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