Teaching (and learning) @ Sarva Siksha Abhigyan Govt. School, Hyderabad

Teach for India is an organization that I deeply admire for its vision, focus, passion and execution. So as part of the annual Microsoft Giving campaign, some members of our team volunteered to teach primary school students at a Teach for India adopted school - Sarva Siksha Abhigyan Govt. School, Jubilee Hills.

The topics were varied, reflecting the passions and comfort zones of each "teacher" - Photography, Origami, Jodo gyan, Mandalas and Story-telling.

Overall, it was a touching experience for all of us!!

It was so exciting to be part of this absolutely fun day. It is easier to do presentations here but it is so difficult to have a class of 20 - grade 2 students stay engaged in your stories for 1 hour. I hope the kids had fun but I think I learnt a lot from them. --- Sandeep

I was very much excited to go and meet the kids as I have heard a lot of great things about TFI classes. We spent around an hour in each class (2nd, 3rd) teaching origami and it turned out to be an awesome experience for me. Though we had complex origami models kids were very enthusiastic in completing them and they were asking for more. For me it was a great learning experience and time well spent :) --- Sindhuri

Click Click Click, coding and discussing forms the major part of our days as Software Developer. But being their in TFI among a bunch of extremely enthusiastic and energetic children around you all the time calling "bhaiyas" was one experience I never had before. Teaching them origami to make wolf and ships was just a one part but I guess I ended up learning more from them. Overall it was very exciting and entirely different experience for me, one I would always remember. --- Akash

It was a humbling experience for me to go to this school and engage with these kids. I was amazed to see the kind of questions these kids were asking and the level of engagement from them. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The TFI fellows there were also very engaging and truly passionate about what they do. It is nice to see how TFI is positively impacting the life of so many children in this world. --- Babu

I had the pleasure of taking the Photography session for the 5th graders and was pleasantly surprised at their maturity. It was more of a lesson for me on what kids that age are capable of if guided right. I absolutely loved the value system that TFI is trying to inculcate in the students and thoroughly enjoyed my time teaching these smart and well behaved kids. --- Jimson

This was my first ever time at a TFI school. TFI experience for me would be one of the stepping stones for personal transformation as the kids here teach you a lot indirectly. The kind of curious and inquisitive vibe they carry is spectacular. We all went with a notion to teach them(Origami, stories, Mandalas, etc.) but ended up learning a lot from them. --- Sowmya

I am amazed by the talent and approach to learning that I saw in the kids during the program. When Jimson was explaining rule of thirds for photography one of the student asked “Why?”. One of the student was trying to correlate what they heard us say with the concept of blackhole sucking in light! It’s so refreshing to see young mind actively engage to learn, as opposed to get awed and overwhelmed. BTW I was planning to skip the session as I felt feverish and had pesky headache to deal with. Thanks to Sanjay for the firm nudge. By the time I reached office, I was at a different energy orbit!!! I think the kids gave me back more than what I offered them 😊” --- Biju

Al vida - an ode to Microsoft

Farewell my friends... my friends...
Even though they called us fiends
I never sensed any evil ends

Just a slow march to mediocrity
A sense of extreme complacency
At the height of our ascendancy

Down and hard you fall
Seems to take no time at all...
So said David Gilmour
I couldn't agree with more

Seems more and more true
As the B's begin to rule
And the A's pass through

Goodbye... so long.. farewell...
Softie to a Noogler swell
The frog has jumped the well!

Written just before I left for Google. 

Two painful years later I was back to Microsoft, a very very different Microsoft!

Hamaari Poori Prem Kahaani!

For all the hurts

For all the rebukes

This is my way of saying sorry...

So said the caption with the rose

Little did he know that this prose

Would bring them ever so close

In heart and in spirit

They came together as one

Facing all and everyone

For true love will bow to none

Wasn't all roses and wine

To love the other, each had to pine

Since both were changing with time

Their joy knew no bounds

When they heard the lovely sounds

Of a bundle several pounds

As the Sitar played fast and faster

Her giggles turned to squeals of laughter

They were ever more blessed thereafter

Their deliberation reached a filibuster

So afraid his love would not muster

Listened to her, the Mister!

Soon our little one was a big sister!!

Tickle tickle with all his might

Nary a giggle, her breath all tight

Her little secret, don't you know?

No means Yes, Yes means No!

Hearts so near, yet so far

Penning poetry, hiking hajjaar

While he "relaxes" at Munnar

Awake @ camp noel

On passion – excerpts from letters to my daughter

On a different note, let me tell you about “Pal Hairdresser”, Sector 9, Panchkula...

Dadaji* insisted as soon as he saw me that my beard needed trimming. So we went to Sector 9 into this cubby hole of a place, all neat and clean, air-conditioned (yes!) with three barber chairs lined up in front of a series of mirrors. You get the picture. Mr. Pal greeted Daddy with the respect only veteran faujis seem to engender. After a few pleasantries, he got started on my countenance with a confidence I simply couldn’t help noticing. A comb here, a snip there with his long, desi pair of scissors while romantic Punjabi numbers played on. I found myself giggling as the singer expressed undying love and devotion for his paramour in a language that I have to admit is just not one for romance. Bengali, check. Urdu, check. Telugu, perhaps… but Punjabi??

Anyhow, before I realized it, he was working my sideburns, with a desi ustra (long blade razor), something I have seldom allowed barbers to use after a nasty nick when I was 5. But today, it wasn’t an issue at all since I just trusted the man. In fact I wanted him to keep at his work, so asked him for a head massage.

(I asked Dadaji to also get his done and Mr. Pal was ELATED! He promptly delegated my head and switched to Daddy’s amidst mild protestations from Dadaji – “jo thore baal hain woh bhi gaye”J)

Overall, a great time; we went in for a beard trim but came out all relaxed after the massages!

As I came out, I couldn’t help but reflect on how I felt after my sessions at Hyatt and the hard truth is that Mr. Pal was a more engaging, confident, talented barber head to head (no pun intended). And it cost us a fraction of the Hyatt loot. I have seen a similar inversion of service when I compare the random sales people in Shoppers Stop to the person who sells shirts exclusively at that store in King Koti (next to the hosiery place). Or when I compare the Surya café proprietor with the “manager” of any 5 Star restaurant. The traditional ones are leagues ahead of their modern upscale equivalents. So what gives?

I think the difference is passion. Passion for their trade leads to the desire to build expertise and then pride in their work. Many of them are 2^nd or 3^rd generation traders and carry the burden of legacy on their shoulders as well. Their confidence comes from their expertise while their ability to “upsell” the customer (beard to sideburns to massage) comes from specialization in their field that allows for deeper insight into the customer’s psyche.

I think it’s no wonder that generic department stores in malls are struggling to compete with e-commerce sites. The latter are perfectly fine at meeting the specific needs of their customers. For customers who desire customization Mr. Pall truly beats the average barber in any 5-Star hotel.

* Dadaji: Grandfather

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job.

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

I have always seen my role as a leader to be a combination of a coach, cheerleader and a brutally honest mirror to those around me. Someone who holds them accountable, gives concrete feedback and thus helps them improve. Of course feedback is a two-way street – I also need to be open to critical feedback and ready to change and grow.

One of the consistent areas where I see myself providing feedback is around initiative and ownership. This story above is a quintessential challenge most employees face: that of waiting for leadership to be handed to us.

I follow a golden rule: if someone brings up an issue, that person gets to solve it. After all she/he was passionate enough to bring up the issue in the first place!

Over time you can get one of two behaviors: that people stop bringing problems your way or that they start to think of solutions before coming your way.

So, which one is it for your teams?

On FITJEE - excerpts from letters to my daughter

Did you know that your friend and her mother have started Yoga to deal with the stress of FITJEE*? If it gets them fit, that will mean 50% success.

Get it? No?

Aaah… let me explain… see FITJEE consists of two parts: FIT and JEE that when juxtaposed form what is in the modern world the moral equivalent of the Gulag and Paradise all rolled into one. The former, the pain of endless repetition of Free-body diagrams on foolscap paper; the latter, the Golden ticket to millionaire dreams and endless servings of chocolate ice-creams. If one attained FIT’ness, but didn’t make the JEE that would be 50% success since FIT and JEE are both 3 letters long which is 50% of the total of 6. Q.E.D.

The above may seem cynical or dismissive but the underlying truth is even more bitter. For 3-4 years our youth devote endless hours trudging to special classes, solving problems in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry in the hope of cracking that grueling examination we have to come to know as the JEE. An examination that yields a numerical value that serves as a life-long badge of honor for the lucky few who make it. For the rest this examination is simply the first reality check for students on several dimensions - IQ, focus, ambition. 

But does it matter that much really? I claim rank #2004 in the JEE of 1987  - they declared 2003 ranks if I recall correctly:-) I went to BITS Pilani, the other premier Engineering college of our day. Of course there were the REC's, Roorkee, Guindy, and many more of that ilk. But the sting of not making it to the IIT's remained with us for a long time. It began to wear off only when we realized that life was so much more than what examinations measure. I have had several IIT'ians as my colleagues and friends, very smart many of them, very focused most of them, very normal all of them. I feel strongly that the IIT's have their rightful place in our education system.

Yet many other avenues exist for pursuing our dreams. It is not the be-all-end-all by any means. People spark to their potential at all stages of their life. Not everyone needs to spark on that day.

* Its really FIITJEE but that doesn't change the rest...

Today it happened

Was it really a vision or just my imagination? The intense love, warmth I felt in my heart as I lay there after the stretches and Pranayams?

I thought of that hill again, but not as a treacherous shock of sharp rocks, knee twisting rocks… I saw myself on top of the hill, singing, happy, overjoyed at the achievement.

Then just one thought – to sing like that each day - to love my inner spirit for not being afraid of the hill.

A surge of warmth spread through me. Not a balm to soothe the pain - just purity, allowing me to love myself again.

I have no guilt anymore, no regret, no pain. I will walk up that hill again with Anju just as I had wanted to on that day. To leap from rock to rock with her, to sing again.

Leuna had come to me in that gust of wind as I struggled with the song. She was there to tell me all would be fine.

I am not afraid anymore because He is with me.

This too shall pass, become a lingering happy memory, a memory for which I would hurt my knee all over again - if that’s the cost of blessings, so be it.

The veil lifted as the warmth hit – a transparent curtain of judgment that left only this intense peacefulness behind. I sang in the bathroom, hopping from side to side, just like that day on the hill. Felt just right.

Why do we need to suffer to see this love? Is it because recognition starts with pain? Is the ego so strong that it needs to be beaten down first for the inner peace to emerge?