Beyond Adventure …

Happened to be on an interesting car rally last week end … …. May be just to realize that the roads teach you much more than the maps. I am no sophisticated to have believed in any sort of fashion statement of an event or have ever believed ever that a participation in an exclusive woman’s car rally is an act of “Empowerment” . I seeked pure pleasure and some change in life from the boring Delhi monotony … and had never imagined what all, the coming time is going to offer me .

It all started with a mail … a friend forwarded … the deal was simple , some exclusive Woman car rally Is happening .. a competitive event in a TDS rally format. A friend’s friend’s friend got herself registered and is looking for a partner . I had a chance to navigate a couple of rallies before in that format and had some vague understanding of the nuances. I thought it would be fun to sharpen my skills and get to know some good people in the new city. Subconscious takes a nano second to react than conscious .. before I could speculate any ifs and buts .. I had already hit the reply button on the mail .. and then the conscious did not stop ..

We planned a pre get to know each other meeting … Neha is a fine girl .. and the frequencies matched ! she is not the typical what I call an ‘Euee type’ .. she appeared to be pretty chilled out ! with a ‘ I don’t poke my nose in people’s private lives’ attitude .. The connect was instant. The idea to go for a 2 day madness was looking more fabulous all of a sudden , then just a couple of meetings more where we discussed the format, strategies, calculations, who will get what …

The real countdown started from the pre day when we met for a drivers briefing and the car was scrutinized .. Walkswagon POLO it was .. a brilliant little Red car. The vehicle has transformed it self into the rally avtar as the stickers were pasted on her skin . The beauty looked gorgeous … We both glared at the machine for quite some time .. and stepped into a coffee lounge for the final rounds of discussion around preparation for tomorrow morning .

The parc ferme was for 6 in morning .. to be flagged off by 6.30 … route was elaborate Delhi > Jaipur > Delhi … and the tulip charts in the road book looked all sorts of tracks … with jungles, muddy, slushy , dirty stony , rocky patched from inside of the numerous small villages to Highways . While in our discussions, I got to know that her granny is not doing well at her health and is in close observation of doctors under ICU. Asked her, if she is sure to continue with it .. the affirmation was strong ! The lady knew no looking back ….. In fact quite rightly, when u have assurances of treating doctors of a speedy recovery and well being of a patient …. the confidence comes in naturally .

The final deal was we meet 5.30 Am23rd sept 2011 at the Flag off area ….

I came back to office .. where I left the super boss surprised that day … when he was walking in the office and he spotted me at 8 am in the morning sitting still at my desk . Jaw dropped he wondered how come I am in so early … all this while I was never in office before office hours and some of the times … little later than the office in hours . The pre brief was early morning in hardrock café next door to office …and the original scheme was to go to the office park the stuff and attend that … then to resume back !

BY second half on 22^nd, I was all up and prepared … then realized one most important thing is still not arranged for the lap timing is the stop watch. I wasted no time … and asked all the relevant departments who could possibly be having one and could may be lend me over weekend . Facilities checked, Admin check , HR checked … none L L just no one … I planned to wrap up the work early today eve to go searching for a good one with good intentions to purchase.

An HR fellow came smiling .. jovial guy rather a very honest one . He said he checked out with a friend who has one .. and he would be okay to make me use that for the event ! The gentle man friend of the good fellow offered him to hand over the piece at the office in the evening .. and he we further schemed that I will pick up early morning next day . My day was suddenly made… every thing fell in place ! 10 pm night I got a message that the stop watch is dropped at the office reception and I may collect it from the there in morning !

By 11.55 PM I was all excited .. bags packed , red bull stocked , chocolates and other instant energy bars stocked .. and not to forget and thank hubby darling who got all this … ( in fact post a lot of efforts and hunting for one … he could also fetch a china made .. mushi mushi pink stop watch strictly to be used as a back up just in case the stop watch plan dosent works) alarms set for 4 Am tomorrow …

Rushed to the office in the morning … My first 5 AM swipe for attendance that too on Saturday J J J .. some times the silly things become high points in life .. for effectively no reasons. I collected the pack from the security guard … and opened it to be hit by a surprise …

A Gift wrapped fast track watch … whatttttttttt ???? whyyy ???? how come ?????? the little tag read … all the best Champion !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was jumping outta my head … no reasons for an expensive gift like that .. and specially no justification absolutely !

The morning started with a surprise .. before I could give any expression or comment to the situation … the reality standing before me is that I have to be at the parc ferme .. and have to catch up with Neha .

She came in we made it on time.. for the parc ferme and flag off happened at the designated time . I told her about the story … and we decided to use the I phone for lap timings .. I really intended to return the expensive gift and thus avoided the usage. China instantly became a superpower in my surroundings … Vineet’s Plan B worked so it was also set to 0.00 with the Odometer .

Lesson learnt in life: No.45 : Once a China made is always a china made .. cheap plastic don’t last ! and in no time the buttons were coming out .. the i phone died the battery was out .. And Neha looked at me .. said Dude cant help take the stop watch out ! the need for the hour was to put that to good use … which we finally did .

The laps were on … and along side of our stupid chats the stop watch and calculator and odometer did a fantastic job.

Around 25 KM away form jaipur and after 9 hours of the rally … I received a text message from Nehas parents that her Granny passed away and not to tell her … just tell her that she is critical and make her board the next flight back to Delhi. I was zapped…had nothing to react . Reached the next Time check marshal and spoke to him … cooked up some wiered story even I don’t remember . Changed the driver with her … and drove to jaipur to leave her to the Airport. Nothing came to my numb head .. it was happening and we were just doing it … She got a spot on ticket luckily for a next to departure flight .

I came back to the hotel room … all I did was to take a quick shower and dropped almost dead in the bed don’t know where the time flew in those 3 hours … 7-10 . when I opened my eyes .. I realized that the feeling I was undergoing is called Hunger . I quickly landed for the dinner party at the pool side and informed the organizers about the drop out of Neha .

Organizers of the event were cool people .. though were hand tied by regulations . They had to inform me that I shall be disqualified and will not be allowed to be flagged off the next day if I don’t get a team partner either driver who essentially be a woman .. or a navigator who doesn’t have a gender code.

NO ..NO .. NO …. Not a good idea to think “ I QUIT” at 11 at night … the rally flags off 7.30 next day .. the fighter in me is just tired and not defeated . I strategized to go to all the people who were with pillions in there vehicles to request them to become my partners so that I may finish the event.

Subsequently , the day end results also came in … we were good at the day end and could have covered up for the scores the next day . This became my instant pitch to whom I met … I am super dumb to forget my elimination could be an advantage to the competitive souls and minds.

Lessons learnt in life : No. 46 : There are many types of woman in this world …

a) Who would say… awe sorry to hear that I just pray to god that u get a partner but u see we are just 3 in a car .. and then may be u can ask who are 4 or 5 in a vehicle . May god bless u.. I know u will make it and than I will be very happy for u.

b) Oh !!.. so bad … I so much want to help u … but u see I am sponsored by X and cant change the compay of the people I am with right now

c) OH ! I am okay to come … but u see …. I am the driver and the other 2 gals, one navigator and one pillion don’t want to get separated

d) __shhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_____________________ ( This category is the high class snobbish category with a hair style of multiple puffs over forehead almost the size of a bird nest who are not worth talking to or asking for help…. There blusher puffed cheeks and thread thin eyebrows is indicative of an exponentially high euee factor they possess)

Yuck … I wasted time .. no point … channel change !

I went to the organizers and requested if someone from them can come in … answer was obvious its not allowed, not even the family member. By this time … MY FB had various types of help related status messages … interesting to see … The people who never commented on my status updates commented and tried offering help ! Lessons learnt in life : No. 47 : More than 100s of people might like u r staus update .. when u need them only 3% would offer help (that too if u r lucky)

Radical ideas find there ways from wherever : Photographer …. Yes the Photographer … He is not an organizer .. or even the family of the organizer .. the rules are silent on him .. may be check with him or any one outta his crew . The man Abhishek Madhav .. holding a canon zebra lens assisted by an Asian videographer was flashing in my vision. The man .. personified soberness .. and a huge smile replied politely .. I could have helped but I have to cover the event and it would require stopping here and there etc etc .. really cant help but so much really want to .

I called it a night at 12.30 … and went back to my hotel room .. the shutters of eyes were falling down the body ached and it was a system downtime for the mind . Thought what ever it be … I will see it morning will wake up early and if nothing will bribe a waiter to come along , even if that doesn’t work .. will get be outta the event !

Half dead … I heard my phone ringing around 1am .. a call from the photographer ! OMG OMG .. whats it ???

Hi Dipika … a friend of mine just landed back from sudan .. he is right here with me on the roof top .. he might want to come with u as he gotto go delhi tomorrow , if u can make him understand this deal about the team and navigation thing.. he might just come in .

OKK … I am just coming up the rooftop pub.. ( at one time this was my fav place “Ta-BLU”) .

HI rituraj .. R u r mustaches for real ??? He looked like a typical Rajput from the old era with those thick huge mustaches … what a style statement ! really kindda impressive… n e ways … I explained him the format , the strategy and the teams position etc ..

He was like .. okay will come if I wake up and could find some thing to come back to this hotel that early in morning .

WOWWWWWWWWWWW … a sign of relief form me . I called it a day and returned to catch up on sleep. Morning at 6 .. I woke up to check his message stating he is not finding any transport and cant come … ………………………..

I went to the organizers with a sorry face .. and was like… I think its not going to work .. some one just told me .. why don’t u pick him up !

Brilliant !!!! really I can pick him up … oh yess … I can .. I called him up asked for his address and was on roads instantly asking every single milkman, news paper boy for the directions . IN record time I was underneath his apartment waiting for him …

Lessons lernt in life: no. 48: Common sense and sleep has deep nexus .

Rituraj joined in … and we could manage back for the parc fame at clerks amer in jaipur where we were staying for the leg 2 of rally.

IT was quite tough to teach him the finer details of the tulips and lap calculations .. but he picked up pretty well and there we are doing pretty good after being off way at a couple of instance due to mis reading the directions in the road book .

The rally ended abruptly as we were informed at a time check marshal that the rally ends here due to some timing issues… what a relief !!!

We managed coming back to delhi.. in free zone Rituraj drove and I slept on the seat next to him. Dropped him at his place and could come back home sunday late eve . The odometer cumulative reading was 700 km …

For me to look back was the 3 sleep less nights .. the road never travelled and situations never dealt with . How backups go fail and plan Bs work …. and luck plays wild .. how snobbish are people around … and how genuine strangers could be. This trip just made me learn the fastest about human nature ..their behaviors and tendencies. I really thank the ones who stood by me. Many thoughts in my heart and mind … but I think the best form of gratitude is the one which is felt deeply from within and may not be expressed. I became a better person over night ( or may be I could say over this event) and now would always help others in what ever way I can … and I end this story of an experience of my life here !

BTW … some open loops are yet to be closed in this life book story :

- The pics and the report card of the event is yet to be uploaded in the organizers website

- I returned the stop watch and thanked the dude, to go out of way to help me . Took him out for a nice Thai lunch

- Rituraj left his phone on the car dash board … I went the next day early morning to drop it back … and am searching for him to friend him on my FB

- Could not spot the photographer after that … all I know is that he stays at Dharamshala in HP and clicks pics for living.

- Post coming back on Sunday eve … met relatives and went pubing with an old school friend .. came back at 2 Am and ditched the closing ceremony of the event at Trivoli garden Delhi.

- Spoke to Neha .. . she is well and family is fine, dropped her car next day to her friends place from where she got it picked

- May Granny’s soul Rest in peace

- Punch in the face of Lessons learnt in life no 46 category (a) women .

Management School of happy hearts ...

Management institutes, organizational behaviors and heavy HR books talks big concepts about the customer service wherein at the most desperate times, it’s the same huge corporate who forget all the basic simple lessons of the trait. The same corporate who claims to be the flag bearers of fancy jargons, in long run turns up the echelon of fading practices. I realized the value of the simple lessons of management being in the most casual place possible , I was in sitting in a small shack at the Calangute beach in Goa, when the entire world was around me and making me realize what does it mean when they say that the ‘Customer is King’.

Today I was leafing through this article on about.com regarding the golden rules of the customer services and the entire evening I spent by the shack was coming in front of in my eyes frame by frame.

The first instance was very simple, I was walking causally on the beach when this ordinary looking guy with extreme polite and friendly tone offered me to use the sun beds he had in front his shack, the deal was neat use the bed day long, food and wine will be served chilled, you pay for the food and have a great time watching the sun go down and taking dips in the sparkling, romantically ruffling sea. No Taxes absolutely, no services charges. The deal was tempting for a day long sun bath. The guys were friendly and made sure that the privacy kept intact, whenever I even looked inquisitive there was some one to promptly attend to my needs. The first cardinal rule of customer service achieved 10 on 10 … Always be there to attend to your customer / always answer the call.

The day progressed and so did the indulgence with the see and the other liquids, till such time me and my partner realized that we want to try some strong beer and other fluids which are not mentioned in the menu. We inquired if we can get some of our preferred brands. The guys were all with smiles and tried to convince us if we wish to change our preference, but the craving was so particular, it communicated its message itself. The shack staff excused itself five minutes or so and discussed amongst themselves some thing, as if they were playing Chinese wispers and came back with even bigger smiles requesting us to relax for 30 mins till they arranged for our drinks. I checked twice if they could serve the drinks chilled or we settle the bill and move to a different hideout for the rest of the day. To my disbelief our order was served in next 15 mins . I was impressed by the way the smiling guys mean things when they say … and could suddenly relate to the second rule …… Don’t make promises unless you WILL keep them.

The next 2-3 hours were super lazy and involved multiple rounds of drinking and swimming in the sea, tired and taned I was catching up with more sun when this timing looking guy called Krish came around to pick up the empty glasses . I started with a bit of chit chat bout the weather etc .. and realized that right from the sun and sand we were talking about every thing about the place. The lean body turned yellow pages in no time and made sure he gave out the complete information about the most happening stuff around for the night. I no more regretted carrying a lonely planet after that refreshing and kind of informative long chat. Felt great … I think they say it right one of the most important concept of customer service is:Listen to your customers.

Well .. some time chit chatting leads to many things, some time praises some time brick bats, and I realized the food was brilliantly cooked but some how the glasses were not as clean as I expected them to be and my beckoner personified yeah I surely taking about Krish here gave a patient ear to complaints as well. In no time the cutlery, glasses etc were replaced and I was made to believe in the fourth rule : Deal with complaints.

The starters were the king prawns in goan masala .. some incredible mix of unknown spices, While the prawns were tender and well cooked the special masala gave a fantastic flavor to the entire dish. As soon as I finished having starters , don’t know how the unexpected rains started …. Rain on beach and the entire Arabian sea dancing in front of me was an out of the world experience totally. Only till the time we realized that the sea is in the spell of high tide and it began to pour heavily . I was wondering what to do next till I realized that all my belongings are been taken inside the shack’s kitchen which is the only fully covered area which is capable of saving people from the heavy pouring . Without wasting a moment my partner and I rushed in the shacks kitchen. We realized that in the sudden rush the shack guys made sure that my books and other personal belongings were kept safe . Though no interest they had in the free service .. They might be ver well versed with the fifth golden rule ………. : Be helpful - even if there’s no immediate profit in it.

Will i was smiling at my luck to sea a stunningly beautiful beach in the rains , I noticed a huge guy with a big tattoo on his arm managing the chairs and tables around , though looking little tensed he was looking back to us and smiling generously. In no time I could realize he is the owner of the Shack who is standing by his staff to as if he is teaching them some sort of disaster management , suddenly the tables were shifted, mats were pulled in from different directions and the kitchen emerges as a cook infront restaurant , quite an interesting sight actually . I was enjoying evey moment and movement happening around me ……. Thanks to all the guys there for putting up such a great show …. correctly said , Train your staff (if you have any) to be ALWAYS helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.

In no time the small little cozy kitchen of the shack became Noha’s arch and all types of nationalities could be seen inside it hiding from the giant sort of storm. Hey are we in Goa ?? of course we are so the rule is come what may the party should never stop . The man with the big tattoo and his staff made sure the drinks were served without any gaps or breaks . The people enjoyed those few hours of that unforgettable evening being in that small shack and catching the bark blue to violet changing couloirs of the sky. It was amazing to see how the Owner with is staff made the simple rains to an amazing experience in the life’s of the people waiting in that shack for getting the rains stopped …… The Owner may be flaunting his brilliance with the customer service principles … looked like he was demonstrating what it means when the big management teaches propound : Take the extra step

The pouring melted down and now it was drizzling … the drinks were still on and we were drenched and hungry … the French fries looked a tempting and easy food , though the tongue was still craving for the goan masala … we ordered for some French fries and as the owner turned chef standing pretty close by preparing the food , my partner and I complimented him for the special goan masala in his food . In some time while we chatted the French fries were served and to our surprise this time it had no tamato sauce or any other cheese dips … it was that most incredible goan Masala as the dip for the fries , neatly kept on the platter in an egg stand . J J J … that’s absolutely delightful …. well now this is what called the perfecting the art of customer servicing . The shack owner and his team really lived up to all the 8 golden rules including the super duper and most favourite of the Customer’s one : Throw in something extra.

This made me believe strongly then ever … the art of management can never be taught in a management school … it’s the real people and the real situations which evolve these golden principles. As the title of this post goes … Management school of people with big smiles and bigger hearts … hmm …. May be my biggest learning out of the great Goan vacation.