I was out for going to office and took my car out of my parking place. Somehow I found something strange but I could not figure out what is that change.
I was driving towards the office. Very quickly shifted to 5th gear. My Vehicle was going at steady pace and there was no need for placing one leg on brake and the other on Clutch. I was still having some uneasiness and when there was a red light I was alert. I stopped the vehicle and put ear plugs to avoid hearing blowing of horns behind me to move irrespective of signals. Before putting the ear plugs I realized nothing of that sort was happening. When I looked back there were plenty of vehicles but all stopped and patiently waiting for Green light. When I looked at my right side, Oh my god, there are no vehicles outside the Divider which used to block the vehicles from my opposite side. my heart beat increased and I looked at the left side. There was sufficient space left for other vehicles to go in the free left zone. My last chance to survive, I looked at the front side. People are peacefully crossing my road on the Zebra Cross lines!!!!! What is going on? This is when I realized there are many strange things happened. Usually every morning while taking my car out I find a motor bike in the middle of road and exactly opposite to my gate. Today I didnt see that. Since than on the road while travelling, there was no horn blowing behind me to force me to go even when there is a red light. I didnt see people crossing the roads at will. I didnt see people coming in the wrong route. I also didnt see people forming more parallel Queues. And .. I also saw that the free left turn was completely free!!! There is something wrong going on.
I thought I fainted and some one helped me reach the office. I went to take some water, there I found two people taking water and when I went instead of talking in front of the Water filter, they gave me the way on their own. How can they do this, unless I request them or beg them to give way? I went to the ATM Machine of ICICI Bank located in my office itself. My heart beat was increasing because I found the Machine working which was never the case before. When I withdrew money carefully I found 500 Rs notes coming out. It was quite a tense moment. BUT .. first of all the ATM was working!!!! And the machine was giving me money in the denominations of 500 notes by default and infact I found some 1000 notes as well. How can this happen? So far I was doing 6 transactions to get the eligible daily amount of 25000 Rupees. I could not digest that I could get the same amount in one transaction. Something wrong somewhere.
Suddenly my cell started ringing. I could hear my heart beat because there is a chance that it can be a telemarketing call as 99 out of 100 calls were that way. But It was an unknown number and it can be my customer. I needed to pick up. When I picked the other guy first of all introduced himself. How can be so decent? All used to hear was a girl asking where I am RHAZA MOHYEN IVAA.. TURI as if she was born and brought up in Wales and cant understand out surnames. My BP was high as I used to hear some one calling my cell and asking whether it is me. Also I could never know who was on the other side most of the time, till I confirmed my identity. So this experience of someone introducing him first before the talk actually made me worry for other reasons. Somehow I started feeling the biggest threat that I might be moved to another planet.
With all such unusual incidents I was really wondering what is wrong. I first opened the tasks window as I keep tasks to remind on all items that I need to remind my team. I already prepared the note for each of the item to remind. I opened the emails and I found 100 emails. While going through each of the emails again my heartbeat increased. I got response to all my queries and clarifications and more than that I dont need to make any more questions on these items. The team responded with all the details that I asked for the first time itself. How the hell can this happen? Now do I have any work? I went to the list of unread emails I have. They are all kept as unread because I needed to respond to my Customers and my Manager. Suddenly I found lot of time to clear them. By lunch I cleared all the emails to the satisfaction that no one will come back to me with any more queries. Great!!! I went to another folder of my outlook. In the last 4 years I had many strategic initiatives in my mind and could never think of them. I picked the most important one and scheduled the call in the afternoon.
I went to finish the lunch quickly. I found that Spoons and Forks are in place (I used to wait for them almost every time I go to Cafeteria). When I started the Buffet lunch with in 1 minute I could fill my plate? Did I miss anything? How can this happen? I looked behind again to check if there is no one except me to have lunch. I saw many, and most of them are there to refill but they are in the Queue. No one intruded in front of me to pick their items in their half eaten plates!! I completed my lunch and was back. I started the call. As usual I said that we will wait for 5 minutes till all the audience join. I heard that all participants have already joined. Oh my God? All joined in the first minute of schedule itself? I tried to give an introduction of the initiative I wanted to take, but before that, one project manager asked if we can start discussion. Wondering what he means, I said yes. He briefly explained how my initiative can work and the areas where he needed help from me. This means he already went through the write up I shared while scheduling the call. Normally the audience join the call and decide when to have the next call. And some people would ask me to make a presentation as the write up is more than 2 pages which is difficult to read. Contrary to my expectations looks like every member went through the write up as I have seen others actively participating and demonstrating that they already went through the content. This means, they are all prepared for the meeting before joining!!!!! How can this happen? Am I still on the earth or somewhere else far from the universe?
I realized I can do much more and in the meantime I got a call from the Customer. I am gone now. So far I was seeing all unusual incidents but the customer calling me and bashing is not so unusual. So I can still have some hope in life. I picked up the call and very politely greeted him. " Hi Raja I just wanted to let you know, today I asked for an Invoice from your PM ....".
Making my voice more polite, I said " Dear X, I will speak to my finance team and do my best to come back with the Invoice at the earliest (I know when I say ASAP it actually means I dont know the date or time when I can deliver)". But the customer interrupted me and said ' I already received the Invoice Raja, I am happy to see that the content is quite accurate apart from me getting the Invoice in an hour. I wanted to thank you.". I have no words to respond. Usually I have a scenario when we dont get the invoice when Customer wanted to pay. And when I get the invoice I would see that the content is totally messy. The entire episode used to go for a week to get the correct Invoice. This all used to happen at a time when the customer was chasing me for paying and we were not ready. If I try to get them early, I used hear lots of SLAs which have minimum time but no limt for Max time. My ideal world used to have SLAs that had minimum time???
Making my voice more polite, I said " Dear X, I will speak to my finance team and do my best to come back with the Invoice at the earliest (I know when I say ASAP it actually means I dont know the date or time when I can deliver)". But the customer interrupted me and said ' I already received the Invoice Raja, I am happy to see that the content is quite accurate apart from me getting the Invoice in an hour. I wanted to thank you.". I have no words to respond. Usually I have a scenario when we dont get the invoice when Customer wanted to pay. And when I get the invoice I would see that the content is totally messy. The entire episode used to go for a week to get the correct Invoice. This all used to happen at a time when the customer was chasing me for paying and we were not ready. If I try to get them early, I used hear lots of SLAs which have minimum time but no limt for Max time. My ideal world used to have SLAs that had minimum time???
I found the HR guy waiting out side my workplace. I gestured to let him in. It is appraisals time and as usual I had some challenges. As usual the discussion stated in tense atmosphere as I prepared to ask them many questions to which they in general have one answer (Policy). Before I started, the guy started "As per policy .....". I was furious and wanted to stop him. But he completed the sentense "We worked on making the Income tax friendly package for all the associates. This is in line with the IT rules and there is no manipulation but the associates get more benefit......."
I got irritated and left the room because this was not expected and I was seeing more negative statements on which I could raise my voice and fight for my team. But if HR itself is coming forward and doing all that is required for the team, I felt out of place.
One of my next level managers came to me with the list to be promoted. So far I asked for the list only once, and Iwas suprised to see the list so fast before 3,4 more reminders. I went through the list quickly and I found the number is below the number of people that I can promote. Normally I see atleast double the qualified number. I asked the manager on whether this is incomplete list. He said he wanted to promote only those who deserved elevation and not on the basis of numbers. How come? But this is what he said. I asked if there are any resigned people whom I may have to promote or give double hike. He responded again saying that he doesnt want to set a trend of rewarding when some one is arm twisting. How can he manage if some key people are leaving. He said he will manage and he is capable to manage. Hmm. The day is totally different. I was seeing the managers worrying about any of their team member' s absence as if the world is stopped. I used to wonder why are they required if they cant go even one step without their next level.
One of my next level managers came to me with the list to be promoted. So far I asked for the list only once, and Iwas suprised to see the list so fast before 3,4 more reminders. I went through the list quickly and I found the number is below the number of people that I can promote. Normally I see atleast double the qualified number. I asked the manager on whether this is incomplete list. He said he wanted to promote only those who deserved elevation and not on the basis of numbers. How come? But this is what he said. I asked if there are any resigned people whom I may have to promote or give double hike. He responded again saying that he doesnt want to set a trend of rewarding when some one is arm twisting. How can he manage if some key people are leaving. He said he will manage and he is capable to manage. Hmm. The day is totally different. I was seeing the managers worrying about any of their team member' s absence as if the world is stopped. I used to wonder why are they required if they cant go even one step without their next level.
