As I looked out the window this morning my heart sank. The rose plant in the backyard had a trimmed look, dreams appearing to be nipped in the bud 😭 The culprit: Rabbit of course 😡 Tried to reason with the rabbit. This is how the conversation went.
Me: Hey rabbit, what have you done to my rose plant? Do you have an explanation for your action? Rabbit: I did what I normally do! Me: Which is? Rabbit: Doing my job! Me: And what is your job? Rabbit: What you see! Me: Eating whatever is in sight? Rabbit: Listen, you are doing your job, I am doing mine. You are trying to put food on the table, I am trying to put food into my mouth. We are both doing our jobs. Do I complain to you about how you do your job? Me: Can we work out a solution where you do your job part-time so that the plants can survive too, you still have your job and I can stay in the business of growing plants? 🙂 The rabbit ran away before I finished what I was saying 😠
I learned my lesson the hard away though. The great outdoors belong to the flora and fauna of that place. We are probably lucky to get a lease on something that doesn’t really belong to us 🙏
Of great concern for me has been my forgetfulness. When I go shopping I sometimes forget to collect all the bags if there are multiple bags. Receipts I have not always remembered to collect. If I pay cash and there is a person helping at the counter at times I forget to collect change from the person. If paying by cash at a self serve counter on occasions I have forgotten to collect the change given out by the machine. While all the above are signs of an absentmindedness that has concerned me it’s not been a big worry. My biggest fear has been shopping and walking out absentmindedly without paying.
Yesterday that fear played out in real time. I went to a shop, bought couple of things. One item was a just in case buy to avoid a repeat trip to the shop. After the purchase I went to the car and realized I did not have the receipt that would be needed for return. I was thinking “Dang, I forgot to collect the receipt” 😡 From the parking lot I walked back to the shop. There was a person ahead of me in the line at the counter I “paid” for the goods I bought. After that person was done I was about to ask for the receipt for my purchase. Turns out person at the counter had been frantically looking for me earlier as I had collected my couple of items of purchase without forgetting 👍 but had not paid for them 😦 👎 I remember using my credit card earlier. In a hurry I must have removed the card without noticing card authorization was still in progress 😀 Went back out again, got the items to re-scan and this time waited till the purchase was authorized, remembered to collect the items and the receipt. Apologized to the person at the counter too. Well done, Raj! 🤣 Phew, that could have been worse 🙏
Pictorial tribute to the stars and star director of Hindi movie Chandni Chandni means moonlight and Chand means moon in Hindi language Darkening of succeeding images to show dimming of moonlight culminating in symbolic moonless night with passing away of Rishi Kapoor last week
Communicating the current status correctly to the stakeholders is one of the primary responsibilities while managing projects. Striking the right balance is key in ensuring the audience has accurate information and apprised of how the tasks with deliverables in the near future are shaping up. Getting timely updates from people working on the projects is critical in getting it right. Due to the dependency involved it can get tricky at times. For example if a task is complete and there is confirmation awaited about the completion of associated documentation it could mean that the task+documentation are complete and just confirmation is pending or task is complete but the documentation is being worked on. With work potentially being done by a team member in a different part of the world makes it difficult to confirm in real time. That’s when the “Yes, but” explanation comes into picture when presenting the current status. I guess this explanation sometimes creeps into personal life too. Wife must have heard my “Yes, but” line a few times. So, when she asks something like “Raj, can you take some days off when our son is home for his holidays” and I offer “Yes, but it depends on a Production Go Live implementation date/s staying as currently planned OR Yes, but only if there are no project deliverables due” her immediate reaction is “Now you are speaking like a PM” 😀 Which is true 🙂
I see Dr Fauci and other doctors in a similar situation when asked about novel coronavirus, in a much larger context of course. “Dr X, is the curve flattening as expected and can people return to life as normal?” and they have to tread a fine line with explanation like “Yes (for the curve flattening), but the trend has to continue for a bit longer for people to be able to go out and do what they would during normal times”. The need to be positive and truthful and at the same time balancing it with words of caution.
Consider this as one man’s viewpoint. I have always thought the best of women is always better than the best of men. Nothing in the best of men approaches the best qualities of women like kindness, generosity, empathy, appreciation, patience, selfless love. Women are also more tolerant of silliness. For example if I post something funny but silly most times women react in a positive way. Possibly it triggers in women memories of pranks of a sibling, child or someone they know and brings a smile. And of course The Raj is always willing to play the lovable rascal 😀 While men are always planning what to eat for their next meal women worry about more “mundane” tasks like putting food on the table and making sure children reach school on time and ensuring the kids have everything they need, be it food for lunch or books and stationery. Does that mean women are always better than mean? Not so soon, my friend 😀 It’s round one to the ladies!
There is always a flip side 🙂 The worst of women can be worse than the worst of men 😦 Qualities like envy, intense dislike can be more deep rooted in women than men. Not to say it’s absent in men. But the most scary trait appears to be women’s lesser ability to forget and let go. Ever faced a situation when you forget a special occasion? Am sure it’s now burned into memory never to be forgotten thanks to friendly reminders every now and then 😀 Why do men find it easier to forget and let go? Elementary, my dear Watson! 🙂 Men have more “important” things to worry about like supporting their favorite sports team, making sure they have the most comfortable part/position of a couch to watch TV when the team they support play while ensuring snacks and favorite drink/s are well stocked and easily available without moving an inch 😀 Everything else can wait 🙂 Can there ever be a more noble pursuit in life than that 😉
Recently visited Mumbai in India after a few years. Every visit to India is quite an experience and this time was no different. After living in a small town in the US for many years I myself now have to follow the advice I give to folks from here who are traveling to India for the first time: Be prepared for the sight and sounds and go with an open mind just to soak in the atmosphere. The sight of so many people and the sound of traffic can be intimidating for the first time visitor as it is even for someone like me born and raised there. Like other great, major cities of the world Mumbai is always buzzing with activity and change is the only constant. Where once a 10-storey building might have towered like a giant a decade ago the same building might look like a runt of the litter now. And I am talking about distant suburbs on the outskirts of the city and towns outside the city limits! The pace of change is so rapid I could hardly recognize surroundings that I was once familiar with. In a land once known for mystics and spiritualism today capitalism is well and truly alive and kicking 🙂
It was good to catch up with folks old and new. Folks from earlier generation appeared to have grown much older (I am sure they felt the same about me 😀 ). Met batchmates from school and college and it was good to see everyone doing well in their professions. Visited my alma mater and even there old is making way for new as school is being redeveloped for a newer and bigger version to meet the need of changing times. It was good to see neighbors drop by and offer help to parents, respect for elders is very much present. Some even insisted on being given opportunity to help. One main difference between West and East is the individualized culture of the West compared to the community culture of the East. Not to say one is better than the other but it is just a different way of living. Vertical expansion has led to many high rise buildings all over the city and beyond. Which brings its own good and bad. Taller structures have led to green spaces within the community. To cater to the high end buyers businesses have also set shop nearby which obviates the need to go downtown or midtown for shopping or entertainment. Flip side is additional demand on resources which the existing infrastructure is not geared to handle and lot of traffic increasing local travel time. Multiple road projects going on simultaneously also adding to commuter woes. Real estate prices have gone through the roof too. Always amazed and thankful for the time friends make to meet for anyone visiting from outside though. The spirit of the city lives on though in citizens who put up with a lot and still find it in them to care and share.
Yours truly likes to go for walks occasionally. The experience of walking, be it in a wooded area or in anonymity in a crowded street, is spiritual. One either takes in the beauty of surroundings or just learns to stay unaffected by the crowd or noise and be a dispassionate observer. Which helps in developing into a non-judgmental observer and taking everything in one’s stride. In one such walk I got lost. 😀 For the ride back home I hired an auto rickshaw. The driver was from different part of town, not familiar with the area I was in. He asked me to show the direction and I ended up seeing half the town as we tried to make it to my place asking folks along the way for directions couple of times 😀 Did not have time to try more such adventures. All in all the whole visit was quite a ride with some new connections made, some old connections severed and a few connections revived. Which is what life is about: making new memories, erasing some and remembering some old memorable memories. On my return it was great to see my wife receive me at the airport and be back in surroundings that are more familiar now. It was good to be there and it’s good be back. Life is a journey generating a ton of memories along the way to last a lifetime!
One observation below in the article I can use as explanation for my preference to drift in and out of a problem. I am trying to be a polymath! 😉
“We can therefore make better use of our time if we regularly switch between skills or subjects. The same goes for studies of problem solving – you will find more solutions to a task if you return to it after looking at something completely different, rather than simply spending ever more time on the same question.”
It’s been a year of multiple Production Go Live implementations. All the Prod Go Live implementations tend to be intense with lot of activities packed into a very short period of time, usually a weekend to minimize downtime for the customer so that users can start using the new/upgraded application/s at the start of the following week. Most times failure is not an option but a distinct possibility. Production Go Live implementations are like participating in full marathons testing one’s endurance and with many aspects
Physical: At various points the body sends message it needs to pause and rest but the crunched schedule doesn’t allow for it
Mental: All Prod Go Lives are scheduled to complete within a time window to allow for enough time to test and confirm before releasing to customer. If one task takes longer than estimated it has a cascading impact on following tasks and the mind is calculating about being able to able to complete all tasks within acceptable time similar to a marathon runner trying to complete the run in a time that would be deemed successful (or acceptable if there is a cut off for acceptable time)
Psychological: To keep going one has to resort to play psychological games with oneself like we are more than halfway through successfully already, most of the hard tasks are done and the remaining tasks are easier tasks etc
Spiritual: For all the preparations done in advance success is not a given. Just as external factors like weather, running conditions can impact the result of a marathon in addition to condition of the runner Prod Go Lives can be impacted by external factors like network, 3rd party dependency in addition to any unknowns that could come into play for the first time. That’s where the spiritual aspect comes in. One discovers what one is made of as well as the stuff that participating teams are made of as everyone works through any issues that could be encountered to complete the implementation successfully. Finally one has to be prepared to accept whatever the end result after one’s best effort. Just as a marathon runner could either finish the race successfully and possibly ahead of expected time OR fail to complete Prod Go Live implementations could complete successfully ahead of time/in time as planned OR end in DNF. That’s where the ultimate spiritual aspect comes in. Treat success and failure with calm, not get too elated or disappointed either ways if the effort is 100%
Behind many a cloud lurks sunlight Waiting to come out and fill life with color Seize the moment and savor it for it could be ephemeral Long lasting memories are made of such fleeting moments
O deer – You came, you saw, you concussed 😦 Wife was relieved when you ran away alive 🙂 I was relieved me, wife, son and the car were not hurt too bad!
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