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Turkey Travelog – Part 1 – Overview

I’ve always wanted to go to Turkey. (“And the 200 other countries in the world!” chimes in Sukumar, helpfully).  I find countries at the crossroads of 2 or 3 distinct cultures extremely seductive. Sri Lanka. Turkey. Plus, Turkey is an aggressively secular country – despite being 98% (“99%” our tour guide asserted) Muslim. It’s the only Islamic country that uses the Roman alphabet.

Turkey’s current stature as a role model to Islamic countries is due – in no small measure – to its founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk – Literally, “Father Turk” was a fierce visionary leader who was determined to modernize his country and make a clean break from its past.

The country once known as “Byzantium” played a starring role in many a historic conflict. So many different cultures have thrived here; so many people have crossed swords to own Anatolia. Hittites, Hatti, Luwians, Phrygians, Lydians, Lycians, Urartians, Persians, Arabs, Seljuks and the Ottomans. Their ruins – and contributions – dot the landscape.

The entire country is a veritable open-air museum. The oldest city in the world – Çatalhöyük – dating back to 7500 BC is in Turkey. The Trojans of “The Illiad” fame lived in the Dardanelles region of Turkey. Celaleddin Rumi, the Sufi Mystic, flourished in Turkey. One of the greatest kings of the last millennium – Suleiman the Magnificent – ruled Turkey.

Long association with the Greeks and Romans has enriched their culture, instead of diminishing it. The Turkey of today has a distinct culture, one that’s unlike any of its Arab or Mediterranean neighbors. Walking in the streets of Istanbul is an instant immersion into the vibrant Turkish culture. We felt we had stepped into a new world – one filled with new sights, tastes. And sounds.

Turkish, unlike most languages spoken in Eurasia, is Altaic and not Indo-European. To our utter consternation, we couldn’t understand a word of Turkish. In most countries – be it Egypt, France, Iran or Spain – one can glean the meaning of words through its Latin, German or Sanskrit roots. Not so in Turkey. “Caddesi” means “Avenue” for Christ’s sake. And it is pronounced “Jaddesi”, not “Kaddesi”, thank you very much.

We managed to learn a few words though. “Mehrhaba” (Hello), “Tamam” (OK), “Afiyet Olsun” (Bon appétit) and Günaydın (Good Morning). We did find a few common words, largely due to the Arabic and Persian influence – Hisab (Bill), Meydan (Maidan), Misafir (Travelers/Guests), Nazar (Eye), Gul (Rose) etc. The Turks were very delighted every time we spotted such words.

We found Turks to be the friendliest and most hospitable people we have ever seen. Even in crowded Istanbul; or in laid-back Cappadocia. Once – in a train – we asked a co-passenger for directions. This attracted the attention of the 6 other passengers around us. Very soon, they were calling their friends, surfing the web with their blackberries – all with the express purpose of giving us solid directions. And this was not an isolated incident. Every single Turk we met was helpful, courteous, polite and friendly – With the exception of Taxi drivers in Istanbul.

With 15 Million people, Istanbul is a bustling, decidedly a 1^st world European city. Its difficult to imagine that this country was once called the “Sick man of Europe”. Its women are free – or they appear to be free. Most people dress like Europeans and you’ll be hard put to find women in head-scarves. If you want to see the “real” Turkey, you should step outside cities such as Istanbul or Ankara. But even there, you will never find a woman in a burqa.

Istanbul has a fantastic MRT and bus system. Most tourist sites are well connected by MRT and utmost, you may have to walk a few blocks. You’ll be a fool or a tourist to try the taxis here. We tried to board a taxi from the Spice Market to our hotel – a distance 15 TL (Turkish Lira) away. And the taxi driver – who looked like a crook and acted like a crook – airily informed us that “In this traffic, at this time, it will be uh, 45-50 TL”. Take the MRT. It is cheaper and saves you the hassle. By comparison, the taxi drivers in Ankara are more reliable.

One of the most memorable things to do in Turkey is to listen to the “Mehter Band”. The oldest military band in the world, they accompanied the Ottoman Sultans to the battleground and played music that instilled fear in the hearts of their enemies. You can listen to the Mehter Band in the Azkeri Muze (Military Museum) in Istanbul. The band – in full Ottoman regalia – play old instruments such as the Davul (Drum), Zil (Cymbals), Zurna (Trumpet) and Kös (Bass Drum). The hour-long performance is kid-friendly (evidenced by the throngs of school children that screamed in delight every time the cymbals clashed) and eminently enjoyable.

But the most authentic performance we saw was the Sema ritual of the Mevlana order – Also known as the “Whirling Dervishes”. The Mevlevi are followers of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam. Their mesmerizing whirling ritual symbolizes their union with god. Men – and sometimes women – clad in voluminous robes whirl and whirl to the sounds of live classical music. Interestingly, the Mevlevi Order is – technically – an outlawed group in Turkey. But in the 1950s, the government recognized that the Sema ritual was a tourist magnet and relaxed their stand.

It is said that Mohammed the Prophet loved cats. Perhaps because of that, Turkey – and Istanbul in particular – is a stray cat’s heaven. Everyone – I mean everyone – feeds these cats. Restaurants feed their scrap to these cats. Passers-by share their meal with them. Street-hawkers and tourists feed them biscuits. The cats have it made. They are sleek, have a shiny coat and an attitude to match: None of them liked me. In fact, when I petted one of them, the miserable cat pretended to love me, then like a lightning – a quick “Meowr!”, a flick of steely claws – and I was left scratched and bleeding. I hated all cats, till I met Kendigelen.

But that’s another post. You have to wait for that, while Sukumar follows this with a photo blog of Turkey.

Update: Sukumar’s photo blog is delayed, so here is my next installment.

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Oh my job is tough!!

There must have zillion times the thought comes to my mind that “Oh my job is tough”.

There is the neighborhood small shop (Kirana/potti kadai) at the end of the street I live. I frequent the shop daily for over 20 years. This is 6×5 feet shop stacked with all sorts of stuff from chocolates to soap etc. Also there is a stove to make tea or coffee for customers. This shop does not have electricity which means no ventilation or fan. Imagine being inside this tin shack on a hot summer day. There hardly space to sit comfortably. This is run by a man all through this years. He must be pretty old at least 70 now.

Look at his working / operating conditions.

1.He opens the shop at 5 in the morning. He needs 30 mins everyday to setup things as he needs to layout stuff. He needs to be up and running by 5.30 am to service customers on their way to work from laborers to execs. Meeting their needs of tea,coffee,cigarettes etc.

2.He needs the same time to close shop. He starts closing down by 10.30 pm. Must be he reaches home by 12 and would be lucky to catch a 5 hour sleep before he is back next day morning to open the shop.

3.The shop is open on all days even weekdays. Lately I see it closed on Sunday afternoons must be the man is really getting old. The fact is his being a “commodity commodity” business he loses customer loyalty just like that he is under pressure. In fact I have myself switched loyalty at times because once I started going to a different shop on Sundays, the same continues on weekdays as well. I need to take extra effort to remind myself to go to this shop.

4.There is no lunch time or break time for this guy. As there is no one else to step in for him.

5.At times I see his daughter helping him out. Nowadays she is there daily must be because this guy is getting old.

6.He can’t call in sick. There is no one to call. 🙁

7.He can’t take a vacation or go for functions as there is no substitute. ( HR issues )

8.He does not get paid on time. Believe there are a lot of guys who keep “account” with him which means they buy on credit. Not to mention some cops/govt employees who can think it their liberty to bump a few cigarettes/tea from this poor roadside vendor. (Financial issues )

9.Additionally he is at the mercy of the distributors who push him for doing enough sales. I believe this shopkeeper has sales target to meet, otherwise the cigarette distributor will not give him stock next time. (Sales pressure )

10.Within his shack he has to stock sufficient quantity of all small stuff without over stacking. Am sure he can teach a thing or too about inventory management to the “Supply Chain” folks.

The next instance was I on my family vacation to Ladakh an year ago. We were going to Pangong lake this was a tough ride of 6 hours from Leh where we were staying. This was in end of May.According to the folks there that was pleasant weather. I am from Chennai so any cold is “COLD” for me :-). This was a tough journey even though we were in a Swaraj Mazda and fully covered in winter clothing.Soon we were riding along the  straight long road with absolutely no life in sight this includes trees or shrubs as well. Of course, humans or shelters where out of the question. The line of sight would have been at least 20 kms.

We had been riding along this deserted stretch for an hour after getting off the main highway. We saw 2 figures in the horizon.At first I thought it was some animal or clothes fluttering on a stick ahead of us. We drove for another good 5-10 mins before we came closer only to realize they were 2 women walking with a basket like a cooler box.I was thinking when I saw -“Hmm cooler box here, what are they carrying beer? or maybe they carry stuff to keep it hot”. The driver stopped and chatted with them. He turned and requested if he could give them a lift.I said-“Yes”.Both of got in and sat down on the floor of the vehicle as the seats were already full with passengers.We were a group traveling.They traveled along with us for at-least 25 mins talking with the driver in Ladakhi( the local dialect) which we could not understand.They were chatting cheerfully cracking jokes etc.Then the vehicle stopped in the middle of nowhere.I was wondering why, when the driver just got up and opened the door. The 2 women turned to us gave a small bow with a BIG smile and got down. Ignore the tents in the photo below they are makeshift.

I was wondering what the hell they were doing, getting down in the middle of nowhere.As the vehicle started to move again I asked the driver why they got down there.He said they needed to walk to a village tangential to the road for another 15 kms.I leaned out of the window to see a small track to walk, heading into the mountains.”It will take them 3 hours to get the village”-the driver said with a smile. Wow!! my head was spinning. I don’t how long or how far they were walking till we gave them a lift.But I know for sure that they are going to walk for another 3 hours. We dropped them around 4 pm and am sure it will be night before they reach the village and that too with cold and winds. My heart literally stopped at that thought.Bear in mind there are no trees or shelters to take rest ABSOLUTELY NOTHING but the cold winds to keep them company not even a rock to take shelter for 5 mins. When I recovered I asked the driver-“Do they work in Leh and are going back to their village?”. What the driver told just blew me away and my so-called sense of (ego/pride/professional commitment)  whatever, I don’t know!”.It was a humbling experience.

Those women where with the government medical service.They were the health nurses working for the Govt Hospital in Leh. This is the nearest recognized medical facility.There are some military camps with doctors which locals can use in case of emergency.But for any serious ailments they have to travel to Ladakh. The woman’s job was to carry vaccines into the village and give vaccinations to the babies.This includes vaccines like small-pox to polio. These women it seems spend 2 days to reach a village.They get some small travel allowance but that does not help as there is no transport.The statements-“The cab did not come on time/The cab was dirty/The cab was noisy etc..” made by colleagues came to my mind.I too had those thoughts at times but never encouraged it.I remember the unreserved travel in coaches which I used to make during my college days. But these government staff and their sincerity in doing the work blew my ego/pride about my professional sky high.What I did was in cozy air conditioned cabs/hotels/offices is nothing compared to the harsh conditions they faced. They stay overnight in the village then comeback to Leh to collect supplies and head to another village.They don’t have any government assigned vehicles.They hit the road and if they are lucky hitch a ride with tourists or military vehicles passing along.Don’t forget the risk of women are taking by hitching a ride with strange men in deserted roads.The harsh conditions of weather , the insecurity of conditions they work under is really mind blowing.They don’t obviously get paid even a fraction of what we get paid.They work hard and sincerely.Thanks to that even our government works in those far flung areas.Nobody would even know if these women dumped the medicines in a garbage and went home and slept.But they did not. To me personally there people are famous  icons, leaders who inspire me. Along with those list with equal priority are the folks like the ones above who motivate me about commitment,hard work and sincerity.Every the thought of “Tough job or Tough life” comes to mind. I have a mental picture of these people appearing before me with a smile and asking me-“Kumaran, did you just say ‘Tough’?”.

P.S: This is a blog I have been writing for a long time in installments. During one of the recent days I was a the shop and stuck up a conversation with the lady. Turns out she is his wife and not daughter. There must be at least 15 years difference between them which was common during those days.Now to add to the bleakness above. She is managing the shop now because the old man is having trouble with his memory forget credits given, does not reorder inventory on time and to top it that guy has a drinking problem. Came to know they run on loan for operating expense at a rate of 5 Rs to a 100 per day. That works out to whopping 150% per month. This is locally called “Thandal”. Looks like the women is left holding the fort. Woman fighting in the middle of Metro to a women walking in the cold deserted roads I salute/respect you. A special thanks to these unsaid people who motivate me and help me feel good about the life I have been blessed with all along.

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Producing Massive Change

Prolog

I made this presentation on Change Management at the KCommunity Chennai Chaper meeting No.10 (#KCC10) which was hosted by Cognizant. The organizers had videographed my preso – special thanks to Manikanda Pisharody of Cognizant’s KM team and our external vendor agency for the recording.

Epilog

Typically, i do my own audio recording and then upload it into slideshare with synchronized audio. This time i have imbedded the video. Don’t know if the effect is worth replicating? can you guys please comment if audio only is better? That will enable me to decide which format people like better.

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Fresh insights from my new exercise regimen

Prolog

Like many of you, I have been struggling to add exercising to my life for the past 15 years. My typical stint has a halflife of a few weeks with the longest stint at 3 months 🙂 I am 43 and I realized that its about time I succeeded in this endevor before health issues start cropping up.

As many of you know I fancy myself to be a Change Management professional. One of the most important theories in my repertoire is the ABC theory from Dr. Aubrey Daniels.

Exercise & ABC Theory

If you think about exercising through the ABC Lens, you will realize that it is a PFU (positive future uncertain) – in other words the rewards are in the future and it may or may not come. This is why its extremely hard to do this. Before the rewards kick in we have already stopped because exercise is boring for most of us.

Again from ABC theory, we know that PIC (positive immediate certain) consequences really work. In other words how do I make exercise give me some immediate rewards which will keep me motivated? [It is this PIC aspect of incentives Dan Pink’s tirade on incentives completely misses, but that would be a whole another post]

Antecedents

First, I wanted to eliminate any excuses my mind puts up for exercising (my mind is extraordinarily good at this 🙂 )

1. The gym is within 500 feet of my house within the colony I live in. So no driving needed. If you know Indian driving conditions this is a big plus.

2. I workout on saturday and sunday. No excuses due to my meeting schedule during weekdays that go from 730 am to 930pm (yes I do have some gaps but creating a standing schedule is hard). This is an important insight because if I did workouts during weekdays and I have to travel (I do it often due to my job) my routine stops and when I come back it becomes very hard to resume the routine.

3. Workout starts at 5pm or 6pm on sat/sun and lasts 1 hour. No need to wake up at ungodly hours in the morning which my mind makes very hard to do.

The above are the Antecedents (A in the ABC).

Behavior

Once in the gym I do my own version of what is called interval training – trying out multiple equipments so that the boredom from using the same equipment over and over is eliminated.

I first start on the Elliptical machine and do 15 min bringing my heart rate to a certain level. Then I do crunches, weights and other types of equipment for 15-20 min.

Then I begin the final assault. I get on the treadmill and hit my target heart rate of 125 (actually 115 to 130) and keep it at that rate for 20 min. Around the 10-12 min mark, it becomes painful, but I push myself to get to the 20 min mark. By the time I finish with a cool down, there’s a feeling of elation. This is a great feeling.

Consequences

This my friends is the PIC (positive immediate certain) consequence of my exercise regimen. I actually look forward to going to the gym to obtain this feeling of elation.

If you’ve noticed I don’t mention anything about calories. In my view bringing the heart into the zone is key. Burning calories should be a byproduct of your regimen not the core product.

Head Fake

On top of this, I have added Golfing to my routine. I try to go atleast once or twice a week very early in the morning. I will be adding tennis and/or badminton also. I think playing games is a great Headfake to bring exercise into your life.

Epilog
Please don’t begin any physical exercise without consulting a physician. One of the reasons I wrote this post is to make a public declaration of my program. I think this will force me to keep at it because my blogger friends will ask me how is it going? What’s your exercise routine? BTW, usually my posts drip references and research and that makes it harder for me to write a post due to the time involved. So I decided to write without any citations. Can you please help me find references or research material that supports what I am saying?

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KM preso at the National HRD Network

Prolog

Hope all of you are having a great Diwali 2010. Sorry i haven’t been able to update this blog as frequently as i would like [I am actually having a great time with my internal blog that this blog has taken a bit of a hit].

Last friday, i made a presentation on KM to the HRD Network. Per the organizer’s request, the slant is more towards Social Media. Here is the slidecast with voice [please post the comments here on this site, i am not able to respond to comments on the slideshare site.