It was 4th January 2019: Myself, Subho and Asif were in Srinagar.

Today we decided to go to the Shankaracharya temple. There were no other places to visit that day other than some indiscreet shopping, so the Travera was not called for. We decided to take an auto. As we stepped outside the hotel the snow started to fall.

We had faced snowfall at Sonmarg a couple of day’s back but Srinagar had been relatively dry. We were excited not only about the snowfall but also about our experience of riding an auto during a snowfall.

Sankaracharya temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and it’s about 1000 feet above the Valley floor.

It was all good till we reached the base of the Sankaracharya hill. After taking the gate pass from the military who were guarding the entry point, the fun began. Remember we had to now go up 300 meters of a hill in an auto and that too under snowfall. Already the roads were almost filled with snow and as the auto moved up we could feel that the driver was fighting against gravity at all the turns. We were contemplating getting out and walking up but the driver was confident and as per the Kashmiriyat tradition they won’t allow their guests to suffer. So slowly he drived on. At the second last turn the vehicle almost lost grip and was about to be off the road. But thankfully he was able to control it and we safely reached the gate of the temple.

The next challenge was in front of me. 243 stairs stared at me and I had to walk up. As if 243 stairs were not enough, the snow fall got heavy which made the situation even more difficult. I decided to go slow and took a few seconds rest after every 20-25 stairs and finally reached the top, puffing & panting after 20 minutes.

More challenge was staring at me. The snow had by now engulfed the entire place. From the top, Srinagar looked awesome under a blanket of snow. There were another 12-15 stairs that I had to take to reach the main sanctum area of the temple. And this time I will have to navigate the stairs in bare feet. The stone staircases were very slippery after the snowfall and the temperature was below zero degree. There was a small courtyard, where me and Subho left our shoes and walked up the stairs. It was freezing cold. By the time I entered the temple my feet had gone numb. We performed our pooja and again took the steps carefully because it was even more risky while coming down.

My legs were numb. There was a small fireplace at the courtyard and we got our hands and feet warmed for the next 10 minutes. After getting warmed up, we started our journey downwards.

The snowing had stopped by then but the steps were very slippery. We were very careful while coming down and thankfully we were back on the road in 10 minutes.

The Auto driver was waiting to take us back and we got in. As we got in the driver said that the road is very slippery so we have to be very careful. Subho said, “what will we do, by being careful, you are driving so you need to be careful”. Anyways, I must admit he was very careful while driving us and no untoward incident happened.

As we came back to the plains we were discussing our flight tomorrow. With the snow still falling we were thinking if the flights would take off or not.

The driver got talkative as we moved towards a nearby tea shop. He had understood that we are from Bengal and blurted out some Bengali sentences. We thought that he had picked up the skill from the tourists because after all, we Bengalis are habitual travellers. But guess what, I was wrong. He told us that he was a photographer a few years back and when a tourist family came from Bengal he fell in love with a girl in that family and they later married. I said, “Wow, that means you are Bengali Jamai – just like Amitabh Bachchan – lets call you Srinagar ka AB”. We laughed to our heart’s content while having tea and cookies.

My wife called up asking me to get some wool for stitching sweaters for the kids. Now, this was a tough ask because I didn’t know much about wool and from where to buy it. Thank fully our “Srinagar ka AB” offered to help and took us to a shop in a local market area. From there I was able to place a video call to my wife to select the wool which she needed.

It was almost 5 PM and we asked our driver to take us back to the hotel. As we entered the hotel, I kept thinking if the snow doesn’t subside what’s gonna happen tomorrow?

So what happened the next day? Keep the patience as I come back with the next edition of my Kashmir Memoirs!

Stay Safe everyone! God Bless!

My mother used to be always in tension when my father was late from work. Those days communication was a challenge. I am talking of my childhood days of the 80’s. It’s a different matter that the “tension” was a mental problem which continued till my Father breathed last.

Anyways, it was past 9 PM that day and my father was not yet home. I expected my mother to be tense. She had this habit of standing at the doorstep if my Father was late – but that day there was no visible tension. She served me dinner and when I asked where Dad was, she answered that he was at the club and that he would be late. You have your dinner and go to sleep, she said. What was my father doing at the club at 9 PM I didn’t understand.

Anyways, I finished my dinner and went to sleep. I didn’t know when I fell asleep but I was awakened suddenly with a bursting of crackers. I didn’t realise if I was in Dreamland because it was neither Mahalaya nor Diwali. Anyways, I could realise that my Father was back and having dinner. I went back to sleep thinking I will ask him about these crackers the next day.

It was a Sunday next day and I woke up late. Surprise! Surprise, I woke up to see a wooden bat lying just beside me. Once again I thought maybe I am dreaming! I had been asking for a wooden bat for the last few months – those days if you had a bat yourself then your chance of getting to bat early was high hence the need for a wooden bat – and to see that in reality was like a dream come true.

So here I was bat in hand and off I walked into the living room where my parents were having their morning tea. I was about to ask my parents when the doorbell rang. My father went to open the door and in came 2 of my father’s closest friends. They handed over a packet to my mother and told her, “Boudi, today mutton curry and rice for lunch”. More confusion for me. If it was today I could have rechristened myself as Confusion.com – too many things were happening which was getting me surprised.

Anyways, as everyone settled down, I asked what’s going on? Then my Father told me that India won the Cricket World Cup yesterday beating the mighty West Indies.

Though I understood cricket but as a 7 year old my understanding about Cricket was “Test Cricket” because I used to see my Father listening to the radio commentary for 5 long days. So I didn’t connect what the World Cup meant. As a child, “Test” means exam so winning a “Test” means passing the exam or winning but then what is the World Cup?, I thought. Then I was explained that “Test” Cricket was one format of the game and the World Cup was played in a different format (Those days it was played across 60 Overs each side).

So that’s my only personal memory of India winning the Cricket World Cup for the first time on 25th June 1983. It is a good memory no doubt, I got my first wooden bat and for that, along with thanking my father I also thank Kapil and his Devils who did the unthinkable of beating the West Indies to lift the cup.

A year later one of my uncles gave me a book titled, “Idols” written by Sunil Gavaskar. There I read a lot about the World Cup with Sunny describing not only Kapil Dev’s magnificent 175 Not Out but also the catch taken by him to dismiss Viv Richards. I became a die hard fan of cricket after reading that book.

Few years later before the 1987 Reliance World Cup, we got our first TV at home and for the very first time I was able to watch the highlights of the 1983 World Cup Final. Even today when I watch that match it gives me goosebumps. Scoring a paltry 183 and then defending that score aplomb against the world’s best side was truly like David slaying the Goliath.

The 1983 World Cup team had Sunil Gavaskar as the most experienced team member but his record in Limited Overs Cricket was not good. But what defined the team was the plethora of allrounders. Just imagine that a player of Kirmani’s standard used to bat at 8 or 9 in the lineup. Many of the batsmen like Mohinder Amarnath, Kirti Azad, Yashpal Sharma not only batted in the top order but used to bowl as well. Infact Mohinder Amarnath was the Man of the Match in the final for the 3 wickets he took.

In the previous 2 editions of the World Cups in 1975 & 1979, India cumulatively won only 1 match and that also against East Africa so when the 1983 World Cup began one can imagine why nobody gave India a chance.

But, Kapil and his team went against all odds and changed the perception not only of the cricketing world but also the cricket watching people in India. This team brought renewed hope to India in general because it showed that if you put your heart and soul into something then magic happens. And 1983 was the magical turn that Indian cricket needed.

Today India has won multiple world tournaments and are sitting atop the Test Cricket ladder but the dream of many Indian budding cricketers were formed on that night of 1983!

Thank You Kapil and your team for giving us a moment which will be remembered forever. As India celebrates the 37th Anniversary of our first World Cup win, a big Thank You to Kapil Dev and the team for making people believe that one can create his own destiny.

So what do you fondly remember about India’s 1983 World Cup win?

It was around late 2009 when the promotions of the movie 3 Idiots were in full swing that one of my colleagues told me that the movie was based on a novel, Five Point Someone written by Chetan Bhagat. Till that time I had not read any book written by Chetan Bhagat. Just to get an understanding about the movie, I read the novel, Five Point Someone. I instantly liked it and ordered some of his other books, namely 2 States & The 3 Mistakes of My Life. 

In 2013, I came to know that a movie based on the novel, The 3 Mistakes of My Life was being released. The name of the movie was Kai Po Che. Frankly a movie with unknown stars won’t get you excited but I wanted to see the movie because I liked the book when I read it a few years back and hence went to see the movie with my family. I really liked the movie. The story of 3 friends and their entrepreneurial journey with a backdrop of Cricket was well made and did full justice to the book. The character Ishaan, played by Sushant Singh Rajput remained as a high point because he not only looked very natural but portrayed the character of a cricket coach and showed the natural flair of a cricketer..

Couple of years later, I saw a Coming Soon poster about a BioPic on M.S. Dhoni. MSD is a living legend for cricket fans and quite naturally the movie was expected to have huge expectations. I came to know that Sushant Singh Rajput would be seen playing the titular role in the movie. The act as a cricketer in a movie means you need to have a good understanding of the game and should not be a novice in playing cricket. Sushant’s performance in the movie Kai Po Che aptly showed his love for the game because the shots he played (though in front of camera) looked genuine. I was not at all surprised to see him playing the role of MSD. But he left me stunned and spell bound when I watched the movie. His mannerisms and his way of playing the strokes including the helicopter shot made me feel as if MSD himself was playing the role. Quite expectedly the movie became a huge hit. A few days back when the movie was running on TV, me and my son watched it again. The movie helps us to go back to India’s world cup win and that’s a great feel good factor especially during these tough times.

In between I did watch some of his other movies like PK (a small but important role) and Detective Bomkesh Bakshy. After the Dhoni Biopic Sushant’s career should have skyrocketed but unfortunately it didn’t but last year he came back with a brilliant film, Chhichhore. It was a sleeper hit and I watched it when the film released on Hotstar. I liked it instantly both due to the overall fun factor (The hostel and college days are always fun to watch because it takes you back to your own younger days) as well as the moral of the story that suicide is not an option, giving up is not an option – Keep fighting and give your best.

Today, as the country comes to terms with the shocking news of Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide, my mind goes back to one of the scenes in his last movie, Chhichhore where he keeps saying to his son who had tried to commit suicide, “You gave your best and that’s good enough – Don’t give up, you don’t know what the future holds for you.”

Gone too soon, Sushant! You will remain alive through your movies! 

Hum haar jeet, success failure mein itna ulajh gaye hai … ki zindagi jeena bhool gaye hai … zindagi mein agar kuch sabse zyada important hai … toh woh hai khud zindagi

Om Shanti!

Aaran was in a great space. This had been a great year for him. The revenues have been consistent, the pipeline looked robust and the margins have been pretty good. This was in early March 2020. He was amidst his daily routines in the afternoon, when Faran knocked at his door.

Faran: Hey, Aaran. Good Afternoon.

Aaran: Good afternoon mate, have a seat.

As Faran pulled the chair and sat down, Aaran started talking about the robust business plans he has been preparing for the next financial year. Faran was not very interested in that topic because he ran a much smaller business than Aaran’s and didn’t always like the boasting of his always trying to act smart neighbour and hence cut him short and said, “I think you should plan for Work From Home. I think we are heading towards a lock down.”

Aaran: “Lockdown? India can’t implement lockdown.”

Faran: “It’s just waiting to happen and if you don’t plan fast, you will face difficulties.”

Aaran: “What are you doing?”

Faran: “We are all packed up and we will be 100% work from home within the next couple of days.”

They continued discussing some other stuff and when Faran left, Aaran got thinking. The Coronavirus issue had been bugging him over the last few weeks but he had thought that India would remain shielded. Better act than be sorry later, he thought and called his managers for a quick meeting.

In the meeting it was decided that the Human Resources team will draft a standard operating procedure for work from home and the admin team will ensure a smooth transition of all resources to respective employees’ homes so that everyone is ready to work from home within the next 2/3 days. Aaran was always a great task master and knew how to get things done. No wonder, things got implemented to the T.

Fast Forward: 4 Weeks

It was early April and India like the rest of the world was in complete lockdown. Thankfully for Aaran, work has been pretty smooth till now. All employees have adapted to this new change and customers are satisfied with the deliverables. But one thing kept bugging him. Overheads and Fixed costs. As a software company more than 65% of the fixed costs were attributed to employees’ salaries. There were conflicting statements over the media. Nobody was sure how long this lockdown would continue.

Aaran had saved for emergencies and knew that his business could sustain this pressure for quite some time. After all his business was profitable and he had savings to take care of in the immediate or near future. Cashflow issues started emerging with existing customers not paying up and new customers asking for more staggered payments or discounts. He knew that it was a growing concern which would affect his cash balances especially if this problem persists. 

An idea was brewing in his mind and he thought of calling up Faran.

“Hey Faran, how are you doing?” Aaran said as soon as Faran picked the call.

“All locked up, mate”, Faran responded cheerfully.

“So how is business? and how are you managing everything?”, Aaran asked.

“We are down 20% in production but the best part is all our employees are putting in the extra effort within the limited resources we have”, Faran continued.

What are you doing about salaries and new hirings and other fixed costs? Aaran continued to be inquisitive

“Nothing on salaries mate, we have to be in this together. Other vendor payments we are delaying and making staggered payments.” Faran responded.

“What about increments, incentives? Also what about leaves? No one is going to apply for leaves now! Salary outgo will be an issue, isn’t it? Aaran tried to make Faran understand.

“People come first and they should be paid and they should be happy in this unprecedented crisis. I think I am lucky that my team has rallied around and have been so adaptive of the situation. We are going to continue as we have been before Covid-19. And if we keep doing that, rest will follow, that’s my belief”, Faran reasoned.

“Good Decision”, Aaran said as they exchanged pleasantries and kept their respective phones down.

Bad became worse as one of a kind natural disaster struck the city. Internet lines got snapped, electricity got cut and there was mayhem. Aaron was devastated. “How do we get things back on track?, he thought. So many employees went incommunicado, the next few days was a virtual war for him and things became better only after 6 days. The cyclone that struck not only scarred the city but it scarred Aaran’s plans as well.

A few days later Faran received a call from an unknown number.

Faran: Hello

Unknown Number: Am I speaking to Faran?

Faran: This is He. May I know who is calling?

Unknown Number: I am Saran and I am a Technical Architect. I heard from a friend that you are hiring?

Faran: That’s true, we are. Why don’t you email me your CV? By the way, where are you currently employed and why do you want to leave during this period?

Saran: Well my current employer is being unreasonable and has marked me “leave without pay” because I was badly caught in the cyclone mayhem and couldn’t get internet to work for close to a week. 

Faran: I see, anyways, please email me your CV and we will see what could be done.

Faran came to know that Saran worked at Aaran’s company and he was very disturbed for 2 reasons:

1. Aaran being such an established businessman, why does he not believe his employees and why does he need to deduct salaries when there was a genuine problem across the city?

2. As a policy he never hired employees from a friend’s company so he was in a dilemma.

Faran called up Aaran.

“Hey mate, whats up?” Aaran said.

Faran: “Did you pay the salaries of all employees without any cut this month?”

“Well, whoever worked got paid. Whoever didn’t, wasn’t paid”, Aaran said in a matter of fact manner.

Faran: “That’s not right. You got to believe your employees. If they have been in distress, how will they work and aren’t you destroying your reputation and your employees’ mindset by deducting salaries during such a calamity?”

Aaran sounded disturbed, “I never thought in that way.” If my employees won’t work, my clients don’t pay and if my clients don’t pay, I can’t pay my employees. It’s that simple. I don’t want to put pressure on my cash reserves at this point of time.”

Faran was flummoxed. 

“Well, this is a situation which probably happens once in 100 years. If you don’t use your emergency funds now, why have you kept it?” Faran tried to explain.

“Probably you are right mate but the pessimistic me thinks that we will be under pressure for many many more months so its better to elongate the survival. I understand it doesn’t fall under your category of People First policies but then for us its customers first.” Aaran gave a straight answer.

Faran understood that it would be difficult to make Aaran understand. After all Aaran was a much more successful businessman than him and it won’t be right to keep massaging his ego. So he decided to hang up.

P.S. Keeping up to his ethics he didn’t disclose the name of Saran to Aaran and neither did Faran hire him.

Keep Safe, my Readers! Adios!

My colleague, Ashish has a lovely sense of humour. After the lockdown started, we did a short survey across our company to find out about our employees’ hobbies. Ashish listed “Stand Up Comedy” Not surprising! So today when I logged in for the weekly meeting I was expecting some comic act from him. He was one of the first to join the meeting so I guessed he had something for us today. Unfortunately once again he was not ready with a good enough script. So he gave it a pass. 

As everyone settled down we started the meeting. Our first point of discussion was “Supply and Demand” & how price points increase when demand rises. Pricing and Estimations are always a conflict point and hence it was important to set the record straight. Where and when to give a discount and when to back off is very important for all sales people to know. There were counter arguments raised which Ashish later compared to Munna Bhai asking question to Dr. Ashthana from the movie Munna Bhai MBBS. It basically made me a Dr. Ashthana in some sense. It was a good start to our lovely meet up today.

Today I had planned up a different game for the team. I first divided the team into 3 groups:

Group 1:

Azhar, Abhishek, Anwesha, Sarmistha

Group 2:

Aditi, Dave, Sujit, Rudra, Bias

Group 3:

Biswakalyan, Moinak, Ashish, Bikash

The game goes like this:

The Aliens have landed and are interested to know more about our company. But the aliens don’t speak or understand spoken languages. So, they need to be explained about our company using Pictures. Each team can talk among themselves in private to conceptualise and then one of the team members had to present the idea to all of us. The team whose image portrays the best information about company would be declared the winner.

Dave was the first person to raise his hand that we are always playing picture related games and he was not good in drawing. Anyways it was a team game, so others can draw, he could give the ideas, I told.

Technology has made us so fast these days, that within seconds WhatsAPP groups were formed with some naming the group as “Aliens”. As all got busy in discussing and drawing images, I continued talking about what we can do during our future meetings.

Azhar’s group was first up in presenting their image. They created one image drawn by Sarmistha and Azhar was enthusiastically trying to explain the concept behind the image. But, I was an alien hence I had to ignore his explanation and tried to understand what the company does by looking through the image. So what do you think? Does the image portray Brainium? After looking at this image can you correctly guess what Brainium is and what does it do?

I reserved my decision because I had to go through the other teams’ images as well. Next up was Dave’s team and Rudra was the presenter. As Dave got ready, we could see Ashish with his head down busy with something. Azhar knowing very well what Ashish was upto tried to disturb him by asking if he was preparing for some exams. Bikash was quick to intervene since he didn’t want his player to be disturbed as Ashish was giving the finishing touches to the images. Rudra presented 3 images with each image being starkly different from each other. It was clear all the team mates joined in to draw these images. This was good to know because that was the primary motive behind this game. So what do you think after reviewing these images? Are you able to understand what Brainium is into? Azhar quite expectedly commented that the images are not good enough but what does the general public say? For me the concept was abstract but it needed explanation. Ofcourse the aliens are supposed to be brainy than humans (thats what the movies have taught us) so they should understand from the image, isn’t it?

Anyways, we moved on to the third group. Ashish presented the images which were again quite difficult to understand about how it is related to Brainium and its services. But I must appreciate the effort in trying to design a new logo for Brainium with out the company name. Have a look to understand. The watch and the earphones suggested customer support and when I asked why the clock shows 3 O’Clock, Ashish was quick to answer that since Rudra was awake till 3 AM yesterday solving customer queries, its a gift for his positive attitude. After this Moinak also presented some downloaded images from the internet with Bikash explaining the concept. All images were images of robots and it felt like this group wanted to win the game by cheer number of images (quantity over quality).

It was pretty difficult for me to judge the winner so I told that I need to review the images later and declare the winners. Ashish was all excited knowing that his team will win but I personally felt after multiple reviews that Azhar’s team got the concept better. So what do you think? Am I right with this decision or should some other team have won it?

It was already past 7 PM and so we called it a day with a promise that we will have a virtual Swiggy or Zomato party later this month. Getting all the deliveries on time to all the locations could be a challenge. But, as usual we will figure it out.

Till we meet again, Stay Safe!

It was 21st May around 9.30 AM when my house bell rang. I opened the door to find our driver, Bablu standing outside. I didn’t expect him at that time because we live on the 5th floor and our lift became a casualty of Cyclone Amphan that stuck us the previous evening. To understand the story we need to rewind what transpired in the previous 24 hours.

As has been the norm during the lockdown period, we have been providing support to our employees with regards to hardware. Three of our employees needed system support immediately and since an impending cyclone was ahead of us it was decided that we need get the work done immediately because after cyclone the road conditions could deteriorate and commute could be a problem. The Government and media had advertised enough regarding the Cyclone Amphan and it was predicted to hit Kolkata anytime between 4 to 6 PM. Based on that we told Bablu to leave early in the morning so that he can come back before 4 PM. Based on that plan he left around 7 AM in the morning. Unfortunately our system administrator, Zillu whom Bablu picked up from Thakurpukur and brought to our Sector V office was unable to fix some issues in a computer and kept struggling till 2.30 PM. 

When I called up Asif in the afternoon to discuss certain things I came to know that Bablu will be delayed and looking at things he won’t be able to come back till 5.30 PM. Alarm bells stuck immediately. I was wondering why can’t they just leave and come back. But they didn’t want to waste the day with no output so they went to Rajarhat to deliver one system before returning home. Hours passed and I got no news. With the wind speed picking up I was feeling very anxious. I called Bablu up around 6 PM to find out where he is . He said that while returning home after leaving Zilu he thought of taking the Vidyasagar Setu but the police had blocked it so he took the Bankim Setu only to face the barricade again. The authorities were not allowing any vehicular traffic on the bridge due to to the onslaught of the cyclone. It turned out to be an agonising wait for him. On one side he was stuck in the car with rains lashing and a heavy wind blowing and on the other side he couldn’t get in touch with his family to find out their well being. Again after an hour or so when I called him, his phone was not reachable. Myself, Mukesh and Asif all kept trying him every half an hour but to no avail. 

Suddenly around 9 PM, my phone rang and I saw Bablu was calling. Immediately I picked up the phone and what I heard was that the police allowed all the cars to go through after the wind subsided for a while but when he came to Andul Road, he found a few trees had fallen and the road was blocked. I asked him to take the short cut (There was a short cut near Botanical Garden) but when he reached there he found that the area was waterlogged and it was too risky to drive through. I told him that in that case the best scenario for him was to take the car into College Road where Mukesh resides and take rest at his place. He didn’t seem very excited about that idea because he felt he could still navigate and come back home without realising the danger that can befall. Later when Asif and Mukesh called him he got convinced and reached Mukesh’s place around 10.30 PM.

The struggle didn’t end there because the gate was blocked with fallen trees. Mukesh had to take help from his neighbours to clear the area so that the car could be brought in. After parking the car, Bablu took Dinner at Mukesh’s place and stayed through the night there. 

A support activity for the office which was expected to finish within 11-12 hours turned into a 24 hour ordeal.

In the morning, my Vodafone Network was not working so I didn’t know that Mukesh and Bablu were calling me. When I turned to the Jio Network, I saw a deluge of WhatsAPP messages to find that the car has stopped responding and was not starting. Bablu’s ordeal continued, first he along with Mukesh tried to get the car working and finally when all options dried up he decided to walk home.

Hence, I was quite surprised to find him at my doorstep at 9.30 AM because I expected him to first visit his home but he decided to update the situation to me since I was not reachable on phone. After asking about his well being he told the story of how he navigated the roads during the cyclone. Navigating through roads with Transformers Blasting and trees falling was something which felt like a Hollywood movie for him. Just to break the monotone, I told him that he is the real hero because in movies these are done in computer graphics but he experienced it live. It brought a smile to his face but I thanked him for keeping a cool head under such a crisis. A better time management and a little bit of fore thinking could have avoided the ordeal but in hindsight things always seems so. Anyways, the best part was that Bablu was safe and his spirits were still high.

As I write this, he is back to work and his support has helped us in providing the necessary hardware to our employees over the last 3 days. These are the stories which bring out the true spirit of a Brainite and it feels great that we are able to create a family feeling around our organisation.

This incident taught us a lot as well. We understood that we need to train our people a lot on crisis and time management. As the saying goes, life teaches you on the go and each day brings its own set of learnings. Learn, implement, understand, adapt and relearn. That’s how the cycle goes and life goes on.

Kolkata is coming back to normal. Cyclone Amphan and its after effects are relatively lower now. But the cases of Covid-19 keep rising. Lots of challenges ahead.

Keep Safe Everyone! God Bless You All.

I heard this short story from a Marwari friend a few years ago. The Marwari community is the main business community in our part of the world.

They thrive on 2 things:

1. Interpersonal Skills

2. Customer Service

Being a very close-knit community, they have this concept of helping each other in crisis. And by help, I mean financial help. So supposedly Mr. X is in financial duress and Mr. Y comes to know about it. Mr. Y will now somehow help out Mr. X financially (This could be with himself providing the help or arranging help from within the community). The catch is that Mr. X has to return this money when it’s financially viable for him. Basically, this is done in good faith. With the entire community being closely knit, it would be highly difficult for anyone to hide. If someone takes help and then goes into hiding then the community shunts him forever and no one will keep in touch with him. Hence if he is in financial duress in the future he will have nowhere to go. This is how the Marwari community thrives. They not only grow themselves but help others to grow as well.

I told this story mainly because today when the world is amidst a Pandemic of Covid-19, it’s very important to remain truthful. Secondly, it’s equally important to understand that all of us are in the same boat so it’s better to hold each other rather than trying to pull someone down during this crisis.

All businesses have some kind of distress especially so during this long period of Lockdown but one needs to be straightforward with the vendors or to people who owe us. If people take advantage of this situation then they are doing more harm than good. In the short term yes, it might be good for you but in the long run, it’s not good and hence it’s better to have open communication with your vendors and be truthful about the situation.

We are in the services industry so we are vendors to our clients in some sense. 

I find 4 types of customers these days and they are listed below. All of us are a customer in some sense for some business so these points should be read keeping that in mind.

1. Customers who have no cash flow due to their business being shut down.

2. Customers who have reduced cash flow due to Covid-19.

3. Customers who are taking advantage of Covid-19 (using it as an excuse) to reduce payments to vendors (No Cash Flow Impact or limited cash flow impact).

4. Customers who even before Covid-19 had cash flow issues.

It’s important to identify who falls where or rather in which category before planning the road ahead.

I agree that most businesses and individuals are affected by Covid-19. But there are people who are taking advantage of the situation as well. If the intention is good, it will show and will have a long-term benefit. If as a customer you are not being truthful to your vendors and arm-twist them, then in the long run you might lose a good partner. After all, a company might be forced to work now without getting the proper cash flow but when the situation changes and they get into the choice mode, you might be the one to suffer. Yes, you might be in trouble today, nobody denies this fact, in fact, everyone understands it. So it’s better to have a frank and truthful conversation with your vendor.

We for example within 5 days of the lockdown went to our Landlords (we have multiple offices under rent) and told them that our primary responsibility was to take care of our employees, then we need to take care of all our clients and finally, we have to honour all our contract employees and finally our vendors. Hence, we requested that we pay 50% of the rent going forward till the situation improves on the ground and the balance will be paid thereafter. The good thing was that when you have open and honest communication, people understand and hence the landlords agreed to this new arrangement in good faith. This is what is lacking with many people today. Multiple people are trying to take advantage of the situation and when you ask for clarity, their only answer is “Covid-19”.

What these people do not understand is that one day the tide will change. One day the old normal will return but faith and the belief have been killed forever. So when the situation improves, the business improves, people will break relationships with these types of people. Breaking an established relationship that lies within your own control is not a good business practice. This will have a detrimental effect because, in these days of Social Media, a bad word about you or your company gets viral too quickly. The damage done to your reputation due to some short-term benefits will take you backward by years.

Hence having open and honest communication is very important in business. Don’t let situations determine your personality. Don’t change yourself based on situations. The core values and ethics should never change because if that changes then the fundamentals change and when that changes, everything changes. Always think 10 years ahead when taking such decisions rather than thinking one or two months ahead. If you add this practice of thinking 10 years ahead while making a current decision, you will be far better off when taking such decisions and in all probability will decide better and good sense will prevail.

So be positive and think positive! When you do that, your decisions will also be a positive one which would not only benefit you but everyone associated with you and your business.

Take care, everyone! Keep reading and keep providing your feedback!

Eid for me has always been about festivities and great food. During my childhood days, I was always treated to some great food during Eid, all thanks to our friendly neighbours at Asansol. We used to stay at S.B. Gorai Road and we had a few Muslim families as our neighbours. The food included various delicacies which included Chicken and Mutton dishes along with sweets which took care of my lunch and dinner on those days. Also my father’s Muslim clients used to send us food packets in the evening and generally that used to be my next day break fast or used to reside in my school tiffin box.

 When I went to Bangalore for my college, I understood the festival more intimately. Frankly, during my childhood days, I didn’t understood the concept of Ramzan so much. But when I came to Bangalore, I understood it better. I was admitted to Islamiah Institute of Technology which was a minority institute and hence I had a lot of friends and seniors who were Muslims. I had two very good friends, Hafiz and Raja who helped me in understanding the 30 day fast during Ramzan. Later on I understood the concept of Zakat as well. Pray to God, Be happy with what you have, Help the needy and ask for mercy and peace for everyone is what Ramzan and Eid is all about. Great food is just a by product. Its a different matter that great food attracts me so I used to always look forward to Ramzan and its associated festivities.

 During our college days specially when we were in Hostel, Eid meant there will be Biryani served and that also Mutton Biryani. Food was not the greatest thing on earth when it came to our college hostel but Eid used to be different. The then college chairman (Haji Saab) used to personally monitor the cooking and distribution. He used to ensure that all of us eat to our heart’s content that day. Its a different matter that ideally we should have been eating to heart’s content everyday but then he couldn’t be at the hostel everyday and with corruption rampant, people in the kitchen used to take undue advantage. Anyways, the Biryani during Eid at our hostel used to be great and we still talk about it among our friends.

 When we moved out of the hostel and started staying at a flat nearby, our Eid festivities didn’t stop. We used to ensure that some special delicacies were cooked that day or we used to go out to some restaurants to have a good lunch. In one of the years, I myself kept fast for 30 days and it was great fun! The fun was ofcourse mainly in experimenting different types of delicacies that we used to prepare for dinner. Sometimes we made mutton dishes or experimented with some fish items. One of the days we planned to make Jalebi, its a different matter though that the experiment failed and in place of Jalebi we ended up with Boonde. We ofcourse ate to our heart’s content with whatever we prepared.

Later when I came back to Kolkata and specially post 2010, Ramzan became extra special. I still remember the first Ramzan post our company launch. Those days our office used to be at Elliot Road & my Co-founder and good friend, Asif along with a fellow colleague, Zillu went to New Market to procure items for Iftar. The amount of food that laid before us during iftar was massive and by the time we finished, dinner was no longer required. We ofcourse reduced this consumption of food over the years but having good food for iftar has remained a practise ever since. Sometimes we used to go to KFC, Peter Cat, Mogambo, Shiraz or Arsalan for iftar. Iftar during Ramzan at Kolkata doesn’t finish without Haleem. Its a special dish which is prepared exclusively during Ramzan days and having it atleast once a week was a minimum for me. Just to top it up there are a few versions of Haleem that you get here. The Haleem at Arsalan is starkly different to the one you get at Sabir’s. We used to make sure we try all the different type of haleems available during Ramzan. Sometimes we got treated to homemade haleem from Asif’s house as well. So all in all, great and delicious food has always been a part of Ramzan and Eid celebrations.

 Preparing Biryani at home on the day of Eid has been like a ritual for us for the last 10 years. This year it has been so different. Due to Covid-19 we are all locked up at our individual homes, so for the first time in a decade a Ramzan went by without Haleem. Unimaginable but then we are in unprecedented times now. As the world celebrates Eid today, I wish you all Eid Mubarak and I hope that we will celebrate it with the same earlier fervour next year.

 Till then, stay safe and don’t venture out if its not absolutely necessary.

The entire world is together in the fight against the pandemic of Covid-19. India has been battling very hard as well. The double whammy of protecting lives and protecting economy has been a major challenge. With a lockdown which has been stretching for 2 months, things have gone from bad to the worst. Amidst all this, we in Bengal were caught offguard against a super cyclone, Amphan earlier this week. 

Since Wednesday morning (20th May 2020 – as if 2 twenties were not enough another 20 got added and took the disaster to another level) ), the dark hanging clouds were seen all around. It started raining soon after and persisted throughout the day. By afternoon, the wind speeds increased. We in Kolkata and Howrah have faced the cyclone Aila a decade back but frankly speaking no one in our lifetimes expected this cyclone (Amphan) to be anything worse that that. As the evening approached, the rains became harder and wind speed kept on increasing. Our worst fears were about to turn true.

Around 5.30 PM, my front door bell rang. I quickly went to check in who was there, only to find that my neighbour called in to inform that there has been a short circuit nearby and they saw one of the transformers catching fire and hence was advising everyone to put off the main switch. I quickly put it off and our flat went dark. Little did we know that for the next 12 hours we will be sitting in that darkness. With the wind speed increasing every minute, things started to go very severe in the next couple of hours. Thanks to a fully charged phone, I was able to keep track of the happenings and the progress of the cyclone via Windy.com. The tracker was predicting that till 10.30 PM, this will continue. By 8 PM, it became worse. The glass windows felt like will fall off any moment. Later I heard the speed of the wind was over 130 KMs/Hour when it stuck Kolkata. Mind also plays with you during such crisis. If I was lying on the bed, it was feeling like the bed was shaking. 

With the gusting wind lashing on our windows and the feeling that anything bad will happen at any time, we heard a shattering sound of glass breaking nearby. Immediately, we realised that the window in the common area of our apartment has broken. How could that break, I was wondering. Inside, I was troubled because if that broke due to the wind, then our glass windows are also in trouble. Nothing could be done that moment because opening the door was out of question. The wind was so strong that standing without any support outside the door was asking for accidents to happen. We then decided to just get into one room and lock everything up and hope for the best. In the meanwhile I was connected with many friends through WhatsAPP and was getting minute by minute updates on whats happening at various areas of Kolkata, Hooghly and Howrah. Some friends were complaining about their windows breaking and some were complaining about other damages related to rooftops etc. Close to 10 PM, few of my friends in Kolkata said that the wind seemed to have reduced speed. That gave me hope because though in my place it was as hard as before, I realised that probably we are getting into safe territory.

Around 11 PM, the gusting winds stopped. There was still a strong wind but that was a normal wind that happens during any kind of depression. We infact opened our windows to check out the surroundings only to be greeted by darkness. It was pitch dark outside. Not a single light could be seen anywhere. With the worst behind us, we decided to call it a day and went to sleep. We knew things would be difficult from the next day because with power not there, it would be difficult to get water and basic necessities would be an issue. But then, what we experienced in the last 4 hours was nothing in front of it and secondly we didn’t know what to expect in the future. I consider myself extremely lucky in hindsight because at around 4.30 AM, the power came back. I awoke and my & my wife went outside to see my area outside our main door to be filled with broken pieces of glass. It was a complete mess. As we cleared the area we remained thankful that nothing untoward happened and atleast the power was back.

In the morning we realised that none of our Vodafone and Airtel connections were working. The Broadband provided by CitiCable was not working as well. Thankfully, we have 2 Jio connections at home and to our surprise we found both working properly. The whole day went with working using those Jio Connections in HotSpot. Personally as the day went, I understood how lucky we were because many of my friends and colleagues went incommunicado. In the morning, as I went out to get milk and vegetables, the scenes were stunning to say the least. The whole of Andul Road was not visible. What was visible were only fallen trees and electric poles. Later in the evening, as I spoke to many people, I realised that people staying in the heart of Kolkata were still without electricity. Thursday came and went in trouble shooting. As Friday dawned, I hoped that my friends and colleagues who were still struggling for basic electricity and water, would get back to normalcy. But alas, nothing happened of that sort. Even as I write this, various places which are bordering the districts of North and South 24 Paraganas are still without electricity. There is complete chaos in many areas with people losing their patience. 

As I write this, I realise that Bengal has not seen a cyclonic storm of this kind for more than 250 years. We in the city areas are struggling to get water and electricity, I can’t even imagine the struggle that people in remote districts of North and South 24 Paragans are going through. I have many colleagues from those areas and they are yet to get electricity. To face a disaster of this kind in itself is a big challenge but to face it on top of Covid-19 has thrown off the disaster recovery system as well. Lack of labour due to Covid-19 is being faced by the civic authorities. People like me who are probably about 25% must consider ourselves very lucky that we not only escaped unharmed physically but also we could continue working in a relative normal manner amidst this catastrophe. Just a couple of hours back few of my friends and colleagues got their electricity back after 72 hours. There are still multiple people who are yet to get that. We are supposed to maintain social distancing due to the Government orders in place for Covid 19 but I wonder how will people lock themselves up at home when there is no power and water.

Its been 3 days and the Government is telling that they would need another few days to get the city life back to normal. The people who lives in villages would have been ruined for life. How will the Government get them back to the feet would be a challenge in itself. Covid-19 already ruined the economy, Cyclone Amphan ensured that Bengal is pushed further back. With Covid-19 cases rising the Government has a very big problem in hand. I hope that things get better soon.

There have been a few interesting incidents that happened amongst the fury of Cyclone Amphan, which I plan to pen down individually in the coming days.

Till then, please keep safe and I pray to God for the health and well being of all.

Take Care!

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