January 2019

There were 8 posts published in January 2019 (this is page 1 of 1).

I quit

As I typed heading for this post, I travelled back to September 2018 when I quit my job. It\’s been four months since I left a good, secure job. There were many reasons behind that spur of the moment decision but largely it was fuelled by the fact that I was not in a happy space. I had a great team of young talented writers, we were doing good, many of our ideas were picked up by our rivals – but overall it was not a very happy place for me.

Your workplace is where you spend a major part of your day and some more while working from home – as was the case with me. So if the place or people are not adding any value to your life it\’s better to walk away and do something you really like. But will it be sufficient to pay the monthly bills and take care of emergencies?

This is the question that always stopped most of us from taking the plunge. The fear of what future has in store for us. Frankly, I too was in that space and today, four months after I quit and still jobless, I am writing this is because I know I don\’t have to worry about the bills. But for how long – now that is the question that gives me some anxious moments and then I move on.

Ever since I started working sometime in 1998, I have always looked for a place which challenged me and where I enjoyed tackling those challenges. The enjoy part came from seniors who guided us – the juniors, challenged us to think differently and gave us environment which was stress free. Now, we all know everywhere you will find characters who get pleasure from torturing others. But after a period of time you realise such characters can be found anywhere and everywhere and the trick is to get your work done despite all the trouble they create. Some times they win, some times you.

I lost the game in September when I put in my papers. All my boss wanted was – call him daily, consult him for every little thing and keep him informed (read: share gossip on the floor). Nothing much, you would say. Working with bosses with different approach to work makes you understand ultimately what is your style of working and you start developing that. So like I said in a previous post on how to identify real vs fake leaders, the approach to work develops over a time. If you are surrounded by people who panic or someone who is cool, you tend to pick up these traits and also see how you as a person respond to a similar situation.

In the last job I was not the business head who would take a call on everything. Eventually everything had to be cleared by the higher ups. But it was their approach to even small, mundane requests that got me thinking. Working in the digital domain made me realise one important thing – you have to be really fast with your decision, else you miss the bus.

Did I miss the bus or the bus missed me? Well, it does not matter.

देश प्रेम और गणतंत्र दिवस, स्वतंत्रता दिवस की मेगा सेल

पिछले कुछ सालों से 26 जनवरी और 15 अगस्त हमारे राष्ट्रीय पर्व के साथ साथ खरीदारी करने के बड़े दिन बन गये हैं। चूँकि ग्राहक को छूट बड़ी लुभाती है, पिछले लगभग दस सालों से इन दो दिनों के आगे पीछे महा सेल का ही इंतज़ार रहता है- न कि उन दो दिनों का जो किसी भी राष्ट्र के लिये बहुत महत्वपूर्ण होते हैं।

सही मायनों में अमेज़ॉन और फिल्पकार्ट के आने के बाद से इन दिनों की महत्ता और बढ़ गयी है। अगर आप शॉपिंग मॉल की भीड़भाड़ से बचना चाहते हैं तो अपना देश प्रेम आप इस ऑनलाइन सेल के ज़रिये दिखा सकते हैं। अब तो हालत ये है कि बच्चे भी ये जान गये हैं कि दीवाली के अलावा इन दो दिनों में भी जमकर डिस्काउंट मिलता है तो वो भी इसका इंतज़ार करते हैं। हमारे गणतंत्र दिवस और स्वाधीनता दिवस की इससे अच्छी मार्केटिंग क्या हो सकती है।

लेकिन ये भी अच्छा है। कम से कम इन दो दिनों को ही सही हम अपना देश प्रेम तो दिखाते हैं। हाँ ये बात जरूर है कि इससे इस सेल से जुड़े लोगों की अच्छी खासी कमाई हो जाती है। लेकिन देश के नाम पर सब चलता है।

वो लोग भी जो किसी राज्य के मुख्यमंत्री को प्रधानमंत्री बताते हैं या जिन्हें हमारे उत्तर पूर्वी राज्यों की राजधानियों के बारे में नहीं पता हो, उन्हें इन सेल के बारे में सब कुछ पता होता है।

अगर गलती से आप कहीं मॉल चले जायें, जैसा कि इस बार मैंने किया, तो आपको बदहवास से लोग घूमते दिखेंगे। जो सेल के पहले दिन चले गये वो एक्सपर्ट बन जाते हैं और अपने जानपहचान वालों को बताते हैं कहाँ क्या अच्छा है। जो देश से बहुत ज़्यादा प्यार करते हैं वो ऑनलाइन और ऑफलाइन दोनों जगहों की तुलनात्मक स्टडी भी कर देते हैं और ट्विटर पर आपको इसका ज्ञान भी मिल जाता है।

इस पूरे प्रकरण में सबसे ज़्यादा परेशान, दुखी, मायूस होते हैं पति। नहीं सेल से उन्हें तो वैसे कोई परेशानी नहीं होती क्योंकि उनका पैसा ऐसे या वैसे तो निकलेगा ही। लेकिन सामान चुनने और बिलिंग काउन्टर पहुंचने के बीच उनकी मानों आधी ज़िंदगी निकल जाती है। उसपर ट्रायल रूम का नाटक। कई बार मैं और मेरे जैसे कई पति अपनी पत्नी छोड़ दूसरों की बीवियों को निहारते रहते हैं। इसको अन्यथा न लें। जब आप बाहर खड़े हों और इंतजार कर रहे हों तो ये एक मजबूरी होती है। हाँ फिल्मों के जैसे आप इस पर अपनी कोई राय नहीं दे सकते क्योंकि उसके बाद जो होगा उससे आपकी शॉपिंग अधुरी रह जायेगी।

मोबाइल फ़ोन और व्हाट्सएप का इससे अच्छा इस्तेमाल मैंने नहीं देखा। दुकानें अलग अलग फ्लोर पर हैं? ड्रेस पहन कर देखी जाती है और फ़ोटो व्हाट्सएप कर दी जाती है। आप उसे देख टिप्पणी कर सकते हैं। अगर आपकी पत्नी या गर्लफ्रैंड ज़्यादा समय लेती हैं तो आप कहीं सुस्तालें। आपको फ़ोन करके बुला लिया जायेगा।

कल जब मैं ये नज़ारा देख रहा था तो देश प्रेम के दो नज़ारे दिख रहे थे। एक जो 26 जनवरी की सुबह राजपथ पर देखा था और दूसरा जिसका मैं भी एक हिस्सा था। भारत हमको जान से प्यारा है…

Leaders: How to identify real vs fake

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Bosses. The term brings out mixed emotions based on our personal experience. But word Leader has no such mix up. As an employee we know, understand and identify who a true leader is because – he brought the best out of us. Having worked with real leaders (who were the real bosses) and fake leaders who are where they are because of their marketing skills, it can be said few people have leadership qualities.

So what makes a good leader great?

  1. Freedom: A good leader believes in freedom. They not only enjoy freedom, they also want their team members to enjoy it – with a condition though. Be responsible and don’t misuse it.
  2. Trust: A good leader understands the importance of trust. They know they have reached where they have is because someone trusted them at one point of time. They return the favour by trusting their team members. This trust is earned over a period of time.
  3. Deliver results: A good leader knows that in the end what matters is result. People are not interested in knowing what you have achieved. Your leader will help you with the how to achieve it and will help you prepare for tougher challenges in future.
  4. Spot talent: A good leader is keen observer. He identifies talent, grooms him/her and let them prosper. All the talented individual need a good leader who can become their mentor.
  5. Appreciate: A good leader knows how important it is to appreciate. He also knows even if the goal is not achieved but the efforts were sincere, appreciation goes a long way for the team to start all over again.

A good leader has all these qualities and more. A good leader knows his job is to promote talent and not sycophants – for he knows he would not be here if his boss/leader had promoted someone with better marketing skills.

Be curious, ask questions, stop following

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Life teaches us every minute. If we are ready to learn, that is. About us and others. Remember the time when we are growing up and the big plans we made? These plans are pure – untouched by the cruel world and the way it treats people who have ideas.

But somewhere along the way we keep aside the plan and join the mad race. We believe this is the natural thing to do. We see everybody around us doing the same and we start believing this is what we too should do. No questions asked. This is beginning of stopping the growth on its tracks.

No question, no answer

Ever since we land on this planet, we observe our surroundings and we question. Why is this, how it works, what is this. In short life is all about asking questions. My ten-year-old son had so many questions when he was young. But now he same lots of answers and very few questions. When he was small he had a new set of questions every day. At times I got tired of answering all his queries. But that didn\’t stop him from asking.

This is the biggest lesson I have learnt. To ask questions and keep on asking them. This is what leads to growth of self. But the grown ups no longer remember asking questions. We follow. Everywhere we go we follow. Like the navigation guide inside their cars and mobiles, we work on the guide inside us and keep moving till we reach a dead end. Which is too late to ask for the right directions.

Stop and start, now

We live a life so mechanised that if were never bother to stop and ask Why, Where, What? Oh yes, we do have these queries when we want to inquire about something like a sale or about a product. But we seldom ask the office manager who takes us to a guided tour to the workshop why a certain process is being followed. We assume this is the best practice to follow and based on that silly assumption we too start following it. We never question. We take the safe route. Why bother. Let it be. We are not interested in growth. Our growth.

Of course there is a process that needs to be followed. But if no one questions why, would we evolve? How can we better what we already have? The purpose of asking a question is to get information that matters to us and no one else. Yet, as we grow in life we stop seeking answers and then we hit a wall.

Conclusion

It is for our own good that we should ask questions and continue to ask them till we are here on this planet. It is only our curiosity that has brought us here. It pays to remain curious. Encourage people around you to ask questions, remain curious.

The (fixed) entertainment awards season is here, again

The Entertainment industry awards season is here. The first set of awards, Star Screen Awards, is already over and done with and more will follow in the coming days. Every year without fail the award functions are held recession or no recession. Some awards disappear and reappear and some continue. There was a time when I would look forward to the awards and stay up till late in the night.

Not waiting for the newspapers next morning. And always believed that it was telecast LIVE. But slowly it became clear that it was all stage managed. It was meant to keep everybody happy.

When Aamir Khan refused to attend these ceremonies and rightly so and was no where in the nominations either, the tamasha became more clear. This when he was doing the routine stuff (not the class stuff he is doing these days) and successful films. The whole process is a big sham. Someone who has done good job but does not fit into the popular category is compensated with a Critics award.

Unlike Oscar awards the awards in India are either property of publishing house or TV channels. So someone not in good books of the channel or the media house will not be even considered. So the awards are not free and fair.

The less said about the performance in these ceremonies the better. Every year the usual suspects perform. We have seen Katrina Kaif enough on channels singing Sheila Ki Jawani and she is back again performing on the same song. The performance is not as good as the original song (it did not save the film either). This year I think it will be Suraiyya from Thugs of Hindostan. But since the movie has flopped, will she be asked to perform? May be yes on a medley of Zero and TOH songs.

We need awards that are independent. I as a viewer would like to believe the awards are given to deserving people and not to people who confirm their presence to get the award.

Don\’t let one bad experience stop you from trying something again

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Security is one thing that we all look for in life. A majority of us trying to look for all things secure, opt for jobs offering us that security. Only a handful of try the route less taken and those who do have a more fulfilling life than the rest of us.

But how secure one wants to play in life? I have a friend who parked his vehicle a kilometer away thinking the place he was going to will have a parking problem. But that without checking out if there was one. He relied on his past experience and did that.

On the other hand there was another acquaintance who started late for a meeting thinking it will start late and end late as usual. Again going by his past experience.

But both were wrong on that given day. There was no traffic and ample parking space and the meeting lasted just ten minutes.

Would their life be different if they had not allowed their presumptions to cloud their view? If my friend first visited the place and checked if there was any parking problem, he would have been pleasantly surprised. His approach would have been to things ahead in the day would have been different. Same applies to the second case.

We often judge people and situations based on our previous experience. But there are chances, like stated above, that our predictions fall flat. We always judge on the basis of our bad experience in any situation.

I am quite sure the two gentlemen above will do the same thing again next time too for we always take something good happening to us as an aberration. But this comes from experience and also from our mindset.

Take another situation. A friend of mine was having a bad day with his boss. He tried his best to stay in the job and fight it out. He finally quit. Tried something else which did not work out. But he did not give up. He continued his fight. Today he is doing quite good. Again it was his attitude which made him what he is today.

As they say it is how you look at it: glass as half full or half empty. So here\’s to the glass half full. Enjoy.

Are our film critics really impartial?

Every Friday there is some move or the other releasing. While fans of actors and actress watch the films of their favourite actors irrespective of how the movie performs at the box office, there is a good number of people who wait for the reviews and decided whether to watch the film or not. These critics influence the audience and now that we have social media, the good or bad spreads really fast.

It happened with Thugs of Hindostan. The movie was trashed by the critics – who did not like the movie for their own reasons. I however watched the film first day first show before the verdict was out and I liked the movie for what it offered. Imagine my shock when I read reviews which described the movie as one of the worst of 2018. Specially in case of Thugs of Hindostan I felt there was a campaign against the film.

The critics advised against watching the Hindi film Aashiqui 2. Instead, they suggested watching the old one again. Some reviews said the male lead Aditya Roy Kapoor was pathetic and had not so encouraging words for the female lead Shraddha Kapoor as well. Even the music by Jeet Ganguly was strictly ok. All in all this was not the movie you should be investing your money and time. So the ‘critics’ said.

Now, the problem with our so called critics is that they have seen the world’s best and compare our products to them. They find all the loopholes in our stories and none in the cinema of the world. They want our movies to be like theirs. Sure. Do they insert songs in their movies that is being released in India?

Our movies are unique because of so many reasons with music being just one of them. Our treatment of movies is different from theirs and should remain so. How many of the mainstream Indians have seen Wong Kar Wai’s classic In The Mood For Love? Our esteemed critics go gaga over movies like this which if released in India will be pulled out after first day itself. But our esteemed critics think otherwise. They see our movies from the perspective of world cinema.

The critics want so many script changes after watching the movie that the director may even refuse to call it his film. Mind you, none of them will like a similar suggestion about their articles. They will fight with their editors if the paragraphs are even interchanged. Changing the intro of the story will actually need no less than the owner calling them personally. But that does not stop them from suggesting a similar thing to a film director.

It\’s tough being a critic. More so when you have movies like Golmaals, Housefulls or Bol Bachchans or the recent Himmatwalas to review. But look what they had to say about these gems and you know where our critics are heading.

As for Thugs of Hindostan or Aashiqui 2 or so many others go watch them and decide for yourself. I enjoyed Aashiqui 2 for the pure, unadulterated romance.  That is as rare as finding non-sensical debate on TV shows. The lead pair looks good and the music is excellent. Unlike the music these days that come with a life of 3-months, this music will proudly find a place in my library of evergreen music. And so will the DVDs whenever they are out.

2019 के अनुभव अविस्मरणीय हों…

ये नये शब्द का जादू ही कुछ और होता है। इसका अगर आपको सबसे अच्छा उदाहरण देखना हो तो किसी छोटे बच्चे को देखें। जब वो बड़ा हो रहा होता है तो उसके लिये हर चीज़ नई। और जब वो चलना सीख रहा होता है तो उसका उत्साह देखते ही बनता है। दो पैरों पर पहले धीरे धीरे चलना, फ़िर दौड़ना, गिरते रहना लेकिन फ़िर उठना और फ़िर से चलना और दौड़ना।

कल रात घड़ी ने 11.59 के बाद जब 12.00 का समय दिखाया तो हम सिर्फ एक नये दिन, एक नये महीने में ही नहीं बल्कि एक पूरे नये वर्ष में भी प्रवेश कर गये। कहने को तो सिर्फ एक दिन ही बदलता है लेकिन ये \’नया\’ शब्द हम सब में एक नई उम्मीद, एक नई आशा जगा देता है।

इस वर्ष आपके अनुभव जैसे भी हों, अविस्मरणीय हों और हम सब थोड़े ही सही लेकिन एक बेहतर इंसान बनें, ऐसी शुभकामनाएं आप सभी के लिये।