How is my beloved Madras as you see her now?

How is my beloved Madras as you see her now?

Do the ships still wait at the port reluctant to set sail?

Do the planes still hover around waiting for the breeze from the Bay?

Is the Marina farther away from the Sea?

As far from the Harbour as the Lighthouse can be?

Does the Clock tower of Central still grace her like a Crown?

Is Egmore still jealous of her a little further down?

Is Summer her only season and Humid her only weather?

Do the bells at Luz, Mylapore and Santhome still ring together?

Does the scent of Jasmine and Coffee still linger in the air?

Do they still light up the Ferris Wheel at the Island ground fair?

Are Rippon building and Napier’s bridge as White as they always were?

Do Presidency, Loyolla, Christain and Pachaiyyapa still fight fair and square?

Does 21G still run from Broadway to Tambaram?

Is it still fun to watch the planes land with their lights at Tirusulam?

Do the Vaigai and the Pallavan still chase each other all the way?

When the angry Pandian wants to leave do Rockfort or the Boat Mail have a say?

Are the theatres full of noise, excitement and happiness?

Does the Connemara library still complain of loneliness?

When you see my Madras do tell her, my heart longed for her then and pines for her how!

How is my beloved Madras as you see her now?

-Aditya

Salesman

I was trying to write about something related to management, but I was unable to condense all my experiences into a couple of coherent paragraphs. Thats when I thought Ill try to pen down certain aspects of my experience in the field and then try to sticth them together and come up with something meaningful.

I was a salesman for two years. 

Sure, the designation on my visiting card tried to tell the customer that I was a knowledgeable engineer whose role was to offer technical support to the customers and to update them about the latest developments in the field; and on the side if that resulted in my organisation bagging an order, it was a plus.

To be honest, it was generally the other way round. I was evaluated on sales targets and my main agenda (As dictated to me by my superior authorities) was to sell, sell and sell.

This is where I learnt my first lesson, my designation on my visiting card. What was wrong in saying salesman or salesperson. The customer knew what I was there for, I knew what I was there for, then why this deception?

Some veteran salesmen told me 'Sales has honour in it, we are the people who bring in the money, who brave the market, who brave the competition, who get insulted and who hold back their emotions to again go back to the market the next day to make a sale.' Most of this is true. It was a difficult life as a salesman who made cold calls, tried to bag orders and who got abused by insensitive customers.

Theres nothing wrong in being honest about a sales role. Nothing wrong in telling the employees that its a high pressure role with lots of stress but one that helps you make quite some money.

As a salesman I was surprised to find that training imparted to salesmen by big companies with bigger 'trained' management professionals is completely unrelated to what the market wants. India is a unique market where trust and relationship matters most in business. An Indian customer does not have the time to listen to fancy sentences derived from a company's vision statement.

The customer has a problem, he wants a solution. If you can offer it to him, how fast and at what cost? These were the fundamental reasons they were talking to you. But, most of the training programmes I attended, concentrated on building a relationship with the customers.

There were even some MBA kind of people who used to instruct salesmen to simply visit the customer's office and take them out for lunch or coffee. They never took the pains to understand that the customer's time comes at a premium. He reports to a boss and he has a job to do. If he wanted to have coffee or lunch, he would want to do it on his own time.

Sure, some salesmen do develop a relationship with their customers like having coffee with them or be on first name basis with them, but thats only if the salesman has been around for a long time and has taken the pains to offer solutions to the customer which worked for him. Simply exhorting the salesmen to develop relationships with customers, bag orders and also ensure they remain satisfied with the company's service all in a limited time frame between two sales reviews never made any sense to me.

The second most important lesson I learnt was, humanity comes at a premium in a sales department in any company. Well, the advertisements stating that the company is a great place to work etc. might very well be applicable, but generally not to the sales departments.

Salesmen are always short of time and opportunities, so every order becomes a do or die situation. No company tries to have a sales department that works on nurturing relationships with customers and develop a sustainable business. Its always sell now, sell forever. Due to this attitude, sales managers are mostly rude. You can't really blame them because their bosses are ruder. Two sensitive issues being travel and leave.

Salesmen have to travel a lot since they have to visit customers, and the company might very well have great travel policies which say train travel upto so and so distance, air travel beyond that etc. but these aren't followed most of the time. Somehow whenever a salesman, especially at the elementary levels in the department is allowed to travel in reasonable comfort, the manager acts like he is doing a favour. Almost as if, you dont deserve to fly because you may or may not achieve your targets this year. Its a little demotivating when you are entitled for certain modes of travel but are forced to compromise just for the sake of your managers ego.

I have seen salesmen beg for leave. And I have seen them miss important occassions in their lives due to this. I had one manager who told me 'If you go on leave, Ill have to pitch in and do some of your work, which I do not want to, since I am a manager, not a salesman, so sorry, your leave is not approved'.

Sure, people do appreciate your performance, but you might not get promoted for winning a big order and you might very well get fired for losing an equally big one, all within 3 to 4 months.

Then there was more MBA lingo, which spoke about 'Entrepreneurship in sales'. First of all, our beloved MBA graduates who have fancy degrees from fancy institutions and have fancy designations with fancy salaries need to understand that, I can't be an entrepreneur if I dont think that this is 'My' company. To think that this is 'My' company I need to be treated first and foremost like a human being with kindness and respect. Its very difficult to be chided or abused on one hand and told to act like an entrepreneur on another hand.

Lastly as an illustration of humanity or the lack of it. I remember my last day at that organisation where I left the building alone. No one came to even see me till the door. I had seen senior managers dropping directors and CEO's to their cars, but there was no one who shook my hands and told me 'You worked here, for two years, achieved your sales targets and contributed to our company, all the best for the future.' That one incident made me feel my entire time in that company amounted to nothing, neither for me, nor for the company.

The third lesson that I learn was, people are very important. A dialogue in the popular movie Rocket Singh, salesman of the year said 'Business log hain, jo aapke saath kaam karte hain aur jo aapke customer hain. Jab log khush hote hain, number apne app badhne lagte hain' 

That was true, I have seen great colleagues and decent managers add a lot to my performance. I have seen reasonable customers teach me a lot. I have also seen colleageus who always preferred to step on me and walk ahead to take credit for the work I had done, managers who supported such colleages and customers who used to simply think that a salesman is not a human being and can be spoken to rudely and treated with contempt.

Today, I practise what I learnt then. I try to surround myself with positive people all the time. That makes life easier, and makes me work better.

My two years in sales came to me just after I left college. Just when I didn't really know or understand how the World outside worked and behaved. Those two years did disturb me a lot.

One of the happiest moments in my life in those two years was when I quit my job on a Monday, and sat on bench at a small tea store, sipping a cup of hot tea. At that moment, I had left a well paying job, but I strangely felt empowered. I felt good that I wouldn't be subjected to abuses and insults the next day. I remember sipping that cup of tea and feeling content and happy with a small smile on my face.

Those two years also added a lot of experience. I learnt what business is, how people behave, and how to calibrate my expectations from my professional life. That time gave me a lot of intangible knowledge and added a lot of wisdom.

But overall, it wasn't something I would want to go through and would want anyone else to go through.

To all the salesmen all there, who dont feel appreciated, admired or treated properly. I have seen your side, I was on your side once upon a time and I appreciate the effort you put in every single day, braving the climate, the abuses, the taunts and the pressures to try to bag that one order, which might or might not be appreciated.

I appreciate the days you have sacrificed and the time you have spent away from your family. I admire your determination and maturity to get up every morning, forgetting what happened yesterday and start all over again.

I sincerely hope you get the respect due to you, that more companies and customers are considerate about your time and your emotions and I hope that one day you and your company both are proud enough to print your designation on your visiting card saying....Salesman..

As I age.....

I opened my blog yesterday and realised I had not written anything much for a long time. I was preoccupied and did not find enough time to pen down my experiences.

Today as I read my own blog, I realised how I have changed over the years. Some posts of mine, when I read them again with the benefit of the experience that the intervening years have added stand like mirrors showing me a reflection of how my thoughts have changed over the years.

That made me start thinking how good it felt to age a little. As the years go by they add a lot of experience and wisdom. Some thoughts may remain the same, but the approach changes.

Subtle changes do seem to occur as I grow older. One seems to be when it comes to my energy levels. I noticed that like every youngster just out of college my posts initially seem to be quite passionate. The experiences are described vividly, conclusions seem to be derived after every paragraph.
Today, my energy levels remain the same, but some sort of channelization seems to have occurred. Most of my descriptions were more of passion, some facts and little reflection but today when I think about events which occur on a day to day basis, facts predominate, reflection takes up much space and finally passion takes up a small share of trying to apply what I learnt today, tomorrow.

Today ,I also realised, its nice to grow older. Age brings a lot of empathy alongwith it.

Before, I never used to think about the reason for another persons reaction, or some deep underlying issues in any system. Nowadays I do empathize with people. I do think for a minute about the circumstances and the situations in which they said what they said and did what they did. It helps a lot. Before, I used to be a little idealistic. Even now I am the same but I realise the limitations of every system. Things are the way they are because the system is attuned to that pace or that culture. Change takes some time, but you can keep putting in your efforts.

When I was younger, a long time ago, I used to try to 'blend in' with friends or colleagues. Now, I don't. If I think they are following something good I try to imbibe it, otherwise I am fine being me. I have a right to my space just as others have right to theirs.

Views on friendship have also changed. Movies seem to portray friendships as the most perfect relationships, where friends are your soul mates, support systems, sources for inspiration and so on and so forth.

Not all friends are soulmates. Not all soulmates are friends. A senior at office can be a good sounding board or a soulmate, sharing his experiences and wisdom and helping you learn something related to your job as well as to your life. Friends need not necessarily be your support systems. Some might just find it nice to spend time with you when you are happy, others might like to talk to you when they have problems and need someone who can listen. Friends will keep coming into and going out of your life time and again depending on circumstances. Some are also sources of negativity and must be avoided.

When I was younger I used to think of building a career. As time went by I realised careers are not built. As someone wrote in a newspaper article "A career is an accumalation of experiences".

Initially I used to think all efforts at work are rewarded instantly. Now, I realise it need not be the case. Career progression is quite inelastic. The experience that you accumalate today might bring you rewards after a long time. The efforts you put in today might be appreciated at a later date, when you are no longer in that role or function. Its best to try to keep putting in as much as you can, try to learn from whatever situations you face at work and keep trying to enhance the quality of your output, bit by bit, day by day.

A job seems to be most rewarding when I do it without expecting much in return.

Lot of experiences, various circumstances, situations beyond our control and reflecting on our past, and learning from them, brings a lot of satisfaction and comfort.

Overall, it feels nice to age. It feels good to grow a little older......

A glimpse....

I hail a cab in Chennai late in the evening. As expected the driver efficiently pulls up with the help of the GPS. I get in, and after he starts the trip, start listening to music on my phone. Suddenly a vehicle cuts my cab. The cab driver (CD) exclaims " Just look at him sir. How they drive here!"

I keep my earphones aside. I am trying to make sense of his outburst. He continues,

CD : A similar thing happened some days ago Sir. Near Anna Nagar one share auto driver cut my car and almost smashed my side mirror. I asked him to stop and he sped away. I chased him, parked my vehicle in front of his and asked him why he fled instead of apologizing.

Me : So did he pay you for the mirror?

CD : Of course not sir, had it been my native district I would have argued with him, here in Chennai all I can expect is a sorry!

Me : Where do you hail from?

CD : Vellore district sir, a small village on the outskirts.

Me : So how long have you been driving in Chennai?

CD : 15 days sir.

Me : How profitable is it? I hear there's decent money to be earned in the cab business nowadays.

CD : Its quite profitable sir, but my heart is not in this profession.

Me : What are you interested in then?

CD : Agriculture sir!

Me : That's surprising. Youngsters like you want to leave villages and work in cities.

CD : The kind of peace that comes with cultivating your own crops, I don't get by driving this vehicle sir. I have some ancestral land back in the village. I tried to work on it, but my family would have none of it.

Me : Why?

CD : A relative's son got into this business, he came to my village and boasted around a bit. That's all, my family also started nagging me about going to the city and earning money.

Me : Do you earn much from cultivation nowadays?

CD :Not much sir, but I wanted to do something different. I wanted to cultivate mushrooms. Again, my family prefers cultivating cereals because that doesn't require a lot of effort. I even applied for a loan for raising cattle. I thought I could start doing something in animal husbandry.

Me : What about the yield? Wont you need fertilizers for that?

CD: I prefer organic farming sir. I used to use dung and neem leaves as fertilizer. It isn't that easy. It has to be made in a particular fashion. The farmers in my village have forgotten how to raise crops without chemical fertilisers. When I tried to cultivate mushrooms they wouldn't even help me till the land. I had to do it all alone.

Me : Do you have a degree in agriculture? You seem to have a lot of knowledge .

CD :  I see a lot of videos about agriculture on youtube sir. I tried talking to my family members to change their farming practices,but they wouldn't listen to me. They told me not to argue with them, as they have been tilling this land for decades.

Me : Whenever you want to change something, people will oppose.

CD :  I don't understand why my own family doesn't support me. Normally, bankers are very conservative and never give loans, but in my case the bankers agreed to sanction 3 lakhs for animal husbandry, but my family convinced my grandmother not to sign on the documents.

Me : That's sad. What do you plan to do now?

CD : They want me to earn money, I want to work on my land. So, I thought till the rains come I could drive here, save whatever I can, go back to my village and purchase a transport vehicle. I can use the money I save as a down payment and purchase a second hand tempo with a bank loan. I'll use it to earn money and whatever I can, I'll put in my field.

Me :  That's a good idea. But will you be able to repay the loan? Isn't it better to drive a little longer and purchase the vehicle without the loan?

CD : A loan motivates the borrower to work sir, so that he can repay the EMI. I have seen many people in my village take loans, repay them and then sit idle. No EMI, no pressure to work. Also, agriculture is such that if I don't put in efforts regularly, it won't be of much use.

Me : What do you plan to cultivate?

CD : Mushrooms, flowers and vegetables sir. Of course, finding a market will be a problem, since Vellore is neither close to Chennai or Bangalore, but still may as well try and do something I like, than do something I don't like.

In the meantime I reached my destination.

Me : Nice talking to you. You have great plans. Maybe initially you will face some opposition, but once your family sees that you walk the talk even they will start becoming supportive and you will be on the way to fulfilling your dreams

This conversation left me thinking.

Most cab rides, I get in, plug into some music or remain glued to my mobile phone and just wait for the journey to end. Sometimes I enjoy the scenery. Sometimes I sit and mope about the traffic.

For the first time, I got a glimpse into someones else's life. Where he came from, his dreams, his plans, his problems.

A memorable conversation for a long time to come. 

A portrait...

Its around 0715 in the morning. I sip my tea in a hurry as I have a train to catch at 0815. I reach the station just as the train is backing up on the platform. I purchase two magazines and two newspapers. I board the coach which seems to be completely occupied. The coach is clean and comfortable. After some time the train slowly makes its way out of Madras Egmore. I put down my newspaper and look out of the window.

What do I see?

I see the numerous stations which I used to read about in the Chennai edition of 'The Hindu' back at home. I cross Tirusulam, the airport is barely recognisable with the metro and the new terminal. The train ambles its way past Chromepet and comes to a halt at Tambaram. I see some old structures, must have been serving the erstwhile metre gauge platforms. Memories of names of trains like the Boat Mail, Madurai Parcel passenger scratch the mind for a while. The train pulls out of Tambaram and huffs and puffs towards Chengulpettu. Singaperumal Kovil passes by and I visualize the beautiful temple there. The Kolavai lake or Chengulpettu lake comes on the left. Its a sight to behold with the rays of the sun illuminating the surface. After Chengulpettu the train speeds up.

It picks up speed almost at the same time as Arijit Singh hits the high notes in the song I am listening to. The Palar river is crossed. Most of the bed is dry with sand and a stagnant patch of water towards the end. Stories of how during the days of a good monsoon the water from Palar used to reach Tambaram are part of old reminescenes.

The train steams on, and I cross numerous fields. The highway seems to play a game of its own crossing the tracks to end up on either side here and there. I see mountains in the distance. Some with temples atop them. I imagine trying to walk from a small station to such a mountain and admire the view from there.

What do I see on this normal, ordinary train journey to Tamil Nadu?

I see pictures of Madras as they formed in my mind when I heard stories about my native place. I see and feel the land which is like a long lost relative with a familiar name and appearance, but whose personality I am unaware of.

I see myself excited at the thought of crossing Tambaram, the place where a lot many members of my family spent a better part of their lives. As the train crosses Tambaram I try to imagine how they must have lived here. How they must have walked to school. How they must have led a contented life here, the place they used to know as home.

I see green fields and people toiling in the Sun. I dont know why, inspite of not living here or having grown up here I feel at home. I feel like I am living my imagination.

When I see all these sights outside my window, I keep comparing them to the images I had created in my mind about them.

Images which had my childhood as the canvas, the stories narrared to me by the elders as the brushes and the feeling of affinity to these places as the colour.

When I compare I see two images, the one here and the one in my mind. I honestly cannot say which one seems better. Both seem different but the same.

The canvas has long been dispensed with.

The brush seems to have exhausted all its strokes.

But the colours remain. They are still there, bright, familiar, full of warmth....

Letter to those who judge me....

Today I just stopped for a while to think about so many people who judge me every day. They line up to give me advice. They tell me about how I talk a lot, about how I don't talk enough, how I read a lot, how I don't read at all. They seem to be extremely knowledgeable and symbolise the epitome of intelligence and rectitude.

People who keep judging me and advising me, I feel that you should apply your knowledge to yourselves in the first place. Do not deprive yourselves of your exalted self, standing on a stage and advising people like me on behaviour, intelligence, experience, philosophy, psychology and what not.

If you start doing that you would realise how shallow you are in the first place. All your opinions seem to float on the surface of heresy and gossip. All your experiences would be confined to one event which seems to be extrapolated to reach definite conclusions which you yourself might find absurd.

If you were to make a note of everything that you say; like you make a note of mine so that you can advise, admonish and correct me, of course, for my well being, you would realise that if you had to sit down to correct yourself and advise yourself it would take you all your time to do so.

I would also like you to listen to you boasting about your knowledge, foresight and wisdom and gift yourself a lot of patience which I seem to have acquired having to listen to you and many other well wishers all the time.

One fine day, you are bound to understand that you aren't much except for some comments and opinions which you throw at the drop of a hat to convince yourself that you are something and to help yourself build a facade of personality and wit to cover your attitude built of cynicism, lies, delusion and arrogance.

When you do, you have two choices. The first one, to ignore what has just come to your notice about yourself since it would be difficult to be humble, charitable, mild, pleasant and human. It would be much much easier to be arrogant, delusional, negative and proud.

The second one, to try and impose less of your exalted opinions on people. Letting them live their happy, honest, wonderful lives. To ensure that you are the only one who has to listen to you, hear your caustic comments, cry over your lack of empathy and cringe at your mock sympathy.

Either way, this letter is for you to try and see yourself from your point of view and see if that is what you would want to see.

Mumbai Local Etiquettes

The title of this post talks about etiquette in the local trains that ply in Mumbai, a set of rules which can be learnt only by 'regular' commuters, who brave the ordeal every day.

A journey in a Mumbai local train is an adventure by itself. With thrice as many people cramped into one half of a coach called 'First class', the experience is anything but harrowing.

I am not writing this post to carp on how difficult it is to travel by the Mumbai local, that is a well known fact, especially in the morning and evening peak hours where alighing at your destination safely makes you believe you deserve a prize and managing to get a seat in peak hours makes you feel you deserve an award or honour.

I have been traveling in Mumbai local trains for the past 7 odd years now and somehow manage to survive the ordeal each day. After these many years of travel what I have observed is, local trains have some standards or expectations when it comes to conducting oneself. Most people tend to follow them and the ones who dont are frowned upon or told off by the seniors in the field of 'Mumbai local train traveling'

Some of the observations are as follows.

1.Never get into a Borivali fast if you wish to alight at Andheri and never ever get into a Virar fast if you wish to alight at Borivali.

Now, we might say that this unofficial practice is absurd, but the daily commuters have a reason for the same, which you tend to empathise with. Commuters from Virar have to endure soul crushing hours in local trains. With space and a train both coming at a premium, a commuter who has a lot of Borivali and Andheri bound trains to choose from, but still boards a Virar fast and tries to get down at Borivali, is told off and even reprimanded.

2. Adjust your seating position with the knees alternating.

With the new age rakes being introduced in Mumbai, the area for standees has increased at the cost of space between two seats. In such conditions when you manage to get a seat, your knees are bound to knock on the person sitting across you whenever the train brakes or accelerates. The simple solution to this is, people try to sit in such a way that their knees dont face each other, the seating arrangement is offset a little. Now in such a scenario certain passengers who sit with their legs forming a 'V' in the air are frowned upon and are even sometimes advised to sit properly.

3. Be courteous enough to enquire if the person standing ahead of you plans to alight at the next station.

As soon as you cross the penultimate station before your destination, you are supposed to make your way to the line which starts from the compartment to the door and ask the person standing ahead of you if he plans to alight at the next station. If he does, no problem, since he has already confirmed that the person ahead of him will alight and that person has in turn asked someone ahead of him and so on and so forth. If he doesn't plan to alight then you and him have to practise amateur gymnastics to ensure he takes your place and you his.

4. Always avoid sitting in areas which are normally occupied by groups.

By virtue of traveling in the same local train for a number of years, people tend to form groups, the members of which, might play cards, sing songs, discuss the stock market volatility and so on and so forth. It would be good for you if you avoided sitting in places where such groups normally sit, because if you do, they will look at you as if you have occupied a reserved seat in an express train and talk among themselves with a remorseful face on how the oldest gentleman in their group couldn't sit because you sat in his place. They will ensure that you feel uncomfortable by indulging in their group activities to the hilt.

5. Bags and rules for carrying them.

If you board with a bag strapped to the front of your torso, you are expected to remove the bag and hold it in your hands. This rule also makes sense since the bag seems to occupy the space of one person and holding it in your hands will allow another person to squeeze into the coach. If you dont adhere to this rule, you might be lambasted by the senior local train commuters and some gentlemen may even start pushing and shoving your bag to demonstrate to you how much space it occupies.
If you travel with those bags which hand from your shoulders, your efforts are doubled when you try to alight. One, you have to ensure you try to inch closer to the door. Two, you also have to make arrangements for your bag to follow you.

6. Read the newspaper by folding it twice or thrice.

If you do wish to read the newspaper as the others do, in a train which is packed with people in the peak hours. You must fold the paper twice or thrice and restrict yourself to reading one page, since you anyways will not be able to change the pages with so many people packing the space around you. Veteran travelers fold their newspapers so that they read the editorials which are best enjoyed when read slowly and with some thought.

Thats all for now, as and when I learn more, Ill post....