The buck stops at me!

It's interesting to note how each one of us views our responsibilities. I am normally the type not to make conclusions or form opinions until I see the same thing happening repeatedly. Yesterday something happened at office that took me back about 9 years or so when I first started working, then in a small events company.

As it happens in events, this was one firm hired by a larger organization to plan and execute an activity which if done well could grow into becoming a campaign and so on. Everything there was 'outsourced', which meant for a press conference, ABB would hire us, we in turn would put together various components of this activity from various vendors who specialize in "a" particular function. In other words, the events guy would be the one with whom the buck stops! His neck is on the line irrespective of who didnt do their bit! Needless to say, i've had the sword hang on my neck very often and even got it slit a few times. In retrospect, this helped me be the 'professional' that i have been and take onus of the work given to me (i'm not saying i havent goofed up, but at least i try and ensure all components come together, if any of them fail, i fail).

This might've even contributed to the growth at aastha. I remember clearly, in the early days at aastha how we used to outsource most of our work - freelancers for content, ad agencies for designs, positives, plate making and printing of course(yes these were the pre CTP days), distribution agencies, BTL promotions with anotherAll this coz I was the only person in the company for over 8 months. As we grew from a project into an organization, I ensured that these values were inculcated in each and every member of the aastha team, each one could multi-task and double up to take on more responsibility, some even more than they knew they could handle. We'd always been a small team and had to share the work to ensure it gets done, without too much focus on whose work it is!

At my current assignment in a much larger company, it somehow just feels like those days where each component of work was outsourced where different companies had "a" task to accomplish and didnt care about what the previous or next step in the process of that task was! Its kinda sad coz not only does the quality work suffer and some people get stuck in the grind in between but it also disconnects the organization from being one unit into being multiple smaller units.

Come to think of it, this is also a specialized function in certain organizations. But do we really need a specialized person to remind us to work together or to facilitate inter depertmental communication? Whatever happened to the good old grapevine or just having a good set friends at work?

War on Mumbai, is it really?

A private person, I have been fighting the war within myself on whether I should start blogging or not, more on the lines of whether i have it in me to write well, will my writing be accepted by people, will i be ridiculed by everyone after making a fool of myself on the public domain? Well, right now, I dont care! One episode, exactly 28 hours ago in Mumbai brought an uncomfortable, almost painful feeling unto me. A mix of confusion, sorrow, concern, discomfort, ridicule and in some ways inspiration. The media is calling it the "War on Mumbai", i'm just thinking if its really "just" that? Is it just a war? is it just on mumbai? Arent there at least two parties to a war? Who is the war between? Who called for this war? What's the answer to the call? Any conclusion here would be myopic. It is evident that this was a suicide mission, the mis-guided youth took in hostages, or so we think, and made no demands. They barged into the city's landmarks and shot at people at will, with the objective of creating chaos, expecting to just walk out back thru gateway of India into their motor dingi and go back home to wherever they came from? no sir! they came to kill, "inspired" to do so. what was on their mind? they obviouslt believed they were doing the right thing, leading their fight by example. But who were they fighting against? do even they know? will they accomplish what they're set out to in this fashion? What have you and me done to them that they think we deserve to be treated this way?
Someone reacted that we should do to pakistan what america did to afghanistan. Is tht the only solution? Is pakistan the enemy, facilitator or is it only a route being taken by the radicals! is it a terror attack from "across the border"? is there a real border anymore? which 'border' are we refereing to anyway? we're surrounded by these so called borders, i've personally crossed a border without any apprehension or obstruction.
Sobha De said politicians stay out! we're proud of the army, mumbai is too precious to be hijacked this way. Shoba, is this really an attack on mumbai? arent the politicians Indians too? What spirit of mumbai are we talking about here? The average mumbaikar has no choice but to get back to work, he has to earn his livelihood, doesnt he? The average mumbaikar doesnt have a choice but to use the local train to travel 40 kms to work coz he simply cant afford to take a cab! is that the spirit of mumbai or the spirit of helplessness! Well, one thing she did get right is the fact that enough is enough and its about time we took things in our hands, if the politicians / govt is not going to do what it is expected to, then we will not sit and wait for some crazy libido stricken teen to make us a target of his aimless shooting!
i'm proud of sonia, manmohan and advani for coming together, now its for them to show that they mean action, can u and me take example from this and come together too?
is there a motive behind this whole episode? what is it? whose motive is it, the youth who fired indiscriminately or those who catalyzed their thought process? Can we ever be sure? Who is responsible? Terrorist organizations? Government? Authorities? You and me?