People at Work & Play

~ Being Successful at Work& at Play

Daily Archives: February 12, 2008

Well Meaning but Wrong !

12 Tuesday Feb 2008

Posted by Prem Rao in Personal

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

learning languages

Learning a new language is an interesting experience. It can often result in embarrassing moments. Many years ago, I worked as a young Personnel Officer at a cement plant in the interiors of Gujarat. It was useful for me to know Gujarati , the local language. With the enthusiasm of youth, I plunged in and tried to learn the language the best way- by trying to speak it.

We had an industrial canteen and often stray dogs used to gather in the vicinity of the building, no doubt attracted by the waste food. The Canteen was one of my responsibilities. One day, I dropped in to see how things were going on there. I was accompanied by the Security Officer, the Canteen Manager and a few other staff. All of them were veterans -considerably older than me.

On our way, I saw a few stray dogs hanging around the building. In the strictest voice that my 23 years could muster, I told them in Gujarati ” There are many dogs here”. There was a horrified silence and they looked at each other in shock. I realized that I may have said something wrong. I asked why they were not speaking at all.

The hushed silence was broken by one of them telling me ” Sir, you have just told us that all of us are dogs”!

I remember the incident 34 years later with amusement. At that time, I felt awfully embarrassed !

Advertisement

Speed Reading

12 Tuesday Feb 2008

Posted by Prem Rao in A Step A Day

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

A Step A Day, reading speed

A discussion with a senior executive on his work day and how he managed time revealed something I suspected. He was spending an inordinately high proportion of time reading! At work, during the commute, at home: things were the same. He read and read but there always seemed to be more to be read.

Jobs in upper management or indeed any management job these days involves dealing with huge amounts of information. If you can’t get to the root of the issue you could quite easily be swamped by the information overload you are subjected to. Mails that don’t concern you, brochures of products you wouldn’t buy, reports that lose their relevance by the time you wade through them etc.

Continue reading →

Prem Rao

Blogger: Prem Rao

Author, Book Reviewer, Coach, and Social Commentator based in Bangalore, India. View B P Rao's profile on LinkedIn
February 2008
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
2526272829  
« Jan   Mar »

Categories

  • A Step A Day
  • Best Employers
  • Blogs
  • Books and Authors
  • Careers
  • Communication
  • Compensation
  • Cricket
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Productivity
  • Employee Satisfaction
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Events
  • Executive Coaching
  • Executive Effectiveness
  • Executive Health
  • HR Function
  • In the News
  • Indian Economy
  • Numbers
  • Organisations
  • People
  • Personal
  • Personal Finance
  • Quotations
  • Sports
  • Technorati
  • Tips
  • Trends
  • Uncategorized
  • Work Life Balance
  • XLRI

Catch My Tweets

  • Digital India- Part 1, my first podcast on digitalisation in India and how it is changing our lives.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
Follow @premrao

Prem Rao, Story Teller

Prem Rao, Story Teller

Recent Posts

  • Tapering Off
  • India at Rio: 2016 Olympics
  • Do We Indians Protect Law Breakers?
  • A Phenomenon Called Rajinikanth
  • Dr. Raghuram Rajan

People At Work & Play

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

Archives

Blogroll

  • Bob Sutton
  • Dan McCarthy
  • Daniel Goleman
  • David Maister
  • Ed Batista
  • Gautam Ghosh
  • It Can't Be You by Prem Rao
  • It Can't Be You on Facebook
  • Looking At Life
  • Marci Alboher
  • Mark McGuinness
  • Marshall Goldsmith
  • Penelope Trunk
  • Rachael Silverman
  • Tom Peters
  • Writing To Be Read
  • XLers Blog Spot

Blog Stats

  • 401,934 hits

RSS From My Writing Blog

  • Blog Moves To “Prem Rao, Story Teller.”
  • More on Querying
  • “Devnaa’s India:Delicious Vegetarian Home Cooking & Street Food”
  • “Christmas Mysteries”
  • The Best of American Magazine Writing
WriteUp Cafe - Together we Write

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • People at Work & Play
    • Join 156 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • People at Work & Play
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar