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).

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

marvellous blog..
with highly provoking QUESTIONS !
well..all is well that ends well..
congrates to the blogger on his memorable birthday..
let me try to answer some of the penetrating questions ...
1. So far as smile is concerned, it is always governed by the newton's first law of motion..if we smile..we get smile.
We often worry about diminishing or vanishing smile on the faces aroud us ...but..i often wonder..who stops us from trigering the process of smile all by ourselves..we must take lead & always be first one to throw smile..rest is easy.
Pull the trigger ..shoot smile.

2. organisation is simply a set of people engaged in a useful task.
I believe that approval of competent authority is not mandatory to initiate positive dialogues/ actions & to create harmony /goodwill.
3.we can always take lead in initiating desired actions but we need not make it our monopoly..encourage others as soon as they respond to positive thoughts. it is a team game..let everybody be a winner..or a part of winning combination.
Positive actins never go waste.
4.God has made human beings impatient by nature..
tell me who has patience to wait for icing to be done over the cake..
we are all used to start having a bite as soon as the cake is baked..except of course ..on birthdays..when we are forced to wait till the arrival of guests ..but look at the scene..immediately after the ..happy birthday to you..happy long life to you..it is all over in a minute..partner ..that is life..have Cake & Eat it too..
5. BY NATURE, WE ARE MISER in appreciating others..though it really doesn't cost a $..it is still depreciating..may be american economy is responsible for it.
GOOD FRIENDS ARE TRUE ASSETS..only they can appreciate & tolerate us.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY...
WHERE IS MY CAKE/ CHEESE ?

Anonymous said...

its really good..good that u enjoying ur last days thr ..
m fine...m in microsoft acc... with no work...as usual :P

prada

Anonymous said...

Questions ??? -- this is what that came to my mind when I got the first glance on this blog post ; but the best part is each of the questions are a beautiful way of expression in itself for different learnings..Good post indeed!!

Anonymous said...

Chins....ur jut brilliant...although i just went thru' half of
it...but believe i dont want t finish seeing it...want to continue
seeing it for a while...

Amazing thoughts...Beautifully put and Great intellect ..Thts wht
Chins is....Pls keep it alive !

Anonymous said...

Manoranjan: i have gone through your web pages on blogger.com i think...,i really appreciated your thoughtful writtings

Anonymous said...

Interesting one here....
Amazingly all the same questions are asked by me to myself when there are times you stay alone. As living alone for most of the yrs I've naturally developed the habit of treating myself when theres no one arnd...
The reason i mentioned abt this lonelife story is... when compared ur post which refers to a group of frnds coming together... i found it strikingly similarities to the innovative ways in which i treat myself to make each dinner something special than other...
Your post did give me a good confidence boost that even if I'am not in living in a grp but still havent lost the touch of it... :D

Anonymous said...

This post shook me ..compelling questions made me think a dozen times about how should I improve my status quo...very nicely drafted