And That was my PASSPORT

Hi, as mentioned in my earlier post, each and every abroad trip was a story. Here is one of the stunning one.

I have visited Saudii many times, In Saudi there are many Pepsi plants where I used to visit.

This time I visited Jeddah, Jeddah is kind of traditional city and crowded one. It’s near to Makkah. It’s little bit liberal than Riyadh (Capitol of Saudi).

Ok. So I first went to Riyadh and did couple of installations there and left to go to Jeddah from office, When I reached Riyadh airport at check-in counter , the lady over there said your booking is canceled, “oh no..” I did correct installations, there was a little trouble at last stage but I instructed the user and left from there, This much Pepsi user can do ?, he canceled my bookings …?.

I asked her why it is canceled, she spelled, you have not confirmed , “husshhh,,,” it was not Pepsi user ..

I argued but I need to go, she told now you have to catch night flight. What else I can do ?

I agreed changed the booking, Fortunately I met one of my friend , he took me to his apartment. It was in US Colony, there are such colony’s with high security and it has a big 4 sided wall compound. So I spent 2/3 hours there and got to airport again,,

Now guess what? Flight was delayed and finally I flew to Jeddah at 3 AM in the morning. I reached Jeddah around 4/5 AM.

I managed to find where my booking was with the help of local cab driver (Although it’s another blog post how I called and communicated that I arrived in Jeddah). Finally I reached Sheraton, it was great hotel near the Pepsi plant..

Fine .. I reached to office in the morning and started my work.. I met on guy from Hyderabad, he was Oracle Admin there, He took me for lunch Pizza Hut… It’s different there you have to pay 10 Saudi riyals and you get unlimited pizza all of different kinds, tests. We can pickup whichever we want till stomach gives an order to stop.. So 4 days went rapidly in work, (Everyday I was having all different tests for lunch, thanks to Pepsi users).
Finally THE DAY arrived, This time I confirmed the ticket from Hotel, for Air India there was no on call confirmation, we have to go to Air India booking office and then confirm it. Actually I changed the ticket for one day early, as my work was finished. On the day of return I seen the ticket it was 15.00 , some how the time got transformed into my mind is 5 PM. I said ok, lets go to office till 12 and confirm everything works fine and then directly go to Airport around 1.30 – 2. Pepsi cab dropped me at airport little bit early, around 1 PM. Now I thought it’s lot of time for flight so lets go around and shop some KHAJUR, I wondered around till 2 and got board,

Then I went inside the airport after security scanning I reached in transit area, it was 2.30 in the clock. When I reached Air India counter it was not open and one person was standing there.

I asked him when this check in counter will open.

He was just looking at me as he was looking at ghost, He said “Open ?” , “It’s closed”

I said how come, I have flight at 5 PM , he was confused, he asked me the ticket, I gave him ticket and passport . He just looked at the ticket and again at me, He shouted , fool it was at 3 PM and now it’s on way to fly. He just stamped “Late reporting” on my ticket and asked me to go. I was shocked, when I saw it was 15.00 on the ticket, ohh man,, it was 3 PM and not 5.

Clock was showing 2.45 PM,

Me : Please I need to go, I overlooked it and I thought it’s at 5 PM

He – No , Flight is about to take off

Me – Sir , please I have to go , there is emergency

He – No, You are late

Me – But flight is still there right, let me go, I’ll run

He - manifesto is gone , I cant help

Me – When is next flight

He – two days after

Me – Grrrrrrrrrrrr

He – Go and ask my officer in the office,

Me – Where is it

He – Go out side and see the board

I ran out of the transit area, security stopped me, I said I missed the flight and need to do arrangements, Some how I ran to the Air India office. I tried to convinced to the officer, But no luck he was not got convinced.

Then I asked him how can I change my ticket to next flight (I was planning to wait in Airport for next two days .. ha ha ha)

He replied, you have to go to our booking office . Oh God , it was horrible.

Finally I concluded that I can’t fly for next tow days and have to go back. Luckily Pepsi office was open till 5 PM. It was 3.30.

I lifted my baggage and went outside to catch a cab,

I asked cab driver to go to Pepsi office.. ..

After a 15/20 miles I just checked my passport holder and realized there is no passport in it.

Uffffff, I shouted “STOP THE CAB”

Cab driver got the idea , something is wrong. He just parked the cab on sideways, I told him my passport is missing,

Imagine what was the situation - I was searching all over the cab, I opened my bag and put all the stuff in cab, NO, passport was not there. I was shivering and sweating badly, Cab driver now got the seriousness of it, I told him to take me back to Airport.. How Can I find my passport in that huge airport. So many places I visited right from toilet to food court.

I started praying, “GOD please help” It was Thursday, Many promises I made to god if I get my passport back.

I started my return journey to Airport. Every minute was like a year.

I jumped out of cab , paid around 80 Riyals, and ran inside, First I went to the food court, It was very hard to communicate in English, they all speak Arabic, No Hindi, only few Indians who speaks little bit Hindi (I learnt one thing if you have to survive in the world you need to know two languages English, Malayalam )

Then I searched every ware with no luck. I went to Air India office where I was convincing that officer. I cried in forint of him and told him the situation. Luckily he was knowing Hindi at least. After some time he gave me one of his officer with me, to search inside the Airport. I went inside the airport , transit area, where I visited first and shown my passport.

Can you Imagine I was inside the International Airport in Saudi Arabia that too Jeddah without passport.

Till now my prayers were not reached to GOD, everybody was looking at me like a animal in zoo. I was just running here and there.

One sweeper over there was watching all my activities unknowingly. After an hour or so he came to me, asked me in Hindi “Kay ho gay saab” ,

I said ,are yar mera passport gum ho gaya

“Kala tha kya”

Suddanly some shine in my eyes, I said yes.

He said, “Aao mere sath”

Then I followed him to the Security cabin,

There was a security person with long beard, like a demon,

He spoke to him in Arabic , then security person asked me my name , date of birth etc etc.

Then finally he put his hand in drawer and pulled one back passport from there, Yeh Hurrrree It was my passport.

I just jumped in front of him, I hugged that sweeper, tried to gave him sum riyals , He said

“Nahi sahab”

I waked away saying thanks to everybody, I Just sat down on the bench outside the airport with a big simile on my face.

That Sweeper was still looking at me, I just waved may hand … He was smiling ..

Yeh, for me he was none other than god, Thanks man, Thank you very much...

Do we want to Agile

It’s Agile word now a days .. What to do we mean by Agile ? Agile means moving quickly or mentally quick.
In this fast moving technological world, everyday we are forced to face the new challenges of changing world. As rightly said “Change is constant” in our life.
Whether it’s personal life or Professional project management everything is changing so rapidly. We have to cope-up with the changes and move ahead. One of my fried mentioned in our drama “Planning is necessary to decide the direction, but one has to take the decision according to the situation” This exactly we have to anticipate and “PLAN” accordingly.

In formal Agile framework we would consider below topics, I tried to explain all these in short, there is a room for more and more discussions.
Guiding Vision,
Teamwork and collaboration,
Simple Rules,
Open Information,
Light Touch,
Agile Vigilance

Visionary leadership are the important factors. This framework helps Managers to become successful leaders.
Project Managers need to state and clear the vision of the project. Now this project can be anything for example “Going to a Trekking on Moutons near to the city” is a project. So whosever is initiating need to clear the vision to all team members what everybody is going to achieve from this project. In traditional approach Project Manager Prepare a plan document and get the input from the sponsor, create WBS , identify the risk and execute with the help of team. Now in Agile framework these steps will not change , what make it different from traditional management practices is to have frequent interaction with team and quick response to the changes. Since Trekking is complex journey and depends upon the changes in nature conditions, Leader has to respond quickly to the changes , he cant follow the “Change Management Process”, else it will be costly and project may get scraped.
So along the project execution path every team member becomes a solder and has the responsibility to complete the tasks. He can take his own decisions in favor of vision of the project.
Teamwork and collaboration – Good relationship within the team members works as a catalyst. It improves the performance of the team. As well getting to know team members very well at the start of the project leader can easily understand what difficulties he can face during the execution process (Risk Identification and Response planning) Although many a time team is not a choice of leader, try to have mixture of experts and learners in the team. Experts will guide the learners and they will find the innovation in the project. In out previous example Enthusiastic new team member may find the idea to have a quick bridge on the small river flow which will save at least 3 KM , experience member will guide to build the bridge.
Simple Rules – Rules should be simple could be easily followed , yes that’s true. Make a rule that can be followed and not broken. All rules should be clearly stated and agreed by the team. Use your leader ship skills to have a common agreement. If team is in doubt , make it more simple e.g. RULE is daily we have to walk 10 KM. have a doubt, make it simple walk 10 KM with 1 Breakfast break of 10 min, 1 Lunch break etc.
Open Information – Most important, all the relevant information should be assessable to all team members, approval process should be minimum. Trust on the team. We follow the open information system by way of these blogs, “plainspeak”, Ravi Pandit’s and KPP’s informative mails. Really a good culture, We need be more open at DU level and need to flow the information.
Light Touch – This is also a great aspect of becoming really agile. In traditional management methods everything is seen through the controls like risk control, change control, people control. Unfortunately, this conventional view doesn’t really help us in the uncertain real world because life is characterized by probabilities, not certainties. As experience teaches, unforeseen events can lay the bestof plans to naught in an instant. Skilled professionals do not take well to micromanagement. Tools and techniques reach their limitations quickly when used inappropriately. To impose order, you must impose some control, but do it with a “light touch”.
Agile Vigilance - You, the agile manager, therefore must be continually vigilant to merit the mantle of leadership: monitoring progress, and keeping a finger on the pulse of the development team. This does not mean hovering and controlling everything – remember, you have established simple rules and must trust in your people and the process. Instead, it means being observant, continuously seeking feedback and monitoring success or failure, and adapting by making changes as situations warrant.


So, what are waiting for? I know all these methodologies may not be the perfect way to be successful, but certainly this is a guide line, we can discuss and build a better future in this constantly changing world.

(Sources – Google, Agile Project Management frameworks)