Tag: ahmedabad

My team in ILP!


When I look back at the last three months, I see a journey that has components of a lifetime…
I am not a fan of travelling, but even I would have to admit, it was a sort of essential experience to have. It was a different journey altogether. We wanted to learn; it wasn’t like it was for an exam or something. It was the start and we all wanted to make something out of it. We tasted apartment lifestyle and it was awesome. We acquiesced to the 9 to 6 schedule and so upon returning, all that

we could do was to play table-tennis. Some became serious players, while for some, it remained a kind of mini-badminton. During the learning, I found a group that, in simple words, was the most positive team (not group), that I have ever seen. I will accept that at start, we weren’t the most enthusiastic of batches, because  we all had our college groups with us, and hanging out with them more often, logically made sense. But as soon as we realized that our time to disband has come, everyone was like in a hurry to get to know about each other. We hanged out more often with each other and started making memories. We joined Gujaratis in their celebrations in garba, executed a night out starting with open-theatre and ending with dozing off at office canteen at 7 in the morning, going out for dinners more often than usual and many such more in relatively short span of time.
On the final day, we bid goodbye to various people, saw them crying, became part of their commotion.
Finally, when my time arrived, I felt like something was missing, which is a strong testament that I will seriously miss this part of life. I saw a lot of people leaving with smiles going home and on the contrary, saw people crying, on being separated from their long known buddies. Got an opportunity to meet various different kinds of people, some introverts like me, some dynamic extroverts, some exemplary team workers.
When you leave such a group that has been conflict free and remained positive during the entire tenure, you feel like its not enough yet, you need some more time. Since, we became a team a little late, so there were few interactions that were still incomplete; some wanted to make the most of the time, some wanted the memories to stay forever, while some wanted to stay back at any cost. But in the end, we all had to move on because career was calling. Everyone departed with the words ‘touch me rehna’.
There are times that you like to remember, as in that would make you smile, but you don’t want to relive those again, it was good when it happened, that’s all. And then there are memories that you want to relive over and over again. This was one of those times.

The unforgettable journey has made me stronger in multitudes of skills and that’s something that everyone would agree to. It has been like a gift that will help me in different ways. The gift that is the memory, laden with useful skills and great friends.
(With inputs from Geek )

Discovered happiness!

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but they seize us.” –Ashley Montagu

Recently, I got an opportunity to experience this quote first-hand. Well yesterday, we went for ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and what we thought would be the highlight of the day was totally eclipsed by what we discovered just before the movie began. We reached early to the mall and so we had solid one hour before the action began. We decided to go for KFC to have lunch. We were 14 in number and were deciding what to order and clearly taking a lot of space. A staff motioned us to get in line and then decide. He wasn’t saying anything, but just instructing us to get in line. I found it rude, but ignored it. Later on, I was told by my friend that he was deaf and mute. I realized it now that this KFC had a different aura altogether and it didn’t had the unnecessary chatter of the staffers that we usually experience in the franchisees. I observed that nearly every staff there was using sign language to communicate with other staffs or using gestures to communicate with the customers, and all that with a smile that will melt your heart. There was an air of confidence emanating from everyone working there, which was unaffected by the curious stares by the ongoing crowd. I was eagerly waiting for my turn to order, because I wanted to get the feel of communicating with the person and to see how they coped up with the standards set by KFC. And yes, as expected, the transaction was flawless. I pointed out my order and the person at the counter asked me the quantity and I gestured it too, then after confirming the order from the screen, he politely directed me out of the queue and proceeded to serve the next customer.

KFC’s initiative to employ deaf and mute persons in front-end jobs is surely commendable. Firstly, it gives them a respectable place in society earning their own bread and not depending on any relatives. And secondly, it gives them a lot of similar people in their company. This will ensure that they are in a community where everyone can readily communicate with them. The world certainly looks a nice place when you experience such nice chapters. We were so elated that we kept talking about them and agreed that this initiative should be carried on to every self-service franchises.

A little research reflected that this move was first initiated by Virag Joshi, CEO of Devyani International Limited, which runs Pizza Hut, KFC, Vaango and Costa Coffee chains in India. Really felt proud after getting acquainted with the fact that the move has been a great success so far, with the special KFCs at par with every other KFC in town. At Devyani International, they are given a training of 2 months to excel at communicating and handling customer requirements. Hats off to such an initiative by the man whose team was honoured for executing this successfully, which instils a ‘feel good’ factor in both customers and employees mind-set.

The world definitely requires such moves and positively enough there is no dearth of such leaders that can use such ideas and more to keep the spirit of humanity alive.