Bad Day at office!

Pretty common, right!. Actually a Bad Day at office is as inevitable as bad traffic on your way to office. Remember that guy in Ceat Ad said "Street is full of Idiots" . However, smart, savvy and cautious driver you are, there will always be some jerks on the road, who'll bug you and even put you to risk. Some are as grave as life threatening, some are just annoying by their honking. Similarly at office, a bad day may be just a mood-spoiler or career limiting.

Coming back to my theory that office is not meant to give you happiness, because they pay you. It's upon you that in the process of doing job and making money, you may have have some (or more, if you are smart enough ) moments of fun. So, if you didn't have a bad day, it's their lameness, your luck and smartness, else Idiots will leave no chance to make it bad.

My point is, problem is not a bad day, problem is if you let it affect you. My two cents on how to cope with it.

• First thing first, they pay you, right. Just have a look at that salary credit sms you got, feel better! But never look at someone else's salary credit, that's damaging and beyond the scope of this blog.
• Ignore, simply ignore. If you don't believe it's bad, it's not. Dhoni is still playing, and Akshay Kumar is still acting and people are still speaking ill about both of them. Ignore.
• Theory of relativity. Do you remember that quiz where they ask you "How to make this line __________________shorter without erasing it? Simple, draw a longer line _______________________________ next to it. Hope you got the message, your bad day is not bad, if you make someone else's even worse. I know it's mean, but who said Life in Office is fair.
• Sycophancy helps. I think Rumi once said, 'Sycophant a day, keeps a bad day away' Always have people around who are ready to say at the drop of hat "Boss, awesome stinker email, you just nailed the matter, good that you replied all and copied COO as well". Sycophants are real morale-booster and as effective as doping, and not even illegal. 
• Pretend & Act. Come on, there's a bit of Tusshar Kapoor & Abhishek Bachchan in all of us. Ever noticed their interviews, tweets "Tweeple, Damn busy with some good assignments, so won't be able to reply, XOXO". And, some believe this also. Just pretend that you are having awesome time. Act as if it was the other guy who lost the argument in the office meeting and feel sorry about him.
• Revenge. Little tricky but effective if done well. Start with, not working and just lazying around in office for some days. That's your revenge on the employer, you not working and they still paying you. Some do it through out their office life, but that's senior management forte, so avoid over doing. 

If any of these doesn't help, hit the Bar. There's nothing which a true spirit can't cure. Cheers.

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Lego is life!

Typical weekend, I was 'busy' on twitter while watching India-England cricket match and my son was assembling a space-ship with his newly acquired "Lego Rotor Rescue" set. Suddenly he got restless, as his shape, which has come out very well, was not matching the instruction booklet. And, I was summoned to advice. While, I spotted the slight error but that would have required dismantling the whole set, I was also unsure if that would actually correct it.

So, I said "the instruction booklet is printed wrongly" . "Papa, are you sure" . "Yes" . In next 2 minutes, his space-ship was ready, minutely different than the one shown. And he was roaming around the house showing his creation to every family member. 

Son's creation!

I think Lego carries many a life lessons. 

• Like Lego blocks, we can use the available 'resources/tools/blocks/skills' to make what WE want of our life.
• We can reboot, restart, reassemble as many times as we want.
• In spite of same resources, different people reach different outcomes.
• Process of building blocks is time-consuming, arduous, painful but if you keep the end result in mind, it's worth it.
• While having an instruction manual (parent / coach ) certainly helps, yet if you are determined, you can do without it. But, nothing like a 'parent' to start with.
• Have a partner to play with, and see how interesting the "building block" journey is.
• If you keep making the same thing out of your blocks, you may lose interest in Lego itself. Remember, Lego is just a set of finite blocks, but combinations you can make are nearly infinite - So is Life. 

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Smile!

Sad news all around, so thought should start my new year with writing about something sweet, simple yet rare - A Smile.

Smile must be one of those things which doesn't cost a dime except that easy movement of that 20 odd facial muscles, still we treat this as if we are asked to part with our money for someone else's charity. 

Few days back, walking on my way to the grocery store, saw a 20 something dude coming to me. Face looked familiar, and while I was trying to place that guy, he smiled at me. Before I could reciprocate, we lost the eye contact and he passed by. I kept thinking, suddenly it struck me that this is that IIT student who shared a cab with me when I wasn't getting one on a rainy day. Not even that he also pointed to my phone which I would have forgotten in the cab. And, I started feeling guilty that I didn't acknowledge him and his smile.

When it comes to smiling, the simple heart and complicated mind come into play and we have lots of questions before we make that BIG decision to smile :

• Do I know him / her?
• I know him but does he know me?
• Why should I smile first?
• If I smile first , will he reciprocate?
• Last time I smiled at him but he didn't?
• What if I smile and he decides to talk, I'll get late?

By the time our mind processes all these questions, chances are that the person passes by or we lose the eye contact. 

Question here is what makes it so difficult to part with a smile? Do we lose a fortune or something if we smile at a stranger!

Next time, when you come across even a slightly known face, don't let your mind come into play and just pass that smile. Be it that security guy, that maid, that junior colleague, neighbor's driver, whoever.  

Well it's important to recollect who that person is but smile can be passed immediately. 

When in doubt, Smile , and do it fast:)

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