CUSTOMER FIRST

During my 3 yrs stint at my work I have been close to life.Interacting with people was my job and in this process everyday I used to come across poeple of diffrent ages,diffrent backgrounds,diffrent culture and diffrent nature.Some were gentle,some were polite,some rude,some irate,some courteous,some sophisticated,some rustic,some eversmiling and so many of them that kept me wondering that how diverse humans are.


In a service sector customers are the insignia and from the very first day were trained in customers first to attain a paragon of customer satisfaction.We were supposed to be extremely polite and courteous with a helpful humane touch.Sporting a 'how can I help you?' grin all the time was a must.Everyday we had a morning meeting when all the employees gathered in the backoffice for 10 minutes to discuss the actionables for the day.It consisted of a verbose lecture by our boss on targets not being met and the omnipresent 'CUSTOMER SATISFACTION'.


'Professionals should behave the way they should and not the way they like' was his favorite one liner which we were sick of hearing.His soporific lectures did nothing good but robbed us of our zeal with which otherwise we could have started our day.At times the doses beacme so heavy that we colleagues often discussed within ourselves that are we employees of a reputed organisation or mere servants of the masses.


Though this infliction initially compelled us to behave in a way we were asked to,it was not long before that things started going haywire.Under the immense pressure we often forgot that customer is always right and went a far too ahead at times to prove our point right.

Interacting with 1000-1200 customers daily we had no time to breathe and very soon the archetypal lectures and training sessions were obliterated.The grin was replaced by usual grimace.

The final contigency was that vociferous arguments,blatant gestures,implacable grumbles were regular occurance at the bank.

Be it the impatient nature of the obstreperous customers who werent ready to wait for their turn to be served or some foolish urge of their's which for the bank was impossible to entertain.....the result was cacophonous heated discussions.


Whenever such an incident occured other employees spurted in support of the involved colleague making the concerned customer feel so puny and vanquished that he never dared to say a word in future.The placard with 'we care' hung mokingly on the wall.

Its not that we didnot care.We cared but only for people who were deserved to be cared.We never cared for bumptious,rude people who had this notion that employees of a service sector were their own servants.

Care.love,respect,kindness all are very abstract terms but one thing thats sure about these terms is that they can neither be commanded nor being forced or imposed.They have to be earned and no training and lecture is required for extending these qualities to a person who deserves.

Of Sherlock Holmes and meditation

Reading has been one of my passions since childhood.When I read a book I am completely engrossed into it.The characters,the happenings in the book so take my fancy that I keep thinking about them all day,all night long.Finishing off a book doesnt avert me from reading it again and again upto n number of times if I like the book.



One such all time favorite book of mine has been 'The adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.If you are a adventure and mystry lover the book is a 'must-read' for you.The emphatic language of the author and the vivid descriptions keeps you glued to it.The neat ways in which each character is carved by Sir Doyle and the mesmerising ways by which the plot thickens upto climax keeps me asking for more everytime I read it.Its an absolute paisa wasool.


What captivates me more than the book is the character of Sherlock Holmes and his uncanny methods of reasoning.The bumpkin appearance of the lanky man can easily deceive any person.But once u know him,his razor sharp mind and extraordinary capabilities of reasoning and perspicaciousness remains silhoutted against his misleading appearance.
Sherlock Holmes could always see things that his friend Watson and officers of scotland yards were unable to see.So what was special about Mr.Holmes???Did he posses any supernatural power or did he have X-ray eyes which pierced into things for better understanding?The answer is a big NO.
Sherlock Holmes was an ordinary man,just like any of us but what made him diffrent was his observations.His passions of looking things minutely and relating small them gave him an extra edge.Nothing was trifle for him as nothing could ever escape the vicinity of his eyes.
Reasoning abilities are not inherent but it can be developed with a little excercise of the brain and a little bit of serious observation.

People may argue that Sherlock Holmes was fictitous but even in real life havent we seen or heard people who were known for espial abilities?We have heard of docotrs who could just see their patient and tell about the disease they were suffering from.There are plethora of such instances that has always intrigued me.

As my interest was aroused I myself thought of trying this.A detailed observation was all that required and I thought that I could too become the modern Sherlock Holmes.But what I discovered was that detailed observation was a very 'abstract term'.Your mind has to be concentrated for doing that sort of observation and you have to give your mind some sort of extra dose.I tried many things but didnt find solace.Just as I was going haywire in search of that extra pabulum the old remedy struck to my mind.I wonder why I didnot get to this method before as this an age old excercise for the mind and I have been hearing about this from my very childhood days.Cummon guys it is no rocket science.....its our very own meditation.

Nothing cant be more salubrious for the mind than meditation.It refreshes the soul and helps in the atonement of the mind.After trying it I not only started feeling more confidant and invigorated but also more zealous.After trying it for a couple of days I felt that it helped me connect with my eternal God much easily and helped me attain a certain level of equanimity.I was more active mentally and felt a new zest of life in everything I did and certainly I developed the knack of detailed observation with certain level of mental acumen.Now I can easily notice things that remains unnoticed to people around me though there is still a long way to go before I become the modern Sherlock Holmes.

But I know that like english wine I would be better with time with my newly discovered mantra.

Now I wonder why Shelock Holmes while solving those labyrinth cases often confined himself into his room without uttering a single word for days.Seems that he too tried to find some ray hope amidst the pitch dark surroundings by doing this mental excercise....MEDITATION.

Nobody knows........

A culture called humanity

The recent incidents of violent mobs lynching youths caught in criminal offense has put me to think that 'is this humanity?' Agreed that the incidents were not of mere peccadillos but some serious offense but the ways the miscreants were treated questioned our humanity and morality.To my utter surprise the caretakers of the law were found accomplice in the henious acts.

What is the reason for this barbarism???Why is it happening so often that an unruly mob is running amok...taking laws in their hands...not waiting for any system of laws to provide justice.

Has the so called system of judiciary lost its charm in the rigmaroles of formalites???Have people lost their faith on the system of laws which has compelled them to
act in such violent way??

Or is it that we have become so mechanical these days that the we have lost the very trait of
our nature i.e humanity???

Perhaps it is both the reasons but the latter one can pose serious thretas to our existence.

In John Cameroonn's Terminator,Arnold Schwazeneggar playing the title role once said that 'I can never understand why you humans cry and how do you feel the pain.'

Are we in the process of turning into such fleshy terminators for whom the feeling of
empathy,love,sympathy doent exist at all.If it continues this way its not late that we would
become 'humanity less human terminators and the world will be be a battlefield.' The abstract nouns like peace,love,kindness,care,empathy would lose it meanings and would
gradually be removed from the dictionary.

An age old adage says that 'HUMANITY IS NOT HEREDETARY.TO IMBIBE THIS TRAIT ONE HAS TO CULTURE IT.'
So true.we have stopped culturing humanity and so we are on the verge of becoming 'humanity less humans'.
Think about it or such savage incidents will follow.

HABIT V/S WILL POWER

While preparing for CAT one thing that I have discoverd is that MAN IS NOT THE SLAVES OF HIS HABITS AS LONG AS HE HAS A STRONG WILL POWER.Though he has the advantage of changing his habits with the help of his will power he seldom does so.

One of my 24 yr old habit was to wake up late in the morning.After leaving school I dnt remeber a single day of my life when I woke up before 7:30 am.The nursery rhyme 'Early to bed a early to rise' was a distant dream.

But in the process of preparation..when I found muself way behind other competitors...in a mocking state...I thought to myself that I need to pull up my socks to be a part of the rat race .......that was to bell the CAT.And for that the first thing that i felt was to change my habits...and be a bit disciplined.With discipline comes sincerity and with that comes success and thats what i wanted.

So it was necessary for me to set a routine for myself with my day beginning at 5:30.Initial hurdles were there in following my routine but I was determined.And to my utter disbelief I have been successful in my venture as its 5:30 that my day starts everyday and that too without any problems.

Seems such a trifle thing to discuss???Well not a bad thing to begin with.After all,our mastery in such trifle things lays the foundation to a ineffable deeds.

We are humans.We cant become GOD.........but at least try and become GOD of small things.