Emotions!

As the current financial year draws to an end and companies start taking stock of how things fared in the year and strive to meet the shortfalls, a wide range of emotions are seen within the organization. Blue Caramel is no exception.

Success is contagious but alas so is failure. One shining example of success breeds new energy into the entire team, but a failure too could have a similar negative effect, especially if one keeps brooding over it. There have been many instances when the exploits of one branch has galvanized the other branches of Blue Caramel during this financial year. Jaipur galvanized Jodhpur, which in turn galvanized Udaipur, fostering a great atmosphere of "Co-opetition" (ie cooperation with competition) within Blue Caramel.

On the other hand, there have been individual as well as collective failures in Blue Caramel during FY11-12, when things have looked bad and almost out of control. But the resilience of the Blue Caramelers has seen to it that things have come back again from the brink. A famous song by Billy Ocean with lyrics "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" aptly showcases the spirit of Blue Caramel. But the real test for all Blue Caramelers is to back each other, come what may, withstanding all pressures and emotions and steering the company towards collective glory!

As the financial year draws to an end, let all Blue Caramelers draw onto all their resources and energies and deliver on the promises that they themselves have made to the organization, because it is only the meek who surrenders, a true warrior fights till the very end to see another day!!

Cobwebs of the Mind!

The last few days have been prime examples of Cobwebs, Human Mind, Successes and Failures, both within the world of Blue Caramel as well as out of it.

Starting with events that have happened outside Blue Caramel, being a cricket buff, I would again quote accomplishments from the field of cricket. Sachin Tendulkar, the god of Indian cricket became the first cricketer ever to score 100 international 100s, when he scored 114 runs against Bangladesh in the Asian Cup on 16th March2012. Even with the special talent that he has and the number of centuries he has scored over the years, Sachin remained stuck on 99 centuries for more than an year and this fact kept him perturbed, which he himself acknowledged. But the irony of this hundredth international hundred was that it was one of the most scratchy and the second slowest 100 that Sachin has ever made and India actually lost the match against the "minnows". But you could see the real maestro at work in India's demolition of arch rivals Pakistan, in the subsequent match.

This brings me back to the title of the blog, "Cobwebs of the Mind". The inability to get to his 100th 100 was weighing so much in his mind that Sachin's natural attacking game took a backseat. The more he tried to get to this landmark, the more he failed. Maybe for the first time ever, he started to feel the pressure, a creation of the expectations of billions of cricket lovers and also his own. Cobwebs started developing in his mind.

It is but a human tendency that when things are not falling in place and the going starts getting harder, the mind gets cluttered resulting in the cobwebs getting developed and re-emphasized. The only way to get out of this phase is to remain true to one's self, trusting one's own ability and not loosing focus of the larger picture and more importantly keep working towards the ultimate goal. Sachin just did that after his struggle with the Cobwebs of his Mind. I am sure this achievement would be valued by him, like no other achievement that he has accomplished in his illustrious career because of the magnitude of the struggle that he had to undergo.

Many Blue Caramelers too would have encountered the cobwebs of the mind more often than none. But to emerge victorious from shortcomings, distortions of the mind, one has to be always TRUE and HONEST to one's self and the organization, in any circumstance and only then would the ultimate goal be realized. It is only a solid foundation that can support a strong building and if the foundation is weak, the building will collapse!

Its All in the Mind!

The last week has been a week which has sprung more questions than it has given answers for all the Blue Caramel offices be it Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur or even Mumbai.

Post a change of guards in Blue Caramel-Jodhpur, Santosh is still in a learning phase with Manish proving to be an adequate mentor. Sanjay's tryst at Blue Caramel-Jaipur has just began and Suheil and Mehul's foray in the Education institutions of Udaipur, has been the high point of an otherwise dismal week for Blue Caramel-Udaipur.In Mumbai, Blue Caramel is contemplating using the services of Supritta, who might turn out to be the star-writer, that we have been looking forward for quite a time now.

The informal "Siesta" discussions have had a hiatus, for now, but the flow of discussions have not stopped. The wide range of discussions this week have touched topics like "The existence of God", "Evolution of  Mankind" and "Ghosts and creations of the mind". The last of these topics, brings me to a phrase that my father uses quite regularly, which is "Its All in the Mind!"

Its All in the Mind actually connotes the amazing power a human mind has to Make or Break aspirations, happiness, success and general well being. On one hand, a handicapped person, by putting his mind over body can scale the highest of mountain peaks and on the other an able bodied person might be earning his living by begging. Similarly, a person might be creating history by learning from past mistakes and on the other hand another person maybe fretting away his life by living with cobwebs of the past. 

Our lives are very precious and it is envisaged at Blue Caramel that all the Blue Caramelers sprint ahead in life overcoming hurdles and become champions of success, because as Bill Gates once said " Being born poor is not a crime, but dying poor, certainly is". So, lets all not brood over the happenings of the past and try to rock away to glory because life is too short to live only in the past and time and tide wait for none!

The Wall, Holi and more!

The first week of March has been very eventful both within as well as outside of the Blue Caramel fraternity. Within Blue Caramel, progress was made on the wellness portal www.healthcarton.com as well as our publishing ambitions.There would also be an addition in the Blue Caramel office Jodhpur in the form of Santosh Nair, who would be joining us from12th March2012. Manish would guide him and provide support from the outside.

But real happenings took place not within Blue Caramel, but outside.

 The last week from the field of sports-Cricket, saw the retirement of Rahul Dravid nicknamed the "Wall", one of the greatest cricketers that India has every produced. His has been a story of smart work, dedication and humbleness, coupled with his never say die attitude and obvious expertise in his scope of work, which in this case was batting. Till the very end of his career,  The Wall continued to be an avid learner and tried to come out of tight situations with his doggedness and out of box thinking. His is a personality, which we should all try to emulate professionally. Salute to the Man and salute to his determination and salute to an entertainer par excellence!

The week also saw Holi, the festival of colors being celebrated with all its gaiety and mischiveousness all over India. 

This is a festival which besides its round of fun and frolic also tells us the importance of doing things right and truthfully because as the saying goes Truth always Prevails. 

The week indeed had so much for all the Blue Caramelers to learn, right from working smart with dedication to being humble to having innovative thinking with a never- say- die attitude to doing things rightly and correctly, to succeed in whatever endeavors that we envisage to execute; Because nothing succeeds like success!!

Leap Year!

2012 is an unusual year because it is a leap year, ie it has 366 days. It is a very important for Blue Caramel as well because it is also going to be a LEAP year for us; a year when Blue Caramel strives to consolidate and diversify itself.

Going forward in achieving this aim by this year end, Blue Caramel has already started forays into publishing as well an online retailing. The exclusive online wellness retail site www.healthcarton is well on this way to become live in a month or so. Our exclusive travel booklet and guide is also in its formative stages and would be out in the same duration.

So, what is required from all Blue Caramelers during this time period of consolidation and diversification is that they be extra conscious about the jobs they all have in hand and strive to put their best efforts and deliver, in these crucial times.

We, ie Arunabh, Shinod and Himanshu, on the other hand, have to follow the axiom of "Looking for what is wrong rather than who is wrong" during these testing and obviously exciting times at Blue Caramel, so that we can ensure smooth execution of what has been envisaged for this Leap Year!!

To Have or Not to Have-An Attitude! That's not the Question!

The update for the last week from the Blue Caramel offices in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur have more of qualitative enhancements rather than any quantitative increments. There have been no joy on the revenue front though Manish has persevered in Jodhpur and Suheil has opened and is following up the Royal Wedding segment.

 The "Siesta" discussions have sprung up new and interesting topics for discussion and a real good topic was initiated by Mehul, who rejoined work today after "a fling with his heart" in Ahmedabad. The topic was "Attitude". For a long time at the Udaipur office, during the course of the discussion, it was inferred that to have an Attitude was derogatory for the person who had it. But gradually, it was realized that Attitude is something that is inherent in every person and that these are conditioned over a period of time through experiences.

 So, to have an Attitude or not to have an Attitude is never really a question because every person has it. The real question is how to channelize, focus and reinforce one's positive attitude for the betterment, not only of the individual but also of everyone associated with him. It was also deliberated that in an organization, it is better to have an Attitude that is professional in nature, because all modern organizations, it was at the end agreed, believe in the principle of subjugation of individual goals to the overall Company goals, albeit with full employee emancipation.

Companies are always in the look out for SMART people and in this word the letter that comes right in the middle and is the heart of the word is A which signifies Attitude. So, a person who does not have the requisite positive attitude in him will over a period of time become a deadwood for the company because what good would be a Smart person, whose heart is not in the right place???

The Sacrificial Lamb!

The last 2 days at the Blue Caramel Office, Udaipur have seen some very constructive interactions during the "Siesta" discussions. These series of discussions that we have at the office, are an outcome of 2 factors, first being an urge in each Blue Carameler to brush up her/his spoken English language and the second being, to gainfully utilize the time that is gifted to us- the public, by the government on account of  "load shedding", the scheduled electricity/power cuts.

If yesterday's discussion was on "The twisted tail of a dog remains twisted", then today's deliberations were on "The Sacrificial Lamb". These discussions in a way, symbolically, help each Blue Carameler to try to come up with solutions to problems, that they might otherwise be reluctant to come out with. 

A classic case of this was seen today, when during the course of our discussion on the Sacrificial Lamb, it was unanimously agreed that a Sacrificial Lamb would always be a person, who has nothing of value on offer for the other entity that is sacrificing it. Putting it into an organisational context, the person who is not productive for a company will more often that none find himself enacting the Sacrificial Lamb.

 So, the unspoken oath that every Blue Carameler took today was to see to it that every one becomes productive for the company in a way that Blue Caramel never has to seek out a "Sacrificial Lamb" ever.