It starts out with one person dancing and everyone else not
noticing. Then suddenly atthe drop of
beat everyone goes crazy and start dancing. Cos Lons Terroriastas , Cos Lons
Terroriastas ., Cos Lons Terroriastas .People make fool of themselves, and it
lasts for 30-45 seconds.
On the other hand meetings are very similar; it starts off
with one person speaking and everyone else not noticing; and then suddenly at
the point of contention everyone just jumps in and starts blabbering. They go
crazy and make fool of everyone, it lasts for 30-45 minutes.
Today I am going to share some aspects and personalities
that make our meetings fun and counter productive.
How it all starts?
It all starts with the BOSS planning the meeting and sending
out the invites. He feels that it is a Town hall, so let’s invite everyone and
waste their time. Yeah WHY NOT it is a corporate Harlem Shake party put on your
masks and join in!! I won’t mind attending these useless meetings as long as it
involves FREE FOOD. How many of you would join meeting for free food?
I knew
there were many like me.
Now lets talk about latecomers, these are the folks who are
always late to the meeting; 5 min, 10, 15 min and every time they have the same
excuse. Oh my meeting reminder didn’t come up. OH Really, you are always on
time for free food meetings.
Kicking off the meetings take half the time. Especially if
it involves a high tech gadget like a projector. That’s where Mr. SMARTY PANTS
comes into picture; he would get on the table and try to fix the projector
forgetting there is something called a remote to control it.
Then we have our colleagues who have transparent bodies.
They would stand in front of projector and try to explain the slide. The title
of the slide projected on their forehead and company pie chart projected on their
stomach as if it was their food consumption pie chart.
What else happens during the meeting?
We draw fancy flow charts, create unachievable roadmaps,
make meaningless decisions, form useless sub committees and all that on COMPANY’s
EXPENSE.
If we closely observe our meeting lingo, it is full of
Jargon that concludes no concrete action. Let’s look at some of them.
It's on my radar
Low hanging fruit, Deep Dive, Thinking out of the Box
End of the day – Deliverable 's are always End of the
Day. Why do want to deliver when everybody is gone for the day?
All hands on deck – What are we playing Poker here?
Now lets talk about SASSY CLASSY Miss Social Media, she is
always busy texting, browsing Facebook, Twitter, and whenever her name comes up
during the meeting ; she would say can you please repeat that; I didn’t get that.
Then we have “hard stoppers”, these folks pretend to be very
cautious about time and would signal the remaining time for meeting 15 min, 10 min, 5 min
remaining; I have a hard stop at the top of the hour. Five minutes after the
finish of the meeting, I see the same guy loafing around; sipping coffee or
chit chatting.
The best part is how we end our meetings, let’s take this
offline, let’s touch base later which leads to another meeting and the
corporate Harlem shake continues.
26.2 mile, distance you need to run to complete a marathon.
How many of you would like to run a marathon? I took a personal challenge last
year to run San Francisco Marathon and today I am going to share with you 3
things that you would need to successfully run a marathon.
The 3 things are:
-- Commitment
-- Endurance
-- Good Company
I personally feel these 3 things will actually make you
successful in every walk of life. Let’s start with commitment.
When I signed up for San Francisco Marathon, I committed to
give the time and energy required for training and race. I signed up with Run
365 training group of South bay. There were 3 training sessions in a week; hill
runs on Tuesdays, Tracks on Thursdays and long runs on Sundays.
Because of my commitment, my schedule had to be altered; I
could no longer attend Saturday night parties, as I had to be up by 6 am on Sundays
and be at the Los Gatos creek trail by 7 am. There was a commitment to a strict
diet plan, as it always easier to push a lean body. I remember April through
July of 2012 were my most healthy months of life so far. I used to be much more
hungry than usual because of the exercises but still couldn't eat all the
things that I love i.e. fries, ice-cream. The intake and the results both were
fruitful.
Endurance
Endurance is the key to success. There were always times
when I felt, why I chose to run a marathon. Why?? Let me just leave it, its not
going to earn me anything, but I knew there was no coming back. I was tested
for endurance throughout my training sessions and the marathon. All the
training sessions were different, they had their own ways to test my endurance
and in turn make me stronger. Hill runs were beast of their own. We used
to practice at Rancho San Antonio Park in Los Altos. Our hill runs used to be
5-7 miles, but running on hills was a challenge and true test of my endurance,
you were always tempted to stop as slopes became steeper, but if you stop it’s
even more difficult to start over again and you get left behind from the group.
You had to aim towards the top of hill and just run towards it.
Track runs; we used to train at Fremont High School
in Sunnyvale, our track runs were 4-6 miles, but concentrated more on building
the pace.
Sunday long runs; 8-22 miles long, a remarkable way
to build endurance. I have also been a person of fewer miles and running long
distance would bring chills down my body.But after training for long
runs, I was on different record, steadily progressed miles every week and just
kept going. Cramps, hot weather, and hunger nothing seems to bother anymore.
Race day is a different challenge, it was my longest run and
I was recuperating from an injury. During my run I developed a severe cramp on
my left knee and everything just stopped for a moment, but I started again
after some stretches, still in pain and surprisingly was actually able to finish
the run.
Good Company
It’s what makes or breaks the deal. When I started running
with the training group, I initially joined a fast paced group (9 min/mile) and
every time when I used to run with them I used to get left behind and feel
dejected. But then I met a group leader of a slower pace group (11 min/mile)
and I described my situation to her and after further discussions, she asked me
to join her group, so that I could start of slow and move to a fast pace group
as I progress. The kind of motivation, support and training I received from the
group leader and members was outstanding. We used to share light moments about
our life, things happening around, and believe me 16 miles used to be a CakeWalk.
The group camaraderie continued even through the race day, we ran the race
together, helped, and motivated each other through out the race. Sandy our
group leader was an amazing coach; I had titled her “Marathon Mom”, given the
kind of guidance, support she used to provide. Believe me it wouldn’t have been
possible to finish the marathon without the support of these wonderful friends.
I had fun practicing and running the marathon. I assure you
that commitment, endurance and good company would definitely help you in
completing the marathon of the life.
As part of toastmaster communication manual, I gave my 10th speech about Inspiring the audience and it goes something like this.
I Inspire I
Looking at the word InspIre, I was trying to introspect what
it means. It really means “I inspire I”, you really don’t need an external
source of inspiration. You are source of
inspiration for yourself.
My goal today is to make you feel special about yourselves
and make you feel that you are an inspiration to yourself. Today I am going to
share my moments which make me feel inspired to pursue new challenges in life.
One thing that I love more than anything is badminton and
there are reasons for that. I have been playing badminton for 20 years now and
that’s a long time. Every time I play
badminton it inspires me to give my best into the game, creates a rush to win.
This game gave me a fighting spirit and a never give up attitude. Let me share
a story with you, this dates back to 2003, I was representing my school at the
inter-school badminton tournament. I had reached the final's, game started and
it was very competitive, I won the first game, my opponent won the second game
and here we were in the decider game, I was leading 12-10 in the deciding game,
suddenly the prescription glasses that I was wearing fell and the glass
shattered on the court.
I was silent... I have a very high power for my glasses and
there was no way I can play without them. I could have withdrawn and lost a winning
game, but that was NOT AN OPTION, referee gave me 10 minutes to figure things
out. I went around in the audience and found glasses that were closest to my
prescription. I came back to the court, my head spinning, giving me
immense headache; I couldn't clearly see what was going on the game. You know
the dizzy feeling when you get new glasses and they are not your prescription. I
tried my best, but I lost the match. It wasn't about WINNING or LOOSING but all
about not giving up, and giving your best.
I carry that game face in all facets of my life.
2 years ago I was inspired to run a marathon. This
inspiration came directly from badminton. It was all about endurance and
pushing your limits. 2 weeks before the marathon I seemed to have injured my
left IT band (muscle that runs from your hip to the knee), I literally dragged
myself for 5 miles on the trail during that training run. I was slightly frightened
that I might not be able to run the marathon, but I was determined to get
better and run the marathon. I did serious physical therapy, saw a chiropractor
to fix things up, iced 4-5 times a day, ordered compression socks to help with
blood circulation, and looked for all the options that would make me stronger
for the race day and there I was standing strong at the finish line of my first
MARATHON. So, here there was another one added to the list for me to be
inspired about.
Marathon did leave a mark on me, I injured my right knee. I
was just restricted to walking for almost 6 months and the only option I had to
keep myself active was to swim.
BUT ... I didn't know how to swim. Also swimming is one such
sport, which you learn very quickly as a kid, being an adult trying to learn swimming
is a totally different ball game. But I inspired myself that I can learn
swimming and just like other challenges that I have been able to overcome I
will learn swimming also. So, I started my swimming lessons back in January of
2013 and I had gone crazy on learning how to swim. Just to find an empty lane
at the pool, I would practice around 11pm at night. And here I am now a
confident swimmer, and still going strong on my learning. I still practice 3-4
times a weak, and with the help of swimming, I have finally been able to heal
quite a bit from my knee injury and I have started playing badminton again
after a period of almost 9 months.
I inspired myself by looking at my achievements in the past
and achieved success in my present. I am sure that you also have such
achievements in your life that inspire you.
I had been missing my overly due yearly vacation, but thanks to my friends for planning the vacation to Sunshine state Florida [ in lieu of Zion National Park, Utah which got cancelled due to some unforeseen reasons] .
I was really excited about this trip as I was going to meet a lot of new people [ Karan, Meghal, Priyal and Sushant] and reconnect with my old friends and their family [ Ashu Sharma, Ashu Bhardwaj, Sheveta and Anju]. We started planning for the trip a month ago, we used whatsapp for communicating and planning purposes. There were people travelling from different places, so the trip required lot of planning and co-ordination. Ashu S, Ashu B, Sheveta, Priyal, Samby from New Jersey, Sushant from Toronto, Karan from all the way from India, Anju from Baltimore, Meghal from Miami and lastly myself from California.
The folks from New Jersey took a 25 hour long road trip and all other flew to Miami from their respective places.
Day 1 December 23rd
December 23rd Sunday was the day of arrivals. Ashu and NJ folks arrived early on Sunday morning to the house [1828 Scott Street, Hollywood, FL] we had rented out for our vacation. It was not the best vacation home but a good company of friends shadows petty things. Priyal and I arrived in the evening, Priyal had an adventurous beginning to the trip, as her flight was delayed for delayed approximately 9 hours. Ashu's had come to pick us from Miami airport, we reached home around 9 pm. After a meet and greet session, we went for a dinner at Red Thai and Sushi restaurant in Hollywood downtown.We were joined by Sheveta didi's friend Prachi, Parag and Vinod. We shared some light moments over dinner.
Dinner at Red Thai and Sushi Restaurant in Hollywood Downtown
After the dinner we decided to take a stroll in the beautifully decorated downtown looking for Santa :)
During our stroll we got tempted by this Russian bakery "Chocolada" and decided to sweeten our senses with some yummy cakes. Here is a glimpse of some artistic cakes at the bakery.
Chocolada Bakery and Cafe, Hollywood, FL
I knew we won't call it night so early, so we went to North Hollywood beach, not the right time to be at beach, but it was very calm and we had the whole beach to ourselves. We got Sammy/ Samby [ Ashu's dog, Jack Russel Terrier] really excited, had quick throws of football, and then went back home.
By now you would expect everyone to wrap up after hectic day of travel, but what's a gathering without some card games, we played Bhabho and Minimum till 3 am. I had no issues staying up till late as my body was still tuned to Pacific time zone.
Day 2
December 24th, 2012
We started a little late as it takes some effort to get everyone ready. We cooked egg omelette for our breakfast. After having our breakfast we sat down , but we couldn't find Sammy, everybody started searching for Sammy like crazy, we looked on the streets, house but couldn't find him, everyone got tensed up, blaming each other for leaving the door open. After sometime we heard a squeaky noise on the deck, sounded like Sammy, but we couldn't still trace him. So, Prachi took Sammy's favorite toy and started squeaking it near the patio from where we heard the voice, Sammy responded back, it was confirmed that Sammy was stuck under the deck.After a lot of hit and try, tempting Sammy to his favorites, we were able to take him out from below the deck.
Presenting Mr. Notorious Sammy aka Samby !!
After finishing the scavenger hunt, we headed to Sunny Isles beach, it was a very pretty area with all the fancy towering resorts lined across the beach. After some dips in the sea, we played volleyball but without a net, as other volleyball court was in restricted area :) .
Sunny Isles Beach
After some beach time, we went for a Mediterranean lunch at "Kabobji". I had a wrap and a very interesting drink named " Julaab", it had dates and rose water as the main ingredients.
We went back home after the munching session as per our plans, because we wanted to leave early next day for Key west, but after discussions we changed the plans and dropped the plans for key west and decided to take it easy. So, we planned to explore the night life of South beach , we had dinner and good time eating at D'vine restaurant on Lincoln street in south beach. After that we came back home and had a round of Bhabho and Minimum before going to sleep.
Day 3 December 25th
It was my turn to fulfill my wishes, nick named "Graries", so as per my request we planned to go for an airboat ride in Everglades national park/Gator park, home of alligators. We really enjoyed the airboat ride, natural sanctuary and wildlife which included toads, beautiful birds and deadly but lazy alligators [there are approximately 1 to 1.5 million alligators in Everglades national park]. We also got a chance to carry and touch baby alligators, they were unexpectedly soft.
Enjoying Airboat ride @ Gator Park
After that we went to South beach and rented out Jet Ski's, Jet Ski's was fun, but given that the ocean was little rough, I was a little bit scared, but overall it was great.
Then we went for dinner on Lincoln Street , this street is the happening and shinny part of South beach at night, where you see all the hip/hop people. After that we went back home, and ended our day with routine games of Bhabho and Minimum. Day 4 December 26
It was turn to try bigger exciting things, so as planned earlier we headed for sky dive in West Palm beach after having breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. On our way we saw some of the most amazing houses and polo grounds, they call palm beach as the winter polo capital. Last not but not the least we saw lot of beautiful horses and a horse on a tread mill, never seen that before :)
After travelling through muddy roads we finally reached the airport, I should say it was the most lame airport I had ever seen, it was right among the fields with a strip barely good enough even for driving a car, a shanty called control room, as if sky diving wasn't good enough to scare the shit out, the whole setup made it worse.
The worst landing strip @ west palm beach, used for sky dive
Karan, Sushant, Meghal and Priyal went for skydive and the rest of us sat back and saw Luna (Skydive place owners dog) and Sammy fight for their priced possessions football and Frisbee . Luna was super active, she went berserk after Frisbee and also tore our Football. Luna and Sammy didn't get well along and we could clearly see Luna/Female dominating Sammy/Male, a real life story :)
After that we went to North Hollywood beach, this beach became our backyard, most visited beach. Anju didi also flew in from Baltimore and joined us today, so party became merrier as she will always keep us entertained with her funny medical encounters and songs, her best one being " Lokaan ne Peeti Tupka Tupka, Mein te Peeti Baata Naal". She is going to kill me for writing this about her :)
We had a great time at the beach playing with waves ( try pronouncing it in punjabi ), temperature was in high 70's , water was warm, we rode the waves, played volleyball on the water. Sushant had to go rescue volleyball in deep waters which actually tired him out.
Then after that we all played beach volleyball , we finally found a court with a net. We played quite a few volleyball games, they got pretty intense, but it was lot of fun. Stephen and Aviva who were side walkers also joined us for the game and made it more lively :)
After a tiresome day, we went back home, relaxed, ordered pizza from Papa Johns [these pizzas lasted for rest of the trip], and played our staple games of Bhabho and Minimum.
Bhabho / Minimum / Cappuccino Club
Day 5
December 27
Today was officially my last full day of entertainment. As per plan we left for Islamorada, part of Florida Keys for our snorkeling trip. Also we had promised Sammy that we will take him to beach today, so our first stop was dedicated to Sammy, he really enjoyed the beach and water. After getting inspiration from Luna, Sammy also tore our Volleyball.
We then headed to sea monkeys for our snorkeling trip, we all changed into wet suits, and after brief instructions headed towards alligator reef, approximately 6 miles from the shore. We reached alligator reef light house in approximately 15 minutes. It was the time to jump into the water, believe me I was scared, as it was my first time in sea water, also given the fact that I didn't knew swimming and a little show of discomfort by Anju didi. I was the last one to jump into the water, but after 5 minutes into water, the beauty of under water life overpowered my fear of deep waters, and you won't believe it but I was in sea water for 1.5 hours gazing at the underwater creation, we saw beautiful corals, Barracuda's, sting rays and lot of other beautiful colored fish.
Snorkeling @ Alligator Reef
Snorkeling was the best part of my trip, it exposed me to under water life. I really want to thank Cooleen, our snorkeling instructor for providing us this experience.
Cooleen from Sea Monkeys, our Snorkel instructor
After that we headed back to Miami, we arrived back around 10 pm. Then we went for Mexican dinner at Orale, this was a special request to satisfy Anju didi's appetite for Nachos with cheese, but overall the food was very good.Then we headed back home and again played Bhabho, Minimum before retreating to our beds. Day 6 December 28
It was my last day at Miami, a very fun filled trip was coming to an end. After our lazy morning, we headed to our backyard beach on North Hollywood. After reaching the beach, we followed our routine of playing in water and then playing volleyball.
Volleyball @ North Hollywood Beach
Now it was time for me to depart, we had some group pictures before departing. Meghal and Sheveta Didi dropped me and Anju Didi at our respective airports for our flights. I arrived in time for my flight, but my flight was delayed because the crew hasn't joined the flight. The crew came in an hour late and when the crew came all the passengers clapped just to show a funny gesture. I slept through my flight back to San Francisco (SFO), and the moment I came out of SFO I caught cold because of 40 degree change in temperature between SFO and Miami.
I miss you Miami and all my friends. What a memorable trip and a great vacation to rejuvenate me to 2013.
I am part of this exciting club called Hi Definition speakers which falls under the charter of Toastmasters.
Toastmasters is
an international volunteer-run organization that helps individuals become
better public speakers and leaders through structured meetings where members
practice speaking skills and get immediate feedback.
Here is a video from my Ice breakers speech at the club.
