urban buffaloes

மாநகர  எருமைகள்

இயர்போனால்  காதடைத்து
புறச்சூழல் பிரக்ஞை அற்று
முற்றும்  துறந்தவை  போல்
மோன  நிலையில்
தலையாட்டலுடன்

மாநகர  எருமை
அதும்போக்கில்
தெருவை  அடைத்துக்
கடக்குது ..


தலை  தொங்கப்போட்டு
செல்போன்  திரையில்
விரல் விளையாட்டு

நடுத்தெருவொ,
விரைவு  ரயிலடியோ ..
மாநகர  எருமைகளுக்கு
சமூக  வலைதளங்களில்
அடுத்த  கணம்
உலகம்
முடியும்  முன்
லைக்கும் ஷாரும்
வாங்கணும் ..

விரையும்  வாகனங்கள்
விலகிச்  செல்லும்
வசை மொழிகள்
ஆரன் வழியே
வழிய  விட்டு ..

மாநகர  எருமைகளே!
கூகிள்  கிளாஸ்  ஒன்று
வருதாம் .

மேற்  குத்திய  விழிகளுடன்
ok google என்றியம்பி
இரு  கால்  எருமைகள்
தலைகுப்புற  விழும்  முன் ..

அய்யா  கூகுளே !
சற்றே  அவதானியுங்கள்.

உடைந்த முன்பல்லும்
நசுங்கிய  பிட்டமுடன்
எருமைகள்  அவதரிக்கும்  முன்
சாலை  கடக்கும்  app
ஒன்றும்
விரைவில் கொண்டு  வாரும் .. 

Habit of Behaviorrors

During one of the early morning flights out of Mumbai, There was a huge queue at the check-in counter of the budget airlines, on which I was traveling.

On enquiring, I was told by the Airlines staff that the systems are down. Hence, there will be delay in checking in.

“Systems down? How is this possible?” was the first thing popped up in my mind.

This note is exactly what went through my mind, and what I observed during the waiting period in the queue.

1. BEHAVIORROR

Behaviorror is the behavior of errors.

Any system to fail completely needs to have the errors/mistakes/defects repeated consistently over a period of time. The errors/mistakes/defects are often over looked, not observed, not monitored, not rectified and the compounding effect of it results in total systemic failure.

I am sure any airline MUST have sufficient redundancies at the infrastructure level – hardware, software, networking and all the connecting dots in between.

If things still fail, then the systems/processes created to ensure a high availability environment is clearly not adequate.

In the highly competitive airlines industry, it clearly leads to customers dissatisfaction and loyalty attrition. And gain of customers to the competition. Double whammy!

A large system will not crumble, with just one or two errors. It takes a whole lot of time and repetitions for the systems to degrade and finally collapse.

Remember the Titanic? It did not sink like stone in water. It took really lot of time for the water power to over come the forces of buoyancy of the ship.

What safe guards does the management create to watch for errors happening consistently as a behavior?

Does the airline management have the mechanism in place to ‘see’ and ‘observe’ behaviorrors?

2. "Tell me Jack – what do you do?”

The above line is how Dennis Hopper taunts Keanu Reaves in the movie “Speed”.

When the systems were down, the staff members were all tensed up. Each counter, had a queue depth of 10-12 passengers.

The senior staffers were firing instructions to the young counter staff.

Much of the counter staff looked fresh in the job and they did not exhibit confidence. They did not have eye contact with the customers. Instead they were just staring at their console screens. The smile was forgotten!

Did the airline prepare their employees for such eventualities? I bet, no!

If they had been trained, then the employees would have handled the problems with confidence – as stated in their Standard Operating Plan manual.

Even if they were trained, it had not been reinforced in to their behavior, while responding to such crunch situations.

Net result, unsmiling, grim and anxious employees who broke every rule of their service manual – an obvious behaviorror.

3. Course Correction – not only for pilots

If things are going right, who is the one in the hierarchy looks out for potential problems? Who foresees problems, before they happen? The Early Warning Signalist - the lead indicator?

Who plans for the contingencies - “what-if” scenarios and builds the Standard Operating Procedures accordingly to handle any kind of foreseeable problem?

Were they created by a non-descript person, seen as a theoretician who was never accepted by the ‘so-called practical ones’ in the Operations and Customer Service teams?

Was there a mechanism built for collective learning – with inputs from the field?

Any organization, whatever its vintage, in an ever changing marketplace, has to build in mechanism to cope with change – and course correct themselves.

This will ensure, transitions are responded with agility and in a much smoother manner.

Outdated and stiffer rules that has lost relevance also result in a behaviorror called “Dinosaurism” – collectively marching towards extinction.

4. Cultural conditioning that accepts change

That brought up the question - did the organization promote an open culture to accept ideas for improvisation from any where in the ranks - More so from the customer facing employees?

Because, the process what they followed when systems were down, were not smart enough.

The airline resorted to free seating. Even for customers who had pre-booked their seats through Tele/Web check-in, were denied at the boarding point.

I could see lot of frequent flyers, grumbling and visibly dissatisfied.

Thankfully none of the customers were in a mood to raise voice or fight.


5. What could the airline do?

1. Failure proofing operations with the participation of all the departments
2. Re-train employees in handling crunch situations.
3. Standardize scripts to handle customers at the time of failures.
4. Empower employees to take decisions appropriate to their level of hierarchy. A senior employee should not interfere in junior level decisions and vice versa. There should be clear demarcation of who takes what decisions at every level of hierarchy, when responding to crisis and it should be weaved into their SOP Manual.

The boarding was delayed by over 30 minutes. Consequentially, the flight push back and the arrival at the destination were delayed by over 40 minutes.

The incident *spiced* up the grey cells, to write it up for everyone’s benefit.

The views in this article are strictly the personal opinion of the author

பாரத கனா

பாரத கனா

வளைகோல் வலுவிழந்து
ஒரு குளிர்கால  இரவின்
உஷ்ணத்திற்கு உணவானது.

புயலென ஓடிய காலணிகள்
தேய்ந்து தூக்கி
எறிந்தாயிற்று!

ஆட்டத்தில்
 குடம் குடமாய்
வியர்வை உறிஞ்சிய
ஆடைகள் இற்றுப் போயின!

தேசிய விளையாட்டில்
சாதனைகள் பல படைத்த
தாத்தா தூசுப்
போர்வையின் பின்
கிரிக்கட்டு  விளையாடும்
குழந்தைகளை
இமைக்காது பார்க்கிறார்

மெதுவே
காற்றில் ஆடி ஆடி
மிதந்து வந்து
தாத்தா மேல் அமர்கிறது
ஒரு பழுத்த  ஆலிலை.

LIP - LIVE In Peace

One quick question:

How many Likes did you post in FB, last week?

How many birthdays did you wish in Facebook?

Can you remember the date of few of the friends who celebrated last week?

Did you put in all the care and attention while liking or wishing? If so, for how many people and how many times?

Hypothesis 1: 

Social interactions have become superficial engagement using the brain's short term memory store ONLY. Every day, the memory is flushed clean.

None of the engagement goes in for long term storage. The percolation from short term to long term memory just does not happen! 

No one will know how time passed and what was really accomplished in the interaction.

It is akin to watching a comedy crapper movie, laughing the a*s off and just forgetting the movie even before one leaves the hall.

Hypothesis 2:

More one interacts on social media, hollower the relationships become.

Superficial dialogue, superficial interaction, superficial lifestyle and a superficial personality with behaviors that change with season, time and fashion - hollow and empty.

As long as one has quantity over quality, the loss of real relationships will not be realized at all.

Hypothesis 3:

Relationships need to be nurtured much like Agriculture. ("what/where you sow is what/where you reap"). Long term relationships take time to nurture, take time to build.

Real, physical world relationships compete with social media for the same time and attention.

Hypothesis 4:

Sadly, social media won over real relationships, among most of the time. My 9 year old son mimicking his dad, is the double whammy. 

An undesirable inheritance from me to him - letting him Absorb 'bad behaviors' unmindful of him!

LIVE IN PEACE - LIP :: What am i going to do?

1. Seek, scan and identify patterns of behavior that are not in sync with my personality. (I will get to the how part later).
2. Destroy the rail roads that feed the habits/behaviors.
3. Watch for the de-addiction pangs and withdrawal effects.
4. Unwind the bad habits that have got into my behavioral system
5. Release 'habits/behavioral patterns' that are present in my system, which are not in sync with my personality
6. Strengthen and fortify the mind, to not let in the same behaviors again.
7. Use the spare time, released from the behaviors with career focussing activities.

How?

• Seek, scan and identify patterns of behavior that are not in sync with my personality.

Head bent, scanning the emails/messages every day - first thing in the morning and last thing in the night.

Not able to focus on a conversation, for more than 10 minutes, without getting the pang to check the phone. Big conversation and eye-contact breaker.

This i have never done, ten years back. 

• Destroy the rail roads that feed the habits/behaviors.

Stay away from mobile phone, until i get to work.

Stay away from mobile phone, as soon as i get back home.

Stop checking mails every once in a while, (SMS is an exception).

Social media probably once in a week for 30 minutes. 

Remember the days of Internet access through dial up phones?

• Watch for the de-addiction pangs and withdrawal effects.

Already, i have been hearing phantom rings, and beeps few times during the day.

Urge to react and respond to messages

Mind asking the curious question "how many people have responded to LIP post in Internet?" (To be honest , I did check once after 12 hours)

• Unwind the bad habits that have got into my behavioral system

Will update when i get over - say 90 days. too long. I know it takes that long to do.

• Release 'habits/behavioral patterns' that are present in my system, which are not in sync with my personality

I am yet to the see the "bad boys" pop out. Anyway, it is MY personal battle. May or may not share. :D

• Strengthen and fortify the mind, to not let in the same behaviors again.

how ? how? how? NLP? EFT? Silva method? what mantra? which astra?

• Use the spare time, released from the behaviors with enriching activities - (hobbies, learning, arts & craft, fitness ...)

I will diarize what all I did and will share.

My first half marathon :: Lessons from an endurance sport

Half Marathon - Do I, Do I not?

Till the day preceding the run day, i was in dilemma should i or should i not.

Even though i had paid for the Thane Hiranandani Half Marathon organized to spread the awareness of Hockey - supposedly the national sport of India.

My training was not up to the mark; I had been working long hours in the preceding week; some outstation travel; plus the blood sugar levels after my new medication was not in good control (i am diabetic and on medication for the last 4 years plus a strict regimen of what i eat, when i eat and how i eat)

My wife accompanied me to the bib collection venue. My intention was to go pick up the goody bag along with the bib, and take rest on the Sunday. Why should I miss the opportunity to sleep longer on a wintry Sunday morning? 

My wife was prodding me -- just give it a shot. When i saw the energy levels of other runners, who had come for bib collection, i had decided -- to run!

Night before the run: 

The sleep was not sound.. There was palpable anxiety and i was tossing and turning in the bed, not getting good sleep.

BTW, i bought the proper running attire, only the night before the run.

The run day: 

Got up at 4.30 am. It was like any other day where i need to rush to catch an early morning flight out of Mumbai. Kitted up myself and i got out of home. Oh boy! there was lot of dew and it was brrrr.. cold.. 18 degrees Celsius?

Lots of runners from all over Mumbai, but not even a person whom i know were there.But the energy levels of the event was infectious. 

The run:

The run started at sharp six. First two kms were breeze. There were lots of runners -- young and old, novices and experienced athletes. Some 9000 of them.

Said to myself ** Slow down, slow down, it is an endurance race. that too a fairly long one** 

The first two kms i was doing at 7 minutes to a km - so far so good.

The road out of Hiranandani Estate Thane, was a steep ascent and it was told in advance that the terrain is not an even one. 

Run Strategy: Slow down when the road is climbing steep - perhaps even walk, and downhill course i MUST run, long strides to make use of the gravity, to propel forward.

** Lesson 1: Make best use of the environment. Use gravity when it is favourable to you.**

By the time i hit the 5km mark, i had been running for 31 minutes.

I had to constantly watch the pace, and slow down, as the tendency is to pick up pace (influence of other runners around) and I did not want to run out of breathe/energy..

Crossed the 7 km mark, in 46 minutes and I was getting into uncharted territory.

*** I am on my own. i have never done this distance in the last two decades **

The body was propelling in autonomous mode -- pace set by its own rhythm. Every runner has a sweet spot where the energy expended equals to the energy generated by the body. 

Somewhere around 9 kms the road started uphill again. (Upwan lake). It was getting difficult to maintain pace. Legs felt like they were made of lead. 

Had to cajole the body with rewards of walking 200 metres for reaching 7k mark.

In endurance sports, it is better to practice to separate the mind from the body.

With mounting pain, the mind keeps playing games -- stop, lets walk now. etc. Doggedly one needs to push the mind out of the way, and firmly command, just keep running.. Run, run and run.

*** It is me vs myself. Can you do it Vishy? Can you do it? ***

Reached the half way mark at exactly one hour and three minutes. Which means, i can finish the race in under two hours and fifteen minutes!! Real athletic performance. Hoorah!

The path became downhill and i was picking up pace.I was literally jubilant and so very positive. That was a moment of ecstasy leading to catharsis - breaking away of all kinds of mental barriers and super charged spirit shined through. I was never so positive!!

Km 14: There was this dull pain in the left knee (i injured the knee ten days back, when the foot slipped and the ankle twisted itself. The injury was what was keeping me away from training.) The pain was getting sharper.

Km 15: The pain was becoming unbearable. It was pinging every time i put weight on the left foot. I even stopped for a while to do some stretches.

Km 16: The downhill phase ended and the uphill started, lasting for another two kms at least.

I continued running, trying to shift the weight to my right foot and landing the left one softly. An awkward sight, but it gave some relief.

Meanwhile, the right thigh started to feel stiff as the weight shifting strategy started to work against it. Cramping started. 

I had to start walking now.. The left leg was getting to become unusable. Ram rod straight it was refusing to bend at the knee. pain pain and pain...

I was slowing down and looking at the watch helplessly as the pace started to slow down to 10 minutes to a km. I was running two hours straight. 18 kms covered. 3 more to go.

The road was rising steep. I had to really push the pain out of my mind and keep walking. People started to overtake in droves. Dang helpless situation!

The distance to finish placards said 2 kms. Can i finish in two hour twenty?? Started to run in downhill (or what seemed descent) pushing myself hard.

Suddenly, the next placard read 3 kms instead of one.. What is going on?? Was the 2km placard a gimmick?

The road went straight uphill.. Legs were crying, left knee was literally busted... i was sweating more.. How much more pain can i handle?

I was hopping around; pace as good as crawling.. doing one km at 12 minutes!

i had thought of making a dash in the last one km.. i will deal with my knee later on.. the focus is on finishing the race before 2 hr 30 mins.

1 km to go placard came twice; in gaps of 500 m!! i had accelerated after the first 1-km--to-finish placard, and the pain came back with a vengeance, pulling me back. Every meter of movement required tremendous effort.

i had to slow down, when every body else around me were revving up to the finish line.

limping limping limping..

i saw the placard - finish line around 500 meters away.. the mind wanted to run, accelerate. The body was just not doing it. it was resisting as much as it could. 

After much coaxing, cajoling, the body started to respond in the last 200 metres.. It was not blocking like it was doing between 14 to 20 kms. The pain vanished for an instance and i darted off.

The moment i crossed the finish line, i saw the clock -  2 hours 38 minutes.

Yesss!! i have done it.

The body was in writhing pain, especially the knee. The right side thigh now started to shiver and get into cramps.. 

The mind had stopped functioning. It was a tremendous victory of mind and the body - together. 

An indescribable peace, positivity and calm descended all over. 

For that feeling i will run 10 more marathons.

Valuable lessons from the marathon:

1. We are much more capable of doing more than what we think. Unless we try, we don't know what we can achieve. Trying is everything. The first step. i discovered long distance running when i was hitting 40 years in the calendar.

2. Use the situation to the advantage.I can not crib about the road going uphill. I need to make use of the downhill whenever it comes. 

3. Just hang on and keep going till i get the favorable environment.

4. Focus. My job is to run. Keep running. The moment i start to pay attention to all and sundry, the energy to run, drains off mysteriously. i focused on the run, pushed the pain behind, and i could finish. On any other day, i would not have limped for 7 straight kms.

4. Strategy -- Life is a long road. I need to have a plan to maintain pace and keep doing the necessary course correction every now and then. I may not have started with a great plan, but it does not stop me from creating one, en route, as the situation unfolds. 

5. It is always what i can do vs what i am. There is no tough competitor in the world other than one's own mind. The mind conceives, executes and even breaks down possibilities as impossibles! 

Win the mind, win everything else.

லௌகீகனின் காலை

இரவின் மெல்லிய குளிர்
மிச்சம் இருக்கும் அதிகாலை.

ஊர் விழிக்காத அமைதியில்
டிவிட்டிர் டிவிட்டிர் என்று
எங்கோ ஒரு பெயரில்லாத பறவை.

நேரம் நின்று போய்
வார்த்தையில் சிக்காத
பரவசம் தரும் சூரிய உதயம்.

மேகங்கள் அற்ற விரிவானம்
வெண்வாலால் இரண்டாக்கும்
உயரே ஒரு விமானம்.

இவ்வாறாய் கவிதை
படைக்க ஆரம்பித்த தினம்,
மற்றும் ஒரு லௌகீகனின்
தினமாய்
விரைந்து கடந்திருக்கும்.

ஒவ்வொரு நொடியாய்
உயிர் மெழுகுவர்த்தி
உருகி
உடல் கண்காணாமல்
கரைந்து  போகும்
நிஜம் உணர்ந்த 
விதிர்விதிர்ப்பில்,

லௌகீகனின்  மரணமும்
விதி வெல்ல விழையும் போராளியின்
பிறப்பும் ஒரு சேர நிகழ்ந்தது.