कुवां

अरे इस सीने में अभी बोहोत प्यार बाकी हे
आ तू भी, प्यासी, तेरे लीये तोह काफी हे

अरे इस सीने में अभी बोहोत प्यार बाकी हे
तेरी त्रिश्ना मुजहे इस गहराई में भी महसुस हो रही हे
भले तुने माँगा न हो पर इस सीने में
प्यार का एक दरीया तेरे लिए बाकी हे

अरे इस सीने में अभी बोहोत प्यार बाकी हे
तेरी प्यास इस प्यार के लिये नहीं
कीसी खारे तालाब के लीये हे इस्सी बात का ग़म हे
तेरे लीये एक बूँद क्या पूरा समंदर हाजीर हे

अरे इस सीने में अभी बोहोत प्यार बाकी हे
तेरे पहले कीतने आये, ततेरे बाद कीतने आएंगे
कितनो ने ढेर सारा माँगा, कितनो ने सिर्फ चुल्लू भर
अब चाहता हूँ की वर्षा की तरह

कोई इस सूखे कुवें में भी प्यार भर जाये

Master of Cats

Dear The-Girl-I-Have-Never-Met,

I hope your boss is not as unhappy with you as you are with yourself. As always, my advice is the same, don't be too hard on yourself.

Being an Ivy League college and one of the best if not 'The Best' hospitality colleges in the world we tend to attract some pretty big names to deliver guest lectures on leadership. I had the opportunity to listen to Lee Pilsbury, a hugely successful entrepreneur with an empire worth billions of dollars. I like Mr. Pilsbury, he is a old tough cookie, extremely successful, single minded and above all arrogant as hell. I like arrogant ones. But the ones who have made it on their own. He was talking about managing people and how he used to be called the 'Golden Hammer' that the whole of Marriott used to know him by ( he loves that name ). How he would be harsh on the people around him, How he would weed out the non performers and make the ones willing to take the humiliation in their own stride to move up the corporate ladder. But when he became an entrepreneur, something dawned upon him. He was no longer leading a multi-national with almost unlimited resources. He had to make do with what he had. He had months of frustration trying to manage the non-motivated, under-payed and nearly talent or ambition less workforce he had in his small company.

One day, he went to visit his father in law ( a very successful corporate honcho himself.) They were sitting in their comfortable living room with Mr. Father-In-Law's pet cats swarming around the whole place. Apparently he had a lot of them. A cat hater himself Mr. Pilsbury was amused to see so many of them in one house. If you know anything about cats, they are not really the most obedient domestic animals around, something that drives a number of people up the wall. So looking at his son in laws expression the father-in-law says," Hey I love cats, they are the best pets to have around and I have the most obedient bunch around. Thats what makes them awesome." so young Lee goes,: Are you outta your mind? Cats ? Obedient ? Old age seems to be catching up with you."

The father in law chuckles expecting this exact reaction and says," Look here Lee," walks over to the door where a cat is just about to leap out of the cat door into the front lawn and says," Getta here you bitch." walks over to the food bowl left for the cats and there is another vicious black cat approaching it," Eat that!!!', Walks back to the front door where one of his favorite cat is scratching the door, opens the door and says." Where have you been? Get in here right now!!!'

All the cats had done exactly what he told them right? Thus the old man walks up to Lee and says," See, what did I tell ya!!!. They all follow my orders!!" The point of the whole story was. People act most of the times in a consistent way. Even inconsistent ones are consistent their inconsistencies. People do what they like to do. And people can only be pushed so far to do things that are not in their nature to do. Or sometimes people just don't see the world the way you do. But one has to live in a society that requires these people interaction on different levels, be it an organisation, a tiny office, your innocuous bhaji wala or your family. One needs to understand what people around him/her are going to do.

Coming back to the conversation on Whatsapp, your junior is incompetent, she does not take initiative. You have already tried to coach her and make her a better professional. If all else fails and her under-performance in consistent, it means she is just not cut out to make it big. I have no doubt that she can change her ways. But its a difficult task. As far as you are concerned, sometimes your harshness comes from a incompetencies, sometimes its just a magnified reflection of your own state of mind. If she can't perform don't expect her to. Just assign her work in small loads. Places where we work with people, our performance is judged on the performance of our teams. So tell the cat exactly what is in her nature to do. I hope this cheers you up a bit. You just need to believe in yourself.

Cheers

Nutee's

Kitchen Confidential Inspired

All things begin with something that is so emotionally charged that you know the strom is on the way and its going to fucking blow your pants away. So this is a new series I am thinking of writing. It is just an effort that would hopefully keep The-Girl-Have-Never-Met-But-Am-Head-Over-Heels-In-Love-With interested in me. Its something that hopefully I'll be more deligent about actually completing. So it starts with a solemn vow made over an email and here it is.

Dear The-Girl-Have-Never-Met-But-Am-Head-Over-Heels-In-Love-With,

It seems every time I talk to you, I run out of time more quickly than I run out of topics. The distance is something that gives me this sudden sense of urgency and a sense of you might slip away when I am not looking. Anyway, I am also taking this as a personal errand to get back to writing more often than I have in the past. It's perhaps a great way to document personal and cultural experiences. I think I have been rather fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit all these places and experience the local sights, sounds, foods and people at such close quarters. You can choose to humor it all and let it slide or reply and let me know what's happening at your end.

Over the years I have realized that the experiences positive or negative have deep rooted connections with your own state of mind. It is extremely difficult to remember those external factors that contribute in making those moments into memories, forever cherished or forever regretted. I'll try to join those dots that are molding my thoughts and with them the experiences that I go through.

Before I begin to narrate my daily-diary routine, I would like to put it down that this whole thing was actually inspired by Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I think as a hospitality professional one comes across a number of characters from all levels of the socio-economic strata, some from the backwaters of a lost part of the country where opportunities as sparse as the hope of change, some from such privileged backgrounds that abundance is the only experience they have ever experienced. However, all of these people in their paradoxical connectivity make the world around us such a wonderfully diverse place. I am trying to document those that I have casual acquaintance with and the one's who have a profound effect, those who you always saw in the corridors but never spoke to and those who became friends forever.

I am also trying to document the literature and art that opens those hidden windows that one finally derives a meaning of life from. Collectively this is the memoir of a compulsive traveler.

Cheers

Nutees

Adhuri Kavita ...

In palkon pe moti meine pehle nahi dekhe ...

in aanzhon ki roshni kabhi itni nahi zhalki,

is dil se baat ek muddat se ho rahi he,

is daud me aaj ek arse ke baad ruken he

Guru Mantra

Going on a different tangent from the original theme of this blog ( which was to rant away about things that i question) this post is about management.

The Master Strategist of the Indian History- Chanakya

Here are some of his golden rules. Read on.

1)"Learn from the mistakes of others... you can't live long enough to make them all yourselves!!"
2)"A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are screwed first."
3)"Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous."
4)"The biggest guru-mantra is: Never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you."

5)"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."
6)" Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."

7)"As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it."
8)"The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman."
9)"Once you start working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest."

10)"The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."
11)"God is not present in idols. Your feelings are your god. The soul is your temple."
12) "A man is great by deeds, not by birth."
13) "Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness."

‎14) "Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."
15) "Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person."
16) "Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth."

Me....

It seems life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. May be its just meant to be lived for the moment. May be it is something that needs to be planned meticulously so that each moment can be lived to the fullest. So they keep telling me. Me? I can't make up my mind. May be its just that I don't know when the fine balance is struck. I don't know when it's time to say enough. They say I am ambitious. They say I have no clue. They think I brilliant. They think I am a curse on this earth. Me ? I don't know whom to listen to.

They say being free weightless is the true measure of freedom. True nirvana is attained when one is free of all that holds the being to this world. Then they say that weight is not the worst thing to happen to our being. It brings us closer to the earth it brings us in contact with our root. Don't all lovers wish be to weighed down with their lovers body into a warm soft place of submission. Me ? I like to dominate too. I like to do so many things. Sometimes the problem of plenty is the worst curses that the humans were cursed with. The potential like the seven seas that cannot be conquered in one life time. When do we start? What do we do? Where do we end up? Whom do we take the journey with? So many questions that have no definitive answer. Me? I am in search of that answer.....

Aazaadiyan

Azzaadiyaan .....Freedom, a word, a thought an idea or an ideal. I remember half a life talking about my innate need for it. Although today when I sit down here to talk about it, i find my thoughts fairly clouded. Freedom .... what is it about it that makes half the middle east rise up in protest !! What defines it moulds it makes it so dear to us that the sacrifice of life seems like a small price to pay. Yet there seems to be more than just one kind of freedom and many a times the burning desire to attain it comes from some obscure oppression and denial of this right to act on ones free will. Is freedom that ? acting on ones free will ? that question brings to light what is free will in the first place ? I believe that freedom about choices. Having them even if you may not necessarily choose them or try out where each one takes you.

The theme to this blog originated in the music album of the Film "UDAAN", a brilliant take on the freedom and a choices. But what is it about freedom that makes it so necessary for us to attain. Be it the financial freedom that all youngsters are looking for so that they can go out party all night or be it political freedom that leads many misguided idealists to overthrow oppressive governments only to be replaced by someone worse. Its a open ended question everyone's free to answer it. What is freedom for you ? and why do you need it so much ??

Here's something to get the thoughts going ....