Every saturday evening I take my bike, travel 18 kilometers in traffic and dust to come to City Centre mall. I park my vehicle in the underground parking, say hi to the security who smile at me, take the over crowded lift to the second floor and walk into ‘Coffee day’. Over the last 4 years this has been my weekly routine. The are quite a number of coffee shops on my way but, this place holds a special place in my heart. This is the one coffee shop in Hyderabad which exists as a part of a bookstore (Crossword). Book shops have long been my second home, I love to walk in, pick some books from the racks, walk into the coffee shop order a coffee and sit down to enjoy a book.
Thoreau
It was the time I was forming my own opinions about everything – from books to movies to music to life. It was tough to see that my taste differed a lot from the popular mood. I did not like movies my friends liked. I did not play sports as was expected of my age. I was not into dance and dramas. Instead, I developed a liking for books & loved nature. Nature made my life meaningful. I preferred to be in a garden than in a playground. I was different from my peers. I didn’t know if it was ok to be different. That was when in one of the English classes, I came to know about this man, who loved simplicity, who wanted all to go back to nature. His search for meaning for his life in nature closely reflected my intention. He was a man after my own heart. He took the road less travelled. I was hooked. From him, I derived the confidence to be ‘me’. Time and again I’ve looked upto his words for wisdom and guidance. His book ‘Walden’ became my bible; and the man was ‘Henry David Thoreau’.
The Rules of Work
Today just being good at your job, at what you do, is not enough if you want to be really successful. You need more than that. You need an ‘image’. It’s not just how you do your work, but also how others perceive what you are doing. It’s true that performance appraisals today are subjective in nature and are largely impression driven. My manager once pointed out a colleague who was walking past us hurriedly, with some files in her hand. He asked me what I thought of her at that exact moment. I replied that she looked busy, might be on the way to some meeting. He said “highlight the word ‘look’. We don’t know if she was going to a meeting, or was just walking by hurriedly. It is just our assumption”. I had read Richard Templar’s ‘The Rules of work’ earlier, but this example drove the point well. It was time for a re-read. I needed an image. In my limited experience, I found some rules truly worked. I wanted to share them here with my own twist.
My foray into music
One common question everyone asks, third to be precise, after someone meets me is, what are my hobbies? And one popular, safe hobby we all, and for some time, I chose to say was, ‘listening to music’. My friends don’t ask me questions, they know I can blabber on and on. So, it’s people who don’t know me, unfortunately, who ask this question, but they zone out to my answers pretty quickly (hmm, they are smart after all). And, while the discussion is still going on around the table, I go back in time, to see how my hobby developed.
Home Sweet Home
What makes a place people live, a house, a home?? I dont want to refer to any cliches here. But, there’s a trend these days which disturbes me, that “a house(home) is an prudent investment”. I read in an article that American real estate was severly affected because people started to buy houses not to live but to sell and make a profit. Everybody wanted to buy and sell houses; who would be living in it (who cares about that, right?) The article says it is this greed that destroyed the real estate market in America. It is unfortunate that its not only the market which has changed, but our perceptions and belief of a home.