Death

You are dead
when parents tell that
they are finding you a girl for marriage

You are dead
when morals, social obligations and desires find a conflict

You are dead
when a enthusiastic fresher joins a company with a smile
later to be realized he is just another commodity with a face value

You are dead
when somebody asks- how much bonus/hike did you get, when you ain't get any
and he stamps you a looser

You are dead
when relatives say your salary is very low,
why don't you try for sub inspector post?

You are dead
when you call your friends and they say - pakka koi kam hi hoga
and it is true

You are dead
when you are used and thrown
and then, somebody smiles in your face

Deadness has become a eternal part of life
you are not eligible for suicide anymore
no need of four guys to lift the mass
you are now floating towards sewage pipeline
to be merged in the waste of crowds

Secret Salaries - A malaise in corporate industry

When I joined my first company, I was given the offer letter. But in the end, a secrecy clause was added - "your salaries and benefits are confidential and not to told to anybody in person and written." It is well known fact that with time people get to know, who is getting how much.

I think this policy is the sheer discrimination against the very basic concept of equality. I don't know where this system started. And I still don't know - are there any companies in India where salaries are not secret? 

Let me tell you how this helps in discrimination.

There is boot licker in group, so boss impressed with him gives a good raise. So people get to know that boot lickers are getting raises. The good thing is nobody can say to manager that he got the raise that much. Is he really eligible for this?  The very these words are against this secrecy clause. The after effect is- it increases suspicion and politics starts. Because people who are getting monetary appreciation are not going to tell the people, if they are not worthy of it. So some more start licking the boots. This helps in making the manager his clout among his juniors. This funda will most likely will be applied in the cases when manager is inefficient.

There is another case where it can be used. If there is one employee who is good at work and not very happy with the management. He often confronts manager in the meetings with his arguments. Many times his arguments are very apt. Management has no answers. Arguments are signs of healthy discussion. But ugly truth is that most managers don't like when a junior argues with them.  Some managers make it the point he is not given a  good raise and he leaves in frustration. Other in the group watch it out and no body speaks next time even if something is not in the rulebook. The scary thing is that this helps manager to manipulate the rules.

One more thing, there is one common phenomenon in IT field.  The guy who is working from last three years in the same company will always be paid less than the guy who just joins. Let me tell you one tale - there were two guys in the same company. They worked two years together. Then one guy switched to another company. After working there for one year, he came back to this company again.  Now this second guy is earning nearly 3/4th more than the earlier one. While both are working more or likely same, but doesn't it demoralize the earlier guy? Is working in good spirit really bad? Or hopping the companies is the good idea? 

Second one seems to be a better option. At one end companies say attrition is bad, but aren't they encouraging here.

I think salaries should be open. They will bring fairness to the workplace. People will really get to know who is getting what. If there are secret clauses for the things, hardly backed by the reasons, most likely they are there to help authorities when they can't play fair.

Bloody Indians

There was bandh all over India by opposition parties on price rise. Roads were lonely without traffic.
There was no holiday. So I need to go to office,

I don't have personnel bike. I came to nearby bus stand.  I thought I would ask for lift and somebody will surely help. In the meantime the another gentleman came nearby. He was wearing Kurta Pyajama and was in mid fourties.

 He stood before me and waived the hand for lift to two wheelers passing by. He tried 5-10 times. No body cared.  Even if somebody would have stopped, this guy would have grabbed the seat as he was before me on the way. So I was second in the line.


This time he saw one guy from the long distance and started waiving hands when he was 100 mtrs away. 
When the bike reached near to us, the guy on bike slowed down. This gentleman approached him, but in the meantime, he speeded away. 


He shouted on top of his voice looking towards me -"We are bloody Indians. We are born that way only. Because we treat our own people, Indians,  like  third class citizens. If that guy on bike would have been in Europe or US, even if one beggar would have asked for the lift, he would have stopped and dropped him at his destination. We are good for nothing. We can't change."

As usual, I had nothing to say and I nodded in affirmation. I thought he was convinced that I agreed with him.

After waiving hands for another fifteen minutes, another guy on bike stopped. This gentleman ran towards him and sat on the back seat. He left away looking back at me.

Trek

Remembering school days

This is the documentary made by one of my seniors from school, Siddhu. Watched it. Had the glimpses of my school life and some of my best teachers at school- Tony Sir, Namboodri Sir, Jayanti Maam, Chauhan Sir, Y C Sharma Sir and so on. Nicely made.

Conversations

You want to do it because you get goosebumps when you listen about it. You really love it. Will you define your life or let it be defined by circumstances? Will you garner the praise of everybody till long you become hollow inside?

I don't know. Look at the saints. They never define their life. They just live each day. They don't expect anything. They just smile.

You know why they smile- to fool you. They are constantly at war with them seeking the ultimate truth.

So you say - you have to seek ultimate truth without bothering about your family, your loved ones and your so called obligations towards society. Let so be it. But what if one day i get to know this is the ultimate truth.

You know what is your problem- you want to know everything now. Then what is the purpose of journey. The moments are best lived in finding the answers. Travelling untold path. You have been raised with quick results mindset. Get out of it. There are a lot of people littering shit everywhere because there are lot of people who are collecting it. You keep on reading self help books and reading advice boards. These all things are based on their own upbringing and some intent of what can be sold. 

But where should I go, if i don't know where I want to go. Aren't these stupid questions? In childhood, I never asked these questions and it went perfectly fine.

Well that contains your answers because nobody cared much about what you did and you also didn't cared about what others were thinking.

Well that's good. I am ready to follow this. But will you do the same. Her eyes were suspicious now.

There was total silence.

And she screamed back- you know what is your problem. You belong to that category of people who are littering shit. You seek pleasure in giving big sermons to people. Look at what you have done in your life. You will find the answer. And you know what is the answer. Here it is -you are the biggest hypocrite living in this world.

Imprints

We were all dancing in one of our friends marriage. All the loved ones were showering the love with money - throwing ten rupee notes over the dancing crowd. When the band started playing, a dark colored boy entered the crowd and started dancing with all his enthu. He wore a dirty dress and he was smiling.  I too danced with him. His company was terrific. His body just went with the song ignoring all the junta around.When ten rupee notes descended in air, he jumped and grabbed as many as he can. This kept on a while.
Soon one of the guys from the band shouted ," who is this asshole? Get this shit out of here." People intervened very fast. They kicked him outside and asked him to get lost. He got aside. He had accusing look on his face, as I didn't intervened. Band guys were happy. They were playing music -"aaj mere yaar ki saadi hai" and when the ten rupee notes descended, they grabbed it all.

.~.~.~ 


There was this guy in army. He has a younger brother who does farming. Generally Jats of Rajasthan, those who don't have jobs, always have the option to plough the field. You have a good paying job, you have high respect in society. Their brides are two sisters. The elder thinks she is lucky. Mother in law loves the elder bridegroom more than the younger, so does the neighbours. The army guy brings the so called precious items for her wife- cosmetic and eatables. If her younger sister uses them, elder would envy her. 
The army guy doesn't licks the butt of his seniors. He sometimes revolts against some of the high headed seniors. When he gets tensed, he drinks with his buddies. Sometimes, he gets in scuffle with his seniors. So they hate him and try to torture him. His irritation increases and one day he refuses to follow any of the orders of his seniors in front of  everybody. Things get worse and he runs away from the army. He lives in a city unknown to his parents for his whereabouts. His parents search him and take him back. He is expelled from army.Stories go round in the neighborhood. He has done something really bad and he was foolish to leave such a good and cushy job. Now he goes in morning to nearby mountain to break big boulders and earns the paltry income. Everybody sees him a looser and elder sister doesn't envy her sister any more.


.~.~.~