Monday, February 18, 2008

Serendipity...!

I always love writing about things that amaze me or leave an indelible impression in my mind. Yesterday as I was checking out various Car Dealers in anticipation of a good quote for a car, I visited my friends in Stamford and as anticipated got an instant invitation for dinner. My initial hesitation turned into agreement when I heard about the Menu ;-) and believe me it was one of the most liveliest & warmest experiences of this year besides my birthday. The dinner was special for all of us for a multitude of reasons ; some of which I can recollect are:
Gregarious, Smiling Hosts - I read somewhere that a warm smile if often returned with a better one. Perhaps the hosts read that somewhere too :)
  • Q~Do we find such people @ our workplaces?
Engagement Of Everyone - All 5 of us had things to do...Salad Making, Chopping Vegetables, Cleaning Utensils & ofcourse Cooking and thus everyone was in participative mode which was indeed a feel good factor.
  • Q~ Do organisations keep all associates positively engaged?
Conversational Rhythms - Other than the tasks at hand we all kept talking about plethora of things from MS-Yahoo Acquisition, Indian Sensex Performance to Our Career Plans and believe me such conversational rhytms did add up to make cooking a fascinating voyage.
  • Q~ Do we imitate such rhythms at home / office?
Icing on the Cake - Finally, our host decorated the Dinner Table well enough with Table Mats, Condiments, perfect Ligting even though it was just a casual Dinner.....just to make us all feel special or should I say give us "personalised attention"
  • Q~ Do we try putting icing on the things we do on a daily basis?
Pass-Along Value - I can bet that each guest would have mentioned about the sumptuous dinner to atleast 2 acquaintences. Now considering that even if half of those got interested - the host had 4 + 4 well wishers..! What a spiralling effect !!
  • Q~Does our work has substance/packaging good enough to initiate Word Of Mouth?

Finally, do have a look@ the remarkable Photostream of a budding photographer (I particularly liked the way this shutterbug has captured "still" 'n' "special" moments in our otherwise fast paced lives).