy for more than a month, here I am back to the basics! Must say, it has just been a good turn around in the past one month or so in terms of relationship management, learning and health! Kick boxing has really helped me to scale up my fitness level before I plunge into the D-day to submit myself to nature's lap and say 'Miles to go before I sleep ... (credits to the Canadian artist for this ever encouraging statement!)'

Nevertheless getting back to the thought process which provoked me to write today; it has been months since I have been thinking about this concept of grooming in a corporate world. I off late end up in discussions which tend to end up in this wonderful concept of grooming the kids! I was in fact amazed with one such conversation in particular where the plan was to plan for a grooming session for organizational promotions. Having groomed a good and co-operative team in the past, these are a few pointers which I feel are essential for an organization to adapt for them to build the next-gen professionals:

>> Psychographic analysis - Not all individuals need hand holding. As a person at the top, one needs to realize 'how to deal with whom.' I like to quote this snippet from a Sanskrit poem which says '... praptetu shoDashe varshe, putram mitramvadaachareth'; meaning once the son (kid) reaches an age group of 16, he has to be treated like a friend by his parents. So, you should know when to guide and when not to. Too much of hand-holding might put the person being groomed in a situation where he wouldn't commit a mistake and wouldn't have dirtied his hands to deal with things later! So, a lot of psychographic analysis needs to go in before you decide how to groom an individual.
>> Conflict Management - I see conflict as an inbuilt boon in any team. Though it makes the situation a bit inconvenient for a few in the team, parking the egos help! This is a very hard lesson to learn as it demands a change in the way an individual works. It takes years for a few and just a few days for a few; majorly dependant on the maturity level of the individual involved in the transformation process. Having seen it myself, I would strongly recommend a good talk around ego and anger management to resolve conflicting situation. This will give a perspective of thought process for the person being groomed himself as he can experience it first hand!
>> Birds' eye view - It is necessary for people moving to more responsible positions to have an organizational perspective of their day-day work. This not only helps in aligning their thought to that of the organization, but also in adding to the maturity level of the individual. He / She will surely come out of the cocoon being an adorable butterfly!
>> Being politically transparent - Transparency of operations is one thing which I have seen working in an organization; be it a small team or a huge corporate. At the same time, people at all walks of the hierarchy should keep in mind about the consequences of being transparent. Hence a balance should be drawn in terms of what has to be transparent in what ways etc. It necessarily doesn’t mean that one has to lie always; but has to be matured enough to realize and accept the fact that not everyone views the information in the way you meant. Even a small coin has atleast two faces! So, political correctness has to be imbibed!

These are a few essentials which I feel has to be imbibed in a grooming session and one cannot expect to be done with grooming overnight! To sum it up ‘Professional maturity’ is the key word and an organization should realize the importance of such a session and view it as a strategic way forward instead of a time & material calculation...

Quandary of a Police Department

Riding my bike on a cloudy evening always gives me immense pleasure. With the cool breeze hitting my face, I will always be racing against time trying my best to sneak into gallis and space between vehicles to ensure that I reach the destination as soon as possible without getting wet. Having spent most of my life in Bangalore, a cloudy evening has always been an all time gift. It was one such evening where I was racing home after office at around 8PM. I just happened to encounter a red signal at the Lalbagh west gate. Very unusual of me, I jumped the signal (had done this after months though) and to my bad luck, there was this Head Constable (HC) Sidayya waiting for me with his boss!

I was stopped right away and I promptly paid him Rs.100 upon acknowledgement of a receipt. One more individual followed me and he too was stopped; but to my surprise, he was allowed to pass through. Then was my time to protest the act of not filing against the other person. I put the stand of my bike and set out to quarrel with the HC. After a hot initial talk, the conversation turned into a discussion and the funniest part was it turning into a grievance session where the HC ended up letting out his frustrations on the traffic police operational inefficiency!

The traffic police are set daily targets of around Rs.3000 - Rs.4000 depending on the inflow of traffic in the area of operation. The night duty policemen detecting the drunken driving case have a target of Rs.5000 per night! That day, there was a high profile meeting of the politicians near the Vasavi School and hence our Siddayya and his boss were asked to do the traffic control duty on this day till 11 PM in the night though his house was 35Kms away. It was his boss’s wedding anniversary that day and he was there on the streets controlling the traffic flow since 9 in the morning! He had to literally beg his higher authorities to leave for the day as he had still not met his daily target.

Now, isn’t this frustrating! To add more to it is the fact that they are not given even a single leave in a month and they have to work for 6 days in a week after being paid peanuts! Now, where will anybody get motivation to work under such an environment? Seeing all this, our Sidayya rejected a promotion to the post of a Sub Inspector few years back. This is the current motivational level of the traffic police! This is not just the case of Siddayya or his boss here. It is the question of the entire police department. Even the area police departments have the same issue. Their targets are in terms of crimes though.

It is a basic HRM related issue which may be a bigger bomb if not addressed as soon as possible. Considering the criticality of the department, it is very important for the government officials to consider this as a high priority issue. If the issue is kept apart and one goes to think about the approach of tackling crime, it Is very shameful to see the targets set on the amount of crime done! It seems as though the basics of prevention being better than cure have been forgotten. Hope the new age policemen are allowed to have a say in things and a more intelligent system in terms of planning emerges. But I definitely praise the act of innovation of the police where they have adopted Bluetooth and other advanced technicalities for operations!

PS: Names changed for security purposes

Amedikallu - An early monsoon trek…

It was the first week of July’10 and I was held up with a little extra work on hands. But as always, ‘The woods were calling…’ I happened to have a random check on the BMC website and found an unseen name – Amedikallu. I was not sure of a 2 day trek initially and had almost decided for a night trek on a Saturday. But eventually I could not avoid the desire to be amidst the Western Ghats. Amedikallu through BMC on the 3^rd and 4^th of July it was!

Amedikallu is a part of the thick shola forest range offered by the Charmadi Ghat section of the Western Ghats. Amedikallu has a huge monolith at the top which appears like a giant turtle and 3 huge stones which give an appearance of a stove. This peak is surrounded by many other important peaks of Western Ghats. It is considered to be one of the toughest in Karnataka and is a two day trek if one wants to make it to the peak comfortably.

All set to go, I got a call at 10:15PM on the 2^nd of July. Kiran, our super enthusiastic trek coordinator from BMC had a quick check with me on the people waiting to board the Swaraj Mazda. After a small round of introduction, we took off from the city life that night and after a super bumpy drive, we arrived at the home stay at Arasinamakki near Dharmasthala (http://streamofjoy.com). It is very simple to reach there. You can catch local buses also to reach this place. The route is (from Bangalore - 260 KM): Hassan- Sakleshpur- Gundya- Enjira (take right diversion here)- Arasiamakki. You can always contact Mr.Kashinath ( 09343206307, 08251-268225 or 09845088088) for any details of it. I can fill this blog by describing the home stay alone, but the best part which I found to be really worth is sitting on the banks of the Kapila river flowing next to the huts where we were staying.

It took us only 30 minutes to freshen up as most of us decided not to take bath that day (provided that it will rain anyway during the trek; else you will anyway sweat). This is the best part of a trek for me where you don’t give a damn about anything else! Nevertheless after a little round of loitering around and an early morning photography, it was time for nice hot ‘taTTe Idlis’ (Plate Idlis - A South Indian dish usually consumed during breakfast or as an evening snack) and amazing ‘Coconut Chutney’. We then packed our lunch and set out for the trek. The 10 of us, Saikat (the guy who can eat anything for existence), Abhijit (he looked like a nerd initially ;)), Sudhansu (the odIya babu), Pradeep (the to be IITK grad), Kiran (the tiger), Sekhar (the Chennai musketeer), Guru (the silent killer), Animesh (Animation though :D), Deepika (the joyous lon(v)ely lady) and myself were accompanied by the trek coordinator Kiran and a local guide.

It was a pretty decent start at 8:30 in the morning. One usually needs to go through the shola forest range to reach the peaks at the Western Ghats. Though we knew that leeches will be there, we were not much bothered about it until we saw them climbing our shoes. Then came the series of ‘S**ts’ and ‘F**ks’ from all of us. The forests were so damp that there were leeches falling from the wet trees, every few steps we took, we were assured of shaking legs with one leech atleast… But after a while, we got used to it and we had mastered the art of plucking them away without salt or fire.

After we crossed the forest range, the contact with the leeches came down and we were amidst the elephant leaf filled grasslands. Since it was early monsoons, the height of the grass was not much. But if a five footer visits the place post monsoons, the group will surely have a tough time locating him! The grass was sharp enough to cut your skin upon application of a little pressure. Around 12 noon we halted to have a quick lunch. After the lunch, 8 of us decided to move ahead and the remaining 4 stayed back. After climbing some distance, myself and Guru decided to stay back as the rocks were really slippery and we took a call to halt there for a while and join the group of 4 in sometime. I would love to visit the place one day to complete it though!

The wait for the 6 of them who had gone ahead almost to the summit was looking like never ending. The weather became tough. Rains, mist and breeze looked to be a deadly combo offer by the Mother Nature. A little bit of internal heat generation via ‘Pranayam’ helped me to stay without a jacket here. I realized the importance of keeping your body metabolism intact. Later we decided to descend before the others returned. As we were returning, we heard the voices of the rest of the people. So, the group of 12 again started to climb down. Except for a few places of only grass, we were able to figure out the way. A few of us decided to literally run through the forest range as we were not ready to treat the leeches after the rains. This was another amazing event where I found myself running alone amidst the thick forest range. We had the pre-historic communicators (via quick shouts) to ensure that all of us are heading the same way.

Finally, at 4 PM, we were back to the place where we started from just to discover that a few leeches are there inside our shoes! After a quick cleanup, we left to the home stay where hot ‘Mangalore bajjis’ (A Mangalore special evening savory) was waiting for us! A good round of talk and dinner saw us through the time before we slept peacefully.

‘Get us guys!’ was the call at sharp 6:30AM in the morning. It was Deepika waking us all up in the morning to ensure that the next day’s itenary is not affected. ‘is badmaash ko flush out karo!’ was the next set of phrase I remember where Abhijit and Animesh were on a mission to kill the leeches inside the room! Before we set out for the day’s activities we had a very good breakfast of Dosas where Mr.Kashinath informed me that the previous night a snake just went behind me while I was having dinner. I was like damn, I missed it again. Till date I have not seen a snake in its natural habitat…

A quick visit to the Shishileshwara temple (Fish temple) and the lovely stream of the kapila river leading to Dharmasthala made our morning on the day 2. We left for the day heading out to the city thinking that the activities are done for two days. But the TT driver proved us to be wrong when a Tata Sumo banged the bumper in the heavy traffic of Bangalore. A 20 minute negotiation and we were done with it. It was time for me to take leave from this amazing set of people with whom I had another memorable weekend!

Cheers,

Shreyas

koDri aNNa Road Tax!

It was a Friday and I was on my way back home from college. It was the end of another hot week at Bangalore as there was absolutely no rain during the week. Unfortunately, I encountered a red signal at the signal near the old Family mart (Junction connecting Kanakpura road with the ring road). It was for me to sight a few eunuchs on the other side of the road. It in fact is a very normal sight for Bangaloreans off late to find them at signals across the city. So, I was not surprised to see one. The fact which took me by awe was the person mentioning the word “Road Tax”! The person near the vehicle and uttered “koDri aNNa Road Tax!” (Give me the Road Tax brother…). Now this was something new!

I was easily able to relate the person’s words with the way we deal with the market. Since I have been involved with the marketing world since more than an year now, it made a lot of sense to me. The way authentic words are abused in the management world is exactly what I was referring to. ‘Strategy’, ‘Synergy’, ‘Depends’, ‘Let’s see’ and many more are used just in the same way. Well, at the end of the day the person was trying to market an intangible value through which a perceived value from the prospective customers could be bought.

Putting myself in a marketer’s shoe let me see the other side of the coin. Well it is really important as a marketer for one to use well knitted gloves in this heavy weight competition! When there are thousand people around exploiting the economic situation to get some bucks in their pocket, it makes sense to get atleast the left out; in which case a company will be forced to knit its offerings very well by exploiting the words which are there at the offerings to get used up!

Looking at the incident from the perspective of a social being, I was sad and at the same time angry with the situation. Frankly speaking, the community of eunuchs started agitations long back when there was not much equality displayed in the society. They were treated as untouchables and were dying to find a decent life (the case is not much different these days either)! This is where this collection of ‘chanda’ started by the eunuch community in order to exists with the ever increasing costs of the economy. But another community of opportunists took advantage of the situation. Most of the so called eunuchs today are from the community of opportunists and it’s very sad to see the state of people utilizing their gender to earn bucks for a living! Hope the people who are responsible for the steady arousal of the community realize the importance to work on the turn-around! Hope to see a day when I don’t have to encounter anybody requesting “koDri ANNa Road Tax!”

DSS for Human Neural Network

Neither have I worked on the Neural Networks domain nor do I know the way a Decision Support System (DSS) is developed. I am still taking the liberty of linking these two concepts together to make some sense out of utilizing the concept of neural networks for developing a DSS for the human species. This concept has already been researched upon quite a bit and there are experts who have worked on developing such applications. The existence of robotics as a domain is a proof for improvements done at the end of putting intelligence into entities so that they act as humans responding to the various situations and with the emergence of Emotional Intelligence, the concept of feel also has been put into the entities; thus bringing life into the otherwise dead silicon dioxide.

The concept talked about in this particular excerpt is more in lines of enabling the human species to enact in a pre-programmed way. The whole concept of the movie Matrix was based on the concept of introducing smart chips into the human body; thus making the body to react in a pre-defined way. This is the whole concept of embedding a DSS into a human body. Though this concept wasn’t new, I had never given it a serious thought in the technical terms.

It was a cold night that day when I was having a well directed discussion with one of my close friends about decision making for life ahead. After a fun filled but serious discussion, it was time for me to get back home. This whole thought of DSS for HNN was running through my mind on the way back home. If there is a decision system imbibed in the human body which would be linked with a psychological parameter of the individual (which makes it individualistic and hence customized to the degree N), then the requirement for defining the word confusion in a dictionary will be out of question. This helps us to get rid of the whole set of requirement for a business vertical of counseling.

This system can be integrated with external factors indicating the market imperatives, past experience processing, best practices etc. The whole integration mechanism would make the decision to be smarter in terms of considering all the parameters before taking a final decision. It would also lead to developing a predictive model based on the feedback mechanism. The whole control system thus developed would work with a proper feedback mechanism thus increasing the scope for a continuous improvement. This would help in taking the best decision. Though this is not a new concept, just thought of sharing the thought process…

While discussing this concept with one of my friends, a thought of human touch was shared. Yes, I agree to that point that whatever automation we do, how many ever process we may skip to save money, one can never replace the human touch...

Top class!

No! It is not about Sachin Tendulkar! :). Neither is it about the other N number of achievers the world has seen till now.

It was an odd day at office and I was just browsing through one of my friends’ blogs. He had a very interesting write on the perception of the bottom of the pyramid on the top (specifically about their Project Managers). This triggered my senses and I came across the principle Dr. Laurence J. Peter has put in front of the world (For details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle). Just to brief it up – “It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions.”

A thought was running at the back of my mind. To my surprise, I was actually was able to relate to whatever I was seeing in my professional life! Especially in a country like India, the professionals expect a faster growth when compared to other nations. People thrive to get into a mode of “not working” early in their careers. The perception of the ground level jobs turns ugly! This is to some extent true to the other western countries as well. But the advantage there is the work culture which doesn’t restrict a person to always stick on to the stream he/she initially chooses to be with. Hence, one can find a person on the top having a good number of years of experience before reaching there. This is not the case with India though.

Especially in SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises), the growth potential is very high as the employees count in the organization is limited. It is a very valid argument that if one is capable; he/she will definitely get opportunities to grow. But, the parameter of industry standards doesn’t play a factor here. This puts the person who grows fast in a very uncomfortable situation. He/she will neither find a suitable place to switch nor will they be able to continue their jobs (thanks to the limited hierarchy in the SMEs). So, the only option left is to grow horizontally after they reach a certain level (provided there is scope for that).

Coming back to the Peters principle, these guys who grow big initially are forced to stick-on due to situational factors. Though they are incompetent (a few of them), the insecurity factors forces them to stay at the position they are in. This has adverse effect on both the organization as well as the individual. It is growth imperative for both of them. This is when the term “politics” plays a very important role in the organization. The people at the top who do not deserve to be there will have to stay back. Hence they find reasons in others who impair their stay. Though they sweetly term it as loyalty, in many cases the reason behind it is the fact that they are not competent enough to be accepted by the market. They would have become the big daddies of the organization and hence will have their own say.

There is also a ripple effect seen in the SMEs. In the name of exposure, the people at the top pass the work to the people below them. At times it will be more of a “delivery act” unlike a mutual agreement. The people at the bottom are again made to go through the same where they are not fit to face the market.

This was definitely not written out of frustration, but just a thought process as an output of my own experience in the professional world. After getting a hang of the problem, let me just throw some light on the solution to this as well. Again this is another thought which went by and not a proven methodology.

The concept of grooming individuals is definitely good! But, as a responsible top management, one has to identify the person who has to be groomed. For this, the first step is to identify the top notch who should be involved in this process of grooming. This has to be a top down approach coupled with a few external factors like HR interfacing and feedback from the bottom. The top need not be restricted to the PMO. It is definitely an advantage if the grooming individual is the person whom one is immediately reporting. This will not be the case always. Hence a process has to be designed for the implementation of the entire concept.

Upon the formation of the top notch, the bottom has to be hand-picked with consideration of various parameters. There has to be enough space created for the hand-picked individuals to perform. This stage should provide a controlled freedom and an environment of mentor-ship has to be created. This has to be coupled with a proper growth path for the individual who is being groomed (this is why interfacing with the HR team makes sense). This will ensure that proper leaders are built within the organization and helps in reduction of ego once they reach the top.

A very valid comment here is – “What if this individual being groomed quits the organization one day?” Well, this case will depend on the person who has been picked. A matured, growth oriented professional will never do that :).

The Intricacies of a Lead

It was late November 2008 and confused soul was walking around the Sona Towers building wondering what should be his next step. Yes, it was me who was just then given a choice of heading a team in Technical Line 2 Support. Prior to this I had taken up a few responsibilities and probably lived up to the expectations of whoever was observing me. Finally I decided to plung into the offer and accepted the role to lead a team of 5 members. I agree I was a little lucky to have been offered such a role at the begining of my career. My then manager probably liked to take calculated risks and tough decisions.

Initially it was a 5 member team of all guys. It is equally easy and difficult to manage an all guys team! There was a lot of learning which had to take place as I had not formally lead a team before. Also, there was a requirement of a sixth member in the team as five people managing the show was pretty difficult at the initial stages. Hence I decided to be a part of one of the small teams. So it was now a dual role for me where I had to perform and also see the bigger picture of things and also be responsible enough so that the team can look up to me as a lead.

It was always a belief for me to develop a team informally. Things had to be professional wherever required; but at the same time, it had to be working in a mode where the team members do not have any barriers while operating. To take out this barrier, the environment created in the team is very important. I was lucky enough to have 5 good folks with me who knew each other from before. This informality had to be brought between me and the team as well since the environment was dependant on me also. Since I had worked with a few of them and knew the others, it did not take too much of a time for me to bring this in the team. Also the fact that I had decided to operate in a mode where I was working along with them did make a difference here as they felt me as one among them. The next hurdle was the knowledge in the team. Though we had worked on one of the systems under us, we as a team did not have so much of an in-depth knowledge for operating as a full fludge Level 2 support team. We had to build this knowledge with the help of the relevant people and ofcourse through self-analysis. This lead us to a very long journey where every single ticket was a new discovery. I should thank my team and the onshore co-ordinators for having patience to really learn through the job. It was a very good team effort displayed!

There were many more challenges ahead for us. The hierarchial structure of support operations changed at this point of time and we had to report to a new manager. The entire setup had to be changed. For me as a lead, it was important to make sure that the work is not affected and things went on as they were. At this point of time, I decided to be the face of the team to the manager so that atleast micro-management need not be done. It worked out this way and the new manager was encouraging enough to let us operate in the way we wanted. After this re-structuring, I took a whole new role. Though I continued with whatever I was doing before, I started to operate as a contributor to the entire support operational team apart from my own team. Here again I need to thank my team as my involvement within the team had reduced to some extent as I was concentrating more on setting up processes, operations and other essentials of a bigger team. I along with a few others really went off the way to setup things in the new team. It was more like setting up operations for a mini-organization where we had to consider all the parameters involved in operating as an organization.

I, at this point of time had moved into a role of an on the job learner and I sincerely thank my manager for having given me oppurtunities where I was able to implement the ideas which I had in mind. It was a point of time where we were working in a India and UK shift. So it was almost 5 extra hours put in work every single day. We did not mind doing it as the work was so exciting that we were self-driven. Then came the challenge of attrition in the team. It was a big challenge for we as a team to handle it as we did not want the routine to be affected due to this. To minimize the risk I had to negotiate for a new resource in the team who had already had the system knowledge. I felt it was more proper that way as itsaved us a lot of time and we can get into a BAU mode very quickly. Luckily for me, there were people available with the pre-requisites I had. Also, the other team members responded positively. So, the business went on as usual again!

At this point of time, the hierarchial structure changed again and I wanted to operate in the same way (again it was my concern that the team should not be affected by whoever there manager is). It was for a simple reason that if they feel the difference, the deliverables may be affected. Also due to this change in hierarchy, I had to take a larger role to manage 13 people now. It was a call which I had to make as I had to again enter into areas where I do not have a clue about. I finally decided to take it up. Afterall 'Spiderman bhi toh risk leta hai!' :) ...

A new journey of learning started for me. By this time, the processes were almost in place for the entire operations. So, I did not have to bother so much about it. Hence I started concentrating more on the team. With the bigger team on hand, I realised the importance of a few behavioral factors to be present in the team. With a support kind of a setup, Trust plays a very important role in the team. Since, the interaction to some extent happens directly to the customers, one needs to just trust the team members. This is not so important when one leads a technical team. Team dynamics play a very important role here. I did fail at places where technical solutions had to be given, but I felt there were people who can do that in a better way. But yes, it would have been better if I had the technical competancy to a good level as well! I don't really have to concentrate on that. Hence I started concentrating on grooming the people in the team where they can grow to a level where they can handle issues and people by themselves. My belief had now shifted to a team of high performers. Also, I had my own selfishness of my career path in it as I had to move out of the team for realising my dreams else where. (I am being frank with you all today, so please don't take it the other way :) ... ). So, if the team is self-reliant, it does not make much of a difference if the lead is present or not. My belief at this point of time had shifted to a mode which said "A team is performing at its best when a lead is not required!"

To my luck again, I had to move onshore for a short assignment. I did not want a replacement for me now as I had decided to groom the team. I spread my responsibilities to the team members and again, I thank my manager for letting me take this risk and ofcourse my team who accepted it as a challenge and took it up very positively. I also had another challenge at onshore. Apart from my normal work, I had quite a few tasks. So, I was not able to concentrate much on the team. Kudos to each of them in the team for having displayed a great show at this point of time! After my return from onshore, things were as usual and I returned to my role. But at this point of time, I had decided to move out of my role. It was more of a personal aspiration which I had decided to run behind. After a good round of KT to the new lead, I moved out of the team. There were few more things which were pending from my end as well. There were a few on-going issues in the team which had to be dealt. But, I decided to move-on as issues will always be there and one needs to just tackle it as and how they come :).

It was a very good journey of learning for 16 months for me. Thanks to all the people who were a part of my journey and gave me confidence, encouragement and space to explore.

Cheers,
Shreyas

The Transition…

The Transition…

It 2:30PM on the 5^th of February 2010; I was busy restructuring the team at office for a new cost-effective way of working. Anand Sawkar was waiting for me patiently. We had a flight to catch at 6PM to the national capital, Delhi. I wrapped up the presentation and we were off to Mekhri circle to catch a bus to BIAL. We reached a little early and checked in before time. The plane tickets were booked by Anand around 2 months back. Hence it worked out cheap for us. Upon reaching the Delhi airport, we took a cab from there to reach the Nizhamuddin train station. Anand had booked a train from there to Dehradun. We had a not so quick dinner as we had ample time with us before the arrival of the train. At 12AM we were finally on our way to Dehradun to attend a Punjabi wedding of our colleague. With a lot of noise from the group which were traveling with us to Dehradun, we were able catch a good sleep of around 4-5 hrs. We arrived at Gundeep’s place at around 6:30AM on 6^th Feb. Then began our journey of attending a Punjabi wedding!!

Dehradun is a pretty old hill station of India residing in the Madhya Himalaya (Himachal) Range of the Himalayas. It exists from the time of the East India Company. Education is the main industry in this wonderful city of hills. Hence it can be considered as a recession proof market of India! In and around Dehradun, one can find many schools and colleges even today.

The functions had started 2 days back. We had missed the ‘Mehndi’ where the girls in the marriage beautify their hands with designs. Gundeep patiently explained both of us the various functions and the rituals of a Punjabi wedding. Things went above our head though! This was a day prior to the marriage. There is a ritual called “Maili” among the Punjabis where the bride is not expected to take bath and to be in old clothes. This is basically to make her look more beautiful on the day of wedding.

The rest of the morning of 6^th went in me and Anand loafing around Dehradun and passing some time and preparing ourselves for the long night and the really tiring days coming ahead. It was a very good view of Massourie from the terrace of the house. We then discovered the tiny Tibetian settlement in Dehradun. Then a little time pass here and there made it lunch time. It was time for more timepass and this time Ramandeep (Gundeep’s cousin) joined us too. We then understood the essence of the Punjabis. The talk with him was very valuable to us as it told a lot about the way of living of the Punjabis. A little insight on the opportunities created in the world was also discussed as general topics.

The Punjabis don’t have a specific time for marriage functions as such. As and how things go well, they decide to get married. Only the day of the marriage is fixed. The time is at their stake and it is their responsibility to complete the functions before the day ends. They are also very “Dildaar”. They are passionate about life and very helpful from within. They also have this great character of making sure that the guests are given utmost importance. It is come with their culture and their way of living.

A few of them to share – Gundeep’s bro (Ashu) was passionate about capturing moments and posing in front of the camera. Ramandeep’s friend was passionate about riding a bullet with an empty number plate on it. His comment was “The max I have to pay is a 100 buck; which makes it 3000 per month. But I am atleast satisfied by doing it!” Phew!! It looks weird though, but I felt that people of this kind of passion will only make a difference at the end of the day.

It was then the time for a few rituals before the cocktail party. Not sure about the name of them though. People from the groom’s family came to the brides’ place and gift exchange happens. After they leave, the bride is made to wear a sacred thread around her hand. The bridge’s mother then has to cross over the wooden slab on which the bride sat during the ceremony. ‘Prasad’ is later distributed among the women. All these rituals are an integral part of a Punjabi wedding where a great display of relationship bonding is made.

The next ritual was to get sacred water from the Gurudwara. Since the bride wouldn’t have taken bath on the previous day, the next day, she is expected to take bath in the sacred water brought from the Gurudwara by her sister-in-law.

The 3Ds – Dance, Dhol and Daaru are the essentials of any Punjabi wedding. Every small function has to have dance associated with it. The people don’t mind doing it as it is the way they are brought up.

Then was the ceremony where all the people in the Bride’s family made the Bride wear a pair of ‘Chudian’ (bangles – one red and the other green). ‘Sangeet’ (Punjabi folk songs) followed this ceremony. Here again the energy of the Punjabis is much appreciable. All of them were completely involved in all the celebrations with utmost display of enthusiasm. Post Sangeet was the cocktail party and dance floor was open. It was fun dancing with people who were filled with energy even at 11 in the night! There of course was a dual course of dinner in between to entertain our stomach! The first day of the marriage came to end finally at around 12AM. I and Anand went to a good soundless sleep knowing that many such tiring days are awaiting us!

I woke up early in the morning on the next day. Anand was still fast asleep and I guess was still digesting the heavy dinner! I heard noises outside as soon as I woke up. There was one more ceremony going on. I couldn’t attend it though. It was a ceremony where the bride is made to wear the auspicious bangle which she has to wear it for the rest of her life. But I later discovered that due to changing trends and modernization, a new rule has been put in place where the bride is expected to wear the bangle for a minimum of 41 days. After a quick round of breakfast, it was time for us to leave to the marriage hall where another ritual – “Milni” was organized.

There was a huge noise of a band approaching the marriage hall. I and Anand went near the band to discover that they were from the groom’s side. The Bride’s relatives waited patiently for around 30 mins to receive the groom’s relatives. This act of the groom’s side meeting the bride’s side is called Milni. Here, the equals in the family tree of each side exchange garland and gifts. The groom’s side then approached the entrance of the marriage hall. All the people of the Bride’s side try and stop the people entering by demanding money in exchange of them entering the hall. After a good round of negotiation, the groom’s relatives were let inside the marriage hall. This is when the breakfast was arranged for all. Food is one thing which you don’t have to worry about in a Punjabi wedding. You will be fed and made to drink enough for your life!

There was a round of photo session in the marriage hall. Balli, the groom had a royal entry with his ‘kirpaan.’ Kirpaan is the sword which a Sardar is very proud to own. It is a symbol of victory and pride. The bride was completely decked up. The entry of a bride to the stage wass no less than a ‘Maharani’s walk’ to the throne! The guy received his to be maid with utmost respect. The photo session continues…

The entire concentration then shifted to the Gurudwara. This is where the marriage took place. The marriage began with welcoming both the sides. The guy’s side settled down first; Then the bride’s side. A ritual of ‘kanya dhaan’ in which the bride’s father officially hands the responsibility of the bride into the hands of the groom was carried on. There are four ‘pheras’ around the sacred place in the Gurudwara. The guru reads the granth in the due course of the four pheras. Then they are officially declared as married. This whole act of the marriage was sentimental. I could see the real emotions in the bride’s eyes where she burst out with a thought of leaving her parents officially.

The scene then shifted back to the marriage hall where a round of lunch was awaiting our ever hungry stomach. After a good round of food, it was time for ‘vidai.’ The bride then officially is out of the family and enters a new home to light it up! This again is a highly emotional scene where the bride throws ‘chaval’ (rice) backwards from her hands over her head without turning back and walks out of the house. She is then driven away to the groom’s house and will be received with due respect.

By the time all these rituals got over it was 6 in the evening. We were asked to take 2 hours of rest and gear up for the reception given from the guys’ side. It was in a different hall. That night there were drizzles and we were waiting inside the car waiting for Gundeep’s relatives from Saharanpur to show them the route to the hall. We went into a conversation with Vinod, the servant at Gundeep’s place about Garhwal, Vinod’s home town. Garhwal is a beautiful place even today as it has not been very much explored by the Indians apart from a few foreigners (thanks to ‘Lonely Planet’) and the locals.

We finally entered the marriage hall at 10:30 in the night. The music in the party hall goes on till only 10 in the night due to the government rule. There was a last round of meet with all the wonderful people and we went back home for sleeping pretty early. After a fun packed 2 day wedding at Dehradun, the eyes closed with a good memory of the wedding and a new hope of meeting new people with new adventures the next day…

We woke up early in the morning on the 8^th of February. Gundeep’s dad drove us to a bus stop where we get buses to Rishikesh. Yes, we were heading to Rishikesh for a fun filled rafting experience. Anand had again booked the package online at Garhwal Himalayan White water rafting. They are into rafting and other adventure sports for more than 15 years now! We reached Rishikesh at around 9 in the morning. We had to reach Rashi’s place (another colleague of ours). Puneet Agarwal had also joined us at the bus stop in Dehradun. The three of us were seated at different places I the local bus to Rishikesh. An hours’ drive and we were at Rashi’s place near IDPL. We spoke to her parents, placed our baggages at her place and rushed to Muni ki Reti in Rishikesh. This is where the rafting office was located. To our bad luck, none of the ATMs were working there on that day. But we had paid 70% of the amount online. So, a little bargaining and we had enough cash with us to carry-on till the end of rafting.

The jeep took us through the roads that were made by cutting down the mountains. It was almost a 30 min drive from Muni ki Reti. I saw the sacred Ganges for the first time in my life. What a sight it was. Greenish water amidst the mountain range, terrace farming on the mountains, the small settlements on the banks of the river and on the hill tops. The whole sight of this new world made me numb. I had no words to describe it. All I was doing was to stare outside the window to catch even the slightest sight of Ganges. Then came the place where we had to stay for more than 24 hours. We had taken a 1.5 day package inclusive of food. The welcome was with a small climb down the mountain to reach the base camp. It was on the banks of the Ganges. Covered with white sand and the flowing river water!

There were no appointments, no to-do lists, nothing to do apart from photography and a bit of talking. More important than all, there was no mobile signal! The moment I saw that, the whole expression on my face turned to that of a complete rejoice. As though, I had gone to an ideal place. I just lost myself in the lap of Mother Nature. The two days of marriage rush had made us very tired. But, the moment we entered this awesome place, all our tiredness went in the air; as though someone has done a magical spell to drive it away!

After a quick round of photography session, we went for breakfast and were asked to assemble near the entrance once we get ready for the first days’ rafting. I had done kayaking before, hence had a basic idea of how to row and float in case of anything. We had to start our rafting from Marine drive which is around 27kms from Rishikesh and around 20kms from our base camp. On the way to Marine drive, we had to collect our rafting equipments from Snow Leopard Pvt. Ltd. All the equipments were imported from US. Each raft was worth more than 3-4 lakh INR!

We came to the starting point of the rafting session. Rana was our guide for the day. Apart from him, there were two more of them Dharmesh and Ashok. After a quick round of introduction and a 15 min practice, we were all set for the raft! We were covering only 10kms on the first day as there was a trek planned for us as well. We went through the rapids hitting them as though they were our enemies. Well, they actually were our enemies at that point of time; simply because, if we didn’t hit them they would have hit us to death! After a series of level 2 rapids, we were now pretty confident about rafting. Next were the level 3 rapids. The waves were very calm until we went near them. The moment we entered, we were sucked inside as though we have touched a picture plant! There was one thing our guide told us – “Stronger the waves, stronger you hit them.” Hence before entering any rapid, we were increasing the speed of our raft. We were also given instructions to hit the rapid with the front of the raft towards the rapid. All these instructions were actually helpful to me and Anand as we were sitting in the front facing the waves. After crossing the 10-15 feet high waves at the level 3 rapid, there was a sense of achievement that I could feel within. The real Shreyas started to roar I guess!!

After a good 10km rafting session, we had a home made authentic north Indian lunch. From there we went for a trek to Neer Water Fall. It was also nearby. It was a 10 min drive to the base of the trek from our camp. It was ages since I had trekked. Hence I was all excited for the trek. There is a village towards the top of this hill by name Neer. Hence the waterfall is also named after the village. The government of India has made proper places to rest in the due course of the trek. There are seats all the way to the top. There are picnic spots done as well!

We were not able to reach the top as it was getting dark and the weather was also getting bad. We reached an area where the Indian government had built a bridge for the villagers to cross daily. Must say, it was one of the most amazing spots I have ever seen! Even though I have seen many hidden waterfalls, there was a difference in this waterfall. It was made of the same glacier as the Ganges. It shared the source with the Ganges and ultimately joined the Ganges. We were thrilled to see the natural beauty. I along with the guide Theku went a little further as Anand and Puneet were a little slow in climbing. I needed perfect spots for my shots. But I seriously missed my tripod this time around.

After a good photography session I continued my walk with Theku. He was from Nepal which was a 2 day drive by bus. He had learnt rafting while young and had come to Rishikesh in search of a job. Since his core competencies matched, he joined this adventure club. We were then discussing about the beauty of Nepal and the unexplored places in Nepal. Since my interest is also traveling and trekking, our talks just went by till we reached down where our jeep was waiting for us.

By this time, the weather had become bad with drizzles starting. By the time we reached the camp, it started to rain. We just sat and relaxed for the rest of the day. We had a real good dinner at the kitchen of the adventure camp. We had the dinner along with our guides, cook and driver. The rains did not take the name of stopping. Anand slept early that day. I and Puneet spoke for sometime and slept. But it was so cold that I woke up at 2 in the morning to check the weather outside. It was still raining heavily and the water level in the Ganges had risen by around 5-7 feet. We finally woke up by 8 in the morning just to discover that it was still raining. Ashok came to us and said that we can freshen up, have breakfast and leave for rafting. We were all excited again for a second day of rafting where we had to cover level 4 rafting!

Rafting started after breakfast. We drove till Shivpuri and started rafting. Today Theku was our guide. The Ganges was furious than the previous day and the level 4 rafting which we were supposed to do had automatically become level 4+. We were all determined to complete the rafting session of 17kms without a single fall! We became more aggressive than the previous day and easily covered the level 3 rafting. Then came the big guy. Theku just told us one thing before we entered “Remember guys, the water in this rapid has so much force that it can rip you apart and throw the raft to wherever it feels like.” Yes, it could have done it. The waves were as high as 20 feet! We were all the more aggressive with this rapid and faced it with a furious round of rafting. We were hit badly by the waves and we enjoyed it! It was an out of the world feeling to just be out of a level 4+ rafting session without being pulled into the water! “Well done team! GANGA!” was the cheer. The rest of the raft went on well without any hasles. Finally by 12 noon the entire 17km rafting session came to an end. We were blessed by hailstones for our achievement!

We then headed towards Madras Café for a good round of lunch. We were initially thinking of Chotiwala but we had cross the river and the boating guy was charging us 200 bucks. Hence we decided against it. We returned to Rashi’s place as Puneet had to leave to Dehradun. Once Puneet went back, me and Anad went around Rishikesh and saw the different temples, Ram jhula, Laxman jhula and many other ashrams. We then arrived at the Paramarth for witnessing the world famous Ganga aarti.

This is a daily routine for all the local Sanskrit students to assemble during sunset and worship Ganges. Since Ganges in India is treated as god, she is worshipped with bhajans and a lot of devotees assemble to witness this 30 minute event. At the same time, government has taken proper measures to keep the Ganges clean. In fact Rishikesh is the cleanest part of Ganges once can see which is not polluted even after so much population and popularity. People are not allowed to put any sort of ‘arpans’ inside the Ganges.

After this short visit to Rishikesh, I and Anand went back to Rashi’s place to finally meet her parents with some time in our hands. It was an amazing experience how different the thought of people in North and South of India is. Relationships and values of a relationship are the closest as far as I have seen in the northern part of the nation, Though it is a matter of fact that it depends on how you take it; but on a larger scale, I feel north India beats the southern part when it comes to valuing relationships. Must tell you, Rashi’s mom is an amazing cook!

After a good round of dinner it was time for me to leave to Delhi. I had a flight booked on Wednesday at 5PM from Delhi. So, I had decided to visit Surajkund in Haryana (near the Del-Har border). It was 4:30AM on 10^th when I reached ISBT. I put the luggage in the cloak room in ISBT, took bath in the public toilet and set my journey towards Surajkund. But, the journey was taking me too much of money as the border had to be crossed. Hence I decided against it and decided to see Delhi instead. I took am auto at 5:30AM and went to Redfort. I had to wait for 2 more hours for it to open. Hence I visited all the temples (Gurudwara, Jain templae, Ram temple and Masjid) on the Chandni chowk – Delhi 6. I then went into the metro station of Chandni Chowk just to check out how metro works in Delhi. Then it was 8 by the time I came back to Red fort. I had a quick glance on the Red fort and by 9:30 I was out and tired. Completely burnt out due to tiredness. I had developed fever as well. Hence I decided to return to the airport and take rest before I board my flight. After a lazy breakfast at CCD, I headed towards the airport. After a nice 4hr nap, I boarded the flight to Bangalore.

After all this, you might be wondering about the significance of the title. Well, these 5 days made me stretch beyond my limits. From a busy life to a slow moving city life to a immobile serene life to a ultra fast city life. I saw it all…

Hoping to have many more lovely trips like this. Cheers to all the lovely people I met in the due course of this trip and three cheers to my fellow travelers – Anand Sawkar and Puneet Agarwal!