Article

This article was contributed by Prabalika Borah. Prabalika heads the Hyderabad operations of Blue Lotus.

When I joined Blue Lotus I was told the Hyderabad office is well-placed, it’s neat, and blah blah blah... After a month in hotel White Pearl, Mumbai, I arrived at our Himayatnagar office. At first glance, the office appeared compact and smart. And the little toilet looked in good enough condition until Mouli, in his list of dirty outstation toilets, included the name of my branch in what was my very first offsite.

Embarrassing, no? So I come back and begin a close inspection.
I remove the curtain next to the toilet and espy brush, soap, rug and other cleaning paraphernalia. Then I peep inside the non-descript bucket. Yuck! It’s laden with fungus! Water in Hyderabad is hard, so standing water tends to form a layer on the container it’s stored in if not cleaned regularly.

I immediately fire the old maid who would keep doing her own numbers. Then I clean the junk from the loo. Suresh rolls up his sleeves and joins in. Anil’s desk is always the cleanest and tidiest. He is finicky about stains on walls, doors and on the telephone. In fact he actually sat with down detergent and cleaned the stains, to set an example really. That was one mad drive and it was possible because we all felt the need treat our office like our individual homes. I discarded the old mat and instructed the maid to not pass over the nooks and corners. For e.g., no random stuffing of rugs into the first available corner; the same applied to polythene bags. They are to be folded neatly and stacked and used as garbage disposal bags.

Anil and I both conduct surprise checks every now and then to ensure cleanliness is maintained. It wasn’t just Blue Pearl who took the initiative of a cleanliness drive. BLUE SAINTS did too. October has been a great month for them what with the team first acquiring a new client in the shape of Oceans Connect, and the subsequent arrival of Prashant Gunjan to further reinforce the team. Prashant tracks media movement and shares the information with all of us. With Diwali approaching, the Pune branch took up the cleanliness drive with gusto. Right from clearing personal drawers to rearranging files to instructing the maid to clear cobwebs from the windows and ceiling.

In the midst of all the cleaning, Mayuri realised that that such an exercise helps team members bond as everyone is working towards a common objective - cleaning the office! It generates a great sense of belonging. There’s the subtle transition from ’the office’ to ’my office’.

New Employees

New at Blue Lotus Family

New Clients

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Editorial

Editorial

I would like to begin with a revealing statistic. Technorati, the blog search engine, was tracking more than 106 million blogs as on September 2007. As Matthew Haughey, co-author of "We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs" rightly points out - "blogging is losing its underground image". Blogs have now gone mainstream in a big way. In September 2005, UK’s leading newspaper The Guardian introduced a daily digest of blogs on Page 2. In June 2006, BBC News launched a weblog for its editors following other news companies. This format is now followed by Indian news channels, NDTV 24X7 and CNN IBN.

Culture Curry, the Blue Lotus newsletter, has undergone several makeovers in the past one year – in terms of design, content, format, and presentation. The idea, each time, was to appeal to you and to engage you in discussion. It didn’t work out that way though. Even the feedback that came in, came only as a faint trickle. One can only hazard a guess as to the readership.

Now a few of us in the Ed. team felt that perhaps the format in which we were sending out CC had serious limitations. People would have to first read, then resort to email to either send feedback or initiate a discussion. It occurred to us then that maybe there was a strong case for transferring CC onto a weblog platform. It would make it far easier to post feedback and comments, perhaps leading on to discussion threads. Moreover we’d benefit from the other features of a blog – like being able to add links, post videos, conduct polls, not to mention an automatic archival system.

So we’ve gone ahead and done just that. CC will now come to you in this new blog format. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Also we’ve enabled the "Comments" feature and would love to hear from you.

I’d also like to announce the names of those who’ve agreed to be a part of the CC team. Piyush, Grishma, Prabalika, Mayuri and Archana S, have all contributed in a big way towards the making of this edition. So a huge round of applause for them all. I’m positive that with their continued participation, CC is going to go places.

Feature Story

The Feature Story was contributed by Piyush Jain. Piyush heads Business Development at Blue Bytes.

The new buzz at Blue Lotus

IN THE month of October, we witnessed two events of significance at Blue Lotus. The first involved only a select few, getting together to take stock and plan further - the quarterly TLs’ offsite. The second was the most awaited half yearly ritual which concerns all of us - the Performance Appraisal.

We’ve all been through the grind involving Performance Appraisals, so I will not delve into that. The Team Leaders offsite, however, would be of interest to all those who were not a part of it. So here’s the inside story...

It’s definitely not all fun and games, as Umesh keeps reminding everyone, but a place where serious introspection takes place.

The TL offsite typically gets underway with Mouli outlining the company’s vision. Soumitro takes it a step further and grinds it into everyone, at the same time providing details on the progress made by Mustard and Blue Bytes. Darshan then reveals the quarter’s figures, which really don’t show us in a very good light. Then it’s the turn of the team leaders themselves. One by one each TL makes a detailed presentation stating his team’s performance, which is subjected to close scrutiny by others. By "others" I mean the "Council of Elders", who perform a role similar to that of the Board of Directors.

The previous TL offsite - my first - was all about setting targets and looking at ways and means to achieve them. This time it had more to do with how much of that target has been met. Unfortunately, as most of you would know, for the first time in our group’s history we had to revise our targets downwards. This however did not dampen anyone and each one was motivated enough to achieve more than what was set for them.

The team leaders spoke about the numbers they’ve achieved so far and outlined their plans to achieve the balance. Each one also presented a success story in the form of a case study. All of this was critically reviewed by those sitting in judgment over the presentation.

It’s a great platform to bounce your ideas off others. Since all teams are interdependent, the offsite presents an opportunity to voice your opinion regarding strengthening of the BL network, better coordination between team members, issues with critical hands etc. Individuals come up for reviews and informal votes are taken on the performance of the person concerned.

Standing up and presenting your team’s case in front of the "Council of Elders" can be fairly challenging. To ease the stress, evenings are given almost entirely to unwinding with a whisky and soda, a sprinkling of shaayari, and freewheeling banter.

A major highlight of the offsite was when all the TLs turned artists, and used their collective skills to create a single painting. All this under the watchful eyes of Bishi. The painting, a highly abstract piece, now occupies a place of pride in our fourth floor office. The last day was devoted to "leadership training" by an external faculty. All were required to undergo a leadership test, the results of which are not encouraging enough to share on a public platform.

After 3 days, the TLs are suitably motivated to take on the oncoming challenges. But the very first challenge immediately after the offsite is to get to office on time the following day.

Training

This piece was on new training initiatives was contributed by Tapash Pal. Tapash is the Training Manager at Blue Lotus, and also heads team Blue Bridge.

Leadership Theory

Earlier this month at the TL offsite, team leaders and "potential" team leaders underwent a session on situational leadership as part of their overall training program.

What is situational leadership?

Classical theory defines different styles of leadership - autocratic, dictatorial, participative, bureaucratic etc., where a person is usually attributed with one style of leadership. But we all know now that this isn’t a very productive approach. GE along with Ken Blanchard (Author of One Minute Manager) developed a "Situational Leadership" module, which says that the leadership ought to be flexible and different styles should be adopted depending on the situation.

Ajai Singh, CEO of Transformation International, India and Principal Consultant, Shamrock Training Consultants & Master Leadership Coach, came down to conduct a one-day training session for Blue Lotus. Ajai is a Certified Professional Behavior Analyst, Certified Professional Value Analyst (the only one in the whole of South Asia), Certified Attribute Index Analyst, Certified Achieve Global Master Trainer, Certified Synergogic Master Trainer, Certified Entretel Master Trainer and Certified Leadership Foundations Master Trainer. He is also a Certified Master Leadership Coach and the sole Ken Blanchard Coach in India.

The first session was about a leader’s role in the changing work scenario. It touched upon the importance of workforce and how a leader has to adapt his or her style of leadership depending on the changes in workforce.

The second session was a LEAD self–assessment, which revealed our style of leadership. We were pleased to know that as an organization, we follow the "Selling Style of Leadership", which happens to be on the better side of the normalization curve.

In last session, Ajai spoke about Follower Centric leadership. What should a leader do if he has no follower? This session touched upon the third dimension, which is not covered by Ken Blanchard’s Situational leadership – PEOPLE.

All in all, the program has given us the direction for our thought process towards a three dimensional leadership.

Haleem

This delightful piece was contributed by Prabalika Borah. Prabalika heads the Hyderabad operations of Blue Lotus.

Haleem

Let me introduce Team Blue to a novelty from Hyderabad. It’s called "Haleem", a special dish prepared during the Ramzaan season and eaten mostly by people observing a fast.

Let me describe to you its physical characteristics. It’s a thick, gooey substance prepared from coarse wheat flour, gram dal and urad dal (mitti ka dal), mutton, and tons of ghee. All you need to do is to add a dash of lemon and dig in, each spoonful accompanied by chunks of tender meat. Slurp!

Five years ago when I first came to Hyderabad, I was revolted at the sight of men eating something out their plates, making disgusting slurping sounds, and promptly spitting something out into another plate. Out of sheer curiosity, I asked an auto driver what they were eating. In case you didn’t know already, autowallahs are an invaluable source of local gyaan. The fellow replied, "apku nahin malum, sab logaa haleem khaa rein". I told myself that I would never ever acquire a taste for this particular local delicacy.

A few weeks later I was sitting in an Irani joint amidst pyjama and lungi clad men, sampling haleem out of a cheap yellow plastic plate. I was sick in bed for the next three days. The dish is so rich and spicy that if eaten in generous quantities, it will have you reaching for the 6X6 room again and again.

I resolved never to go near the dish again. And for the next few years I doggedly stuck to my resolution. Until the day when I was asked to do a story on the place where veteran actor Dilip Kumar gets him haleem from. It’s called "Pista House" and is located in the Old City. The Haleem from there is said to be heavenly.

I meet Majid uncle, owner of the Pista House. He yelled out to a boy, "special two plate lao ji, jaldi!" I peered into the plate and the old memories came flooding back.

I was reluctant to eat but the aroma teased and tantalized. "You’re missing something great in life", my inner voice said to me. I wolfed down the haleem, then promptly bought three kgs. for the office.

So if you’re in Hyderabad during Ramzaan, make sure you get a taste of haleem. You’ll find yourself waiting with bated breath for the next haleem season. Experts say that it goes well with Coke.

Clothing trends for the career woman

This fashion piece was contributed by Prabalika Borah. Prabalika heads the Hyderabad operations of Blue Lotus.

Clothing Trends

Picture yourself thus: in high heels, wearing a gorgeous silk sari, your hair left open, and with generous dabs of make-up applied on your face. You sashay into the conference room for a proposed meeting, only to discover that the air-conditioner is out of order. Forty-five minutes into the meeting, your make-up starts to come off in beads of sweat; your well-groomed hair starts to feel frizzy; and the silk sari only adds to your discomfiture. So what is the lesson learnt? It’s all right to dress this way if you’re out to impress your future mother-in-law, but definitely not in a corporate setting. In the last team leaders’ offsite, the instructor, Sonal Mattoo, had mentioned that silks are only meant for formal occasions like parties and weddings.

While it is most important to dress comfortably at work, one should never neglect the presentation quotient. Usually you’re given prior notice about a meeting and so are able to pick the right outfit. But what if a meeting is suddenly called for, on a day when you happen to be dressed in a pair of low-waist jeans and a bright tank-top. Take my word, you’ll feel awkward and out-of-sorts, especially if the others happen to be dressed formally.

So how does one dress for work? Easy friends. Just hit the stores and check out the many readymade options that’ll enable you to turn up at work, looking stylish and feeling completely in control. Personally, I love the W collection, especially their kurtis and regular kurtas. The tailoring is so impeccable that they make you appear several inches slimmer. Biba doesn’t make for great office wear. The material bleeds, even though they cost a bomb. Pantaloons is another great option. Their kurtas are really pretty but the fabric tends to wear out after a few washes. A pity really.

For cotton kurtas with nice, simple motifs, Westside is a great option. And if you’re shopping there, be sure to check out their stretchable churidar collection. These make look you taller and slimmer because they’re Lycra-blended and tend to hug your legs, almost like a second skin. If cotton is your fabric of choice, then FabIndia is where you should be headed. They also have a great collection of white and beige cotton shirts for men.

In western wear, brands like Wills Lifestyle, Allen Solly, Anabelle and Mango will never let you down. The linen-blended trousers at Wills Lifestyle will keep you several degrees cooler when you are in the direct line of fire from clients and journalists alike. Women with great bodies can opt for shirts from Anabelle. Try them on once and you’ll know why. Allen Solly has coats for women which are also worth a dekko. Though Patialas are very much the in-fashion thing, it’s best to avoid them unless you are vertically endowed. But they’re definitely not recommended as office-wear.

What really caught my attention the other day were classy handbags from Samsonite and Hidesign. Girls, never mind if you have to scrimp and save to be able to own one of these smart bags. If saving doesn’t come easily to you, then be sure to demand one for your birthday.

And for those of you who’re in no mood to go in for a wardrobe makeover, there’s no harm in indulging in a bit of window shopping. It’s the best way to relax and unwind after a day’s hard labour. When doing so, make sure you try on several outfits. This will tell you whether you need to hit the gym or whether there’s still room for another Big Mac.

Restaurant Review

This Restaurant Review was contributed by Mayuri Kirloskar. Mayuri heads the Pune operations of Blue Lotus.

Sohos: A fine dining lounge

The spirit of Pune is best defined by its lively and youthful junta – one that’s perpetually on the move. And what do these young men and women like to do during the weekends? Nothing drastically different from what their counterparts the world over do. Watch films; party; and yes, eat out frequently.

Sadly, the quality of nightlife in Pune has suffered in recent times. Mr. D N Jadhav, the new Commissioner of Police, wanted to make his presence felt and his first step was to impose restrictions on all city pubs and discotheques - no serving alcohol after 11.30 p.m.

Recently, when deciding on a venue for a birthday outing, my friends and I zeroed in on "Sohos", counted amongst the more happening lounge bars/restaurants in Pune. Sohos made news recently when it picked up the award for the "Best Lounge bar", handed out by the prestigious Times Group. Located in Kalyaninagar, it is the ideal spot to relax and unwind in after a frenzied, feverish, mind-numbing week.

It’s a huge place, with a dance floor and bar inside and a lounge/restaurant setting outside. The ambience is pleasant; some would even say romantic. And the menu card gives options aplenty: Punjabi, Chinese, and sumptuous seafood.

It being a Sunday evening the place was chock-full with an equally big crowd waiting outside. While we sat at our table planning for the week ahead, the youngsters took to the dance floor, grooving and swaying to the music. Looking at them I experienced a wave of nostalgia; maybe even the slightest twinge of jealousy.

For starters, we ordered Tandoori Chicken and Hara bhara kabab. Since most of us were working the next day, we had to give the alcoholic beverages a miss. Here I must mention that the service was quick and efficient. After we’d more or less polished off the starters – tender and mouthwatering - it was time to decide on the main course. We ordered some delicious paneer tikka masala accompanied by the softest naans and rotis. In non-vegetarian fare there was the succulent rogenjosh and the creamy butter chicken masala. Our taste buds were tingling with delight.

The decision to go to Sohos was undoubtedly the right one. The attendants were well-dressed and courteous, the décor elegant, the food top-class and the presentation excellent. There was a look of contentment on everyone’s face. Now a meal is incomplete without dessert, so afterwards we hit Baskin Robbins. A nice way to wind up what had been an absolutely delightful evening.

A final word about pricing: most of the dishes range between Rs. 150 and Rs. 250. So a decent meal for two should cost anything from Rs. 500 – Rs. 600. And let me add that it’s great value for money.