Rahul Writes

We now have ‘Infy Heritage Club‘ within Infosys. Some time back we were asked to nominate ourselves voluntarily for this newly created club. I just received a mailer welcoming us and also invited me to an online survey to ascertain my skills which can be of use for this club.  The mailer informs us that under the banner we have some exciting projects lined up using our skills in the field of project management, creativity, IT expertise, and above all, as it says, “through the passion & spirit of Infy!”  

The Infy Heritage Club is proposing these projects in collaboration with Ministry of Culture (Govt of India) and some of the prestigious institutions and subject matter experts in the country.  

- Rahul

Most of us would have come across someone in our life whom we consider “perfect”. For me, one of our professors was one such with his exceptional academic brilliance, amazing sense of humor and a great strength of character. I will always remember Dr. Narayanan as a “perfectionist”. It is natural for us to strive towards becoming a perfectionist too. Though I am not saying that we would become “perfect” one day because perfection is not a destination but a manner of doing things.  

Some days back I read the following paragraphs, which made me think about the same issue again with a different angle.  

“Neurologists say that our brains are programmed much more for stories than for PowerPoint slides and abstract data. Stories with a little drama seem to be enjoyed by our feelings and, more importantly, are remembered far longer than any dry slide filled with analytics. Personal stories also create a more intimate atmosphere. Intimacy suggests friends. Friends suggest people who are not trying to take advantage of one another.  

Our logical minds worry about awkwardness in a presentation. But up to a point, most people seem to feel more comfortable with less-than-superman speaking qualities. It makes the speaker more human. It makes the speaker look more vulnerable. Vulnerable means he is less likely to aggressively attach our decisions or beliefs, and that makes us more comfortable. A little awkwardness also feels real, not slick or phony. When we feel someone is being slick and phony, we are much more likely to reject the message.” 

Ref: P54, John. O. Kotter, A sense of Urgency.  

The first paragraph would still sound doable to a student of perfectionism as it tells that at places using the right brain would be more appropriate than the logical left brain. It tells about the learning pattern, which each perfectionist would also understand. Not everyone is blessed with very accurate memory and engagement activities in the form of stories etc. are very effective in achieving higher retention by our brain. But how should we take the second paragraph?  

Should we then purposefully make some mistakes in our PPTs or make some fonts appear bad in contrast? Or should we fumble during our delivery or at times fake losses of memory or slips of tongue? If such things happen by mistakes, should we grin and smile? Should we borrow some words from the kids or street children or should we also drop some tea over our neckties? I hope I am making my point clear, though I am a bit exaggerating.  

What do you say? While I don’t doubt the second paragraph, I am more worried about the implications. Should we keep it as “comforting” words for those who don’t achieve the “perfect” result, or should we actually look forward to practice it? If we agree with the later, are not we planning to make a mediocre world?  

- Rahul

Also posted here [Link]

Be it in our day to day life or once in a while, at times we wonder if we can take all the credit for the work done or is it that things happen at their own will, beyond our control. This, I call the dilemma of the ‘doer’. In Bhagawat Geeta, Lord Krishna asks us not to wish for goals or to take credit; in fact reach a state where we don’t have any feelings of ‘doer’ also. Today, a very small and regular incident happened, which points towards many vital things. 

As part of my daily job I have to send a report every evening. There is a time slot within which the report should go to clients. I have myself fixed a benchmark of 4pm for my reports – thinking that it won’t be best to received daily-reports at varied times, even though within the timeslot. Today, I had finished my report about an hour before time, so I kept it in draft, in ‘unsent’ condition. I wanted to send it exactly at 16:00:00 Hrs. When the system time reached 4:00, I sent it. I felt good about it. Then I started on other works. Suddenly I suspected if the email had actually gone. I checked the Outlook and found that the email was still in the Outbox. I clicked on Refresh, but it was not going. I kept on Refreshing, then closed and opened Outlook, and by the time the email actually went off from my Inbox, the clock was 4:02. What a shocking realization. It reminded me partially of Murphy’s Law. But more than that, it reminded me that despite the fact that I did everything right from my side, it was actually not in my hand to send the email at exactly 4:00. Though I tried my best from all aspects I could control, a simple job like sending a ready email was not in my hand. Then, we can imagine about ‘bigger’ jobs!  

Hindus believe that God breaks our ego at various stages, in different forms. They try to see lessons even in conditions which appear ‘let downs’. Such an attitude gives them strong sustenance qualities. We are also taught from our childhood not to flaunt our success or riches, and to give credit for our successes to other things like luck. With today’s small incident, I am forced to rethink about the power of the unrevealed and in smallness of our efforts. Dilemmas of a ‘doer’…  

© Rahul

Recently I published an article at the knowledge portal of our company. As a custom, I was suggested by colleagues to post an email to our group, announcing and informing them about the document. When I sent the email, I also marked a copy to a very senior person who was practice-head at our location. While I got applause and congratulations from my ‘friends’ (with whom I shared a friendly bond at work-place) some of the colleagues with whom I had only a professional relationship (due to the fact that we didn’t go along due to many reasons like difference in nature and attitude), I had a surprise in store. Many such colleagues, instead of saying anything in appreciation or support, pointed towards the fact that I had marked my email to the senior person, and made it a point for me to know about their objection towards it. It was shocking and disappointing. I wonder if people can’t add value or do something constructive, why can’t they contain themselves from doing something negative. This habit which I think stems from a host of feelings like envy, jealousy and inferiority complex, tries to discourage a person who has done anything new. If someone sends me a document sharing his/her knowledge, would I try to find mistakes in the email content or address itself, rather than saying anything in thanks or appreciation? Some of my colleagues have taught me now that when we do something good, we should also be ready to face some out-of-the-box scenarios like this, too. 

© Rahul

http://rahulbemba.blogspot.com/2011/08/challenges-in-sharing-knowledge.html

I used to go to my office on the company’s shuttle-bus service (meant to run in-between two office-campuses). That morning, the bus had to wait at the main gates till the queue of cars cleared out from the security check. I was sitting near a window and my eyes wandered out lazily. Suddenly I observed something unusual in something very usual.  

A housekeeping staff was sweeping the road. He used a broom with a long stick and skillfully wiped the road off any trash. When he reached a point, he discarded all the trash collected. I tried to find where he discarded all the stuff. I was shocked to find that it was actually an opening of a drain where he had conveniently left all the trash! It took me no time to guess that in a day or two, the trash collected there would choke the inlet of the drain and when it will rain (that being rainy season), the drain would find itself too choked to work! And that won’t be the single drain that would be choked – so we would see some water overflowing on the road and trying to find its own way. Water finds its own way, downwards, and I remember some Sanskrit Shlokas using this as example to explain some philosophies of human nature. For me, it was disappointing but revealing at the same time. 

If a well-trained housekeeping guy at our office (which is certainly amongst cleanest places in India), leaves the trash to plug the drains, the practice can also be extrapolated to understand the lack of cleanliness at public places! Taking further, this practice actually points to something which is graver – we happen to solve our problems in a similar way. We leave our problems at a place which we think has gotten us rid of those – but it actually chokes some other systems which would ultimately give rise to more serious problems. For example, if I am not able to do a job I may delegate it to a colleague to complete it as a help, thinking that I have ‘managed’ it well. Only to find one day that the drain is choked (helping colleague is no longer there) while it has started raining (I start facing serious numbers of similar cases/jobs). This makes me think about the importance of solving problems completely. Just like it was important for the housekeeping guy to discard the trash at its proper place (collection bin), it is important for us to solve the problems completely (learning that new job myself, e.g.). If we solve problems completely, then only we can feel happy about our work, either at our workplace, or in our personal lives…  

© Rahul

http://rahulbemba.blogspot.com/2011/08/good-housekeeping-and-problem-solving.html

Being an IT company gives it many advantages. The prime one is in how the company can use technology to enhance the experience of all its stakeholders including its employees. I have the privilege of being part of an IT organization which is one of the highly respected companies of the world. Recently I noticed a small peg in its scheme of things. I noticed that we have a portal called “Book Club”, which is DC (Development Center)-specific. On this online portal which can be accessed from inside the company, employees can list the books (title, author, category, comment/review), along with the ‘availability’. The books should be the ones which they want to lend to their fellow colleagues. I just listed my two books there through a very user-friendly interface. My email ID is now displayed alone with my books. If anyone visits the portal, scans through the books and is interested in reading the book I own, one can simply email me saying so and I would bring the book to lend it to him/her. One will have to return it back to me in proper condition (there are rules to safeguard the owners), within two weeks.  

Another great feature is that even books from languages other than English are allowed to be listed there. As are the religious books too – all under proper categories that helps the search feature. I now plan to list some very enlightening Hindi books on our portal.  

Over two thousand books are listed there, which are all posted by employees of my DC (location). Using a simple menu, we can change the status (availability) of the books, or can even delete the books from the menu if we no longer want to lend to others. I really appreciate the fact that how this use of a simple technology (in designing this portal) has contributed a lot to make something which is so positive and benefiting!  

I wish more and more companies work on these lines. One, we shall have people helping each other rather than looking outside for help, and second, with easily available books we shall make a better learned society.  

I had written before on my blog, about how I got an idea of making a social change by helping my colleagues in my office to donate old clothes and other items to the poor and needy (through an NGO). I started collecting material from colleagues about a month back. People used to call me up, used to bring old clothes and other materials in poly-bags and I would meet them to collect. At times they even dropped the materials at my home, when the material was heavy. I could meet them during lunch, or after the office hours before going home. The collection system worked very well but I had not imagined that it will gain so much popularity. Within a month I collected so much material that the space in my flat started looking stuffed. By that time I had also realized that Goonj’s warehouse (the NGO through which I had planned to help donate) was too far away in a very different portion of the city. Two colleagues had initially expressed interests to help me by carrying materials in their cars, but later on we were finding issues with their availability (also because the place to go was about 30km from our place). But at last, Supriti and her husband obliged me by giving a helping hand.  

So one Saturday, she and her husband came with their car and we went to the NGO’s warehouse. She had already collected a lot of material from her neighbors also, and together we had a huge amount – perhaps 200 kgs or so. Goonj’s warehouse was near Wagheshwari Temple, and even Chokhi Dhani was not far away. It was a pleasant drive to reach there. But more pleasant was what we saw after reaching there. It was their warehouse cum processing center. The center’s in-charge told us that if the donated clothes were in good shape they donated those to the poor as-it-is. But in case of torn clothes (especially cotton or denim), they make a lot of useful items like bags, wallets, etc from the clothes. Even a cotton thread doesn’t go waste if they collect it, as we saw that they were creating very good doormats from those waste clothes. We also saw the bags and wallets they had made and everything looked very new and fresh. We saw about 20 rural women working there in their center. We came to know that at times they also ran campaigns or stalls and sell the items made by the women. The money goes back to the poor, and the women are also employed in a way. I found their model very innovative and worth emulating by others. The person from the NGO gave me a receipt, which was actually printed on one side of a used-paper. Great to know that they actually practice what they preach.  

<< I have pictures of the bags they had prepared. I would load those here in some time. >> You can also check a similar observation here [Link] The following picture taken from www.goonj.org shows the women making school bags out of old collected clothes:

In the events like a flood, earthquake or tsunami, Goonj helps the affected regions with supplies of clothes and other items. The NGO is also connected with a lot of other allied NGOs for many activities.  

In April, I lost my wallet in my office. I had kept it on a sofa on ground floor of my building and forgot to take it with me. I returned back in 3-4 minutes but found that it was gone. I went to the security gates, but they were only noting down the “found” items and not the “lost” items. I kept visiting them for a month, but nothing was returned to them – that I could see by going through “Lost and Found Register”. I had lost my 2 credit-cards, 1 debit-card, 1000+ rupees, my driving license, and pictures of self and my wife. Losing the Driving License was a great loss for practical reasons, others gave me emotional pain. I found it weird that there was no place in our campus where we were registering/documenting the lost items in the campus.  

Till then, the security team used to register only found cases. Suppose I lost my wrist watch and followed up with the security (by visiting each of the three security gates and checking the respective registers) for a month and then gave up my hope. Someone had got the watch but was not able to return because s/he was on leave/onsite/travel. The person returns the watch on 31st day. Since I am not following up with the security anymore, where will this watch go? If they have a “lost” register, they can match the descriptions and verify and return it to me. Also, the benefits of noting down the details of “lost” cases are many. Just an example: if we analyze the data and find that 50 thefts have happened from a particular area in a building in a month - we can install a CCTV to monitor and curb the trend / catch the person responsible. We have about 20,000 employees in our campuses here, and daily a number of items are lost and found. A proper “system” should be in place to document the cases.  

I raised a formal request, asking “where can I register the ‘theft’ I have faced”. The initial response was insensitive. But I never accepted the explanation. The company has a fair and just system, so I had faith that I would end up making a positive change. The request went through many cycles and escalations. I was tempted to get discouraged and close the case. But I let it persist. Ultimately after two months, I have now got a communication from the facilities team that they have directed all security gates to register “lost” cases also, in the same “Lost and Found Registers”.  

I have informed my colleagues with the new development and asked them to use this facility when needed. It helps those who lose their items and have to face a lot of troubles enquiring/reclaiming those items. It also makes our facilities system more transparent and effective. I am happy that I was able to be an agent for this positive change. I haven’t got my wallet back, but there are chances that those who will face the same would go through less distress than what I went through, and the cases would also reduce just because someone is keeping a tab on them.  

- Rahul

Our company has an online bulletin board on which people can post ads and messages for a host of things. Buy and sale for items, flat on rent, any event being organized - colleagues are allowed to share the message with others. At times some very touching messages appear there. Like one that appeared today. A lady colleague posts the picture of a pup she said she had rescued and wanted someone to adopt. She says the pup is around 1.5 months old and needs to be adopted by some family which cares. And what a cute pup it is! See yourself:

I was writing a one-line email to my colleague. I wrote:  

“I had done some shorlisting; sending you those:”  

I was doing a spelling mistake, as the correct word should be “shortlisting / short listing”  

When I tried to correct the mistake, MS Word suggested me this:  

“I had done some shoplifting; sending you those:” 

:)

I had a colleague whom many of us found very irritating. Out of her other habits, one thing affected me most because I sat next to her cubicle. Her desk phone rang very loud. And it seemed that it rang only when she was away from her desk. And it seemed that she purposefully got very late in reaching back to pick it up. It continued that way, until one day I thought I would do something about it. So I went to her desk, picked up the phone, told the caller that she was away and she can call back in 10 minutes, and then I tried to “fix” the phone by lowering its ringing volume. But I was surprised to find that there was no option to lower the volume! When she came back, I asked her about it and she replied that she herself was sad that there was no option to lower the volume! I felt ashamed of my imagination. And on that day, I learnt a lesson: we should give benefit of doubt to others. And we should not judge easily, as the information with us may not be sufficient for the conclusion.  

- Rahul

Our office has a dormitory where employees can go and take a nap even during office hours. Unlike other industries, IT is very flexible and caring in this aspect. We were new and in the exploring phase. One day, our friend felt sleepy and thought to try out the dorm. 

When he went there, it was 11 AM, perhaps not very popular time for many, because the dorm was almost vacant. There was only one other guy sleeping carelessly at the extreme end of the big room. But our friend saw that the guy was in his bare minimum. He thought that maybe it was a rule to sleep like that, so he also pulled out his shirt and even trousers and entered the world of dreams. When he woke up, it was 3 PM. Slowly, he looked around. And! He jumped! He jumped to get himself clothed ASAP! What had actually happened was like this:  

Finding that the dorm was empty, a security guard had relieved himself into sleep without clothes. Our friend went there at that unfortunate moment and thought it to be a rule :). When he woke up, he saw many guys sleeping well dressed and the hall fully occupied! Only he was there without clothes! :) 

What a scene! :)  

PS: Though there are so many hilarious stories from my friends, I don’t feel like sharing them with all. But let me start with this one :)

Our company has a very strict code to prevent sexual harassment. Its acronym is ‘Shashi’ (name changed by me here to prevent identification). They don’t hesitate to lose the best of the talent, if one is found guilty in this case. The time I recall was from when we had joined recently and we were sent for an induction to know about this policy. For the days to come, references to this code with a curious name were to circulate in the fun moments at work.  

All of us were young, only a few were married. One day, a friend tells another, pointing towards another lady colleague, that she was married and had a baby. He perhaps found it difficult to believe, but confident that he was, he went straight to the girl and asks, “Do you have a baby?” :) The girl was clever and witted. And more relevant: she was unmarried. Hearing his query she appeared furious and scolded our friend saying how he dare could ask her that! Our friend was embarrassed in front of everyone. The girl went on to say that she would apply Sashi against him to take revenge. Our friend tolerated everything curiously and kept saying sorry, sorry. But when he returned, we didn’t find him either sad or embarrassed. The first thing he spoke when he came to us was a question:  

“Who is Shashi? Is she nice?” 

:) 

PS: Our friend is the same one who appeared in “The Dormitory”.

We had a Consulting Course. The trainer was a very effective communicator and delivered it so well. Amongst other points, he also made two important points which I want to share with others:  

1)      Maintaining punctuality is very important for a consultant. Perhaps only in India, we arrive late and no one raises a brow – many a time clients themselves are late. But never expect such leniency when dealing with international clients.

2)      When we are in a team or with a client, we should avoid talking in a regional language which others won’t understand. Speaking in a regional or native language which some others won’t understand would make those persons feel ‘alienated’, which is never good for a professional working.

3)      It is very important for consultants to ‘appear’ well-presentable. Especially when interacting with clients, one has to review one’s dress and its appropriateness for the occasion.  

These small things, often neglected, contribute a long way towards making us good and successful professionals.

If you use MS Office Outlook and sometimes send emails without a subject line, it allows you to do so. And you may not like the situation because appropriate subject lines in emails are necessary and part of net-etiquette.  

If you search in the Outlook ‘Options’, you won’t find a place where you can made the configuration. There are some paid Add-Ins available which can help at a cost. But a friend shares a way to get the same warning message, free of cost.  

Here are the steps:   

1. Open your Microsoft Office Outlook.

2. Press Alt+F11. This opens the Visual Basic Editor and open Project-Project 1 (left side). (If this doesn’t open Project-Project 1 then press then Press Ctrl+R)

3. On the Left Pane, one can see “Microsoft Outlook Objects” or “Project1″, expand this. Now, one can see the “ThisOutLookSession”.

4. Double click on “ThisOutLookSession”. It will open up a Code Pane on the right hand side.

5. Copy and Paste the following code in the right pane (Code Pane) and save it  

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)

Dim strSubject As String

strSubject = Item.Subject

If Len(Trim(strSubject)) = 0 Then

Prompt$ = “Subject is Empty. Are you sure you want to send the Mail?”

If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + vbMsgBoxSetForeground, “Check for Subject”) = vbNo Then

Cancel = True

End If

End If

End Sub  

6. Now whenever you try to send a mail without subject, a pop-up is raised to remind you of the blank subject.

It was Friday evening; around 6.30 PM. I came out on the balcony of our food-court, with a cup of tea in hand. There were clouds in the sky and the sun had almost set – giving the sky a distinct shade. The weather was poignant. About half of the office windows were lit. People were leaving for their homes. Some were sitting on the beautiful green lawn and talking. Some were going in the gym and employee care center. A housekeeping person was carrying away a trash-bin. A thought came to my mind. Did the same sky and the same environment appear equal to all of us? I think, certainly not. Some would be rushing to their homes looking forward to the weekend adventures. Some groups would have planned for Friday released movies. Some would have decided to stay back in the campus and enjoy games of TT or snooker. On the other hand, for some guys a tough day would have ended. For some, the end of the day would still be long to come even at 6 PM. Some singles would have been scared to go back to their lonely apartments. Some others would have problems to solve; crises to mitigate. Some would be worried about the already exhausted salary for the month. I am sure when each one of them would look at the same sky – they would feel differently. Each would feel the weather differently. Bottom-line: What we feel about the outside depends on what is going on in our inside.  

- Rahul

I remember the first time I saw someone working on an SAP screen. He was a warehouse executive, carrying out regular material receipt and issue transactions. I was not exposed to ERP at that time and hence tried to understand things from him. He was too busy posting goods and creating invoices and hence I had to understand from seeing what he was doing. I remember that at that time I was really amazed by the executive’s ‘expertise’. His fingers would float on the keyboard; he always knew where to go; and he remembered the puzzling t-codes by rote! What would be his qualification? Not more than a graduation in any stream. But his work impressed me. I also noticed that majority of his colleagues at his level, were all very good at their work.  

Now that I have got proper training and have understood the functionalities, I see the same situation and the same guys in a very different way. I remember that when I asked those guys about anything beyond those selected navigations, they won’t know. They didn’t even know the proper full forms of terms like ‘T-code’ or ‘GRN’. Now I realize that the expertise they had gained is because of working on the same few screens day in and day out. They don’t understand things beyond what they have been taught. And they don’t fully understand the implications of what they are doing in down/upstream the supply chain. Their work is kind of transactional, repetitive and even robotic.  

If we don’t properly understand things, we can easily get into the trap of accepting things on their face values and getting carried away. I think “knowing something about everything and everything about something” is still the key.  

- Rahul

It was going on for many days then. And I observed a pattern. We had daily tests to appear in and we studied late in the night in the computer labs. There were several labs, each assigned to one batch. There were guys who would start discussing things with colleagues, mostly related to studies, loudly. I had two options: either to ask them to be quiet, or to leave. To tolerate them was not happening as I needed much concentration for the difficult subject matter. I realized that asking them to be quiet won’t really help because bound by their habit; they would get into discussions again. And I didn’t want to suffer in discomfort and annoyance. So I left the lab and entered another one assigned for another batch.   

I found that there were many like me who had taken a refuse in that lab. And that lab was pretty quiet. That made me think. The loud-guys will force the behaved-guys to quit their designated labs. After some time, all the behaved-guys would accumulate in the other quieter labs, while the loud-labs would become dominated by the loud-guys. In that situation, if one behaved-guy is trapped, he would have no option but to leave. Was my experience a simulation of the real world?   

Birds of same feather flock together. Guys with similar nature would hang around amongst themselves. If this goes on without social interruption, the anecdotes like, “Know a man by his company” would stand true. But in my opinion, world is at a loss in this arrangement. When people of different natures mix, they also influence each other. With such segregation, there would be little chance for them to know and learn from each other. Is there a way out? I think in organized environments, there is still a way out. In my experience, if there was an invigilator he would discourage the loud-guys and would ask them to behave. But in real life, we seldom get to have instructors and invigilators. Our conscience would help, but only if we care.   

- Rahul

Fool and Final

Recently I was fooled. And I want to share my experience with you.

In January, 2007, I had gone to Pune on one factory assessment test (FAT). I had taken Rs 2000 in advance from my company. I incurred a total of Rs 9000 (round figure) in expenses. After returning back, I submitted my TA Bill for traveling allowances. I was to receive Rs 7K now. I filled up the TA bill, whose format was this:

Advance received:                       2K

Expenses incurred:                      9K

Amount Received:                       (blank)

We have a facility that one office boy goes to the accounts, brings the money to our desk and gets our signature on the receipt; to make our life comfortable. So when the boy came to me, handed me Rs 7K, asked to check, and got my signature on this receipt, I didn't suspect anything wrong.  

Advance received:                       2K

Expenses incurred:                      9K

Amount Received:                       9K

Six months afterwards, during the audit of the finance department, they have found out one irregularity. According to their records, I was paid Rs 9K finally, and therefore they had not adjusted my advance of Rs 2K. They asked me to return Rs 2K. I checked the TA Bill:

a) Advance received with date:     2K

b) Expenses incurred with bills:     9K

c) Credit:                                   …

d) Net Pay (b-c):                        

e) Amount Received:                   9K

f) Signature:                               (Rahul)

I had not noticed that the accounts people had not adjusted my advance. But I had received only Rs 7K! As accounts people can't do such mistakes, there was only one possibility: the office boy kept Rs 2K with him. He has been working here for long, and takes interest in such matters. In fact he is very much into the finance things.

I checked it with all possible sources, everywhere it is registered that the company paid me Rs 9K. But I had received only 7K. Now I have to pay the remaining 2K from my pocket. I can complain against that boy, but I am not going to do so because of this reason: The incident happened 6 months back, and don't remember everything for 100% sure. I may be 99% sure that the boy cheated me, but what if he was innocent? Rs 2K is not a big sum for me, but it is most of his monthly salary. I risk helping a cheater, and my decision to pay from my pocket may not be ethically correct. But I want to give him a benefit of doubt. There was my own mistake in the matter also, as I didn't check the Final TA bill and was made a Fool.