Festive spirit is nothing but a diversion from the daily rut and grind by celebrating the occasion by meeting people, wishing them, wearing good clothes and eating yummy food. The underlying message in all the major festivals is one of peace, prosperity and general bonhomie amongst the people. This spirit is slightly more prominent on the eve of Christmas, it being a global festival, celebrated across the geographies. 

Recently, I came across an article in which how the local colour is given to the traditions associated with Christmas made up for an interesting reading. And this happens in my daughter’s household in South Africa, where Christmas is celebrated with great enthusiasm and preparation is done for the festival well in advance. My young grand kids take out the Christmas tree and other decorations ( kept in the attic after Diwali) and decorate it to the best of their ability. 1000 odd houses within the estate that she lives in, participate in the contest that awards the “ best decorated house.” The usual traditional Christmas fare roast turkey, caramel pudding, cranberry sauce etc are generously interspersed with our own fares such as biryani and butter chicken. Christmas carols are played on the sound system in addition to the usual religious chanting played and a lamp that’s daily lighted and kept in the temple has added significance of celebrating Christ’s arrival in this world. 

And why go so far to South Africa, India, the land where all religions and faiths prosper, wears bridal look with markets, malls and houses decorated and Santas adding to the fervour by distributing sweets and toys to children. 

But our heart should also go out to people and more particularly children in war torn countries – Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Russia, Ukraine, those in terrorist infested territories and in general all those  deprived of the basic needs of food, shelter and education. Right now peace in the world is the top priority followed by hunger, medical facilities and education that all children and in general all occupants of this planet deserve. To say it in a rhyming carol on the eve of Christmas:

Christmas trees are decorated and socks are hung on them,

Santa will come riding on his sleigh at midnight and fill them.

Finest wines and liquor will be served to the sounds of cheer and toast

And tables will be laid with all the goodies and the traditional turkey roast. 

Those who can’t put up trees or have well laid out tables with no roast but only its whiff;

Let’s pray to the lord to better their fortunes with which they’re seemingly having a tiff! 

Merry Christmas ! 

Occasionally, I have the privilege of listening to the discourse by His Grace Ramrupa Prabhuji of ISKCON, who is periodically invited by an ISKCON devotee in our building. Prabhuji’s discourses are unique and highly inspiring for he intersperses his discourse from Bhagvad with relevant incidents from our Puranas and interprets them for real life situations. What l look for in his messages is the practical wisdom that can be applied in our day to day lives to better our existence. 

He narrated the mythological story of Dhruva, who’s advised by his step mother to seek God ( Narayana) and take rebirth from her womb to be eligible for being heir to his father’s throne and his affection. 5 years old Dhruva goes to forest to seek Narayana, where he meets Narad Muni, who advises the young boy to recite a mantra and seek Narayana with pure heart. Happy with his devotion, Lord blesses Dhruva to seek whatever he wants and he asks to rule a kingdom that’s larger than Brahma’s. 

To cut a long story short, his ambition is large, rather the largest, but he’s not seeking it through a backdoor or short cut, but by treading on the path of Dharma or truth. Management lesson here is that there’s no short cut to success. Also, it’s alright to aspire for the moon but the journey towards goal must be on a righteous path. 

Boarded a Mumbai local after a long time equipped with newspapers and pen to solve the crosswords and puzzles and while certain things such as rush, punctuality, efficiency remain unchanged, two significant changes are very visible:

(1) The mandatory fourth seat in a second class meant for three is no longer mandatory, but discretionary, depending on the existing lot occupying the seat. Seeing your age or condition, they may accommodate you as the 4th occupant, but you can’t enforce any right.

(2) No one is seen reading a magazine , a newspaper or a book or even chatting with a fellow passenger and each passenger can be seen surfing on his or her mobile phone – watching reels, videos, movies or chatting or talking  on WhatsApp! Obviously, as no one reads any published material, the railway platforms that used to be replete with book stalls and newspaper vendors are now totally missing there from and only major stations may have an odd newspaper kiosk. I was clearly an odd man out in the entire compartment. 

I recollect the good old days, when I would buy couple of newspapers from Andheri and an evening publication from Churchgate and would find almost every other passenger either reading or talking to a fellow passenger. Reading was informative, but that purpose from published materials is now no longer their  exclusive domain as apps on our smartphones keep us updated on world events virtually on real time basis. But other virtues of reading – improvement of our linguistic skills, enrichment of vocabulary, learning new expressions etc are now amiss , especially in the users of what’s popularly known as internet lingo! We are gaining information, knowledge, smartness, agility, ease of usage etc from our smartphones but losing out on social etiquette, good conversations, floral language and above all interpersonal connect ! 

 Very soon, we shall bid adieu to 2024 and welcome the new year 2025. While there will be round up of all the major events that happened around the world, the commentators will also lay down their expectations from 2025. 

But at the individual level, it’s about the personal resolutions- review of the resolutions made on the eve of 2024 and the resolutions to be adopted during 2025.

An article published in the Reader’s Digest December issue makes a mention of a survey from ForbesHealth/One Poll, the most popular New Year’s resolution for 2024 was to improve fitness and another top choice was making more time for loved ones. 

The above encouraged me to write this post as both the top resolution choices of 2024 roughly belong to the category that’s much in discussion here in India – work life balance. And this has not to be an annual resolution, but a way of life for which, organisations as well as their employees must work together. 

Sent from my iPhone

Tweet others as you want to be tweeted. The new take on the age old saying is very pertinent as it throws open an entirely fresh perspective without diluting the original connotation. 

It is indeed true that much of the social media, more pronouncedly Twitter, now renamed as X, is being used for trolling and spreading hatred and animosity, instead of sharing useful information or creating happy scenarios. Whether it’s to do with any movie or its stars, sports and sportspersons, leaders or their statements, issues- local or international, the tone and the tenor of a post, reel, story or tweet on either of Instagram, Facebook or X is usually objectionable and gruffly, if not altogether rude and unparliamentary. Like the message of the original saying to treat others well if we expected others to treat us well, the same rule applies to our posts and tweets too. If trolling and unparliamentary language used again us hurts us, we should refrain from using the same against others. 

Let’s strive to make social media a civilised place – not necessarily a happy place, but where we air our views without hurting the sensibilities of others. 

Appreciation can be public, but criticism and reprimand ought to be private: 

As Jaipur Superfast Express chugged into Mumbai Central station that early December morning on 5/12/1994 to be precise, I was set to commence my new professional journey with all its excitement. I had already taken a short bath inside the train’s toilet and had dressed myself up to to go straight to UTI Bank’s Central office ( as the Bank and its corporate office were then known as) and report for duty. I lodged my suitcase at Mumbai Central cloakroom , hired a taxi and reached 13th Floor, Maker Tower F at around 9.30 AM. It was too early in those days when the city of Mumbai, especially its business district started late at 11 AM. 

Coming from a well established old State Bank associate to a new private sector bank with two branches ( the first one in Ahmedabad was inaugurated by the then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on 2/4/94 and the second one at Fort had just opened a few days ago in the last week of November), Head Office under construction and a few employees trying to put some rules and regulations in place to run the bank, the true feeling was one of nervous excitement! 

From there to writing credit and merchant banking proposals  ( investments, underwriting, bankers to the issue mandate etc) in hand ( we were yet to get used to independent use of computers) to working across branches, to opening a large branch to contributing to the transformation journey towards the fag end of my career is a story that’s replete with interesting moments, anecdotes, highs, lows, struggles all told quite often and yet never failing to warm the cockles of the listener’s heart. 

While I have grown old and retired from Axis Bank ( the rechristened UTI Bank) in 2022 after being part of the evolution journey traversed by the Bank for almost 28 years from its inception in 1994, the Bank is now in the prime of its youth, transforming itself to give customers a totally refreshing experience and its competitors a run for their money. 

The above feeling of nostalgia got triggered by a mail sent by Axis Bank’s CEO ( not to me as an Ex staff or individual, but as a customer of Axis Bank), celebrating the Bank having crossed the milestone of having completed 30 years of its journey, rededicating the Bank and and its staff to the cause of customer service. As the Bank crosses more such milestones, the chest of several of us old surviving ex Axians will continue to swell with pride.  After all, seeing an organisation growing from its humble origins to becoming a conglomerate and a behemoth is once in a lifetime experience. 

We all aspire to reach to the top of whichever professional field we are in. Nothing than the top most position satisfies us to call ourselves successful. 

But there’s a very old English phrase that was taught to us in our schools, which was “Dignity of Labour.” We were taught that various constituents of our society perform different functions and irrespective of the activity performed, we should respect each of the worker for his or her contribution. 

Some of this lessons that we learned in school became handy during the pandemic period, when the people performing the humblest of the duties viz. Scavenging, cleaning, policing, delivering, couriering, driving etc earned our respect by being designated as “Covid warriors.” 

The above thoughts got invoked in my mind when yesterday I came across an auto driver, who was well behaved, courteous, polite, readily willing to go to my destination, had kept auto spotlessly clean, had his mobile firmly placed in his mobile with fingers not itching to see it frequently and above all not eating Gutkha to be frequently spitting on the road. He also drove keeping the traffic regulations in mind.  This ride was such a pleasant experience that I couldn’t help but convey my appreciation to the driver. 

And the above traits apply to anyone performing any activity or rendering a service. Coming back to the start of this post, it’s not very important to reach the sky. More important is the path taken to reach wherever we have! A path highlighted by honest intentions, polite behaviour, happy demeanour and a deep sense of responsibility is much more beneficial to the society at large, instead of personal achievements that could take one right to the top, without any benefit to the ecosystem. 

This curiously converges into my previous blog-cum- post on the quote read by me outside a church. The personal success can give us a lavish livelihood but the job well done  that touches lives of others is the achievement that ultimately matters. 

I try not to miss quotes and thoughts  displayed on the billboards outside the churches, thought it’s not always possible to do so, especially when one is focused on driving. Came across a beautiful thought today outside the church near my residence that read:“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give “

And the connotation is very deep as giving means not only money or the goods that we may donate under charity, but all those acts of kindness that we knowingly or unknowingly perform as part of our daily chores. A sweet smile to our driver, domestic help or a junior colleague ( to a senior we will always give a smile even if it’s forced), sharing bit of knowledge with a colleague to help him or her improve skills, recommending a deserving team mate for recognition, being accessible to anyone facing any issue, creating harmony and peace at the workplace and above all, treating everyone around oneself with respect irrespective of that person’s status will all qualify to be termed as “ giving” as per the Church quote. 

What sometimes professional managers may  fail to adhere to in their quest for winning is very subtly explained by such enlightening thoughts. 

I was not aware about International Men’s day, till I received good wishes on WhatsApp this morning from a couple of friends. Google search tells me that this day was celebrated for the first time in 1992 to highlight the issues faced by men. Incidentally, theme for this year’s men’s day is the importance of fostering open conversations about men’s mental health and creating supportive environments where men can thrive.

While there could be a few issues specific to men and women, there’s much common between both the genders when it comes to mental health. The stress, especially related to work, applies equally to men and women and needs urgent attention. The theme of international men’s day this year is, therefore, very relevant to all the working professionals, irrespective of their gender, and there should be collective efforts to ensure work life balance and happy atmosphere at workplaces to address this serious social issue.

And mental health, peace of mind and happy workplace are not issues to be pursued only on a designated day, but should be a reality prevalent on each day of the year.

 Vistara grew at a scorching pace. With a fleet comprising mainly brand new A 320 and a few larger aircrafts added subsequently, the airline carved out a niche for itself in the hearts of flyers, attributable to Singapore Airlines’ guidance and support and Tata Group’s known customer centricity! Virtually in no time, the airlines became a preferred partner for frequent as well not so frequent flyers. In fact, it bridged the vacuum that was caused by unceremonious closure of two of the best airlines India ever experienced – Jet and Kingfisher. 

With the last domestic as well as international flights of Vistara having been consummated on the 11th instant, its merger with Air India is now complete. Like so many glorious and a few not so glorious precedents- Modiluft, Damania, East West, Air Deccan and more recent Jet and Kingfisher, Vistara stands consigned to the annals of history. 

Air India, under Tatas, is still seemingly a little distanced from leading the country’s aviation ambitions. As I read somewhere, “ Tatas should make Air India like Vistara and not vice versa.” With Akasa and Spice Jet still having very small footprints, it will take some time for Indian flyers to be spoilt for choices that’s currently seemingly limited to Indigo and Air India.