Yes, it is difficult now to be a part of GC. Over the years, we have become very selective. We want the best. The very best. We want different people. Men and Women with a purpose, with a mission, with a commitment for their lives. We do not want the crowds. All we need is a small team with each member like a laser beam in terms of knowledge and performance. Each one with more than 100 percent output. Each one willing to be forged through fire.
Maybe we will have only one member. Does not matter. Even one can scale the mountains for us. We still want the best.

The hardware in the office needs attention. So do a lot of other things. As always. Nothing new here. The review committee of AAI has still not been finalized, as far as we know. But then we are not liasioning agents and we do not always have the ‘inside information’. A few of our clients are waiting and we do not know what to tell them or what next steps to take. A lot of darkness here.

Omprakash (the admin guy) has been asked to leave. He fell so much in love with
the power of the chair’ that he forgot to plant his feet firmly on the ground. Just wanted the ‘Bossgiri’ without the hardwork to support it. A common problem everywhere. We did not want the virus to spread. ‘Power’ is a very powerful drug. The most lethal one too. ‘Cocaine’ would be nothing before the ‘addiction to power’.

Have no idea how to market the maps on the shop. ‘paise nahin hain’. I mean for aggressive marketing. We have to let ‘time’ take ‘time’. Things will happen at the right time, when they are meant to.

Let ‘time’ take ‘time’.

Later in the night he shared how he was afraid to visit us. Afraid that we might reject him. It is sad. A father scared of visiting his daughter. What is there to say? I did not know I was so scary. Maybe I have grown some horns or a few thorns here and there.

I do not know how long is the walk,
I do not know whether there is any miracle waiting for us at the end,
Or if the end just lies in Nigambodh Ghat,
I do not know whether we are in the right direction,
or whether there is such a thing as right or wrong, light and darkness, truth and lies.

We walk because that is all we can do,
We show up for life every day, every moment because the rest is not in our ambit,
We do the best we can each day,
knowing that our absence will not cause any major upheaval in the universe,
That we are only a very miniscule part of the larger whole,
And hoping that we can contribute in some small way,
to create meaning for at least one life.

Before the final departure.

‘The last call’.

Thanks to Hariom and Gagan ( who has recently joined and is a fresher). Thank you guys. For winning this one.

Hariom is also very near to testing the logic to be used in the software for the calculations with reference to the surfaces and the instruments for a single airport. Chandrakant is doing some reverse engineering for a site in Mumbai and he will also need to visit it very soon to collect a few coordinates. Amit has joined us in accounts and OmPrakash in administration. Let us see. Fingers crossed as always. The beginning is good. I have already shouted once (or maybe twice) and they have not quit. Hope is a good thing anyway.

It is so difficult for us to just manage the office ,bills,clients,meals. Wonder how HP manages the earth with its rotation and every miniscule life on it. It would be good to exchange notes with HP. I mean free of cost of course. Why would HP charge us? It is only man who cannot think of anything without charging.

A lot of potential team members are reading the blog. Sone pe suhaga. I mean why would they like to join after knowing all the nitty gritties of GC? A million dollar question. Kya hoga tera kaaliya. I hope it cannot get any worse. That the worst is over ( we have said that many times in the past too).

I don’t think I am writing intelligent stuff. I should pack up. One of the tyres in my car is punctured and that will need changing before I can reach home, hopefully before the time freezed by Appu which is 1:30 pm ( in the night of course). The team packed up early today (which means by 9:30pm) and that is amazing. They have only been able to leave by 11:30pm or 12:30pm in the past few  months.

‘Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence,

And I am learning, whatever state I am in,

therein to be content.’ – Helen Keller

Numerous calls and many interviews later, we are yet to zero in on a few good candidates. The freshers need a lot of training. The seniors have experience in working as slaves and in a controlled simulated environment with no creativity or imagination. It will take time for them to unlearn the ‘slavery’ and start with a fresh mind on a clean slate. Bahut panga hai.

We have asked our bankers to not pay PACT, Lucknow against the bank guarantee submitted by us as the project was completed and delivered by us a year ago. The work has been completed at a huge loss, the BG has expired and PACT has still not released a part of our final payment, even after the submission of all the deliverables. Talk about injustice. Talk about exploitation. Or better still, do not talk at all. Just survive.

There is fear. Fear has always been a large part of our lives. Fear of being on the roads. Fear of not being able to pay the rent or the bills. Fear of being broke. And many times, faith just flies out of the window. Let us just breathe. It is OK. It will be OK. We will be fine. Just fine.

Triggers, broken promises, broken dreams, brokenness in the family, the neglect, the abuse, the abandonment, the search for respect, for survival.

Technology, money, taxes.

All that is unimportant, becoming so important.

And all that is important, becoming so unimportant.

The important and the unimportant. The real and the unreal.

All mixed up.


 

We do have an accountant now. And someone to manage the front desk. So we are gradually getting back in shape. Appu is getting ready for her dance performance in Siri Fort on Sunday. So there is a breather. A break from the constant stress so to say. Thank you HP (Higher Power). Thank you Universe.

Thank you for the food on our table, the roof over our head,

the fact that there is an office to go to, a maid to help,

Thank you for all that you have given to us, for all that you have not given to us

And for all that you have given and taken away.

‘Gratitude’.

We have placed an order for Ikonos stereo 1m satellite imagery for Mumbai. We always wanted to use photogrammetry to extract building heights. Now finally, we will be able to do it and that has been path breaking for us. We hope to do a more accurate job than before and hopefully it will mean a win win situation for all concerned.

A holiday tommorrow. Welcome and Unwelcome. Welcome because the past week has been bad on so many fronts. Unwelcome because there is still so much left undone, before the week ends. The heater has been repaired. There is a part time maid to do the cleaning and the utensils. Huge sigh of relief. Most of the bills for this month have been paid. Good. Cool. At the end of the month, most of the bills have been paid. Which means that the beginning of next month is right here. Which also means that there is another round of bills just waiting to barge in.

Thus far and no further.

“If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!” – Rudyard Kipling

Damn tough.

‘Being a Man’.

‘To be a woman’, even more tougher.

The utensils, the filling of water, mopping the floors, cooking of dinner by Appu and me,

Appu rushing to college between calls for interviews from prospective candidates,

Me running to the office with undone tasks,loss of the team, bills,payments,clients,vegetables, unrepaired heater,curd in my head.

Trying to pray, to look for a modicum of faith to hang  on to, to look for something to look forward to.

If time could stop, if tears could flow, if the trust could return,

If only. Only if.

If life cannot be witnessed, be a witness to death. Be a witness to something.

Nothing, Nothingness.

Kuch pharak nahin padta,

Schemes, strategies, planning, aims, objectives. Can you hear the Gods laughing?

Jaane bhi do yaaron.

Chandrakant Pandey has been asked to leave. He was found using the company resources, time and money for searching a better job on naukri.com. He has apologized but it is too late. Too late to restore our faith in anything and anyone. So while we are busy ensuring that the salaries get paid, the heaters work in the office and the meals are served in a clean and hygienic manner, our team is busy looking for better options. What can one say to this? Kya bol sakte hain? Best of luck Chandrakant. Let us see who turns out  to be a winner. The race is not yet over. And while you keep looking for better opportunities and jobs, you will miss what is right on front of you. All the best, nevertheless.

I think animals would be more loyal. Just that we cannot train them to do GIS. What a pity. Yes we are poor. Very poor. As a society, as a nation, as people, as a generation. We have no values, no integrity. And that is the worst form of poverty. The rest does not matter.

Altaf aaya tha. job chahiye. Mar raha hoon. Job de diya. And then what?He harmed us at the first opportunity. Chandan aaya tha. Kuch bhi nahin aata tha. Mauka diya seekhne ka. kaam karne ka. Kya kiya. Peeth piche waar kiya. Hit us behind our backs. Ritesh aaya. Jobless. Unemployed. Just a lot of gas in his ballon of ego. chance diya. Vishwas kiya. what did he do. He masterminded the hacking of our sites and e-mails to damage us and start his own company. Accha nahin kiya guys. You have just harmed the next team at GC, the next generation. In place of creating more freedom for them, you have ensured that the next team will get limited rights and limited opportunities in a limited space. You have killed the faith that we worked so hard at building and maintaining. Well done. Khush raho. Live with the history you have created. Job to mil hi jayega. Repeat your performance again. And blame GC, blame me. Thoda bojh kam ho jayega.

Focussing on building a new team. Again. And again. No idea what to look for. How to judge. Hariom is shortlisting a few candidates. He is the only team member left. Its me and him with the housekeeping staff and the guard to give us company. Good. So far so good.

Back to zero.

Zero, a good number. An auspicious number. Anything can be done with a ‘zero’. There are immense possibilities.

‘Zero’.

We are back on track. On my knees. Thank you God. Everytime someone tries to destroy us, we have been saved. In the nick of time. By a hairs’ breadth. Its just the number of times that we have been sabotaged. The number of times we have scrambled for safety. And the number of times we have had to protect ourselves. Very tiring.

We are recruiting but this time round it is going to be tough getting into GC. All the references will be cross checked. We will need a letter of guarantee from a reference whose background will also be checked. The communication skills will also be judged. It is difficult to continue checking the spelling mistakes of everyone in day to day e-mails or letters. No, we are not interested in teaching anymore. We have done our bit. We have trained a lot of people who have used GC as a platform to then get the so called ‘better opportunities’, ‘better jobs’. Not anymore. We intend to take only capable and honest people through a stringent recruitment process which is being re-defined now.

Appu cried a lot yesterday night. I am invariably spending the night in the office and she sits up waiting for me. She is tired of the constant tantrums and crisis situation in GC. I guess so am I. I am truly sorry bebzer. I have no idea how to balance things anymore.   Amma has been asked to leave. She was creating a lot of unmanageability and chaos in the house. At least need some peace in the house, if not in the office.

I think that as a society, although the technology quotient is increasing, the human value quotient is decreasing and that is creating and will create huge social, emotional and financial problems for us as a nation.

Time for some re-thinking.

Re-thinking.

On behalf of Global Coordinates, I would like to thank Adam and Paul of webschematic for doing a stupendous job of creating our site and hosting it for so many years. We would also like to wish them great success in their chosen paths. Thank you Adam. And thank you Paul for the smooth handover of the sites without major hiccups and for being there for us unconditionally.

Chandan, Ritesh and Altaf have left. They could not take the pressure of gettting the online shop up and moving anymore. They have quit midway. Altaf anyway came in after desperate attempts to get a job. After having one, he could not value it. Ritesh had just begun moving on the learning curve. Maybe the effort required to be a winner was too much for him (notwithstanding his IIT tag). All the best guys. Maybe freedom and responsibility is not your cup of tea.

Queries for training. For forming a consortium for a tender. Good signs. But we need more than just signs. More than just opportunities. We need to win the race.

Theree steps forward. Two steps backward. Or maybe four.

The same dance. One two three. One two three.

Time to try a new choreography.