Work smart, it pays better dividends than working hard!!!

The topic seems too heavy at the top of the page, isn't it?? I felt the same when a friend commented that to me recently. But when I sat and thought about it, I felt, it really made sense, lot of it in fact!! I just recollected a lot of events in my life, and was convinced to believe that my friend had got it right in the bulls eye!!

As a kid, in school, I always used to religiously follow whatever was told to me. Be it the homework, or any other arrangements or sports or activities or anything. Frankly speaking, I did not really apply my brain to anything. So I was like a literal doer. There was this friend of mine. And he used to do exactly the opposite of mine. When he was asked to study, he used to play. When he was told to play, he used to watch TV. He was something like a rebel. And he used to fairly get a decent result in everything he did. Now the age I am talking about, is that when we were not too mature and were dependent to a large extent on the inputs of others. Being independent was only a dream. And in those days, this friend was like doing things differently. I was still respected for being the topper or whatever, but I always used to watch this guy in awe!!

When I went to college, I had this classmate who was the laziest bugger I have ever known. He never used to attend classes, paid the necessary money for obtaining the hall ticket and used to write the exams. He used to sleep all through the day and the whole night, he would prowl on the cyberspace, playing games all through the night. He was the perfect nocturnal!!! I initially used to wonder, how will he ever manage to clear the papers. But one fine day, what I found surprised me like hell. Just a couple of days (or rather nights) before the exam, he was going through the last few yrs papers, evaluating what to study and what to drop!! He had mastered the art so well, that after a couple of hours of research, he knew exactly what to study and what not to!!! Not that it would help him in the long run, but the shorter purpose of scoring in the exams is definitely achieved. And more surprisingly, he managed to score a distinction in almost all the semesters, which was sort of a jinx to break!! And the biggest irony was, when placements time came, the person, who literally slept all his way through the engineering career, got placed before even before the topper of the class did. Now thats what smart working is all about. This is where I had my first taste of the professional life!!

Coming to professional life, I had a colleague who quit almost a year ago. And the reason he gave to me was that he was plainly frustrated!! I was not too convinced and was sure this guy is upto something!!! I had known this guy for about 5 yrs then and he had been talking about quitting of late. So I thought he is only talking. But the day, he put in his papers, I was in for a real wild shock. I had never expected him to. From then on, I have been monitoring his every move. He has been such an excellent planner and an even better executor, that I cant do anything else than saluting him!!! He had some personal problems to take care in between, which he managed brilliantly. In the meantime he appeared for a couple of competitive exams, a few of which I also did. He had put in a lot of efforts, and I for a change dint!! And surprisingly, I did better in the exams than him. Again an example of smart working and hard working!!! In the end, I did not know what to do, but he did. He carried on and on and on, and today, he is happily enjoying in one of the premier B Schools in India!!

These are just trailers of what I have seen in my life. If I make a movie of it, I am sure it will run into hours together!!! I have slogged the last year, working across my territory for what is known as Customer Satisfaction, measured by a score. The whole one year, I have literally did nothing else other than that. You can imagine the amount of efforts, that has gone into it all. And when it was time for results to come out, I only understand, that the number implying customer satisfaction, has instead gone even down!!

Now I can correlate the above two examples, the one of my classmate in college and my colleague who quit. One was excellent in making analysis and strategies, and the other was a sheer brilliant planner!!! So when my friend said "Working smart is way too better than working hard", I just couldnt stop agreeing with him!!! What do you say??? Please leave your comments!!

Accident!!!!

"Whats gonna happen now??", I kept wondering as I sat outside the ICU at the Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences(NIMS), nervously aware, that everything was in God's hands alone now. Kiran, my childhood buddy, had met with an accident and was battling for life. I have been trying to inform his dad about the accident, but have so far not reached him.

Kiran has been very close to me right from my childhood days. We studied in the same class, lived a few blocks away from each other, enjoyed cycling together, played pranks together and what not!!! We were literally like two brothers, with both of us having unrestricted access into the others house. We always yearned for similar things in life, our tastes too were similar. It was like if someone screwed me, he would react and viceversa. Such was our uniqueness in tastes, that at one point of time, we both fell for the same girl!! All jokes apart, we were very very close, and this togetherness meant that we would anything for each other.

Kiran is the son of a big businessman in my town. He had lost his mother very early in life. And his dad's everyday flourishing business meant that, most of the times he used to be out of town. This meant, Kiran had all the luxuries in life; the costliest toys, the latest gadgets and gizmos, the most sophisticated equipments and everything that was new. What was missing was only the mothers love, and fathers affection. The time he spent with his near and dear ones, was literally minimal. He missed that too much in life. And in spite of all these things, he never showed off anything in life, as many others in such a situation tend to do. What attracted me towards him, was his modesty and simplicity. And when I came to know about his family background, I was simply stunned. I was not able to utter a single word and was shell shocked when he had first taken me to his house.

Kiran has been this adventurous kind of a guy. Always wanting to be different from the crowd. He has been more into extra curricular activities. Photography has been his most favorite hobby, and he is such a great photographer that, by his 15th birthday, he was the proud owner of a SLR!! Studies and marks have never kept him interested at all. That's probably the only place where we differed in tastes.

After our high school, I joined the science stream and he jumped into commerce. His taste of cycling had now been escalated into motorcycles. He was the first person, to own a motorcycle in college. When he had brought his Yamaha RX 100 to college, I still remember the way, heads kept on turning!! The adventure seeker and fun lover that he has been, he has always loved exploring the unexplored places, along not so great roads, into villages where there has not been any transportation facilities for miles together. And another thing that always thrilled him was speed. He always used to tell me, "Whatever happens, I am not going to cut down on my speed!!" There have been certain occasions, where I have been riding pillion to him, and have had my heart in my mouth. Two or three times, I literally had given up and started saying what I thought would be my last prayers!! But such has been his control and response that I just sat behind him, every time he called me, on the basis of sheer faith in his controls!! I have always warned him, that it need not necessarily be his mistake. Looking at his speed and stunts, someone else may lose control, and if his stars are not right, anything may happen even without his mistake!! But he would never relent. Once after a near miss accident, he told me something which I still remember "Even if something happens to me, I ll ensure that you escape unhurt!!!"

Our careers meant that I had to go and stay in the hostels, and that meant we had to go apart. And our frequencies of meeting each other reduced drastically. But emotionally, we were still very close to each other. After my studies, I got a job, which required me to shift to Hyderabad, whereas he was still not sure what to do. He was still freelancing and enjoying life, seeking new destinations and enjoying new places. And as an icing on the cake, his hobby of photography had literally turned into a profession for him. Though he would never really admit it, facts were always speaking otherwise.

During one of these days, I just asked him to come down to Hyderabad, as I had not met him for a long time. And immediately he was in Hyderabad, taking the next available flight!! When he landed in my office, I literally had tears in my eyes!! Such was his commitment to friends, that I was speechless!! As the weekend was about to start, I just completed my work in a jiffy, and set out early. He insisted on driving the bike, and I without even resisting handed over the keys to him. But I wanted to warn him, that Hyderabad is different. The traffic here is too complicated and be careful for at least a few days, watch the same and then show your heroics. And before I could say something, he rushed off to the nearest petrol bunk without even wearing the helmet (which is supposedly mandatory), to fill the tank, asking me to wait back!! I just smiled at myself. He did not want me to spend even on that!!

Within a few seconds, I heard a big sound. Anxiously I went out, only to find a lot of people gathered at the intersection!! I rushed towards the place, praying that its not Kiran. Only to be proved wrong. Having made my way through the increasing crowd, I saw Kiran on the ground!! Blood was trickling down his head faster than water does from a tap on a lazy day!! I was literally out of control, shocked, not knowing what had happened. With a couple of people around, we took him to the nearest hospital, where they only put him on oxygen and advised us to take him to NIMS as it happens to specialise in head related injuries!!

I have been sitting outside the ICU for the past 16 hours. And there has been no signs of any improvement. He has lost a lot of blood, his brain is badly injured and one of his legs too has been badly messed up. And to operate on his leg, first he needs to gain consciousness, without which anaesthesia doesn't work. I still cant believe whatever happened in the last 24 hours, whether it is only a dream or it has really happened in reality around me!!