A Toast to 2nd Anniversary of my Professional life :)

Hey anks!!! and I turned back to see myself standing there all chirpy(no, it was not mirror :P ) , but here I was two years younger all full of enthusiasm and a zeal to go ahead in world and prove myself!! Though it’s still their but little coat of dust has come in the way or maybe my tired eyes are not able to recognize that I was like that before.

Whatever be the case, things have changed in the past two years! The change was not this apparent when I (Me@4th year) looked back at Me@2nd year! But this evolution is visible now (No, I haven't grown extra pair of hands in this period of evolution..but yes, You can say that I have grown them if you take into account the actual work I do now compared to college tending to zero work :D)

Training was a good fun part of professional world I say, because it was much alike college life rather than office one (with much more discipline than either of two) but after that we all faced the reality, the ugly truth about professional life. It was then I realized in college only the first layer of cake was being baked all through these years and I have a long way to go to finally put a cherry on top of it.

There are some things which you cannot just read and learn, you have to experience it around and learn from it. This applies to many things in life but in office, I would say you will find it most. Writing emails was never a thing to learn (We are writing them since we had our first access to internet, don’t we?) and it felt absurd when we were given a proper scheduled session on writing emails and were given some web based sessions also. But now realized that yes, effective email writing is an art and CC is a big tool to get your work done. Higher post person id getting added with each reminder was a mystery initially. And here, seldom is the time when work gets done just by saying it, useless mails are mostly required to keep everything documented.Oh, ya!

And, even if you are the most unpopular guy/girl in your whole school-college life and always longed to have your birthday-cake cut with your dwindling group, office will be heaven for you as you will get invites to all parties, your birthday cake will be cut and will be smashed on your face as well. :D

One thing positive which I have filtered from the rest is (No, it’s not wait for salary day: D, though it still remains the most favored thing) how shy and naive you are all the years before, you have to shed those traits at least partially to be counted as normal. You become more street smart while you are working. You have to raise your voice when time and your role requires that. And one more thing, whatever work one is doing, that person is constantly managing both the set of people -higher and lower in ladder to survive in this race.

There are always parties, outings and team-lunch outs and chit-chat @evening snacks breaks that you always look forward to as treats to all-day work and which balances the more serious 'Issues' in workplace.

That is just the beginning and I hope I evolve as much better person and professional in the coming years.

The Dilemmists-Part II

After the initial splutter of the first part, next one in the series has a little blush of rose swept on it.
Oh I can already see the expressions changing on my dear readers' face from a smile to a raised eyebrow(reaching at an angle one can best possibly manage :P ) that say.. 'Ummm...what is this all about..Makeup!!! Let's skip this!' or 'We did not expect this mushy topic after the last post'. Come on!! Dilemmas are all spread across a whole gamut of situations. In this particular one, I am going to talk about the dilemma of under-selling yourself or over-selling to somebody to whom you are totally smitten about.Since,there can not be a specific Dilemmist to be pointed out,I will say 'The Dilemmist' is 'one among us'.
Cool wind caressed past Shubhan as he sat in the auto thinking about the girl he has talked  to  in last few days in college.Ruhi was not pretty in traditional sense or with hot airs, but surely attractive at least to him(now).Opposed to all the blabber about finding your lady love when in college,Shubhan was rather unlucky and he has stopped caring about it now. Even though others have not been lucky much, one can not feel happy about it.Ruhi was in college with him from past two years, but she being coy and in different friend group, they never got to interact much except rare exchange of class notes. Problem with Shubhan was not talking to girls but talking to them as such to make an impression. He dreads that he bores them and just could not bring himself close to giggle at some random joke which he doesn’t find any funny. How people do that, are the jokes really funny and he is a bore or they just pretend, was a mystery unsolved till date for him!!

Recently, he got talking to Ruhi as they were in the same group for a project and yes,he was happy with that(who would mind a hard working girl in group, while you roam around :P).Talks started with project planning and continued with discussions on Google docs on sidelines of design diagrams. There is nothing called love at first sight(at least he was not a believer in that), and he was neither head over heels over her but yes,Shubhan liked those conversations and was sure not to tread along the friend line only.The dilemma he faced now was how to put himself forward, whether to under-sell or oversell(yes, I am talking like the marketing people :P ).

I know first reaction would be 'Just be yourself, dude' but do not we admit that we all can do anything but to be brutally honest specially with the one you have a soft corner for. We usually go for either one of the options. And Shubhan knew that he has to chose something as he wanted some special attention :D
Over selling has one big disadvantage that you project yourself as one big shot and exceed the expectations of a person many folds and see yourself being made a butt of jokes if you have overdone it and there is nothing worse than that. But yes, it does arouse interest of anybody in you and you cannot just go unnoticed. And if you actually go close to those  expectations, you are just awesome. B-)

Strength of underselling is that even if you don’t get what you want, there is nothing lost. But if you play the cards well ,there is win-win situation waiting for you at the other end. Setting the default level as 0 and pouring water on the normal expectations from a normal person, does not seem much intelligent decision but in the long run if you play along and exceed the lower-set-expectations, even if it’s not a big thing, you surely get some brownie points (It is very difficult to jump across when the pole is set high in high-jump, isn’t it ?).There is always scope for showing improvement here and get the other person engaged in trying to knowing you. On the other hand, Going unnoticed and termed as bore, not worth it, nothing-much-to-know-about can be a pitfall for some who are actually duds :-P.

There is no conclusion on it as you cannot just subjectively discuss the whole concept and make it objective and answer it as first option or the other.But here,Shubhan has to figure it out what he wants or may be just by pretending that he is being just himself, he would be going for either one subconsciously. :-)

The Dilemmists-Part I

After the initial sneak-peek(it was actually a teaser) followed by disappointed rubble from people about not founding any actual thing in last post, here is the first actual post in the series "The Dilemmists".

In this one, I will be highlighting one dilemma which is though not a big issue but it keeps coming back straight right up at my face, forcing me to ponder upon.Here, the dilemmist is 'I'.

Every day one thing which I cannot just escape (how much I want to and crib about) is never ending traffic jams and an open display of plight of beggers and destitute. Though the expression on my face remains grim and hands don't move an inch for search of a coin or two(blame this apathetic attitude of mine to this apathetic selfish scum which has surrounded us) but you cannot say that this sight does have the same no-impact on my heart too(I know heart doesn't think..spare me with few liberties!)For a minute of two, I keep fighting with myself on whether to help or not, though outward display remains nonchalant.

The dilemma here is not about help from one human to another being. There cannot be any dilemma about that. We have been taught from childhood, that always help with all your might. The thing is that there are always such precautionary signs and warnings about not trusting a person, discourage begging as it is not legal and that person who is arousing in you enough human emotion to loosen your pocket is actually not the real benefactor. This is one proper thriving business of begging which is being run by not-so-good gangs of men. If you think my little brain is infused with bollywood ideas(read Slumdog Millionaire central theme) then you should get a reality check done. You will never find different beggers at a particular place at a particular time every day. I have noticed that it is always the same kid which greets me with the same set of acts followed by ardent collection of coins before the red light turns green and gets prepared to repeat the same performance 2 minutes later. These are always stationed at strategic points in a condition so worse that have a potential to melt even a stone's heart(if there is any).

Still... Still..after knowing all these details, my mind is not happy with the practical decision I usually take to ignore and walk past. It want me to be human and helping lesser-privileged people has always been a prominent human value. And yes, that "Help" should not be there just to please your not-in-good mood planets/stars. Because in that also(you admit or not),there is a selfish motto.(But,yes,that is still better than turning a blind eye).But even if I want to, the thought of help not reaching to its actual benefactor, mar the whole purpose.

May be giving in kind(which one cannot exchange for monetary benefits and will actually put it to some use) will help and would be a solution to get out of this confusing dilemma.

Dilemma

It’s been a long time since I have penned down my thoughts. Have closed myself in a self woven cocoon avoiding all the electric thoughts buzzing past, fanatically searching for my zeal to catch them and write again, but I completely ignored all of them(please my dear thoughts don’t feel betrayed, I am back again :-)) May be it was my mind's hibernation time. But now it has warmed up by this upcoming winter (Ironic it is!!).

I have always been one person who gives too much thought on important and  not-so-important things and in this process get caught between this sticky web of dilemma!!

Sometimes, this big-word dilemma is so trivial as to what should I be wearing for special occasion(That is one dilemma, which garners quick nod of approval from females :D and disapproving nod from the guys with a sigh(Girls!!!!))

But on most of the occasions, it involves much more serious matters of life, survival and priorities.

As people say that if we introspect the problem methodically & rationally and get the knack of its nuances, the whole crumbled up issue starts unwinding and you can see your way out. I hope some good comes out of it as well.

Starting with this prologue about it, I would be flickering some light on some of mine or some of others' dilemmas about a varied set of problems (with which we all can relate to) in a series of short blog entries revolving around the central theme of dilemmas in life and calling it "The Dilemmists".