What happen to ‘Namaste’

In Thailand, Ronald folds his hands and does ‘Swadeekha’ in true thai styel. How come He doesn’t do ‘namaste’ [ Folding you hands and greeting someone]  in India? I’ve been to a lot Of McDonalds but haven’t seen him say ‘namaste’. Sad

We did ‘Indianize’ the menue, i guess we forgot the culture part! Yup sounds like us.

Communication, without Gossip?

I was driving to work in the morning and passively listening to the radio. There was some mention of ‘gossip’ and it got me thinking what would happen if there was no gossip. Sound odd to you? I think it’s very interesting. 

Let’s begin by defining gossip. The dictionary describes it as -idle talk or rumor, esp. about the personal or private affairs of others. 

I think that’s what makes it so bloody interesting. People so desperately want to know about others lives and genuinely follow it up and make a conscious effort to find out. Going by that everyone has an inquisitive side don’t they? [And that too for something ‘idle’ god knows what they would do for something relevant, it’s easy, stay shut!] 

What I like more is the fact that people love to spread the word too. It’s as if they can’t keep it in their tummy, or is it that they now have something interesting to start a conversation with? Information which will grab attention, views and a collective nod. Suddenly so many individuals are on one side.  

Coming back to communication and gossip. What would happen if there was no gossip? Let’s see 

1. Content of conversation  

Would it be ok to say people would have dry, boring, ordinary conversations? What would they talk about? Themselves [as idle talk about others is classifies as gossip]. Would they talk about the weather, places fashion, technology? Could they go on and on like this without referring to somebody, something completely idle!!!

 2. Perceptions

Now all of us form perceptions, it’s just that some of us form them after meeting people / experiencing products. Some of us form perception completely based on hear say, more dangerously someone else’s POV. Does that mean these people would be left dry, without having any perception, would that mean they go in to meeting people for the first time with a clean mind? Ok now is that good or bad? Both actually. I’m sure you can figure out why. 

3. The way we communicate – mediums  

Would there be less ‘instant communication’. Ok now that’s a bit far fetched. But would the way we use ‘instant’ mediums suffer? Would there be less demand for it? Would the urgency to communicate suffer?  

4. Number of people involved / connected. 

If it’s gossip it has to travel, if it doesn’t it’s not gossip. Would less people be connected because of the omission one fun, interesting topic? Is it safe to say that gossip about a third party has the power to flow and unite many people together, enough that they form a counter view [opposition, movement].  

5. What would happen to glossy gossip magazines?  

Ha ha ha ha would they perish? More importantly what would happen to it’s readers? Would they use that time to do something more constructive? I don’t think so. They’ll just find another hobbby in which they don’t have to use their brain.   

So if there was no gossip would life be boring and would there be less to communicate about? 

Think about it.

Camaraderie

Hello….again, but  before I begin let me tell you I have no idea what this post will turn out like. That’s because its based on simple observations which I haven’t had time / ability to substantiate or don’t know how to. This is more like me thinking out aloud ….. Well here it goes ……. 

I visit a lot of ‘working environments’ [offices], like our clients offices, drop by my friends offices, when I’m trying to get them to hurry up, and since I’m made to wait I end up noticing ‘the environment’ 

What I have noticed is that MOST offices are boring, with a serious atmosphere where everyone sticks to the ‘office code’. Now that’s ok, it’s more about these people and how people in different professions bond within the office.  

When ever I’m in some corporate / head office I notice the way the marketing/ finance/ ops guys [the ones with a decent designation] seem to interact with one another and it doesn’t seem ‘proper’. There is something missing – it’s too formal.  

Yes, formal compared to the way the sales / business development guys [amongst all hierarchies] interact with each other. 

The first set [marketing/ finance/ ops guys] eat lunch together, talk about work, crib about the management , discuss ‘plans’, and know about their colleagues family; like married how many kids, but thats all. Even while these guys are talking I can sense some sort of ‘unfamiliarity’ amongst them. They’re even insecure of each other at times, always trying to be too politically correct. That’s why I guess these guys rarely ever go out for a beer after work, unless it’s for team building! I guess that’s why they don’t meet each others family socially. 

The second set [sales / business development guys] appears to be far more ‘open’ about themselves amongst ‘their group’. The way they eat each others lunch and how they know whats going on in their colleagues life suggests that they actually know each other. This lot goes out to drink beer after work quite often and know each others family. Even after switching jobs they meet socially. This lot actually bonds and it’s evident!!!  

If I had to pick a bunch of guys to hang out with I would pick the second lot.  

Now this leads me to a very simple question. Why are these 2 groups like this????????? 

Is it because of their profession? The guys in the first set have ‘work’ locked behind passwords. They are far more secretive, hidden and sense of insecurity prevails where as what ever the second set of guys does is in the open, everything put up on the board for EVERYONE to see and KNOW.  Could this be one reason?   

Where have all the familiar faces gone?

Last week I went to my ‘old neighborhood’ after a looong time!. I went there because I wanted to see a ‘familiar doctor’. When I reached and was waiting outside for my turn I realized I had driven 25 Kms to consult a ‘familiar’ face. I could have just gone to any doctor [considering the problem], it was then that I realized how comforting and reassuring it to see a ‘familiar’ face when you are slightly bothered and don’t have your friends or family around – Kind of like social anchorage. 

 Now I had to wait outside for a very long time, and this doctor’s clinic is in the local market. A market I had been to so many times, for tiny little things, from books to food to simply killing time.   

I kept looking around and the only thing which seemed familiar were the buildings. Strange, seriously strange, no familiar people were to be seen. That’s when I realized that the 74 year old is the only familiar face left – scary. The hawkers had left the market, shopkeepers and attendants looked different. So I went for a stroll and asked some shopkeepers where I could find “Doctor Madam” [that’s how the locals referred to the doctor]. I was surprised that most people didn’t know who I was asking about, forget where to find her.  

I found this very sad, because in this market there is a 74 year old lady , that sees patient for free [ she has a knack of knowing hen ppl are short on cash] , sometimes doesn’t even charge money for medicine. And these people don’t know who she is – jeeeeeeeeeeees , this is sad.  

She’s the kinda lady that would stop kids in the market and give them a check up and send them home with a slip, telling their parents how negligent they were!! 

Now all this led me to think about something a friend of mine once said. When we were studying in Pilani, I had come back after the summer holidays [ completely charged up and happy I managed to scrape through ] and I found out that many students didn’t manage to make it – didn’t get enough marks. [Only 28 of us were left!!!]

 This is when my friend said “when a new place starts to seem familiar its ok but when old place starts to seem unfamiliar there is a problem and it’s sad” – I’m never gonna forget these lines.  

I travel a lot and often go back to old places and people / shopkeepers immediately recognize me, and start to talk, and don’t even let me pay for what I’ve had, they tell me how the place has changed, what people are  like now, where their society is heading and most importantly how they feel about it.  

Ok now getting back to what I was saying. I’m trying to imagine what ‘doctor Madam’ must be going through, she been practicing medicine in that market for around 40 years!! And suddenly people don’t really know who she is. But don’t misunderstand please, patients queue up to meet her. They value her existence and if she is late by 20 minutes people start inquiring [with a genuine concern, not selfish one], so I guess there are people out there who do care J , that makes me feel better.  

All this made me realize, how ‘closed’ or ‘walled in’ we are becoming as a society, seriously – earlier local market shopkeepers knew kids by name and what they were up to, now they don’t even know ‘who’s kid it is’. 

I really do hope we don’t become so ‘walled in’ because it’s so bloody nice and comforting to see a familiar face.

The ‘Month End Syndrome’

 

People always give reasons or excuses for not being able to do something or make it somewhere. But for the past couple of years I’ve been hearing a funny reason from young Indians, well at least I found it funny. This is what they have to say- ‘its month end’, so big deal the month is ending, right? [And I don’t think it’s an excuse] 

So how big a deal is it? Well extremely big if people plan their weeding considering whether it’s the month end or not, people postpone important meetings and work as if there is no tomorrow. Ok it is big!!

 So what happens towards the last day of the month, and why are we hearing more and more of this? Well it’s to do with work / profession. So have you guessed it? It’s judgment day for MANY professionals, the day their targets are counted, and they’re evaluated.  

What does interest me is that 5 years ago this wouldn’t have been such a common / mainstream reason for not being able to do ‘other things’. This just goes to show the types of professions people are opting for, or the WAY they work.  

And no this isn’t only referring to door to door SALES guys.  

I hear it the most from these new so called ‘relationship managers / wealth managers’ that most banks have hired [ 40%-50% of a banks staff] in order to sell financial services. I hear it a lot from the automobile industry guys. [FMCG sales guys always said this, they just weren’t so mainstream] 

So does everything you do, or don’t do for 25 days boil down to the last week or day?  

Is it the way people work? Like is there a lot of under reporting, just so a person can be seen to be working in the last week of the month? Some people don’t report actual sell through numbers etc till the last week, not that it would affect the final numbers, but just to show they too did something when it mattered the most. This is how important the ‘month end has become’.

Faith

 

I went to visit the Golden Temple this weekend. No I didn’t go for any religious reason, I went because I wanted to see the monument in real life. Plus the Wagah boarder and ‘Jaliyaan wala bagh’ – [Amritsar / Punjab food was another reason!].  

I liked what I sawJ. Lots of tourists at a religious spot , funny to think of myself as a tourist. Everything at the Golden temple was fairly well organized – and managed by the ‘trust’. It’s supposed to be a very wealthy trust, which wields a lot of political power in the region.

  

Anyway people had to stand in a line for about 45 – 60 minutes to enter the temple. It got tiring for a lot of people [ hot summer day] but for some it was nothing, an old couple standing near me smiled and said ‘ have faith in him’. [They probably thought I was getting bored standing in the queue] This led me to think about faith. I looked around, and then thought for a while [had nothing else to do!] & realized there are 2 types of faith 

 1 Faith based on some fact / reality 

2 Blind faith; based on nothing but an individual’s hopes / beliefs: surreal  

People go to great lengths to uphold their faith, and when their faith shatters they give various logical explanations. But isn’t faith something that should exist in the face of adversity? If it doesn’t isn’t it safe to say it didn’t exist to begin with?  

I guess brands can learn a few things from this J

Homeopathy

 

Homeopathic medicine has always intrigued me. I’ve seen people around me turn to homeopathy when prescribed drugs don’t work for them or when they have small problems for which they don’t want to ‘pop a pill’ on a regular basis.  

The general perception out there is that homeopathy has no side affects, so there is no harm in trying it out.

How ever not many people consider homeopathy at all, why is that?  Is it because they can’t relate to it, ignorance? Or is there a doubt on its efficacy?  

Does this mean homeopathy is ok for small problems but not serious ones? 

But why would that be the case? Could it be due to it’s simplicity or lack of it? I say this because all homeopathic pills look similar [ok size varies] and they taste the same too. They come in nice similar looking transparent miniature bottles. 

But is this simplicity driving people away from homeopathy as they can’t read the ingredients? They don’t have to open boxes and tear wrappers to reach a pill, they can’t see any expiry date, manufacturers name etc etc. [no endorsing brand]. 

Does this put them in a situation of blind faith? [Which they must not like] Could this be one reason why most people don’t take homeopathy seriously or consider it at all?  I think I’ll investigate this a little more J

Independence Day!

Yes, it’s 15th August.  

Last week I saw a clip on TV which had Nehru speaking on the eve of India’s independence 60 years ago; it still sums up the atmosphere here today. 

 “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.”  

However the media seems hell bent on celebrating 60 years of economic progress rather than simple things. 

Either way it feels nice.  

Perception is not equal to reality

Lately I’ve been reading lots incidents involving road rage. Incidents about normal people, that we come across every day, getting irritated at a fellow motorist which leads to arguments and ends with serious violence. It’s as if these people suddenly turned into monsters who were ready to kill. But kill for what? The sake of an argument, pumped up egos or just anger? Unfortunately two humans were killed by ‘normal people’ for accidentally brushing into their car. 

These are incidents that the media has taken up, but it highlights and forces us to think about who we really are. People all across the country have been resorting to violence for a long time. The truth is we’re not really peace lovers or docile. 

Well this doesn’t make sense because as a nation we love to think of ourselves as non violent. Don’t we refer to ourselves as a docile race, to the extent that we say our sportsmen / women lack aggression?  Now I can start to recall numerous conversations in which we Indians refer to ourselves as a ‘peace loving race’.  

Well where does this stem from? Is this just a perception that we’ve managed to create and sustain over the years?  

How has this perception been created?  

Thinking back, I remember reading in school text books that India isn’t part of most political power blocks, and we follow a policy of NAM …….etc …………..etc , because of our values and principles strictly discourage violence etc etc…….  

Is this because of one Man and his people? Is this because of Gandhi and his values? Has one man been able to cast such a long lasting perception?  

Is it that we’ve just been taught from a very early age that we are a non violent race and that’s what the Father of the nation stood for? 

Hello everyone

Hi,

I’ve finally decided to write a blog. It has always been on my mind – I’ve juts been lazy till now.

Cheers