Month: February 2011

Heidi

There are many benefits of falling sick (as crazy as it sounds). Three of the top benefits are as follows –

1. You get time to think. And this need not be about anything in particular. It could just mean an eclectic mix of stuff.

2. You are FORCED to take a break. I don’t know of anything else that can force me as effectively..

3. You get time to pander to those crazy ideas you ignored from time to time. And this story is about a not-so-crazy-idea.. but an idea that I didn’t probably explore..
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I woke up all of a sudden remember Heidi. Heidi was a cartoon I watched on Cartoon Network (India) as a kid and I simply LOVED it. I had tried finding Heidi for a long while but hadn’t been successful and after some youtube searching, I finally found an edited version of the whole series. As I saw bits of the edited versions –

1. I first found myself wondering how the little kid found so much happiness. Given I think of myself as a reasonably positive person, I found myself wondering if such happiness, thrill and joy could even be real. She seemed thrilled at a bed of hay, at fresh water from the mountains and a lot of very little things. And just as I was beginning to wonder if the creators had pushed her happiness to overkill…

..I stopped myself. I realized I was probably making the same mistake Albus Dumbledor e(of the Harry Potter fame) accused adults of making i.e. ‘Forgetting what it is to be young.’

And one part of me also felt ashamed that I was questioning happiness and unabashed joy at the little things. Big lesson to learn from Heidi..


2. My mom spoke of a movie she had seen recently where, instead of the traditional theme of the kid being stubborn, uncontrollable and hard on the elders, for a change, it showed adults to be hardened and cynical and the kid to be forgiving. She said that depiction was closest to the truth.

As I saw Heidi, I couldn’t help but agree.

3. I now know where my fascination for the Swiss Mountains comes from.. I can’t wait for my next trip.

4. It was nice revisiting my childhood. Very nice..

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Check the 1st little episode here

On the man who loved to complain

Brian Tracy narrates the story of Joe, one of his colleagues early in his professional career. Every afternoon, when they all sat down for lunch, Joe would begin by complaining loudly about the food his wife packed for him.

‘Corn beef. I hate corn beef’ – he would say one day and it would be ‘I HATE beef casserole’ on another. He would blame his wife for not catering to his taste EVERY single day.

One day, however, as he began lunch with the usual complaining, Brian stopped him. ‘Joe, didn’t you say your wife is away at her parent’s house for a holiday?’
‘Yep’
‘I hear you complaining about your sandwiches. Who made them today?’
‘I did..’

Brian realized that Joe was so entrenched in his habit of complaining that he had lost all perspective. Ever since, Brian has been a huge advocate of consciously developing positive habits.

Often, we don’t realize how we make a habit of complaining about some things repeatedly eg: the bad weather, bad boss, bad business environment, bad food etc etc. The best quote I’ve heard that best describes it’s effects is ‘Complaining is like vomiting. It makes you feel better and the others around you feel worse.’

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Reflecting on the weekend

Thanks to a combination of many factors, this was a killer weekend. (in every sense of the word) And as with all killer weekends, there were many learnings. So, here goes –

– Saturday involved two photo shoots with close friends. This was thanks to a great suggestion from a very dear person to ensure that I invested in photo shoots. This wiser person insisted that they would make for great memories going forward. And I can already see how!
– Aside from the fact that I can’t wait to see these photos, I’m sure I will look back at the photos for years. And here, due credit to the guys at ‘The Time Capture’ – both of whom are close friends. They showed infinite patience, care and professionalism to ensure we had a great time! I can’t wait for their photos but given my experience with their track record, I’m sure they will exceptional.
– I couldn’t help but wonder how models posed for one shoot after another. It gets really tiring!
– Between the photoshoots, I had a 4 and a half hour long meeting with the organizing team of an event I’d played a part in creating in university. They were a great team.. and we were doing some classic ‘people problem-solving’. I had quite a few take aways from that.
– The biggest takeaway was the power of an open candid discussion with a bunch of enthusiastic people. It’s amazing how it can energize you!
– The biggest duty of a leader is to listen. Find me a top executive who spends more time talking than listening.
– It is NEVER about the ‘right answer’ with people. We could choose to dole out task lists to people and delegate.. or we could choose to brainstorm ourselves and choose what we wanted to do. Even if the results were the same, the process makes all the difference in the world.
– One of the other bigger jobs of a leader is to see in people who/what they can be.. rather than just looking at who they are.
– I fell ill. Had a fever for the first time in 2 years! I take great pride in the fact that I am mentally fit enough to avoid sickness. But, this time around – I guess I could have seen it coming. Ever since the last week of my project in Oman, I’ve been running on a crazy schedule with action packed trips to the desert, home and now here in Singapore. So, I guess I was due a rest (atleast mentally).
– I’m always reminded of something a friend said ages ago. When you fall sick, it’s God’s way of saying ‘Dude..take a break’.
– I fought off the fever till afternoon though and even went for ‘Forest Adventure’. I had an action packed couple of hours and managed to finish the course. This was a treat for close friends and boy, did we have a great time! (Though I finished quickly.. and slept off on a bench)
– We went for lunch to a place at the Singapore Airline sports club. The place looked high end but what do you know – the food was good and cheap! We found this place thanks to a search on hungrygowhere.com on one of our iPhones on 3G. Technology never ceases to amaze me.
– Thanks to a bit of a mishap, we left 2 bags in a taxi. These carried laptops, clothes etc. After a few hours of frantically calling the cab company, we got the bags back. That’s the magic of Singapore – even though we had NO details about the taxi.. we fully believed we would get it back. The company sent out a broadcast to all their taxis and duly, our taxi driver gave us a call and returned the bags.
– Weekends like this always make me wish for a LOT more time with friends. A great weekend (despite falling sick, losing our bags for a few hours).. and memories for a lifetime.
– And it was one of those weekends I felt really grateful for life. It was not perfect and didn’t go as per plan – but we didn’t need it to be to be happy. Life in microcosm..

Just because they could

At football today, I learnt a valuable lesson. There is a very easy way to bring about a ‘lose-lose’ situation – by exercising an attitude of ‘just because I can’.


We were two groups of people – 1 group of 14 (us) and another group of 6. As there was only 1 court to play, we decided we would rotate. I took the initiative for this one as I was in no mood for any quarelling. The other smaller group were there a minute or two before us so they technically ‘had the court’.Just as we started, a smaller court opened up – so I immediately suggested they move across since they had a much smaller group.
But no, they refused. Why did they refuse? Just because they could.

So, we moved.
The end result – A group of 14 playing in a court meant for 10 and a group of 6-8 playing in a court meant for 14.
A perfect ‘lose-lose’. It was a perfect example of how negotiations go wrong..
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And I’m trying to think what I/we could have done better here? Suggestions are welcome..
The big takeaway was to catch myself when I find myself doing something ‘just because I can’ because we tend to lose all sense of balance when we do things that way.

Have you ever had your patience severely tested?

I must admit that it has been a very long time since I’ve had my patience severely tested.

I have made it a point to bring it up from time to time (which is in my nature) but the results haven’t been close to expectations. I guess that comes from the part of me that expects things to go as per plan.
But today, when I walked into the same situation and felt my temper rise, I decided to let it go.
I heard from a (much wiser) friend I worked with that he was learning to let go of many of the basic assumptions he worked with in a new environment and every time he found a situation difficult to handle, he said to himself – ‘life is probably trying to teach me something here.’
That’s my conclusion as of today. Life is probably trying to teach me something. And I’ve decided to be a good student and let go.