sandipgrover

Up in the air again

2012-01-13T07:03:00.000-08:00

As promised, another piece on my sojourns in Western Africa. I left from Tema on 22^nd November at around 1’o clock in afternoon. Accra is around 30 – 40 minutes drive from Tema and the flight was at 4.30 pm. It was an Air Mali flight to Bamako, en-route to Dakar, capital of Senegal.

One of my friends back in Mumbai had given me specific task to get 2 packs of Ghana cocoa powder. I felt it was an easy task but locating the demanded brand was an arduous task. I had tried to locate it in the malls of Accra earlier but could not get. So while on the duty free shopping in Accra airport, I again tried to do window shopping and luckily got the brand desired. It cost around $14 for two packs. I was actually wondering what could be the difference between cocoa powder and cocaine.

I tried to locate my flight details on the monitor but could not find any flight to Dakar but the same flight number was to go to Monrovia. Since flight number was same, I checked with the lady on the counter. She confirmed that the flight will indeed go to Bamako. As mentioned in my earlier post, people do speak good English in Ghana, however it does have a peculiar accent, so even if the person answering you is confident of the answer, one is always slightly sceptical.

After waiting for 40 -45 minutes, we were told by a staffer that the incoming fight was delayed and as such the departure would be at 5.30 pm instead of 4.30 pm. To our question about our connecting flight from Bamako to Dakar, she casually remarked not to worry as there would be lot of passengers.

Finally the flight took off around 5.45 pm for Bamako hopping at Monrovia. Monrovia, I later on learnt was capital of yet another African country, Liberia. A fellow passenger told me that Liberia was distinguished to have first female president of Africa after it was caught in two civil wars in 1980. After a small halt at Monrovia, the plane left for Bamako.

Bamako is capital of Mali, a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria, Niger and Guinea besides some other small unheard of countries. Incidentally, Mali’s earlier name was French Sudan.

By the time we landed in Bamako, it was well over 10’o clock in the night and the flight time from Bamako to Dakar was 09.35. But since it seemed lots of passengers were to take the same flight, the air hostess sounded very reassuring. We disembarked and were immediately put on to a waiting coach and taken straight to the waiting plane on the tarmac. This was also an Air Mali flight but it was a bigger plane and it took off well after 10.30 pm. It was a two hour flight and we landed at around 1.00 am in Dakar.

After immigration clearance, I straight away went out of the airport building since I did not have any checked-in luggage. Outside, I could not help smiling as it was almost like landing in India at mid night. Scores of cab drivers almost circled me asking for taxi. When I firmly refused they dispersed and I started looking for my escort person. I did not locate any Indian and no one else seemed to be carrying placard of my name. Wondering what to do, a local person came to my rescue and offered me his cell phone. I dialled the number and found that the person coming to pick me up was almost near the airport and asked me to wait there only. The person who had lent his cell phone also hovered around and I quickly came to know the reason – he started asking for money immediately after my host reached there. My host tried to dissuade him but the guy was persistent and left only after he was paid some amount.

We left immediately for the guest house that was around 2 hour journey from Dakar. The guest house was near the main highway only. On way, I was told that Dakar was largely a French speaking city and rest of Senegal speaks Wolof. Senegal is predominantly an Islamic country with almost 90% of the population and rest are Christians.

The name Senegal comes from river Senegal that runs from east to north. Dakar is situated at the westernmost tip of the country. Just like Mali and scores of other African countries, Senegal was also colonized by French and got its independence only in 1960.

I generally found people in Senegal to be hard working especially women again as in Ghana. Once done with the work they dress up as if they have never worked in their entire life. Work culture is also collaborative with both the supervisors and workers engaged in discussions whenever the situation demanded. Almost all the supervisors were good in working knowledge of Wolof and as such never faced any issue related to most important aspect of communication. I also found Senegal public more religious and peace loving. It’s no wonder that unlike rest of Africa (well majority), Senegal never had a coup or any other sort of dictatorship. In fact the Republic has had peaceful elections ever since it became independent to elect successive Presidents to run the country.

I left Senegal on 27^th on my way back home. It was a gruelling 15hr via Addis Ababa. It took 10 hrs from Dakar to Addis Ababa and 5 hrs from Addis Ababa to Mumbai. I finally landed in Mumbai in the wee hours of Monday. Next Sri Lanka....

Up in the air

2011-12-21T23:48:00.000-08:00

No it’s got nothing to do with the movie with the same title, this title comes from the single fact that I am actually “Up in the Air” flying from Addis Ababa to Accra. Unheard names and virtually cut off countries from the rest of the World - Ethiopia and Ghana.

Africa is probably the most unheard of continent and there is hardly any coverage by our TRP hungry media. Only exception has been Egypt that has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. How many of us have heard the name or know some details about countries like Niger, Benin, Liberia, Senegal – the list goes on. There are 16 countries that form West Africa.

So what kind of perception we have for Ethiopia – a country that is on the eastern side of African Continent and is perceived to be poverty struck and logically should not even have a good airline. When I landed at Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, I was trying to capture at least one picture so as to justify the perception. But No – I could not get even a single picture of starved kids and houses without a roof – even Mumbai could qualify for that with its picturesque Dharavi – Asia’s largest slum.

Point is, many a times our perception tends to take over data. Probably Africa is one live example of that.

Accra is the capital of Ghana and we landed at around 1 pm local time – 5.5 hrs behind India. I was the first one to clear the immigration and even got a glimpse of state of affairs in the country when the officer on the immigration counter asked for some money. Thanks to his accent and also thanks to my pretention of not understanding, I could walk out without paying anything. Later I learnt that the corruption here is quite rampant and money is demanded and taken openly.

We drove to Tema, a small town around 25 kms from Accra. The road that happened to be a toll way was well made and speed of the vehicles was a testimony to that. On the way, I could see lots of women sitting in road side kiosks selling bottled water or other eatables. On the toll plaza, there were quite a few of them selling from fruits to cold drinks oblivious to the summer heat and sweat. Another point that was hard not to notice is the athletic physique of most of the women and maybe that’s the reason of their ability to put in hard work.

Literacy & health seems to be an issue that is yet to merit attention it deserves. On the way I could spot countless churches but only one school. NIIT has already set up its base here and if no. of hoardings is an indication, it seems to be doing well.

Ghana does not seem to be producing anything on its own – it’s rich in Gold and I was told that gold processing is done abroad after gold dust is exported by big companies. So is the case of cashew nuts and almonds.

So are they lazy people – no they are certainly not, especially the women. May be it’s a case of exploitation and with active help from corrupt bureaucracy it seems to be the only way.

I saw lots of Chinese nationals. In fact the hotel I was staying was also owned by a group of Chinese businessmen. China Government, I was told is also providing aid to Ghana and in turn taking big contracts to develop the infrastructure here. This certainly seems to be the right approach for them, taught by Uncle Sam to get the money back in their country.

It’s an irony that in their own country they are still living like second grade citizens. In fact the Chinese guy who was a senior guy working in the hotel that I stayed did mention that I should take care of my belongings in the room as he does not trust any local person.

Incidentally Ghana is unique in being geographically closer to the centre of the world than any other country. Ghana’s per capita income is higher than the West African average. However Ghana remains heavily dependent on international financial and technical assistance.

I stayed in Ghana for 5 days and then moved to Senegal from there. More on Senegal later.....

http://www.mantteva.com

The growing industrial unrest – a cause for serious concern

2011-11-17T06:04:00.000-08:00

We all heard the recent news of Maruti Suzuki deciding to set up a plant outside Haryana in Gujarat. Maruti’s Manesar plant has been in the news for all the wrong reasons and so has been RICO Auto and Honda’s scooter & motorcycle plant that witnessed a bloody battle and Munjal Showa - strikes and labour unrest has plagued this belt.

The list continuous to grow longer and violent - Lalit Kishore Chaudhary, CEO of Graziano Transmissioni India, the Indian unit of an Italian auto component maker, near Delhi was clubbed to death by a group of 200 factory workers. Similarly, R S Roy, a senior HR Manager of Graphite India Limited was burnt to death by group of workers in Bolangir, Orissa.

Other incidents have not attracted as much attention. Consider these examples:

In April, at Pantnagar in the state of Uttaranchal, workers of Swiss multinational Nestle went on strike after the management removed two probationers for unsatisfactory performance. The strike was called off after three weeks but the peace seems fragile. Pantnagar has been a beacon for several large companies, who have been attracted by a plethora of state-level incentives. According to business daily Business Standard, "Other managers said such incidents may have far-reaching consequences. If today it is Nestle, such strikes can knock at our doors also."

At the Mahindra & Mahindra utility vehicles plant at Nashik, in Maharashtra, workers went on a 15-day strike in April. The apparent issue: the suspension of the trade union president who had allegedly threatened the chief security officer of the unit. The real issue: a delayed wage agreement.

At Hyundai Motor India, subsidiary of the South Korean auto maker, workers went on a 18-day strike at the end of April to demand recognition of the employees' union. The company has debated moving the Tamil Nadu-based plant to Europe. (Most of the production is for export.)

At tire maker MRF, the Arakkonam (Tamil Nadu) unit was closed for most of May. The main problem was rival unions clamoring for recognition.

Another tire manufacturer, Apollo, Perambra, Kerala was locked out for more than two months after labour unrest in April this year.

In December last year, 250,000 workers from 59 jute mills in West Bengal went on an 18-day strike over the issue of unpaid compensation. The agitation was called off after the mill owners agreed to pay to every worker.

Unions representing labour groups including coal workers, oil sector employees, bank staff and telecom workers have been demanding higher wages or protesting against proposed privatization. "There has been a bunching of labour unrest in the past few months," says Manish Sabharwal, chairman of TeamLease Services, a human resources services provider. Writing in The Economic Times, Tata Sons director R. Gopalakrishnan gives it an international perspective. "Managing worker dissatisfaction will be the next leadership challenge globally," he says.

Frankly speaking, today’s generation has forgotten if not unheard completely about Datta Samant and George Fernandes, who were responsible for closure of many textile units in Mumbai and what is now known as great railway strike of 1974 that led to imposition of emergency by Indira Gandhi. Also liberalisation in 1992 led to a growing private sector further fragmenting strong unions of a public sector.

The rise of knowledge industries like IT & ITES had also contributed to decline of Trade Unionism. Though there have been efforts to unionize IT employees, the Bangalore-based UNITES (Union for Information & Technology Enabled Services), for example they have not made much headway. Add to this the increase in outsourcing and reduced staff at the core companies. The result is that except for areas such as banking where the majority of banks are still government-owned there are very few powerful pan-India unions. The political parties have their trade union arms, of course -- the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) of the left and the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), for instance. But they have not moved with the times; they have been unable to woo younger workers.

So why and how things have taken this rather unexpected turn?

One major reason that comes into mind is a growing trend of hiring contractual or temporary workers. In order to curtail rising input costs, employers are compelled to hire less expensive contractual workers and since the rates of their wages and other benefits are far lesser as compared to those of permanent workers – this leads to a spark of unrest. Another reason is some of the employers taking undue advantage of lack of cohesiveness amongst workers and taking them for granting by suppressing them and not giving them their dues.

Irrespective of what the statistics published by Govt of India, it is increasingly becoming evident that the industrial peace set in nineties and till 2007 has been disturbed and it is time to have a relook at our colonial & archaic labour laws. Incidentally India has over 55 labour laws and over 100 state labour laws – time to have fewer but effective labour laws and not having laws like Equal Remuneration Act that has neither the clarity nor teeth to check inequality.

Am I motivated or Inspired?

2011-11-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

Couple of weeks back, I was conducting a workshop with the senior management team of one of my clients. When I was being introduced, the host (in order to break the ice)asked this question to the participants: “So guys, how are you?” and he looked around for responses, majority reverted with monosyllables - “usual”, “fine”, ”great”, “ok” but one guy said he is feeling great as he would like to take away some useful inspirational tips.

Everyone clapped and I started the session but his response is still fresh in my mind - why the participant chose to say “inspiration(al)” rather than most commonly used “motivation(al)”

So here comes some questions and allow me to search for the appropriate answers - we seem to be using both these words as synonyms. Can we do that? What are the commonalities between these two? Can these be interchanged? Can inspiration lead to motivation or vice versa?

For getting closer to the answers, let’s examine what is the practical usage of these two words. As leaders we assume that our role is to motivate others to achieve something, to reach a desired goal, or produce something. Our main focus becomes getting people to “do things.” In a way, we as leaders provide a motive to take action.

On the other hand, “inspiration”, is all about mentoring and helping others to move toward their potential. Inspiration infuses others with life, energy and passion.

Now please have a look again at the italics in the above two paragraphs and you will be getting closer to the answers. While motivation is short term, inspiration is a long term tool to ensure continuous motivation.

That’s probably the reason, leaders who have mastered all the motivation techniques at times wonder why people still don’t seem fully alive at work and why they need to continually prod them along. On the contrary, inspiring leaders are “fascinated by human potential, excited by individual creativity and unwaveringly committed to holding others as grand and capable.”

Leaders who inspire have the ability to connect authentically with the hearts and minds of others in pursuit of some common goal. They get a kick out of watching people grow and develop and add huge value.

Inspirational Leaders “Show Up” We can easily recognize someone who is inspired by the way they “show up.” It feels good to be around them. They make their presence felt. It’s a wonderful feeling to be with someone who looks you straight in the eye and listens as if you were the only person in the world. One feels accepted, appreciated, understood and important in the presence of an inspirational leader. Ask yourself, “When am I my best self?” Is there a particular person who calls forward your best self? Are there some people who you feel especially good around? It’s no secret that when “we feel good - we do good”.

To conclude, inspiration and motivation have different connotation and both these words can’t be used as synonyms. Both belong to the same family though and can be used in series – meaning one can be inspired to feel motivated. In a way, inspiration can lead to motivation and probably a long lasting one…

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”

- Albert Schwitzer

The Human Resource angle in Bigg Boss Season 5

2011-10-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

Well I could never watch Bigg Boss Season 5 while in India due to its late telecast and also because of the hectic schedules back in India. But once I was having some free time and mainly thanks to frequent heavy rains in Bangkok – I have been able to watch some episodes in my hotel room. Also a Bigg thanks to the excellent Wi-Fi in the cosy environment of my hotel room.

After watching few episodes, I began to think that this has been an excellent portrayal of human behavior in a controlled & disciplined (there is a jail marred with mosquitoes and without even a mattress for any in-disciplined inmate) environment. Something similar I had witnessed long ago while doing participating in a workshop conducted by ISABS (Indian Society of Applied Behavioral Sciences). Back then we were holed up inside a room amongst fellow 8 – 10 participants without any agenda and what transpired thereafter was amazing. One has to experience the same to believe what I am saying. Because having no agenda actually forces the real you to come on surface and say something that leads to reaction from others and so you shed all your masks and so would everyone else and towards the end of 6 days of grueling 8 – 10 hours a day, you would get feedback like getting yourself in the mirror like never before. Since there were no formal relationships so participants would not care a damn whether they are giving feedback to an MD or a CEO or a 50 years old very successful person but speak the truth and only truth. So that experience came live to me after watching few episodes of Bigg Boss season 5.

In this season (earlier once as well), the participants are staying together under one roof for 90 long days, unless they are evicted and the race is to stay the longest. All the routine chores are to be done by them, be it cleaning toilets, to cleaning utensils, cooking and cleaning the house to washing clothes everything. So one sees how people take on leadership positions, direct others to tasks as well as counsel them for their erratic behavior.

Another very important cumbersome task that I think only this season was introduced was to pedal a stationary rickshaw continuously for almost 96 hours. They had affixed a dynamo with a bulb so the idea was not to let the bulb unlit. Now how do you assign tasks so that this gruesome physical activity is continuously done without a single minute of break in the scorching sun was a fantastic idea.

Now we are not talking of professional athletes who can easily do cycling (even though stationery & without any load) for half an hour continuously – we are talking about girls & women (one of them has never worn anything else than a traditional ghagra ever in her life (Ms Gulabo from Rajasthan, who is at least 40 years of age) who have exercised but always in air conditioned gyms or only in the early mornings - Great effort.

It was fascinating to watch how the masks of the inmates drop one after another, who is shirking work and who is forthcoming to take on responsibilities. How those who would have never spoken ill of anyone start shouting to any atrocity by another person. How Shakti Kapoor tries to strike the right chord and manage to balance the atmosphere by his leadership style (he has been a captain elected for the second week too) as well as by his wit & humor.

May be some day I would try to use relevant video clippings for my training sessions…. So keep watching Bigg Boss Season 5 if you want to learn the intricacies of human behavior 'uncensored'.

First two months - Experiences & Learnings!

2011-10-13T04:14:00.000-07:00

Dear all

First two months of being on my own are over on 30th Sept. I had kept a target of 90 days for me to establish my company and get few clients on board. By the grace of God I have got some good clients and God willing my Company, Mantteva would also go from strength to strength. In fact today, the website has also been launched

I have had the pleasure of having varied clientele, be it the product mix or Industry segment but have something in common - yes you guessed it right, Human Resource challenges. Be it challenges related to selection of right employees for issuing ESOPs not plagued by any biases to understanding cultural issues post takeover by current employer and taking the organization to a path in order to ensure a professional organisation in the making - it has been indeed a wonderful 60 days.

The amount of satisfaction one gets after suggesting a solution to some of the challenging situations is difficult to articulate. I have also been very lucky to get very accomodating and appreciative clientelle. HRD is a long drawn process and the lead time before one sees visible results varies anywhere from 6 months to 2 years depending upon the intervention, support system and the maturity level of the organisation. So one has to have some patience for visible results but zero tolerance for any non-conformity.

Some of the learnings for myself have been better time management, personal fitness despite being away from my tread for weeks and appreciation to stay connected through Skype.

Another significant learning has been introduction to Anthony Robbins

through his website, audio downloads and his video clips. Not to forget a 60 page report on my personal strengths and areas of improvements, thanks to a test for a SWOT analysis. I also heard him speak on "Cutting Edge" and his words made lot of sense to me as an individual and as an HR professional. I hope to see him in person and attend one of his workshops sometime in near future to enhance my own abilities as well as help my clients by adapting some of the learnings.

But that's going to wait for a while, meanwhile its time for my passion - Mantteva.

Take care and may God bless all.

New Journey - new ideas

2011-10-13T04:08:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks, its been a while since I last blogged. Actually I had been busy contemplating being on my own.

Come to think of it, having put in 26 meaningful years of hardcore experience, one should atleast look at this choice seriously. So I thought about the same for some time and then took this calculated step of stepping on this different journey. I took this call towards the last week of May and on 1st June, I had decided.

I decided to be in HR, as that was my forte but also decided not to offer off the shelf products like ready made training modules. Instead I decided to pitch for diagnostic approach and then offering solutions (including training)to arrest the pain areas.

Getting the business is a different ball game, I learnt almost instantaneously. Some of the close associates from whom I had hopes galore were not so forthcoming and help was pouring in from unexpected corners. One of my old associate called up and told about a prospect who could be interested in what I had to offer. Similarly another colleague introduced me to another manufacturer who wanted me to control their in process rejection.

Well I am not a QC guy but fortunately in Federal Mogul, I was also looking after PPC for some time and had learnt the concepts of OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) as well as got training on Seven Quality Tools and TIPS (Tips in Problem Solving). So all those learnings came in handy and I accepted this assignment.

Another client is asking for help in understanding and setting up their HR systems to take their existing production level to almost ten times.

So there has been lots and lots of thinking out of the box and unlearning some of the learnings and adapting new. However "time is of essence" is better learnt when one is dealing with multiple customers who are demanding and you have to not only quickly adapt yourself to the requirement but also provide solutions that are practical.

I guess it will be another 6 months before I can settle down or would it be always like this.... I am not too sure. But one thing is sure that I am excited and enjoying this new journey and also learnings new things each day... each hour...

I am sure I have the blessings from the Almighty and good wishes from all my friends.

Something for them......

2011-01-04T03:43:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys, Hope you are having a great time and enjoying the cold weather - even in Mumbai. I have been travelling rather too hectically and been too all the 'B's during the last fortnight or so, starting from Bhubaneswar to Bangalore to Baroda to Bhopal. Call it a rhyme or whatever, but it has been in that order, with one excpetion - Chandigarh. Between Baroda and Bhopal, I went to Chandigarh for a day and my God, what a cold weather. Boy, I shivering and had to take a quilt and a blanket together. Even Bhopal was pretty cold at 6 degree in the morning when I landed. But I must admit I had a different perception about Bhopal, I thought of visiting Lucknow or Kanpur with that kind of traffic and basic layout. But when I went out of the Airport and my impression changed for good. At least there was someone taking care.

Today, I wanted to share an interaction that I had with the kids from Akanksha, my favourite NGO. I was invited by them to speak on their career fare. Initially I equated them with my own son, who is also of the same age and tried to put something about the challenges faced by kids of that age group - which career to opt for and how to deal with stress etc... But luckily I shared my thoughts with Connie, from Akanksha and she completely put me back in a spin.

As per her, the real challenge is not what career to opt for but to continue the studies. As these kids are from not so privileged background, majority of them always get lured by being financially independent at that young age. By virtue of speaking good English, they get picked up by the likes of Mac D and Pizza Hut and start earning around 5000 a month. Since they do not have any guidance, they easily get lured by making a quick buck.

After listening to her, I admitted that I was on a complete tangent and accordingly starting thinking from this aspect. I started with a dialogue between Bhaskar Sir and Ravi about the need to study more and the typical responses given by Ravi. Afterwards, I highlighted the dilemma faced by Ravi followed by Tunnel Vision Trap (TVT). TVT is the inability of a person to look beyong very very short term. After explaining this I narrated what a teenager could miss incase he/she does not study further...

Some other slides were titled as follows :-

* But can I do it ?
* Who is in the mirror ?
* It is only the angle
* The Nick Vujicic story
* Lessons from Nick's story
* Barrack Hussain Obama and Michelle Obama's brief background
* Some Indian stories (rags to riches by studying harder)
* Main Kya Karun - a step by step guide

I also showed couple of clips to motivate the kids. The kids seem to be engrossed in the presentation but I was seriously thinking that even if I was able to convince few of them, my job was done.

Who knows, someone from that large crowd could be a Sarthababu,
who was son of a women who sold Idlis on the pavement of Chennai but completed his B.Tech from BITS and IIM - Ahmedabad or a Kalyan Raman,
who studied under a street light, as his hut had no light to qualify as an Electronics Engineer from Anna University, Chennai.

May God give them the wisdom to decide what is right for them and the courage to sustain that decision.

Just Do It

2010-04-03T02:46:00.000-07:00

Some of my friends must be thinking that this time again Sandip is going to write about motivational, progressive approach etc.. etc.. But to their dismay, I am for a change not going to start another round of discourse on these popular topics – but instead I am trying to understand this sudden change of our approach towards life.

We seem to be in a mode of jet-age where without applying our mind we seem to be indulging in acts that have got far reaching consequences. Just few days back I read with dis-belief a case involving an IIT Mumbai student killing his beloved who was also an IIT student in Roorkey. This could have been a normal case involving two teenagers who could not get along well and in a fit of rage one person killing another but a brilliant – IIT student indulging in such a heinous crime is not digestible. What is even more shocking is that after the crime, the boy walked out leaving the girl to die and till the last reports, he was still absconding.

Now just for a while, put yourselves into the shoes of their parents. It is dreams come true for any Indian parent when their ward gets admission in the coveted IIT College. How devastated they would be after this gruesome incident. If only the boy could have thought about all this before indulging in this barbaric crime.

Take another very recent case, where seven of a family in Rajasthan committed suicide. This is a very unique case, where reportedly the daughter-in-law hit the father-in-law over a petty issue and the old man was profusely injured and admitted to a hospital, where his condition became serious. In order to avoid the social stigma, they first killed their children and then later committed suicide.

What has happened to us ? Where is our value systems gone ? Just think of the condition of the children before they were being killed by their own parents.

Another case where a 12 year old girl was being raped by her own cousin and their neighbors for over 2 years.

The list is end less and I do not have any explanation to offer for this sudden spurt of such barbaric incidents. Whom do we blame ? Do we blame media or western influence or such other causes? Are we getting into a mode where we first take action and then think or worst where we take such action where we do not remain alive for thinking?

Just do it and do not remain alive to know the consequences!!! Where are we headed towards??? The questions are far too many and we need to urgently look for answers.

Being Progressive

2010-01-12T20:56:00.000-08:00

Hi everone and wish you a fabulous 2010. Time flies or so it seems as I have been terribly busy with various professional engagements.

I had been propogating the theory of being +ve for quite some time - even before I read "The Secret", however after I heard one of my friends, the great motivational speaker, Suresh Semwal from Thinkinc (http://www.successcorners.com) speak on "Being progressive and not only being positive", I could realise the great difference in approach. Frankly speaking, a plain "Being Positive" is like a great illusionary who is living in a word full of hope BUT without a concrete action plan. On the other hand a progressive person is a +ve thinker with a concrete action plan to substantiate his thoughts. He is not leaving everything on the mercy of nature and astrologers but is willing to soil his hands and sweat it out.

I had written the following article some time back and it was not published anywhere, so I thought of sharing the same with you guys.

Being Progressive

Ever wondered what could be the difference between a well qualified, experienced but a not so successful person v/s a not so well qualified, experienced but a highly successful person. One difference could be opportunity another could be sheer luck, but the most important difference is having a ‘+ve and progressive frame of mind’.

As Robin S. Sharma, the famous author of “The Monk who sold his Ferrari” writes “You are what you think you are”. Having a progressive frame of mind, can be the single most important catalyst that can convert an idea into reality. Come to think of it, we all know the power of being +ve, but how often do we really practice it. Yes, practice +ve flow of energy within our selves, as a result within our whole organization.

The choice is ours, do we really want to ‘simply exist’ or ‘truly live’. Do we want to ‘simply survive or really thrive’. Moreover a -ve frame of mind is like a contagious disease. A -ve person would not only brood himself psychologically, but he/she would get sadistic pleasure by injecting the same feeling into his/her peers/subordinates as well.

A progressive frame of mind, would consider stumbling blocks as a stepping stone & problems as an opportunities to learn and improvise further. As Doctors world over preach, if the patient has a will power and a +ve frame of mind, he/she can be cured with medicines at its most effective.

The argument from some of my friends would be, it is very easy to preach but difficult to practice. Agreed, but it is not impossible….

Here are some practical tips, on how to be more progressive !!

Ø Always look at the ‘relevance’ of any problem as Pramod Batra, the famous Management consultant puts it, “majority of the issues that we encounter are so small in terms of its overall effect on us, that it is useless to spend more time brooding on them”. The concept of KFP (kya firk padta hai) v/s BFP (bahut firk padta hai). We would notice that majority of our day-to-day problems would cease to exist.

Ø Just like any other ritual, practice a mantra “I am progressive & have only +ve vibes emitting from my body and soul”. You will be surprised on the effect of this simple mantra on you. The only catch is … you have to say it with utmost belief, sincerity and conviction and you should be sitting on a chair with your spine straight and gaze at an object that is higher than your eye-sight.

Ø Start analyzing a real problem clinically. <> Look at the problem from a consultant / a third person point of view, who has been given this problem in order to suggest possible valid solutions & then follow the steps mentioned below :-

§ Define the problem on a piece of paper in its entire state.
§ Write down the names of all the people involved / connected / influenced (or who can be affected because of the problem)
§ Find out a root-cause analysis (fish-bone or Ishikawa analysis) and list down all probable causes.
§ Do an is-is & is-not analysis, to rule out any imaginary causes.
§ Do a Pareto analysis, to prioritize the major causes.
§ Find out probable options, against each major cause.
§ Carry out the options that are practical and feasible.

Ø Refrain from becoming part of a peer group that speaks ill of any person or organization or group.

Ø Take continuous feedback from your subordinates, peers and superiors and take corrective measures if required.

Ø Look at some one who is less fortunate to realize the importance of what we have. As a popular saying goes “I was complaining of having no shoes until I came across a person who had no feet”.

Ø Start practicing Yoga.

Ø Make it a habit to read motivational books.

Ø Put positive posters in your home and work place.

Being progressive is a psychological phenomenon, which can be achieved consciously through “practice and strong conviction” of our thought process that really makes us a +ve, progressive & thereafter a more sought after person.

Because remember….

Real failures are only the results of an effort that we put in & True tragedies are lessons. But, our character is shaped not through life’s easiest experiences but during life’s ‘toughest’ ones.

Latest Engagements

2009-09-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

Hi
It has been a while since I last blogged. Work has been keeping me away from some of my personal hobbies and I could not spend any time despite my strong desires.

Of late I have started interacting with the students of Asian School of Business Management, Bhubaneswar (http://www.asbm.ac.in) by sending them some of my thoughts every fortnight. It has been a good experience and I intend continuing the same for some time. Sharing your thoughts make you feel so contended.

I recall the first time I met these students a month and half ago. It was a full hall having some 200 – 300 students and I was to speak on "what they should expect from the industry". The session was slated to last for 1 hour and it lasted for over 2 hrs. The question answer session had to be curtailed for want of time as I had to leave for Dhamra for a meeting.

Towards the end of the session I had shared my email ID to reflect their thoughts and ask any question that they could not during the interaction. By evening my mail box started getting mails after mails after mails with each one of them asking various questions related to the topic. It was then that I decided that I should contribute more and should be able to interact with these youngsters on a regular basis. That is the time when KSF took birth. KSF stands for Knowledge Sharing Forum.

We have had three such e-inetaractions so far and each KSF has evoked good number of newer thoughts from these students.

I hope that I should be able to sustain this keeping in mind my busy travel schedule. Let us hope for the best.

I have been fond of reading and currently I am reading a book titled “now, discover your strengths” by Marcus Buckingham. It is a slightly different breed of books, as it tends to ridicule the popular belief of converting our weaknesses into strengths what has been and probably is the mantra of all OD specialists to improve your weaknesses and convert them into strengths by providing adequate training inputs.

The author based on a study conducted by Gallop suggests that we should not target our weaknesses; instead we should understand our talents and strengths well and make good use of these strengths and talents. It is a rather radical thought and I am not able to deal with this unless I finish the book and understand the thoughts in totality. I would surely blog my thoughts on the same in near future.

Another good thing is happening in the CSR space, where I try and contribute in our group little bit. We are working with a NGO Akanksha for mentoring these wonderful 12 kids who come from slightly lesser privileged backgrounds. A group of 15 - 16 volunteers from our Mumbai office is mentoring these kids one-on-one.

This is a one year commitment wherein we would meet for 40 times over a 1.5 to 2 hrs interaction and work together for helping these kids achieve their agreed goals. We are quite hopeful that these goals (that we are in the process of setting up) would be achieved in due course of time. But all said and done, this is indeed a daunting task as you are dealing with a adolescent who is not coming from the same strata of society that you are familiar with and who has dreams and aspirations as big as any one of our own kids. So to meet these aspirations given the challenges that these kids face is a big big challenge itself.

Hope to do our level best to achieve this uphill task.

Alright, time to close and say Good bye. May God bless all of us.

With love

sandip

Interviewing skills – Is there a need to introspect ?

2009-07-08T01:10:00.000-07:00

I remember when I was doing my Post Graduation, one of our professors who used to teach us Personnel Management (mind you, there was no jazzy Human Resources Development then) used to tell us time and again that as Personnel Managers, we were supposed to be looking after the three ‘R’s, i.e. Recruitment, Retainment and Retirement.

In the same breath, he used to add that from the employee’s perspective most important of these ‘R’s is obviously retainment and if we as personnel people are able to do justice to the first R i.e. recruitment, the second R i.e. retainment becomes much easier.

How true – he could not have said it better for me to remember verbatim after 25 years.

Let us fast forward to circa 2009, how many of us the coveted HR professionals can put our hand on heart and say loudly the justice we do to recruitment. How much time we spend in the interview ? How clear are we on the competencies the organization is looking for and what competencies we ourselves are capable to evaluate? What are the tools available with us to evaluate these competencies?

There are enough questions but how many of us, honestly have the answers.

Leave aside the answers to these questions, I have seen many a times our professional friends do not have the time to come for interview and then one has to settle for a tele-con or a video conference to decide the fate of the candidate and in turn that of the organization.

The point I am trying to make here is that interview is a very very important process and it is we – the HR professionals who have to ensure that justice happens to this very pertinent process in order to attract the right talent.

Here are some of the important tips for conducting the interview, the way it ought to be conducted :-

1) Usually the interview committee comprises of at-least two interviewers – one is the technical expert or the immediate boss and the other is the HR representative.
2) Like writing the script before any skit, we must understand & pre-decide the role of each of the interviewers.
3) The technical expert should evaluate the technical competencies and for that he should be thorough in his area. Like a scanner, he should be able to scan the candidate and do detailed probing.
4) The HR representative should concentrate on the following :-

- Behavior
- Cultural fitment
- Salary fitment

5) Behavioral and cultural competencies are often ignored and either we are not aware of what we need to look for or even if we are aware we do not know how to decode the information.
6) While evaluating behavior, we should not be bogged down by sheer communication skills or the dressing sense or the personal grooming. These are important but the weightage varies.
7) I strongly recommend using BEI (Behavioral Event Interview) for near accurate judging of the candidate’s behavior.
(For starters, Behavioral Event Interview is a structured interview that is used to collect information about past behavior. B.E.I attempts to uncover the past performance by asking open ended questions like – describe a situation where you were able to demonstrate your leadership skills or describe a situation where you were able to demonstrate your team management skills or how did you handle a difficult employee etc)
8) For cultural fitment, first and foremost we should be clear about our own (organization’s) cultural competencies. If we are aware then it is a question of checking with the concerned candidate through probing and by asking the relevant questions, if he also possesses such or similar competencies or not.
9) Last but by no means the least comes the all crucial Salary fitment. This is a very ticklish issue and needs to be handled very carefully lest it would remain a perpetual pin-pricker. Just imagine you are working in an organization for last few years and possess an apt qualification with relevant experience and are being paid an X amount. Suddenly a new person is recruited who is not so experienced (may be he possesses better skill set) and not so qualified at a salary X++. How would you feel ?

I am not trying to say that new talent would not command a better price than what we are paying to our existing proven talent, but the question we need to have an answer is how much extra ?

To sum up, we must restore the relevance of interviews that it commands and for that first and foremost we as HR professionals need to be well equipped as “Charity begins from home”.

Orissa Darshan

2009-05-11T02:30:00.001-07:00

Hi

Let me share some of my experiences during various visits to the interiors of Orissa.

Dhamra

My first trip in the interiors of Orissa was to a place called Dhamra. This place is around 200 Kms. from Bhubaneswar and 90 kms off the National highway connecting Chennai to Kolkata. The road from the national highway till Dhamra is not very good but certainly better than many of the other roads in the interiors of Orissa.

Dhamra is situated right on the coast of Bay of Bengal. It is a little town with unplanned houses and small shops that seem to be scattered all over. Of late this town has seen lot of development in the vicinity. L&T along-with TISCO is developing a huge port by the name of DPCL (The Dhamra port company Ltd.) This port is going to be ready sometime in 2010. After completion this would be one of the biggest ports in the region. The State Govt. has allotted a dedicated corridor to DPCL, wherein they would have a dual carriage railway line, a two way 6 lane road corridor for smooth plying of heavy trailers.

Since Dhamra is right on the coast – you can not miss the ever growing stink of drying fish and it is all over the place. You would be lucky if the wind direction is working in your favor. The area around Dhamra is mainly occupied by immigrants from West Bengal who got settled there since quite some time back. The anecdote goes like this that once the local King faced some opposition from the locals, so he strategically brought a handful of Bengalis from neighboring Bengal and gave them generous gifts of cultivable land. The King must have a few friends from the British to give him a quick advice.

We were trying to locate a reasonable good place for setting up our guest house and we looked at various houses. Some were right on the bank of a pond and thus ensuring a continuous stink of stale water, fish and a momentous supply of freshly bred mosquitoes. A quick word to admire this truly great creation – the size of mosquito available in Orissa is real big one. And to quote one of the locals – it is impossible not to catch malaria if the mosquito decides to give you a nice smooch. Any ways, we finalized one of the better located houses that were yet to be completed.

I also took a round of the land that we have already acquired. We went to couple of houses which are on the land to be occupied by us. In one of the houses, the owner along with his brother was harvesting the paddy crop manually. My accompanist asked him as to why they are putting in the hard labor themselves when they can very well afford a couple of labors. To that he replied that the labor would do 1/3rd the work in a day and charge full. He was probably right.

We went to another hutment where the owner was not present and to my great astonishment, I noticed that the lady of the house was carrying a mobile. Now let us not confuse ourselves – here I am in the midst of no where in a God forsaken place that does not even have electricity and still has a mobile phone. So we were told that the house owner is on his way to meet us. In a few minutes the guy arrived – a dusky short guy who had gone for fishing. Immediately upon his arrival he climbed on one of the coconut trees in the courtyard and plucked few fruits. We were treated with fresh coconut juice. He also had couple of date trees that were unfortunately not ripe. The entrance to hut was very small – one has to bend to get in and it was a two room structure. We did not go inside but just had a look from the entrance. So his establishment had a two room hutment, couple of fruit trees and small pond with ready to cook fish.

Nayagarh

My other visit has been to Nayagarh, a very small village near Pallspanga in Distt. Keonjhar. Nayagarh is around 320 kms from Bhubaneswar. For going there one has to reach Keonjhar and from Keonjhar it is around 2 hrs drive in case you are lucky and do not encounter traffic jams. Now let me define a traffic jam for the convenience of all of the Mumbai or other urban readers. A single two lane road and one side of the road have a row of parked trucks. These trucks are awaiting their turn to enter into a mine to load iron ore. This row would stretch to a few kilometers and then after a break of few meters another stretch of few kilometers. These truck drivers are so used to these jams that even after the jam is cleared they are not moving as they are fast asleep – many a times in the midst of the road. So you have practically one side of the road and with vehicles coming from both sides, it is very very seldom that you do not come across a jam. So for the convenience of citizens many a times the local Collector bans the movement of trucks on that road for a few days. For example during 10th board exams, the movement was banned so that the students can reach the examination centers without any delay. Fortunately they have just started a train between Bhubaneswar and Keonjhar, so that can save the ordeal of traveling 6 hrs one way by a vehicle. But the real adventure is after Keonjhar.

The road to Nayagarh is a mix of good and very bad path (I can not call that a road). Unless you have a vehicle with a better ground clearance, it is impossible to reach Nayagarh. Nayagarh is on the bank of Baitarni river and has also got a small railway station only for the movement of Iron ore. I did not come across too much of agriculture in that area. I was told that majority of the villagers are either engaged in transportation business or are involved in iron ore in some way or the other. Another way of keeping themselves gainfully engaged is to steal iron ore from the passing trucks either with or without the connivance of the truck drivers. Rice liquor is available in plenty and one can not miss local ladies sitting at a slight distance from the road with cans and glasses selling crude liquor. Yeah! Some women liberation at last!!!

The local scenario is quite dismal. There is a small dispensary sans the medical doctor. The midwife stays in the same room with her family and when we went there she was busy cooking lunch. Since they do not have a doctor there are no medicines. There is also a primary school but hardly any infrastructure.

Maa Tarini Temple - Keonjhar

Keonjhar also known as Kendujhar is a district and a decent sized town. Another important landmark is a temple of Maa Tarini. This temple is around 50 kms before reaching Keonjhar. This is a very famous temple and is always full of devotees. Fresh coconut juice is offered to the Deity. There is another strange unwritten norm – in case you wish to offer your prayers and offer coconut to Maa Tarini and

due to some reasons you are unable to go there, you leave your coconut in a polythene bag on any of the bus stops or crossings en route. The drivers of the buses and trucks passing through that area would pick your offerings and would do the needful. You can not miss the front portion of the buses near the windshield packed with coconuts. The temple has two big holes on each side of the gate. In case you are in a hurry, you can drop the coconut in one of the holes and it would pass through a tunnel and reach the temple. Wow – what great facilities. I have been fortunate to visit the temple a couple of times to seek blessings from Maa Tarini.

Keonjhar is surrounded by lots of tribal villages and wild animals. Once we had gone to meet a gentleman who stays on the outskirts. He had a huge land that has his house as well as two iron ore crushers and a trade mark pond. He had various fruit trees in the land. He told us that because of tall boundary wall he does not have the fortune of seeing wild animals like elephants and bears who come regularly in the night for the fruits but are unable to cross the tall boundary wall.

Black cat can offer great lunches

Once we had gone to a place called Champua from Nayagarh. The road is so bad that till today just thinking about the road I can have a backache. There are few small villages en-route. When we started from Nayagarh it was already noon time and a black cat had crossed our vehicle. Our driver, Pratap applied the brakes immediately and waited for some time and moved only after another vehicle crossed. One of my colleagues told him jokingly that it is not a bad omen if a cat crosses your way, instead it is a good omen and we would get a very special lunch. So we started again with the hope that we would get at-least some lunch, forget special. We continued our ordeal till 4 pm and there was no sign of any eatery. Suddenly out of blue we passed through a ‘Haat’(a make shift market). We stopped there and we could get some corns, radish, roasted grams, cucumber and boiled eggs. So thanks to the black cat, we finally had a special lunch.

Orchestra on rickshaw

Back in Bhubaneswar – though the place is quite urbanized and you get the feel of transformation. But I saw a marriage party that had the usual ingredients of loud music, dance, a convoy of cars and tipsy people. Nothing new but what was entirely unexpected that the live orchestra was not on a moving vehicle but they were equally divided into makeshift rickshaws that were especially designed & decorated for the occasion. Quite a sight as it was a convoy of rickshaws held together by cables coming from the generator to the key-board, electric guitar and microphones and huge speakers. Certain things refuse to change even if every thing else changes for good.

Road with a “character”

Our guest house in Bhubaneswar is closer to the airport and the road connecting airport is having a strange character. Every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday it becomes non-vegetarian. There are score of butchers that set up make shift kiosks on the road early morning on these days with a bunch of wailing goats and they are off to a roaring business. The customers also start coming there right in the early morning (Orissa has an early sun rise anyways) to select their piece of favorite meat. No, I am not a veggie, but it is certainly not a pleasant site to start your morning walk amongst wailing goats or butchers taking the skin off the goat’s bodies. So I change my route on these days.

Examination time

Unlike the more “advanced” citizens in the metros of our country, Orissa fortunately can still boast of having a close knit bonding amongst the family members. We were traveling to the interiors and suddenly came across a large gathering of crowd in front of a school. One thing that appeared common amongst majority of them was the level of anxiety that was quite evident even from a distance. I thought that they have all gathered for some protest over a fee hike. Upon enquiring, my local acquaintance informed to my surprise that these parents have come to see off their wards that are appearing for their 10th final. My God just imagine, all of them would have actually taken leave (or bunked) to hang around for a good 3 hours. Incidentally my son was also appearing for 10th and fortunately I had spoken to him in the morning. But going to his school and hanging around for 3 hours was not on the agenda ever.

I really do not know if this gesture would help their wards become more independent but this would certainly bring them closer to their parents.

Alright folks – bye for now, I have actually taken few weeks to write this in the evenings sitting in our guest houses and would certainly come back sooner. Take care and may God bless.

Recessionary Times

2009-03-07T03:30:00.001-08:00

Recessionary times

Hi, am back after a slightly long break.

The popular saying “Rough seas make better sailors” seems to be quite out of place. It appears as if these rough seas are going to swallow all the sailors – good, bad all….

During these trying times, it is impossible to think of good pro-active HR and all my friends in the HR fraternity are either counting the hatched chickens or busy browsing through the net for their own survival and next stoppage.

However having admitted that it is indeed a tough call to question the status quo, let me try and figure out what HR should do to help all concerned.

First & foremost ….

Communicate: For heaven’s sake, we hate to communicate if we do not have a good news to share. Let us understand, if we are not communicating, we would be living in a fool’s paradise to presume that none of the channels are ‘on’. As such it makes sense to speak and put all the facts to the audience. In any case we are not going to tell any rocket science, it is something that is already on every one’s domain and we only have to start on that. Then having started the conversation, we must speak as to how the bad times are affecting our sector in general and our company in particular.

Clarity of thought: HR is always considered to be the spokesperson of the top management. As such, it is vital that the HR guy stays focused and is clear of the path ahead. God forbid if the HR guy starts a conversation by admitting that he is not too sure as to what is going to happen – then God save the organization.

Engage: There is a saying “An empty mind is a devil’s workshop”. It could have been truer in an office/industry set up. We must ensure that all our employees are productively engaged to help all of us come out of these trying times. So while we are communicating, let us ask them to suggest ways and means to curtail costs. Make a multi-functional task force and have all the functions scanned by them. Give them a dead line and have a close monitoring mechanism to ensure all are working and showing some results.

Engagement is of two types: Intellectual and for fun. We must ensure that while these task forces are keeping our intellectual employees busy, the other lot is also taken care of by way of engagement for fun. It is wrong to presume that any activity would involve some cost. There are N numbers of engagements that can be done without much cost. It could a Friday/Saturday Fancy dress show or a musical evening or a shared picnic. The basic idea is to give their minds some respite from the discussions and aftermaths of seeing the color pink in their colleague’s hands.

Precipitate: There are always dead woods accumulated over a period of time. More so when the going is good, these dead woods are often remain invisible. It is therefore important that these times are used to identify such employees and cleanse the system. HR therefore can play a very important role of an unbiased identifier of such people and most importantly - to precipitate their exist. HR should talk to the respective HODs and once a common list is agreed should do the needful.

Empathize: Tough times would call for tough decisions – so no rocket science here. As such when the so called tough decisions are being taken, the channel of un-official communications become hyper active. We should not, therefore be surprised, if our business partners or ex-employees call up to find out what’s cooking. It is therefore imperative that HR treat these cases with lot of empathy and try and help them in terms of no humiliation, fast settlements, job reference. I remember some ten years back Duracell had decided to close their plant in Haryana and they had called professional counselors to help the affected employees (blue as well as white collared) deal with the agony and stigma. Needless to say they did not have even one case of dispute.

Retention: It is very sad that we tend to believe that these times are going to last for ever. Let us not forget, all the sectors are cyclic in nature. Even the Great Depression of the 1930s did not last for ever. So it becomes important that whatever we do should have a long term perspective. Retention therefore becomes a key issue once the curve starts rising up. As such we need to continuously take steps to ensure we have adequate actionable plans to retain such employees and even during such crisis, we are able to demonstrate our commitments. It could be in the shape of involvement in a cross functional team, identification of past performance or a structured job rotation.

Arrangement with Banks: We should be able to use our good offices to tie up some Banks that are offering low rates to transfer the existing housing loans. Once we offer a big chunk of employees from the same organisation, I am certain that the quality of service would definitely improve, even if the rate of interest remains static. Moreover we can always help our employees not to run from one Bank to another and save the organisation's time.

Last but not the least: let us not close our eyes on various suggestions that can come our way to curtail costs. Please understand that lay-offs or retrenchments are not the only tools available. These should be used sparingly as like any strong allopathic medicine they do have their side effects and at times these side effects take the shape of a dangerous ailment.

So take care and let us help our organizations come out of the woods faster than many of the pundits can predict.

Technical Education - Autonomy & accountability

2008-12-26T03:07:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends
As mentioned earlier, I was invited by KIIT University to chair a technical session on Technical education - Autonomy & accountability in the changing scenario. It was a session where few papers were already presented and the selected papers were being presented. The participants were usually from the academics background working in various capacities in the Indian Universities.

After their presentations, I concluded the session with my speech. The broad points covered in my speech were as follows :-
> Expectations of the Industry from the Technical Institutes
> Challenges for the Industry in the changing scenario
> Role of Industry
> Role of the Institutions
> Way forward
The crux of the whole speech was as follows :-

* Lot of challenges for the Technical Institutes - Practically not possible to look into the needs of each & every Industry
* But Customer is & would remain the KING
* Each branded product has a guarantee clause - similarly the students passing out should also have a guarantee clause.
* Curriculum to be periodically vetted by a Committee comprising Industry & regulatory authorities
* Govt. need to set up the mandatory frame work
* Faculty needs to be continuously trained – score card mechanism !!!
* Industry also need to spend their resources to ensure a better tomorrow
* Students need to be in the learning mode & not mere completion of course & getting a job
* Curriculum should have necessary behavioral ingredients

Do send your views.
Best regards

Seasons Greetings and Resolutions

2008-12-26T02:08:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends
I have been back from Orissa for almost 4 days and have been busy attending to work in our HO. Meanwhile I have also been trying to spend some time with the family. Last Sunday we went to see Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi in PVR. It was quite a light hearted movie - a good time pass, the music is also good and some of the songs have come out really well, especially Holle Holle...

New years are basically a time to pass lots of resolutions and by 2nd week, one realises that the resolutions are made to break. However to change this mind set, I have already started working on a resolution - to start morning walk. I started this practice since yesterday. There is a beautiful Joggers Park near our residential building and it is maintained well - may be it is becuase one has to buy an entry ticket to get in. It is having beautiful landscape and good water fall. Today was the second day and I spent close to 45 minutes doing some brisk walking. To top it all, there is a small stall selling herbal juices. I also had a glass of carrot juice. They have a good choice of juices to suit your requirements.

2008 is finally inching towards its end. We however do not have very fond memories to cherish. Be it the latest Mumbai shoot-out or the global melt down and recessionary issues in our country. Even some of the good news related to our excellence in sports has been negated. I sincerely hope and pray that 2009 would bring in lot of joy, peace and prosperity to all of us. May GOD bless all of us and we are able to forget 2008 very fast.

Alright - signing off now with a sincere wish for a Happy 2009.

Orissa Trip

2008-12-18T22:32:00.000-08:00

I have been in Orissa for the last 12 days. I have visited Bhubaneswar, Keonjha, Bhadrak and Dhamra in connection with my officila work. It is quite an audacious task to venture into the interiors of Orissa. the condition of the roads is not very good and the roads are not very wide making it difficult to maintain speed.

I have been invited by KIIT University, Bhubaneswar to chair a National Convention on "Autonomy and accountability of technical education in changing scenario" today at 3:45 pm in their sprawling campus.

I would write about my experience there after the session. I would be returning to Mumbai tomorrow.

Bye then and take care