Fun Reloaded @ Goa

Eight friends, four days and the beautiful beach around. It’s bound to be a fun filled journey that all we could imagine. This was one of the most awaited journeys for us since we started our career.

The excitement began with an email to plan for a trip and all of us unanimously selected Goa as our Christmas holiday destination. There were enough volunteers to take the responsibility to book a place to stay and travel. In a matter of a week everything was set and we were just waiting for the day to come. In between these days of excitement few us were spending more time on Google than our work so that we can make our stay more eventful from finding out different things like bike on rent, beaches, fort, shopping places, pub and restaurant in and around Goa.
Finally we boarded the “Rani Chennama” to Londa junction and from Londa, it’s a three hours drive to Calangute through the ghats. Meanwhile our other friends also reached the place from Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad.


Day-1
Some of us were meeting after a very long time may be like three to four years or more.
We all are changed human beings only in terms shape and size but the fun; wickedness and the humour are still the same. It didn’t really take much time for us to get ready and in a matter of an hour we were at the Baga Beach to rock the party.
The ride on a banana boat, cutting though the high waves of Arabian Sea on a Jet Ski we were up above the sky through Parasailing. It was an awesomest, bestest and bravest attempt made by all of us and a splendid experience for life time.
The virtual necklace formed by the lights of shacks at Baga Beach was beautiful. Food, fun and loud music were on the menu for the night we spent at Baga.



Day-2
The day started with a morning walk on the street of Calangute. By noon we were enjoying the scenic beauty of Anjuna Beach. Few were enjoying time while sea water touching their bare bodies & some enjoying their drinks lying on cot. The view of sunset at Anjuna was marvellous. It was a day to relax without much hard work. The day came to an end and we were back to the hotel to plan our next outing.






Day-3
A drive of 35 kilometres, and trek to see the fort was quite exhausting. The incredible view of the sea and the morgin beach from fort on top of a hill compensated our efforts and we were rejuvenated for our next drive to Arambol Beach. We spent the rest of the days relaxing at Arambol beach with some great massage and food.
This is just an end of the day but night was even more exciting for few of us as we spent almost the whole night at Baga beach and on the street of Calangute; watching some dramatic scenes created by other tourists and few contribution made by our own friends.

Day-4
This is the day to depart; we all knew this may be our last trip together as Bachelors. During the lunch it was not just the food which kept us engaged but the laughter and past memories which added spices to it. We all thoroughly enjoyed our stay; neither the ailing knee nor the bad hangover stopped us from that.


We all know we can go to thousand other places and thousand times to the same place in our life but the time we spent at Goa together will never back. The one thing which was common in all of us that we all were high by the ‘SPIRIT’; yes it was the spirit of friendship and togetherness. I thank the almighty and wish for many such quality time with some great friends .

The current issues of Talent Acquisition and Retention- A Recruiter’s point of view.

Organizations always look for an employee who is talented, loyal, and scalable. As they get the talent they use it and take the best of best out of him/her. We all have experienced a traumatic economic downturn and now we are just recovering from it slowly. During the economic downturn many talented employees were asked to leave and certain cases many organization could not keep their talent due to lack of projects and financial support. There were only very few organization who could hold their best talent even during this slowdown. But for certain organization it was an opportunity to cut down their operational cost and show economic down turn as an easy excuse.

Now time has changed and economy is strengthening across the globe slowly but steadily. Opportunities are flowing in for every organization but it’s not going to be an easy task to encash those opportunities as they have already lost many talented employees during the recession.

So now what’s next? Go on acquire new talent. Every organization is on a hiring spree from the same pool of talent. Each candidate has an alternate choice everyday with better position and better compensation. Companies are competing with each other by counter offering candidates. It has become a tough task for every Talent Acquisition team of each organization as the offer decline ratio has gone up especially when candidates are backing out on the date of joining. And the whole issue is a headache as employee retention has become even tougher task.
Apart from offer decline and interview back out the organization also face another problem which is called ‘”wrong hire’’. As I mentioned earlier due to loads of work and opportunity companies are in a hiring spree as each day they lose lots of money so there is a pressure to get somebody as quick as possible. During this process we make compromises and hire some people who seem to be a right match but actually they are not. They may not have exact or right skill or right attitude for our organization. So as we realise this we have to let go them but during this process we lose money, effort and the most precious thing which is time.

I understand it’s not easy to keep all your best talent always with you and also not easy to attract all the best talents towards you. I may not have a best possible solution for this but I have some precautions which I think will help us to retain some of our talent.


• Understand every employee is an individual they are just not a resource, they have their own objective to achieve in their life and make them feel that we value their talent and they do add value to the organization.

• Set a right and realistic target for them aligning with the organizational goal where they can see themselves growing along with the organization.

• Identify their talent and delegate similar work and make them grow from an individual contributor or from a team member to second line leader.

• Appreciate and reward their right approach and work, and train them in the areas where the lack rather than criticising them.

We can add some more point but my point is very clear that an organization is as good as its employees are.

Supremacy

In this modern competitive world where we have more competitors and less friend. We all have access to more and more information and always try to compete and prove our supremacy over each other; be it you or me or between different nations. Even we all are inheriting these attributes to our next generation to compare and compete but during this process we have almost forgotten the basic principle of life like humbleness and politeness.

Competitiveness is always good as long as it’s healthy but if it generates bitterness and rivalry then it is harmful for the society and for each individual. The person who is rich with money or power is not utilising them for the benefit of the society rather they show case their strength by misutilising it on poor and weaker ones. I believe a nation is as good as its people are. Look at today’s world the nation who is rich with information, military power, nuclear power they try to rule the world and prove their supremacy on the other and what do you think the other nations do? They compete silently; they spend billions and try enabling them with similar or more power whereas the same money could have utilised for the betterment of the society, through education and medical research. There are enough people around the globe who do not have access to the basic things of life like food, shelter and education.

Unhealthy competition always leads to bitterness and violence. And we all know violence cannot be a solution of any matter. Let’s be patient and listen to others take their knowledge and wisdom and share ours with them. Compete to prosper and add something for the benefit of the planet and humanity not to destroy it. This world would definitely be a better place to live if we all be kind towards others. Let’s be little more patient and kind than what we actually are and this is will definitely benefit not only others but us as well.

Happiness

Happiness/Anand/Sukh/Khushi? According to wikipedia definition “Happiness is a state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure”.

Happiness varies from person to person, for some it may be through acquiring more wealth; for others it may be through having good friendship. Happiness can be materialistic even it can be spiritual. A person’s happiness varies from time to time, minute to minute, it all depends upon the fulfillment of his/her desire at that point in time; and the choice one makes.

Before proceeding further on my thoughts about Happiness what it means to me, I would like to refer the speech of A.R.Rehman while he received his first Oscar award.

“All my life I had a choice between love & hate; I chose love so I am here”
A.R. Rehman

I believe no matters what life brings for us, we always have the choice. So better I accept it gracefully and be Happy, or else there is nothing other than sadness and sorrows. There is no point to be worried either about the past which has already gone or about the future which we have not seen. What we have is the present and there are lots and lots of little things in front of us which can make us happy.

Life is more of a reflection of what we are; it will always give back what we have given to it. So I shall better choose to be happy and spread happiness all around so that I will get the same in return. Happiness is very contagious, if I am happy then only I can spread it to my family, friends, neighbors, and my colleagues.

I believe getting happiness is the ultimate aim of human life and we can get it only through being honest to ourselves, and doing what we like to do because we all know life is unpredictable and uncertain so why should I spoil this time being unhappy.

So let’s make this life little simple and easier and try to realize the happiness around us and make this planet earth a better place to live in by spreading the happiness.

Be Happy.

Ashish.

N:B: Image courtesy "Google Images".

Lesson from Cheese.

I read a book called Who Moved My Cheese-An amazing way to deal with change in your work and life, by Dr. Spencer Johnson. After reading this book I have gathered few thoughts which I am just trying put it over here.

Dr.Spencer has explained each fact in a very nice way with the use of simple language, so that one person can relate himself with the given example instantly. It describes how we run for success and once we get it then we do not put much effort to sustain that. So later on when we loose the same comfortable plot, we also loose our confidence to start from the scratch because we fear for failure.

The book explains how we become comfortable with our day to day life and do not notice the small changes which are happening around, but those small changes eventually lead us to a different situation in a period of time. We scream, we shout due to these unexpected changes, but the fact is that, the change did not happen overnight, it happened gradually.

It explains that there are people who notice the small changes in their lives and always prepared for the situation by putting constant effort rather than being arrogant towards the change. There is another set of people who accept the change and gather their confidence and then try to move on by their small but sincere effort. But there are certain set of people who always take themselves so seriously, that’s the reason they become arrogant towards the change rather than accepting it.

They always think why this happen to them, how it could happen to them and so on…. . These sort of thoughts never help anyone rather you start loosing your confidence.

We all know change is inevitable, so it’s always better to notice the small changes in our lives and accept it. Change happens for something good; it helps us to always being hands on in our life to tackle any critical situation. It keeps us alive and active mentally and physically. Change always acts as a catalyst to achieve something new and better.

Let me give a small example, when parents put their kids in school for the first time, the child does not like to go because s/he does not want this change in his/her life but later on when s/he stared making friends, then the likeness to school and friends stared increasing and then the parents don’t push them to go to school.

Be it a child or an adult we all feel very comfortable with our lives the way its running and do not want any changes in that, if any changes happens we start protesting it. But by protesting we can not stop the changes happening around us in each second, so it’s always better to notice the small changes, accept it gracefully and prepare for the future.

Moral of the book is, do not take yourself so seriously and enjoy the life by simply accepting the change.

With Regards,

Ashish

Random thoughts; over politics.

The final phase of voting is getting over and so is the campaigning of our politicians. These guys have been literally busy campaigning in multiple locations in a single day, wooing voters through there influential speech and commitment for the future. There are 8070 candidates contesting in different constituencies across the nation and they have their own way of reaching out to the voters to convince them.

So I am trying to discuss about the most sought after manifesto of top two parties of this general election 2009.

A: I’ll revive the economy within 100 days. –Dr.Manmohan Singh

The person who made this statement, ofcourse he knows his strength and so if he comes back to power then he will take care this issue. But my question why not now? Why there is an if clause?
We know his caliber, he can do this but why he has not done it till now?

He is one of the most respected & intelligent politician of this country then can’t he help this country to come out of this economic slump. Is politics only mean to serve your party not the nation?

We all respect him & trust him so he should help this country without putting this sort of conditions. Hope he will realize.

B: We will bring back black money from stashed abroad. -BJP

This is another highlighted agenda of a most powerful party of this country which was earlier led by one of the most dynamic leader of this era. We have seen success and failure hand in hand during their tenure. We can pride for Pokharan & Kargil but we are also disheartened by issues like Kandhara

My question to them is why they did not try this earlier to bring that black money from the foreign banks? Why they are making it a clause that if the voters will help them to win this time then only they will do this?

When they will realize?

There are many agendas, many manifestoes but all just to attract the voters. Election over so is the commitment.

Experiences awesome & horrific!!!! (A trip to Bandipur)

It was end of Jan this year when one of my friend came from Dubai. It was a nice feeling to meet a friend after long time. He had already spent his vacation at his home and visiting various relatives’ places so he had only few days left to spend some time with us. So all we met at one of our friends place then he quickly offered to sponsor a party along with a trip. As it was a free party all of us adjusted our schedules to get ready for this, and planned it for the very next Saturday to Bandipur National Park. Only two days was left for this but still we all managed it well, hired a Toyota Qualis, book the resort out there through one common friend. Few of our friends from Bangalore one came from Chennai and all of us started our journey on Saturday noon.

All were very happy meeting each other and a trip after a very long time. As soon as we crossed the Bangalore territory our pilot (Cab driver) parked the cab near a restaurant/dhaba (Still confused what was that) for lunch. None of us were really hungry, but as he has already parked it so we all went inside and after 15 minutes of brainstorming we ordered few items. We quickly finished our lunch as it was pathetic and jumped inside the cab. As we just moved from this restaurant after a few kilometers we were stuck in a traffic signal and the mean time one big truck touched the cab’s back light, it was just a little touch (Jore ka jhatka dhire se laga). Nothing actually happened either to us or to the cab but our Mr driver started shouting at the truck driver on the middle of the road and demanded some amount to get a new light. Ohh let me tell you it was a big drama which went on there for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Somehow they themselves settled it and we moved from that place. Now the most interesting part of our journey started. I think after this heavy word war with that truck driver this fellow (our cab driver) was literally angry so he started showing through his driving skills (err……………It really kills ….). We all have experiences of traveling very long distance places through cabs but I am sure this was most horrific experience all we gained. I think this driver was forgotten that he
Was driving a qualis on Bangalore-Mysore expressway not a Ferrari on F1 track. The way he was overtaking each vehicles we all thought this is gonna be our last day. Anyway somehow we managed ourselves and reached near Bandipur with very less stops this time other than just to get some cold drinks and snacks for the evening party.

By the time we reached near Deer valley resort, Sun was approaching towards west so climate was getting little dark, colder and windy. Got a nice warm welcome from the resort folks followed with some hot masala tea and onion pakodas. Didn’t waste much time started taking few snaps nearby and mean time these folks arranged an open place and fire for the party. Within few minutes party started with three cheers to the sponsor and to all of us and to our friendship. Party went on for a very long time; no one was turning up for the dinner even after several reminders as we have already belted some heavy snacks in the evening. Some were drowsy, some lazy, and few were still busy in their pointless conversation. It was late mid night we planned to go on a walk, even though the resort was inside the jungle but after having few shots of black label everyone was courageous enough to pursue this plan and this was just to see that the blinking light on a distance was a wolf’s eye or actually a light. Anyway we went on a walk for few meters and came back but the discussion went on till next day morning.
Day2 started very early in morning around 5 ‘o’ clock with a plan to go for safari but we aborted the plan later on as we did not get the govt.permission. So went for trekking after a heavy breakfast with local guide. Spent some time inside the jungle, came back had lunch and again gathered some courage to sit inside the cab but this time he was looking much more relaxed and it reflected in his driving also.

So at last we reached our place safely without much experience of roller coaster ride at least on our way back. Awesome experience of the place, wonderful time with friends.

With Love,
Ashu