Thursday, July 7, 2011

My Own Experiences And Realizations In BPO Industry.

"If a man is called a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and Earth will pause to say, Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well." 


~Martin Luther King, Jr.


Why I quoted the above lines of Martin Luther King, Jr.; when I am supposed to be writing about life in BPO industry? I shouldn't have done it, if, I would have not been living in India. In the bourgeois circle or class of our Indian society, which is the mass manufacturing factory of engineers, doctors, MBA's etc. etc., BPO industry is considered to be a mere trifle. So this post might put-off a few people belonging to the same typical bourgeois circle, because I am going to advocate here about the BPO industry, through my own experiences and realizations, which are not vicarious, but real.


When I first landed into a BPO, as an employee, I got this feeling from looking at life all around (people chattering, laughing, smoking, eating) that I got into a new world where I can apply and testify my philosophical, moral codes and, whatever I had felt, realized and tried to learn vicariously through books, now I can live each bit, all on my own. 


   "The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind death stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head." 



These words from the movie 'Into The Wild' started a cadence in my head. 


Lessons, Realizations, And Feelings:



At the very beginning the contrasting shift timings made my this realization more and more firm that life is never constant; it's the change that is always constant.



During the V&A training I realized the grandeur of sounds, which I would have missed, otherwise. My eyes used to get stuck at the mouth of our trainer, in order to comprehend the formations required to produce that particular sound with it's subtle variations.



In an environment where male-female ratio is healthy, one tends to lose his/her temperament of not judging a book by it's cover. 


"George O'Hearn: Beautiful women are invisible.
 

David Kepesh: Invisible? What the hell does that mean? Invisible? They jump out at you. A beautiful woman, she stands out. She stands apart. You can't miss her.
 

George O'Hearn: But we never actually see the person. We see the beautiful shell. We're blocked by the beauty barrier. Yeah, we're so dazzled by the outside that we never make it inside."


This above conversation from the movie elegy came to my mind, and I thought that this is something I need to implement, in-order to prevent myself getting beguiled from the mere pretense of things or their pretentiousness, so that the priority of knowing people from inside, from their hearts, remains. 
'Now I find myself surer in this task.' 


Whatever you do, give it your heart, and carry a feeling of humility towards your work and the company which is paying you, for your work. This world is not fair at all.  It's not like 'I work and I am getting paid for it'; it's 'I work and they are paying me for that'. I realized that one should always carry this feeling of gratitude towards the people or organization who are paying you for your work, in an unfair world.


There is a spectrum of people from different age groups, backgrounds and thinking, which is very exhilarating in itself and fundamental in bringing out the flavor, essence or color of human character. But I was very gullible or credulous, because of my transparency, and tended to give away my personal thoughts and feelings to people (I had this habit of trusting people very readily), who either made a mockery out of it, or disclosed it to others, which in turn lambasted me a lot. But now I learned the art of keeping some very personal thoughts and feelings, secret.  

The best part I liked about BPO is that it teaches you the art of controlling your moods and emotions. It is a requirement that whatever happens you have to sound energetic and enthusiastic, either you can repress your moods and emotions or you can practice Vipassana meditation, I'll go with the latter. 

In the end...


'Only unconditional, and love without expectations can bring you happiness, wisdom and peace' One more thing that was vicarious, now turned into real experience. 


I'll end this post with a quote.


"The wise man makes his own heaven while the foolish man creates his own hell here and hereafter."


~A Buddhist Saying  
       

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Transmogrification

This simple looking old man in the picture is a tattoo artist. India have had a history of tattoo making, I learned this from my Grandmother. She used to tell me that women in her time used to get tattooed not for a style statement, but to secure their identities. In her time there was a big insecurity of forced conversion from one religion to the other. So women used to get their names tattooed on their hands. Writing a name with too simple a font, requires no or some aesthetic qualities.

Now the purpose of getting a tattoo has changed tremendously, and demands trendiness. This old, simple looking tattoo artist belongs to the period of my Grandmother. But I was amazed to see the transmogrification he was able to pull off, and that too in such an age. He had all trendy designs under his little roadside setup; from tribal to celtic font tattoos. I was thinking from where did the motivation came, to learn, when learning becomes more and more difficult as you start growing older and older. There was a whisper in the winds there, that 'with life; possibilities are endless'.

A picturesque or personification of an ingenious tattoo artist in this modern era is that of a long haired, immensely tattooed, immensely pierced individual. It is now the era of 'Judging a book by it's cover'. In such an era; this old, simple looking tattoo artist compels us to believe in those anachronistic lines 'Never Judge A Book By It's Cover'.   

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Love; Perception; aesthetic qualities.

You walk down a road, or stand on your balcony, or drive a car, bike, cycle, or anything else. Do you see anything ecstatically jubilant, worth noticing (Unless you are not in Laddakh or Alaska) ? I guess it will be a meek yes or probably a no. Have you ever wondered why people want to break free, why they have this connotation of being a footloose, and break this chain of irksome obligations and oppression?

I cannot say about anyone else, but I pondered over this subject for many years. In my 24 years of life I read many sages (of the likes of Buddha, Kabeer, Bulleh Shah, Tolstoy etc.), but no one emphasized on leaving your home, family; and live a deserted life of an ascetic. Yet the idea of such life fascinates us and stirs up a kind of wild fascination. Why is it so? Are we not content with the life we are leading? Is there a kind of hidden beast, inside all of us? Or are we too busy in affectations? Or is it our curiosity towards the ultimate truth?

I cannot be sure, nor can I provide you with a readymade answer.

But what can I do is that; I can discuss love, complacency, and inexpectation. But to doubt is humane. Who am I to talk about such intricate issues? I am not Lord Jesus, nor I am Gautama The Buddha or any other enlightened or wise soul. I’ll quote Dostoevsky here

“When the whole essence of an ordinary person's nature lies in his perpetual and unchangeable commonplaceness; and when in spite of all his endeavors to do something out of the common, this person ends, eventually, by remaining in his unbroken line of routine--. I think such an individual really does become a type of his own--a type of commonplaceness which will not for the world, if it can help it, be contented, but strains and yearns to be something original and independent, without the slightest possibility of being so.”

Again Dostoevsky says

“Of such people there are countless numbers in this world--far more even than appear.”
I am an apotheosis of the same commonplaceness.

But since there are countless numbers in this world of the same commonplaceness; so many will be able to connect with what I write from now on.

I’ll take up love; since perceptions and aesthetic qualities all depends upon love.

But before that let me put up this audacious question, that ‘what makes up a sophisticated human?’

Sophistication? Intricacy? Circumlocution? Politics? Philosophy? Nah!

My experience says, simplicity, ingenuousness, and innocence.

I used to go to this tea shop every weekend. There are many vehement forms, contours, formations and arrangements of nature which usually goes obscured and dissimulated, under the kaleidoscope of resentment, apathy, aversion, craving and other such mind dwellings.

But when the mirror of the same kaleidoscope changes with the mirror of love, everything becomes so conspicuous. Beauty shouts at you, subtleties of things exhilarates you, simplicity towards ingenuousness amazes you, and you expect no more, at that space and time.


Above picture is the same clichéd arrangement of nature, I go through every weekend. But this weekend was a bit different. When I encountered this same old clichéd arrangements of nature with the goggles or spectacles or kaleidoscope of love, empathy, complacency, I was awestruck with the magnanimity of it. It was huge and unexplainable. 

Love is the base of every magnanimous perception which in turn becomes an aesthetic quality. Without experiencing crystalline love, human life is incomplete, and without getting habitual of it, human life is a waste.   
Unadulterated love has the power of such; to turn obtuse into acute. It gives you a clean pair of glasses to look at the world and childlike world is what I call paradise. I do not know how to develop such kind of love and how to sustain it. I just know that don't create an affectation of it.     

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Yeh Jo Desh Hai Tera Swadesh Hai Tera - Incredible India



Mixed a few pictures, I took, while wandering around in India, mostly
delhi, with the OST (Yeh Jo Desh Hai Tera Swadesh Hai Tera) from
the movie Swadesh. All the pictures I have also uploaded in many
of my posts as in:

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The List Of Ten Things To Be Done, Before Hitting My Deathbed.


During my V&A training our trainer threw many questions upon us which were carrying this epitome of 'how much you know your own self'. I realized that we know about everything which is unimportant, without knowing what is most important. This Gap, or self-ignorance reduces and limits our perception of perceiving the external world. This wish list exercise is a very minute step towards knowing your own self, because it hardly tells us about our deepest inner self, but no gigantic step is sudden, but an aggregation of such minute steps. And as the famous saying goes 'Know Yourself To Know God'. So I thought to commence with this exercise. Day before yesterday I thought out my wishlist, somewhat performed a soliloquy, articulating my thoughts into speech, and today I'll be putting them into a blog post.

Following are the ten things which I want to do before my song gets over:

1) There are these six books which I want to read before dying : Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, War And Peace And Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy, White Fang and The Call Of The Wild, both by Jack London, and Being and Nothingness by Jean Paul Sartre.

2) Attain Enlightenment. The whole purpose of life, in my point of view, is an opportunity to redeem yourself from your old habit patterns, break the chains of bondage, fear, aversion and craving, and eventually harmonize your being with nature, with people around and most importantly with your own-self.

3) I want to love a woman, with all my heart and being. I am not talking about that typical and cliched love we witness around us. I am talking about love, in it's most crystalline form, unadulterated by expectations and craving. But this should happen naturally and should come from within, otherwise that love will never be unconditional.   

4) I want to adopt 2-3 children and raise them as healthy (both mentally and physically) individuals, by inculcating in them high morals, values, and providing them with good education. I will never reproduce, as there are so many children already on this planet.
There is so much to learn from children. They are the apotheosis of innocence and love. 

5) Open up a tea shop, somewhere high up in a Himalayan village, where everyone working in it will be the owner of the tea shop, sharing equal usufructs. We will practice communism in that small institution, spreading good will. The shop will have it's wall full with graffiti, there will be good music playing all through from Pink Floyd to Bhimsen Joshi to Sabri Brothers, shop's ambiance will be benign, peaceful, and full of harmony.

6) Quit smoking. I don't want to die, craving for a cigarette. My last thoughts at the time of my death, should not be persistent with smoking.

7) Participate in both marathon and triathlon.

8) This is from one of my childhood fantasies, that I always wanted to become an engine driver, not an engineer, doctor or advocate, but an engine driver. So I want to work as an engine driver for maybe two or three years. The reminiscence of that view, which I experienced from an engine cabin, when I was a kid, still exhilarates me.

9) I want to swim across, from Rameswaram in India to Mannar in Sri Lanka.

10) To put a tick mark in front of every point in my wishlist. 

Monday, May 9, 2011

What Is Vipassana And Why One Should Try It, Atleast Once, In His/Her Lifetime.

I have been trying many meditation techniques in my life. Initially I had a connotation of meditation as something, after doing which, will fill me with all good, soothing, assuaging sensations in and on my body. So all my efforts and techniques were based upon looking for those particular thoughts and sensations. In the process I was trying to discard all that is unpleasant. Nothing wrong in that; who does not want peace and tranquility after all. But this is a temporary fix. The reason (which I understood later) behind this is the concept of misery. Misery in human life is because of only two reasons. Number one is Craving, and second one is Aversion. And I was doing the same through my meditation. Craving for some particular feelings or sensations or thoughts, while averting the other unpleasant ones.

Then one day I was google-ing Vipassana and came across dhamma website. I registered for a 10 day course, attended it, and survived those 10 days. In those 10 days my connotation for meditation changed. It is now that meditation is all about changing the basic human nature of aversion and craving. And I very well understood the relationship between our mind and body, not by some discourse but by practical application of Vipassana. I realized that there is a very small difference between my Basketball training camps and Vipassana. Practice and practice to change old habit patterns, take the control of mind and body, and to create more equanimity. The rules of this game are very simple, work hard, diligently, patiently, and persistently, and you are bound to succeed.

Now what hard work, what is the work here? The work is very simple too, sit in a posture with back straight, eyes closed. Start from the tip of your head, and move downwards, scanning each body part (initially keep the diameter of the scanner a bit broader, gradually with the period of time, as you get used to this technique, scale it down), upto the feet, and again from feet to the head. But what are we looking for? We are looking for nothing in particular, whatever the sensation is there on the part you are scanning, witness it and move ahead. What if nothing is there? Then witness that nothing is there and move ahead. One have to sit in the same posture and with the eyes closed for 60 minutes. To sit in one posture, eyes closed for 30-40 minutes is easy, but the latter 30-20 minutes are hell, initially. That is the practice of changing the old habit pattern, pain will come, but you have to witness it as a sensation, trying not to create aversion, then aversion comes even after you try very hard not to create it, but then again witness the sensations, moving ahead. And sometimes there are very pleasant assuaging sensations, try not to create craving for it, watch it and move ahead.

The whole simplicity and austerity of this technique lured and impressed me very much. There is no garrulous talk, no fancy music, no place to go to. All one needs is a body and consciousness.  

Friday, April 8, 2011

Anna Hazare, India Against Corruption: First Brush Stroke On The Painting In Making. Lets Take A Pledge To Complete It.

A Painter, Painting At Jantar Mantar.

Kick Off, Racing Start, Eruption. Acceptance of Joint Panel to draft the Jan Lokpal Bill is kick-off, racing start towards democratic awakening. We as the people of India need to carry this momentum till it's last stage, i.e. democratic empowerment and implementation.


After this there are two more crucial steps needed to be taken.Number one, we as citizens of India, have to make sure that Jan Lokpal bill passes through both the houses, i.e. Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Number Two, we as citizens of India have to ensure the effective Implementation of Jan Lokpal Bill.

After such large scale and high-octane awakening, we need to carry this momentum forward, till it's last stage. Then only we can afford to catch some breath.

Let us all take a pledge that we will not sit-back and relax till the picture is painted luminously, and completely.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Why Jan Lokpal Bill, Why Anna Hazare?? Abridged Differences Between Existing System And System Proposed By Civil Society.





Existing System
System Proposed By Civil Society

No politician or senior officer ever goes to jail despite huge evidence because Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) and CBI directly come under the government. Before starting investigation or initiating prosecution in any case, they have to take permission from the same bosses, against whom the case has to be investigated.

Lokpal at the centre and Lokyaukta at state level will be independent bodies. ACB and CBI will be merged into these bodies. They will have power to initiate investigations and prosecution against any officer or politician without needing anyone’s permission. Investigation should be completed within 1 year and trial to get over in next 1 year. Within two years, the corrupt should go to jail.


No corrupt officer is dismissed from the job because Central Vigilance Commission, which is supposed to dismiss corrupt officers, is only an advisory body. Whenever it advises government to dismiss any senior corrupt officer, it’s advice is never implemented


Lokpal and Lokyaukta will have complete powers to order dismissal of a corrupt officer. CVC and all departmental vigilance will be merged into Lokpal and state vigilance will be merged into Lokyaukta

No action taken against corrupt judges because permission is required from Chief Justice Of India to even register an FIR against corrupt judges.


Lokpal & Lokyaukta will have powers to investigate and prosecute any judge without needing anyone’s permission.

Nowhere to go – People expose corruption but no action is taken on their complaints.


Lokpal & Lokyaukta will have to enquire into and hear every complaint.

CBI and Vigilance departments lack transparency. Their functioning is so secret that it encourages corruption within these agencies.

All investigations in Lokpal & Lokyaukta shall be transparent. After completion of investigation, all case records shall be open to public. Complaints against any staff of Lokpal & Lokyaukta shall be enquired and punishment announced within two months.


Weak and corrupt people are appointed as heads of anti-corruption agencies.

Politicians will have absolutely no say in selections of Chairperson and members of Lokpal & Lokyaukta. Selections will take place through transparent and public participatory process.


Citizens face harassment in government offices. Sometimes they are forced to pay bribes. One can only complaint to senior officers. Hardly any action is taken on complaints because often senior officers also get their cut.

Lokpal & Lokyaukta will get public grievances resolved  in time bound manner, impose a penalty of Rs. 250 per day of delay to be deducted from the salary of guilty officer and award that amount as compensation to the aggrieved citizen.


Nothing in law to recover ill gotten wealth. A corrupt person can come out of jail and enjoy that money.


Loss caused to the government due to corruption will be recovered from all accused.

Small punishment for corruption. Punishment for corruption is minimum 6 months and maximum 7 years.

Enhanced punishment – The punishment would be minimum 5 years and maximum of life imprisonment.


"At 78, Anna is not fasting for himself, he is fasting for the future of my kid. I will myself fast on 5th April for a day and ask my 5 year daughter also to skip a meal on 5th April," 
Rakesh, a software engineer. 


VICTIMS OF A ROTTEN SYSTEM


There was much worse corruption in Hong Kong in 1970s than we have in India today. Collusion between police and mafia increased and crime rate went up. Lakhs of people came on the streets. As a result, the government was forced to set up an Independent Comission Against Corruption (ICAC), which was given complete powers. In the first instance, ICACsacked 119 out of 180 police officers. This sent a strong message to the bureaucracy that corruption would not be tolerated. Today, Hong Kong has one of the most honest governance machinery. 


Arvind Kejriwal
(The author is eminent RTI and anti-corruption activist and Ramon Magsaysay Award Winner)
E-mail parivartan_india@rediffmail.com

India Against Corruption, Support Anna Hazare, Posters Designed By Subodh Singh, From USA. Concept Dilip Dwivedi

We've created a poster and are distributing and pasting the printouts in the neighborhood. You can download the PDF and take printouts, and distribute and paste in your neighborhood.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Des Mera...



Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Departed


These were the new arrivals, for this winter,
Flourishing and growing among humans and nature,
Sucking on their mother's nipple,
Barking, playing, grabbing, nabbing,
All seemed like a frivolous playing.
Until one day,
Grabbed, nabbed, in a mosquito net,
Loaded up in a car chest,
Thrown into an unknown world,
Separated from their motherly love,
All grew so gloomy and dark,
I pray for thee departed creatures of god,
And I kneel before you, almighty lord.
Was This Humane On The Human Part??
   

Monday, February 14, 2011

Aitbaar - With Some Edits, Including The Famous Speech By Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, 'Tryst With Destiny'




WITH SOME EDITS...
An Initiative By www.juslyktht.blogspot.com , With The Due Support Of Mr. Madan Mohan Dwivedi, Apoorva Tiwari, Tanuj Syal, Karthik Ramakrishnan...

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Aitbaar Phase One

Aitbaar Phase One Complete...Send Me Your Valuable Feedbacks!!

Monday, January 17, 2011

SUNSET






Write A Story On This Picture!!


Apoorva Tiwari Came Up With This...

Trudged so far on this path eternal
Mesmerized by a mirage of bliss
Laid this track on faith ephemeral
Set to rectify what was never amiss
Behold this thoughtful impudent
Marching with a passion discreet
Civilized a kingdom hitherto verdant
With jungles of steel and concrete
An insatiable thirst of being the first
Renders him cold to a hunger divine
Trying to quench it with gold and lust
Only emaciates him further to repine
Ground to a halt at this piquant signal
Despite the power the zeal is riven
They say it portends a path abyssal 
Could I chug my way back to heaven.

I am so obliged for his expressions and such intricate usage of English language which fell upon my Blog...Thanks A Tonne Ponds!! 
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