Innovative way of seeing Wildlife 

I recently visited Masai Mara at Kenya and cam back on 6th Sept 2017.

Tanzania and Kenya have turned the 'Wildlife' business in an innovative way! From our childhood we had seen and visited animal zoos and observed the animals in the cages. That was our habit. But African countries changed the game. They reversed the style what used to happen.

Now you are in safe Safari jeep and animals are outside in the open. This has added a real hair-raising thrill for tourists and photographers. Tanzania and Kenya has wildlife in abundance. You do not search for animals and birds. They are everywhere!

Another innovation came in is to stay inside the jungle itself. They provide you 3 star or 5 star facilities inside the jungle where you can camp in safely. You have to just come out of the camp and wildlife starts in few minutes.

I stayed at Governor's Camp at Masai Mara where Elephants, Giraffes, Hippos, Olive Baboons, Gazelles were roaming around near the dining area. 

Few more innovative things done in these countries ....they train the drivers and guides in such a way that they speak good English, know full history of the country and tribes staying around, they know all birds and animals and habitats so well. This helps tourists in immense ways. These guides are so gentle and humble, and they know all manners. Their treatment gives you the feel of British Raj....all 5 star facilities around you.

These Safari jeeps are full ready for you - all food items, small fridge, cold-drinks, fruits, water, light beer, beanbags for photographers and no sharp corners anywhere which will hurt you. These guides understand your requirements and space-out your requirements over the period such that you get to see what you had planned.

Patience plays important part in Wildlife photography and these people understand it well. You can get packed breakfast and lunch so that you can enjoy the field trips fully without any time constraint. From 6 am to 6 pm, you can roam around.

The Safari jeeps are connected by radio phones and mobile phones. They get all latest information and sightings happening around you. One can rush to the spot in few minutes to cash on the opportunity of seeing something interesting.

In my trip, we were looking for Black Rhinos and we got news that there 2 Rhinos near one bush. This spot was hardly few minutes away from us. We were there in 2 mins and got the Rhinos (Mom and kid) in open for hardly 4 mins but we could click pics of these rare animals. Lifetime memories.

I saw another Safari jeep, called photographer vehicle. This vehicle has 4 revolving seats and its sides open sideways up. So that people sitting inside get full view. One can mount tripods inside. They have rails fitted on the sides where you can have your Gimbal or Fluidic head mounted on it for photography. What a pleasure to do the photography from these vehicles.

Will share more experiences soon from Masai Mara.

     

Where do you get your energy?

Today I was asked by one of colleagues…how come you are excited all the time!

Where do you get energy to do what you like…and also the time.

I was surprised with this question.

In fact it is very natural to me. If art attracts me I should indulge into which will give me pleasure and satisfaction.

If photography gives me happiness I should be doing that. It will satisfy my soul.

I have never got a feeling of tiredness in doing what I like. I will never hold back myself in helping others – that gives me reason to learn.

I am sure that must be a case for everybody. What restricts us is the ‘holding back’ tendency!

The next question comes is….do I know as an Individual that ‘what I like’ or ‘what I love’ or ‘what I want to do?

How many of us even wonder out to find out this? Do we have courage to find out what we like?

Or we are happy with what we do and earn for a day?

To me, the energy is boundless for everybody. The skill sets may be different for everybody – few may have interest in areas such as computers, social network, wild life, birding, photography, social work, engineering and so on.  I remember late Dr Bowonder (Ex ASCI, Hydrabad and then worked at TMTC, Pune). He had an child-like curiosity in everything. His desk and bag used to be full of book and articles. He used to get thrilled with any new thing and knowledge. That used to drive his energy levels to any extent. You ask about any subject to him and he will start explaining about it to you. In case he had little knowledge about that subject, he will go to internet and find out details about that subject and infirm you. I learnt many things from him.

I am sure all of us need to have that curiosity alive and kicking. This gives us more than enough energy to drive us and excites us to go more miles forward!

Mad mad world of Cinema

While travelling back from Office, we were listening to some old songs on the FM Radio.
It reminded me so many things from the past.

Back in 60s, 70s and 80s, we were the regular viewers of matinee shows. Pune was well known for old talkies of single screens – Alka, Vijay, Bhanuvilas, Aryan, Hindvijay, Minerva, Capitol, Westend, Shrinath, Mangala, etc. Now it is being ruled by the multiplexes.

We were group of 6 / 8 friends who used to gather on every Saturday and Sunday.

In those days it was our favourite time pass to open up the local newspaper – Sakal and go through the list of old Hindi movies.

Matinee shows used to start at 10.00 am and special shows at 1.00 pm.

There were favourite theatres such Alka, Deccan, Vijay, Bhanuvilas and Hindvijay (which was renovated and renamed as Natraj).  Rahul was added to this list afterwards.

Westend theatre was on our list but when we were thinking about English movies, especially Western movies and action thrillers.

Most favourite actors to watch were Shammi, Shashi, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Kishore Kumar, Amitabh Bacchan and Rajesh Khanna.

There were few movies which me and my group had watched ‘n’ numbers of times – Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Half Ticket, Baijoo Bawara, Anand, Abhimaan, Aradhana, Professor, Kashmir Ki Kali, and so on.

We had seen all versions of Devdas too. We had one friend and he was die-hard fan of Dilip Kumar. I still remember that I had watched Devdas with him – It was my first time and his was 50^th time! He used to rattle all dialogues along with all characters. Even doorkeepers at most of the talkies knew this friend well.

Joy Mukherjee was favourite of some friends and we had watched Love in Tokyo and other movies for purely sake of songs.

I still remember that once we had gone to a movie ‘Jab Jab Phool Khile’. It was Shashi Kapoor’s hit movie and was drawing huge crowds at all screens. We (our full family...my mother was great fan of Shashi kappor) went to Ratan Talkies and by the time we reached it was houseful. We decided to buy the tickets in black. It was going for Rs 7 per ticket, that means, more than double the standard ticket!  We got hold one of the blackmailer and asked for 5 tickets. He was typical ticket seller with red striped shirt with top 2 buttons open, golden chain and coloured handkerchief tied on the neck and red mouth with Paan he has eaten....we got the tickets in hand and rushed to the gate for getting in. He called my mother ‘Behenji, paisa to de do!’. We realised that in hurry we had not paid him. My mother took her purse out for paying him. She realised that she had forgotten her money at home. I had already paid for the Auto and was not carrying much money on me. All that we had together was Rs 11 against Rs 35!

He was generous guy...he told my mother ‘ Aapko main behen bol chukka hoon...abhi seedha andar jayeeye. Paiseki jarurat nahi, Fir Kabhi kamaunga! Ye pasie app rakh lo, ghar jane ke liye lagange’. We felt really happy with his gesture and enjoyed the movie.

Our group was also fan of Western movies and action movies. Right from John Wayne, Clark Gable, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Lee Marvin, Dean Martin, Franco Nero, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cliff and Elli Walach...you name it and we had seen their movies, repeatedly. ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’, “DJango’, ‘El Dorado’, ‘Nevada Smith’, ‘The Professionals’, ‘Few Dollars More’, ‘The Mercenary’ and so on. In those days there was rage of Clint Eastwood and we never missed his movies – that wry smile and wrinkles near to his cold blue eyes was main attraction for all of us.  Lee Van Cliff was thrill to watch with his cold and wry expressions. Dean Martin brought some fun and comedy element in the typical western and Texas movies. We used to get thrilled by the heroes shooting exactly in the centre of forehead of the villains....and also shooting the hidden enemies without looking back!

I will write more about movies in the next blog.

 

Innovation - good tool for employee engagement

I was involved with 3 events in my company and all related to innovation - process, product, services and business models.
To my great surprise I found that this year more and more employees participated. The award and cerificates were not big for them. They were just ready to showcase their talent, their innovative thinking and also how they are eager to help the organisation in the market place.
Another surprise camme to me was the second rung of the leadership and also the team leaders were ready to take risks and support innovations. Employees were proud to showcase their failures as the risk was getting appreciated.
This has enabled employee engagement in great way!
There were 3 events - first one, 160+ innovations and more than 450 innovators participated, second one, more than 200 innovations and 550 innovators and third one 170+ innovations and 500+ innovators participated. Yes, you can discount few numbers as there could be common entries but still it was amazing to see the level of particiaption and enthusiasm of employees.
I think most of the HR and Communication experts have not given the right thrust on this area....thinking that this is purely research or technical area. But promoting such events or waves in the organisation means unleashing the enormous talent we have in the organisation.
Yes, we do get lot of business opportunities through such events but more importantly look at the positive vibes it is creating among employees. It also brings peer presuure on the other employees in doing something and showing something to organisation.

36 years of service

Recently I had gone to one seminar where most of the younsters were present. My subject of talk was 'Ideation and how it can be used in proejct management'.
There were more than 125 participants and 80% of the crowd was below the age group of 30. Most of them were students and coming from Software background.
The Master of Ceremony introduced me to the audience and told them that I am working in my comapny for last 36 years! I completed my talk and presentation in 30 mins and as expected I got lot of questions on how to manage and nurture innovations and 'how not to kill ideas', etc.
We took tea break after that. During tea time, 3 / 4 youngsters came to me. They said that they heard it wrong...36 years in one company? They wanted to confirm the information was correct. I clarified them that the information was correct. Then came the question - 'Why you remained in your comapny for so long?'.
In India, people understand the Tata Group for their policies, benefits and services provided to their employees.
I just explained them that how our policies are there - Canteen facilities, Bus & transport facilities, Medical & health benefits and so many other things. I told them that these things are not written in your pay-slip. Most important that the status levle you get in the society. People come forward to help you as soon as they know that you are from 'Tata's! That is the diffrence and thats why I am still there in the Tata Group for so long - 36 years! It is a journey of my progress and my family too.
25 years back I was staying in rental house, today I stay in my own 3 BHK flat and own a car. I remember that when I joined first company in my life buying a cycle was great thing. I moved fast from 2 wheeeler to 4 wheeler. I could buy my own house with great support from my company without much fuss. There are so many things which my company did for me in last 3 decades. 
Today younster believe in moving across companies and look for fast growth. They do not claculate or consider such things when they leave any company. They just look for themsleves. They forget what good things their comapny did for them. They think that staying at place for long does not help them. I was talking to a young employee who want to leave his company. I told him to calculate such benefits before leaving the company. He soon realised that going to another company means missing first year appraisal, which means missing one year's rise in the salary/wages. He came back to me after 2 days and told me that he is withdrawing his resignation.
I also know that staying in one company and that too in one area for long is not really a good idea. You can job roate within the company and also look at the internal job postings for the growth.
Ah....after serving for long time in one company, I still feel that I just joined this company. Time fly. I still feel young, excited about the changes, parting with the knowledge I have to the newcomers, changing the processes and bringing in new initiatives. I am charged as ever to look for new opportunities to learn in the company.
    

Revesrse innovation

Has anybody touched you in last 7 days...

You must have observed or experienced within your friend circle that your friends are eager to talk to you or get connected with you. Why is so?
There is a study being done and the main observations of the scholars are that 'people feel that they are lonely most of the time (even surrounded by lots of people) and there is nobody to share their feelings and thoughts'. Some time the family members are not nearby or that person is working out side or the person is not willing to share personal things with family members. In fact such people are looking for friends and colleagues to share such personal things or sensitive issues and not to their family members. 
This also shows that people are stressed - for whatever is the reason - and restless. This is leads to running away, suicides, depression, unwanted excitement (hyper nature!) and medical & health problems.
What they need is a shoulder to cry and place to vent out their feelings, both positive and negative - a person or a place to share and express!
This has led people to go for social networking. If you check with your friends, you will find that most of them are members of some social networks - Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. People are dying to get in touch with friends, both known and unknown with whom they can share their feelings and moods.
Most of them are looking for recognition for the work they have done, the latest gadget they have bought, the book they have read, the best photograph they have taken...they want to share whatever they have done and want some recognition. They want to share joy, sorrow, excitement and if possible some guidance or some words from their friends and colleagues.
You must have observed this, especially during training programmes there are participants who just want to vent out whatever they have in their mind and heart. They are more talkative than others. They are trying to reduce the memory load. These are the signs of restlessness. As a friend, as a human being we should help such people in doing that....and not to ignore them or laugh at them!
As you know the people have short memory and they remember what really happen in last week. And that’s why they call it as 'last 7 days' period for this.
This necessarily brings responsibility to all of us...whenever possible get in touch with your friends and colleagues. It could be simple SMS, mail, scrap on the web site or just 10-15 second phone call. The impact of you touching the person will be tremendous! The person will respond and get connected to you. There could be lot of exchange of thoughts and emotions which will relieve the mental and memory load (Positive and Negative)...!
So dear friends, ask this question to yourself – Have I touched somebody in last 7 days? Has somebody touched me in last 7 days? Is there any friend whom I have not called for ages? Better it is a time to call or write…!
Are you still waiting for something?