In the Land of Idli and Dosa

Sometimes in life, you break your daily routines and come across entirely different world. You realize, how futile was worrying about those small things and there are many wonderful things to deal with rather than those overtime sheets, job orders and contract labours.

If anybody would have told me, I will ever go to a small village in Tamilnadu known as Nallur; I would have referred him to a psychiatrist. But, I came here and even played cricket with those coconut trees acting as spectator.

As a part of experiential leadership development program, we visit a small village (Nallur) and try to create followers by creating a positive impact on the lives of those villagers.

Sharing herewith, few funny moments which we accidently came across in this small journey,

A rollercoaster ride

Under the scorching sun, all the Nallur karmyogis were waiting along the scenic East coast road as official transport was not available. We waited for almost fifteen minutes and meanwhile witnessed the infamous feature of East Coast Road i.e. rash driving.

As the clock was ticking, we started feeling desperate. That’s when; we saw a typical autorikshaw in Chennai (one with yellow colour) came towards us. That auto driver was wearing aviator goggles and after a hard bargain he agreed to come to Nallur (The attitude he was carrying, he appeared like Rajnikant to me, say mini Rajni).

This was the first time, I was sitting in that yellow coloured auto rickshaw, which I used to see in the Chennai super kings advertisement and that auto driver (mini Rajni) made sure that this ride becomes memorable.

As the autorikshaw was moving on a shortcut route to Nallur (May be, invented by mini Rajni) which was full of potholes rather it can be said that route was in between the potholes. Due to vibrations, my head started hitting against the roof and it started creating sound (It has nothing to do with the fact that a empty box creates lots of noise).As I was sitting in the corner, I had to hold that bar in autorikshaw firmly to ensure that I will not fall out.

By the time, we reached the Nallur all the stuff inside the stomach was stirred and perhaps got digested (This ride can be taken as a substitute to Hajmola).These are the times which remind us that several part of your body do exist and you come across different uses of that soft pillow.

It was a rollercoaster ride thanks to that shortcut route which was full of potholes, those speed breakers on main route and off course the mini Rajni (Yenna rascala).

A Mango or two

As education scenario is not too good, we decided to spread educational awareness and targeting teenagers with computer and English literacy.

It was the time for “Mission Execution”, time to turn the action plan on paper into reality and we were searching for children in every possible place in Nallur. After 10 minutes of unsuccessful search, I started feeling low.

At this difficult time, one of the sharp brains amongst us came with the idea of playing Tamil song in a loud noise with laptop and sound box we were carrying. It was a risky move as we were not aware about possible reaction of the villagers. But as students of premium management institute, we were aware of the importance of risk and decided to give it a shot.

And guess what, the song “Apadi Pode” hit the target with a bang, out of nowhere several children gathered at the venue. And after watching the laptop; they almost jumped at it with the curiosity that only a child can display.

After the introduction to the laptop, we made those children dance on the educational English rhymes which are used in nursery schools, such as ‘Listen to the music and clap your hands’ (I was listening to them first time).

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After that, we played a game called as ‘Dog and bone’ as a team building exercise.   As we started the game, all the villagers gathered around and enjoyed the game by cheering for those children’s.

In that electrified atmosphere, one of the village girl participants in that game ended up almost beating the boy from rival team on several occasions, showing a glimpse of aggression in today’s ‘abla nari’ (The definition of domestic violence has to be modified now, considering all the sufferings that a man goes through in a family).

After those games, we were gifted two mangoes by one of the villager as a token of love.

Don’t know if Love is blind, but sometimes it tastes awesome.Hmmm.....Yummy.

Nallur premier league

After being familiar with teenager in village, we needed to create a bond with youngsters which will help us to do something on large scale.

We came with a unique solution which and gels even strangers with the words“Bhai, score kya hai?” and keeps patriotism alive even in today’s practical world (BCCI says as it is private organization it should not come under RTI but then we will watch the match if it’s ‘team BCCI’ is playing and not ‘team India’).In India,cricket craziness in India that a kid learns how to hold bat before learning how to do potty.

It was a fine Sunday morning and clouds in the sky were intimating about possibility of rain. We reached those small houses in Nallur houses (You can have haircut standing below the ceiling fan inside these houses) with bat and ball and we were shocked to see leather ball, pads, and testicular guard .There is a interesting statistics, In cricket first testicular guard was used in 1874 and helmet in 1974.(It took man 100 years to realize that brain is also important).

We went to the ground which was full of grass and buffalo dung. No matter how hard you dive, you will not get hurt except that your cloths will get to know the taste of dung (May be it is the secret behind good fielding of Chennai Super kings).At a distance, coconut trees were standing tall as if they are the spectators.

Teams were formed by mixing villagers and Nallur karmyogis and the teams were named as Nallur Kings and Nallur Tigers (An attempt to increase the number of extinguishing species).Nallur Kings won the toss and batting first they scored 47 runs in 10 over’s with that slow outfield (thanks to grass and dung).

Nallur Tigers came to bat; one of the villagers from Nallur King was looking and bowling like Malinga. Due to pace and accuracy in his bowling, Nallur Tigers were struggling with very low run rate. That’s when another yogi from Nallur kings came to bowl and he took the responsibility to make match competitive. With all the generosity, he gifted 19 runs in a single over and now only 7 runs were needed in 4 overs.

But then the Nallur Tigers exhibited the typical Indian generosity of showing all the respect to opponent (even on battle field) as they lost 3 wickets within the span of 8 balls.

While our captain was bowling at other side, I came to bat and 2 runs were needed in three overs. As that Malinga geared up to bowl, a thought came to my mind that no matter whatever may be the result, I will ensure that all my spare parts remain safe in the place. Soon that ball directed at my toes came like a bullet, I took my toes away(Bat was wise enough not to came in between).I left the ground with everything in place, except those stumps which were several feet’s away from their original place.

Then came the tensest moment of the match, as a small kid came to bat and it was last wicket. All the eyes were set on the small kid who was holding the bat as, long as his height. As that Malinga bowled, that kid hit the ball with all the courage and ran for a single.

Our captain came to bat, just one run was needed and sixteen balls were remaining. Malinga bowled the ball; captain hit the ball with all his power (as if he was cutting a coconut), all the eyes were set on the ball which was in air. One of the yogis, who were standing on boundary, dived to his left and took a spectacular catch and he was well inside the boundary (So no Lagaan type climax).

The first match in Nallur premier league ended as a draw as we purposely ignored the possibility of super over (Who will face that Mallinga again).

Ganpati Bappa Morya on the land of Idli and Dosa

While we were discussing the issue about reopening of library in the village with village head; he gave us a pleasant surprise by inviting us to the program of Ganesh idol immersion. This further enhanced my belief in ‘Universal Ganesha’ as I didn’t expect this kind of program here. While we participated in this immersion program, I curiously saw what is ‘Prasad’ for Ganesha and guess what it was, a Idli.I enquired about this unusual ‘Prasad’ with villager and got reply that “We like Idli and as God is inside all of us, he will love it too” (By this logic God would have to love many things, he would not like to. Rather I will say, if your feelings are honest, he can adjust with anything).Then we waved good bye to Ganesha by shouting the slogans of “Ganpati Bappa Morya” (off course in Tamil).

If you try to explore new avenues, life bounces back with pleasant surprises. I think this is what makes, life the most adorable thing in this mortal world.

Cheers,

Mahesh Godse.

A Day that Never Ends

The sound of alarm playing spoilsport brings you back to senses, you check the clock with half closed eyes and realize that waking up can’t be delayed any further as it is routine wake up time (20 minutes before class) irrespective of class timing(standard deviation being almost zero). After unwillingly getting out of your kingdom (bed, no one can challenge you there), you brush your teeth. Now you come across a tradeoff between bath and breakfast. As the deodorant has its own limitations (remember you hadn’t taken bath yesterday either), you sacrifice those mouth watering parathas and idlis for the benefit of your class-mates and move towards the bathroom only to find that those bathrooms are already running house full as it is peak time and you get a chance to enter into nearby ‘white house’. While you are busy there, you hear the voice of door opening and quickly finishing things, you get hold of the bathroom before it is hijacked by someone else (this can be termed as “bathroom management”). The shower of hot water opens your eyes fully and you kind of settle the score by ignoring all the calls from outside such as “Kamine kya kar raha hai, jaldi bahar aaja”. After getting ready, you start running towards the class and while running you come across a line on the T-shirt of a fellow Spartan, ”Three things to do, wake up, survive and go to bed” and a thought comes to your mind, is it the theme of the day?

You fill any vacant chair in the classroom without any fear as it is the lecture of a cool professor (cooler than the AC) who will give information on technology (Why the professors of informative subjects are so nice where as professors of particular ‘economical’ subjects are too strict, can be a subject of empirical study).The professor starts the lecture and sincerely ‘facing the books’ (text books) students build concentration. The Sense of humour of the professor grabs your attention and you come to know that there is something called as cloud (computing), which does not rain below certain temperature (Being non IT student, it is obvious). After an hour, someone asked about taking a break. After getting used to marathons (three hour sessions), it is like taking a break for a 500 meter race. But being a smart manager, you make full utilization of the opportunity and the break of 5 minutes  ends up into a 15 minute break.

In another lecture, professor randomly calls a group to present and you get to witness the law “Figures can lie” as the probability of 1/30 suddenly turns into one. Wasting no time, you quickly take the class through the presentation to the most fascinating slide for any presenter (saying ‘Thank you’) as if the microphone in your hand is a live bomb which could explode any time. A round of applause follows which turns your head high (as you carefully ignore the probability that those claps could have been for quickly finishing the presentation).Then, despite of that big ‘Thank you’ on the screen, you get bombarded with several questions from all corners. You retaliate along with your group members and the session turns into a wonderful discussion (& sometimes hiring of nurses turns into a 2 hour discussion).

You swim to another lake for the next class(names of our classroom begin with lake such as Lake Veeranam, Lake Ontario) and secure a safe place as the professor has threatened in the previous lecture that if you come to the class without doing the pre-reads, you will be shown the door (though you know exactly where it is).The thought of financial freedom (retiring at the age of 45) and the skills of the professor get you involved in the investment related discussion. As the lecture proceeds, you learn so much that your retirement age automatically comes down to 40. (With pre-reads, you may have second thoughts about appearing in campus interviews. Moral: Doing pre-reads is too risky).

You never realize when those three hours have passed. To hold the nerve of the audience, a Bollywood movie needs songs, action, emotion, love scenes (I will not go further) and here a professor with the help of PPTS without much power(as they contain few words),holds the attention of about 150 students. In the last few minutes, the centre of attraction shifts to the biometric machines as the next lecture is after half an hour away and you have to take lunch in between. You run like the best athlete in the world towards the biometric machine and end up joining a queue (which contains several Usain Bolts). Every passing minute in that queue appears like an hour and to add to your ado, the biometric machine requests you to try several times. Then you run to the canteen to join yet another queue (Akhir kyun yeh queue?).

While standing in the queue, you witness smart team work by a few Spartans (single plate carrying food for several people). Initially you ignore soup as you are running short of time, but it pulls you towards itself and that delicious ‘Gajar ka Halwa’ makes sure that you are left with few minutes before going to the class. While you are running towards the classroom, a new dish gets formed in your stomach with the combination of halwa and soup.

You successfully squeeze in through half closed door, your thumb says ‘hi’ to the biometrics machine (ab toh har jagah ungli karne ki aadat pad gayi hai). Your eyes start scanning the last row for a vacant place and you occupy the very last chair (one behind the last row) feeling like a victorious king. But the smart professor brings back you to reality by calling you to fill the vacant seat in the front row and you tag yourself there with a plate showing kaidi no...(oops FT no....).Now the combination of Halva and Soup start showing its side effect and everything around starts appearing blurred and sometimes you go out of coverage area. But the thought of missing physical attendance brings you back into coverage and the announcement of (not so) surprise quizzes acts as an eye opener.

For the next two hours, the professor takes you through market research as if doing a research in the class itself till comes the time for the ‘Big’ quiz. The quiz starts with that question paper smiling sarcastically at you and saying ‘Best of Luck’ at the end (Considering the nature of question paper, professor sensed the need of luck in advance). Felling tense you look around and feel a bit relaxed as you find the same question mark on most of the faces around (Though there is a hole in our boat, most of us are sailing in the same boat and we can ‘relatively mark’ the shore). And as always there will be outliers, for those below ”Folks, you make us proud” and for those above, Mr. Bill Gates has said something “I never topped a college but toppers from best of the universities work for my company”(Kidding folks, one day you will make our country proud). After the quiz, your neighbour discusses the problems he faced while solving the questions and you smile at yourself as you never faced any problems during exams instead those problems prefer to greet you only during the results as if conspiring against you. The professor discusses the solution and you realize that though you have not nailed it but still did a good job, just by paying attention in the class.

Then you rush to the canteen and as usual join another queue (After a year, one will be so used to standing in the queue that for a moment you will think about joining a queue even on your marriage day). You eat those snacks and if that snack is fried in oil then you need to issue few tissue papers to squeeze out the oil (are there any oil wells in those mango gardens behind the cafeteria?). Back to the room, you pay a small installment of sleep of about 15 minutes (everything is on fast track) and rush to the college gate for the weekly visit(As a part of experiential leadership development project called as karmyoga,we visit nearby village and target given to us is to turn those villagers into followers by creating positive impact on their lives).

Then you start an alien trip to a nearby village (as both the words ‘Yoga’ and ‘Karma’ were alien to you till a few months ago). While sitting in the bus, you set the binocular so as to search any potential follower as you are aware that a transformational leader makes a sheep lion realize that he is a lion without even knowing his language. After conducting an unsuccessful search operation for a follower in every corner of the village, you start feeling low and turn back with hope  that someone might be following you, instead you find that even your shadow is not following you. That’s when a bunch of children, with whom you interacted during the last visit greet you and start playing with your laptop with the kind of curiosity that only a child can display. After spreading educational awareness, you join the celebration of life and play a few games with them. You realize that while transforming others, you yourself are getting transformed into a better human being (strange situation of”being a leader and a follower at the same time”) and you leave your village high on enthusiasm.

Once back in college, being proactive you take a bath (tomorrow’s class is at 8 am), then the house-keeping guys come to make your life bearable by cleaning the room (can’t even imagine boys hostel without these guys). You get a solution for the assignment to be submitted the next day and in order to give it an original touch, you get involved and an outcome comes which can be saluted by any plagiarism software.

While having dinner, power supply goes out for a minute and you listen to several rock stars howling in their innate voices. After dinner comes the time to work with CEO’s-in-making (Group mates, very true in my case) and prepare a few ‘polythene coated PPT's’. In the Bistro, while sipping on cold coffee you listen to the words “Oh shit!” Followed by”you are the maan” and the man himself enlightens others with his knowledge with the use of flowery language (If mere use of the ‘F’ word would have increased population then he alone would have doubled the world population).Both of them exchange knowledge in their natural high tones (which helps keep the Bistro employees awake in those late hours). By the time your work gets done it is well beyond midnight and you again loose the opportunity of sleeping and waking on different days (Sometimes you join much acclaimed club of ‘free loaders’ so as to have a wholesale sleep).

Back to your kingdom (bed), your eyes find it hard to sleep (they are used to sleeping under close supervision of the professor with knowledge flowing all around) and all the events from morning runs as a flashback in your mind and it makes you realize that the theme of the day is “Wake up, get empowered and stay awake as much as you can”.

Next morning, again you find yourself lucky as you come out of the bathroom and after watching the clock, a chartbuster song starts playing at the back of your mind”Bhag bhag....bhag bhag...you know the rest”.

And you embark on an enriching journey of another day that never ends.

Cheers,

Mahesh Godse.