Ultimate Gyan

Gyan....
Well this word means a lot in everybody's life. Be it the ultimate knowledge or just a piece of advice or Ghanaian soccer player Asamoah Gyan. Well, He won't mean much to many and some might even 'google' or 'wiki' him to get the context, but actually no context exists. Just mentioned his name as it came to 'RAM' of my brain as I thought of this word 'Gyan'.
There are many universal theories, sayings, teachings about 'gyan' given by people of all varities from common man to the almighty. I will take liberty of giving some of my own. (Or explaining my understanding if the theory is already given by some other Gyani.)

1. Whether one acknowledges or not, everybody presumes themselves as the most knowledgeable person. That is the basic reason why everybody has so much to tell but hardly any time and patience to listen to somebody else's point of view. Sometimes during discussions (or even high profile meetings) just after you have finished your point, some other speaker starts speaking something which has altogether no relevance to your point. This leaves you wondering whether he was at all listening to you? No, Sir. He was just waiting for his turn to speak. And don't lose your heart too much as the outcome of such discussions or meetings is more or less pre-decided.

2. 'Yahan Gyan mat dijiye, yahan sab gyani hain': meaning don't express your knowledge here as already everybody is knowledgeable. Then, my dear friend who took pains to write this beautiful inscription, why are you encumbering us with some of your own gyan. And anyhow if vessel is filled more than the brim, it is anyways going to spead some of the excess stuff in nearby surroundings.

3. Many wise sayings are already present in the world and they come to us in many forms like books, articles, conversations with peers, parents or friends or maybe a stranger. But most of this passes through our mind without registering it's true sense. Even if it registers we fail to follow the wisdom enshrined in that particular saying. On top of that if someone repeats the same thing we just ignore it and ask the speaker to stop giving 'gyan' or 'lecture' to us.
But when we are troubled by something and at that time we read or listen to this 'gyan' we immediately connect to it and we are able to relate it to our problems. This is indeed a feeling of enlightenment.
Great thinkers and Gurus of our times are making use of this psychology in popularizing their books with 'Nice spiritual' names. Often these books will contain parables of different kinds and these Gurus asks their followers to simply open any page of the book and read the story given there and it will give them answer to their problems.
As I earlier explained how our rational mind relates our problems to the 'pravachans' or 'speaking tree' stuff, whenever we open the book we have belief in, we find the story and teachings in front of us related to our issues and questions in life and this in turn further increases our belief in that. Yeah we may call it self fulfilling prophecy or 'Catch-22' phenomena.
Well I respect these Gurus for the fact that they have at least created belief in minds of many of us who don't have time or willingness to read and understand original and conventional sources of knowledge.
Well here ends my ramblings for now.

PS: Somebody remember 'Major Major Major Major'?

Routine Work

Today was a normal day at work. Routine job with the spice of trouble.

The day started with the additional responsibility of designated safety officer. As my colleague was on leave for some post-marital ceremony at his native place, I was entrusted with his day to day responsibilities also. So, I was out in the field, filling in daily safety check-list (51 point check-list). Honestly speaking, that list will take a good 90 minutes if filled after practically going at every work station and observing. But, we in our organization are taught to multitask and hence we normally don’t have more than 20 mins for this job. So, today also I mixed past and present data to get today’s list filled.

After that I was called for my daily work of topping up TTs. This work may sound very simple but it isn’t. You have to be friendly with staff, while secretly suspecting them for overfilling TTs. Their hatred evident in every word they speak with you and you bypassing those words with the wisdom one achieves after working some time in oil industry.

But today was different. One of the staff people started complaining about one broken frame and pointed out that he is bringing this up since long but no one is listening to him. I replied that this was in my mind since last one year, but some other staff person earlier stopped me from doing it as that person pointed out that it may hinder loading arm movement (the pipe they put inside trucks to fill them with petrol, diesel, etc.). It also happens that my boss has given this person a nickname ‘Chairman’ as he shows himself as the most important person in the terminal who is most concerned about the well being of the place. So, Mr. Chairman, demanded the name of his colleague who stopped me from repairing the frame. This I denied quoting that this will only lead in animosity. This tipped Mr. Chairman and he started accusing me of lying. I also retorted saying I need not lying to him, as he was in no way important to me. I left the place to get the chore of topping up done, meanwhile lining up with Panikkar the frame repairing job. I also made Panikkar tell Bhavik (colleague of Mr. Chairman) about how long ago we wished to carry out the same job but other staff person stopped us from doing the same. Anyways, I instructed Panikkar to carry out the job as per Mr. Chairman’s instructions.

Well, then I came back to my cabin, had a tea and tried calling to my girlfriend (who left 6 messages and one missed call last night after returning late from job). But it is always difficult with people frequenting your cabin again and again. So, I put the phone down and begun checking my mails when my colleague Dheeraj visited me. We had a chat on how we need to tackle higher management, on ways of escalation and such stuff. Meanwhile we downed another cup of tea. Talking to Dheeraj is always some relief as he is one of the few guys in organization with whom you can have an intelligent discussion. Discussion was brought to halt by the voice of Mr. Chairman crackling on walkie-talkie trying to find me. After replying, he asked me to come again to TLF as some more TTs have to be topped-up. I told Dheeraj about the morning incident and how Mr. Chairman wants to irritate me by calling me again and again for the topping up job. I jokingly told him that it hardly annoys me anymore as it is good to be out in field (in warm sun) in such cold weather.

When I returned the trouble started. I overheard shouts of ‘Maro, maro’ nearby. On listening closely, I was able to locate the trouble site which was the OMC room just besides mine. Immediately I alarmed boss about the situation and went myself to assess the situation. There I found Dheeraj was also trying to handle the situation. We tried to calm the mob down, but the situation was simmering. That’s when my boss arrived and asked the mob to leave the terminal premises. Mob (consisting of TT drivers) alleged that the retail outlet owner present there beats them when they go to his shop and hence they wanted to get the matter resolved. Boss asked them to go to police station and lodge complaint, but they need to leave terminal premised immediately. This resulted in dispersing of mob and situation came under control.

Then, I went to the logistics office nearby to assist them in their audit (mainly to participate in the lunch following the audit). It was the normal audit scene, with all the auditors asking questions at the same time, none waiting to let the responder finish. Auditors trying to expose the unawareness of field personnel while establishing their own intelligence at the same time. Logistics manager brought all of this to an end by announcing arrival of tea. Over tea lunch arrangements were discussed and straight after tea all of us moved to the guest house where lunch was arranged. The cook informed us that he needed some more time to get the food ready. So all officers decided to stand in sun and started discussing their experiences (only thing one earns in our organization). Senior ones having more to tell than their young colleagues. I also chipped in with one or two of incidents that occurred with me (I am also 3 years old in this organization, so kind of senior compared to freshers). Freshers listened in awe to all these stories while stealing a glance in between towards the kitchen. After about half an hour lunch started which consisited of both veg and non-veg items.

Rest of the day went smoothly. In the end came the fun time, the volleyball time. I changed into sports wear and headed towards the court. I decided to play near net today and surprisingly was very agile in that position, contributing a lot of points to my team’s victory. I also had to manage the positioning to my team members to get maximum output form them and they too responded to my strategies. After enjoying the game for a good hour or so, we all headed back to our homes.