The magic of Sun and Apollo Storm !



Miss u.....my cabin !!

I loved my office room at Pokarna. Every morning I entered my room and opened up the blinds to let in the most magnificent sun rays that lit up the cabin. I got a befitting granite counter top fit on my table called Apollo Storm. This is a unique stone that isn't found very easily, something like me ! I felt a great deal of energy when the sun rays entered the room and the Apollo Storm shone with all its brilliance.

Now I am no longer the ruler of my cabin and hope I find a nice little room where the sun rays drive up my energy levels and I get another piece of the unique master piece created by the BIG GUY Himself, named Apollo Storm !



A baby is born

After a very exciting 9 years at Pokarna Limited, I finally left on the 01st.of December, 2010. I have grown tremendously (literally as well !) over the years at Pokarna.

Early 2002, I was working with an American company owned by an Indian. I handled some of his procurement of granite from India. I vividly remember my father receiving a call from the then Managing Director, Mr.Krishna Rao asking him to come along with me to meet with him. That meeting led to my joining Pokarna Limited. Mr.Rao asked the then accounts manager, Mr.Sanjay Daga as to which was an auspicious day and time for me to join and Mr.Daga came back in a few minutes stating that it was NOW ! I started out as an "Exports Manager" on 18th.March, 2002. It was certainly auspicious for me. 

I always enjoyed working and worked with sincerity and passion with my wonderful team. I learnt immensely from so many wonderful people over the years like Mr.Gautam Jain, Mr.Krishna Rao, Mr.Ramakrishna, Mr.Vishwanath Reddy, "Computer" Vishwanath , Manish, Pragati, Joe McCabe, Pat Anderson, Mr.John Weiss, Mr.Peter Seiler, Lokesh and many others. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to interact, learn  and be inspired from everyone of these people. 9 years down the line I feel sad leaving the company, which for a very long time I felt like my own. For the last few days at my work I felt very sick in my stomach with the thought of leaving this company....it almost made me cry. However, the decision was made after a lot and lot of debate and thought. The next step was, well.....to decide the next step ! Again after tossing around several options I decided to work for myself and that's when the idea of creating Stone Plus came into being.

Stone Plus was created on 01st.of December, 2010. I will strive to earn the same love from one and all for my baby, Stone Plus !!  

Thanksgiving Day !!

I've often heard people crib about the various "Days" like Father's Day, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, etc etc. The point used to crib is always WHY is there a day required. Why cant the feelings be expressed everyday or whenever needed.

I, however, strongly disagree with the WHY. Firstly, why shud anyone have any objection ? These "Days" are not thrust upon anyone. Everyone has the right to celebrate it or not. If they feel like wishing their father, mother or girlfriend everyday, great for them. However, in today's times people living in the same house also barely get to see one another forget about spending quality time. This dedicated "Day" serves as a reminder that lets give our father, mother or girlfriend, or whoever the appreciation they so deserve. Let's wish them and thank them for their love. In Karan Johar's words....Kal ho na ho !

One such "Day" is Thanksgiving. It is largely a day celebrated in the US. Thanksgiving in the US falls on the last Thursday of November. The occasion always turns into a Thanksgiving weekend. This is wonderful as it allows families and friends to make plans to meet the near and dear from far off places which would not have been otherwise possible with only a day's break. Thanksgiving brings people together to thank one another and celebrate relationships; celebrate life.

This Thanksgiving has a very special meaning for me personally. It is the time that I enter my final week working for Pokarna Limited. I have been associated with the company for almost 9 years and have wonderful memories. I took the opportunity to thank all  my colleagues who have guided and supported me over the years.

The Lizard Attack

I am not scared of heights or depths, water or fire. However, I am shit scared of the freaky cockroaches and lizards. These are creatures that God created in a terrible mood.

Cockroaches have this unique distinction to come from nowhere and go everywhere. However, like most humans, they can be found hanging out in either the kitchen or in the toilets. Lizards on the other hand think they make a great wall hanging. The freaks tend to stand, sit or whatever it is that they do, in one place until we get tired and get the hell out of there. Lizards tend to piss us humans off big time when they make their presence felt on the walls just above the bed or above the toilet seat !! They may seem stupid but they sure know our soft spots.

Earlier today there was this Lizard that announced its presence in our bedroom. The whole family panicked. I felt shivers down my spine.We all got into a huddle and decided that we're going to fight the intruder. We then chased it all around the room but the bugger refused to give up without a fight. We removed one painting from the wall behind which it had taken refuge for a bit; we moved the entire cupboard where it thought it was absolutely safe and finally we prevailed. The intruder was chucked out of the room and we celebrated victory. Victory of good over evil.

Let this be a lesson to the entire freaky community. Dont mess with us !!

The Economist

Thanks to the quantum of my travel during my current job, I was honoured by Star Alliance with the Senator status. This gave me the luxury of using their lounges at various airports. During one such visit to one of their lounges I had a very long time to spend. As I normally did, I hit the bar.....for a diet coke (no kidding) and some snack. I watched TV for a while. After sometime when the news kept on repeating on TV I was forced to look for alternate sources of entertainment. That’s when I lay my hands on The Economist magazine.

The Economist, to me, until that point, was a boring magazine which I couldn’t read for more than a few minutes. However, I was completely hooked on to the mag from page 1. I simply loved the information and data provided. It made me feel so much more confident as a person to know what the heck is going on across the world. I then made it a habit to grab the copy of The Economist at every lounge I visited and even bought several copies.

A few months back The Economist was launched in India. There was a nice offer for subscription for a year which I obviously went for. I have been receiving my copy delivered to my door diligently every Monday. I simply enjoy reading it and try my best to read as much as I can. However, I realised soon that I am unable to devote much time to catch everything in the weekly before the next edition comes in. I have been struggling to keep up pace and have ended up with a back log of 4 weeks !! This back log refuses to go. I feel bad to see a copy come on a Monday when I have 4 weeks of reading stacked up. While I do hope to catch up every month, I strongly feel I will be on track before we hit 2011 !

Negative feedback

After a hiatus of over a month I went back to www.kamaldshah.com. I have always learnt immensely from Kamal, my elder brother. His blogs are addictive. Unfortunately, for a very long time I didn't follow the blog. However, just when I started I came across a very interesting subject on negative feedback posted on this link - http://www.kamaldshah.com/2010/11/on-giving-negative-feedback.html#links

The post inspired me to make a post of my own on this touchy topic. People associated with me in my company would realize why it is "touchy". Anyways, I have been on the receiving end as well as the giving end of negative feedback several times. I always seek feedback and give negative feedback my full attention. I have learnt more from negative feedback than I have from positive. However, there have been instances, many such lately, which I disagreed with. Unfortunately, in these instances there wasn't any scope for a debate as the verdict was given without any hearing whatsoever. This is where I cannot accept a negative feedback. 

I have also given feedback, good and bad to my team several times. Some have taken it very well while some haven't. However, one thing no one can dispute is the fact that I don't listen. Any decision of mine is through deliberation. I firmly believe that a company and its team has to be on the same wave length. There could be disagreements on a few issues which need to be discussed. Everyone has to have a say and everyone has to listen. After all the deliberation the company / team should arrive at a consensus with regard to the direction to proceed on. I believe everyone has his/her own ability. Everyone has something to offer. Negative feedback shouldn't ever be given without an intent of a positive outcome. 

My father's words come to my mind - "Be careful with criticism, liberal with praise." 

My trip to Verona, Italy

My recent trip to Verona, in Italy was my 11th trip in as m any years. Unfortunately, all the trips have been work related. After all these years of travel to this city also I encountered many 'firsts'. It was surely the company I was with that made me explore the beauty of the city.

They say, a pic speaks a thousand words, so here are a few thousand for u....enjoy -

The beautiful Lake Garda -



The City Centre "Arena".

Then there was also the common sight of free flow of emotions giving a damn to the "mahila mandals" of Italy. Wonder if they have these wonderful mandals in Italy ?? (without them our "sanskriti" would have become totally nasht ;) )



The last one surely spoke many a thousand words. On that cozy note, until next time....Ciao (pronounced as chaao) meaning bye !!!!

Lets cut it short...pls

We are in the world of instant gratification. We don't have the time these days. We just cannot wait.

I remember the 'bad old days of TV' when the only 2 programs we used to watch were 'Chitrahar' and 'News'. Just before the news was a very long and tastelessly created jingle with the Door Darshan logo gradually forming. I bet if something like that has to be seen today there may be cases of TV sets being smashed.

There were days when 5 day test matches were actually watched. Honest....I remember. Gradually people used to just keep a track of test matches and 1 day matches were the only craze. During a one day match everything in India was standstill. The streets were deserted, the shops were closed, the whatever...u get the point. Now its T20. 3 and a 1/2 hours. THAT'S IT ! Come back from work, catch a breezy T20 match (or some hot cheerleaders) and go to bed. With T20 tests have been limited only to a scorecard on the news paper (except when India makes it to the headline for becoming # 1 in tests). One days are now just tracked rather than being watched and by the way roads are jammed in this country no matter what comes on TV ! 

Employers cant wait to fire, employees cant wait to screw the employer and jump jobs at the drop of the hat, doctors cant wait for a normal delivery and go right for the 'c' section, gymming is replaced by surgeries to cut flab, blogs are replaced (not mine) by tweets, movie titles by initials, the list goes on. The only thing that keeps getting longer are the WORKING HOURS !!

If it has already not, let me ensure that my post doesn't get any longer. Until next time....cheers !