London Diaries 4 | The Festive Frenzy!

The festive season in India starts around August and continues to spread its fervour and joyous spirit up till November when it reaches its zenith with Diwali. So while we have ‘Id’, ‘Janamashtami – Dahi Handi’, ‘Ganpati Pooja’ in Aug/Sep, we immerse in the ‘Navratri/Durga Pooja fever in Oct and cap it off with Diwali celebrations in Oct/Nov. There is one festival after the other that keeps the festive spirit high. Though, after school it has been tough to be at home for all these festivals but Diwali celebrations have always been reminiscent with lots of exciting pre-Diwali preparations and much sought after celebrations. So to think of a Diwali without being at home has been a rather not thought about scenario.

But if you aren’t in India you hardly get a hang of this festive euphoria. London, however is a bit different in this sense due to its cosmopolitan nature and a large Indian diaspora in the metropolis. So although, Janamashtami, Dahi Handi and Ganpati Pooja might not be as widely celebrated but during Navratri and Diwali, places like Wembley and Southall hardly give you a feel that you are not in India. The pre-festive chaos in  the markets, the spread of rangoli colours, a variety of diyas, decoration lights, bevy of interesting crackers, sumptuous sweets and snacks clearly reinstate the fact that Diwali has arrived, pretty much like any Indian local market, days before Diwali. So in this sense you don’t quite miss all the Diwali fervour and the associated build up but there is a lot more to it which actually keeps you longing for your home back in India.

Most importantly you miss your parents, your friends and the very idea of being with the family at this time. You miss those sumptuous delicacies that your mom cooks specially for Diwali, you miss your close friends and acquaintances coming home to meet and greet for Diwali. You miss the symphony of that noisy cracker lit Diwali night, you miss those messy roads on the next morning. And you miss that sorry feeling that you got to wait for 1 more year for Diwali to come back again and engross you in its magic.

But on one hand where you experience this festive void being away from India, you do also have this amazing opportunity to cherish and experience something totally extraordinary being here in London. The Christmas & New Year frenzy out here is simply unparalleled and out of this world. So while we prepare for days and weeks for Diwali out there in India, people out here plan and prep for Christmas for months in advance. Right from October end the festive lights start coming up, the market and the houses alike are all decked up and readied for the festival season ahead, the festive spirit keeps on rising exponentially and you can feel a sense of joy and excitement in the air. There are sales and discounts everywhere and people come out and shop in such proportions, as if there is no tomorrow. By the time Christmas arrives the entire city basks in the same glory as a newlywed bride does on her special day. And interestingly where all this while we have been watching and experiencing the festival time frenzy of the west through Hollywood movies but in reality it’s much more than that. In fact, it’s a phenomenal atmosphere and an experience worth living at least once in our life time.

It would be unfair to compare the Diwali frenzy back home with the festivities at west. But I always feel Diwali has a unique smell and a peculiar feel good zing attached to it that we all experience days and weeks before its arrival and I could easily figure out that people out here also feel the same excitement for December festivities. It probably has to do with the biggest festival of the year everywhere. Nevertheless, it’s a fantastic state to be in and how we wish we can be in the festive mode year round and feel the same happiness all around.

Though, given a chance and choice I would prefer being soaked in the Diwali fervour back home despite a near equal euphoria out here during Christmas. After all heart is where is home isJ.

Happy Holidays!

--

kin… 

..those were just children!!!

How do you feel when you see a kid falling down and getting his elbow and knees bruised while playing with his friends? You skip a heartbeat, you feel concerned, you feel sorry, you instantly empathize and feel like taking that suffering from him immediately. Kids are undoubtedly god’s most beautiful creation and they make this world a much better place to live with their innocence and infectious energy. So to imagine somebody causing slightest of harm to such innocent souls is unbelievable. And further to this, if somebody intentionally targets and harms these beautiful creation of god, it’s an inhuman task of unpardonable degree.

So what happened in Peshawar when a gang of psychotic idiots barged into a school and brutally killed over 130 odd innocent souls brought the entire world in state of shock. Not even the barbarians of mediaeval era would have done something this heinous , this scary and this shameful. Supposedly, the Taliban cadre to which those barbarians belonged claimed that this act was executed with an intent to teach a lesson to the masses (specifically state army) to understand the pain they themselves were going through due to army’s activities against them. Really? So to teach a lesson you kill school children? Children who probably don’t even know what a terrorist is or what a gun is or for that matter what jihad is. To kill them as brutally as they have done is unpardonable, no act of remorse or punishment can justify the sin they have committed. Any kind of genocide is unacceptable and abhorred universally but a genocide of this proportion has left one and all gasping for life.

Spare a thought for the parents of the kids who lost their lives in this massacre. That morning they would have sent them to the school, the holiest of all places in the world, with a sense of safety and security in their hearts and a belief that they would come back home having learnt something new. But what transpired that morning was actually the worst thing that could have happened to them and their families that day. I doubt any amount of healing or reprieve would help them overcome this tragedy ever in their lives. It was a indeed a black day for the entire mankind irrespective of the boundaries of the nations and supposed veils of different religions. Anyone who has a heart and a sane conscience would have cried as much as those bereaved parents. Surprisingly, the mastermind behind this brutal act is himself a father of 3. I wonder what on earth gave him the audacity and strength to execute this gut wrenching act.

But then a large reason behind this unfortunate incident is Pakistan’s own inability to do something concrete to fight this terror menace. They just don’t know what to do and which path to traverse for the larger good of their nation. They continue talking about good terror and bad terror, good Taliban and bad Taliban but is there anything like good sin or bad sin? Its sheer stupidity and as Hillary Clinton once rightly said, ‘you can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard’. Hence, unless they themselves  get their act together, which seems highly improbable, they can’t expect these tragic incidents to stop haunting them.

For god’s sake those were just children, too innocent, too delicate and too naïve to face such brutality.  To see such a miserable event take place is a collective loss of the entire mankind. It’s not just the death of the of those 130 odd innocent souls but it’s a death of the humanity. I pity their philosophy of committing such brutal acts by the name of religion, I wonder if even Hell would give them a place when they leave their mortal avatar.

The heart bleeds and the soul cries... 

RIP those innocent souls. RIP Humanity.

--

kin…

The Appraisal Razzmatazz!

The appraisal time razzmatazz in any salaried setup is the most buzzing event of the year. Not so much in the government/public sector scenario perhaps, as those setups are being driven primarily by the pay commission concepts but in a typical corporate/private sector setup it’s no less than an action packed, high voltage TV drama.

So like with any good, popular and a successful drama series the appraisal drama also has a few protagonists in the form of ‘ Suddenly invisible but loaded with some unbelievably irritating facts, Manager aka Villain’ , ‘Highly hopeful and self-proclaimed best performer, Employee aka Hero’ and a ‘ I know you well, stop faking, friend/colleague aka Joker’. And then with such a startling star cast there ought to be some good plots as well to complement the former. So we also have some interesting plots as well in the form of – ‘Plan as never before and shut the yuck out of the manager, plot’, ‘Manager goes missing, plot’, ‘Promote me and who else, plot’, ‘Double digit hike is a minimum, plot’, ‘ You decline, I resign plot’ and if it’s an IT setup we have an added attraction in the form of  ‘Now, at least send me to onsite, plot’. So  let’s breeze through each of these plots and how these protagonists fare in these plots.

‘Plan as never before and shut the yuck out of the manager, plot’. The main protagonist of this plot is ‘Highly hopeful and self-proclaimed best performer, Employee aka Hero’. So although there is still about 3-4 months to the appraisal process kick off, the hero plans hard well in advance. He collates all kinds of appreciations from his key stakeholders, he tries and goes beyond the normal call of the duty and makes his presence felt everywhere, he for sure picks those pieces of work that everyone else in the team hates to work, he even stretches his back to work late hours and on weekends, all with a plan to nail it down in the final showdown. So much so that he even rehearses and equips well for all the what if scenarios that the villain might come up with in the final combat. All this while the Joker keeps on motivating the hero to continue with his approach and when not around he also laughs out loud on his hyper active cynicismsJ.

‘Manager goes missing, plot’. So all this while when the hero is planning, plotting and getting ready for the final showdown through all kinds of attention seeking gimmicks, the villain all of a sudden disappears, not literally though, but in the most funny ways. When our hero proactively participates and drives lot of initiatives to catch Manager’s eye, the villain turns a blind eye to it, as if he has hardly noticed this much anticipated pro activity. And while the hero has been busy planning perfectly, the villain is on his own is taking note of all the weird things that would go on to haunt the villain in the final showdown. Expectedly so the Joker keeps giving some false hopes to the hero by comforting him with those hypothetical acknowledgments from the villain that he has actually never ever given J.

‘Promote me and who else, plot’. So finally comes the D day, the day of final showdown. The hero enters, all well prepared, well equipped with a strong script in mind covering all the good and oh so good things he has done throughout the year which will eventually win him all the cash cows of the year. The manager aka villain on other hand comes equally prepared (much to the dismay of the hero), having done a crash course on company policy and being well briefed on the company’s financial guidance for the year, all this without an amicable expression on his face, at times even with a disgusted one. So when the hero starts his well-rehearsed winning narrative to take it to the zenith and claim for the ‘Promotion’ reward, the villain seems disinterested, almost to the point of being inattentive. And when the hero starts getting a bit restless, the villain throws up his ‘lack of quota card’ this year due to relatively challenging year for the company. This not only stumps the hero big time, even takes him off guard for a while. Joker however, who has already faced it all in his previous encounters, enjoys this anti-climax to the hilt.

‘Double digit hike is a minimum, plot’. Bruised, but not lost, the hero resorts to his Plan B and asks for a double digit hike for all the good things he has done throughout the year. And almost as if he is obliging the villain by taking the bitter pill of not getting promoted this year demands for a fat double digit hike that he is pretty much worthy of. The villain now comes to the front foot, diplomatically acknowledging hero’s efforts, hailing him as a senior member of the team and then smartly bracketing all these exceptional efforts under the minimum expectation bucket. After all a senior member of the team is expected to do much moreJ. So the double digit demand also goes for a toss, though in turn the wicked villain tries obliging the hero by comforting him saying, despite nothing exceptional from your end I will still and push our case with the higher management, just as a personal favour.

‘ You decline, I resign plot’. By now, the hero has already had enough. All these months where he was harping the hopes of getting promoted and grabbing a fat hike through his well-planned efforts, the villain has put all his plans in disarray. With a sense of frustration he throws up his trump card and threatens to resign for being not rewarded for his best in class performances and unparalleled efforts in the team. The villain being a seasoned campaigner tries to cool him down and advices him to not act hastily and rather think again. And promises him that any which way he will still try and do something for the hero. Joker finds this moment of rage and false assurance ever so familiar and fittingly hilariousJ.

‘Now, at least send me to onsite, plot’. The hero by now has lost it, he is dejected, shattered and broken. All his well-planned dreams have been broken by an experienced game player who is a pro at this. However, being in the IT setup there is also an additional carrot that serves equally good as a good hike or grade promotion and that is onsite. So the hero throws his last dice and negotiates with the villain for a quick fix onsite movement as a probable alternative and a supposed reward for his self-proclaimed beyond best in class performance throughout the year. Manager aka villain being an seasoned player instantly agrees to it and asks him to be assured of his onsite movement sooner than later. The Hero comes out with some sense of accomplishment, the villain feels good about his ever so well executed ways and Joker being a joker in the pack just laughs out loud J.

It’s a different matter though that by the time the hero eventually gets travel ready, the next appraisal cycle is on his head and he has to forego his next promotion/double digit hike as well as a trade-off for his last years promised onsite travel J. So more often than not the villain has the last laugh, unless of course if the hero in consideration is lucky, licky or just way too good to be ignored and maneuvered J.

---

kin…