Sweet 16!

A few weeks back, Ruby and I celebrated sixteen beautiful years of being together. I got a special gift for her for our anniversary. Unlike the previous years, this time I went a little beyond the usual and got her a limited-edition gift. I reached home and after a bit of drama, I presented the gift in style, at least that was what I thought. As soon as she had a glimpse of the box, realization set in. It took a while for her to settle down the emotions that took off for a roller coaster ride. As she opened the box, I could see her eyes getting wider with what she saw inside.

The sheer fact that it was possibly the most expensive gift I had got for her, the shrewd finance manager she was, obviously had a complex calculation running in her sharp brain. Now at this juncture, I need to make a statement which for some people may be politically incorrect. Nevertheless, it is a proven fact that the human brains are differently wired between male and female of the species.

For the men folks, a purchase decision may involve a simple combination of two factors, liking a product and the love for the person to whom the gift is purchased. Budget did matter but was not the highest priority. For women, these and many more factors (I wish I knew everything to list down here!) did matter when they decide to buy a gift as well as assess the return on investment against the purchase made. Please do not get me wrong, I am not referring to only high value items, even the tiniest of the gift will also go through a round of analysis as mentioned above.

Since it was indeed an item of elevated price tag, I had received the guarantee from the shop guys that my wife will return or exchange it if she wished to do so. Those were the kind of agreements that eventually turned out to be lifesaving decisions. The anniversary evening thus ended on a happy note.

A couple of days ago, I happened to visit a local store where I picked up a Tulsi plant, a medicinal herb. While the shop owner was packing the plant, I happened to notice a garland made of freshly bloomed jasmine flowers. It did not even take a fraction of a moment for me to ask him to get me a small portion of the garland since I knew Ruby liked it. To state a fact, the cost of the garland was even less than the price of a coffee from any standard barista in a decent shopping mall.

I reached home and after placing the plant pot down, I presented the jasmine garland to my sweetheart. This time again, I could see her eyes brighten up and was filled with an avalanche of emotions. Those were quite different from the ones I experienced a few days back when an expensive gift was presented. I stood there and tried to absorb the depth of unexplainable chemical reactions happening in her neurons.

The happiness that tiny bunch of flowers generated was far beyond the dazzling piece of gift presented a few days ago. Life is indeed unreal! It up as an absolutely beautiful evening for both of us. The next day she told me how she could still feel the fragrance of jasmine lingering around and the many memories it brought back from her school and college days.

It was a wonderful reminder for me about how we kept finding happiness in simple things in life. Something that helped us walk hand in hand in the last sixteen years together. Happiness is not found only in things that dazzle. It is also the small things in life where the fragrance of love lingers forever.

Here is an honest wish from both of us to all the beautiful couples out there who live life in the simplest possible manner and present each other with eternal gift of love! 

A Spicy Mistake!

During my college days, I tried my hands on preparing a few dishes based on Kerala cuisine. While the success rate on those were not that great, over a period of time I mastered the art of making a good tea with milk.

Hence, after Ruby and I got married and settled down at our one-bedroom apartment in Bangalore, one day I told her I will make a special tea for her. While sceptical, she agreed to that idea and watched me making the special brew for her. 

Milk, water, tea powder and sugar, all found its way one after the other into the saucepan. Then came my secret ingredient, cardamom, also known as the Queen of Spices, for the distinct flavour and aroma it brought to any dish prepared with this unique spice. It gave an even more special effect when used to make tea. I must also add here that cardamom is one of the most expensive spices you get to buy, with some of the best quality ones costing as high as USD 100+ per kilogram.

As I was preparing the magical potion, I took a couple of pods of cardamom and started to peel the outer shell. All the while Ruby was watching me with eyes filled with curiosity. All of a sudden, I could see an unexplainable burst of emotion in her eyes followed by a loud cry! That was the exact moment when I finished peeling the cardamom and added the empty shell to the boiling tea and promptly trashed the seeds that were inside the shell.

In the same tone of the cry, she asked me why I threw the seeds. With all the innocence in the world, I told her, I always used the shell and threw the seeds away. That perhaps was the first time I saw my darling wife totally speechless. After the initial shock, she regained her composure and with an amazing sense of patience, explained to me what a historical blunder I was doing all the while. 

The seeds in fact were the essential part of that exotic spice. I listened intently and since I wasn't easy convinced, I did my own research and realised that my sweetheart was indeed right! From that day, the cardamom pods at our home had been thanking me for making real use of them.

The best part of this incident was not just knowing the correct use of a spice. On the contrary, ever since the incident, I had been telling my better half about writing a story about this. She was the one who didn't agree, as she was concerned about it would influence the perception of others. 

For me, this is true leadership. A good leader will give constructive feedback on mistakes by a team member, irrespective of the gap in hierarchy between them. At the same time the leader will ensure enough privacy so that perception management is achieved as well.

Just like how effective feedback helped us to have better tasting tea, professional environment demands meaningful exchange of constructive criticisms which all parties involved need to provide and receive in the most practical sense.

May we all be blessed to be a good leader who can empathize with a team member. As a team member, may we have the courage to accept the feedback and incorporate good learning which can take us to even greater professional heights. 

Know Thy Drive - Part II

Imagine this. You are at the car rental office at your holiday destination. You verified the model of the car, the accessories, and a few other features before heading out. You are most likely to forget one important aspect about the trip, the tolls you need to pay enroute. Depending on the geography you are travelling, you may come across tolls for roads, bridges and even tunnels.

Many countries have automated toll payment system in the form of a RFID tag stuck on to the vehicle. All what you are required to do is to top up the tag and it will automatically pay the toll for you. If you are lucky, the car you are renting may already have enough balance on the tag, so that you do not have to pay for it. We were lucky once!

In places where the tag system is not present, you could still pay using a credit card or even cash. Ensure that you understand how much money you need to have with you and be prepared for the number of tolls you need to pay on the way. A simple search in Google should give you an idea, if you know the route that you are planning to take.

Another important aspect to be considered is if you plan to drive inside city limits. In most of the super busy cities in the world, an additional fees called congestion charges apply. You need to be aware of this because you will end up paying a lot more than you planned as the budget for your car rental. The best alternative for this is to rely on public transport, provided, the city has an established infrastructure. Most of the advanced cities today boast a well-connected public transport system. Not just that, you will save loads of money on parking charges as well, if you opt for public transport. 

During a recent trip to UK from Dubai, one of the first experiences with my rented car was the difference in the driving side. While I drove on the right side in Dubai, it was the opposite in UK. I was used to driving on the left, back home in India. But since I had been driving in Dubai for a decade and a half, it took a few minutes for me to get used to the left side driving, especially in the structured driving environment of UK unlike in India. 

The trick is to take it slow, get a feel of the drive and then zip forward. I also distinctly remember one of my team leads telling a client of ours while we were in Atlanta to do whatever she wanted in India, except driving. If you are someone who are used to a structured way of driving, I can guarantee that you will have no idea what hits you in India, literally and figuratively! There could be comparable stories from across the countries in the world. Be aware of these.

It is obvious that you need to get familiarised with the controls of your rented car before you start, since it could make or break your journey if you commit mistakes. Also ensure that you are familiar with the road rules including speed signs and strictly follow them. 

During one of our trips to Switzerland we had a unique experience. While driving into one among the hundreds of tunnels in Swiss, a lady in the lane behind us started flashing the lights. While initially I was confused, when I saw her overtaking us and showing the signs to have the lights on, I remembered the rule in the tunnels to have lights turned on. Non-compliance of the rule would have invited hefty fines. God bless her!

Another interesting experience was when we stopped to refill petrol in Scotland. My son got out and wanted to help me with filling of the fuel. The man at the counter yelled from the window saying it was illegal to have young children near the fuel dispenser due to the hazard of gas inhalation! Learnings galore when you are on the road.

Last but never the least, always have the emergency contacts handy, including roadside assistance, police, and ambulance. It will also help to have contact details of car insurance as well as information about the embassy of your country in the event of an emergency.

Above all, the fundamental rule to be kept in mind while travelling is to apply common sense! Take care and enjoy your trip.

Bon Voyage!

Know thy Drive – Part I

What is one of the first things that come to your mind when you plan your vacation? If you belong to a ‘tribe’ where my family proudly associate us with, you will be looking for the options to drive. While we are yet to explore the likes of a caravan on a vacation trip, looking at a car to rent is one of the top priorities, especially if we are planning for a road trip.

Along with exploring the options for hotels to stay, service providers or aggregators such as Booking.com is what we frequently use for planning. We also look at direct rental options in websites for Avis, Budget etc. and do a comparison of the offers provided to take a decision.

In case, if your organisation has tie-ups with these car rental companies, that can be a third option to look at the offers and decide. While looking at the established brands such as Avis and Budget is an easy option, always remember that there could be good local car rental companies in many countries who could offer better deals. So do not forget to check out all options before you take a final call. Trust me, it will have a considerable impact on your travel budget.

Another factor to consider while booking a car rental is the choice of accessories. Depending on your needs, accessories could range from the need to get a car seat or booster seat, GPS to help you with the routes if you have any challenge with getting maps on your mobile phone, winter specific options including snow tires if needed and the likes of these. Insurance is another crucial point that you need to consider which has various bifurcations that needs to be checked before taking the kind of package you need for the trip.

Depending on the number of people in your group and the kind of terrains you plan to cover, the type of vehicle is an important choice that you need to make. It can range from a hatch-back to a sedan to an SUV based on the plan. Depending on your choice, the price will also be varying, and you need to keep an eye on the budget accordingly.

One of the most important points to remember is the rules regarding driving license at the country or countries you plan to drive. In certain cases, the driving license you have in your current country may be valid at least for a brief period in the country of your travel. That will work out to be favourable for you. In other cases, you may have to take an International Driving Permit (IDP) to be driving legally in that country. Please always check for the latest rules before you decide which license be enough for you. I would like to give a friendly warning here that please do not depend entirely on AI or even news updates that come in the top search results in Google for this information. In most cases, the official government websites are dependable sources for this information.

These are many more aspects of your drive that contribute to a meaningful, hassle-free vacation. Since this is a vast area to talk about, I shall cover the remaining areas in part II of this topic.

Till then, do plan well and have a fantastic vacation.

Cheers!

When my ten-year-old lost to AI, almost!

More than a year ago, when I decided to start a series on Travel Tips, called Trip Elf: Your Travel Buddy, I remember having a quick chat with Mia, my little princess. She was about to turn nine then. For most of my articles, I used my clicks as the title picture. I wanted something different this time.

Mia came up with a lovely idea. She said, ‘Appa, you give me the storyline, I’ll draw a picture for you’. There was one condition though. I had to promise to her that all the pictures in this series will be hers. Our sweet partnership started with that. Since then, I had written seven stories in the series, and she drew the pictures for most of them. But something was destined to change.

It was time for the next story in the series. I got the points ready and even detailed the content in my mind. All what was required was to put the pen to the paper. But before publishing the story, I obviously needed a title picture from my daughter.

As usual I had given her the plot and discussed the requirements for the image with her. She was all set to create another beautiful image for the next one in my series. After a couple of days, I reminded her about the picture so that I could post the article. That was when an end-of-the-chapter-test came as an impediment for her. She seemed to have already mastered the art of prioritizing her tasks, something as adults, we still struggle.

Since she was unable to provide me with the image, I decided to negotiate with her. As the content was almost ready, I did not want to delay the publishing any further. Hence, I suggested a fallback option as a one-time exception. Copilot! The wonderful world of AI opened in front of us. Interestingly, she did not resist the idea.

Together we explored the prompt engineering experience of AI. After a couple of attempts, Copilot generated a beautiful image fully assimilating our requirement. We decided to use the image. But the instruction from my daughter was quite clear. This is a one-time exception due to time constraint, and it should remain that way.

The story will be published soon with the AI image created, instead of a beautiful art form by my darling daughter! I know it is a one-off as my daughter’s happiness will always be more important than the happiness of publishing another article bypassing her creativity.

Meanwhile, this is a powerful reminder of what is happening around the world today. People find easier alternatives with AI to perform tasks that needed human beings earlier. For me personally, it is also a reminder to keep emotional and social aspects in mind, while trying to take decisions to embrace AI.

If you are one such decision maker in an organisation who decides on the fate of an employee in favour of AI, it may be worthwhile asking these questions? 

 - Is AI worth letting go of someone who trusted you and gave their best?

 - Is there an alternate way of using the AI along with your valuable and loyal employees?

 - Have you really quantified and qualified the effectiveness of AI before letting go the people who helped you build the organization?

In the end, let us all remember this. All of us who knew what the term Y2K means, have survived a similar onslaught of internet. Let me not say, this too shall pass. Instead, we shall survive this as well.

Here is a toast to a world that looks forward to AI along with U & I.

 

Lokah – Redefining Myth!

Years ago, I remember growing up reading story books that dealt with various types of supernatural beings. Among the different types, the one that found its way into the deepest and darkest of emotional chambers in my mind would have undoubtedly been the one about Yakshis, the closest western equivalent perhaps to Vampires!

The stories spoke about Yakshis owning the nights, especially in the routes through deserted places. They will then lure people with their beauty and sensuality, eventually taking in the prey and suck the blood out of them, leaving them dead. The entire plot was good enough to manipulate the scary emotions in young readers’ mind. So, it was, for most of my generation who grew up reading similar stories and fearing all sorts of supernatural beings.

All that was destined to change in August 2025. 

A movie got released in multiple Indian languages. The name was Lokah – Chapter 1, Chandra. It was obvious that the movie was meant to become a franchise if the first one became a hit. The movie started with the lead actor donning a superhero character, a woman who had supernatural powers and was portrayed in a fantastic action sequence.

A few minutes into the movie, the character’s origin was revealed. That was the biggest announcement in the history of myths in Malayalam literature. The character was none other than (warning: spoiler alert!) Kalliyankattu Neeli, the legendary Yakshi ever created in Malayalam. The movie then traversed through paths that were absolutely new for everyone who ever had an exposure to Yakshis through books in the past.

The latest Neeli, while she possessed similar traits of a blood thirsty Yakshi from the past, surprises the audience with softer emotions such as love and care. The movie even portrayed a small girl who was listening to her grandfather about Neeli, asking the question, if Neeli was a superhero? The whole plot was turned.

As the movie ended, from a scary supernatural being, Neeli now donned a positive persona. The one to be loved, instead of to be afraid of. The one that only took the revenge against the terrible human beings than good ones since Neeli had a soft corner towards good humans.

It is amazing how Dominic Arun and Santhy Balachandran, co-writers of this script were able to give a total makeover to a once super scary persona of Neeli as a Yakshi, to someone to be absolutely adored and loved.

I can’t help but imagine this. If a movie was able to bring such a mindset change to a myth that is centuries old, can the corporate world use this same technique for changing some of the deep-rooted beliefs and facilitate a mindset change if we truly need an organization culture change?

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Results!

It all started with a seemingly innocent question from the Principal to us, the parent representatives of The Millennium School (TMS). 'Why don't you plan a Parent Day event so that we bring our families closer?' We shook our heads and agreed. Little did we know that we were signing up for the biggest ever initiative undertaken by the Parent Care Group (PCG), the grade-wise representatives, in the 25 year old history of the school!

Discussions started and plans were drafted. Date of the event was fixed as 01 Nov 2025. As we were about to shift things to top gear, there was a proposal from the GEMS group to have an event for the families across all schools as part of the Family First initiative by Mr Sunny Varkey, the chairman of GEMS group. The date proposed was a week before our planned event. The most logical thing followed. We merged these two events and decided to have the first edition of Family First event on 25 October 2025. It just so happened to coincide with the culmination of Silver Jubilee celebration of TMS.

Preparations were soon in full swing. PCG engaged Parent Focus Group (PFG), the class-wise representatives and connected with the entire parent community. Messages were passed about the event. All the while the school team was preparing at their end as well. Everything was set for the day.

After days and endless hours of collaboration, the event finally arrived and what a day it turned out to be! From amazing indoor and outdoor games, to story reading, puppet shows, mehndi art, zumba, yoga, mural painting and what not? The grand finale was a fashion show where families, teachers and to top it all, the senior leadership team themselves entertaining the whole school with a ramp walk that set the stage on fire!

The highlight of the day was a time capsule that was filled with artefacts from the silver jubilee year including heartfelt messages for future generations, placed in a lead box and sealed, to be opened only by the year 2050!

We walked out of the gate of the school with hearts filled with happiness and minds filled with a resolve to do even greater things together for the school.

Am sure, when a child in the year 2050 opens the time capsule and learns about us they will possibly be reminded of what Einstein said about Gandhiji, 'generations to come will scarce believe that such a man as this one, ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth'. They will then add, such were our predecessors in TMS, who not just walked the earth in flesh and blood but also had a heart filled with care and love for the school and the wellbeing of their children.

Here is a toast to the next 25 years... 

Let the dogs bark!

Nothing could have been more exciting for a child in late 80s, when a dad said, ‘let us go and have an ice cream!’. This was all the more true for a small town like Changanacherry in Kerala where entertainment still meant going across to your neighbour’s house and play with your friends in their backyard instead of looking at a digital screen and searching for happiness in the incessant number of reels on the social media that keep us jailed in the Boolean world.

The shop where we got ice cream was a tiny room, roughly a ten-by-ten square. They had only three types of ice creams there, a cup, a ball, and a chocolate stick, all in Vanilla flavour. That itself was like heaven for people in that small town. This was when dad came up with an idea of a full-fledged ice cream parlour in Changanacherry. 

The shop was to sell more than fifteen flavours of ice creams and even more interesting were the sundaes which were a mix of flavours served in fancy glass bowls laced with syrups and other accompaniments like caramelized nuts, Tutti Frutti, cherries and what not?! Brilliant idea for those times. 

We are talking about more than three decades in the past. A business model such as this, obviously needed significant investment. Dad presented his vision to his known circle. Soon, two groups of opinion makers were formed, one that fully supported him and the other vehemently opposed him. The resistance was quite stiff that he had to use his entire charisma to pacify them. Many remained unconvinced and continued to discourage him from proceeding further. 

Dad was one of the most optimistic people I had ever come across in my life. He heard everyone, weighed all pros and cons, and went ahead with the decision to launch the business and called it Adens with a tagline that read, 'A Sweet Den for All'. That was how on 22 December 1991, history was written in the small town of Changanacherry where the people of the town witnessed a brand-new experience of exciting their taste buds with variety of ice creams! 34 years later, the business still stands tall even though dad now oversees the operations from heaven as my brother runs the show. 

Many years after Adens was launched and running as one of the biggest success stories from that part of the world, one day I asked dad how did he overcome the resistance from many people during the planning days. His answer was a simple yet powerful proverb.

Let the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on...

God bless his soul!

 

Punctuality – A Deadly Lesson!

Yesterday evening a sad news came in one of my college WhatsApp groups. It had a picture of a professor who taught us during the graduation days, quarter of a century ago and the message was about his passing. May his soul rest in peace.

A barrage of memories came rushing on how he used to take classes those days when faculties were not burdened with political correctness. They freely spoke their mind and acted as they wished. Getting reminded of maintaining decorum in the class, with a pellet hitting your head in the form of a chalk piece or at times even the eraser itself or notebooks flying through the air and out of the door since homework was not done, were all accepted norms then. They all contributed to the beautiful nostalgia that we cherish today.

Those were the days when faculty and student relation was laced with respect and love, something only next to what we experienced back home with our parents.

On the contrary, I recently heard from some of the professors in colleges now, where they had to think twice before making a remark in the class fearing what students and parents will think and react about the correctness of their remark.

That reminded me of one of our other professors, Mr D who taught us during our MBA days back in the then Christ College, Bangalore. It was the initial days of the classes and our first experience of getting exposed to a professional course that taught Business Management.

He had a unique way of delivering his lecture. The campus at Christ was lush green. On one end of the campus, there was a Birds Park where literally we could see birds visiting in groups due to the thick foliage. The garden had a gazebo with ample chairs that could accommodate a whole class. 

We were given clear instructions by Mr D, for us to be seated at the Birds Park before the beginning of the class. He would join us right on dot when the class time was meant to start. On day one, we all followed this to the T. Day two, one of our classmates was late by a minute.

As soon as the student came up, he gave an excuse on why he was late. We could see a clear change to the professor's demeanour. His face became stern and when he spoke, the voice was deep with a scary tone.

Mr D made a statement, which remained etched in our minds till date and became the Magna Carta for everything to do with punctuality in our life. 

He said, 'You can only have two reasons to arrive late to my class. Either you must be dead, or you are dying!'

This and many more timeless reminders from our dear teachers from yester years, keep us on our toes in our daily life, even decades after leaving college and working in a professional environment in the corporate world.

Salute to good old days!

The Chutney Manager

By virtue of hailing from Kerala, also known as land of coconuts, it is quite natural for us to have coconut in many of our dishes. Chutney or coconut dip is one of the most common dishes that is paired with famous breakfast items such as dosas and idlis. As was destined, last weekend, I decided to take a bold step in preparing a coconut chutney myself in combination with wheat dosa. It was an unusual attempt considering the fact that we have a master chef at home, in the form of my sweetheart.

As the established practice many novice chefs resort to, I searched and found a recipe online and followed the instructions. Since some of the ingredients were either unknown to me or not available, I decided to ignore them and managed with the rest. All went well except for the initial roasting of shallots which got slightly burned, or so I thought. At the end, the final product turned out to be so good that even the master chef was majorly impressed with the culinary skills of the rookie! Who knew, maybe the burnt shallots gave a smoky flavour to the dish, which might have added an accidental twist and tickled the tastebuds.

A few days later when the breakfast menu again had dosa and chutney, the master chef herself prepared it. A huge surprise awaited me, as soon as the dish was ready. The master tasted the dish she made and then bowed down to this humble being stating, she still felt the chutney I made last time was better than hers! I was in seventh heaven. What a glorified way of getting an appreciation. A tribute par excellence!

It didn't stop there. The liberal compliment was followed by the statement of the century. My sweetheart declared to the family that since Appa makes the best chutney in the house, henceforth, all days when chutney is on the menu, it will be Appa who will be the official chutney master.

Suddenly, I heard alarm bells going off. Warning lights flashed in dozens. Before I could even rush to a safe zone I was trapped in an impossible-to-escape dungeon. The name board of the place read, Death by Appreciation!

The only comparable experience in a corporate workspace is when a colleague or a boss showers you with compliments for a job well done, which in the first place was theirs to do. You will then be trapped to do similar or other jobs, the pain of which will be drenched in an avalanche of appreciation.

Allow me to dedicate this piece to all such 'true strategists' of the modern world. From this day, they will be known as The Chutney Managers!

 

Gulf Air & Scissors

If you have read the title of this story, you may be wondering what has a scissors got to do with Gulf Air? For a ten-year-old boy in the early 90’s the airline played a critical role in a barter transaction for something important to him. The interesting fact was that the airline itself had no clue that it was going to be a party to a life changing decision the boy was about to make.

Before I took the story any further, I had to take you back to my tiny state of Kerala in India. While the state of Kerala is one fifth the size of state of Washington, even in early 90s we had a considerable number of expats from the state, especially in the Middle East. One of them was my uncle and family who used to visit us once in a year from Muscat, the capital of Oman.

Uncle and family used to take the most famous airline from Middle East during those times, Gulf Air. Emirates was still in its infancy then. One of the most awaited events for my brother who was four years elder than me and I, after uncle reached my home, was unpacking of the bags. Those were the days when gifts from abroad were attributed very high value. It was the era before liberalisation in India, and we were yet to have foreign merchandise freely available in our country.

Among the gifts uncle came home with that time, was a pair of beautiful stainless-steel scissors with a transparent brown handle. The best part was the cutting action by the scissors which was so perfect that it was altogether a new experience for my brother and me. I was a bit jealous when my uncle extended that scissors as a gift to my brother. While I do not remember what exactly the gift was, I received that year, I definitely remember that I got something priceless that day.

Uncle’s eldest son was just two years younger to me, and we used to share similar vibes on our interests. He clearly knew my love for aviation and I appreciated anything unique that came with a Tflight. In this case, it was the inflight magazine of Gulf Air. Every year when he arrived at our place, he showed me the latest edition of the prized possession from the flight that time. He was quite generous and allowed me to have the only copy he managed to get from the flight. Thirty-five years later, all these sounded silly. But during those days, the magazine meant the world to me. I wonder what the editorial team at Gulf Air would have thought if they knew they had a die-hard fan of their magazine across the Arabian Sea in the tiny coastal land of Kerala!

Days went by and my wish for the beautiful looking pair of scissors only got stronger. I pleaded with my brother to give me the scissors, and I told him I would give him anything in return. I saw a diabolic twinkle in his eyes. He looked at the magazine from Gulf Air I was carrying as if it was the first edition of The Bible itself! He then looked at me and the scissors. No words were exchanged. The message was loud and clear.

I was in a dilemma. An incredibly special piece of equipment on one side. An absolute rare specimen of a magazine on the other side. The choice was quite tough. I had to take a decision quickly, else if my brother changed his mind, I may lose the scissors for ever. I took a deep breath and did some quick calculation. I realized that the barter is not as bad as it looked.

Another year and I was sure I will get the next in-flight magazine, but there was no guarantee that I will get a scissors of that calibre even though India started talking more about liberalization from 1991 onwards. With great difficulty, I agreed with my brother and took the possession of one of the most beautiful and useful tools I ever had in my life.

Happy and proud to say the same pair of scissors is still a part of my life and works like a charm. I must also add that, since this incident I lost count of the number of in-flight magazines that went through my hands. In fact, we all have reached a point in our lives, where I now hardly see anyone yearning for an in-flight magazine anymore. Many other material things took the position of prized possessions.

Good old days!

 

Empowerment – Incredible Leadership Stories

After two gruelling years of MBA from Christ College, one of the prestigious institutions in then Bangalore, I took my baby steps into the corporate world with Mindtree Consulting, the name by which the company was known those days. It was a mid-size IT company compared to the likes of giants in Indian IT diaspora such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro etc. My staff ID was just 4299.

I joined the Staff Operations department of Mindtree which was entrusted with the critical task of finding the right person for a job. Those days, Staff Ops department of Mindtree was designed to have regional teams taking care of staffing requirements of clients in their respective geographical areas with US being the biggest, followed by Europe, Asia Pacific etc. There was a Central Operations team as well to co-ordinate with these different regional teams to ensure that staff utilisation is effective and optimized. My boss and I were part of the latter.

While the structure worked, there were already talks about this model to be redesigned to match the planned growth of the organization. To facilitate this, the management decided to get a seasoned Mindtree Mind, how the staff was addressed in Mindtree, who managed a large client in the US.

The word got out and all of us in Staff Ops team were quite excited, as this man was to be our new boss. What was even more interesting was the rumour that he was going to consolidate Staff Ops function to achieve more synergies. Lot of improvements were expected. Little did we know that along with him a sea of changes were to follow, some of them we did not even anticipate. The man's reputation preceded him.

Dats, that was how our new boss was affectionately known in Mindtree circles. As soon as he took charge, he called for a combined meeting of all Staff Ops teams. We were quite surprised with his demeanour. The man who ran one of the biggest accounts of Mindtree in US, the man who had been tasked to consolidate the entire Staff Operations for the company had a remarkably calm way of going about with his business. We were impressed on day one itself.

The action then started!

His first ask was to get all the leads list down daily activities we carried out as a team. He reviewed the list and identified all those activities that did not strictly belong to Staff Ops. There were a bunch of tasks that our team performed on daily basis which in fact belonged to other functions in the organization such as HR, Quality, Recruitment etc. This was quite typical of young organizations, a learning that was applied over the period of growth. Dats immediately scheduled meetings with his counterparts in those departments and agreed with them to own their respective activities thereby freeing our valuable time to do more meaningful staff allocation specific activities.

We thought we were all set to start with our new life. That was when Dats broke the biggest surprise. It must be either the work culture he picked up from US or his methodical approach to everything that we came to appreciate in the days ahead or both. Dats noticed that some of the team members worked late in the evening in office for multiple reasons. He called the entire team into a meeting room one day and made a statement that still echoes in my head even after almost two decades of the incident. He said, ‘None of us are doctors and no one is going to die if you stop working at the prescribed end time of the day. I do not want to see any one of you staying back in office unless there is an emergency that you will be able to justify to me’!

Those were golden words, teams across the corporate world would love to hear from their bosses! He was incredible in not just saying that but to live a life and showed us how to really have a work-life balance. God bless bosses like you Dats! You are indeed a rare breed! 

The Paris Surprise

Year 2018, was when Ruby and I decided to take our kids for our first ever European trip together. Among the destinations we planned to visit, Paris was the last. As a sheer coincidence, that was the year of FIFA football world cup and as destiny would have it, France were the champions that year. It just so happened that the final match was two days before our planned date of arrival in Paris.

The city had gone crazy on the day France won. There was chaos and fights everywhere. It was as though Parisians were in a trance from the win. We were obviously a bit worried about reaching the city given this background. A friend of mine who worked in Paris in fact asked us to drop our plan if it was not urgent. Nevertheless, since we planned it long time ago and this being our last leg of the trip, we decided to go ahead. Fortunately, by the time we reached Paris, the commotion had settled down.

We had booked ourselves a hotel at a place called Clamart and reached the place on a taxi from the train station on the first day. The hotel booking was done based on our research looking at the accessibility via train. Little did we realize that this was the suburbs of Paris and though a train station was right next to the hotel where we stayed, it was not the metro railway network connecting the city directly. While it was a late realization for us, we were quite OK with it since all these contributed to our travel experiences.

The next day we decided to explore the city and headed to the train station near our hotel. As we reached the station, we looked for the ticket counter. While there was one, unfortunately no staff was present. The alternate option was to buy the tickets from an automated kiosk. We thought we will give it a try.

The kiosk had a catch. It only accepted coins. We had Euros, but as currency. While we were trying to check the tickets from the machine, a queue started building behind us. With the machine not allowing currency we were stuck.

As we were wondering what to do, I heard a tiny voice from behind us in the queue, asking in a French laced English, if we needed help. It was a petite lady who was patiently waiting for us to finish our turn at the machine. We tried to explain the situation to her. Without even thinking twice, she took out her purse and paid for all our tickets.

Soon we were on our way to the city. At the station where we all got down, we paid her in currency and she promptly returned the change. The train moved on and all our concerns about friendliness and wellbeing in Paris also went along with it.

Santhosh George Kulangara, one of the most widely travelled person in the world had once said, ‘most of the people across the world are good, unfortunately we get influenced by negativity expressed by one person’s experience and make the mistake of generalising that for all.’

Let us remember to have an open mind during our trips, all the while being aware of our surroundings.

Happy travelling!

 

When Arundhati pushed Obama away…

I hail from the state of Kerala in India where people speak the language Malayalam. While all my schooling and college education was in English medium, the influence of native language on me was quite deep. Having said that, by the year 1997, I had started with my second year of Pre-degree, the equivalent of grade 10 + 2 today. While authors who wrote in Malayalam was a clear favourite, English authors were not that alien to me.

Incidentally, this was the same year the world was surprised to see Arundhati Roy, an Indian born, Kerala woman who authored an English novel, her first, and bagged the Booker Prize! For someone who stayed away from English writers for most part, I had no clue what Booker Prize was. So, I took an effort to find out how big a deal it was and was indeed impressed with the author for the win.

Everyone seemed to talk about the book, ‘The God of Small Things’. While it was a fact that Arundhati had her roots in Kerala, what was even more appealing to me was that the story in her novel happened at a place called Aymanam which was near my hometown, Changanacherry in Kerala.

I was thrilled and really wanted to get a copy of the novel. As luck would have it, I came across the book in the library of one of my uncles. Since he was quite particular about not letting people borrow his books, I had to attempt to read the book at his place. Attempt I did, but after a couple of pages, the novel turned out to be a tough nut to crack for me. I just could not understand the plot. It was the language perhaps or my limited exposure to English novels during those times. I promptly placed the book back in the library and walked away. The next time I was to touch that novel and buy a copy was almost three decades later. Even then, I simply added that to my collection, planning to read it one day.

Life moved on. Obama came to power in US. He got re-elected as well. I was totally at awe by his speeches and the videos showing his surprise visits to local eateries. Without Obama even knowing it, he had a huge fan in me, and I started following anything related to him. Close to a decade after Arundhati published her book, Obama’s book came out, ‘The Audacity of Hope - Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream’. Blinded with idol worship, I thought this was the autobiography by the man and decided to buy a copy one day. 18 years after Obama published his book, I picked up a copy from a local store in Dubai.

I was reading a Malayalam book at that time. Soon after I finished with that, I picked up ‘The Audacity of Hope’ in eager anticipation of knowing all about the man I admired. I was in for a shock that the book was more of a Political Biography and had little to do with being an autobiography. I persisted. Afterall, I was no longer the young boy in 1997 to drop a book just like that. Patience is a virtue, or so I thought. First page gave way to the second, with great difficulty though. Page three seemed far away. Nevertheless, I pushed myself to reach page fifty somehow. By the time I was experiencing the feeling of self-betrayal and finally decided to give a break to Obama.

As I replaced Obama in my library, my eyes got stuck at the name Arundhati Roy. ‘The God of Small Things’ looked at me and smiled. I obliged. It had been two days today, since I picked up the book. I must say what a relief it was from traversing through American history and political philosophy to enjoying the simple landscape of Aymanam, a village in my dearest state of Kerala. Arundhati was beckoning me this time, with an almost seducing clutches to revive my interest in reading! And I must say, she was able to push Obama away that, ‘The Audacity of Hope’ seemed to have lost all hope forever.

Everything has its own time. When it is meant to happen, it will happen.

ജീവിതങ്ങൾ ജന്മങ്ങൾ

ജയ്സൺ, വിനീത് സോണി. മൂന്നു വ്യത്യസ്തങ്ങളായ ജീവിത പശ്ചാത്തലങ്ങളിൽ നിന്ന് വന്ന് ഒരേ ക്യാമ്പസിൽ കണ്ടുമുട്ടിയവർ. അവരുടെ സമകാലികരെ പോലെ കേരളത്തിൽ ബിരുദം എടുത്ത ശേഷം ഉപരിപഠനത്തിനായി മൂവരും എത്തിപ്പെട്ടത് തമിഴ്നാട്ടിലെ പ്രശസ്തമായ ഒരു കലാലയത്തിൽ ആയിരുന്നു. ഓരോരുത്തരും ഓരോ കാര്യങ്ങളിൽ ഒന്നിനൊന്നു മെച്ചം. വിനീത് അസ്സലായിട്ട് പാടും, സോണി പഠനത്തിൽ അഗ്രഗണ്യൻ, ജയ്സൺ ആവട്ടെ ഒന്നാന്തരം ഒരു സംഘാടകൻ.

ജീവിതം അങ്ങനെ മുന്നോട്ടു പോയി. മൂന്നുവർഷം പോയത് അവരറിഞ്ഞു പോലുമില്ല. അതിനിടെ എന്തെല്ലാം തമാശകൾ. എത്ര എത്ര നുറുങ്ങ് നിമിഷങ്ങൾ. എന്തിനും ഏതിനും അവർ ഒന്നിച്ചായിരുന്നു പരസ്പരം കൊല്ലാനും ചാകാനും വരെ തയ്യാറായിരുന്നു എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാൽ അതിശയോക്തിയാവില്ല. ഹോസ്റ്റലിന്റെ വരാന്തകളിൽ വിനീതിന്റെ പാട്ടിൻറെ ഈരടികൾ മുഴങ്ങിക്കൊണ്ടിരുന്നു. സോണി ആവട്ടെ പരീക്ഷകൾ എന്ന കടമ്പ കടക്കാൻ അവരെ സ്ഥിരം സഹായിച്ചു. ജയ്സന്റെ നേതൃത്വ പാടവം പല സന്ദർഭങ്ങളിലും അവർക്ക് ഗുണകരമായി ഭവിച്ചു. കലാലയത്തിലെ പല പ്രശ്നങ്ങളും അവർ ഒന്നിച്ചു നിന്നാണ് നേരിട്ടത്. മൂവർ സംഘം എന്നൊരു പേര് തന്നെ അവർക്ക് ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. സന്തോഷത്തിന്റെ അലയൊലികൾ ഈ മൂന്നു വർഷക്കാലം അവരെ ചേർത്തുനിർത്തി. 

ജീവിതമാകുന്ന കപ്പൽ മുന്നോട്ടു സഞ്ചരിക്കവേ മൂന്നുപേരും മൂന്ന് ദിശകളിലേക്ക് പറിച്ചു നടപ്പെട്ടു. അപ്പോഴും സുഹൃത്ത് ബന്ധം മുറിയാതിരിക്കാൻ അവർ ശ്രമിച്ചുകൊണ്ടേയിരുന്നു.

പിന്നീട് എന്നോ ഒരിക്കൽ ഒരു തെറ്റിദ്ധാരണയുടെ പേരിൽ ജയ്സണും വിനീതും തമ്മിൽ അകന്നു. ഇഴപിരിയാത്ത ആത്മബന്ധം എന്ന് കരുതിയിരുന്നതൊക്കെ വെറും ചരിത്രമായി മാറി. സോണി അവനെ കൊണ്ട് കഴിയുന്നത് പോലെ മറ്റു രണ്ടു പേരെ ഒന്നിപ്പിക്കാൻ ശ്രമിച്ചെങ്കിലും ഫലം കണ്ടില്ല.

കാലം വീണ്ടും മുന്നോട്ടു പോയി. ഋതുക്കൾ മാറിമറിഞ്ഞു. ഒരു ദിവസം വിനീതിനും സോണിക്കും ഒരു ഫോൺ കോൾ വന്നു. അവരുടെയും ജയ്സൺടെയും സുഹൃത്തായിരുന്നു അമൽ ആയിരുന്നു അത്. ഫോണിൽ വന്ന വാർത്ത കേട്ട് ലോകത്തിന്റെ രണ്ട് അറ്റത്തായിരുന്ന വിനീതും സോണിയും നിശബ്ദരായി ഇരുന്നു പോയി. ഒരുകാലത്ത് ആത്മാർത്ഥ സുഹൃത്തായിരുന്നു ജയ്സൺ ഒരു വാഹന അപകടത്തിൽ പെട്ട് അവരെ വിട്ട് പോയിരിക്കുന്നു. 

അന്ത്യകർമ്മങ്ങൾക്കായി സോണിക്കും വിനീതിനും എത്താൻ സാധിച്ചില്ല. ഏകദേശം ഒരു വർഷത്തിനുശേഷം ഒരു അവധിക്കാലത്ത് അവർ രണ്ടുപേരും കൂടെ ജയ്സന്റെ വീട്ടിൽ ചെന്നു. അവൻറെ അപ്പനെയും അമ്മയെയും സഹോദരങ്ങളെയും കണ്ട് സംസാരിച്ചു. പിന്നീട് അവനെ അടക്കിയിരുന്ന പള്ളി സെമിത്തേരിയിൽ ചെന്നു. 

ജയ്സന്റെ കുഴിമാടത്തിൽ കുരിശിന്റെ താഴെ ഒരു കൽഫലകത്തിൽ ഒരു വാചകം എഴുതിയിരുന്നത് കണ്ട് അവർ രണ്ടുപേരും ഞെട്ടി. പെട്ടെന്നാണ് അവർ ഓർത്തത്, വർഷങ്ങൾക്ക് മുൻപ് അവരുടെ ഹോസ്റ്റൽ മുറിയിലിരുന്ന് ഒരിക്കൽ അവൻ പറഞ്ഞിരുന്നു, ഞാൻ മരിച്ചാൽ എൻറെ കുഴിമാടത്തിൽ ഒരു വാചകം മാത്രം എഴുതി വയ്ക്കണം, അത് ഇങ്ങനെയായിരിക്കണം,

'അകാലത്തിൽ പൊലിഞ്ഞ ഒരു അപാര ജന്മം'.

ജീവിത നൗക ചലിച്ചുകൊണ്ടേയിരുന്നു. പുതിയ തീരങ്ങളും പുതിയ ജന്മങ്ങളും തേടിയുള്ള യാത്ര.

Galley to Gallery - A Cabin Crew Magic!

Ever since I had an opportunity to work with Service Delivery department of Emirates, I had been a huge fan of Cabin Crew operations. The Cabin Crew community in EK belonged to this department. While aviation in general had always been my passion, crew operations in particular, found its way into my heart.

So much so that, every second example I quoted to my teammates since my Service Delivery days was about how this department excelled in everything they did. At times, people had even been a bit jealous about my loyalty that remained deeply rooted in Service Delivery, though I now worked on another equally exciting initiative in the ground handling world, the flight information system.

As I wrote this piece on a flight the other day from Dubai to Kochi, I was privy to the orchestration of efforts by our very own cabin crew. It was nothing short of a magical experience! I was seated at a location right in front of the forward galley. As soon as the flight took off and the aircraft reached a certain height, the captain signalled the cabin crew with a ping and the crew promptly sprang to action.

From that moment onwards everything happened with split second precision. The galley operator started to make the food warm, the serving crew prepared the tray with glasses and cutlery, the cabin supervisor oversaw every action was executed to perfection and the whole show unfolded right in front of my eyes as if I am watching a well-oiled machinery at work.

What we as passengers usually see is the well laid tray all set to make us enjoy a gourmet meal on board our favourite airline. What we don't realize probably is, how meticulously do these magicians perform in the air at 35000 feet, with a team that is quite new on every flight considering the sheer number of crew, this awesome feat of bringing in all these different pieces of puzzle together and lay them in front of you in a manner that make you feel like dining at a Michelin Star restaurant!

No wonder, my passion for this area of airline operations continued uninhibited. I will be at remiss if I do not mention that considerable credit to this picture-perfect experience delivered went to a well planned and executed rigorous training programme by the Crew Training department. Kudos to the whole team behind the scenes.

My love for Service Delivery remained unscathed. Perhaps this was my true love, the only one perhaps my sweetheart won't be jealous about 😉

Thank you, Emirates. Thank you, Service Delivery. Thank you, our dearest Crew community, for making me feel like a part of an excited audience in a gallery cheering for a team with unparallel joy!

You definitely made me feel “Fly Better”!