"I'll meet you at that junction then.. I'll be holding a white & red cane stick...you might have to spot me I have a visual impairment"

 "I'll meet you at that junction then.. I'll be holding a white & red cane stick...you might have to spot me I have a visual impairment" she said...

For many years I have been doing carpools. Around 2014 my office ( eClerx ) shifted to a place which was about 32kms away at a location not easily accessible via public transport from my home. That's when I started a carpool with some colleagues. While it was environmental friendly, it also helped me save on fuel costs & the cherry on the top was having company daily while traveling. It continued when I moved to Jio which was in same locality.

In 2018 I moved to Marsh India & though the office wasn't too far, I had started liking the pooling thing. I joined some carpool whatsapp groups and an app ( sRide Carpool ) & started getting to meet new people whenever I got some requests for pool.

It was on one such occasion that I got a request on Sride from a lady who wanted to pool with me. I got a call from her as soon as I accepted her request. That's when she informed me about her vision. We agreed to meet at a junction that evening.

With some coordination I reached the spot and saw her (as she had shared, she had no vision) standing there waiting for me. I was as curious as a kid the moment I saw her, having a zillion questions about her life but I contained my curiosity and we struck a generic conversation on the way. From that day, we pooled many times every few days & she'd join me in the mornings/evenings on days when our timings matched.

During our talks in subsequent trips I got to know her more. She was visually impaired since birth however she went about her education with zest and had completed her B.A. & M.A. from a reputed college & was then working at EY. I got to know that she was active in many other ways aiding her own development as well as promoting the development & wellbeing of other visually impaired individuals in the community.

Little to her knowledge, I & the other co-riders were always in awe of her. There'd be days where I'd leave home/office preoccupied with some worries and then I'd meet her and wonder about the struggles she would have been through on most days of her life while she went about trying to blend with the world around her. I'd be mesmerized witnessing her use her smartphone with so much ease - using multiple apps to stay connected and informed.

Subsequently our timings fell out and we stopped pooling and then the pandemic stuck and put an abrupt end to wonderful experience of meeting people from various backgrounds as a part of the pooling.

The lady I mention here is Sadaf Khan and she is active here on LinkedIn as well. I still smile everytime I see her react to any of my posts and hence today thought about sharing a story involving her (with her permission).

Thank you Sadaf for being an inspiration for me and many others. Most of them may not be able to tell you that they draw an inspiration from you and I just want you to know that. Keep rocking!

Link to original post : LinkedIn

Daughter's Day

 "Viana, stop scribbling on that piece of paper and focus on what the teacher is saying..."

I and my 6yo daughter share many things and one of them is the work desk at home. I am dethroned daily afternoon when her school starts and for the next few hours I am the voluntary onsite assistant to the teachers monitoring if she is going about her classes in the right way.

Last friday I noticed she was doodling away on a piece of paper while the classes were on and so I called her out a couple of times asking her to stop whatever she was doing and concentrate on the classes.

I was all smiles once I got my desk back later in the afternoon when I saw a note left next to my monitor - apparently, she did not pay heed to my nudges and finished what she was doing anyways.

Happy daughter's day to all the parents of daughters as well as all the wonderful daughters who have been relentlessly sneaking in moments of joy for their families since the time they were born.

Link to original post : LinkedIn

"Why do they always park their car in reverse...!"

 "Why do they always park their car in reverse...!"

...my sub 10 year old self always pondered. An uncle and his family stay near my house and as a kid (in the late 1980s and early 90s) I was always fascinated by their cars. Sitting in their car was always an exciting event for me. But after every drive, when it came to parking their cars I noticed my uncle/cousins always parked their car by driving the car in reverse into their building which took some time and effort (reverse aiding camera/sensors weren't common then). "Why don't they just drive it straight in and take it out in reverse the next time they want to use the car! Why take so much effort after a tiring day!..." I never asked them about it though...

Many years later I bought my first car in 2008 and that's when I learned why. The first few weeks I parked the car straight in and took it out in reverse the next day. Then a few times in the morning I noticed when I was running late, the time and effort to reverse the car out was starting to annoy me. From thereon, I started parking my car in reverse coz while it took some extra effort and time at the end of the day, I knew I could spend some more time and wasn't in a hurry, whereas, I knew the next morning when I leave for work, I will have a fairly simple task to drive out of the building straight on.

Now I know most people (who drive) already know about this simple protocol but this can be extrapolated to many other things in life. Taking the effort in the "present" to make the "future" more comfortable or to try and eliminate the possible anxious moments of the future. Be it a simple night routine to ensure your day starts off well the next day or be it a set of discretionary/voluntary actions that you carry out ahead of time that you feel will aid you in the foreseeable future. It's the culmination of these small thoughtful actions that perhaps make our lives easier than what it would be otherwise...

By the way, the cousins that I mention here are Bhupendra Gokani and Rajesh Gokani !

Link to original post : LinkedIn

"The youngest member at our shelter is a 6 year old boy.. "

 "The youngest member at our shelter is a 6 year old boy.. he lost his parents and his elder brother to a road accident. He had stayed back and was not traveling with them and now we look after him..."

...shared the office bearer of the shelter home we visited earlier today. The 90 year old shelter home cum school is home to over 50 boys who are homeless. Over the last 90 years the organization has changed lives of hundreds of young boys and made them independent and successful. The visit was done on request of my mother who celebrates her birthday today and wanted to do her bit in helping the institution in whatever little way she could and so I paid a visit with her and my little one.

Watching the little kids full of energy and smiles in their habitat was extremely inspiring for all 3 of us present there. It reminded us of the "luxuries" we have that get passed off as "necessities" while we look around desiring more "necessities" that are actually "luxuries"...

The objective of this post is not to show off (as my mother always says, never talk about what you give.. talk only about what you have received) but just to remind us all how fortunate we are (even if you have a laptop/phone and are reading this post on a social media platform) and also to nudge anyone who has been planning to visit such a place to do their bit for the community and has been procrastinating.

"Today" is a good day to add this to your "To-Do" list with a date in case you wish to visit such a place to get some joy of giving.

If anyone wishes to visit this particular institution situated in Mumbai then the address and contact can be seen on the image below.

Link to original post : LinkedIn

"The first few steps were very easy...but these ones at the top arent...."

 "The first few steps were very easy...but these ones at the top arent...."

...exclaimed my 6yo. I was pushing her to go thru the climber (I think that's what it is called) quickly but what she said was true... the initial steps/rungs look steep but are actually easy to climb. The ones at the top are flat yet they are the tricky ones to cross. The structure is such that you get good support to move up when you start off and then your reach a stage where you may be out of your comfort zone and the structure offers some challenges. It's more about the attitude/mind that may help you from thereon for passing through the next set of steps.

Isn't this true about so many other aspects of life. When you start your career the first few moves (be it promotions, role changes or other forms of growth) are fairly easy. But as you climb further you realize the steps that come subsequently aren't as easy to transcend as the earlier ones (though the early ones seemed a steep climb when we were at the bottom). Guess the same then applies to habits, investments, relationships or any processes you may have been following. The initial steps are fairly easy but then moving to the next levels suddenly seem daunting. Stalling is not an option so you figure a way to ensure you move ahead even if it means you take it slowly and cautiously (without having to turn back or fall through).

Link to original post: LinkedIn

"You wasted your engineering degree... An engineer taking up HR !!"

 "You wasted your engineering degree... An engineer taking up HR !!"

... one of my friends once was discussing with me about how he thought that most engineers in India eventually do an MBA and then land up in a field or profession that has nothing to do with engineering and thus end up never using the engineering knowledge. He knew I had a diploma in Digital Electronics followed by a degree in Electronics and a couple of years of experience as a software engineer before I steered my ship towards the interesting land of Human Resources.

Being an engineer is a way of life and somewhere or the other in our thinking and decision making process the engineering bend of mind (logic mainly) takes precedence (mostly for good and seldom for not so good).

Am absolutely glad I took up engineering as a stream for my graduation and am sure most engineers do not regret it either!

Happy National Engineers Day to all who continue to excel in the engineering profession and to all others who may not be in the profession but continue to use engineering in their day to day life!

Link to original post :  LinkedIn

6 missed calls that were a delight to return...

 "...it's sorted now..." said all 4 of them..

A heavy friday first half with a few zoom calls and just as I ended my last one, I saw there were 6 missed calls from 4 people in my team in a span of about 20mins, an hour back. Usually I either pick the calls and tell them I'll call them back or reply with a quick text, but my phone was left in another room and hence I saw the missed calls only later.

So I started calling each one back. To my amusement and delight, each one of them said the matter they were calling me for was sorted... mainly as they were either able to contact someone else and resolve their query or were able to resolve the issue by themselves.

Possible takeaways:
1. As they always say, no one is irreplaceable - be it unavailability due to the individual having left the organization, gone on a holiday or plainly busy at the moment.

2. Team members will almost always find a way out if the manager is unavailable for guidance... sometimes resolving the simple issues at hand and at other times even cracking the tougher ones.

To extrapolate the scenario, this makes me ponder if team members who have managers who are largely unavailable develop problem solving skills at a much faster rate than ones who always have their managers available for consultation. While some good guidance and mentoring from a manager is something everyone should experience for their development, wonder if the ones who are deprived of the same do well by rising to the occasion to take charge of the situations themselves. Happy to hear thoughts if any.