Being Passion Inspired

"I deleted it. Let's do it one last time", said my son. His adrenaline rush was contagious. "Let's do it", I responded and gathered my mobile to record his activity. It was an activity, "double juggle", given to players during the great COVID19 lockdown by his football coach. Players had to double tap a football for as long as possible. Player with max duration wins. My task was to record and submit a video of my son doing the double juggle, easy! Take 1, 23 taps. Take 2, 27 taps. Tap 3, opps he dropped the ball at the 17th tap. After the 6th take my son started feeling the pain and I was getting drained. "We should have recorded it last evening, when I did 43 taps", said my son. With a bit of motivation and multiple retries we managed to record him do 40 taps. All good to submit and I went back to cutting fruits for our breakfast. Few minutes later, I heard a not so exciting voice from my back, "Can you record it one mor...

"What's the reasonable wage we should set for domestic workers?", asked a resident in our WhatsApp Group of the community I live in. As the permanent in-house secretary,  I had a moral obligation to respond, which I did. I replied with a suggestion, "If there is consensus we could set a standard and provide that as a guidance to community members." Little did I know my post will trigger a democratic debate in words and result in creating history for most active participation in a day since that WhatsApp group was created! I remained a silent spectator for well over 30 mins, learning from perspectives shared both in favor and against standardization. Someone asked, "Isn’t “reasonable” relative? What seems reasonable to one, might seem expensive to another."  Another person pitched in with this clarification, "The point we are talking is about certain percentage of uniformity. Like, if we are a family of 2 adults and a kid, a reasonable...

"The account team appreciated your contribution but were not happy about your poetic project report", said my manager. I was not surprised and was actually expecting that feedback! In early Feb 2017 I was sent by my organisation on a mission to Singapore to turnaround a project that was going through some challenges. The client had given an ultimatum and stakes were high. The situation was not new to me but the project team, country, the client and their culture was new. I love new challenges and I was in love with Singapore from the minute I landed. A clean atmosphere does add a dose of energy to me and the city was sparkly clean. 2 weeks in the beautiful country opened my eyes to possibilities and advancements in all spectrum of life. Then I wondered, what could have gone wrong in the project that needed my intervention. 2 weeks of hardwork, many brainstorming sessions, few trust building meetings with the client, late night teamwork and few team building drinks an...

"Your son commits too early", said the football coach when I inquired about my 11 year old son's game. I am sure it meant something in football parlance but nothing to me! So, my quest to learn the game of football started. But, alas even Google could not help me.  Later, I found out it is very regional phrase used by coaches in that academy and not a global footbal coaching language!! According to him, my son gives up too quickly when he loses control of the ball to opponent team/player. "He needs to follow through and try hard to get the ball back", the coach elaborated. I thought only strategy consultants used jargon, I was wrong! I continued with my morning jog and circled back to the spot where my fellow football parents had huddled. There was some serious discussion going on about the effort all kids were putting and how they all aspired to play in big European Football Leagues. But, most parents seemed to be unhappy with the level of exposure these kid...

"Why do you always want to have the last say?", asked a senior leader in our one-on-one meeting. I was not sure how to respond to that or even if I was expected to respond! After a brief pause, I said, "Pardon me, but I am not sure if I understand what you mean by last say". The silence that followed, although brief, felt like hours to me. He looked at me and continued, "That's interesting. I am surprised you have not heard this before." I had an instinct that this could become a difficult meeting. I chose to remain silent and hear him out. But, to my surprise he chose to change the subject.  We discussed the point of contention for which we stepped into a meeting room in the first place. He was not happy about me not consenting to an approach he had adopted to bring an operational issue under control. It was a key measure for our business unit, which he was accountable for. Many on that particular management (conference) call were unhappy. There was a...

"Damn! Can you NOT keep picking up those papers from the floor? For heavensake!", said my colleague in a bit harsh tone, which took me by surprise. I wondered, what wrong did I do. I only picked up some papers from under my feet and placed them on a table. Paper, in my (Indian) culture, is considered a manifestation of goddess of knowledge, Saraswati. Ah! but I happened to be in a nice posh office in central London seated next to a 6 1/2 foot English gentleman. To him, those papers were just thrash! That morning, my colleague was reviewing a pile of papers and kept throwing some on the floor. They were strewn all around his desk and some started floating to my side and settling right under my feet.  He was obviously annoyed with me picking them up and placing them back on a corner of his table. To be fair, he did request me politely a couple of times to leave those papers on the floor.  I was helpless though! I grew up in India, where stepping on any sort of paper/book i...

"How do you plan to compensate me for content creation?", read a statement in an email I received from a good friend who also happens to be a digital marketing consultant by profession. We have been exchanging ideas and opportunities to collaborate and give back to the community. When I started my consulting and coaching firm, I reached out with an offer for her to use the platform to share her expertise through byte-size learning workshops. The query was valid and I provided a response, in which I clarified that it is pre-mature to put a monetary value to content. I explained with my rationale that real value of content is defined by how well it is received by the target audience. That in-turn will depend on how it gets communicated in a workshop through skilled facilitation. We both understand that facilitation is an interest she wants to pursue. We both are on the same page now! Since Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft) quoted "content is king" back ...

"Do you guys want a lift?" I asked the pair of young adults walking frantically while fiddling with their smartphones. Without paying much attention they responded unanimously, "No, thank you". I expected that response as it was still dark at 5 am on a Sunday morning in Jan on a deserted residential street in south Chennai and I was in the front seat of a Uber cab that pulled close to them uninvited. "Well, I am going to the same place where you are headed", I offered again in a polite and friendly tone. The lady took one close look at me and then said something to the man next to her and this time they gave a unanimous, "Yes, please!". She probably noticed all three of us were wearing Chennai Marathon Olive green T-Shirts and rightly assumed that I was heading to the starting point. I anticipated a mad rush with just-in-time bookers and booked my cab the previous night itself. There was no option to book a shared ride. So, with a bit of gui...

"Who won the noble prize when you were my age?", asked my 12 year old son. Now, that's not something I was expecting on a late Friday evening. I was tempted to call upon the artificial intelligence of my good friend, Google, but in the interest of having a real conversation with my son I chose to fall back on my natural intelligence! "That would be year 1986 and I don't think there were any that year", I responded with 50% confidence as I walked towards where he was seated. I noticed he was busy with his general knowledge homework, which I realized may have triggered that question. But, I was intrigued by the choice of his question. Was it to check my memory or my general knowledge? We spent about 15-20 minutes discussing a list of noble laureates from India and their contribution in the field of science, literature, humanities etc. It was my turn to ask a question and so I did. "What would you like to win a noble prize for when you become my a...

"What is the point of our school reopening on a Thursday?" asked my son on the first working day of 2020, which happened to be a Thursday. He was drenched in sweat post his early morning football training that wrapped up on time unlike the extra time they enjoyed over the Christmas holidays. He seemed to be genuinely puzzled and continued, "They could have delayed it by 2 more days and reopened on Monday. What is the point of going to school just for 2 days and again 2 days leave over the weekend?"  As a kid, I too had this question but I never asked anyone. I suspect anyone who grew up with me in the 90s cared about finding the reason, so naturally I did not have an answer. But, my 12 year old son seemed to be curious or was it just the urge to play for some more time?  Luckily, another parent and a good friend (who also happens to be an enlightened soul) came to my rescue. He clarified, "Son, there is a reason behind it. When you have spent a long...