Back home from a hectic trip, on the flight I met this lovely lady, Nguyen, from Vietnam and a beautiful lady at that, she was travelling to India on a business trip, turned out she was a marketing professional, with loads of experience for young lady of 25. Now, I am not somebody who trusts people immediately, but I knew I had to talk to her, she was talking to an air hostess, when I bumped into her arm, I am sure I did deliberately but something pushed me into it. I apologised immediately, "I am sorry." She smiled with a wave of her hand to suggest that it was ok, and I continued loading my bag into the luggage bin. I had the window seat and she an aisle, for a big man, I have always found the window seat uncomfortable, I still remember enjoying a ride in a DC-10 some years back, I found it to be the most comfortable plane of all, there had been this Sardar family with me and we changed seats because they wanted to be together.
She looked at me, "Nice view ?" The plane had taken of and I nodded approvingly.
"Can I get the window ?"
Who am I to say no to a lovely lady, and I unbuckled my seat belt and moved out to allow her to settle in to the window seat. There was no doubt in the mind that I was going to enjoy the aisle more, and I still had a view to the window now accentuated by long hair and beautiful pointed nose as she looked curiously outside.
"Do you travel often ?" I asked nonchalantly looking at the on board magazine.
"Yes its part of my work routine, you ?
"I am Solar guy, I sit at home when there is no Sun and look for hot destinations like Dubai, no puns intended.
"Oh," that sounded enquiring, so I proceeded to tell her more.
"I am regular marketing person, travelling talking to people, to find out where my next order will come from, it is important to keep in touch with everybody you know and networking is a very huge part of my game," I said grinning from face to face.
"Really ?" she sounded disappointed.
I guess you could say, Solar is not high on the list of many people, most people think of it as alternative employment. I had to convince this lady that we were also sales people, that we too talked to people to figure out what was going on in a region. We too spoke to clients to get an idea of where the project was headed, I had had a heady second meeting with Ahmed and was proud of what I had achieved with him, handed over my design papers to him and the commercials would be worked out later. I was sure that he was busy already on his desk, spelling out the proposal that he would give his immediate bosses, the Sheiks who ruled Dubai.
"So you have a boyfriend," I asked to shock her out of her disappointed tone.
"What do you mean ?" she gave a sharp look, the flight was already curving to the right, we had left Dubai airport below and were heading for our destination. If she had turned any more, she would have been over me.
"You sound like somebody who likes to party and dance, I like outgoing people." as blunt as ever, as I took out my laptop.
"Well, I am a party girl and love the thought of going out each night, its what keeps me alive." she did open up and I admired her for that.
"I love to party as well, let me show you a presentation that I have been showing people." I pointed the screen to her, quickly changing the topic from a personal one to a more professional one. I could learn from this woman, I knew that. The presentation was slickly designed one, done up by Sashi, whose hard work had left even me dumbfounded, and I was a stickler for schedule. He had designed the presentation inch perfect, almost like he owned the project, "You just give me the data and leave the rest to me. The graphics, the layout, everything that deals
with design."
Without a moments hesitation, I had given him the full right to do as he pleased and along with that the box that contained original Photoshop CS 5.5, I had purchased on my last trip to Dubai. He was happy, and getting married in June, and I shared his enthusiasm for life and work. Work had this way of getting me depressed, every project I worked for and didn't pay dividends brought up tonnes of memories that bit me even today. If I had my way, I would just bury myself and hope the world never found me. Sashi had brought some good memories with him, all that showed me that I was just him. If ever I found myself faced with negativity I would just stand up and face it and it would go away on its own, but Sashi had to fight it to make it go away and I was all with him, if we had to fight negativity then we would together.
Nguyen was browsing through the presentations and looked interested, the flight had stabilised as much as my mind had now, and I paged the air hostess, she came up immediately, the tag on her said Shilpa, she was the only Indian in the crew, "Shilpa, could you get me and the lady some champagne."
"Of course, anything else sir ? she looked inquiringly at the lady, I still hadn't got around to asking the lady her name.
"Yes and some pastries and cookies," I said wanting the full Monty for the lady.
Nguyen was slim built and she was packed with energy, the way her fingers moved on the laptop, I got the distinct idea that the laptop was in the right hands, most people have this habit of not knowing how to handle a laptop, I preferred a person with skills to handle my laptop. And skilled she was, she wanted to make some changes to the presentation and I nodded yes. She worked on it for 15 minutes not uttering a word, just typing, re-adjusting and aligning text. After half an hour of hard work, we had the presentation ready. During this time she had asked me a lot of questions pertaining to Solar and Renewables, which I had readily answered, while I thought I had to make a presentation to her, she had prepared one and was ready to present it to me. That was professionalism and I had judged her right.
Sashi was the designer and Nguyen the presenter, it was a fatal combination, I was already imagining if I could the two of them to work together in my limited budget, I achieve miracles. I was dreaming up strategies to get Nguyen to work with us and she being a smart woman that she was would say yes. This was a project worth taking a risk on and she will say yes. My mind was fighting the negativity, I have to get this negativity out of the way to make anything viable, fight tooth and nail, and then understand when it clears up, the horizon is a blue mist far away, where we must make our own path.
There was a distinct possibility that I would hire her now. It was all coming together like a pack of cards at Diwali that would finally show 3 aces in my hand. I believe there is a time, product and price for any project, it comes together when the time is right. We all make our decisions and live by them, sometimes just sometimes it is time to change an existing scenario to make way for a new person who will take the baton from you. It isn't for nothing that I was sharing my data with her, she was needed and required in the team and I was willing to go after her.
Sometimes we lead and sometimes we chase, either ways it pays to win
She looked at me, "Nice view ?" The plane had taken of and I nodded approvingly.
"Can I get the window ?"
Who am I to say no to a lovely lady, and I unbuckled my seat belt and moved out to allow her to settle in to the window seat. There was no doubt in the mind that I was going to enjoy the aisle more, and I still had a view to the window now accentuated by long hair and beautiful pointed nose as she looked curiously outside.
"Do you travel often ?" I asked nonchalantly looking at the on board magazine.
"Yes its part of my work routine, you ?
"I am Solar guy, I sit at home when there is no Sun and look for hot destinations like Dubai, no puns intended.
"Oh," that sounded enquiring, so I proceeded to tell her more.
"I am regular marketing person, travelling talking to people, to find out where my next order will come from, it is important to keep in touch with everybody you know and networking is a very huge part of my game," I said grinning from face to face.
"Really ?" she sounded disappointed.
I guess you could say, Solar is not high on the list of many people, most people think of it as alternative employment. I had to convince this lady that we were also sales people, that we too talked to people to figure out what was going on in a region. We too spoke to clients to get an idea of where the project was headed, I had had a heady second meeting with Ahmed and was proud of what I had achieved with him, handed over my design papers to him and the commercials would be worked out later. I was sure that he was busy already on his desk, spelling out the proposal that he would give his immediate bosses, the Sheiks who ruled Dubai.
"So you have a boyfriend," I asked to shock her out of her disappointed tone.
"What do you mean ?" she gave a sharp look, the flight was already curving to the right, we had left Dubai airport below and were heading for our destination. If she had turned any more, she would have been over me.
"You sound like somebody who likes to party and dance, I like outgoing people." as blunt as ever, as I took out my laptop.
"Well, I am a party girl and love the thought of going out each night, its what keeps me alive." she did open up and I admired her for that.
"I love to party as well, let me show you a presentation that I have been showing people." I pointed the screen to her, quickly changing the topic from a personal one to a more professional one. I could learn from this woman, I knew that. The presentation was slickly designed one, done up by Sashi, whose hard work had left even me dumbfounded, and I was a stickler for schedule. He had designed the presentation inch perfect, almost like he owned the project, "You just give me the data and leave the rest to me. The graphics, the layout, everything that deals
Without a moments hesitation, I had given him the full right to do as he pleased and along with that the box that contained original Photoshop CS 5.5, I had purchased on my last trip to Dubai. He was happy, and getting married in June, and I shared his enthusiasm for life and work. Work had this way of getting me depressed, every project I worked for and didn't pay dividends brought up tonnes of memories that bit me even today. If I had my way, I would just bury myself and hope the world never found me. Sashi had brought some good memories with him, all that showed me that I was just him. If ever I found myself faced with negativity I would just stand up and face it and it would go away on its own, but Sashi had to fight it to make it go away and I was all with him, if we had to fight negativity then we would together.
Nguyen was browsing through the presentations and looked interested, the flight had stabilised as much as my mind had now, and I paged the air hostess, she came up immediately, the tag on her said Shilpa, she was the only Indian in the crew, "Shilpa, could you get me and the lady some champagne."
"Of course, anything else sir ? she looked inquiringly at the lady, I still hadn't got around to asking the lady her name.
Nguyen was slim built and she was packed with energy, the way her fingers moved on the laptop, I got the distinct idea that the laptop was in the right hands, most people have this habit of not knowing how to handle a laptop, I preferred a person with skills to handle my laptop. And skilled she was, she wanted to make some changes to the presentation and I nodded yes. She worked on it for 15 minutes not uttering a word, just typing, re-adjusting and aligning text. After half an hour of hard work, we had the presentation ready. During this time she had asked me a lot of questions pertaining to Solar and Renewables, which I had readily answered, while I thought I had to make a presentation to her, she had prepared one and was ready to present it to me. That was professionalism and I had judged her right.
Sashi was the designer and Nguyen the presenter, it was a fatal combination, I was already imagining if I could the two of them to work together in my limited budget, I achieve miracles. I was dreaming up strategies to get Nguyen to work with us and she being a smart woman that she was would say yes. This was a project worth taking a risk on and she will say yes. My mind was fighting the negativity, I have to get this negativity out of the way to make anything viable, fight tooth and nail, and then understand when it clears up, the horizon is a blue mist far away, where we must make our own path.
There was a distinct possibility that I would hire her now. It was all coming together like a pack of cards at Diwali that would finally show 3 aces in my hand. I believe there is a time, product and price for any project, it comes together when the time is right. We all make our decisions and live by them, sometimes just sometimes it is time to change an existing scenario to make way for a new person who will take the baton from you. It isn't for nothing that I was sharing my data with her, she was needed and required in the team and I was willing to go after her.
Sometimes we lead and sometimes we chase, either ways it pays to win
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