Meeting v/s partying

A mail of around 17 lines was drafted and sent across the Bhopal Centre of office. After two replies, there was a pin drop silence. Then after a day or two, again two three more mails came as replies. And then what followed was a lambi khamoshi. Later, some people probably out of courtesy thought of replying. In total, there were 16 mails that were exchanged.

It is important to share this data of this particular mail because the subject line was "party time". The occasion was new year eve.

On the contrary, there was yet another reason to share another mail across group. This was for the group meeting to be held at Hoshangabad for two days. This mail had 26 replies from Bhopal centre only on the commuting part of the whole logistics.
In 10 years of professional life across five companies / organisations, I had zero experience of this kind. I had always seen people getting hyper about a picnic / excursion / party plan as compared to anything formal or work-related.

I do not know the reason yet, but I am in the process of knowing what goes on in their heads to react so differently. Will share as soon as I get to know.Till then, in Eklavya's words (do not misunderstand it as a politically correct conclusion, they are vociferous about their opinions) it is a "dilchasp" (meaning interesting) phenomenon!

Same words, new meanings

I have encountered few words which are commonly used in this office. Some of them are from the education sector, obviously (Eklavya works in the education sector ) and some are hot favourites for people here, I guess! They are in Hindi too.
In a discussion about life in general, one gets to hear "internalise" too often. I did not know there are hazaar things to internalise in this world.
In a program meeting, "pedagogy" is chanted like a mantra. It sounds so heavy and has such a frequently-used synonym - method!
During a team chat, which gets directed to work on it's own, words like "reflection", "synopsis", "note" and "report" jump in. Not just words, they eventually become the agenda of a day / week.
"Avlokan", "Vishleshan" and few other similar sounding Hindi words come up in inter group meeting and I along with one colleague get confused as to what they mean!
There is a phrase which I repeat often after coming here, "there's so much to learn". I realize I know so less.
And the favourite word, for now, is "tolerance". In a one-to-one discussion with one of my colleagues, it came out that to love oneself does not only imply "pampering oneself".
It means to tolerate your nonsense to such an extent that you acknowledge and then accept it. And still love yourself. I had never thought of loving myself means so deep.
In her words, it is like, how you love your child. It explained everything.

It's a new world

It rained yesterday, heavily, after every hour during the day. The office terrace overlooked a clean, wet tar road, few apartments' windows and few pedestrians looking for shelter to avoid getting drenched in the sudden rains. The apartment opposite the office building had its terrace full of clothes hung to get dried. Women rushed to the terrace to collect them, people were avoiding the sudden turn of weather and saving themselves or their clothes from getting wet for that scheduled meeting or visit to a doctor or relative or to a movie or just to remain in the cozy warmth of their room.
And here I was, sitting under the partial shade of the office terrace reading the book I had to present in the coming week to my team. My concentration took a break and wandered across my new office, Eklavya and people in Eklavya. Most of them do not avoid weather or rather nature. In winters, a big group sits on a huge mat spread on the terrace floor to have their lunch. Some of them who cannot sit on floor have the option of sitting on a stool / chair (a table is kept too on the terrace) to join for lunch. After lunch people who like to take a stroll or a nap are free to do so. A group walks in the surrounding lanes and some take that nap on the mat in sun or on single beds kept in office rooms or on their chairs! (The official lunch hour is of one hour).
If someone has to do a non-tech work, they go out in the open. They may read, write or discuss or even conduct meeting (with laptops) there - in garden, on terrace or in balcony. These places have big mats to be used at such times. People may lie down and attend meeting if they want to. The idea is to be mentally present in meetings or discussions, your way of sitting or attending is least important.
Almost everyone supports a cause, sometimes two or more than two. AND supporting a cause does not imply donating money. Some of them make posters, some sing songs, some click photographs, some prepare poems, some arrange logistics, some help in providing food and other amenities and some sit for hours to show they are there. There are few in the office who are moved by every cause and extend their support by doing what maximum (not minimum) they can do for it.
These are art lovers too. Again, almost everyone loves almost every form of art. Mostly all of them love or appreciate paintings, writing stories, poems, songs, photographing, dancing, playing with children, theatre, reading, walking, trekking, traveling etc. Some may be more passionate about a specific art, and yet they attend or acknowledge other forms of art too with zest.
The management world probably got into knowledge sharing too late. People associated with Eklavya have been sharing knowledge (includes data, information and all the jargon created by the management) through resource people, agencies, contacts, references, friends etc. No one believes in keeping knowledge to themselves, they share. And mutually enrich. According to me, this happens when one is secure, feels no competition and there is no performance pressure. Everyone realizes his / her responsibility and completes his / her work.
There lies a deep insight, strong belief and determination within most of them. Everything mentioned above may seen superficial.And yet, talking (one-to-one) to some of them makes one realize there is a philosophy by each one functions. The places, the people I was with before joining Eklavya were completely opposite (nothing wrong about it!)(posh, agreeing to what the bosses say, sitting on chair instead of folding legs on the floor, eating with fork, talking in slang, full of I me myself, spending more on personal luxuries than on needy's needs, visiting places for entertainment than to learn / knowledge and many more) to this clan. 
I don't intend to say that they are wrong (Eklavya members have this infinite tolerance too to accept that there are people who think unlike them). What I intend to say is I have many around me who seem to be like me. Here I am comfortably myself.