Struggled to capture the splash after a rain drop fell on the white banister in the patio. After quite some time, this is the best I could get. You can see on the right side what a rain drop looks like a nanosecond after hitting the surface. The one on the right obviously had hit just before the one on the left…
Yesterday, like most other days, I got up and set out in my running clothes. The whole idea was to put in a run, take a shower and get to office for all the meetings and such.
Except, I made the mistake of opening up office emails before going for the run. Looking back though, I am glad I did. For there were too many things that had happened overnight that needed my attention and decisions quickly. Weighed in “run and then work” or “work and then run”. Eventually went with the former. The challenge was that I was still in my running clothes – you know those bright ones I wear with matching shoes and all.
Ah, well, I figured if I can reach office very early and get cracking, I should be able to finish in a couple of hours and then go out for a run before anyone showed up at office. And none would be any the wiser.
Like all of those best laid plans of mice and men, five hours later I was still ploughing thru work. The calls had started – and worse, the scheduled video conference calls (thankfully, all were internal) started too. And there I was – in the most ridiculous Friday dress down day clothes you can ever show up in office with 🙂 In fact, I had to explain to all the folks at office when they came in lest they thought I was off my rocker. Well, any more than they already think 🙂
The good news is that eventually around lunch time I had an hour gap – long enough to put in a quick 5K and then shower in the LA Fitness and resume work. The bad news is that I had to run in those hard concrete sidewalks (ouch) under the noon sun.
At least I was far more presentable during the video calls of the afternoon. And since this is me we are talking about, even that was only relatively speaking 🙂
“Aap gairon ki baat karte hain
Humne to apne bhi aazmaein hain
Log kaaton se bach kar chalte hain
Humne to phoolon se zakhm khaayen hain
Mohabbat mein akeli jaan pe
Kay Kya aazab aayein
Kabhi kaanto mein main soya
Kabhi phoolon me khwab aayein”
Roughly translated (improvements always welcome)
“You keep complaining about strangers
I have tried acquaintances too
People stay clear of the thorns
But I have been hurt by the flower itself
Love has, to this lonely heart
Brought troubles of so many sorts
That sometimes I have slept among thorns
And sometimes I have dreamt of flowers”
You probably get deluged by Linkedin invites much more than I do. But whatever little I get is enough to make me tear my hair from my head. Well, if I had anything left, that is. Every Saturday I sit down and go through the invites. For each one of them, I look at the face and try to figure out if I know this person….. have met before…. should be knowing at all and so on. Many times I try to read their profiles – which often confuses me more than helps me.
What I cannot understand is an answer to a simple question – “Why are you trying to connect with me?”.
“I would like to connect” makes no more sense than all those emails in my inbox from people wanting a phone call – only 15 minutes – to save us so much money that all our employees put together could not somehow think about. Or for that matter all those Nigerian princes. At least the Nigerian princes are very clear what they are seeking.
So, here is a tip – why not just drop a line or two – maybe a small paragraph on who you are and why are you interested in a connection with somebody. And care about it. It is okay to say “I was wondering if you could help me with my job search” or “I was wondering if you had a job in your company” or “Hey, we are in the same field. Just wanted to stay in touch with you” or “I have nothing to ask but I felt with your experience you can help me some day. This is who I am…. Would you mind staying connected?”.
People will help you if they can. People want to accept you in their fold. But people also relate to a little personal touch than those standard mindless Linkedin provided default text that one might be tempted to short cut thru…
Of course, if you know the person for quite some time or is your childhood friend or you just had dinner with that person the previous night, that courtesy would be superfluous.
