Empowering men!

I was raised in an environment where we didn't really know what gender bias was. If a boy in the house got grounded so did a girl. If a boy was climbing trees and playing football, so were the girls, if the boy was in the kitchen, so was the girl. 

The difference between what a girl/boy is supposed to do/behave "in a society" became clear only when i left the smaller town of Belgaum and moved to the cosmo-city of Pune. Moving to a cosmo, i realised how regressive we are as a society. In the hostel of 150 girls from different sections of the society, different upbringing, different cultures, I realised that i was raised in a, now evident, progressive environment. Of course it was difficult coping with the standards of behaviour defined by the society vs what i had grown-up to. I failed miserably. 

I would never understand what it meant when people told me you are a girl, this is what you do and this is how you behave. I am not sure if i can explain what went on in my mind at such moments. 

After a lot of self-doubting, i realised that men were never told what to do and how to behave. It was assumed that they will behave in a certain way. Even if it were inappropriate, they were protected by the men and women around them by saying all men are the same, you cannot do anything about it. It enraged me that the boys got away with expressing exactly what they felt whereas the baton of responsible communication was placed with the girls. I drowned in gloominess, and brooded for hours over these feelings of injustice. To add to my reflections, there were the "women empowerment" slogans and "women's days" which were followed with much gusto and year-long enthusiasm crammed in one day of pampering, and circulating time-consuming messages and linguistically awkward poems. I asked myself what i felt about one such day where the men painstakingly put together an event for the women. I asked myself this because the significance of these celebrations didn't quite sink in. The dumb husband-wife jokes still continued, the men still felt that women cannot drive, and that making a grocery list was still a girl's job; the women still felt that men should hold the door for them, women still felt that sports and politics are "a man's world", society still looked down upon a girl's bra strap showing while the men got away with scratching their crotch in public. 

From my experiences, endless debates, and deliberations with self, i would like to share these thoughts:

1. I feel men are equally capable of doing what women can do and be at par with women

2. If the society (and the mother!) chooses, men too will grow up to be strong physically, mentally, and emotionally

3. Patriarchy is tough on men too! It puts pressure on them to always be the tough guy and not give to feelings and emotions. EVER.

Patriarchy has conditioned men to study, grow-up, and only become a successful breadwinner for the family; while leaving the most important jobs like, the well-being of the family, to the woman. I feel men too can be wise enough to take care of the family and raise their children to be good human beings. Men can be doting fathers who can look after the child's nutrition, homework, school schedules, and PTA meetings, or cook a decent meal for their family. Why do all chores have to be compartmentalised and water-tight?

They just need a chance to show they are good enough to protect themselves and take responsibility for their actions and need not hide behind the excuse of patriarchy and age-old traditions prevalent in the society. If a woman can work and look after the family, so can a man! Enough of women empowerment", it was always the men who needed to be empowered! Let's give men a chance...

Over.and.out.

P.S: there is no sarcasm or cynicism of any sort in what I have written. I truly believe this makes complete sense. 

First naukri

When I landed my first job, going to the office was more glamour than work. I had just graduated, and was waiting to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was half hoping I would get an important looking envelope saying I had been accepted at some top college abroad to pursue psychology. Instead, I sent my resume to a friend and got an offer from a major BPO company to join their recruitment team. While my peers were lining up at universities for admissions, I was chilling away in an air conditioned office which sprawled over acres of greenery and offered 'American' sounding snacks. This was enough to get me carried away and daydream about . Gradually, as I lost altitude, I realised what a job actually is.

[Solemn music]

So there I was, hitting ground reality and working my way up from the filing room to the interviewing rooms, poring over a hundred employee files, printing and punching photocopies of their documents. All this while wondering what a nutcase I was to pick up this job. 


Nonetheless, there were some highs that compensated for the other bad days. The ching-a-ling sound as my salary got credited at the end of a month, for one.

Gradually I picked up recruiting and moved up the ladder.

I never really understood the significance of our recruiting pressures until much recently. After 10 years’ since my first job.

Now, that I have experienced the working life a little more than as a fresh graduate, I feel the need to put my grasp of the recruiting function into perspective. A bit by bit about everything that I feel and know about recruitment.

In the the next few blogs that would follow, I will attempt to write about recruitment, taking inspiration from different aspects of hiring.

Kites

Fluttering eagerly in my hand

Waiting to soar high

Without a worry of the end

Waiting only to take off on the

Next wave of wind

Trusting the line of thread

to guide the way higher than

Up in the sky

I silently follow the trail

Of the the flight

Wishing i were as carefree as the kite

I close my eyes

And plant the thought within me

I open my eyes

And, I am the kite

-

Maithili

Recruiter Essentials

The Corporate World has few Superheroes, and Recruiters are one of them! It is the right person, in the right job that makes companies great. And, at the centre of this philosophy is a recruiter doing her/his job well.

I am listing out a few Recruiter Essentials which I feel are a must-have for a recruiter to keep their bosses happy!

Recruiter must-haves

Gift of the gab

As a recruiter, we have to juggle with multiple "customers" and keep them happy/engaged. Be it a hiring manager, candidate, agencies, or eager-beavers who want to know about every new position that opens up so that they can apply, stakeholders from the leadership who want to know which team is hiring for which skills;it is a heavy chip on the recruiter's shoulders to get the message across with as little friction as possible.

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MS Excel super power

Lets face it, there is no way you are going to maintain your candidate database, manage multiple skill sets, or prepare those (elusive) great reports for your stakeholders in your precious notebooks. So, get your fingers ready and eyes peeled to pore over spreadsheets and build data. 

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Presence of mind

We all know how managers have a knack for popping up at the wrong places/times to ask you for an update on a certain role in their team, the candidate pipeline, or some high priority email (which you obviously missed!). Presence of mind may be invoked to rescue you to safety till you can answer these questions to their satisfaction.

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Sourcing skills

Just relying on the Walk-in footfalls and newspaper ads is not enough. If you want to attract the right kind of talent, you need to know your job boards, SocMed platforms, and other pipeline building strategies. You are racing against time and the art lies in knowing which tool to use when and how so that you get the best of results. The recruitment agencies that you outsource some positions to, are competing with you to close the same role! How do you build your edge? 

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Nice to haves

Market intel

Not many are in the habit of building, slicing, and dicing the data. Once you are on top of your data, it can indicate you to crucial points that can help you with taking corrective measures to improve your processes. It can also show you how well you are actually doing. Gives you insights on the talent landscape, which companies to look for, what compensation you are competing with et cetera, et cetera.

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Recruitment Analytics

This is a tough one. There is lot of information that is available at click of a mouse, but how do we actually use it to our benefit? Hell, we are not even sure what information is of use to us and what is junk. Imagine the spreadsheet that you download from a job site; it has endless rows and columns with even more garbled information; rightly called a "raw dump". More often than not, at such times your MS Excel Superpower is quite handy to make this kind of information useful.

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All in all, it's still a fight for recruiters to convince the non-recruiters that we too have deadlines, targets, aggressive selling, and of course, long working hours. Don't let people doubt the magnanimity of your work! So, more power to you for doing what you do best!

Citizen's ask

What do I expect from the MP?

1. First and foremost, ensure that the police force is happy, healthy and gets the salary on time. Once the basic needs of the police force are taken care of the security and law enforcement will automatically improve.

2. Put in place a good infrastructure with a vision. That is, when a newly built road is scraped and dug, we feel cheated. This should not happen when we are spending crores of tax payers hard earned money to build good roads. The MP should ensure accountabilty of the allotted budget.

3. Accountability for the Toll collection on the highways. If you are charging people for certain facilities, the least you can do ensure these facilities are atleast there! There are 2-wheelers in the middle of the highway, bullock carts, tractors driving on the wrong side of the road, farmers spreading out the cut crops on the roads for vehicles to crush them etc. And then we wonder why do accidents take place on the highways.

4. Ensure all schools that fall under his control, have proper washrooms! No two ways about it. This is a major factor for girl students dropping out of schools. Before we pass bills like Right to Education bill, we need to address the issues leading to poor attendance.

5. Lead the people towards sustainable development. Take necessary steps to help people understand the need to maintain a healthy balance between nature and human development, protect and respect the bio-diversity around them.

These are just a few issues which I feel should be one of the priority tasks. Also, one need not be armed with degrees and medals from prestigious colleges. S/he just needs a sensible outlook, a conviction to work with integrity, and faith that sincere efforts do pay off well. 

Stuff dreams are made of

Me: I dreamt that i am going to office.
Me again: Nothing surprising here.
Me: In a "popti" green saree.... Driving a convertible called 'cavala rotor'
Me again: Wait.. what?!
And, the office is in a temple's premises...!

I am not sure if i should be happy about the convertible, miserable about being in a saree, dreadful about the shocking green or bummed by the office being in a temple premises.

With this I woke up with a heavy head and hoping that that I didn't just see into the future. I don't think I can work draped in a saree.

As I struggle into my swimming costume to leave for the pool, I pondered over my sense of fashion - jeans and a T-shirt. A sweatshirt on colder days.

I look over at my roomie sprawled in her bed and snoring away the dawn. In couple of hours this human frame will transform into a SFW well-dressed girl, with appropriate make-up, ready to take the workday head-on.

Whereas, I would be chuffed at having woken up early and spent a good hour at workout in the pool. So, not much thought will go into dressing up for work.

I have come a long way with my clothing. But, it still makes my roomie frown and expect much more from me as far as my fashion sense goes.

With these thoughts I dive in and let the cool water wash over me and kick these musings out of my mind.

I have recently started swimming regularly and loving every bit of it. Any form of exercise has always made me happy and calm. However, weight loss has always been elusive. (More on this later.) Since I had learnt swimming in my childhood, I quickly became used to the water and was able to manage on my own without the snarky coach passing demotivating remarks about how I am succeeding with my plans to drown.

Time flies when you are in water. Be it a in a swimming pool or in the shower. You feel you've just entered but the watch has a different story to tell.

The thoughts that I left outside the pool about my disastrous sense of fashion quickly latched on as I climbed out of the water; successfully making me brood on my way back home.

I reach home and I see the transformed humanoid yelling an energetic "good morning" to me. Needless to say, so much love around and it becomes impossible to brood over silly things. I quickly dress up SFW and join my roomie for breakfast. She looks me up head to toe,  and with a hint if an appreciative smile says "someone's dressed up well today!"

Well, what can I say...

Pigeon-attack!

Pigeons (n): an idiot species often confused as 'birds'; lives in buildings, are full of shit - one organism can shit-bomb an entire car, single ass-edly; no sign of intelligence has been so far been reported among this common-place species. Upon observation, one may well be reminded of certain human groups, who, suprisingly, may be defined as above.

My musings over pigeon behaviour has been a result of me whiling away my time by
A. sitting in a coffee shop, with a view of the bustling street outside

B. Sitting on my bed, looking out of the window where, much to my annoyance, a pigeon(s) would often sit

C. Others, like: I once saved a pigeon's life by bringing my car to a screeching halt when I suddenly noticed it was "crossing" the road. I was taken aback at the sight of a bird walking! I helplessly honked;it scurried and zigzaged out of the way. The.bird.was.walking.!

Once I even taught a pigeon to fly! It was sitting on the window sill, ready to shit-bomb. I immediately ran and made wild gestures and loud sounds to make it fly away. It "ran" from one end to the other and back again, not knowing what to do. I bit my upperlip, calmed myself, and just pushed it off the sill (¡facepalm!). It almost fell to the ground but then it realised the power of its own wings.

Jokes apart, these species is known to have pushed the real birds out of their habitats, and are the bullies of the bird world. So guys, please, do not encourage the breeding of pigeon communities. They also spread illness among humans.

Over.and.out.

Decoding pk

The recently released movie pk has received extreme responses. For me, it was a thorough entertainer with new kind of humour, storytelling, and exceptional acting from Aamir - as always! He takes the passion for film-making to a totally different level.

The message that struck me deep down moved me and the emotion that flowed through was strangely unsettling and comforting at the same time.

Every person leaves home to find something...some purpose. On the way we may get lost, may get blinded by some fascination and lose track, get into bad company, break a heart and get ours broken too. What WILL happen is we WILL learn a new way of life, WILL get stronger, WILL become smarter, and hope to get back home, successful. Almost all of us would also have dreamt big, made friends (sometimes, regretted later), succumbed to desperation and take the twisted a d strangest of the measures, only to get back on track. Then there are some who are out to prove something to someone; may fail miserably and just give up and drift away...away from joy, away from love.

But, then there are some who go through hell and still manage to wake up day after day, with a glint of hope and a bundle of faith, to face the day. It is for these precious ones that i pray. For there are times in our lives where we may slip and fall through. It is at such times that we just need that one person who we can just look at and draw strength from. For it is that assuring look, that makes us brave.

May God bless these beautiful and vulnerable people with that one person, a real friend, who will help you return home; it would indeed mean the world to them!

The state of a nation

"..what advances a nation or a community is not so much to prop up its weakest and most helpless members, but to liftup the best and the most gifted, so as to make them of the greatest service to the country." - Jamsetiji Tata. Going by this, it is no wonder that India as a country fails to come out of the swamp of mediocrity. We seem to uphold "please the underprivileged" mentality rather than "foster the strength of the strong" or "encourage the less privileged to do better". As long as we are led by our wrongly placed morals, India can stop dreaming of becoming a superpower..or whatever!

The citizens are restless; the good brain is leaving the country owing to unfair performance measurement systems and inexplicable judging parameters which invariably go in favour of the "underprivileged" instead of the deserving ones. The energy of the productive population is drained out in fighting for a right and fighting against injustice. Mind you, this is a vulnerable patch. Directionless energy of any youth will eventually, but certainly, become a nuisance to the community. We need a guide, an icon who commands respect and not just attracts the media's spotlight. Her/His ideas need to percolate to the execution level and not get diluted on the way. This may perhaps happen when the s/he is within reach for the masses. The restlessness of a population is a highly potent change agent. If handled well, it will work wonders. Anything done otherwise, will invite an uprising.

I am no intellectual, but to figure out a logical outcome of a demographic situation, it does not require one. It is the doers who lack the conviction. Great ideas and honest intentions will keep cropping up; it will make sense only if we try doing it. Something may work on paper but it doesn't always materialise as conceived. This is true the other way around too...

Sir Sachin Tendulkar - the Star!

I am not a fan of cricket. My story is similar to a few people who lost interest in the sport when match-fixing came out in the open. To correct myself, I am an ex-fan. There was the 'felt-betrayed' phase followed by the depression and ultimately the 'i-don't-care' phase towards cricket.

After these underhand dealings surfaced, I hardly followed the game. I was content with the updates when milestones were recorded in the cricket and around these events, I would be drawn to the sport like a moth to flame. There are the star-players, who I enjoyed watching in action - MS Dhoni, Yuvraj, Dravid, Bhajji, Gayle (after the famous 'gayle-ic storm'). But it was transient. Sachin, undoubtedly, was the highlight for me. If it is an interesting match and has the devouts on the edge of their seats, but doesn't have Sachin on the screen, I just shrug and turn around. Secretly I would chase Sachin's records, and the relevant cricket info to stay abreast of the happenings. More so because the people around me spoke cricket!

In retrospective, I feel, the reason I retained the little interest in cricket was because of sportsmen like Sachin, Dravid, and Kumble, in that order. When Anil Kumble retired from active cricket, I was surprised. Having grown up watching him play, the thought that he would have to do something as absurd as "retire", had never even crossed my mind. Cricket meant these players, period. After this was Dravid's turn. When Dravid left the field for a different role in the game, I knew we were growing up. Now, here is the God, announcing his cross-over from active play to a "being-around" role. Yes, yes.. Sachin is not going to fade out into something as trivial as "being-around", but for me at this point it is as overwhelming.

Sachin, for a far-off fan of cricket such as I, you are cricket to me and you are the reason I respect the sport and follow it. I do not know if it would be the same henceforth. Love and respect, Sir Sachin!