A Trip to Hyderabad

Life was going pretty boring as work was getting monotonous. I wanted to plan a short trip to some place so i could revive my sagging spirit. Just then, Vasu,my cousin, came online and we started chatting, he invited me to come to Hyderabad. I jumped upon the thought of travelling to HYDERABAD not only because it was a city that i wanted to visit, but also that my uncle Nagaraj and my cousins lived there.

SO i booked my tickets and left to HYD by Hyderabad Express on April 4th,4:45pm.

A beautifull morning: The train journey was pleasant. By the time,i woke up in the morning, the train had reached Secunderabad, i just gazed at the window and was amazed to see some beautifull scenaries: The view of the Hussain Sagar lake, Lakde Ka pool station, and the clean and wide roads.

I got down at HYD, where my cousin Vasu was waiting. We reached my Uncle's house around 7am. My relatives were overjoyed to see me, infact i was the one who was even more overjoyed to see them.

I had my breakfast, and spent my time chatting with my cousins, Vasu and Thulasi.
My cousins had planned to show me around Hyderabad, so we decided to roam in the evening as the weather was a bit hot.

In the evening, I visited Birla Mandir: It is a beautifull temple, having lord Vishnu as the main deity, built over a hill, beautifully constructed with marble and granite tilings. The view of the city from the temple was amazing. I had a nice dharsan. I asked Vasu to take some pictures of the temple so that i can post it here, but unfortunately, the temple authorities said that we could not shoot any photos there.


Next, we went to EATSTREET. Eat street is an advanced version of a food court. It is a place located at Necklace road in HYD. The street is filled with many restaurants, ice cream parlours, chat shops etc that cater different varieties of food to people. The major pluspoint of this place is that it is located in an exotic location: Along the banks of the Hussain Sagar Lake. Just think of this, if you ever have a special person with whom you need to spend some quality time, you can take them to this place, order your favorite food and just spend a lovely evening watching the scenic view of the lake. This place is a heaven during the night time. I would definitely love to take my wife to this place one day.

I spent the next two days with my relatives.I didn;t want to roam around anymore because i just wanted to spend some quality time with my cousins. Of course, i spent this UGADI(Telugu NewYear)with them.

I boarded the Charminar Express on April 7th. MY cousins, Anil and Vasu, came to the station to send me off, as the train started off from the station, i sighed thinking how my three days had just passed off so quickly. Truly, i enjoyed my trip to Hyderabad. Hope i visit it once again in the near future. It is truly a special place because it is associated with BL.

A Friend Called HARI....

A person called Hari:
I have made many friends in my life. It seemed to be a strange co-incidence that i always seemed to find a friend called Hari in each place i went.
Here are the list of Hari's that i have met in my life till now:

Sree Harendra Kumar- A person who was my classmate in Tenth class. He still continues to be one of my best pals. I always remember his funny exploits during the cricket matches that we played at the Marina. He calls himself an allrounder(I really doubt that). He bowls so slow sometimes that the batsman nearly yawns off :-)). Sorry Hari, this is the general opinion of batsman who have faced you.

Hariprasad Rao: This guy was not a best friend of mine. He was a humorous guy, also a prankster in class. He was my classmate in the 11th and 12th Standard. I don't have much to say about him except that we were sitting in the same bench during our Eleventh standard and making fun of our teacher Mohanadas.

Hari: I don't remember his full name. I used to call him 'Hari anna'. He was a year senior to me in College. He was the person who introduced me to the Rotaract club and was most influential in making me the Joint Secretary of our college Rotaract club. He was an easygoing person, average at studies, but extremely good at extra-curricular activities. I last saw him in 2005. He along with the other seniors Bharat, Kishore, and Nanda were the terrific four in our department. These four were labelled as rowdies by our lecturers, but in fact, they were very good at studies too.

Hariram: This Hari was one of my best pals in college. He was my collegemate in B.sc. He along with Vishnu, Nilesh, Prasanna, and others formed a formidable gang. Hari was a creative person, seldom interested in studies, but always pretended to be. He wrote many stories and poems during his pasttime. His best talent lied in doing creative work. I always remember those days when all of my college mates used to barge into his room, keep our valuables and start off to roam around the college. We used his room as our restplace. Thanks for letting us to use your room Hari boy!!!!

Harishankar: This Hari is a former colleague of mine. We both met at Expertus. He is a die-hard Cinema fan, loves to watch movies especially Classic movies, is supposedly a fan of Sonali Bendre(I am not sure about this, i saw her photo in his mobile). He is also a great ID, bubbling with creativity. He was the one, along with Abhi and Sanjana, who taught me about the realities of the corporate world.


Last but not least, Harikumar: He is my colleague at EK. Initially i knew him as just another ID in EK, but when we started working together, i got to know him well, he is one of those people who want to live life to the fullest. He is an atheist, a strict 9-6 worker, lazybone, easygoing person, likes to call himself as the emperor of the Universe and sometimes the most difficult person in the world to argue with. He considers himself as the GREATEST HYPOCRITE of all time. He also considers himself as crazy(Which i think is true, he almost drives people insane).

But at heart, this guy is cool, genuine, unorthodox,easygoing, and food loving person.

Loyalty to the organization: Is it still considered by todays corporates

Loyalty to the organization: Is it still considered by todays corporates

As usual, i am back with another post related to corporate behaviour, but this time around, it's something that i have been thinking of for quite sometime now.
In today's corporate world, where employees are no longer considered as people, but just as resources and assets, i doubt whether organizations would ever consider the need for rewarding employees who have performed well and are being loyal to the organization.

Today's HRs hardly have the time to consider, leave alone implement, steps that would reduce attrition and encourage employees to not only stay with the organization, but grow along with it.

Let me put forward an instance: In an organization where my friend is employed, there were people who had been with the company for 4 years.
These people had been working in the company for 3-4 years, they had been involved in many crucial projects and had helped the company to create their niche in the market. In fact, they were heavily relied upon to deliver crucial deliverables during heavy crunch situations.

My friend, who was very inquisitive, had mingled with them and had asked them about their pay packages only to know that they were below industry standards.
Out of apathy, my friend asked them to convey their grievances to the HR and when they asked, this was the HR's reply:

"As far as we are concerned, we are the best paymasters in the industry, if our employees feel that they are being payed low, it is their opinion. This organization has been the best in providing a good work environment and a great pay package. We are indeed proud to say that inspite of the RUPEE APPRECIATION, we have still performing well and have not made any cost cutting measures. "

And to add insult to injury, people who had just joined the organization (with lesser experience) were earning more, had higher designations, but were perform the same duties as those people who had been there for years. When the HR was asked about this, he had an instant reply "People here, are payed for their performance and not experience. We do not just take experience as a criteria while rewarding the employee."

My friend was disgusted when he heard this. He had confronted the HR and demanded an explanation on how the HR could ignore the people who were working in the office for so long, but were never rewarded fairly. This was their reply "They have been rewarded as per their PA rating and their performance. Their salary is as per industry standards." ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.

Now let me come to my point, THIS IS FOR ALL THE HR PEOPLE AND MANAGERS: "You expect an employee to perform par excellence; you expect them to produce deliverables ahead of time, you want them to work 16/7(8 hours for sleep), you want them to be prove themselves, but yet when you appraise them, you take your own sweet time, give bullshit lectures, speak about STUPID IDEOLOGIES such AS "THIS WAS WHAT I LEARNT FROM MY BOSS" or "THIS WAS WHAT I LEARNT DURING MY MBA."

Why can't you people be just considerable, you need not give the employee a fat pay hike, but atleast pay him as per the industry standards. As for the HRs i pity people who are under them, Most of the corporate HRs lack man-management skills and are fit only for a recruiter's role. PLease do not call yourselves a HR person unless you KNOW REAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT."
A company without experienced employees is as good as a tree laden with unripened fruits, the fruits may be many, but very few of them will be usefull at present.

For heaven's sake, people who stay for long in a company are not unskilled, they are just faithfull. Don't punish them for staying there. Reward them and then watch them deliver results that make your organization, one of the very best. You cannot create a good company by just hiring people, and firing people. You need to pick those people who are genuine, talented and are a resource to the organization. Always think long term, you need not have an MBA in IIM to manage people, just basic human resource management skills, consider employees as people, not money-making machines. Short term targets never mean anything, it is the long-term rewards you need. If you wish to make your organization one of the most profitable, start it by rewarding the right people and encourage them to provide their inputs, YOU WILL NOT LOSE MUCH, INFACT, YOU WILL ONLY GAIN.


"GOD save people from corporates."
Photo courtesy:CartoonStock.com