Harish Palaniappan's

Some years back,

A relative's child I was trying to play with once asked me.. "Why are you having a moustache".. got me surprised and dumb unable to respond.... made me even keep away from kids and children for sometime.
If that question came today, I would probably just smile and find a changeover topic.

Back then,
I didn't like the idea of talking to people who are "strangers" or unknown to some extent.. "networking is important" everyone said.. but it didn't get into my head. May be the way I was brought up.. until I escaped to a greener patch.. Tumkur for college and hostel.. and even self-cooking experiments of how to make a sambar taste like a bad soup (Recipe will be shared on request :).

I used to think, what networking?, what to talk to people, and for what benefit or help.
yea dumbo.. kind of... to tell you my seniors at college ragged me just one way.. "poi pesu da".. and only after a slap I spoke to anybody...

Today it is a different thing.. I probably can talk (read reel out) non-stop for hours on something I know nothing about.

Blogs helped open up..

And before blogs.. it was
Films, conversation with office colleagues, taking sessions at office (which people would eagerly attend for that after lunch siesta.. especially getting a quick sleep at my sessions), and some humility of making mistakes or being unable to answer something..... even a couple of painful break-ups.

One of my offices took pains even trying and pressing me to handle my first client myself.. no, not on a project.. but to tour chennai with him and show him places.

Nice thing was, my office organized everything, except that I had to talk and keep him company.. I don't think I was afraid..only that I was not particularly a chatterbox or did I have anything interesting to tell somebody about me or my work.. this is what I always thought those days... "There's nothing to talk".

I and Tom.. so went around chennai that day.. and not just Tom, it was even my first time visiting Rajiv Gandhi's memorial, Egmore museum, and the whopping-ly great collection of old adorable gods and goddesses statues in the stone museum wing.

All my life until then I just ignored knowing about chennai, or visiting all these places.. This was changing my interest in chennai for the first times I think.

On the way, I saw how people would react to seeing Tom a foreigner carrying a live preview digicam (which was not common at that time in india).. how people liked to stare at him and ask "What's the time?" though they know it.. and Tom would smile and walk on.

We were in vandalur zoo.. unfortunate for me, we thought we will use the first public rest room in the zoo..nature's call. The rest room was very badly "un"maintained.. and Tom couldn't believe this was the state of the only zoo in chennai.. I had to pull out stuff like .. "that was probably the over used one.. inside there will be better rest rooms"... I think this was my first instance of trying diplomacy with a client outside of technical discussions.

Vandalur zoo was more disappointing in that there were only cages and cages in most parts of the zoo... I and Tom would search for animals, sometimes end up joking that they put this cage for that cockroach which was there running around the walls of the cage.

When we were in vandalur zoo.. on instance of seeing any animal or bird, Tom would flick out his cam and start shooting.. and I remember the long queue of people who immediately line up behind him seeing the shot in the preview screen on his cam("dei anga irukrathu ithula theriyudhu da").. some would go the extra bit to ask Tom to allow them hold his cam with their hands to see it.

These days..

I realized slow and late that if you are not good at networking with people, talking to people understanding your audience, .. and all that, you will just live life like a process. unable to enjoy it, or feel confident of doing bigger things.

You need people.. not just to watch a movie with.. not just to read the blog you write.. not just to befriend.. .but for living life itself...

(no not talking about life partner stuff.. but hmm. shaadi.com might like to use that sentence)

It dawned on me big and costly when I failed to secure one single project in my first 6 months of quitting cognizant and starting my own office from home. Its been a year few months now, many learnings.. many costly misgivings where I lost work because of a miscommunication.. or I got a work because the person liked the line I had for the day on my msn... sometimes working for people who are all talk and no payment kinds.. sometimes arguing with even good clients... later apologizing.. and things like that.

Initially, I was only becoming known for quitting a job at cognizant to start my own.. and with no big money in the bank. I remember my Exit interview at cognizant where my HR said "Yes.. thats what i am trying to understand.. ", when I told him, my father is not a rich man with whose money I was going to start..

I had this drive.. again reading from blogs of small and big entrepreneurs of how they started, and how they stressed that "you should not have options like returning to salaried employment if you fail.. because then you will not think what to do to not fail"... and readings like that.

and I am happy for having been successful to a basic level now that I am registering my own office and trying to expand.

Meeting people and sharing views is a major driving force for me.. and I relish the meet-ups for quite a few days after the meeting too.

Blogs
Blogging in a way encourages people to express their self with more narration... and imagine, what better way than knowing somebody through their writings. Also, blogs are popular because of the simple fact that everybody can talk as much as they want .. not like in meetings or get-to-gethers when not everybody gets a comfortable opportunity to talk and express all they have to.

The most good thing about blogs is,
for the writer,
it is the way you improve your writing to fit your audience.. which you might lack/not be able to correct when directly speaking to a live audience,
and,
for a reader,
the way the reader can be an anonymous listener.. to what is expressed in the blog, its comments section and all that, even without responding to it.

Meeting people
Meeting people and blogging probably should be used alternatively, if you are trying to enjoy both. Meeting real people makes the blogger write better, have real experiences rather than write movie reviews and news item reviews... and reading blogs can help one understand a person before and after meeting them, and you will love how your perception differs.

My recent meet-ups with CRY.org chennai volunteers .. over the past few months, have given me an enriching experience in meeting people, understanding different kinds of people's perspective of things. Just that I had to make an attempt to meet people... and it has added to so much of brainstorming and in future will also add to some social work I would be able to do.

After most of the meetings at CRY chennai office on sunday evenings.. I come out hungry and with a little headache.. .. you feel hungry when you think more.. and if you didn't eat and continued thinking, it gives an ache.. 'Food for thought' stuff I think.