Bangalore Volvo Buses and the Mobile Phone

I started taking the volvo bus to work only recently. I absolutely love it for all the gossip I get to hear (Yes, the feminine side of me there ;-)!). Some of the lines that caught my attention:

1) 'Hey, I just wanted to tell you that I have packed and will meet you right after office. Where are we going by the way? I hope my parents don't find out!' (awesome!!!)
2) 'You %&%%^^, how many times to try your number? Have you fed the poor dog?' (WHAT?!!)
3) 'We are not having a fight. We just like screaming at each other' (Had mehendi on her hand, I am assuming she was a newly wed)
4) 'It's my last day at work!!!' (She was the happiest on the bus that day)
5) 'I am stuck in traffic. Will take 1 hr more.' (Was a clear road and smooth sailing that day for a change :))
6) 'You want wine or Beer' (Sigh! college days!!)
7) 'She is having so many problems with her mother-in-law, poor thing. She was crying so much' (hmmm)
8) 'How many sisters does Mummy have? What are their names? How many kids do each of them have? I have such short time to know everybody!' (Reminded me of Anand, my husband. He spoke about his family once and I actually slept halfway through and only realised it next morning!!!)
9) 'It's raining. You want me to get off here and get wet? Why didn't you start earlier!!!' (Girlfriend boyfriend fight)

10) Where are you? can you pick me up? (That was me, boring!)

The first one in the list above actually kept me awake the whole day :)!

Acknowledgements

I am part of Prof Balaji's People Management Module training. In the last class he spoke about acknowledgements. There is a difference between praise and acknowledgement and here it is:

Praise thanks the person for what he did.
Acknowledgement thanks the person for what what he did, did to you.

Ex: Praise: I thank you for reading this blog.
Acknowledgement: You reading this blog gives me the motivation to share my thoughts a lot more. Thank you for giving me the joy of sharing.

What a wonderful concept!! This made me think about all the kind words I had received in the past. And I realised why I have always felt unrecognised. Praise does not have an emotional touch to it and so doesn't matter as much as acknowledgement.

Prof Balaji, Thank you for bringing this difference to my life :)!

Confidentiality

I am very conscious, thanks to my profession, about information that are 'confidential'. I remember asking my friend after she got an offer from her company if she was 'happy' with the offer and she said, 'why don't you just ask me for my salary, that'll tell you'. I am so uncomfortable asking this information from anybody, even my sister!

So, I was in for a rude shock one fine morning when I was going to office in the Volvo bus, usually plying the 'IT' folks.

'Yes, I can talk now, no problem' that's how this lady from some place in AP (She spoke in Telugu most of time and hence this assumption) started.
With a loud laugh she said 'What is this, I am already getting 5.4LPA and you are offering me 4.75LPA? I am not interested. I have two more offers, one for 6LPA and another for 6.5LPA.' I understood the recruiter from the other end was trying his convincing skills. Finally the lady said 'If you give me minimum 6LPA, I will join, otherwise I am not interested'.

The bus was overflowing with people and our lady wasn't even thinking about us around her! Needless to say, all of us were listening to her.

I wasn't sure what I was appalled by more, her talking about her salary so openly or her bargaining.

Ways of the world, I say!!

Amma and Appa

My parents came over to stay with me for the first time after 4 years of my marriage!! And this time, I cooked and they ate :)! And I didn't feel the strain at all! It's magical, isn't it, parents. Nobody else can replace them, not even my son!

Amma though made Elai Adai for me and I loved it! It's a kerala cuisine and she does it the best! I didn't know to cook in my early days of marriage. I used to live on my mom in law's cooking and I remember how I never got used to it!

Aviyal, Tenga saadam, Rasam, Upma, Verum arisi dosai, Pesarettu yummmmmm! I miss them all!

Communication

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw.

The number of books written on this topic and the amount of discussion and training that happens is proof that as much as it is easy to understand, it is difficult to follow; work and personal life included.

I have had team members before and during their appraisals I was "always never" able to rate their communication skills as even 'good' let alone rate them exceptional. If all was well, did we need a HR at all?!!

I must quickly add 'on the lighter side' lest I be misunderstood with this 'communication' that all that HR does is communicate and help communicate effectively!

I am now a firm believer that the underlying reason for this is laziness. Yes, as simple as that!

Want to learn how to communicate better? Watch your son. When he says he wants the toy, he will tell you in not just one but ten ways. When he says he doesn't like sharing the toy, he will demonstrate it and how!

Within a snap of a finger...

My washing machine fell ill after 3 years and needed to get the doctor from LG. I just logged on to the internet, typed "Customer Service LG" and voila!!

Made me think of this incident when Ranjani my friend way back in 1990s one day asked me to come with her to IISC. Why? I asked, and she said 'to send an email to somebody' and I said, "we can do that?!"

Exactly when did we all become so dependent on this internet? No no I mean it in a good way, I just love it that I get information as quickly as I get a "no" from Baggy when I try to feed him...instant! And that made me wonder in a philosophical way, we try to do things so quickly like we are in a hurry to go somewhere or for something good to happen next, but I still haven't figured out what is it that I am running this race for!

Pizza man!!

If we don't deliver the pizza with in 30 mins, the pizza comes free!! How many of us prayed that the pizza guy was late?!

While getting back from a friend's son's b'day party on Saturday I saw an accident. A really huge lorry had apparently hit a pizza delivery scooter. The scooter was so badly damaged that I just hoped the person on it was safe. He was not to be seen in the location of the accident. I don't kno what happened to him.

Have you ever seen how fast and rash these pizza delivery guys ride? I am certain that's not how they really want to ride. I am sure that their commission depended on how many pizzas they deliver with in the time promised. Does the pizza house management even care?

Would you feel happy the next time your pizza man came late? Luckily for me, I stay in a place where every pizza joint promises that they will not be able to deliver within 30 mins and that scheme is not relevant to me :)!

To less and less of pizzas.......