Move On....

There are times when you are down and you know that you are not at your best. What does one do in such times? I have tried multiple things and many have worked, many have not. 

I was very sad and de-motivated few days ago. I had planned to get something done and it was just not happening. Not that I was not able to do it, but it was dependent on someone else to do it. I was dealing with government officials and their reaction to everything I wanted was extremely slow. The official had probably decided not to work that day. I spent huge effort running around places and without knowing what exactly I was supposed to do. It was taking a lot of my office time and I was clueless as to what I should be doing. 

I was unable to concentrate and thus decided to go home and just be with family. My daughter had to be dropped to her gymnastic class along with her friends. I went along and left them over there. The weather was cool and pleasant and that already had started making me feel good. I decided to stay on to see if the weather would make me happy again. I continued to watch what was happening with the kids. 

The kids were asked to take a round on the jogging track. Five and six year old kids were trying to run and jump hard. Every small kid had his own style of running and none of them were very good at it. But they kept running. Some didn't move their hands at all; some move their hands faster than their overall speed. Kalindi was swinging only one hand while running. It did bring a smile on my face. But it did not get me out of my low. 

The gymnastic teacher called them and made them stand in a circle. They were asked to do various exercises. It’s so tough to be a teacher to small kids. Most of the children bothered in paying attention to you. They are in their own world just barley trying to follow the instructions, probably just to show their involvement in the sport. Their mind must out in their own world.

The teacher then asked them to start running with specific instructions. With every blow of the whistle they had to move forward, backward, towards the right, towards the left and then ahead to reach the other side of the park. What amazed me the most was that children fell down, got up again and started running. Every second child fell down when s/he was asked to run sideways. But all of them again got up and started running again. They had a funny posture even when they fell down. But they were not bothered about falling, it was fun for them. They laughed it out and were ready to move on. Kalindi also did the same. She stumbled but kept trying, kept running. 

My daughter and the kids taught me a lesson that day. A lesson to move on in life. Do not keep thinking about what you could not or are not able to achieve. Laugh it out and keep trying. Keep running; because a rolling stone gathers no moss. How true!

Life is full of ups and downs. However down you are, your only option is to look up and keep moving. 

Surprised, emotional and speechless

March and April 2011 were two months full of action. It all started with LearningMate's Sales meet and followed by the yearly cricket tournament. Surprising, I was a part of the winning team and had no contribution towards the win. But we won. The world cup was on. India was doing very well like the deserving favorites’. Then there was the organization picnic which was happening after 7 years. Unfortunately I was not a part of it.

With so many things happening, there were two things that happened in the last week of March and early week of April that struck me. In both the instances I was surprised, emotional and speechless.

On 29th March 2011, we received an email from our CEO that Atul Sabnis (one of the founder members) was partying ways with the company. For that moment when I read this, I could not react to the moment. It was news that made me standstill for a moment. I could not think or react to what I was reading. I had never in my dreams thought that Atul Sabnis would leave the organization. I had directly reported to Atul when I was in my early Project Management days and there were some invaluable lessons learnd from him.
The organization likes to associate with At LearningMate, the world is a classroom. For Atul, the world was his office. Wherever we met, wherever we sat, whatever we did, it was always to do with LearningMate and work. He truly installed this concept of “The world is your office” and you can work from anywhere. It was amazing. It was very different from the traditional 9 to 5 approach. It didn’t make a difference for him if we were in office or anywhere else, what he was interested to the core is if the specified work was completed or not. While many called it indiscipline, those who really were able to work with it, thought it to be complete independence.
As much as his thoughts, the culture he drove was very open and growth oriented. He never showed the tendency of hiding financial or project numbers from us. He was always keen on teaching new things. I will never forget the MS Word training that he gave us at the Vile Parle Office and the personalized MPP training to Sandeep (even though I was not a part of it). Atul was an amazing and very warm host when we visited him in London. It was fun to walk through the streets of London. Atul was like a father, always guiding us and taking utter care of us during our entire London trip helping us navigate through the complex roads and train networks. He will always be missed.

The India cricket team was doing great. We reached quarter finals and had to fight Australia, the defending champions. I watched the complete match at home and enjoyed the victory to my best. The thought was, if we can beat the best of teams we are going to be the champions.
Like most other Indians, Cricket is something that I eat drink and breathe. I was just seven years old when we had won the world cup. While I don’t clearly remember what had happened, but it was joy and celebrations all around. I don’t think I realized how it was to beat a team like West Indies, who was in the peak of their form and reorganization, I was sure that something unbelievable had happened. It was something magical. Kapil Dev became an icon for lifetime. And on 2^nd April 2011, history repeated itself. We all have been talking so much about how critical it is for Sachin to win a world cup and all his records and achievements are in vain if he does not win a world cup. And it did happen. We won the world cup again. Sachin won the world cup. His achievements did not go in vain. We all were so happy for him.

Both instances were a huge surprise for me since I never expected them. I was emotional when I heard both the news. While Atul’s new saddened me from inside, I was in tears when we won the World Cup. And I lacked the ability to react to them when I heard/saw/felt them. I was speechless.
One made me sad while the other made me very happy.

A New Beginning

Its 31st December 2008 today. The year will end tonight. It was not a good year for me. Its time to introspect, think and understand what needs improvement. Finally, while most of us just end talking it is time to ACT.

I was successful in my new year resolution in 2008 about not having the office-made tea. The best part of sticking to the resolution was that I did not tell anyone that I had made this resolution. I just MADE it succeed.

2009 will be a new year, a new beginning, new thoughts, new heights to achieve. I need a lot of motivation within to ensure that I succeed in my day to day activities and thus in life.

Yet to decide on the resolutions around this though.......

My Car

For all those who read my first blog poem "I dream", this is an extension to it.

I finally bought a car on the 12th of July 2007. It was surely a dream come true. While this dream is fulfilled, it has brought along to life lot more dreams that I now want to fulfill.

It’s a vicious circle you see...

Ram Shankar Nikumbh

Recently I saw the Darsheel/Aamir starred Taare Zameen Par. It is surely a fantastic film. The first impression from the trailers was that it is a children's film. So, I took Kalindi (my daughter) to view it. This is her first movie on the silver screen. The film talks in lengths about the relationship that a mother holds with her son. Aamir has been successful in getting tears in most of the parents’ eyes with his well crafted direction.

There was a something common in this story and what I and my school mates have experienced. Ram Shankar Nikumbh, a drawing teacher goes out of his ways to help Ishaan come out of the worst mental trauma that he is going through. I very much remembered our drawing teacher Mr. A. Golandaz when I was watching Aamir playing that character. Attending Golandaz sir's drawing classes was a treat for us. He had an amazing tact of mixing humor while teaching and thus making the class lively. Personally, for me, drawing was not something that I was good at. Neither did I get much fun in painting or throwing colors on the canvas. It made absolutely no sense to me at times. But that never made me bored of the fun filled lectures. With his inspiration, I have in fact created some good (as per my standards ;) ) still drawings.

We also saw Golandaz Sir helping a lot of students getting out of their childhood fears. He not only taught us to draw but also helped us to be better human beings, one of the most basic aspect that a teacher should teach his/her students. He is around 75 now. We never got to know anything about his personal life. I recently came to know that he never got married and lived his life to serve his mother. Today he spends most of his time in a small temple at Solapur serving the needy.

Are all drawing teachers so good? Or is it just a coincidence?

Rajmachi - Gaining Height

It was 5.40 am on a Saturday morning and we were excitedly waiting for the last person to join in with us. That was the obvious late comer – Sumukh Byndoor. There were 25 people waiting for Sumukh so that we could board the 5.58 am local train leaving Dadar to Karjat. All were bang on time due to the excellent coordination that we had amongst ourselves. The excel sheet print with mobile numbers of all trekkers was the most handy tool used to get this done. Everyone was much excited as one thing that we knew for sure that we were together going to have a lot of fun through out the day. This was the first time in my life that I had seen such an overwhelming response from 42 people from the organization to join us for a difficult task to complete that too without too much of motivational talks or pushes. It was like a chain reaction that had triggered through all that made us so much excited to go out for a Trek to Rajmachi.

I have read of a Quote by Henry Drummond on Achievements that states “Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can”. As we move ahead in life, we always keep on testing our abilities in various areas of life to learn and achieve more. That comes naturally to someone who is ambitious and wants to grow and reach great heights. Height has different definitions. At times it is just the physical measure of length but at times it can also be counted as the achievement you gain. Rajmachi trek for me was a transition from the first definition to the later. And I surely enjoyed this experience.

We reached the foot of the fort at around 9.00 am. With a vada pav (Indian Burger) and cutting tea, the group was charged to climb. We caught a 60 year old guide who was enough to set fire in the belly of all those who thought that they might not be able to reach the heights. Everyone started walking at a fast pace. We first had to walk through the farms and plain green lands. And while we moved ahead, we slowly started looking at what the target was. As we looked upward, we just saw a bunch of clouds surrounded by walls that looked like a fort. It was difficult though to imagine that it was the fort that we had thought of conquering that day. Some of us were singing, some shouting, some busy clicking photographs, some just gazing the beauty of the mountains that is just not visible in the busy city areas. The air was too fresh for us to breathe and we obviously had started breathing hard after sometime. The difficult part of the trek had started. The group that had come together had slowly started breaking into smaller groups of abilities. Every group had 1-2 stronger members and 3-4 weaker members. As we climbed upwards, we started feeling the obvious difficulty that one has to achieve those great heights.

While all of us climbed up with more or less effort, I would surely like to mention names like Smita, her husband Gopal, Sumukh, Supriya Naik, Ghazala, Jessi Patel, Rashida and Yogesh Hankare who did put in a lot of efforts and kept themselves highly motivated to complete the trek with all the physical wear and tear that they went through. The upward journey came to a hault after 4 and half hours when we reached the top. A small village greeting us with drizzle of rain, wonderful food that one would die to eat was something that was very exciting and encouraging that too especially after such a tiring journey.

For some it was climbing the top that was the difficult part and for some it was difficult to come down. It took us around 4 and half hours more to come down. It had slowly started getting dark as we got down. Thankfully few of us had our mobiles that could be used as a torch and that was the only source of light for us. We reached the foot of the mountain back by 7.00 pm. When we looked back up, no one was ready to believe the fact that we had climbed this height and came back too.

We had climbed 3200 ft and had come down from the same height. It took us around 9 hours of tireless effort to reach the top and then come back down. It was a real adventure with all the fun, excitement, breath taking views, wonderful food, overcoming all obstacles that were coming our way. Like executing a difficult project, something very similar to what we do everyday but just by sitting our chairs and using our keyboards. Here it was a test of our physical capabilities and mental strengths. It was about achieving the physical height with the mental height. Few with who I was spoke while climbing and coming down kept saying that he/she would be least interested in coming along the next time. When I asked the same question the next day, the same people said “I am ready”. The height of achievement had won over the physical height that they were afraid of.

Check the link to view our journey in pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/shashankabhyankar/

Woh kaagaz ki kashti, woh baarish ka pani...

I received this as a forward in my mailbox. I really liked it and thought of storing it somewhere. This is the best place to store it. Here it is....

When gulli-danda and kanche (marbles) were more
popular than cricket ...
When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy),
chhepan-chhepai and pitthoo anytime ...
When we desperately waited for 'yeh jo hai jindagi'
...
When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, dada daadi ki
kahaniyaan were so fulfilling ...
When there was just one tv in every five houses and
When bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were
worrying if papas will get back into the train in time
or not when they were getting down at stations to fill
up the water bottle ...
When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for
the 'yeh jo hai jindagi' day ...
When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and
sweets and moms seeking our help whi! le preparing them
...
When Maths teachers were not worried of our mummys and
papas while slapping/beating us ...
When we were exchanging comics and stamps and
chacha-chaudaris and billus were our heroes ...
When we were in nanihaals every summer and loved
flying kites and plucking and eating unripe mangoes
and leechis ...
When one movie every Sunday evening on television was
more than asked for and 'ek do teen chaar' and
'Rajni' inspired us ...
When 50 paisa meant at least 10 toffees ...
When left over pages of the last years notebooks were
used for rough work or even fair work ...
When 'chelpark' and 'natraaj' were encouraged against
'reynolds and family' ...
When the first rain meant getting drenched and playing
in water and mud and making 'kaagaj ki kishtis' ...
When there were no phones to tell friends that we will
be at their homes at six in the evening ...
When our parents always had 15 paise blue colored
'antardesis' and 5 paise machli wale stamps at home
...
When we remembered tens of jokes and were not finding
'ice-cream and papa' type jokes foolish enough to stop
us from laughing ...
When we were not seeing patakhes on Diwalis and
gulaals on Holis as air and noise polluting or
allergic agents ...
the list can be endless ...
on the serious note I would like to summarise with ...
When we were using our hearts more than our brains,
even for scientifically brainy activities like
'thinking' and 'deciding' ...
When we were crying and laughing more often, more
openly and more sincerily ...
When we were enjoying our present more than worrying
about our future ...
When being emotional was not synonymous to being weak
...
When sharing worries and happinesses didnt mean
getting vulnerable to the listener ...
When blacks and whites were the favourite colors
! instead of greys ...
When journeys also were important and not just the
destinations ...
When life was a passenger's sleeper giving enough time
and opportunity to enjoy the sceneries from its open
and transparent glass windows instead of some
superfast's second ac with its curtained, closed and
dark windows ...
I really miss .. do u?

I dream...

One day I wanna buy a car,
And travel along very very far...

Take my parents with me
for they are the reason to be...
They showed the right and wrong,
And the courage to move along.....

One day I wanna buy a car,
And travel along very very far...

Friends, whom we love and fight,
with them everything is right...
Roam around with them to places,
And view the world with many a faces...

One day I wanna buy a car,
And travel along very very far...

The front seat is reserved,
It is for the only one who deserved,
Yes she is my wife,
She is the one who has made my life...

One day I wanna buy a car,
And travel along very very far...

Still traveling on the bike,
My heart calls, I need a hike,
Its time to shift from two to four,
And move ahead to achieve more...