Customer is always RIGHT

Nowadays, it seems like time is at it's full pace. As I am on my sales and service training meeting various customers, listening to their complaints and queries, visiting sites etc. is what my day consists of. Albeit the schedule is very tight the work is full of adventure and demand for perseverance. December 5^th was the first day when I went for customer visit along with one of my friend under the guidance of our Senior Manager of Sales and Marketing. After attending our first customer who was a lenient one and just inquired about the machine specifications and for some price negotiation, we moved to attend our second customer. Before entering this customer's office my sir told me " Abhi dekhna bahut maza ayega". As we entered in his office our sir introduced us to him and the adventure began. At first he asked us why we did engineering??? My friend took the challenge and replied to him by giving the justification that he wants to work with big machines. Although unsatisfied he asked another question why only construction equipment industry?? My friend this time recede and now I have to say something, completely unaware of the coming storm I told him that I like the hydraulics technology that is used in these machines. But this time the lion roared, he pointed that the hydraulic thing can be done with a pump at your home; talking in a manner as it is no big deal for him, I was astound and decided will not say anything except "Aap sahi keh rahe hai". He then moved towards our sir, first made him to listen what he thought of "verbosity v/s dogs" and then asked various questions on machine specifications after few minutes he decided to pull our legs again. Asked a new question what does an engine do?? My decision was firm and I didn't even look at him and my friend has to answer him he told him that an engine convert chemical energy into mechanical energy and provide drive and power. As usual we were wrong, he said " Power to generator deta hai engine ka kaam to ghumana hai wo to bas ghumata hai har chiz ko". My friend looked at me and I said "sahi keh rahe hai". After this both of us use the same incantation to avoid further replying to him and getting our basic totally ripped off. Finally, we came out from his office and our sir asked us "batao kya sikha?". And I said "Customer is always RIGHT".

Joie de Vivre

“Lying on the green meadows, watching the clear blue sky, feeling the fresh cool breeze and living the moment.”An indelible experience in Himalayan trek, which reminds me of my childhood days. It is not that I spent my childhood in Himalayas but my hometown - Sarni complements me with the same felicities and pleasures.

I still remember those primary school days when I went to school by a bus and always took the window seat. And that lad got amazed and blissed out every time he looked out of the window and saw the mountain, trees, greenery, and felt the fresh breeze. Sometimes during spring season when I woke up I found the mountain peak disappeared and then slowly clouds unveil it. Observing different kinds of birds and listening to their melodious chirping, just sitting quiet and hearing the sound of wind, sleeping on the green grass of courtyard in the winter’s noon…. And many more of such activities I used to did during my childhood. But as I grew up and left sarni I was no longer able to connect myself with nature. But this trip to uttarkashi and the Himalayan trek remind me of my memories and revived my bond with the nature.

 At sarni I always found nature as my nurturer, it always kept me refreshed and poised. Sarni is not a place where you live with nature but rather you create a bond with it, it become a part of your life and slowly you will find that nature resides in you…

(P.S.: As I was out of ideas for writing something for blog one person suggested me to write something on Sarni i.e. my hometown. Although initially I wasn’t able to collect any thoughts but that person along with the Himalayan trek helped me to go back into my childhood days. Just wanna say Thanks to that person, you gave me a wonderful idea :) )

TRUE VALUE

Today when I woke up the sun has already risen; it was 9:00 am in the morning. I finished my daily chores and then checked my email for any updates. For some time I tried to shirk my appetite as I don’t want to step out in that sweltering atmosphere, but in no time I realized that I can’t took it anymore and I decided to have some breakfast at 10:30 am.

Well I wasn’t aware of the fact that I am going to learn a new lesson when I will be finish with the breakfast thing.

So I took a quick bath, get dressed and took my wallet. Suddenly a thought came into my mind and I checked my wallet to see the amount in it. And ooops!! I have a single 500 rupees note; I forgot to get it changed with 100 rupees yesterday. “It’s ok, no problem I will get it changed now” that’s what I said to myself. So I went straight to a shop nearby whose shopkeeper knows me well enough and would help me with this change problem, but no luck the shop was closed. Then I went to the place where I took my daily meals and the restaurant was opened also. I went inside the waiter recognized me; I asked him the same question regarding the change of 500 rupees and he replied “sahab abhi saith ji nahi aye hai wo to 11:30 tak ate hai tabhi khulle ho payenge. Aap kaho to samne chai ki dukan pr puch lu?” Although I knew that I am not going to get the change at a tea shop still I moved my head in affirmation. And as I thought he came back and said “inke pass bhi khulle nahi hai sahab”. I thanked him for his efforts and told him that I will get them changed from some other place. So I thought for a moment and started to move in the direction of auto stand. I reached and asked the same to one of the auto rickshaw driver and he replied “bhaiya ajkal to mehengai itni chal rahi hai ki 500 rupye dekhe zamana ho gaya khulle kaha se denge.” That’s sound plausible, so next checkpoint a nearby Xerox shop usually they have changes as per my previous experiences. So I hasten to that shop asked the same and the reply was “nai hai baiya, abhi ek ko khulle paise diye.” “Still one option” I said to myself and went to a general store and asked for some snacks and chocolates which actually I didn’t require but had to so that I could have my breakfast. I ordered enough stuff so that the sum turned out to be 50 rupees. I gave “The 500 Rupees Note” to the shopkeeper and he said “bhaiya khulle dijiye” I replied “nai hai baiya” then he said “are bhaiya ab 50 rupye k liye 500 k khulle thodi ho payenge aap khulle krwa k le aiye” I didn’t said anything to him and walked out of the shop. Now the only option left was to walk one and a half km in scorching hot weather to withdraw money from an ATM machine. Although day before yesterday there was a problem in that machine as it was giving only 500 rupees note but still I went up there and I was lucky enough to finally get “The 100 rupees Note”. I looked for the time it was 11:00 a.m., it took me half hour to become able to have my breakfast. Then I went to a famous breakfast shop nearby had my breakfast. After that I asked him how much I have to pay for the breakfast he added the amounts and told me to pay 25rupees I gave him the 100 rupees note and he said the same statement asking the change of 100 rupees, but this time I had the upper hand so he had to gave me the remaining of the money, i.e. the change.

What I learnt is “The TRUE VALUE”, the true value in case of the money is not the figure printed on the currency note but actually it is the happiness and satisfaction it can give to you. And second thing is you realize the true value of something when you lack them. Like in my case I realized the value of a 100 rupees note at the time when I lacked it and that value is indeed higher as compared to that of 500 rupees note at the point of time. Well thanks to Science and Technology we have ATM machine which gave me the replacement of 100 rupees note that I was lacking. But there is one thing of which even the technology can’t give you the replacement and that thing is OUR RELATIONSHIPS. Our parents, family members, friends… and the list goes on, these relations are truly invaluable so never let them move out of your pocket because you will never get their replacement.

To all my school and college friends whom friendship is my TRUE VALUE

Reminiscence

                                 

8 Years. Not a short period of time, when I came here I was in class 10^th. I came to this place because my mother got transferred from Sarni – the place where I grew up. My brother was upset when he heard the news that we have to go to Bhopal, and so am I, but I don’t know how I gathered the strength to hide that feeling and instead took it as a positive turn for my life.

Finally we came to Bhopal. I have never lived in an apartment like this before, which have Chetak Bridge in its neighborhood and a workshop in its premises along with a railway line guarding one of its boundaries. This place is completely antithesis to Sarni, to what I like. Still anyhow I avoid all these anomalies of the place and started to live here. One or two days after we shifted my parents took us for admission as already decided my brother got admission in K.V. – 3 the same school in which my mother has been transferred to but since the school was new at that time, they didn’t have any class 10^th so my parents took me to K.V. – 1. At K.V. – 1 my first encounter was with Das Gupta madam, who was PGT Physics and also the in charge of admission department. After a long discussion she allotted me section C. Immediately my mother took me to the class. At that time Bio class was going on and Thakur Sir was teaching the students in his peculiar style in which he spoke the words “What and Right” almost 2 times in a sentence. He let me in and had a small chat with my parent. In the meantime I occupied the first bench at extreme left corner. Siddhartha Singh was sitting next to me. That day Praveen Sinha and Sachin Nema were absent. Manu Dixit and Kazim Khan was sitting behind us. Asif Anwar Qureshi was sitting on the first bench directly facing the teacher. Aditya Paudar, Aditya Nigam, Punit Tiwan, Himanshu Pandey and Prateek were sitting behind Asif (that’s what I guess as I didn’t remember exactly). From that day my new life started. During my mathematics tuition I met with Sooraj Prakash. He was also from K.V. – 1 but was in section A.

I have told you about my bio class. Now, it is time to take a look at some other subjects also. Nayak sir taught us Physics, and if someone asks me to describe him in 1 word I would say Totally Cool. He too has a favorite phrase “Hum bata rahe hai na, tum bas yeh kar lo yahi exam me ayega” no matter whether it was in the exam or not. Jasmine Quadir madam was our chemistry teacher, well don’t have much of the memories of her. V.R.S. Chaturvedi sir taught us English and I remembered he published a book on grammar also at that time. One of my favorite teachers was L.R. Sharma sir, he taught us Mathematics. He was an old man very polite, soft spoken and an excellent teacher. Asif used to chat with him like he was chatting with his friend. Our social science teacher wasn’t look social at first glance, she was a disciplined lady who wanted students to work harder and harder always, and was very much concerned with the map thing. We had one more teacher for social science particularly for History; A.K. Jain sir taught us that. He was also a teacher with incredible knowledge of the subject, but sometime he misspelled some of the words which gave us a chance to laugh after his class. Our Hindi teacher was our class teacher also, and like me K.V. – 1 was a new school to her too as at that time she recently been transferred to the school. Rita Chowdhary madam was like a mother to the class, she gave personal attention to every student, listened to their problem always and as we tease our mother often we did the same whenever we weren’t in the mood of studying. Most of the time our class captain Raghu Sharma who was an awesome basketball player brought some serious issue in front of madam and time passed out in debating on that.

Time was passing pretty fast and obviously I was happy from everything which I had achieved so far in this new place, along with my new friends and a totally new life. And like that class 10^th passed on.

So now I was in class 11^th, a year has passed and now I had many new friends. But it’s time to see some more new faces. Some from our own school but were studying in different sections and some are from other schools. Anshul Rawat, Arnav Malviya, Sooraj Prakash, Ashish Vijayvargiya, Nikhil Jain,Omprakash Rajput, Varun Tyagi,  Gaurav Rathore Shivkant Soni, Ankita Singhai, Paridhi Patni, Pallavi Barrange, Aishwarya Singh, Meenal Saxena, Swarna Murthy, Chetna Pandagre, Shaifali Sheemar were few of them who joined the Section B of class 11^th along with me and my friends. Anmol Bohre joined our company in 12^th class. (With time I might have forgotten many names that were in our class and were my friends).

And after having a class teacher like Rita Chaowdhary madam it’s time to have a strict chemistry teacher Bhavna Jaiswal madam as our class teacher. Well, in reality Bhavna madam is also a polite and gentle lady as my other teachers but she has to be strict in the class. Since my childhood I heard from nearly everyone “10^th k baad 11^th me bahut dikkat ati hai” why?? I was unaware till that time, but was going to realize the same. It was not actually difficult it was different. Well during this year we had a new set of teachers, Bhavna madam taught us chemistry and every student attended her class attentively because if she found someone not paying attention she said without looking at him/her directly “Beta madam ne apko aisa bataya hai kya??” whatever the case may be she was an excellent teacher. For physics we had Das Gupta madam, ya the same. For mathematics we had Qureshi sir, although most of the students found his style monotonous but he was a dexterous teacher. V.K. Misra sir taught us English, well he was a fan of one of the girls from our class, my school friends knew whom I am talking about. 11^th class passed on quickly. In this class Arnav Malviya became a good friend of mine as both of us went K.V. Bairagarh for regional science exhibition. I never realized when I reached class 12^th. And I was in such obfuscation till the end of class 12^th that I wasn’t able to figure out which was more important school or coaching. Time moved swiftly and we got our farewell from our school.

And today, after a half decade, I am missing my school life again. During these years I either with my friends or alone visited the school, approached my teachers, participated in a self organized alumni party, did almost everything just to revive my school life.

The truth is we always love our past, no matter whatever mistakes we have committed; our past is always full of beautiful moments which we can treasure. But we never sense them until we look back. And when you look back you try to live those moments again. Sometimes you start doing all those activities which you did in the past just in order to live again, but doesn’t work. You can’t live your life again, you just can Reminisce it.

To all my honorable teachers and awesome school friends who made my journey full of fun and happiness, and it will remain in my memories forever.

Just ME

LOVING IS A FEELING THAT BRINGS BOTH JOY AND PAIN TO MY HEART. JOY FROM BEING WITH YOU, BEING FILLED WITH AN EMOTION SO DEEP AND TENDER THAT NO OTHER FEELING CAN COMPARE. PAIN FROM KNOWING THAT I AM SO IN LOVE THAT I AM MORE VULNERABLE THAN I HAVE EVER.

“I was and never will in LOVE.” This am what I thought and honestly speaking I was going well, as always deny for romantic and emotional movies and novels. But this morning the streak ends. More specifically it doesn’t end but just got a bump on the way.

Albeit I knew the story and the characters of the movie, I still watched it while eating self cooked sandwiches at lunch. Well after finishing that 2 hours movie I reacted normally like others who already watched that movie.... I cried. This wasn’t a problem if I cried for a minute or so but tears fell for half an hour continuously, with short gasps. After I finish up with this lachrymose act I found myself in obfuscation. Indubitably “Marley and Me” is a wonderful movie, but Marley (the dog in the movie, who died in the end) wasn’t my dog, I never met him, then why I was crying so badly....

After a long thought I was able to unveil my obscure mind, I was whimpering because it really hurts when someone left you alone stranded on the journey of your life. And if that someone is the one who doesn’t care whether you are rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb but is ready to give his/her heart, it makes you feel rare, pure and special. You not just lost them but lost your identity too.

 Definitely I cannot fall in love within 2 hours, probably love is always inside me and Marley has just evoked it. And that is what I realize it is not that love is not meant for me, I just don’t want to be meant for love. Because the biggest problem with LOVE is 

“The greater your capacity to love,

The greater your capacity to feel the pain” - Jennifer Aniston.