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. 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!
As per our new tradition post Covid-19 lockdown, I met the sales team day before yesterday, al-beit virtually. This time around we were not in full strength, with one team member recovering from a recent operation and another busy on a client meeting which stretched beyond our team meeting.
We first discussed how ‘Supply Vs. Demand” effect product prices and how the same can be elaborated in the service industry concept, more so in the terms of Brainium. This was an important discussion so that the team understands the logic of when to offer discounts and when not to. When to negotiate hard and when to take a step back and be silent so that the customer comes back to us. Also when one is winning too many projects but there is a lack of resources then automatically we need to ensure that we don’t negotiate on prices. The prices should automatically go up because in this case the demand is more and supply is less. There were some counter views on how to keep the momentum going and how this logic of supply and demand doesn’t work in our business model but then it was important to know that we need not win each and everything and sometimes the art of saying “NO” acts as your biggest negotiation tool.
We also discussed equality in the workplace when it comes to thought sharing and idea sharing. How it’s important for a company to be a Great Place to Work, one needs to reduce the ego and have more patience. This culture according to me should be imbibed throughout the organisation with everyone being treated equally and no one feels entrapped under seniority.
With the monologue completed, we moved on to a new game for the week. People who have been following my posts must have seen that every week we play some game for relaxation purposes. Today with my monologue taking a longish time, we had to wrap up the game session quickly.
Today’s game was a little modified version of “Pictionary”.
First I divided the group into 2 teams.
Team 1 had Bikash, Debarghya, Ashish & Rudra
Team 2 had Sujit, Azhar, Bias, Aditi & Abhishek
The concept was that I will give a word to one of the team members of 1 team and that member had to draw a picture related to that word. After that he or she needs to show the picture to all of us and his team members have to guess the word based on the picture drawn. Ofcourse the drawer had to be silent. This way the game would continue for a preset number of rounds and at the end, the team which guessed correctly most number of times would be declared the winner. Ofcourse there was a time limit of 1 Minute to draw the picture and about 1 minute to guess it. Due to the paucity of time we kept it to only 2 rounds.
The first person to be given the word was Bikash. After Bikash drew the picture and put it up on the screen, his team members started guessing the word. First of all, he didn’t follow the rules of the game because he put up names in his image but I gave him the leeway because this was the first time we were playing this and probably because of paucity of time I didn’t explain the rules properly. One of his team members guessed the image as a colleague but then another one guessed it correctly by saying, “Friend”. “Friend”, indeed was the correct answer.
Next, I gave the word to one of the members of Team 2, Azhar. Azhar of course draws well and I expected him to come up with a good image which he did within the specified time. In a super quick time the word was guessed correctly by his team members. The right answer was “Fight” and Azhar did draw the image really well which made his team members’ job easier.
Then I went back to Team 1 and this time the “word” was given to Debarghya. His first reaction was, “I don’t draw well”. Bikash suggested to Google an image and show in that case. Ofcourse that was against the rules so he had to draw it. So, he came up with his image and the guesswork started. His team mates started blurting out words like, Growth, Triangle, Graph etc but no one could guess the correct word which was “Slope”. One probably can’t blame his team mates because the way he drew the images, it was highly difficult to guess the correct word.
So we were right at the end of the game with the onus firmly on Team 2 to guess the correct word & win the game. The word was given to Aditi and she drew an excellent image which was guessed correctly in a few seconds. The correct answer was “Mouse”.
Due to paucity of time we had to stop the game there with Team 2 being declared the winners but Ashish was of the opinion that I acted like Modi and Team 1 was Bengal and Team 2 was Gujarat and hence I gave easier words to Team 2. His analogy made everyone laugh and I promised that it will be equally hard for both teams next time around when we play this game in full strength. Hopefully it will be during our next meeting.
With that we wrapped up the session and I look forward to meeting the team again next week!
I was not a movie buff during my childhood but became one during my Bangalore days especially during the period 1995/96 – 1999/2000. In these 4-5 years I used to be a regular visitor to movie theaters especially to Swagath theater which was the nearest cinema hall from where we stayed. Watching movies those days used to be starkly different from what it is today. To get tickets for superstar movies would mean standing in the line for hours and if you were not lucky enough then you needed to be dependent on the blackers.
The cinematic experience those days used to be very different. The howling and shouting by the audience as the star made an entry onto the screen used to be deafening to the ears. It used to be part of the fun and all were used to the system. As I moved on from college to professional life, I hardly went to the movie theaters. The world of cinema meanwhile kept changing as well. Single screen theaters got replaced by multiplexes. My first experience watching a movie in a multiplex was in 2005 when I went to watch Bunty Aur Babli. Later on, I went to many movies in various properties owned by PVR, Inox, etc.
The shouting and howling have stopped these days. The prices of movie tickets have gone through the roof. Most importantly the food has also become very costly inside the theaters. The entire cinematic experience of an average movie-goer has changed over the last two decades. Gone are the days when you would get 3-4 shows a day. Today with digital projectors, one can exhibit many shows, and hence revenue is more. Over the past few years, more and more single-screen theaters have been taken over by big exhibitors like, PVR and Inox. But with prices increasing continuously, a threat was looming large.
What does an average consumer want? When one goes to the movie theater, he or she goes for entertainment with friends and family. As OTT started getting into everyone’s homes (we have to thank Reliance Jio for making Internet Data affordable for everyone), the middle class got an economical way to entertain themselves. Most movies started to have a digital release within 6-8 weeks of their theatrical release and this lead to me not going to theaters at all.
I had always been thinking that a big disruption in the entertainment industry was just around the corner and hence when the producers of the movie, Gulabo Sitabo decided to launch their movie on Amazon Prime bypassing the theatrical release, I was n
ot surprised at all. The next day when I saw the statement by INOX Group with a veiled threat, it felt a bit naive. These are big companies with big marketing honchos on the top. Didn’t they see this coming for the last one year? As more and more people started getting hooked to NetFlix, Amazon Prime, HotStar, etc, and with Jio Cinema planning to get movies directly to people’s homes, it was just a natural progression. Just like one-day single-screen theaters got pushed out, little by little these multiplexes will also start getting pushed out. Consumers want their needs to be fulfilled at the lowest possible price and OTT service is doing just that.
Quality content at a low price.
These high-cost multiplex business models had to innovate themselves. They saw it coming but I guess Covid-19 fastened the process. No use in crying over spilled milk.
I also think OTT service will bring the death knell to Cable TVs. These days, La Liga is streamed live on Facebook. So times are not far off when we will see live streaming of all sports events on these digital platforms. Why do I need to pay extra to Dish Tv and Tata Sky etc if I can get everything on my digital platform? I hope these companies understand that today the multiplex exhibitors are facing a rout, tomorrow they will be in the line of fire.
For any business to survive and continue to make a difference for decades and centuries, need to innovate and embrace technology. Change is the only constant and hence if you don’t change existing business models, one disruption and you could be out of business. Today, Covid-19 has made many businesses realise this. I hope people realise this and make changes in their thinking and how they implement digital technologies to make sustainable business models. Only those will survive who embrace change, realise mistakes, and adapt better.
For now, I am waiting for the release of Gulabo Sitabo on Amazon Prime, next month.
So what do you think? Will you go back to watch movies in theaters when lockdown gets over? Or will you prefer to watch it with family through digital media? I look forward to hear your views.
Take care, everyone! Stay Safe!
College Days in Bangalore were the best part of my life. The memories created years back still brings a smile to my face. Few of us used to share a flat together those days and the time spent were simply unforgettable. Over time, everyone moved on with their individual lives and got busy with their own family and professional lives.
In Early 2017, I came up with the idea to form a WhatsAPP group with the ex-flatmates. Having all of them in one platform ensured an immediate high for all of us. One of them, Sabyasachi Das lives in Angul, Odisha. Another, Shubhabrata Ghosh lived in Delhi, Shamsu Bhai lived in Bangalore whereas me and Asif are in Kolkata. Within one day of the group creation, the discussion regarding our old days were back and it was mutually decided that we will name this Group as ZNMD (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara). True to the name, an impromptu decision was also made that we will all make a trip to Bangalore and try and rekindle our old memories. This series is all about this trip which we now call as ZNMD trip. It was a memorable trip more so because all the 5 of us got together in Bangalore from various locations in India and made sure that we do the craziest stuff in the shortest possible time.
So, it was the second last day of our trip and one of our seniors, Pradipta Banerjee contacted Asif and planned a meet up. This was not in our set plans but since the last day was earmarked for shopping (The wives were back home you see) so meeting up for dinner was OK with all of us. Added incentive was to meet Pradipta Da. So late in the evening, we reached the venue. Over the years, Bangalore has changed so much that most of the things looked new other than our old favourite, MG Road and Brigade Road. Infact to lap up the environment we stayed in a hotel which was just off Brigade Road. More on that later.
The venue was Big Brewski located at Sarjapur Road. We took a Taxi to reach there and the plan was that Shamsu Bhai will drop us at night. We were punctual as usual. Dot 7 PM and we were there. Its a different matter that during college days we didn’t have much sense of timing but things change over the years. With the host being late we had no other option but to wait outside. The place looked exciting and we were itching to go inside. Pradipta Da with his daughter, Kiah and Mrs. Vani Sharma joined us soon enough and we entered the restaurant.
The look, the grandeur, the overall ambience of Big Brewski stuns you. The entire dining area is centred around a beautiful, well maintained pond. Lighting around the area was just perfect. As we moved onto the first floor to take our place in the dining area, I realised that it was a huge property and though it was just about 8 PM, the place was almost full. I am a teetotaler so I got busy browsing through the food menu as Subho and Pradipta Da concentrated on which beer to order. Big Brewski is famous for its beers and they have quite a few innovative choices for their guests. The food available at Big Brewski is mainly a combination of Continental and Indian. The food was good but I will remember this place mainly for the ambience which is just superb. When old friends meet after many years, food become secondary and here also it was no different. The 3 hours passed like a breeze and it was our time to say Good Bye.
As per our plan, we moved towards Shamsu’s car. Shamsu Bhai for some reason decided to hand over the car keys to Asif. Quite expectedly Asif was not so interested in driving since he was not sure of the route. Bangalore had changed so much from our college days that it was pretty difficult for all of us to navigate and that too at night. Shamsu took the navigator seat and said, “Main Hoon Na”. Fair enough! As Asif took the driver seat me, Das and Subho sat at the back. Me and Subho were busy discussing about our trip as Das dozed off. He had a flight to catch at 5 AM in the morning hence took a much needed power nap. After a while when Asif took a turn, Subho suddenly blurted out, “Hey, seems like we are back in the same place. Are we moving in circles?”
It had been 30 minutes we had started and hearing that we have lost our way in Bangalore, Das woke up from slumber.
“I just saw that same temple which we crossed half an hour back”, Subho continued.
“Gosh!”, Das said, “If I knew you guys were planning to get yourselves lost on the road, I better should have carried my luggage along, atleast I could have caught a cab and directly went to the airport”.
Hearing this Subho started laughing in his usual style.
“Shamsu Bhai loves you a lot, so he is ensuring that we stay together as long as possible”, said Subho and started singing, “Ei Poth Jodi na Sesh Hoi tobe kemon hoto”
Asif, our Mr. Cool driver got irritated and said to Shamsu, “What Shamsu, you have got us lost in Bangalore, a place where you have been staying for more than 20 years?”
Shamsu got full worked up by now and blubbered, “looks like you didn’t follow my instructions”
With rounded eyes, Asif looked at him, “what do you mean?”
In the meanwhile, I opened Google Maps and found that we are seriously near Big Brewski and our destination was on the opposite side. Subho was right and it meant we have to take a U-Turn.
Shamsu was not ready to give up yet and he continued in his inimitable style, “looks like when I said right turn, you took left turn and hence we might have messed up”.
Here I need to tell you, that Shamsu has a “Direction” problem. During our college days we saw this many times, that when we used to tell him to take right turn, he used to do the opposite. So basically though he was telling Asif “Right Turn” he meant “Left Turn”.
Hearing this logic, me and Subho had the laugh of our lives. Infact even today when we discuss this incident, we find it difficult to stop laughing. Hearing all this laughter, Das woke up once again and he wanted to know, what happened! Asif had a reaction less face and he didn’t know if he should laugh or cry! In one word, his expression was priceless just like our trip was.
As Asif took the nearest U-Turn and asked me to help him guide him using Google Maps, Subho continued explaining to Das of what transpired. As usual he added points to make it sound more comic which though irritated Shamsu made us laugh to the fullest.
As Asif parked the car at Brigade Road, it was past midnight. A 30 minute journey took us more than 1 hour and that too at late night. As we bade goodbye to Shamsu Bhai and trudged along to the hotel we realised we laughed to our heart’s content that day and such unbridled fun can only happen when you are with friends.
We still have that ZNMD WhatsAPP group and we chat daily. Though the 5 of us have not been able to meet together again and nor we could execute a plan to travel together again, we hope that once Covid-19 subsides we will do one such trip once again.
This trip has a lot of stories which I will share in the days to come. The trip consisted of Ooty & Kodaikanal other than Bangalore ofcourse. So a lot to tell!
Till then, keep safe, be happy and keep smiling!
My first blog on Kashmir and the topic is not the beauty of Kashmir but its about food. Strange isn’t it? But well, that’s how I am. I am a foodie and food gets a lot of importance from me. Whenever I travel outside, I always look forward to the various delicacies that are on offer. Sometimes I do the research beforehand or I find out about them after visiting the place. The Travel to Kashmir was not a very well planned one and hence, I didn’t get much time beforehand about the delicacies and I guess somewhere inside me, the beauty of Kashmir super ceded food.
Three of us, me, Asif and Subho went to Kashmir in late 2018. We were lucky to get a very friendly driver named Fayaz who doubled up as our guide throughout our stay in Kashmir. One day, I asked him about the most famous food of Kashmir (non-veg ofcourse) and he told me it’s Wazwan. Fayaz was a wonderful storyteller and he went about explaining about the delicacy and how without having Wazwan, our trip to Kashmir would remain futile. We personally were pretty mesmerized with all the beauty around us and frankly didn’t have any plans to have food outside our hotel since as I said earlier food was not a priority in this trip. But after hearing about Wazwan and how Kashmiri marriages aren’t completed without Wazwan we felt it was worth a try. It was a kind of challenge as well since according to Fayaz Bhai after having Wazwan, we will feel that Biryani is a distant cousin. I being a biryani lover took it as a challenge because according to me there is no better food than Biryani so I had to prove him wrong with an explanation which I can only do after having it.
So on 2nd January, 2019 Fayaz Bhai took us to Mughal Darbar. It was a small restaurant in Srinagar but clean and well decorated. Fayaz bhai was kind enough to let us know that Wazwan is a multi-course dish so we should stick to 1/4 plate or 1/2 plate to share among ourselves, otherwise it would be too much for us. Good, he told us because we ordered 1/4 plate and the amount of food that came was difficult for us to share and finish.
Wazwan is a multi course meal served with 7 types of non-veg dishes topped with rice. The items include, Mutton Sheek Kebab, Two types of Chicken Kebabs, Mutton and Chicken Gravy Items and gravy items with meat balls in them. Just looking at the granduer and the quantity would make any person dumb founded specially when you think that what we ordered was only one fourth of the full dish.
We started eating and we realised it to be very tasty. We were wondering if we would have come to Kashmir during College days then probably we could have tried the full dish but at that moment it was getting difficult to finish 1/4 dish. Because of rich spices and oil heavy food it was highly difficult to finish all the items. We ordered a couple of Pepsis to help us gulp down the final pieces of meat. If I have to compare it, I think 1/4 plate of Wazwan is like 3 plates of Biryani if not more.
After we finished and came out of the restaurant, Fayaz Bhai was standing with all pride to get our feedback about Wazwan. We were truthful that yes it was a very unique and nice dish and thanked him for guiding us to the place but I personally couldn’t agree that it was better than Biryani. Wazwan couldn’t beat Biryani in my books.
One thing is for sure that if you visit Kashmir then Wazwan is a must. If you like Non-Veg, spicy and rich food then Wazwan is for you and you won’t be disappointed. Even if you don’t like spicy food, try it once, you won’t be disappointed.
So tell me, did you have Wazwan before? What is your feedback about the dish? Do you think our Kolkata Biryani gets beaten by Wazwan? Let me know your thoughts.
As has been our usual norm during the lockdown days, I met the sales team online yesterday. The good thing was unlike other days all were more or less on time. This could have been because the meeting was postponed by 15 minutes or could be because all were genuinely interested to know more about today’s game. So after a bit of talking about how things were going and how the sales pipeline is shaping up for the quarter, we moved into the game zone.
The 11 Members were segregated in 4 teams. Each team was given a topic based on which they needed to collaborate with their team members and draw an image which best describes the topic. Each topic was something related to Brainium. Once they draw the images, each team will present it in front of the other teams and the other teams will have to predict the name of the topic without any prompting. The team whose image gets the quickest and the correct answer wins the game. So another simple but unique game, customised the Brainium way.
Sujit & Abhishek were first up with Sujit presenting the image in front of us.
No one could catch the theme. All were busy discussing about the quality of the 3 hands in the picture. Ashish commented that the screwdriver drawn belongs to Zillu. Though the comments brought up, gave us a good laugh but unfortunately no one could envisage that what Sujit wanted to show is “Brainium” (which was his topic). With Sujit’s team failing, we moved on to the next team.
Bikash asked Sarmistha to show the image to all of us without realising that Sarmistha’s video is not working. So with Sarmistha unable to present the image, they decided to have Rudra present the same.
Since Rudra was on mobile, it was a bit difficult to get the full picture on screen but as soon as he presented it, Bias understood the concept and answered, “Services of Brainium”. It was a great catch and she got a round of applause for getting the concept so quickly.
The next team to present was Ashish and Debargha’s whom we call as Dave. Dave presented on behalf of his team.
Frankly no one understood the concept. Infact I felt the image was about some Corona Warriors but nothing looked like related to Brainium. One of our team mates told it was about Games but then Games is part of our service and that topic was already over. No body quite expectedly get the concept because the presenters themselves didn’t understood the concept unfortunately. The concept given to them was “Brainium Solutions” and when asked how this image is relatable, the ever quick witted, Ashish answered that the image depicts Zillu in fire fighting mode providing solutions to employee’s systems. It was one of the craziest answers I could have heard but then “Laughter and Fun” are the motto of our weekly meetings.
Moving on, the final presentation was given by Azhar with full confidence that their presentation will be understood the quickest and they will win the game easily.
Looking at the image, people started analysing the concept. Good thing was everyone was trying to understand and the individually they were getting it. Abhishek understood Time & Material but before that people were concentrating on point 3 and some hilarious discussion on who in the picture is being taken out from a group of people by the 2 hands. Once Abhishek realised Time & Material as Point 2, understanding Point 1 was easy (Dedicated Hiring) and then they guessed that the third point must mean FPC (Fixed Price Contract). The topic given to Azhar was “Billing Models of Brainium“. Though his first 2 points were well understood, no body could fathom the meaning of the third point and hence his over confidence of winning the game fell flat.
We all had a good laugh though and the meeting ended with congratulating Bikash’s team (Rudra, Sarmistha, Biswa & Bikash) for winning the game and a special mention to Bias for predicting the image in double quick time.
All in all another meeting, with another game with some unbridled fun & laughter.
Au Revoir!
This “Great Lockdown” has caught many people unawares. Many in India lived with a false hope that the virus won’t effect us. And this view continued till Mid-March and a little beyond that. This was the same set of people who felt that the lockdown will get over in 3 weeks time and life would be back to normal. I wonder the current state of mind of this category of people. With India now embracing towards the challenge of living with the virus, some may wonder what a futile exercise this lockdown was. But then improving the infrastructure and getting ready for deluge of fresh infections (Tests/Isolation Beds etc.) was the order of the day and for that to happen, we needed time and hence the lock down. Doubling rate of new Covid-19 cases at 10-12 days is far better than what some Western Countries were going through at a similar time.
Now, coming back to people getting caught unawares of the sudden lockdown – there were many people who got stuck at various places (Due to work, leisure or visiting extended family etc.). I came to know about once such incident recently. This article is about how the obstacle was overcome.
I have a friend by the name of Shubhabrata Ghosh. He is one of my dear friends with a daredevil attitude. A guy who doesn’t mince words when criticising a friend and did activities during college days which none could muster. The attitude in him remains a part of him even today. He is also one of those guys who stays away from family due to work but returned to Kolkata couple of days before the lockdown happened and has been stuck at Kolkata for the last 50 days and counting. So he has a neighbour, whose daughter had gone to visit her friend’s place at Jharkhand just before the lockdown began. With the lockdown getting extended every 3 weeks, things got tensed because she was unable to come back.
The father (Subhabrata’s neighbour) works in a Pharma company and he was able to arrange a Medical Pass which he could use to travel across the state of West Bengal. The challenge was that his daughter was outside Bengal. He approached Subho (We all call him by that name) and my daredevil friend decided to become his neighbour’s Sarathi to drive him to Jharkhand. So last weekend, early in the morning both of them hit the road.
With no traffic on the roads, the drive was smooth. All dhabas and shops were closed as both of them drove on. In between, the Special Medical Pass almost flew off from the car due to the wind near VidyaSagar Setu, which was somehow caught on time. If that pass went inside the Ganges, the trip would have ended there itself. Fortunately it didn’t and they drove on.
At each district borders they were stopped by the police and their standard answer was that they were going to Jhargram to attend to a medical emergency. With a medical pass in hand, they were let off without any hassle. When they reached the Jharkhand border, the pass didn’t cut ice any more because the pass was valid only inside West Bengal. They tried their best to convince that the location of their destination was just 5 Kms inside Jharkhand but the police was quite strict. The police was helpful though and they suggested to get the girl to the border from where they can take her after the mandatory screening. So they called up the family where the girl was staying and requested them to drive her to the border.
Once she reached the border area, she was screened and with the officer giving the green signal, the girl was transferred to her father’s car and they started their return journey. This whole activity of screening and transfer took more than one hour but then these are unprecedented times and one need to show a huge amount of patience and perseverance to get your work done. The best part was that the initial motto of getting his daughter back near him was achieved.
The challenge was now ofcourse the return journey back to Kolkata and with an additional person in the car, questions could be asked because of the rules related to social distancing. Fortunately for them, it was afternoon time and the police gets less active during this time and they passed through all the checkpoints without any trouble. They were stopped while entering Howrah but Subho’s neighbour being a part of the Pharma Industry with a medical pass in hand, they were allowed to go.
All of them returned home safe and sound before the sun set. I doubt how many people would have risked to go out on such a long drive during the lockdown when the emergency was clearly not your own. People these days have become so selfish but my friend, Subho is different and he proved it once again.
Hats off to him and it was great speaking to him once he came back and he was as usual in a chirpy mood. A long drive amid a pandemic with the nation in lockdown mode is something to savour for rest of his life. His experience also showed that people on the ground are maintaining the rules specified by the Government and the humane nature of Indians amid this crisis is also to be revered off. The Jharkhand police could have easily denied this transfer but they understood the problem, took the necessary precautions and helped them.
This lockdown is teaching us what we should be and how we should be in real life. I hope once this CoronaVirus becomes history, we do not forget our learnings and become Good Humans and remain so forever!
Till I write again, Take Care and God Bless!
It was around November 2011, when I got a call from one of my school friends, Sanjeev Das. He stays in Asansol and he called me to inform that the recently established Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate wishes to get a website developed and if I would be interested. We were a very small business at that time and an opportunity of this kind was like a Godsend for us. The very next day I left from Asansol to meet the commissioner, Mr. Ajay Kr. Nand. It was a brief meeting of about 45 minutes and in the end, he asked me to get back to him with some mock-ups of the proposed website and a proposal. The next week I was back again to Asansol to present him our proposal. Thankfully he agreed to our proposal, liked our mock-ups, and asked to get started with the work. The only catch was that we had to deliver it with full and updated data by the Middle of January.
It was a tough deadline but we knew, we had to deliver and we did it right in the nick of time. Later on 21st January 2012, the honourable CM of West Bengal, Ms. Mamata Banerjee inaugurated the website. The relationship that started with ADPC in 2011 has continued to date as we keep giving support to them in Web & Mobile Applications. Mr. Nand was later transferred but we still keep a very cordial relationship and even spoke a few days back after the Lockdown got implemented.
In early 2019, ADPC was headed by Mr. Laxmi Narayan Meena. As is the usual norm, we always kept cordial relationships with all commissioners of ADPC and Mr. Meena was no different. In fact, our relationship with Mr. Meena continued when he got transferred as commissioner of Bidhan Nagar a few months back.
This is where the flashback ends and the real story starts.
Working from home has its own set of challenges. One of them is managing the hardware systems. With no system support other than some remote help, it gets extremely difficult if the computer or laptop crashes. And that’s exactly what’s been happening with many of our employees. With remote support, some were able to get back to work but a few others were facing a lot of difficulties. When the Government of India decided to ease the lockdown on 3rd May and started allowing IT/ITeS services to start operations in a reduced manner, we thought that though we will continue with Work From Home, we can at least try and get the spare machines delivered to the homes of employees who were facing difficulties.
Based on this plan, I applied for E-Pass through the Government Portal on 4th May. We waited for 4 days but the application remained in the status quo. Finally, we decided to write a self-attested latter on the reason for vehicle movement and asked our driver and one of our system admins to go to the designated 4 places and deliver the items. We, of course, ensured that both were taught about social distancing measures and also to wear Caps, Masks, and Gloves to ensure safety. Sanitizer was kept in the car as well. Earlier in the morning today, our driver left with our car to deliver the machines. He went to Behala first to pick up our system admin and from there they went to their first destination, Keshtopur.
And, our car was caught by the police. Both our employees got tensed and with police saying that they have done illegal work of trying to break lockdown, things went a bit crazy. The attending police officers were not ready to look at the self-attested letters and nor were they interested in looking inside the car to understand the reason for our team being on the road. The police was adamant and seized the car and made both our employees wait at the police station.
As time passed, both of them got tensed. There were frantic phone calls made by them to me as well to my co-directors. Whatever we told them didn’t cut ice with the police. We then thought to call up one of our landlords who happens to stay at Keshtopur and requested him to try, if he can help us to wriggle out of the situation. In the meanwhile, we contacted Mr. Meena since we knew that Keshtopur area falls under the Bidhannagar commissionerate. Though he was personally busy, he ensured that a call is placed to the Police Station at Keshtopur and within 5 minutes, our car was released and both the driver and our system admin were free to move out. It was a huge sigh of relief. Though we lost close to 2 hours in this situation, finally getting both our employees out from imminent mental breakdown was a big relief. It was only possible because we had direct access to the commissioner’s office and that was only made possible because we provided personalised service to all his software requests. Just another example, that you provide the best of your services to the best of your abilities and one day the return will be back in kind. That’s exactly what happened today. A big Thank You to him from the entire team of Brainium and a big round of applause to our teammate, Sujit who made the facilitation happen.
After this incident, our driver and system admin went to 3 other places, namely, Kankurgachi, Saltlake, Garia, Bagmari, and BT Road, and they were not harassed anywhere and they finally returned home before 5 PM. It was an adventurous 10 hours for the two of them but all were satisfied at the end because the work was accomplished and our production team will work at 100% from tomorrow.
It was a show of great team spirit and an equal commitment to getting the work done at all odds which makes today’s work so noteworthy. It would have been easy for both of them to return home right after the Police Station incident but they showed great spirit in continuing with the commitment of delivering the hardware to the planned places before returning home.
I did have a great laugh with my driver Bablu after he returned and he was equally happy to actually go out and drive after 45 days. All in all, it was a khatta-meetha experience but as the saying goes, All is well when it ends well.
Good luck everyone. Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!