15-min post: working from home

It is 11.45 PM and I have to post this before 00.00 AM. This would perhaps qualify as my fastest post till date, made in exactly 15 minutes. I am still thinking what the next 14 minutes have to be about. For one, I don't want this post to be crap. I want to still do justice to this post with some genuine content, although it's only 13 mins left now. 12 now - 1 minute lost in typing random stuff and erasing it with backspace.

Working from home is becoming increasingly common in India too these days, particularly in the IT industry. My new job offers complete freedom to do so. For my easily distracted mind, a closed room at home is an ideal setting to concentrate, except for the sleep it induces at the same time, and with an option to crash, it requires tremendous will power to keep going on the table-chair. It's therefore easier to work from home when the work-load is very high and times are very stressful, as then the mind is totally occupied and in such a shitty state that sleep is the last thing crossing it.

8 more mins. In any case, for jobs that can afford, working from home is a really good option, if one can train himself to it. Besides obvious advantages like not having to drive to office and back in extreme traffic nowadays and not occupying office space while most of  the work is done buried in laptops and phones, it also gives an opportunity to an employee to plan his work better in the comfort of the surroundings of his choice, which he can even design the way that suits him (or her... masculine used just for simplicity), and all this can have a less stressful impact on the mind and also generates possibility of more productive employees, thereby offering better outcome for the company.

There are disadvantages of course of people free-riding and not really engaging well. So the companies have to rethink employee engagement and ways of working that suit work-from-home better, as that's the need of the hour.

It's 00.00 AM. I've to post this thing now.

Bass yoon hi...

Although I am tempted to write about demonetization, I will refrain from doing that. One - there is plenty of content and analyses already done on it, most of it claiming things without much of bases. And two - I am not much of a fan of this move, and don't feel the stated motives would be achieved by the move. I can't help being an agnostic in all aspects of life. So, I'll wait until the results start showing up. So far, it's not clear. And I don't want to express reservations as offending the easily offended supporters of Mr. Modi is not worth it at this point.

I am sitting right now in a lake-side restaurant in Kadagwaasla. I got a table right beside the lake, and I am sure it would be a great view in the day time. Right now, I can see the lights far away, and their reflection in the waters. On the other side of the resort, of which this restaurant is a part, my wife's office party is going on. I can hear loud music and cheers. Seems like quite an engaged workforce.

Of all the companies I've worked for, and I've worked for quite a number, the best parties were in Geometric, where I worked from 2004 to 2007, which I guess were the better times for the company. There used to be an annual bash, which was a terrific event with great food and unlimited booze, along with a pick and drop in company buses. The only better parties I had were the insti-parties at IIML, which were more fun and uninhibited, although with plastic disposable cups for booze and onion pakodas for snack, and for food you had to head to the mess. The music was loud and lights were dim, and after a few drinks, I danced like Hritik. And every party ended up with some misadventure by someone - makeouts, fights, etc. etc., and there'd be enough to gossip about until the next party.

It's getting pretty cold here, as I am sitting in the open. One more hour to go, I guess. I've had a cup of tea and cup of soup so far. Tea is drunk and soup is eaten - in linguistic terms. I ordered another soup now. Chalo then. See you later.

let's have panipuri

Trump got elected, Indian Government banned 1000 and 500 Rupee notes and the world that I am a part of became slightly more complex over night - the night of 8th November. But these are minor blips in the time-curve of the world. People move on, life goes on, stuff keeps happening, we live, we die.

I have had to cut down on my regular dose of panipuri since the cash crunch. It's brutal - my denying panipuri to myself. My love for panipuri started in the year 2000, when I moved to Mumbai for studies. Before that, i.e, during all my life before, which was in Bilaspur, I never liked the concept of the thing - it was called gupchup there. (I was more a chaat and samosa lover.) I did try a few times, but never liked it. But when I tasted the Mumbai version, I became a fan. During my 4 years at IIT Bombay, one of my favorite time-killers was to walk to the Main Gate, get on and cross the road outside, walk towards the Y-Point Gate, and eat a plate at every panipuri wala. There were various varieties, each good in its own way. There was a chaat shop right opposite Y-Point Gate that had a particularly exquisite variety and that used to be my last plate. After that I entered back into the campus from the Y-Point Gate and walked back to my hostel or any other of my time-killer hotspots. I did that every 1-2 days. As anyone can tell, this is not the kind of activity for which you can expect to get company very often. Jeetu, Ravi, Anshu - they came along at times. On most times, I went alone.

My love for panipuri continued even after I left Mumbai in 2004. It even grew - so much that I used to search for it and eat strange varieties in Chennai during my 6 months there. Then I moved to Pune, where it's different from the Mumbai versions, not as good even, but still one of the better versions in India. I have lived and traveled to a lot of places in India since then, across its length and breadth, and I make it a point to try panipuri or whatever it's called there. I still find the Mumbai version the best.

A lot of people passionately claim chaat and samosa are the best in their hometowns. I too do that. So lemme tell you Bilaspur has the best chaat and samosa. Period.

There have been lots of interesting experiences around having panipuri. Conversations with the guys making them turn quite interesting; quite similar to talking to cab drivers - you get a picture of what's going on and what really matters - and it sometimes shakes you up. Although I'm shy and not much of a chatter, I do try to gossip sometimes, starting with some funny comment, but only when I am the only one being served.

My love for the thing has intrigued many. My friend Manis often used to wonder how it is even possible someone like me exists. But in fact, a lot of guys are in awe of me as this is how they also want to be, but they are in some kind of a closet. And many ladies find this amusing too, and perhaps think the same as Manis. Some call it a girly trait, but I am convinced it is not from the fact that majority or all in the crowd eating with me on any occasion are usually guys. Girls probably eat in nicer hygienic places, and not so often. I prefer roadside. It tastes best. And every day... or so.

I would have written more, but I must go now - it's evening and I can stop no more. More on this some other time. I have to rush... Some decisions to be made - ragada or aalu? 'Medium' - of course. Kaanda along would be good. And masala-puri in the end, obviously!

Targets

I am 14 posts away from 250 all-time (~11 years, since I started blogging), and I've set that as my target for the remaining 2016. It's not a lot, considering that there are still 53 days remaining in this year, although when I set the target a few days back, there were more than 60. Also consider the fact that I've done only 16 posts in 2016 so far, in about 10 months and a few days. At the end of 2015, my average was 22 posts per year, with the highest of 54 in 2007 - the year I traveled to the US first time, and did some sort of an experience sharing series of posts - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.

At this point of time, my target seems achievable, just that it requires me to do a little more than what I generate at my regular pace, with the stretch that is quite significant by my performance standards so far, but not humanly too adventurous. This is not how most companies set their targets - for themselves, for their people. There is an unsaid rule that the targets have to be crazy and overwhelming, demonstrating optimism and hope to shareholders and employees, and pushing the executive leadership - pushing them hard - so hard that they fail, to think of creative ways of achieving the numbers, not otherwise achievable if the company continues on its course. The executive leadership push the guys below them who further pass the pressure downwards and soon the whole company is under tremendous pressure. One of the reasons why this is considered wise may also be the oft advised funda to aim high, dream big, so big that you even need courage for the dreaming. One funda doesn't fit all, especially for targets. What kind of targets motivate someone is totally dependent on his/her personality. And companies have personalities too.

A company's personality is a complex summation of the personalities of all its stakeholders, some carrying higher weightage because of their position and personality. Just like humans, some companies are more suited to focus on limited set of offerings for limited set of customers, and make them best in class. Some companies are more suited for diversity - in products, services, cultures, locations and people. Some companies are more suited to compete hard and grow. And there are many more kinds of course, most of which can't be described in such simplistic terms. And like people, lot of companies are in wrong businesses - businesses that don't suit their personalities. And that leads to misaligned expectations, unrealistic goals, frustrated leaders, stressed and scared employees, poor commitment from everybody, and a lot of inefficiency. And eventually, missed targets. Such companies set themselves on path to decline and perish, which is very sad.

Just like we have counseling for people, I think there must be counseling made available for companies, or rather any group of people with an overall common goal. But to equip those org-shrinks, there has to be a lot of research work to understand the area, model it and bring a scientific approach to define organizational DNA and personality as concepts, and the best suited paths for organizational success. As organizations grow, they do take decisions very early on in what they choose to be vis-a-vis what they choose to be composed of. Perhaps the misalignment can begin at that very stage, and therefore it may make sense to engage these org-shrinks very early on with a company.

Also, the very notion of aiming unreasonably high should be put an end to, and leaders must take a lesson or two on being realistic. Irrational expectations would only lead to temporary irrational exuberance from the insane leaders and temporary fake excitement from the sane ones, while everyone knows they'll fail, yet commit to the ask just to please the boss. Most of the insanity in companies flows top-down and the highest amount of fixing is generally required in the thinking of the topmost bosses - viz. the CEOs, Chairpersons and/or Promoters. They must understand that a company is not just a geometric progression of numbers year on year. It is a whole organism, much more complex than the humans that it's composed of.

Collective and organized human effort towards a common goal is the smartest and the most beautiful capability human civilization has led to. Unfortunately, we still need to cover some ground in making it the most meaningful and successful for all engaged, along with ensuring every organization's success in achieving its goal - which it has chosen and defined in the best alignment with its personality.

The US Elections

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have together made America look like a dysfunctional democracy. Given both their records of questionable integrity, sadly a 2-party 2-candidate election highlights and magnifies everything about the candidates a little too much. In India you can get away with it by just talking about parties till everything's over and the winning party can choose any Prime Ministerial candidate out of the elected lot, and even non-elected ones who seem qualified enough, the winning bit can be arranged later. Clearly we have different versions of the democratic framework with India focusing more on parties and the parliament, and the US more on the person and the Presidential position.

When politicians in India speak, there is nothing clear and concrete in terms of policy or stands on various things. They dwell more on patriotic and nationalistic hyperbole, poetry and emotional appeal. And then we have commonalities with America with all the weaker sections in society, minorities and divisions like religion and caste - with issues of much greater scale and magnitude in India than in any other nation. But the younger generation in India is smart and filters what matters to them, which is generally nothing of what's talked about. In that madness, Modi offered 'growth', with some demonstrable experience, and he's the PM now.

In the US they pretend to be getting more into depth on policy, but I realized there's hardly any content behind all the blabber. Things are said at a very high level. For example this is what Trump stands for - cut taxes, build a wall, no immigration, ban Muslims, repeal and replace Obamacare with a cheaper alternative, protect right to keep guns, restrict abortion, respect women more than anybody and send Hillary to jail. And there are hours and hours of speeches with just this much info and with lots of crap thrown all over. Hillary stands for the following - no tax cuts, state got no business in abortion decisions, immigration - may be, fix Obamacare, guns - not saying no, and Trump is xenophobic, misogynist, sex-maniac, sexual offender, tax-evader, cheap and idiot. Not sure this is a fair summary, but I don't care - I am sure this post is not going to change the minds of those 'undecided' voters. I am no James Comey, and this is no new info. Blogs have become a part of the media... and media can say anything, including create a fake poll and express biased opinions. (It's unfortunate but the only American news channel we get on Tata Sky is CNN.)

Speaking of 'undecided' voters, while looking at this from a distance - at least 13 hours if it is a direct flight, I find it extremely funny that you pick a bunch of idiots, tag them 'undecided' coz they say so, get polls out of them before and after showing them scary videos of an orange-faced rich molester and a smart/stupid lady, hurling abuses at each other - the former more than the latter, and discuss the results for hours like it really means something. I would hope Americans were less stupid than that... not the undecided voters, of course - they are smart, they know how to come on TV.

I feel guilty and embarrassed at going on and on about the US elections while I have little clue about the current political dynamics in India, in spite of the fact that I am neither in the US nor am I an American, although it's possible I could be affected to slight or significant degree by the outcome of these elections. I fear becoming like those angrez Indians in India who know more about America than they do about India. But then I realize that most of my tastes, likes, preferences and curiosity is strictly Indian and about India, and also that I don't know the names of a lot of States in the US and have not seen many Hollywood movies - and I feel better. I still follow the American elections these days as it entertains me like a reality show, similar to how crap like Big Boss are entertaining. But being part of an increasingly globalized and interconnected world, it also makes sense that we do follow these elections, as America and its policies affect our lives in very direct ways - in our jobs, stock markets, trade, etc. And one of these 2 jokers in competition will be powerful enough to affect a lot of shit going on in the world. Whoever wins, the world is definitely going to be funnier.

Happy Diwali

Diwali 2016, which was yesterday, is still going on, and it's been great fun. My wife made the occasion a lot more special than what it would have otherwise been if I had driven things, and I am thankful to her for her leadership. We even burst crackers - no bombs, just the rockets, anaars, chakrees and phool-jhhadees. Half of our rockets went into random unintended dangerous trajectories - one even went inside the kitchen of a 2BHK in a building under construction. So we decided not to launch the other half. I wish ISRO made these rockets, which then would have followed the path we wanted them to after leaving the beer bottle. I strongly urge government to introduce ISRO certification for rockets from next year.

I often wonder how foreigners, especially the white ones, must feel if they visit any Indian city during Diwali, particularly in the evenings when so many bombs start exploding together. It must sound like a war-zone to them. There is obviously a lot of risk in playing with fire to this extent, but we Indians do it very well. It's similar to our traffic with all the SUVs, sedans, range rowers, bikes, cycles and pedestrians moving ahead like they are playing some road-race video game, and yet making it safely to their destinations - most of them. I could never play such a video game without crashing all over many times, and the overall degree of safeness of our traffic, in spite of the mess it is, amazes me. That's how Diwali is. It works.

The more beautiful aspect of Diwali is all the lights. The jhhalars hanging from nails - whichever you could find, leverage and move on - pretending you made some logical sine or cos waves, are an essential part of Diwali ever since electricity was discovered. When I was a kid there used to be small filament-wala bulbs in jhhalars which were covered with small plastic covers of different colors. Those covers would melt if the bulb inside got too hot. And if any one bulb in the chain was gone (fused) it was just to be taken out and the wire joined there to continue the circuit. It's as if the bulb didn't exist there. So rude, isn't it? It's like life.

But I always used to wonder how many bulbs could you really take out and have the jhhalar still functioning with the remaining bulbs - as certainly very few bulbs can't take that much electricity. I guess I was sure of that coz I once plugged in a single bulb and it burst. And a few thought experiments followed which led me to believe there must be a minimum number of bulbs in a jhhalar. Anyhow, now we have little LEDs, which are more durable, don't heat up and don't complain. They work for years. They must have some minimum number too per chain, but I don't care about such things any more.

As a kid I used to love firing pistols. Before I started using one, we had a strange looking thing made of iron, a contraption from 2-3 generations back, at home to burst dot capes because of which we got into the habit of always buying the dot variety and not the rolled ones. My friend Hitesh bought the rolls, loaded them into his pistol and shot at everything one after the other until the roll got exhausted. It made me very jealous. Not sure exactly when but as I grew up I expressed that I wanted a pistol too, and I got one. But probably coz I had already got one demand fulfilled, I didn't ask for roll capes too to go along. I was like that. I was stupid. We bought dot capes again, because of which I had to load the gun after every shot. I later did switch to roll capes and had my fun. I guess that's life - some people get and do things sooner than others. Some are late. They say you've got to ask and work for what you want. That's correct, but we are not all equal in our capabilities to ask and work. It's an unequal world. But I won't complain.

Another amazing aspect of Diwali, when I was a kid, used to be distributing sweets and namkeen in the mohalla. It was not optional. If someone gave you a plate of meetha-namkeen, you could not not give anything in return. So everyone had to be ready with their version and stock of meetha-namkeen. Could add some fruits like apple and banana here and there too. And since everyone was distributing to everybody else, one was bound take out stuff from what X gave and put some of that in what they're giving to Y and Z. That was just an optimization everyone silently did, but made sure she was not caught for having passed someone else's stuff. Items like bananas and apples obviously qualified as candidates for the crime. Too generic-looking mixtures and sweets could also be picked up. It was all a big pain and an unnecessary formality, of course. But it was symbolic of sharing happiness. And it was painful.

Kids had the job of going around with plates covered with male-handkerchiefs and delivering the stuff. People who didn't have kids either themselves went around reluctantly, or refilled the plate of whichever kid came to deliver and asked him/her to carry it back home. I once tried to add spice to the delivering activity by entering others' homes with the plate and shouting 'Happy Diwali' in Shah Rukh's voice. I remember doing it in Shiva's home, but don't think anyone noticed. But I do remember.

Nowadays Diwali is also a lot about taking pictures - of happy people, decorations, lights, food - and sharing all over. It's like the meetha-namkeen, except that it is optional. But for most, it is not, in their minds. Anyhow, it's good as long as it is fun.

Happy Diwali to everybody.

Leaders

The walk, the talk, the conduct, the air - by dexterously copying the established stereotypes is how most people fit into their professional roles which are of leadership and managerial nature. To play the part, you should first look the part - it is suggested. And that's where quite a few leadership aspirants start their makeover. Many others selectively copy traits of leaders. Resting on your chair with your feet on the table in front of a prospective investor, for example. Steve Jobs may or may not have really done that, but he's certainly inspired a few to want to do so nonetheless. But when it comes to human interactions, every situation is different. One can copy the behavioral content, but the context is totally outside one's control and it can never ever be same as anything else that has happened before or after - assuming past, present and future are all determined.

The redundant yet powerful leaders in organizations today dominate a lot of corporate effort and suck a lot of the generated value. Their redundancy is because of absence of any tangible inputs from them in the organizational functioning towards its stated goals. At best they indulge in hit-and-trial games, which is largely a mess-manufacturing exercise, until there's the next cleanup cycle called 'restructuring' which is a reset button for all practical purposes, so that the games at the top can continue with players having clean pitches to bat on and spoil. However they do sit on top - and continue to rise further for the rest of their professional lives - to claim the biggest share of the generated value, as being at the top of the organizational pyramid entitles them to it by default. The position is still supposedly full of stress, as there are local pyramids and hierarchies - extremely concentrated and heated up - many participants willing to kill to make a killing. The guy at the ultimate top - the owner of the whole organizational ATM machine - is the creator of all stress, that flows top-down, and in different ways at different levels. Somehow, in all this organizational stress, there is thrill alongside heart disease and excitement alongside hypertension. In the end, it's all about making more money, which is strangely seen as a vicious motive even in the most capitalist of cultures, even the US, perhaps coz they're not doing very well. Probably when people turn poor, the rich do induce jealousy. If everyone is having a decent standard of living, not being rich can often be a pretended choice.

My boss in a job a few years back once told me - as you rise higher, you are responsible for fewer things (read tasks / activities), and you are accountable for more and more (read outcomes). And the positions with the highest accountability are also the most powerful, yet most stressful and risky because of the pressure to deliver. Like Spiderman said, or rather his uncle did - with great power comes great responsibility. Responsibility here means the importance of acting responsibly, wisely and in the best interests. It is therefore important for leaders at all levels to understand and appreciate the importance of their positions and to not assume redundant states until the next restructuring or a new job, but act responsibly, wisely, and in the best interests coz they are accountable for something of value, and the well-being of many depends on their delivering that value collectively with those many. And to match the risk they take by holding the accountability, they are indeed rewarded, often disproportionately. And as for the walk, the talk, the conduct, the air - when the moon is right, who can stop the waves?