Alumni Vs Alumni

Being sagitarian I like events, changes and unpredictability... Last weekend was alumni weekend, For the first time ever Sapient India came up with the Alumni meet. This meet was a reconnect between the alumni's and leadership.. It was a good show.. Was initiated by us and well organised with proper execution.. The event was run by me, as an MC.. After two long years I was on stage, anchoring a show.. I was nervous :-).. Though managed well.. I remember my college days, when I use to speak on the stage of FICCI auditorium.. anyways gone are those days, and I have present in hand.. Well to talk about the meet, it was a great experience listening about sapient and its good things from the people who are not associated with it anymore.. They talked a lot about sapient culture, which they miss.. Alumni's mentioned name of the people or team members with whom they were associated with during their tenure in Sapient .. So organisations are made by "people"....
Soon after it got over, i left for Jama Mazid to meet 'S' and his frds... it was a different experience for me to be at Jama Mazid.. its a complete different world I would say.. i really enjoyed my time having food at Karim's and the sight around in the market.. Took some interesting pics, will place it soon on my blog as well...

Sunday, Another alumni meet, the MBA batch alumni, though very less number of people turned up, however it was nice meeting few of them and touchbase on where we are after 2 years since we left our college... We met at our old favorate place - NFC, with a shorma treat, some gol gappa's, coffee at barista and finally meetha paan..
Interesting part of this meet was, discussion on salary, couple of people cribbed a lot on their current salary, since the cribbers - were from the HR domain :-), as they saw their fellow frds who opted for marketing were earning more than us... So I questioned, why is it that you want xxxxx salary... She replied, when relatives or society ask, I feel ashamed... So we dont want money for ourselves we want it - to show others... We have enough to have good food and leisure time.. I am not denying the fact to not work for good amount of salary.. but we should not get depressed for irrelevant things .... Wat say ?

So this was my last weekend, full of new experiences, small and big, interesting and strange...

Care beyond Self ?

Not my thoughts, one of a friend wrote to me, which made me think.. So wanted to share with you.....

Hi.

I sit here in my office thinking - Can I make a difference to the disaster made by the terrorists or the criminal mind? YES, I can make difference by doing my bit by spreading love and care around me. We are not terrorists but do we care beyond self?

Here are few questions if answered in NO would lead us to a better future:

Do I need to step on someone to stand tall?

Do I need to win at a cost of someone's life?

Do I need to use harsh words to make myself listen to?

Here are few questions if answered in YES would show that you care beyond self:Does it disturb you if someone not related to you dies in a bomb blast?Can you fight for someone / something which will not benefit you financially?

And that too at the cost of your own expense and time.

Regards

Lalit

lalit.banga@gmail.com

You North Indians.... :(

Well, wanted to write some good experience I had couple of days back, but today's one statement made me write this post...

Yesterday I called up a candidate, as a general practice i wanted to understand his reasons of looking for a frequent changes in jobs... Well this was not a question on his integrity, the reason of asking those question was to understand, how he planned his career.. We can expect this much from a 9+ years of experienced professional.. He felt offended and wanted me to stop the conversation right there, and hang up the phone.. I out of decency wrote a email to him, helping him understand that being a part of HR, I am responsible for chosing a profile and putting him for any particular role, those questions were not to offend you..

He wrote some stupid things and finally blamed that North Indian do not have ettiquettes.. This is one thing I dont like, when we generalise specially by our experience once or twice.. We make statements... How can u address a community, and moreover I want to know why the hell we use such words to address Indians... INDIANS, Which we always forgot to be and still continuing.. I feel sad to see this kind of behaviour display from a educated, mature; working in a good IT firm with experience of 9 years in the industry.

I being part of Sapient worked with Bangalore teams, it was a pleasure and is a pleasure working with them.. I feel more warmth with these teams... We never treated ourselves to be north or south.. We are a TEAM together of INDIANS :-)