23 May 2014

FIL-MIL Mehfil. Her verdict.

We are at Wolf Mountain Winery. Mother in law is engulfed by people her age group tasting and drinking wine. She surveyed her surroundings and summarized “Glass Glass sob kinchhe aar dhok dhok korey khachche” πŸ™‚
I have no good way of translating this….

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23 May 2014

Intersection point – of a different kind

Remember how I had written in December last year, that my father in law was totally inspired by my intersection point concept and I was able to get him to meet a old colleague of his after 55 years? Well, today, he got to meet somebody after “minimum 40 years”. They could not remember when they met last, but it was certainly before he was in his forties.

The intersection was created in a weird way. When we first moved to Atlanta, we did not know anybody here. A Bengali friend of ours from Dallas had kindly introduced us to a friend of hers from her housing complex in Bombay, I believe, who lived in Atlanta. And that is how we got to know Abhijeet and Rupa. Subsequently, during discussions with Abhijeet, the name “Amlagorah” or “Humgorh” or something as vague as that (they are tiny villages in West Bengal) was mentioned.

And I knew those names!!! Sure enough, turned out Abhijeet, in his very early childhood, had visited my father-in-law’s house in his village. The big reason to remember? My father in law owned a rifle which was on display at their house. So, Abhijeet immediately remembered the “rifle baari” (“rifle house”). Turns out Abhijeet’s dad’s mamabari (maternal uncle’s house) was in Amlagorah and he went there every summer with his family. He called his maternal uncle “mama” and when he visited the “rifle baari”, he called my father in law “mama” too.

Many many moons later, we caught both of them visiting their son/son-in-law in Atlanta and the intersection point was created over lunch in a local Indian restaurant today!!!

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22 May 2014

GM recalls – brought to you by Roy-ters

USA Today reported “GM recalls another 2.4M vehicles for belts, bags, etc”.

You know you are in deep doo-doo when you have to recall your cars for “etc” πŸ™‚

You know, this year alone, GM has recalled its cars for the 29th time (per USA Today). At this rate, instead of naming different car parts every time and then resorting to “etc”, would it not be easier just to say “GM recalls cars due to cars”? πŸ™‚

20 May 2014

“It is just a job”. Except when it is not.

All throughout my life, I have tried my level best to keep a perspective on life. What is important and what is not important. If you read the book by the Australian palliative nurse in a hospice, you will notice that no dying person ever regretted not having worked some more. And so, I always keep telling myself “It is just a job”. There are more important things in life.

Indeed, “it is just a job”. Except that, it isn’t. The way my DNA is built up, a job has never been a mechanism to make more money – I think of that as merely an outcome; a job has never been about rising an organizational ladder – my current business card says I am “Executive Pusher of the Envelope” and certainly a job has never been about striving for the corner office – I have not had an office for a long time – instead choosing to work with my teams in Starbucks, cafeterias, meeting rooms and bars. For sure, a job has never been my sole pursuit in life – I run, practice humor, play the tabla, make cocktails, write the first draft of the history of my future – all at arguably terrible levels – and in general choose to border on the ridiculous just to explore life!

But I will tell you what a job has always been to me – it has been yet another chance to create a mosaic of relationships, another opportunity to create “intersection points”, another opportunity to get to know a few more human beings that I got a chance to cross paths with in this short thing we choose to call “life” – all the while professionally doing something I love and hopefully creating some more value in the world.

And that is why it is never just a job. Long after I will forget the numbers and the product details and the contract negotiations, I will remember the people – the team members, the peers, my manager, our customers, our partners. Thru every interactions I have had with them, I have learnt a little more. About myself and about life in general.

And the sum total of those interactions have made me grow up so much in the last seven years. Those emails, those hallway conversations, those intense differences in opinions, those heartfelt laughters, those dreaming sessions, those Starbucks team meetings, those uncomfortable conflict resolutions, those going to a bar to let it all out… every piece of those interactions has made me a better executive, a better team member and a better human being.

As I get off the Equifax bus and board the Quantum Spatial bus, I certainly appreciate the opportunity life has presented to me. It is not often that somebody gets a chance to lead a bright and promising team in a very fast growing market. Let alone twice in succession!!! But more than anything else, I appreciate and acknowledge the influence each and every Equifax team member had on me. Without the Equifax team accepting me and helping me grow before dropping me at my stop seven years later, I would have never been worthy of stepping onto the QSI bus. I understand that deeply.

No journey in life is done in straight lines. If our paths intersected once, they will certainly intersect again. With that hope to run into you around the corner some day soon, here is a heartfelt Thank You to all my Equifax friends from myself, my ever supporting wife Sharmila and our two beautiful daughters – Natasha and Nikita. We seek your best wishes as we embark on our next journey.

Before, I sign off, as is my wont, “I wish you enough” … (See the following post to understand the context http://www.rajibroy.com/?p=5693 )

20 May 2014

FIL-MIL Mehfil – Stone Mountain

Took the inlaws up to the top of the Stone Mountain today. They were pretty thrilled with the whole experience but in that hot sun with temperatures in the eighties, the ubiquitous sweater and the jacket never came off.

As thrilled as my mother in law was, she saw a parallel in India with everything she saw. The dense trees in the park? Just like Chandrakona. (I have no idea where that is). The larger-than-life carvings of Confederate soldiers on the mountain face? “Just like Sivaji”!!!! Even the bareback shape of the mountain reminded her of the shape of a rhino she had once seen in India!! It was hilarious as well as instructive to see how human brains essentially learn by drawing linear relationships with known data points it has learnt before!!

Meanwhile, my father in law went to the cafe on the top and asked the lady if they had coffee. She replied in the negative. Somewhat disappointed but not totally despondent, my father in law, in one of those “Let them have cake” moment declared “Okay, I will have tea”!! The lady gave a long stare and said “Sir, we have soda”. I hurriedly stepped in before he interpreted soda as what he uses to clean utensils in India and explained – “They have coke”. “With ice?” he asked. “Sure”, I said. “Then I will wait and have lunch at home”, he declared!

Dang! I had forgotten he was wearing a jacket!!! πŸ™‚

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