Work

World building

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

I have always marvelled at the way in which writers build a world. Something that the consumer of that story can read or watch or listen to, and get fascinated by.

However I didn’t know how hard it is to do so. Until this year when I started going deeper into the subject.

Well, I got a glimpse of it when I wrote a few short stories last year. Or as I read through some broad-canvassed fiction like the Lord of the Rings (which by the way was portrayed very well with multiple nuances in the films)!

But I hadn’t imagined the difficulty yet.

Since the beginning of the year, I have been working with my dad to translate my grandfather’s magnum opus that we recently published in the original form. It is written in verse in Hindi and Sanskrit, so I have taken it upon myself to translate it in English and make it available to a wider audience.

As I have ventured on that path, and am reading through the original script in detail, I sometimes sit back and wonder. About how my grandfather managed to write such eloquent and detailed a book about something so commonly known in Indian mythology. And about my own ability to bring it out in my adaptation.

It is hard to imagine. And to put that imagination into words. Words that make a story look real and relatable.

Kudos to writers who do this well. In fact, most of the famous books ride on this world building. The reader feels immersed in the alternate universe that’s created in the pages. And that’s what beholds people to that literary work. Same is true for any art form which leave a lasting impression upon us.

As I reflected deeply on this aspect this past week, I realised that we all have similar opportunities in our daily lives.

Apart from being consumers of content, we are also producers of some other content in our daily lives. It might be some document or presentation at work, some work assigned from our college or school, or even in our daily lives when we talk to our children and narrate them stories.

We have an opportunity to build something that can be as immersive or interesting as the books we read or the films we watch. However, we don’t do that most of the times…

We rather focus on the here and now to get things done. To submit on time. To finish within the deadline. To get done and move on.

What if we changed our focus to doing what’s on our hands in the best way possible? Where the person who looks at our work can relate to it and go back with a feeling of having come across something beautifully done.

Perhaps the key is to think of it as a story revolving around us and how the details give out how we perceive our world or the one around us…

Service matters…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

We often miss the forest for the trees. Those trees may be wonderful in the short term but the forest is the real deal in the long term!

This week a personal experience got me thinking about this trait of ours and how by not following it we may be better off…

As it happened, to ease my commute to different parts of the Bay Area in the initial days, I went for a car rental. It was the best choice for me and also seemed apt considering I would be able to test drive cars of choice and decide on which one to buy.

The first week, I booked a car through Expedia and as I went in to pick it up, the executive at the counter turned out to be very friendly. Al (his short name) patiently explained me various options and made sure he gave me enough time to let my transaction through.

As I left the counter, he gave me his no. and asked me to call him in case of any issues. I had a good experience and got a good car thanks to his word to the delivery team.

After the week passed, I decided to get another car to try out a different model. However, owing to last minute bookings, I couldn’t get it from the same company and had to opt for a pricier option with another company.

While I had the guy’s contact details, I didn’t want to just call him out of the blue. But I went in after returning my car to the counter to see him. He recognised me and waved.

I was quite surprised that he could remember me. He must be dealing with so many people on a daily basis, sitting as he is at the airport counter.

Happy to see him, I went ahead and generally chatted with him. I was sure there was no other option for me at that company, having checked the availability online.

However he again surprised me. He asked me if I had a car already and when I replied in the negative, asked me if I still wanted another rental. I told him I had tried but couldn’t find any suitable option.

He requested me to stay put and called up a couple of people internally to arrange for a new car at the same price that I was paying earlier. He also helped me get the other booking cancelled and again put up with me all that while to complete the transaction. As we wound up, he told me he will put in a word to extend the rental at the same terms, if I choose to.

As I left his counter for the second time in seven days with a smile, I couldn’t help but wonder why we don’t have more such people across the board.

He could have chosen to ignore me or could have told me that there’s no car available or charged me higher. But he chose to give his time and put in efforts beyond what he was asked to do. That’s something we don’t come across often!

These are people who choose to delight, go overboard every time, treat others with a great sense of responsibility, and make the place a good one to do business with! They and their likes don’t just help put a smile on a customer’s face but gain them for life. And whether we believe it or not, form the backbone of any operation.

Only if all of us could be like them and do everything with a great sense of ownership and a friendly approach, the world would be so much more than a better place!

Legacy…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

It is something we leave behind and hand over to the next generation.

Something that inspires a lot of people and helps them identify a meaning in all they have done through the years.

Or something that in hindsight helps us judge what we did in that particular phase of our life or work.

Well, I have always viewed the term with some suspicion. Not because I think it is over-rated but because I think it carries a negative stress in the present.

There are a few people who leave impressive legacies behind. But not because they started with that intention. They just wanted to do their best in the moment. And whatever they leave behind happens as a natural result of that effort.

On the other side, there are those who don’t bother at all about these matters and live their life without worrying about what they are leaving behind. They do their work or live their life and pass into oblivion, which isn’t a bad option in the larger scheme of things.

And then there are those who always get bothered by whether what they are doing will be enough to leave behind that impression. Now, that’s precisely the kind of negative stress I am referring to. Trying to prove a point and do something with the future in mind, without focusing on ensuring the best possible in the present.

A lot of us these days, either due to the hype around the term ‘legacy’ or because of the added pressure we put on ourselves to excel in whatever we do, land up in the third category. For some of us in fact, sometimes it gets complicated because once we start looking out into the future with one eye, the view isn’t complete in the present. And due to that stress we sometimes end up trying too hard and not being our natural self, or worse, doing things the wrong way to reach where we want to be through a shortcut.

Not something that we would recommend to any of our friends, leave along to ourselves!

As I served my last day in a company I have been with for almost 5 years and had a lengthy conversation with a senior about some of these aspects, these thoughts came into my mind…

When I dug deeper, I realised that if we look at this issue from another perspective, it is actually not what we have done and the accolades that we have bought to the table that matter. What matters is the foundation we built or built upon, and the strength of the pillars we erected during that phase of our life or work. In the present.

Are they going to sustain after we are gone? Will those, who are left behind after us, be able to live with it? Is the structure going to soar higher from where we left it?

I think that is a more pertinent way of looking at any phase of our life or work and determining the impression that we leave behind. It also gives us the luxury of focusing on the present completely without worrying about or stressing about what happens to it after we leave.

While all of us are wishful about the impact we have or may have with our actions or work or life in the future, I guess living in the present and staying focused on what we are doing in the here and now are way more important.

At least, that gives us a chance of leaving behind a legacy, if at all!

Switching Off…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

It’s a million dollar quest now-a-days!

Realms of paper have been written upon to help people claim there lives back. Where to stop and how to give themselves time.

And yet, as lockdown situations have continued and most of us continue to work from home, there seems to be an urgent need to get some respite from the blurred boundaries of work and life post work.

As Missus and I sat down for our Sunday morning, environment friendly detox hour, this topic came up today. I was wanting to get into this discussion with her as off-late, our schedules were going crazy and this wasn’t leaving us with much time for other things.

While we discussed and chatted about it for 15-20 minutes, there wasn’t a clear answer that emerged on how to handle the situation. But one good thing happened. It gave us time to reflect on what we have been trying in our own little ways and how it is helping or not helping us. This reflection threw up some interesting observations!

For one, until the laptop and mobile phone became ubiquitous, we pretty much had the evenings to ourselves. After work hours, there was a natural switch off that happened. Or how following a routine in the morning and evening, sans any device, has helped us stay sane and less stressed on the days we are able to manage that. Or better still, how suppressing the urge to attend to work emails / texts etc. can yield benefits, specially on weekends.

What’s more important though is to remember that we need to switch off. To rejuvenate. To feed ourselves. Something that a lot of us seem to forget in between all the humdrum of life.

I have seen colleagues and friends who constantly feel the urge to do everything in their power to respond to things immediately. They stretch themselves, even when it is not absolutely required, to deliver outcomes by borrowing time from their weekends and family.

While that may be the order once or twice, soon it develops into a habit and establishes a vicious loop, where the need to ‘Keep up with the Joneses’ takes over and prods us to outdo ourselves. And our colleagues.

And that leads to a culture that constantly demands more of us at all times and a race to the bottom. A demand that can never lead to much good!

So, which culture are we setting up in our team or organisation or for ourselves? Should be the biggest question we ask before we embark on anything.

Will perhaps help us maintain sanity in our lives and lead to longer careers with lesser stress all around!

What Keeps us Going?

~ Rishi ~ 1 Comment

Not just when we are doing what we are doing. But also when we are past that.

Is it the desire to achieve something? Or the love of doing that thing? Or the pressure or compulsion to complete what we started? Also, what makes some people continue well beyond their time to still go back and contribute and enhance their body of work? What makes them want to still do it even when others their age have hanged their boots?

This week, as I reflected on what separates the best from the rest, I looked back at some of the success stories of our times. It of course involved the famous athletes, artists and geniuses in other fields but also business people and others who achieved something significant in their life.

I also looked at my own experiences as well as of those whom I have personally known and observed. What made them tick in a specific situation that made them succeed? What made me go on and give it my all to achieve something?

Now, this is a question which probably doesn’t have one single correct answer.

For some of us, it is the desire that is overpowering and helps us tide over all the roadblocks. For others, it is the compulsion of the situation which pushes them to do that extra bit, try that one last time, before they make it.

But for whatever it is worth, what I realised is that it is almost always ‘Love’ that keeps us going even after everything is done and dusted!

I say that because while desire or compulsion can help us achieve a few wins, only love for something can push us to continue not just when the going is good or when we are winning but even when we are well past our prime. Because, it induces us to go out there and contribute again and again until we absolutely cannot.

And this applies to all of our life situations too…

We continue to work with our partner and in most cases, as the relationship progresses, love deepens and our contribution increases in tandem.

We continue to nurture our passion or hobby and as we get into later stages of life, the urge to do something in that area becomes more prominent as our love for it grows.

We invest ourselves in our children and continue to guide them and lead them in their life even after we know that they have grown up and are perhaps independent to do everything that they ought to do in life. Only because of our love for them.

And so on…

As for work, those of us who fall in love with what they do, tend to continue working far longer than the others and continue contributing to their field in whatever capacity they can.

That’s perhaps why they say, do something you love and you will never have to go back to work again!

Recovering oneself

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

Goodnight, sleep tight! That’s what we said to each other at times. Wishing for the other person to sleep soundly and recover fully. The other day, as I was watching my daughter sleep next to me, I was reminded of this phrase.

There she was, sleeping in all her glory, without a worry in the world. Lying next to her, watching her angelic expressions, I was jealous and amazed at how she could just leave everything behind in her train of thoughts and go to sleep in 5-10 minutes, even when she wasn’t really very tired.

As I was wondering about it, I compared it with my own sleeping patterns off-late. I have never been one who slept immediately after hitting the sack. Always distracted by multiple chains of thoughts going through my mind, weird dreams about never-land, bouts of endless debates in my mind, and so on.

However, whatever sleep I got and maintained was always sufficient for me to be fresh for the next day. Whether less or more. Whether tired or not. It never used to matter.

But I noticed something unusual started happening in the last one year. I started getting erratic sleep, with my mind taking more time to switch off. And then, bang in the middle of the night, again getting activated. Preventing me from sleeping for a couple of hours at times.

At first, I ignored it, guessing that it was probably a passing phase. However, when it became a regular phenomenon and started affecting my waking hours, I resorted to hacking the problem.

Armed with a sleep tracking app on my smartwatch, I thought of understanding the core problem. But even after multiple days, I was nowhere close to cracking it. The erratic patterns continued. I even used sleep inducing music at times, tried shallow breathing lying on my bed, etc. But to no avail.

And then, it dawned upon me. I was having trouble sleeping, as I was not able to switch off mentally. With multitude of things needing my attention during the working day, there was a propensity to leave some things/discussions hanging in between, to be completed later. There were always a few things that were unresolved at the end of the day. And that was creating a dissonance within myself, leading to the heightened mind activity during the night.

Having understood the root cause finally, I consciously started trying to plan my day better and ensuring that I close on all the conversations/discussions the same day, or bring them to a logical point, from where to start off the next day. This simple hack made my mind accept the interim state of affairs and made it less anxious, resulting in some respite for me in the night. And slowly, the sleep pattern has improved.

It has been about 2 months that I have made those changes and it has helped me immensely professionally also. I seem to have more time on my hands to finish off things on the new day, without the burden of past discussions. My daily planning has led to a more structured and focused work pattern and better outcomes. And it has taught me one important aspect – closure, in whatever way, helps.

As we navigate the complex world of work, along with the various other aspects of life, I think it is imperative upon us to structure it better and give ourselves enough time to close matters on any given day. After all, winding down and recovering after a hard day’s work is the best remedy for being at your best the next day…