Greetings to you this Monday Morning!!
I visit the theatres occasionally and in most cases only after reading movie reviews knowing what I am going to witness. This weekend however I walkedinto E-Square knowing nothing about what I was going to see and I must say that "Shall We Dance?" was worth every moment that we spent there. Starring Richard Gere and J Lo, "Shall We Dance?" is definitely not amovie for folks who love suspense and action. And while I do not intend to share any more details about the movie, what struck me in the movie is the fact that so many of us hold ourselves back from so many actions because we think that they are not in line with our age or our social and professional standing. This is so true in real life too. We are often ashamed of doing so many things and in the bargain we miss out on so many moments of joy.As children we hardly have any inhibitions, however as we grow up we keep adding them to ourselves. These inhibitions prevent us from doing so much.
Sometimes we might impulsively feel like walking out in the first rains or playing football in the muck. We might feel like playing "Gulli-Danda"with kids in the neighborhood or shouting ourselves hoarse on some mountain top. We might feel like dancing on upbeat music but feel that we would look real funny.we might feel like singing on stage but are afraidthat we would make a fool of ourselves. And we would have done all this as small children without a second thought. Isn't it true that as we grow old we tend to pick up so much of excess baggage in form of these inhibitionsthat we cannot be free to enjoy moments of simple and genuine joy? So the next time, when you feel like making paper boats and setting them afloat in puddles formed by rainwater or when you feel like flying a kite or when you feel like dancing to a new track with younger folks around, don't hold back. Just go ahead and shed your inhibitions.The next time when someone asks you "Shall we dance?" and you feel likeit, don't hesitate, or better still you can take the lead and encourage others to enjoy the simple moments of joy by going ahead and askingthem.... "Shall we Dance?"
Have a great week!!!
Monday, February 28, 2005
Monday, February 21, 2005
The point of no return...
Greetings to you this Monday Morning!!
As you read this email, you will be probably be convinced that watching the sea and visiting the beach is my favorite activity, whenever time permits. After sharing with you my "learnings" from the sea at the Worli sea face in Mumbai, Kovalum in Trivendrum and the Marina beach in Chennai I am sharing with you my most recent encounter with the waves at a place called Kashid on the western coast. A break from the "routine", I spent the weekend at Kashid with a few colleagues. Kashid is a small village that boasts of a couple of good weekend resorts and a lovely beach.
As we headed for the beach in the morning, I checked with the local resort manager about the tide movement. "Its low tide now" He warned. "The beach here is very safe, and going in the water is OK, but be careful. Don't go in too far. The sea can be dangerous".Yes, the sea can be dangerous and we know it well. There are so many instances that we have read of people being sucked into the sea during low tide. Even mature and responsible people who know the potential danger have been unable to judiciously decide where to stop.
They are unable to identify what I am terming as the "point of no return". Going beyond the"point of no return" can be very dangerous and in many cases fatal too.While the sea provides only one such example, there is a "point of no return" in everything that is potentially harmful or is likely have a negative impact on our lives. It may not take long for an occasional smoke to become a daily routine or a monthly drink to become a weekly matter or for that matter an occasional white lie to become a usual way of avoiding a confrontation.
While most of us would agree that it is OK to experiment,we have to be careful and alert while experimenting with something that could potentially be harmful. We have to carefully watch and judiciously decide where the "point of no return" lies. In such situations, at all costs, we must avoid going beyond the "point ofno return" because even if we do get a chance to return, the journey back will be extremely difficult and very painful.
Have a great week!!!
As you read this email, you will be probably be convinced that watching the sea and visiting the beach is my favorite activity, whenever time permits. After sharing with you my "learnings" from the sea at the Worli sea face in Mumbai, Kovalum in Trivendrum and the Marina beach in Chennai I am sharing with you my most recent encounter with the waves at a place called Kashid on the western coast. A break from the "routine", I spent the weekend at Kashid with a few colleagues. Kashid is a small village that boasts of a couple of good weekend resorts and a lovely beach.
As we headed for the beach in the morning, I checked with the local resort manager about the tide movement. "Its low tide now" He warned. "The beach here is very safe, and going in the water is OK, but be careful. Don't go in too far. The sea can be dangerous".Yes, the sea can be dangerous and we know it well. There are so many instances that we have read of people being sucked into the sea during low tide. Even mature and responsible people who know the potential danger have been unable to judiciously decide where to stop.
They are unable to identify what I am terming as the "point of no return". Going beyond the"point of no return" can be very dangerous and in many cases fatal too.While the sea provides only one such example, there is a "point of no return" in everything that is potentially harmful or is likely have a negative impact on our lives. It may not take long for an occasional smoke to become a daily routine or a monthly drink to become a weekly matter or for that matter an occasional white lie to become a usual way of avoiding a confrontation.
While most of us would agree that it is OK to experiment,we have to be careful and alert while experimenting with something that could potentially be harmful. We have to carefully watch and judiciously decide where the "point of no return" lies. In such situations, at all costs, we must avoid going beyond the "point ofno return" because even if we do get a chance to return, the journey back will be extremely difficult and very painful.
Have a great week!!!
Monday, February 7, 2005
A beautiful sunrise and a scary thought...
Greetings to you this Monday Morning!!
This is my first visit to the eastern coast of India and I think this is a good opportunity to transmit to you all, a live "coverage" of what I am seeing right now. The time right now is about 6:20 am and I am at the Marina beach. As I type this on my COMPAQ, ahead of me I can see the endless expanse of the Bay of Bengal. The sun is just beginning to peep over the horizon casting a lovely pink shade in the sky and the water below is doing its bit to make this a lovely canvas………and I am capturing this moment to share with you all… Here is what I am actually doing – I have a SONY Cybershot (Courtesy, Swati’s recent US visit) which is freezing this moment in time. The cybershot is plugged into my COMPAQ notebook and another port of the notebook is plugged into a LG / RELIANCE CDMA mobile phone…… Now….I will use all this gadgetry and of course the world wide web to try and virtually bring you a shot of this rising sun… Isn’t technology amazing? And the way it is touching our daily lives is all the more astounding.
Now here is the scary thought….What is alarming is that till about 6 months back I was traveling with a much bulkier OLYMPUS camera, a much heavier and slower COMPAQ and a much older GSM NOKIA 3310. I was very happy of all that gadgetry too, but in 6 months I now think that my new gadgets are much better machines…the earlier ones are all OBSOLETE.
This thought takes me to a question which our CEO, recently posed at a company meeting – He asked "What is it, that a 40 year old person can do, which a 30 year old cannot?"… And the real answer to that is "Nothing". So in other words the 40 year old is moving toward becoming obsolete. And that is probably where we all are headed unless we quickly do something about it. Learning-Unlearning and relearning is the new mantra in a rapidly changing world….and unless we are at it, we will soon become the past like my OLYMPUS and NOKIA 3310…
Think about this, but while you think please still take a moment to enjoy what I just captured on my cybershot…the Sunrise at Marina…..
Have a great week!!
Monday, January 24, 2005
Maria...
Greetings to you this Monday Morning.
I met Maria, or rather I should say that I observed Maria for a couple of hours on my Jet Airways flight from Kolkata to Mumbai over the weekend.
She was one of the in-flight crew members designated to ensure the comfort of passengers. Maria, I thought, was special for two reasons, one is that she had an extraordinary ability of developing a rapport instantly and very naturally with passengers of all age groups from a 2-year-old to a 70-year-old and second and more important was that she seemed to be one of the very few people who truly and genuinely loved what she was doing i.e. her job as an airhostess.
Observing her and the effect she has on her passengers took me back to the story of the famous turn around of the loss making Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). When Jan Carlzon took up the position as the CEO, he had only one message from the board, Turn the company around. That is what he precisely did. During the course of this turnaround he talked of what is called as a "Moment of Truth". He said that each year 10 million of their customers came in contact with approx., 5 SAS employees and each of this contact lasted for an average of 15 seconds. Thus SAS employees "created" in the minds of their customers 50 million "Moments of Truth" and these moments would ultimately decide, more than anything else, if SAS succeeded or failed as a company.
The message is simple-Top executives and managers may sit in the board room and make a lot of important decisions, but what has a more far reaching impact in business is what actually happens on the field, particularly in the services area. Managers have to get on the field and understand what kind of moments of truths their staff is creating in the minds of the customer. Managers need to identify, reward and create role models of the Marias that work for them because employees like Maria make their company successful.
Way to go Maria, wish you all the best for a long and successful career.
Have a great week.
Sudhanshu Pandit.
January 24, 2005.
I met Maria, or rather I should say that I observed Maria for a couple of hours on my Jet Airways flight from Kolkata to Mumbai over the weekend.
She was one of the in-flight crew members designated to ensure the comfort of passengers. Maria, I thought, was special for two reasons, one is that she had an extraordinary ability of developing a rapport instantly and very naturally with passengers of all age groups from a 2-year-old to a 70-year-old and second and more important was that she seemed to be one of the very few people who truly and genuinely loved what she was doing i.e. her job as an airhostess.
Observing her and the effect she has on her passengers took me back to the story of the famous turn around of the loss making Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). When Jan Carlzon took up the position as the CEO, he had only one message from the board, Turn the company around. That is what he precisely did. During the course of this turnaround he talked of what is called as a "Moment of Truth". He said that each year 10 million of their customers came in contact with approx., 5 SAS employees and each of this contact lasted for an average of 15 seconds. Thus SAS employees "created" in the minds of their customers 50 million "Moments of Truth" and these moments would ultimately decide, more than anything else, if SAS succeeded or failed as a company.
The message is simple-Top executives and managers may sit in the board room and make a lot of important decisions, but what has a more far reaching impact in business is what actually happens on the field, particularly in the services area. Managers have to get on the field and understand what kind of moments of truths their staff is creating in the minds of the customer. Managers need to identify, reward and create role models of the Marias that work for them because employees like Maria make their company successful.
Way to go Maria, wish you all the best for a long and successful career.
Have a great week.
Sudhanshu Pandit.
January 24, 2005.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Getting into overdrive...
Greetings to you this Monday morning...I recently drove a very powerful car on the expressway - and those of you, who drive, would know that most new cars are equipped with what is called as an "Overdrive". For those who don't drive, here's a brief explanation of what an overdrive is:- The overdrive is a gear in which the car operates at very high efficiency and high speed. This happens because every cycle of the car engine results in more than one rotation of the wheels of the car, thus resulting in higher efficiency and speed. Ideally we should always be driving in overdrive. But this is not possible because the overdrive is not really capable of moving a car from standstill. The overdrive cannot produce the power required to move the vehicle from stand still. It can only take over when the car is cruising beyond a certain speed after it has gained some momentum. Our daily used car provides an interesting role model for us as we begin new endeavors, take on new assignments and venture into challenging projects. Most of us including myself have made the mistake of expecting that our new assignments will straight away get into overdrive and that we will operate at very high efficiency. We need to appreciate that just like the car we have to initially get into the first gear where we burn more fuel, operate at lower efficiency and lower speeds too. This is because we have to generate enough energy to move from standstill. Only after we gain some momentum, we can shift to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and subsequently to the overdrive to operate at higher efficiency. What is important is that we need to be at our task till we get to the overdrive stage. And once we get there, the drive, I am sure will be a pleasure to experience.....Have a wonderful drive and a great week...Sudhanshu
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
