प्रिय सुरज सर

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प्रिय सुरज सर,

विषय - बोलावसं वाटतंय म्हणून 

सर, 

खरं तर तुम्हाला आम्ही सगळेच 'सर' म्हणून का बोलावतो हे बाहेरून बघणार्यांना कळणार नाही. कारण त्यांच्यासाठी आपण batch-mates ना. मला कितीतरी लोक विचारतात की batch-mate ला तुम्ही 'सर'  म्हणून का बोलावतात? याचं उत्तर माझ्याकडे कधीच नसतं आणि मी शोधायचा प्रयत्न सुद्धा नाही करत. तशा अर्थाने तुम्ही Delhi मध्ये UPSC चा अभ्यास करणाऱ्या सगळ्यांचेच सर आहात. मला तुम्ही कधी असं वर्गात बसून औपचारिक पद्धतीने नाही शिकवलंत, पण सर तुम्हीच म्हणायचात ना नेहमी, ' अरे अक्ष्या, चालता बोलता अभ्यास करत जा. मी आहे ना.' त्यामुळे तुम्ही अगदी मला भेटण्याच्या आधीपासून माझे नेहमीच सर होतात. 

सर तुम्ही अगदी पहिल्यांदा भेटला होतात ते आपल्या फरिदाबाद च्या training academy मध्ये , डिसेंबर २०१८ मध्ये . तेव्हा खूपच कमी बोललेलात माझ्याशी आठवतंय? मला वाटलं स्वाभाविक आहे, first time भेटतोय, होईल हळूहळू ओळख. पण मग दिसायला लागलं कि तुम्ही तर एकटेच बसताय classrooms मध्ये वगैरे , फार कोणाशी काही बोलायचेपण नाही तुम्ही. तेव्हा असही वाटून गेलं कि थोडे खडूस आहात कि काय. नंतर सर पुढच्या ट्रैनिंग साठी तुम्ही Banglore ला गेलात आणि आम्ही काही लोक फरिदाबादलाच थांबलो. सर तेव्हा तुम्हाला खरं तर फरिदाबादलाच continue करायची इच्छा होती - mostly तुमच्या treatment साठी. पण allotment नुसार तुम्ही Banglore ला गेलात आणि तिथले superstar झालात. फक्त trainee officers साठीच नाही तर faculty साठी सुद्धा. सर तुमच्यासारखा प्रचंड अभ्यासू, विचारांची खूप उंची गाठलेला पण या सगळ्याचं ओझं आजूबाजूच्यांना कधीच जाणवू न देणारा, तितकाच प्रेमळ असा माणूस कुठेही गेला तरी लाडका होणारच ना. आणि त्यात तुमचा भारदस्त आणि व्यक्तिमत्वाला झळाळी देणारा असा कणखर आवाज, म्हणजे cherry on the cake च म्हणा की ! 

असं सगळं चाललेलं असतांना तुमच्या मनात फरिदाबादला परत यायचा विचार चालूच होता आणि तुम्ही २५ जून २०१८ ला फरिदाबादला परत आलातसुद्धा. २६ जून ला सर तुमच्या स्वागतासाठी आम्ही सगळ्यांनी मेसमध्ये cake कापला होता. तुम्हाला तो cake फारसा आवडला नव्हता पण आजूबाजूच्या सगळ्या लोकांच्या प्रेमाने तुम्ही भारावून गेला होता आणि तुमच्या typical style मध्ये म्हणाला होतात ' मायला, अक्ष्या इतकं कशाला करता बे. ' 

आणि सर मग २६ जून पासून आपला हा प्रवास खऱ्या अर्थाने सुरु झाला. डिसेंबर मध्ये दूर दूर बसणारे तुम्ही आता मी, कौस्तुभ सर, पंकज, राहुल, परवीन सर, नितीश अशा सगळ्यांच्या गर्दीत बसायला लागलात. खरं सांगू का सर, यावेळी तुम्ही दूर जाऊन बसला असता ना तर आम्ही येऊन तुमच्या अवतीभवती बसलो असतो. काही दिवसातच तुम्हाला होस्टेल मध्ये रूम allot झाली आणि जेव्हा तुम्ही माझ्याच floor वर माझ्या जवळच्या रूम मध्येच येणार असं कळलं तेव्हा खरं  सांगतो काहीतरी वेगळाच आनंद झाला होता. तेव्हापासून रोज रात्री झोपण्याच्या आधी तुमच्या किंवा माझ्या रूम वर किमान एक तास गप्पा मारल्या नाही तर काहीतरी चुकल्या चुकल्या सारखं वाटायचं. रात्री खूप उशिरापर्यंत तुम्ही news ऐकत किंवा वाचत बसायचे आणि मग सकाळी lecture  साठी मला येऊन तुम्हाला उठवाव लागायचं. आम्ही सगळे उशीर झाला तर कशीतरी तयारी करून lecture साठी पळायचो, तुम्ही मात्र तुमच्या specially designed shirts , trousers (आमच्या दृष्टीने चित्रविचित्र रंगांच्या ) ज्या फक्त तुम्हीच आणि फक्त तुम्हीच इतक्या gracefully carry करू शकायचात ते अगदी व्यवस्थित 'परिधान' करूनच मग lecture ला यायचात. 

सर lecture मध्ये सुद्धा काही lectures ला तुम्ही आरामात आमच्या सोबत Ludo खेळायचात पण काही lectures  ला मात्र अचानक एकदम concentration ने ऐकायचात. कधीकधी तुम्ही, मी, राहुल,परवीन सर, सोनम, पंकज, रिंचेन इतका जास्त वेळ Ludo खेळायचो कि शेवटी कौस्तुभ सरांनी आपला एक Ludo Log नावाचा ग्रुप तयार केला होता. सर आपल्या रात्रीच्या गप्पा आणि parties आठवतात? mostly तुमच्याच रूमवर व्हायच्या. सर त्यावेळेला तुमची Green apple vodka आणि सोबत cranberry juice हि एक जगावेगळी आवड आम्हा देशी पामरांना समजली. अशा parties मधल्या गप्पा म्हणजे तर माझ्यासाठी academy मध्ये पुढच्या दिवसासाठीचा उर्जास्रोत होता. त्यात अगदी academy च्या gossips पासून ते Trump politics पर्यंत सगळ्या विषयांवर कसल्या बेभान गप्पा चालायच्या आपल्या. पण सर दरवेळी तुमच्याशी बोलताना, गप्पा मारतांना एक गोष्ट प्रकर्षाने जाणवायची की तुम्ही काहीतरी वेगळ्याच मातीचे बनलेले आहात. एकीकडे academy च्या parties मध्ये तुम्ही तुफान डान्स सुद्धा करायचात आणि एखाद्या अत्यंत serious issue वर अगदी elite discussions चा part सुद्धा असायचात. असं सगळं जमायचं तुम्हाला. आणि हे सगळं किती सहजपणे, कोणताही अभिनिवेश न आणता , साधेपणाने करायचात तुम्ही. आणि हो, माणसांना (आणि अर्थातच मुलींनासुद्धा, chick magnet तर होताच तुम्ही) इतक्या सहजपणे आपलंस करणं कसं जमायचं तुम्हाला? 

सर, हे सगळं बोलत असताना तुमच्या तब्येतीविषयी बोलायलाच पाहिजे. रोज रात्री तुमचं blood pressure मोजायचो आपण तुमच्या portable machine मध्ये. नेहमीच machine red alert द्यायचं. खूप high energy असणाऱ्यांच ब्लड pressure पण नेहमी high असतं की काय कोणास ठाऊक! पण असल्या आजारांनी घाबरून जगणं सोडून देणाऱ्यातले तुम्ही नव्हतेच. जेवतांना कितीही सांगितलं तरी मिठाशिवाय जेवण जायचंच नाही तुम्हाला. तासनतास table-tennis खेळून BP कितीही shoot झाला तरी खेळण्याचा आनंद तुम्ही कधी सोडला नाही. सर, हे असं तुमचं तब्येतीकडे दुर्लक्ष करणं चूक असेलही कदाचित, पण कधीकधी हेवा वाटायचा हो तुमचा. असं तुमचं सगळं मुक्त हस्ताने उधळून देऊन, बेभानपणे जगताना पाहून खरंच हेवा वाटायचा आणि स्वतःची कीव सुद्धा यायची कधीकधी. 

Btw सुरज सर, आत्ताच तर बोलला होतात ना मला, 'अक्ष्या, furbisher ला full मजा करू मायला'. मग असे का सोडून गेलात अचानक. कळवायचं तरी होतं हो. सर, माहित नाही आता ludo खेळताना तेवढीच मजा येईल का आणि रात्री गप्पा मारताना तुमच्या चित्रविचित्र आवाज काढण्याच्या कलेवर मनमुराद हसणारे आम्ही, तुमच्याशिवाय तेवढ्याच आनंदाने गप्पा मारू शकू का. सर पण बाकी काहीही असो, यापुढच्या आयुष्यात नेहमीच एक पोकळी राहणार. आठवणींच्या कप्प्यात एक कप्पा नेहमीच खुणावत राहणार. 'ए अक्ष्या' अशी हाक ऐकायला कान नेहमीचं मुकणार. तुमचं सात मजली हसणं नेहमीच मनात घर करून राहणार. आणि डॉक्टर कडे गेल्यावर कधीही BP मोजताना तुमची आठवण येणार म्हणजे येणार . 

असो, आता जिथे कुठे असाल सर, तिथे काळजी घ्या स्वतःची. आणि नेहमीसारखंच मनमुराद जगा आणि आजूबाजूच्या सगळयांना तुमच्यातला  खूप सारा आनंद आणि प्रसन्नता वाटा. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                तुमचाच,

                                                                                                                                                                                                 अक्ष्या.

ता.क. - आपले काही photos सोबत आठवण म्हणून जोडतो आहे.

डावीकडून- सुरज सर,विनोद येरने,मी,नितीश,कौस्तुभ सर,पंकज 

डावीकडून- सुरज सर,पंकज ,राहुल,परवीन सर,मी,कौस्तुभ सर 

The Traffic Signal.

Source - www.gettyimages.fi

Have you ever been on the signals on Indian road waiting for it to turn green? If yes, then you will understand this. In that small time period of around one minute, at least two-three poor kids, a lady with 6 month baby in hands or a youth with fashionable hair must have come to you selling something. They sell either the sun shades for car windows or painting books with alphabets for kids or umbrella or dust bin bags or peanuts or national flags or some small home decor thing etc. Don't you find this interesting that they have tapped this signal place as potential marketplace?

And to whom they are selling their products? To those who are going to fashionable malls for shopping by their cars with the car windows closed. So in this era of fashionable malls and online shopping, these poor street sellers have found out traffic signal as the potential market where everyone has to forcefully stop and these sellers get opportunity to at least exhibit their products to the people who otherwise would have simply neglected them. 

So when everyone inside the cars are willing for the green as soon as possible, those outside on the roads are praying for red for little more time. For the insiders signal might be frustration but for the outsiders it is hope!

Understanding it Feynman way!

Source- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f-qkGJBPts

Richard Feynman had formulated a very easy technique to check out whether you have understood anything or not. Many of the pedagogy experts have in fact given many ways to test the students'  understanding level. But I personally find this Feynman's method very simple, effective and interesting. 

Feynman has given four steps to check this out-

1. Choose any concept/ any principle or anything for which understanding or learning level is to be checked.

2. Now when you feel that you have learnt that concept/ that principle, teach it to any toddler.

3. If toddler understands what you taught, it means you have very good understanding of the particular concept etc. And if toddler fails to understand it, then you need to find out your gaps and revisit the concept and learn it better ( Go to step 4 only if toddler has failed to understand)

4. Learn the concept etc. in better manner and in simplified way and again follow step 2 and step 3.

World Environment Day.

image source- www.outlookindia.com

Something positive and inspirational on the World Environment Day is here. 

A couple, Parmita Sarma and Mazin Mukhtar, started a school namely 'Akshar School' in Pamohi, Assam in 2016. And do you know what is the fees of this school? 25 plastic waste items per week. Amazing, isn't it?

So students segregate their household waste properly and bring 25 plastic waste items to the school every week where these plastic waste items are properly recycled. Can you imagine the multi-pronged impacts this simple innovation has?

Firstly, and obviously this helps prevent large number of plastic waste from going into the environment. Secondly, this is very very effective technique of teaching the environment science to the students. So rather than just completing the formality of environment education, schools can go for such innovative and effective ways. Thirdly, this will eliminate the monetary constraints prohibiting the parents, specially belonging poor class, from sending the children to schools. Fourthly, this will also help in inculcating the habit of waste segregation in the parents. 

Can we think of more and more of such out of the box solutions for our imminent problems?

Office Office-1

Source- digest.bps.org.uk

Working in an organisation, let it be any organisation, is quite an interesting thing. Here by interesting I am trying to imply mainly two things, difficult as well as learning experience. I believe that none of the books or orator can teach you the life skills as nicely as that of working in an organisation. 

Though I have quite a little experience till the date of working in an organisation, this small period has also been also very eventful for me. So I have found out 4 important facets related with working in an organisation is concerned.

1. Dealing with your actual work which may be anything like say data entry, or taking strategic decisions or managing people etc.   

2. Dealing with the people at workplace including your seniors, juniors, colleagues or other stakeholders.

3. Dealing with family and balancing family life along with the office work etc.

4. Dealing with the society in relation with your job like managing the social dignity associated with your job etc. 

So I will be dealing with these four facets at length, subsequently in my future articles 

The time to act is now ! (Cinematic Series- Schindler's List)

Image source: itunes.apple.com

Schindler's List! Yes, I watched it again and it gave me goosebumps once again.

One should not simply stand alongside and observe when something seriously wrong is happening. One needs to act, in whatever capacity possible, but some action to eliminate that wrong is needed. Will that action help, or to what extent it will help doesn't really matter. What matters is whether you acted or not. Schindler's List is about such action. It's about the action of a single man to save lives of the innocents from the entire hateful killing machinery known as Nazis.

This man was Oskar Schindler. Apart from his act to save around a thousand odd Jews from the onslaught of Nazis, what appealed to me was his detachment from the ego generally attached with any social work. So Schindler considered himself as a mere businessman doing his job and he never ever pretended that he was doing some great social work. Another important point which needs special mention is that Oskar acted not just emotionally but really very strategically so that maximum number of people can be saved. And this is what needed.

The little girl with red coat and and pianist playing the piano when Nazis were continuously firing the guns around are two points in the movie which exhibited the positivity and the ray of hope even in the darkest moment.

So my impression about the movie is that its about optimism and the power of common men to do uncommon things.   

Fuel Your Passion !

I always feel that, passion for something is the most powerful driving force to work. The factors like power, money, fame may also act as the driving forces but they are ephemeral at the max. Because once you attain these things, they will not drive you anymore. Whereas passion is something which will keep you moving, always! 

Justin Schmidt is one such passionate entomologist. Insects are part of the job of an entomologist. But this guy is so passionate about his work that just to understand how hard and painful the stings of different insects are, he himself decided to suffer from the stings. So he invited around 78 different insects ranging from honeybee to hornet to bullet ants. With this experience, Schmidt devised an index, popularly known as 'Schmidt Sting Pain Index'. 

This reminded me of Baba Amte, the great social worker from Maharashtra. To empathise with the patients suffering from the leprosy, Baba himself injected the pathogens of leprosy in his body and then also experimented over the medical cure for leprosy. 

I think these kind of people really prove the saying that you cannot learn to swim without yourself getting wet.  

 

Window of Opportunity.

Image source- johnmichaelmorgan.com

Today I was having some general discussion with my wife over breakfast. The discussion was mainly about how the startups can find any scope to do business when there are so many big giants-  corporates, businesses, companies have already entrenched themselves. How these small fishes can compete with the bigger ones.

Tapping a business opportunity in an environment wherein the existing space is already completely occupied by the big companies, is really a challenging task. These thoughts were lingering in my mind when I came across a story about Asian Paints, a listed and reputed company.

Before Asian Paints came into existence in the 1950s, paints industry was dominated by a few big distributors. They all simply neglected Asian Paints entry at that time. Asian Paints was trying to find its own window of opportunity form where it can enter this industry and cope up with the big players. 

It mainly found out two such windows of opportunity. One was in rural Maharashtra. Farmers in Maharashtra who own the bullocks used to paint their horns with different colors. For this, they needed a very small quantity of paints. But their problem was they have to buy big buckets of paints as the distributors that time didn't sell the paints in small quantity. Asian Paints tapped this opportunity and started selling small 50/100 ml sachets of the paints which became immensely popular in rural Maharashtra. 

Another similar window of opportunity tapped by Asian Paints was in Tamil Nadu. People there, as a tradition, paint the lower portion of the front doors of houses with different color stripe. And again their need for small quantity paints sachet was tapped by Asian Paints. 

Today, the total assets of Asian Paints are around $ 1000 million.

So, where is your window of opportunity?             

Sky is the ceiling, not the glass !

The deeply entrenched gender bias in India is something which nobody can deny. Since my childhood, I used to observe how a girl and a boy are treated differently in society. Daughters in India are nurtured in a totally different manner compared to the privileged sons. The bias is so well rooted that it is not limited only to the treatment given to girls vis-a-vis boys or the privileges they enjoy. But there is a clear cut demarcation between the professions that can be pursued by our sons and daughters. 

So one such profession that is apparently prohibited for girls is that of a barber. Even in metros, you will hardly find women doing the job of a barber in men's salon, leave alone in small villages. With such a situation around, I came across a piece in some newspaper about the men's barbershop run by two daughters of an old barber. Can you guess where it might be? Not in Mumbai, Delhi or Chennai. It's in Banwari Tola, a small, remote and backward village in Uttar Pradesh, India. Believe it or not but that's the fact. Neha and Jyoti are running this salon in a small village after their father got ill. So these brave girls, challenging all the odds, societal mindsets, and biases, took over the salon. And even the villagers are now supporting them. 

Such tiny rays of hope in today's age of turmoil, chaos, and skepticism make me stronger and give new vigor. There can be many Neha and Jyoti around you also. Please support them, at least help in making the environment conducive for them so that they can pursue whatever they want. 

Hobbies are Precious.

Are the hobbies merely waste of time? Is it that, the hobbies are to be pursued only when a person is bored or have lots of spare time?  At least, the general conception suggest this logic only. 

But research and studies related to hobbies have suggested that hobbies are much more than mere wastage of the time. Noble prize winner, Howard Temin's research is significant in this regard. It is popularly known as 'Temin Effect'. It basically talks about how the intense practice of a particular hobby, which is generally unrelated to one's job, helps in establishing inter-disciplinary, cross disciplinary connections in one's work. And such inter-disciplinary knowledge and skills help in taking quick and informed decisions. It also helps in optimising the things which are continuously conflicting with each other. 

Thus many CEOs like David Soloman, CEO of Goldman Sachs, is extremely passionate about DJing and follow this hobby very intensely. Sachin Tendulkar is passionate about old Hindi songs, apart from his core love for Cricket. 

So hobbies are not merely wastage of time but it turns out in yielding tremendous professional benefits. 

Work Less, Work More

Recently, I came across an article which was talking about the working habits of some great people. So the article said that Charles Darwin used to work only for 4 hours a day. Gabriel Márquez also used to work for hardly few hours a day. Same goes for many of the writers, scientists, artists etc.

Image source- www.isrgrajan.com

This, at least initially, sounded very surprising. But as I dug little deeper, I found out that, this working style was very obvious for these people. This was for two reasons- 1. it helped them to nurture their creativity in spare time, 2. And more importantly, unlike majority of us, these people used to work with utmost sincerity whenever they work, however less time the work might be for. So they were not working for less time for the sake of it. But it was with the reason and rationale. The small time for which they used to work, was utilised with extremely high efficiency. And rest of the time was not just spent like that, but it used to be quality time spent with nature, beloved ones and even in introspection, which ultimately helped to give more output. 

If Charles Darwin is hired by any of the companies today, then his working style may lead to his immediate termination, during the probation itself, I'm quite sure. Because in today's world, on one hand we keep talking about the efficiency and effectivity but at the same time number of working hours is our criteria to decide the salary, compensation, job guarantee etc. This can be understood for some of the jobs, but I find this criteria very simplistic escape route for all the employers at large. Because charting out the efficiency criteria needs much hard work, even for the employer, which nobody seems to be ready for. 

So the bigger picture here is, "how much" we work is less important. What matters is "how" we work! So work less but still work more !

Voter vs. Consumer

Currently, India is in an election mood. In fact in India elections are termed as the 'maha-tyohar' i.e. the great festival. The year 2019 is, in fact, the election year for almost 62 countries across the world. 

I am not a political analyst, neither I intend to be one. But nonetheless, I am a political observer for sure. Many of the analysts have studied the link between politics and the economy. In fact, political economy is the discipline in itself. But what fascinates me the most is the behavior of the people in these two domains i.e.politics and economics. The same people who are voters in the election are consumers in the market. But the behavior as a voter vis-`a-vis consumer significantly differs.

The general observation shows that an individual is more conscious, aware and alert as a consumer than that as a voter. Why? Because as a consumer he is spending the money and it is the hard earned money. Also, the consumer before spending on anything goes through its reviews, compares it with goods of the other brand, ensures its quality and finds out whether it serves the purpose. 

Whereas the same individual while acting as a voter does not seem so alert or conscious. Why? Because as a voter he is just spending the vote and this vote is not hard earned but is entitled to him just for being above a certain threshold age. Unfortunately, there is no tangible value, or any monetary value for that case, to the vote in the eyes of the voter.

The consumer pays, say Rs.500, to the shopkeeper and holds him accountable for the goods or services purchased from him. If afterward the consumer finds out that the quality is compromised, he again goes to that shopkeeper, asks for an immediate resolution to the grievance. Whereas the voter spends his vote by casting it to someone and then what happens? Does the voter hold the candidate accountable if he does not deliver on his promises?

So we need to sensitize everyone about the immense value of the vote, he is entitled to cast. A vote is not just something to be spent carelessly. Because ultimately, politics and elections drive the economy and market to a very large extent. So a carefully casted vote is nothing less than consciously spent money, in fact much more than that.

A new year resolution.

"So, what's your new year resolution?", asked my wife. And my answer was pretty different this year. So my new year resolution is 'taking a pause'.

Confused? But yes, I have decided to take a pause every time before doing anything and just give a small thought to it. It is always said that the thoughtful actions are much prudent and this is certainly one of the reasons for the resolution. But beyond this obvious reason, I have two more intents behind the resolution.

What I have realized over the years is that there is a certain kind of normalization leading to boredom in our daily activities, routine etc. As a result of which many of us have just stopped thinking about what we are doing and our actions have become quite mechanical. This hampers the out of the box thinking and creativity. Taking a little pause and thinking vefore doing can help in this. For example, take a small pause even before a daily activity like reading the newspaper. Think, what you read yesterday, what you learned, how did u read it, can you do this reading more productive etc. And eureka! You will certainly find some new way, probably not every day and probably not something of the sort of some paradigm shift. But incrementally you will grow and enrich for sure.

The other intent behind the resolution is to break the continuous chain of activities in a day. So here my idea is to break this chain with little pause to think about our action, though casually. This break in between the actions will give some fresh air to our daily chores. This will help rebuild the lost interest in the things we are doing.

So one, doing things in a better manner and two rebuilding the interest in whatever we are doing are mainly two things I am looking for here.