Thoughts on the new year - thanking my professional team

This is the mail which was sent by self thanking my team.


Hi,
It has been an eventful 2008 for all of us. We all had our highs and collectively worked our way out of the lows. I take this opportunity to thank each individual of my team for their contributions in growth for the organization and for me as a person.

Let me start by recollecting some of the highs that we as a team and each individual member had. I have included both personal and professional highs that each one of you achieved and can wear it on your sleeves with the kind of pride that is second to none... This, though, is not the complete list which will run into several pages at least. Please also treat this as personal thank yours to each one of you ...So read on.

• Manas "friendly" Joshi - In his personal life, Manas got married and bought a new house in Borivali - one of them is an act of courage : you decide which. On the professional front, he has been nominated as star performer amongst all the Credit Managers across the country and Mumbai as a location has one of the best delinquency levels. The performances on all set parameters has been exemplary. The adjective is given to him because of his habit of keeping everyone happy and being friends with everyone he interacts with - be it the sales team, collection team or even the customers - a desirable quality. Manas, you have shown me what networking and PR means - thank you.
• Prashant "passionate" Mishra - Prashant has been one of the few people who have grown so much on both personal and professional fronts. On personal front, the biggest high for him was his sister's marriage. Also another high for him is his efforts to control his outbursts of passion (anger for some) - and trust, he has been successful at it. He has achieved a lot on the professional front also. Being nominated as the star performer, handling one of the biggest teams amongst his peers, setting up 3 branches, collection efforts - the list goes on and on. Prashant, you have shown me what passion means. Thank You.
• Dhanya "dedicated" Nair - One of the earliest recruits of the CV team (She at one time was reporting straight to the NRH), she has been dedication personified. Be it sitting till midnight when the organizational needs so demanded, be it handling the set up of Goa branch, be it processing 100 files in a month - she has taken it all in her stride and delivered consistently. On the personal front, though I do not know much - I am sure that she takes pride in the fact that she has played a key part in her sisters education. She had taken responsibility early and again took it all in her stride without any grumbling or want of appreciation. I take this moment to acknowledge and appreciate the unrelenting efforts taken by you Dhanya - both in personal and professional lives. Thank you for showing me what dedication actually means. A little known fact about her - she loves dancing.
• Pratik "humble" Joshi - Simplicity personified. A very diligent and hardworking guy who acts as a mentor to everyone around him. I believe that he is one of the very few persons who have everyone's good in their hearts - and that comes across as a wonderful quality. Thank you for making me believe in the words "Just Be Nice" again. On personal front, he will get the news that he is waiting for in a few months time. Anything which he might have achieved in this year pales in front of the happiness of that one event. On professional front, he was a part of the rajkot branch set up. Also, performance across all parameters set by the organization has been exceeded. He was also the highest scorer in the policy test across the credit managers in the country - not a mean feat. His efforts in controlling costs pro-actively have also been acknowledged earlier.
• Chetan "covert" Bharuchwala - He was promoted to the post of a father earlier this year. No other personal landmarks will have as much significance as this one for him. On professional front, Working silently, he has held on his own. He has been in the forefront conducting training, dealer visits, market surveys and reports. Surat has been one of the best branches and has exceeded all set parameters by a fair margin. Chetan, with his background in HDFC, is good with analysis and interpretation of financials. Handling a branch like Surat which has traditionally being a high delinquency market with a portfolio which still has no case in 90+ is an excellent work. Thank You Chetan for showing me that in the end, its the effort which pays off, whether you tom tom it or not.
  

Let me also take this opportunity to thank the team members who were a part of my team for a short period of time - Hema Shenvi, Harman Brar, Nrupesh Patel, and Nitesh Uppal. They have been special and it was a privilege to work with them.

Looking forward, 2009 is just a few hours away. Let us welcome it with the same positive spirit that we have shown after terrorist attacks across cities. Let us get our lives back to normal and look forward to tomorrow with hope.

Signing off with a few questions which might help you shape 2009 -
Have you taken the time to sit down and review the past year? Have you captured your dreams for the future in writing and developed them into goals for the New Year? Are you focused and on the right track mentally, physically and otherwise?

It's not too late to get ready for 2009!

Wishing all of you a very happy new year.

The Wonder Years - School Life

As I write this, I am transported back to those nostalgic years of my life which we all call school.

I did most of my schooling in the industrial township os Bhilai - located in erstwhile Madhya Pradesh - now a part of Chattisgarh. The town was a quaint little place with extreme weather patterns; enough open spaces for playing cricket, football, hockey and any other games that one can think of; where you knew all your neighbours; where you rode your bicycle without the incessecant hinking of cars that epitomises todays cities; where I had friends in all shapes, sizes, economic strata and religious beliefs; where life was indeed good. It was in this environment that I grew up and finished the early years of my education. The standard of education was excellent and it was the factory that produced IITians by the dozen - year after year after year.

1985-93 (School : Std I through VIII)

The earliest memories are of the times when I was aound 12-13 years old and we were happy kids with no concerns of the events rocking the world, the wars tearing countries apart, or about the religious disruptions arising in the country. We were just happy kids. The initial years of schooling are a blur, but I do remember a few incidents - Vineet khirsagar with his discuss throws, Sharma Madam, our teacher for Class 1 and 2, Chattri Madam - she was our classteacher for std 4 i believe, Nair Madam who taught English and Rastogi Sir - The mathematics teacher. What I remember most vividly are the breaks and the large paygrounds that we had. The balls made by stuffing paper in old socks, and the games that we all used to play. I also remember the first bicycle that I owned - it was a cream in colour and had tyres of a racing cycle (read: thin tyres) - my memory fails me on the name of the bicyle.

The classmates I remember most:

1. Amrita Gangrade - She always used to top the class, and I for one thought of it as a fact of life - that she will always to first. Today, she is an engineer and works with SAIL (as far as I know)
2. Vineet Khirsagar (Kairo Mama) - One of the taller guys in the class (I was one of the taller in the class and hence we always used to be part of the back benches), an intelligent chap with a good overall personality.
3. Shaheen Ali - A girl who joined us in 7th and 8th standard and used to share a desk with me. A girl with good humour and a very sporty attitude. I don't have any clue of her whereabouts now and would surely like to get back in touch with her.
4. Rashmi - I remember her face and the fact that she used to one girl who was always tensed up about something. I still wonder at times what was that about.
5. Preeti Katiyal - A pretty punjabi girl who was always in pigtails. No clue about her whereabouts after school was done.
6. V Ramesh - A very lightly built guy who used to be second in class. I believe he topped one of the classes. A very intelligent guy.
7. Sudhir Gupta - One of the pranksters who used to stay next to school.
8. Abhishek Sinha (Kakdi) - Another guy whose birthday party i attended once. he left us in 5th standard and I lost touch with him. Met him again online a few months back - currently he is working with GenPACT.
9. Praveen Narayan (Anna) - He was a classmate allthrough the 8 years. What i remember clearly is the "Rakh (Ashes)". Somebody told him that ashes will help him improve his complexion and he religiously washed his face with ashes for almost a week.

The Golden Years were carefree and fun. Though in hindsight, I can see today that we were financially struggling, but I never felt inferior to anyone at that time. Mom and Dad never let us feel that we were struggling. They always made me feel that I was the king of the world and the universe - my playground. Let everyone have parents like them.

And how does the present compare to today ? Not too well. If given an option, I would relive each single day of my life in those years again and again - and would put it in loop so that the movie will never finish. Only if wishes were horses, but I am thankful to god that he gave me those days, for the foundations of what I am today were laid in those days.

thank you god and thank you everyone.

Life comes a full circle - Is it worth making lists of things to do?

Today, October 17, 2008.

As I have my dinner at "Narayan Sarovar", I am transported back 8 years - when I had my first meal here along with Ajay, Shailesh and Baptu - to the times when I was a lost kid wondering what to do next in life, back to the times when incoming in mobiles was chargeable, back to the times when I used to think that I will be happy with a 30,000 per month job, back to the times when we had the time to laugh on silly things and not worry about a thing in the world.

Are there any changes between now and then? Yes, there are. The meal is now Rs 50 instead of Rs 30 then, Now I stay in my own house (I was in a rented house then), I am married for 4 years now, Working as a Regional Manager supervising operations at 10 locations across 3 states (I was a B.Com graduate then wondering what to do next), I weigh 90 Kg now (At that time, I was 73 Kg), The Wold Trade Centre is no longer there, India was not N-abled then, and Bill Clinton was the president of USA and I have seen the rise and the fall of Sensex.

Life indeed has come a full circle. It must be some kind of divine conspiracy, a cosmic intervention which has bought me back to the place from where I had started the journey on this road of a career in the streets of high finance. How else will you explain the fact that I am eating at the same place where I was eating 8 years ago?

The next Question is Why?
I have read somewhere that some kinds of Fish travel thousands of miles to the place of their birth to lay their eggs... In mu case, I cannot lay eggs due to biological reasons, so there must be some other purpose which the almighty must have on his mind to bring me here. Now what purpose can that be? Does it mean the start of a new chapter in my life? Is it the time for some profound change in the social / economic / political environment that I stay in? Will this change, if and when it happens, be a subtle, blink and you will miss change or will it be an in your face, Big Bang kind of change which will lead to new interplanetary positions, gravitational pulls and pushes?

I frankly do not know...Looking forward to all the changes as and when they happen. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Saurabh Maheshwari

Things to do before your MAN goes astray

The following statement which I will make is completely true and applies to all Men:

99.99% people make a commitment (read: get married) forever with their mind set on staying faithful and committed for the rest of their lives.

I am sure that most of the women out there will go - "Rubbish. He checks out every moving thing that passes him. He will jump at the first opportunity he will get and take it with his arms open. etc. etc..."

But there is no greater myth than this. True - Men look at other women, admire them and even at times ogle at them. They fantasise about what it will be like to get intimate with one of those hot chicks on television. They might even have a huge collection of penthouses / Playboys somewhere in the attic. But the chances that he intends to betray you : very close to Zero.
Please read the line again - The chance that he intends to betray you - the keyword here is INTENDS.

Now when does the intention change? Why does he look outside? Why does the thought ever crosses his mind? What makes him break the sacred oath that he took while exchanging rings?

The answers, according to me, will be a concoction of the following points, in varying degrees, but all ingredients present nevertheless:

• Denying him physical pleasures for too long: Sex is one of the basic human urges. Even various studies have proved time and again that one of the most important ingredients of a successful relationship is what happens between the sheets. If the activity stops there, the relationship will start falling apart. I will not be exaggerating is I say that this is the glue that holds it all together. The only possible exception to this will be inactivity caused due to medical issues / accidents - but then again, there are chances (very slim though) that the man might go astray here also. A union without sex is like a bicycle with its front tire missing, will you be able to balance on it for too long? Chances are - you will fall off very soon.
• Lack of Trust There are things that we men do not like to communicate to our women. Specially about our problems, the issues we are facing - monetary, at work or at any other place. We do not want to trouble the women in our lives with too many issues which we think are insignificant and not important. Call us Male Chauvinist Pigs. Blame it on our genes. Even during the time men lived in caves and agriculture was not discovered, its the men who used to hunt and also protect their women from all dangers. Say whatever you want. But we men are like that only - we will not share 99% of our problems (read - insignificant in our eyes) with you. AND then sometimes, you (read: the women) come to know about it. Then what do you do? you simply decide that you cannot trust this person because he does not tell you everything - leads to your thinking - that he must have other skeletons in his closet - leads to the thought - he has a hidden past which is all bad and ugly, and then the demon grows and grows - until it starts haunting you day and night. Tell me if I am wrong. I am sure I am not and I am ready to bet anything on it. So all the women reading this - please trust us. We do not have any hidden skeletons. We are just, by our very genetic build, protective and hence do not share problems and smaller insignificant things. If you really want to know whats happening, just ask us straight - you will get your answers 99 out of 100 times.
• Lack of communication I know it sounds like an absolute idiot thing to write - On one hand I am saying that we will not share problems, and in the very next moment I am saying that lack of communication is an issue. The reality is - we men normally like to share our most intimate dreams with you - what we want to do, what we really are, what we want to be. And we want you to be the sounding board, the filter that will clean the dirt, the mirror from which we can reflect on. What if the filter is clogged and the mirror is all foggy? We will not be able to see a thing. And what happens next - we stop telling you our dreams. We stop telling you what we want to do in life. And Bingo, we are back again to the issue of lack of trust, and the demons attached with it. So please - the ladies reading this - please listen to our dreams and please assess them objectively. Do discuss the pros and cons, do show us the downsides, the issues, the problems which may come - but leave the decision to us. Chances are very bright that we will see your point and either solve the issue or take alternate action. But never - and i mean NEVER - shoot down a dream - It might be the most cherished dream of ours. And we will never share any other dream with you - ever again. The same is true in reverse also. Guys, please encourage your partners dreams - never shoot them down, let them see the whole picture as you see it and then let them decide.

Its really this simple. We men are by our very nature very simple creatures. Give us the three things mentioned above and we will be your slaves forever. We will do whatever you want and is within our powers to keep you happy and satisfied. We will bear all your tantrums with a big smile on our faces. All we are asking you is - please trust us, let us talk at times, and do keep the physical part of the relation lively.

signing off with a wish for a happy married life for everyone.

Saurabh

Woman Intuition and God

An icelander was granted one single wish from God: He asked "I want a road across Atlantic so that we Icelancers can drive back and forth to Europe."

God told him: "That is too much to ask. Find something easier."

So the man asked: "Please explain female intuition to me."

God replied: "About the highway - should it be 2 lanes or four lanes?"

Quotes on Marriage

Alfred Adler:
We only regard those unions as real examples of love and real marriages in which a fixed and unalterable decision has been taken. If men or women contemplate an escape, they do not collect all their powers for the task. In none of the serious and important tasks of life do we arrange such a "getaway." We cannot love and be limited.

Ambrose Bierce:
Love: a temporary insanity, curable by marriage.

Amy Bloom:
Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.

Ann Landers:
All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good battle is objective and honest--never vicious or cruel. Good battle is healthy and constructive, and brings to a marriage the principle of equal partnership.
Ann Landers Says Truth Is Stranger..., 1968

Anna Garlin Spencer:
The friendship between a man and a woman which does not lead to marriage or desire for marriage may be a life long experience of the greatest value to themselves and to all their circle of acquaintance and of activity; but for this type of friendship both a rare man and a rare woman are needed. Perhaps it should be added that either the man or the woman thus deeply bound in lifelong friendship who seeks marriage must find a still rarer man or woman to wed, to make such a three cornered comradeship a permanent success.

Anne Bradstreet:
If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.

Betty Friedan:
If divorce has increased by one thousand percent, don't blame the women's movement. Blame the obsolete sex roles on which our marriages were based.
speech, New York City, January 20, 1974

Bill Cosby:
For two people in a marriage to live together day after day is unquestionably the one miracle the Vatican has overlooked.

Danny DeVito:
There are two dilemmas that rattle the human skull: How do you hang on to someone who won't stay? And how do you get rid of someone who won't go?
The War of the Roses

Francis Bacon:
He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune.

Friedrich Nietzsche:
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

GeorgE C. Lichtenberg:
Love is blind, but marriage restores its sight.

Gloria Steinem:
I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.

Groucho Marx:
Some people claim that marriage interferes with romance. There's no doubt about it. Anytime you have a romance, your wife is bound to interfere.
The Groucho Phile, 1976

Hannah Arendt:
The right to marry whoever one wishes is an elementary human right compared to which "the right to attend an integrated school, the right to sit where one pleases on a bus, the right to go into any hotel or recreation area or place of amusement, regardless of one's skin or color or race" are minor indeed. Even political rights, like the right to vote, and nearly all other rights enumerated in the Constitution, are secondary to the inalienable human rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence; and to this category the right to home and marriage unquestionably belongs. [Dissent, Winter 1959]

Harriet Martineau:
Any one must see at a glance that if men and women marry those whom they do not love, they must love those whom they do not marry.

Helen Rowland:
Never trust a husband too far, nor a bachelor too near.

Homer:
There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.

John Berger:
All weddings are similar, but every marriage is different.

Joseph Barth:
Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up.

Josh McDowell:
What you are as a single person, you will be as a married person, only to a greater degree. Any negative character trait will be intensified in a marriage relationship, because you will feel free to let your guard down -- that person has committed himself to you and you no longer have to worry about scaring him off.

Joyce Brothers:
Marriage is not just spiritual communion, it is also remembering to take out the trash.

Joyce Brothers:
My husband and I have never considered divorce... murder sometimes, but never divorce.

Katharine Hepburn:
If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead, get married.

Louis K. Anspacher:
Marriage is that relation between man and woman in which the independence is equal, the dependence mutual, and the obligation reciprocal.

Lyndon B. Johnson:
Only two things are necessary to keep one's wife happy. One is to let her think she is having her own way, the the other, to let her have it.

Mark Twain:
After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.
Adam, in Adam's Diary

Mark Twain:
Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.

Mignon McLaughlin:
A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.

Mohandas K. Gandhi:
I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.

Nanette Newman:
A good marriage is at least 80 percent good luck in finding the right person at the right time. The rest is trust.

Ogden Nash:
To keep your marriage brimming,With love in the loving cup,Whenever you're wrong admit it;Whenever you're right shut up.

Ogden Nash:
Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other who never forgets.

Oscar Wilde:
Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

Pearl S. Buck:
A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love.

Rainer Maria Rilke:
A good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?

Rita Rudner:
I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. They've experienced pain and bought jewelry.

Robert C. Dodds:
The goal in marriage is not to think alike, but to think together.

Samuel Johnson:
Marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

Simone Signoret:
Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years. That is what makes a marriage last --more than passion or even sex!

Socrates:
My advice to you is to get married. If you find a good wife, you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.

Tom Mullen:
Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry.

W. H. Auden:
Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate.

Will Stanton:
Getting a dog is like getting married. It teaches you to be less self-centered, to accept sudden, surprising outbursts of affection, and not to be upset by a few scratches on your car.