Friday, December 26, 2008

A reason to SMILE

24th December was Xmas time in office... Something different and special though was that we visited an NGO called SMILE :), the same NGO that we as KPMG are supporting at the marathon.

KPMG has a PML initiative whereby each director is responsible for a group of employees and has to address any work related issues and also has a quarterly budget which he/she has to spend on the said group of employees... Our PML came out with a truely unique idea to spend the amount on a special occasion like Christmas...

And so it was decided that we visit the NGO "SMILE"... Few colleagues volunteered to get gifts, toys and food for the children... We had a rough estimate of about 80 children and accordingly the arrangements were made... A different kind of vehemence was seen in few of my colleagues, who sat post office hours wrapping all those gifts..

On the day we took cabs and reached the school near girgaun chowpathy where the kids were... A group of about 55 kids along with few teachers and volunteers were all so happy to see us there... We had just been there to interact with them and try to make them happy... But, the kids had something different in store for us... The kids seemed to be roughly in the age group of 8-15... They had planned christmas competition, whereby they had short roleplays, jokes and shayries, singing and dancing competition...

Their performance was just nonpareil and all of us had hilarious time for the 2 hours we were there... Something worth mentioning is the immense confidence and energy levels that the kids possessed... They managed to make us have our eyes glued to their performances... As some kids performed we could see the amount of support that the kids in the audience had ... with their constant applause (much louder than an audi full of people could applaud), an amazing show of healthy competition and team spirit, apart from loads of love and affection. A break was taken after role plays, shayris and jokes for food and gift distribution.. Post which we had the dancing competition.. dancing to the tunes of hare ram, teri aankhein bhul bhulaiya and jingle bells the kids could put any amateur tapping his/her feet... Then followed the singing competition where we came to know that some of the singers were selected by tata communications in their competition at the semi final levels. A perfect show of talent these kids were no less than any other kid... Infact, they were very very high on confidence and a desire to do something....

We had gone with an intention to make them happy, when we turned back to return to office we found that what we had got in return was probably much more than what we planned for the kids... and none of us was willing to leave the place

As they say you always get back more than what you give away...

All in all, it was just a superb and well thought initiative!! 2 hours very well spent!!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

True CaTalysts

Life has unfolded so many gifts on its way.. and there have been so many people who have made a tremendous impact on my life (the true catalysts of my life)... i wonder what i would have been had it not been for these people...

A Mom who endelessly waits late nights to give me Garam food, can smell when i am low and is always there to lend a ear... A Father who can ease any of your stress with his pure logical talks as easily as companies offer pink slips these days... A Brother who i can easily bank on when need be and who has always been a silent support, a Sister who means the world to me and is one of very good friends i can rely on, a caring Bhabhi and a chweet cute Nephew who can kip the child in me alive and who is so ecstatic to see me back home from office :) Amazingly though we dont have many family talks or outings we all know that there is a strong bond... that keeps us all together!!!

Apart from a supportive family, I have been blessed by a few awe-inspiring friends.. I consider myself extremely fortuitous in this aspect.
Right from motivators, supporters, jovials, advisors, silent wellwishers... They have been exactly as the situation demands.... I dont want to personalise but just a few mention of incidents that make them so special..
Friends,
- who are seperated by distance but still aware of everything thats going on in my life..
- who want to know much more about me than i am willing to speak.. just to understand me better...
- who have been amazing motivators at times when things have gone wrong..
- who have been angry at me when i have been careless..
- who have been so serious about my career..
- who have been just a call away at any hour
- who make birthdays special...
- who can cheer me up when i am in tears...
- who are concerned about my family...
- who have made me feel happy for the person i am..
- few who are already concerned about me not having a boyfriend (just kidding)
- whom i have at times followed blindly...
- who have given me wake up calls, reminders on my friends birthdays....
- who i can talk office talks with and kip discussing my confusions
- whom i can cry for, laugh with, and just be what i am!!

I can just go on....

I just want to say THANKS to all of you for being such an inevitable part of my life... You all mean so much to me... I may have many times missed to let you know what it means to have each one of you.... But i am so happy to have an awesome family and a few true friends... THANK YOU CHHHHOOO MUCH!!

Time to say good-bye!! (oye not permanently)... Next time i hope to come with not such an emotional post!!!

p.s. i have tried to use some words to improve my english usage... please understand the meanings in the context of the sentence even if they dont make proper sense. And if they dont make proper sense please let me know... :)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Tiny voices speaking!!!

Its been quite some time things have been continously going on in my mind... one thing goes and the other is already ready for attention!!! There are so many things i want to speak out to.. but at times i dont want to speak them and at times i dont find anyone who wants to hear... Just want to post anything i think, anything that affects me in any way.... just about anything




Where i see so many people hastily running around, so many confused minds trying to figure out what to do in life (not that i have figured out myself). i also am among this confused category of people. And frankly at many times i have taken life much more seriously than it should have been taken.. BuT at many times now i feel Chill Yaar!!!

So many people are so successful yet so unhappy... i dont buy the assumption that money is not needed to be happy... but money is not the only thing needed to be happy!! I know success is essential to live a decent life... but mere success in career does not assure a happy life...

No i dont mean to say i dont want to be successful, i dont want a career... I want it all....but i want to take it all at my own pace... Chilled and relaxed!!

I heard one of the top brass in corporates say his biggest fear was he would not be able to enjoy his life!!! NOWAYS.... thats not how i wish to be!!

So just chill!! Take it at your own pace... enuff for now :)

Lets hope i come back soon wit one more post!!