Story of a Cute Little Boy

There was this cute little boy who loved climbing the tress.
He loved the mango, pomegranate and guava tree in the backyard of the house. He also loved the guava tree in the neighbor’s house ;)
There was one ‘keekar ka ped’ in a public garden. With a long stick in his hand, he used to beat the tree to get some nice red keekar.
The ripening season of guava was supposed to be the most enjoyable time for him. He could find guavas like nobody else could. With a proud smile he would show the guavas fetched by him, and all the family members patting his back for the heroic act of his to get those guavas.
There was a pomegranate tree as well in the backyard. It used to give deep red fruits, but was not seedless. Still, this little boy was so passionate about those pomegranates.

Sometime later, a lemon plant was planted in the backyard. He waited for the lemons to come…like a madly in love boyfriend would wait for her girlfriend. But lemon did not come. Year passed by…but no lemon. All hopes crashed.
Then one fine day, he saw a lemon…a very big lemon. He felt so happy, and took it to his chachi n badi mummy. All patted his back.

His grandpa had a job in a college which was little far away from home. Every weekend the boy’s mom, dad, his brother and the boy went to meet his grandpa. There was something about this meeting which made the boy very excited. Yes…u guessed it right. There were few guava trees in the hostel campus which made it compulsory for him not to miss any of those visits to grandpa.

He does not remember anything else about his wife’s house he visited during childhood other than- there was a guava tree in the backyard, and nobody allowed him to pluck fruits from it.

Those were his childhood days...when there was no worry, no tension, no responsibilities. Generaly people tend to change with time, they loose focus on their childhood dreamz because of the pressure from various directions.
Years passed by, this child became a young lad, then a young man...but his love for tree and nature remained intact. Today also, the excitement on his face when he sees fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, rain, cool weather is incomparable to anything else in the world.
Oops!! How could I miss this. Yeah…that excitement does get doubles when those fresh vegetables are cut and cooked, and it gets tripled if he himself gets to cook it :)

It's Different!!!

Today we had a 'meet' with our 'CEO'. The event is called 'Directions-09'
Aftereffects on me: Vineet Naiyar simply rocks!!! and so does HCL :)

It started with a recording...beautifully Vineet had told about what we have achieved in last year, what should be our strategy for the next year and how an HCLite can make a difference. It was a very inspiring and motivating video. Then.....
Then.....
Then..
Loud Music: 'Dekho...dekho...hai shaam badi deewani, dheere...dheere...ban jaye naa koi kahani' and then...it was him...dancing among the HCLities...moving all around the hall, trying to reach every one. People were clapping, shouting, whistling...this i feel was the best moment i have spent in HCL during my 2 years of journey.
Music stops. He talks.
'Did you Njoy???'
'Yeeeeeeeeeesssssss!!!!'
'Did you like my dance?' ;)
'Once more, once more'
'Ok! but you will have to dance with me'
Again, loud Music...people leaving their seats and rushing to him...every HCLite had a broad smile on their face.
Music stops. Everybody back to seat.
Vineet: I felt like ppl got hold of my ass :D
Everybody laughing!!!
Vineet: Do you know what happened last night?
Murmurs of Yes, yes, yes!!
Vinet: 'Oh my, how do you know that Mallika Sherawat was in my room last night?? Mind your own business.' and he laughs
Everybody again starts laughing.
Wow!!! it was so wonderful.

After getting everybody in a good and energetic mood,he starts talking. He talks about video. Discussions over the beautiful thoughts he had presented. .(Although they are worth mentioning, but wont elaborate here.)
What we like, what we dint like..everybody is free to speak. And then comes the most interesting part: QnA session...where anybody and everybody can ask him any question...even dirty questions (His sense of humour is awsome)
It went on for around 2 hours...our CEO, with us, for us, ready to talk, ready to share, ready to answer, ready to admit and share his mistakes, make others learn from them.
Good news were shared, bad news were also not left behind. Still, those few hours were really the WOW hours for all HCLites.

Who would have ever thought that employees will have the strategy planning told not by their managers and manager of managers...but directly from CEO?
Who would have ever thought that CEO will come in person to talk and share with you?
Who would have ever thought that your CEO would be interested in talking to you?
:) -> This is the only answer i can think of right now to all these questions.
Thanks Vineet!

(P.S.: Sorry for not covering the excellent topics discussed in presentation. Will probably write another blog on it ;))

How many times…Actually???

I am asking for your forgiveness for all hurts caused by me knowingly or unknowingly.
It is just possible that your heart may have been hurt by my deeds or omissions,
I could not do as per your expectations or for any other known or unknown reason,
I beg heartily Khamatkhamna by my action, words or thoughts to you,
please forgive me.

Michhami Dukkdam!!!

It’s a general trend among all jains to ask for forgiveness from others and to forgive others for their misdeeds on the pavan avsar of Samvatsari…the last day of Paryushan. We have been saying ‘Khamat Khamna’, ‘Aapne Khmaun’, ‘Michhami Dukkadam’, ‘gat varsh jaane anjaane, mann, vachan ya kaya se agar hamare karan aapka dil dukha ho to hum aapko khamate hain.’
I feel, whenever we know that something has been wrong some where, or we have hurt somebody, we immediately apologize, but kabhi anjane me galti hoti hai...we don’t get a chance to say sorry...because we don’t even realize ki kaise humne kisiko hurt kar diya...
And this serene occasion gives us a chance to make other people know, that we don’t want to hurt anybody, and in case unknowingly we have done so, then please forgive us.

But these I feel are mere thoughts and rituals. How many people take this to be a serious business? We say sorry to mom and dad and dada and dadai, nana, nani…etc etc…but how many times do we say soory to those with whom our relationships have been spoiled? How many times do we take pain to actually forgive somebody who has done wrong to us?