I cant think of a title for this post as yet. Maybe as I proceed further something may crop up to my mind. A week gone by very rapidly. A lot of stuff happening. An equally lot of stuff has happened and predictably a lot of stuff to happen and do in the coming months.
Our project launch event which was also supposed to be an interaction meet amongst the various stakeholders of the program ran quite successfully, with the exception of the accounts settling affair. I am sure most persons who have had to deal with the accounts departments in the corporate sector will agree with me when I say, accounts departments are more headache than maintaining the accounts themselves. Whatever, after slogging for 20 days, the last three being slogging without sleep, and moving endlessly on the actual event day trying to keep things streamlined, I finally heaved a sigh of relief as the program finally got over... But why during the program was anybody who had any complaints, coming to me and giving me an earful. I still got no idea.
I will take it as a compliment that atleast people noticed I was working... hehe
But my relief was shortlived. Like a sweeper returning to the path he has already covered, to sweep some small dirt patch he missed, fate decided that I wasn't tired enough and like the sweeper, swept me into another seminar. Now this was a Himalayan Chief Ministers conclave, where experts, activists (read Blackmailers of Industry), procrastinators (read govt. People), really important bigwigs (who probably had no idea what was going on) and some really environmental aware people showed up to deliberate, discuss and in general yap a lot about the climate change, himalyas and its effect on livelihoods. Well I can surely say some people came along for 2 primary reasons; 1. Participation (it was evident as they were more interested in getting their snaps clicked at the various stalls and at the various banners, specially those showing the title and the date and location of the event – probably s proof of attendance) and 2. Food (the peterhoff hotel has excellent cooks I swear, coz i have had the food too.. :P ). Although I was not on the organising side of the team, it was no calk walk either. I had to put up and man a stall representing my organisation and the various products we have developed, plus the various published material relating to the environment. I also had the headache of documenting the entire two day event on the digicam. So i was really stressed out. It was really horrible, While I would be inside the hall for covering some presentation, somebody would swipe some of the display material on the stall, despite the clear instructions that the material was for display only and not for distribution or sale. These days one can find cheapskates all over, even the directors of institutes were being so cheap, they all wanted a free copy of Rs. 1200/- book. And they demanded that we provide hem one. The nerve of them. The worst were the media. The media people have become so arrogant that they feel it their right to get free stuff. Huh, we have to issue them press kits, press notes and material to be published, send them vehicles or they will not cover the event at all and all that crap.
Whatever, the point is that 2 days later, I have no regrets, got to listen to a lot of good stuff (as well as a load of bull) during the 2 days, met lots of high profile people, got to meet (although very very briefly) the minister For environment n forests, Jairam Ramesh, he seems a man who will do something for the environment, and got two days of good food at the expense of my company, plus 2 days of attendance without actually getting any office work done.
Our project launch event which was also supposed to be an interaction meet amongst the various stakeholders of the program ran quite successfully, with the exception of the accounts settling affair. I am sure most persons who have had to deal with the accounts departments in the corporate sector will agree with me when I say, accounts departments are more headache than maintaining the accounts themselves. Whatever, after slogging for 20 days, the last three being slogging without sleep, and moving endlessly on the actual event day trying to keep things streamlined, I finally heaved a sigh of relief as the program finally got over... But why during the program was anybody who had any complaints, coming to me and giving me an earful. I still got no idea.
I will take it as a compliment that atleast people noticed I was working... hehe
But my relief was shortlived. Like a sweeper returning to the path he has already covered, to sweep some small dirt patch he missed, fate decided that I wasn't tired enough and like the sweeper, swept me into another seminar. Now this was a Himalayan Chief Ministers conclave, where experts, activists (read Blackmailers of Industry), procrastinators (read govt. People), really important bigwigs (who probably had no idea what was going on) and some really environmental aware people showed up to deliberate, discuss and in general yap a lot about the climate change, himalyas and its effect on livelihoods. Well I can surely say some people came along for 2 primary reasons; 1. Participation (it was evident as they were more interested in getting their snaps clicked at the various stalls and at the various banners, specially those showing the title and the date and location of the event – probably s proof of attendance) and 2. Food (the peterhoff hotel has excellent cooks I swear, coz i have had the food too.. :P ). Although I was not on the organising side of the team, it was no calk walk either. I had to put up and man a stall representing my organisation and the various products we have developed, plus the various published material relating to the environment. I also had the headache of documenting the entire two day event on the digicam. So i was really stressed out. It was really horrible, While I would be inside the hall for covering some presentation, somebody would swipe some of the display material on the stall, despite the clear instructions that the material was for display only and not for distribution or sale. These days one can find cheapskates all over, even the directors of institutes were being so cheap, they all wanted a free copy of Rs. 1200/- book. And they demanded that we provide hem one. The nerve of them. The worst were the media. The media people have become so arrogant that they feel it their right to get free stuff. Huh, we have to issue them press kits, press notes and material to be published, send them vehicles or they will not cover the event at all and all that crap.
Whatever, the point is that 2 days later, I have no regrets, got to listen to a lot of good stuff (as well as a load of bull) during the 2 days, met lots of high profile people, got to meet (although very very briefly) the minister For environment n forests, Jairam Ramesh, he seems a man who will do something for the environment, and got two days of good food at the expense of my company, plus 2 days of attendance without actually getting any office work done.
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