My First Business Crisis

I presented two people who I trust to have extremely good business sense with an analogy.
You have been working with one supplier for a particular project over a period of a month. But at the last minute, you receive an offer from a better supplier. The price is a little higher, but you think you can squeeze it. Which one would you go for? Quality or Supplier Relations?

Both replied similarly. Quality.

Business principles clash with human ethics. This is not the first time I have encountered this thought. As I have pondered further about my area of study for the next three years, I've observed this clash of values.

One reason that I received for the choice was that there is no loyalty in the market. But isn't this what is wrong with the entire industry to begin with? Isn't this what is wrong with the world? I know it isn't up to me to correct the ways of the world. Yet it is my duty to correct my ways and adhere to human ethics. Is trust not one of those ethics? Does a person's word mean nothing in this business-oriented world of the 21st Century?

Is my stife to be a principle-oriented person entirely futile as I embark upon my journey to the Real World?

I realise my own naivety at my earlier pledge to go through life in the business world by placing human ethics first. At every fork in our life I guess all we can strive for is to make the right decisions.

Desperate for a Christian point of view, one that I can trust will place human interest above all, I reach for the phone.

I got the same answer. Yet there was a side to it that appealed to my gentler side. It was the part where you use the wonderful tool of effective communication to lay the other person down gently. I no longer feel so callous.

Jack Welch, in his biography Straight From The Gut, describes how he lessened the guilt of having to let someone go. Jack Welch offered his employees a six month notice, a considerably longer period than the norm. In my analogy, the short notice is the point of disappointment. However, if I am able to offer some form of compensation, it would surely negate my guilt.

So all I have to do is offer my supplier another outlet to supply to. Surely I can be innovative enough to achieve this!

The 70's: The World & Managlore

Last night, I happened to join my Aunt as she began watching Almost Famous on DVD. Set in the early seventies, you can without a doubt make the assumption that it involved Free Sex, Drugs, Hippies and ofcourse, Rock 'n' Roll. Having studied modern American history, I am aware of the profound role the 70's played, and not just in the history of America, but in the history of a majority of the world. The Vietnam War waged in the East, and America and Europe underwent tremendous social unrest.

Turning to my Aunt, I voiced a little musing. What was Mangalore like in the 70s? I got 'normal' for a reply. It is rather amusing that as the world was being turned upside down, this little city in Southern India remained untouched. The Americans launched Chemical Warfare and the French students led a near-revoluation. Yet in Managlore, mothers did the cooking, fathers worked in the fields and children played on the roads. Amusing isn't it?

Till We Meet Again

A wise friend of mine, experienced in the ups and downs of friendships, told me that as we move on to university and the rest of our lives, the dynamics of the friendships we shared in the past will undoubtedly change. It takes a great amount of strength to gulp down this truth.

I wonder, twenty years down the line, whether I will look back on this time of utter turbulence and laugh. Will the knowledge of my effort be satisfactory? Or will I be saddened at the loss and the lack of reciprocation.

The time has come to take a deep breath and that frightful step. Ten months down the line, Change is still my greatest enemy.

Till we meet again.

Disappointment & Heartbreaks

When I had my heart broken for the first time, I was not keeping this blog. Perhaps it would have been filled with many more entries.

But failure to be 'in love' does not, unfortunately, protect us from breaking our hearts. My greatest love this past year has gone in a very special way to my friends. And not just any friends, those friends that have made it to the 'People You Love The Most In The World' list. Any couple that has tried it will tell you that long distance relationships are hard. Maintaining strong friendships overseas is no different and therefore not any easier. Love in this situation takes its form in effort and sacrifice. And as you strive every day to gather sufficient effort, you convince yourelf that it's worth it.

Disappointment, in The Interpreter, very aptly has been described as a 'lover's word.'

Disappointed, I tend to my broken heart.

Prom

Prom is 'a great American tradition' that students all over the world have assimilated into the very fibre of high school life. It was always that fantasy, the next big thing after your Wedding Day. It is the other day where your Knight In Shining Armour will sweep you off your feet and you will dance into the night.

Currently organising my third prom, that fantasy has indeed faded. Yet the importance of Prom Night has surely not.

It will always be the culmination of the entire academic year, where you remember the good and the bad, dance with the people you love and hate, all under the same roof, on the same dance floor. It is the night where the entire grade, however dispersed during the year, will come together to partake in the Grand Finalé. It is the night where you have the chance to say goodbye to the old, and embrace the new.

I wouldn't miss my prom for the world.

Blackout 2005

Last Thursday saw Dubai's biggest power outage since 1988. A true revelation to this city's dependancy on the wonder that is electricity. Offices that ten years ago desperately tried to 'improve' themselves by computerising their systems were completely shut down Thursday morning. Construction sites came to a halt. Shopping malls were closed. With traffic lights no longer functioning, cars piled up on the road for miles. And the blazing summer heat reminded everyone that they were infact in the middle of a desert, an image Dubai has strived desperately to shed over the decades.

Despite the unforseen disarray the city of Dubai was thrown into, recovery was swift. Arab nationals took charge of the confusion caused by the malfunction of traffic lights, manually controlling the traffic. And the people of the city were seen to offer full co-operation. The collaboration between authority and the people is a true indicator of the heart of the city, that the people do come together in a crisis. And there was a certain pride in being part of this city that eventful day.

House On Fire

Often there is so much drama happening around us, we search desperately for that Exit. We crave to get out, just for a few moments, to catch our breath, away from the fire burning within. Writing has been my Exit door.

But what happens when you run towards the door only to find that it is bolted shut?

We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call;
no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped,
locked in it.
--Tennessee Williams.

Silence Of Our Friends

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
-- Martin Luther King Jr.

The Journey To Friendship

One cannot expect to make true friends without making some enemies along the way.

Sweet Words & Great Moments

"Let me tell you something. You are smart, pretty..."

"Oh I know I don't fall under that category, that I'm sure of."

"Hey listen, I'm a guy, so take it from me. You are. You have so much ahead of you. You have great potential. Never set your standards low, for anything. You deserve the best."

Thank you my dear friend for the sweetest words anyone has ever said to me. But more importantly, thank you for giving me that moment where I felt I could do anything and everything.

Tragedies Of Life

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.
--George Bernard Shaw

I was not able to completely comprehend the latter part of the quote until I heard the following interpretation.

As we strain to grasp the things we desire, the things we think will make our lives better - money, popularity, fame - we ignore what truly matters. The simple things like friendship, family, love. The things we probably already had.
--One Tree Hill [Episode 222]

Hearing And Listening

"To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also."
--Igor Stravinsky

Desperation

It is being desperate to the point where a website hears your gravest trepidations and your darkest secrets.