A reunion after 17 years

Ashutosh and I have been friends since grade 9 when he moved to my school. Throughout our school tenue, we would only sit with each other, which at times ran us into trouble but we didn’t care about it. After our 12^th grade, he moved to Noida for his studies and I stayed back in Varanasi to pursue my graduation before moving to Bangalore for my masters. During this time we would meet each other briefly during vacations.

Once Ashu completed his master's, he came to Bangalore to attend interviews, together we explored Bangalore for a week, before he moved to Varanasi to join his family business, after that we couldn’t meet each other as we were busy in our lives. The irony is we couldn’t even attend each other’s wedding as I had just switched job and I couldn’t take leave. We tried multiple times to catch up but our work schedule didn’t allow us and 17 years passed by but we were in touch through video and voice calls.

It so happened that I had to travel to Delhi on a business trip and I so wished if he was there so that we could meet. I just called him casually and told him about my travel plan and he enquired about the dates, and the moment I disclosed the dates, his happiness knew no bounds and I was wondering WHY? Then he told me that he too would be in Delhi at that time with his family as they attending a wedding. His excitement was evident in his voice. Then I told him that my hotel was in Greater Noida and he would have to come down to meet me as I had no idea of the places.

I also told him that I was not sure how much time I would be able to give him or if we could meet either as I was unaware of my work schedule and his response was clear if we don’t meet “ don’t ever call me” and I was like dude I will try my level best but work is also important. Finally, we decided to try our level best.

I reached Delhi on an early morning flight from Bangalore, took a cab to Greater Noida, checked in to the hotel, and left for my work. All this while I and Ashu were in constant touch with each other. My work got over a little earlier than I anticipated and Ashu asked me to come to Delhi as he was in some market. Immediately I booked the cab and left for Delhi.

After 90 minutes I reached the place where we were supposed to meet, and we couldn’t locate each other, then I asked him to share his location, and based on that finally, we were able to meet after 17 long years.

I still couldn’t believe I was seeing he was in front of me and the moment we met we just hugged each other, ignoring the world around us. Soon enough his wife also joined us, I was meeting her for the first time.  The moment she left for shopping we found a place for us to sit and chit-chat.

We were so engrossed in talking that we didn’t realize that 3 hours had already passed by and it was getting late, as I had to travel back too. We went for dinner and tried Haldiram’s as I had heard a lot about them.

After dinner, it was time to say goodbye I booked the cab and the moment the cab came, Ashu told the driver to drive safely. He even took a photo of the cab and asked me to share the ride details, which I did.

On the way to my hotel I was thinking about the travel that I undertook that day, Bangalore – Delhi – Greater Noida – Delhi and to Greater Noida again. A business trip and a wedding forced both of us to leave our home turf and come to a neutral ground where we could meet. Sometimes unplanned trips are more exciting than planned ones. 

Confidence an important trait for interview

Do you know the most important trait which recruiters or HRs look for in a candidate during the interview process is their level of confidence with which they face the interview and impress the panel.

Now let’s see a few attributes which can enhance your confidence.

Dress Well

It’s always better to attend interviews in formal attire as you may never go wrong with it. Off late I have seen semi formal also being in trend that is also fine. Pay special attention to your footwear. Reason, I have seen candidates usually going wrong here, which affects their level of confidence. If you are well dressed, you are more confident to face people effortlessly than being embarrassed in front of others.

Rehearse your resume

I have seen people attending interviews without going through the content written in their resume, which is a disaster. So, it’s better to read your resume and try to anticipate questions based on it and be prepared with the answers. When you are well prepared you won’t panic in the interview that will have an impact on the interviewers.

Respond Carefully

Interviewers may ask questions from anywhere so you should be prepared for such uncertainty too. When you come across such situations, you should take a while before answering them. Reason it will give you the breather time to frame your answer well and present it in an organized manner. The moment you do that, the interviewer will easily gauge your level of confidence.

Eye Contact

Always maintain eye contact with your interviewer but it must be subtle not contact staring type. Try to keep the process of eye contact as natural as possible, that’s enough for the interviewer to understand how confident you are in yourself.

Why are employees reluctant to work from office?

 Now that we have bid adieu to Covid and offices want their employees to work from the office rather than from the comforts of their home. And this has led to a tussle as employees are reluctant to work from the office. When forced to return to office, employees tendered their resignation which shocked the companies.

Now let’s see the reasons WHY employees don’t want to work from office

Rental issues

During covid times To - let boards were very common and landlords incurred huge loss as tenants were leaving the city. Now when companies have forced employee to come to work, landlords have raised the rentals to cover up for the loss incurred during the pandemic. Employees are unable to find decent accommodation at an affordable price.

Work life balance

While working from home, people were saving a lot of time commuting, especially in a city like Bangalore, which got global attention for its traffic situation. Employees are away from home for 10 -12 hours daily, 2 -3 hours of it is in traffic. While working from home employees can spend those hours with their family members. Because family is always there to support them whether they are with a job or laid off.

Managing household chores

While working from the office, employees used to get only weekends to take care of the issues at home like grocery, technician, and visiting shops before making purchases. By the time these activities were done, their weekend was over.

While working from home employees can handle these things along with work. Like Groceries can be bought during weekdays after office hours, technicians can visit house any day of the week. Such practices gave employees ample amount of time for their weekend to go out on weekend getaways with family.

Healthy lifestyle

Covid taught us to lead a healthy lifestyle as well as to boost our immune system. While working from home people had a lot of time so they utilized it by taking care of their health.

When I was in Kerala, I used to walk daily for over an hour, which boosted my body's metabolism rate too. As I was sweating profusely.

In the work from office scenario people will be back to square one when they will have no time to take care of their health.

50% off on traffic violation challans

 Till date we have heard about discounts at shopping malls and ecommerce sites but never in our weirdest dream we would have thought about a discount on our traffic challan.

But to our surprise Bangalore Traffic Police came up with the idea of 50% discount in challans issued again the vehicles of individuals. It was an unbelievable move by Bangalore Traffic Police, which reaped them with good dividends.  

So, people just thronged on to the BTP website as well as Paytm to check their challan status and made instant payments too. The traffic volume on the site was so high that the site would slow at time. During this time people will opt Paytm to make the payment which forced paytm also to go slow.

This campaign was well marketed by Bangalore Traffic department, as everybody was talking about it. Even in my office we became a part of this campaign. A colleague of mine was checking his challan status which prompted me also to do it.

Then we informed others in our department about the same and guided them with the process to help pay the challan and avail the benefit. By doing so, our department became the part of responsible citizens group who abide by traffic norms.

The best part of this challan exercise was, people attained peace of mind and now they can drive their vehicles peacefully without being scared at the sight of traffic police but they should follow all traffic norm when on road.

Great initiative by Bangalore Traffic Police and  we will look forward to many such people friendly initiatives in future too.

Importance of good phone cover and screen guard

 The craze for high end mobile phones is high amongst all of you but how many of us buy really good gear for our most loved possession. I doubt only a few of us. Reason we all want to flaunt our phones to others, especially the brand.

That’s the reason such phones don't have a good life reason, the screen of the phone will be damaged and it loses its sheen.

I have this habit of taking good care of my phone which has yielded me good returns. A recent incident has reaffirmed my faith in my habit.

I bought this phone almost a year ago and the first few things which I did while purchasing the phone was to buy a good phone cover other than the one provided by the company and a good quality tamper proof glass on the phone.

Last week I went to an unknown location on my bike using google maps. I had clamped my phone well on the phone holder installed in my bike. While going to the place it was fine but, on my way back the phone just flung in the air and fell on the road. I thought my phone was gone but to my surprise nothing like that happened because the hardened cover on the phone saved it from damage.

Prima facie I thought the screen would be broken looking at the condition of my outer screen guard. But when I came home  and checked the screen one more time, I was sure that there was no damage to the screen of the mobile but I was still dubious about it .

So, I took it to the same shop where I had put the screen guard last time. Last time when they had put the screen guard, I told them, don’t you feel it is expensive but this time I kept quiet, as my phone’s screen was safeguarded only because of that tough screen guard. I even told them about the incident and asked them to put good quality screen guard only. I don’t find it expensive because I have learned my lesson now.

So, if you also want to safeguard your phone and want to keep it new along with a good user experience. Then I think you should start buying a good phone cover and toughened screen guard for it.

Why people go blank while speaking in English?

I always say English is a beautiful language and if you love the language, it will love you back.

We all want to speak fluent English but some of us fumble or go blank either while taking to someone or during a presentation. There are multiple reasons for it, in some cases people know what they can do to enhance their communication skills but they don’t want to work on it

First reason - People are still not well versed with English words, which are joined together to form a sentence, secondly  the grammatical portion of English, hence people commit blunder while taking especially with tenses. The fear of not knowing the language take control on people, which in turn takes control on their mind and people start hating the language or avoid it all together.

Second reason -  People refrain from speaking in English else speak only when required or with a set people whom you are comfortable with. So, when you are speaking in front of people who are at par with you, they may not be correct your mistake and you will continue with it.

Some people don’t speak in English at all unless the situation arises and when they are asked to speak in English, they run out of words as well as their confidence as they haven’t used the language for long.

Third reason – People don’t put any effort to learn the language or to  speak in English language. This is done by 90% of the people, hence they lag behind.

Let’s see how we can overcome this problem

Firstly, brush your school’s grammar once again, this will help you to  commit less mistake while speaking and you will be able to learn new words also.

Secondly, try to speak in English with your friends and encourage them also speak in English only especially with you. When group of people is large then, they may come forward to correct each other mistakes and the initial inhibition of talking to someone in English will vanish over period of time. It will make you more confident to speak in English

English can’t be taught overnight, one to really work hard towards learning it. Daily try to spend 30 minutes to learn the language so that you can enhance your skills. 15 mins to read English newspaper, read slowly and carefully. Spend the next 15 minutes in listening to English news, sit down and listen to the news carefully. The benefit of both listening and reading is you will learn about sentence formation as well correct use of grammar in a sentence, how to pronounce certain words as well as get introduced to new words.

Because to speak fluent English people will need all these things.

The only reason people run of words is because their vocabulary in not strong and they don’t practice of the language. Reading and listening are the two ways through with you can enhance your vocabulary and try speak in English to people with your newly learned word. Before using any new word, pls cross check its meaning once, don’t use a word if you are unsure of its meaning.

So, when you start talking to people in English with confidence they might ignore your silly mistake and appreciate your effort in learning the language. But that doesn’t mean you stop learning English, the more you listen, read and speak, more fluent you will become in English.

Even I practice the same technique and spend an hour of my time in this exercise.  I speak to most of my friends in English only, baring a few. Sometimes when I make mistake, they correct me immediately.

I would request all of you to try the tips suggested by me to overcome your reluctance to talk in English. Pls share your thoughts in the comment section.

Doctor G - Movie Review

Finally, I got the opportunity to watch the movie Doctor G after it was released in OTT. And I just loved the movie, I wanted to watch it in the theatre but I couldn’t due to my busy schedule. So, the moment it was released on OTT I didn’t wait much and watched it the day it was released in OTT.

I had a great time watching this movie, full of entertainment, I just loved it. 

Movie revolves around Ayushmann Khurrana, who has got a medical seat in the gynaecology department, a seat which he hates the most. He is the only guy in the course as all his batch mates are female, which again adds fuel to the fire.

He meets Rakul Preet there with whom he befriends and they create a great pair at work. The biggest challenge in front of him in the gynaecology department is the dean of the department, which is Shefali Shah. She is a tough nut to crack.

While working in the department Ayushmann has to perform a lot of duties which are done by gynaecologists and all female patients want to be looked after by him only. Poor guy, here he must perform a task, which he hates the most but is an integral part of his area of study, what is that, for that you should watch the movie only. 

During the course of the movie an incident happens in Ayushmann Khurrana’s life to someone whom he had just acquainted with but that person has led an impact on this life.  That is the turning point of the movie because this is the time, when Ayushmann has to think and act like a gynaecologist if he wants to succeed in it. Will he able to succeed in that is needs to be seen in the movie

Movie is a complete family entertainer with some amazing performances. But I was impressed by the performance of Shefali Shah because I felt she was the dean of the department. The way she conducted classes for students, most important was the seriousness on her face, which she carried all throughout the movie.

I watched the movie on a breezy sunday, if you too want to enjoy your day with some laughter and fun then Doctor G is the movie for you.