Destiny

Recently I heard on an Audio listening, the person speaking was quoting someone. The person quoted mentioned that I believe in GOD as I see him controlling me. I make a plan to do something, but then I am unable to achieve it, but something else happens. This shows there is someone who has power over all my affairs. That is soo True. We plan so many things, we think, I will do this, than I will do that and this way I will reach there. I believe in Planning. But then still there is the Factor called Destiny. We plan in our limits based on what we see. But then our Destiny takes over and places us in a different position, that is good for us. And it being part of our Faith to believe in Destiny, we are satisfied with what comes down our way. Alhamdulillaah, Islam is such a complete religion, it covers everything that you need to Live a Happy life.

I think I have blogged earlier about it: Everyone was shocked when I left my job with a company that stamped my H1B and wanted to send me to USA, and I told them No I want to work in MUMBAI itself. And the second company did my B1B2 so that I travel for couple of months on projects, I was Ok with this idea. My tickets were booked. We were waiting for approval from the upper Management when we got the news that they had decided to close down the Mumbai office, since they had a bigger office in hyderabad. See, How I who was about to go to USA on a project, left the company and got an offer and came to Kuwait in weeks. That was my Destiny and Alhamdulillaah, I am so happy for what I got. Lucky that I did not get into that Cycle of H1-Green Card-Citizenship. by the time you get it these days you are 40 years old spent all your youth away from your loved ones, just working hard, thinking every day if you will have a job the next week or not. Worrying about how will recession affect, how much higher is the cost of living going to be. I mean we all deserve some peace of mind also. We are humans only. Last week I was speaking to my friend who is in the USA now for couple of years, we realised that the amount of Savings was almost the same. To me that is the reason why I left my Home country, to make and save some money. So I was teasing him, how lucky we are that we can reach back home in 3 hours on the cheapest of tickets and How they cannot think of coming to India atleast for 2 years because of the short 2 week vacation they get and the cost of Tickets.

Wallaahi Niyamah to be close to home. I am loving it. I mean if you can get to see your Mom often, to me it is a Niyamah. I feel so bad for my brother who loves all of us so much and we love him so much but we dont get to see him often, maybe once in 2 years on a 2 week vacation. I wish he moves down to the middle-east or India so that we can see him often! Yaa Rabb!

Any ways everyone has their personal choices and have their own Destiny. I know my friends who tell me everytime I speak to them, come back to India you can do great here also. But at this moment I like to be in Kuwait and visit my Mom and family often atleast once a year. Kuwait - I am Loving It!!!

The way you look at it! Orca Vs. Seal

One of my friends at work sent me this Video Link without any comments. I want you to see this video and then note what comes to your mind from it before reading what is below it.

I watched the whole video and replied saying, "What I learnt from it is that You should have a Strategy to achieve a goal and then a team that believes in that strategy and acts according to it to reach the goal". Now you know whats wrong with me. Maybe u just enjoyed the video, or just admired it or just took it casual. I have been recently reading stuff about Management, hearing from some Strategy Guru's about what a good Strategy should be what are its goals. What is Competitive Advantage. To be honest, I am enjoying it. I am trying to understand what goes on in the minds of leadership, what are they interested in, what is Important to them and how ignorant are the common men working on the floor in the organization about these stuff and how much powerful would be an organization which can get its people to believe in the Mission and Act on the Values and Behaviors set by the Leadership.

I wish I can work in this area full time. Maybe one day! So since I am going through this kind of stuff when I saw the video I related it to what was going on in my mind. And my friend replied with a Sad face, I like the Seal. I mean I never thought about the whole video that way at all. She was sad for the fate of the Seal. And I was impressed with the Intelligence and team work of the Orca. Anyways, she has to be sad, women have to be sentimental else this world would be a crazy place if even women were like Men. I told her that is good, thats how a girl is supposed to be, Emotional, Keep it Up!!!

So any girl who saw this video and did not feel sorry for the seal. I think u ladies need to go back to a girls school and learn how to be more Feminine. Your work environment has made you soo much like Man. Stop being just like a Man! The charm is when a Woman acts like one. Not when she acts like a Man!

Being Thankful

Today was an Off thanks to Kuwait in lieu of the Night of Ascension this Monday. Woke up late around 11:45, I had invited a friend to stay with me since my family is back in India. As we woke up we thought should we make some breakfast or eat out. Then we thought lets have some Aloo Paratha in an Authentic Pakistani restaurant. We knew we were late for breakfast in the restaurant but then thought Yalla. lets give it a try. Yalla.

Unfortunately we got no breakfast there, as we entered my friend met one of his ex-colleagues. He has been in Q8 for 31 years and working only as a Helper in a prominent company. 31 years in a single company. Gets to see his family only for a month every 1.5-2 years for a month. Yaani, he has been with his family on an average for only 24 months means 2 years of his with his family while he spent the rest working for them... And we complain we dont get enough vacation, shame on us. Reminds me of the Hadith which means Look at those who are below you not who are Above you. I try to think of the vacations I take and he has taken in his life. How thankful We should be to Almighty Allaah. And as my friend narrates he is not educated so he has been the same post of Helper for all these years. Hard work for 31 years, his age is 52 now. Means he must have come here at the age of 21 years. Well he was not fortunate to get education, so he worked so hard and made soo many sacrifices to give his family a good life.

He was mentioning his son would go into final year of secondary school and he gets good percentages in school around 85% . Mashaa allaah, he was mentioning he would like him to study and become an Engineer as he is getting good grades in school. He said I will work here for next 8 years until I retire at 60, so that my son can become something. May Allaah help him. We discussed and I adviced him to do Diploma than Degree if he is sure he wants to do Engineering. Explained the benefits of it, over Doing Higher Secondary and than Engineering Degree directly. He asked which field of engineering was better I mentioned Computers, Electronice& Telecom and Chemical. So we just had a casual discussion over a breakfast and we had met for the first time. he liked it so much, he was soo thankful while leaving. But I felt soo sorry. Yaani, there are poor people around the world facing Hardships and trying to educate their children to give them and a good life.

Now looking at this picture. We keep complaining, I need this, I need that, I dont have this, I dont have that. Wallaahi, I dont think I have any right to complain, I think I have everything.

Playing with the Cat

I was discussing with a senior consultant we have in our group, who is responsible for Planning for the group. And we were discussing about some new products we are planning to implement for Project Management. And we were both stating that we cannot succeed unless we get all users to buy in and use the tool. So we were thinking of the risks and issues tht could come up. Basically we were doing Project Management without a Tool... I was stating how we can improve the lives of users with all the different ideas we had already available in doing different things related to their business and make their lifes easy.

But as all Experienced and Mature people advice, he also adviced me the same thing. Awwab, you have to be Patient. We have to go slow with the users slowly slowly we make these part of their routine. He mentioned his Mom used to say "When you are trying to play with the cat, like run around to catch her, you should also give her some freedom" Means you should not corner her, she might get scared and in return hurt you. So you should give it some space to run around... Similarly you should give your users some freedom to accept the tools and new ways of doing things patiently. If you Push it on them, they might revolt back.

A very good way to teach something. I dont think I will ever forget the lesson he taught me because of the story of "Playing with the Cat" Human mind is such, it remembers things more easily when you store it like a picture, something that relates to something you already know. From my childhood I know playing with cats and I could relate what he was mentioning and picture it. And then we he relates the story to day to day Business. It surely will help remembering it all the time....

This is why I love talking and sitting with senior experienced people, I get to learn so much from them. Much better than talking to people your age... who havent seen the world more than u.

But on the other side I have some other people who think they will implement solutions and get users to use them by force from their bosses. To be honest, I believe only 50% that their Strategy would work. Because I always believe, even if you make the best system in the world it is th ease of Use, that predicts the Success or Failure of it. So any system that increases the work of end users usually goes towards the failure route.

Thats the 1st one towards achieveing my KPI...

KPI

KPIs = Key Performance Indicators?? Well nowadays everyone has KPIs unless you are not performing to be measured enough. And u know what my weekend KPI is. I have to write 6 posts over these 3 days. So I have to think and write about some good stuff...

I have tough boss, to assign me such KPIs.... more later!!!

Thats what friends are for!

Today as I reached office and the first question I got from my friend cum Advisor cum Counsellor cum Sister was, so what are the key points you have noted down. Yaani, she had already read my blog. I could not believe it. I dont think she has my blog in RSS feeds and I had not blogged since long, so wasn't expecting any of my friends checking it out for updates.

But it was really cool, that my friends still keep a tab on me thru my blog! Gives me the boost to keep blogging knowing friends are reading it. That is why first thing i did after reaching home today was start typing in this post...

Too sleepy..... gotta catch some sleep now! More later

Random Chants

It has been long I haven't blogged. No, I haven't quit blogging yet nor am I too busy to blog. It was just always I think of blogging, I try to think of a topic to blog about, and that thought would not give me a result so I wont be able to blog anything.. So today i thought lets just go on and speak nothing and maybe I will come up with something.

I had a very interesting conversation today with a very fine Gentleman, who has recently joined our organization. He is a Gold Medalist in USA, studied in the top universities. And as i usually like talking to mature people who have much more experience than me, because I get to learn from them. He was explaining to me about different types of people and what type of people rise up in life and how we should deal with conflicts and how to be devoted to any work that we have been entrusted to do. How to deal with Change. He has worked with organizations and with the leadership of organizations helping them plan their strategy and get it to work. So I had a very interesting 10 minute conversation in which I was an active listener and trying to Grab the most of it and memorize at the same time. I am sure I have to jot them down with Pen and Paper to not forget the important points... I know you must be wondering when will i bring down the points that he explained. Unfortunately I will have to disappoint u now. Since he explained to me this as a younger brother. So I am keeping his advice to myself and not making it public. Yes I will try to encourage him to blogging, so maybe if he decides to share his thoughts with the worlds, i shall definitely let you know ;)

It Indeed was a pleasant day Alhamdulillaah!! Let me do my homework before I lose any important point from that conversation.