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“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

I remember hearing that we should take pride in everything we do.

What if you’re doing something just to pay the bills, should you still do the best job possible?

What if you’re working at a job that you dislike or hate? Should you still put in your best effort there?

What if you don’t get credit for work and in fact credit goes to someone else? Should you still keep on putting your best work?

If you have a job just to pay the bills, is it ok to do your personal stuff while at work? I.e. blogging while at work? Paying your bills while at work? Browse the internet? And so on…

What if the more you do, more is given to you? Should you still keep on doing the best that you possibly can at your job?

Almost all of my life I have had jobs which I disliked but had to do them due to our family’s financial situation. I’ve been working ever since I was 12. Did every single job imaginable!

In the beginning I used to always put in that extra effort above and beyond what was required of me. Later I realized that no one valued my extra work. Not only that but people took credit for my work and in fact made fun of me for working so hard. Also, all of my income went in to the family. Our whole family was like that though. Every one working hard to just make ends meet. Still, I never saw the benefit of working hard since I never got to ever treat myself with my income. As far as I knew, I worked hard for free!

Slowly but surely I started doing the minimum amount of work at jobs which I disliked. Actually I did little more than bare minimum at jobs so I wouldn’t get fired but never gave it my best. I knew I had to work to survive but also realized I did not have to go out of my way to give the job my best.

I always thought I would put in my best effort at a job which I totally loved.

Recently I realized that that’s actually become a habit of mine. No matter what I do I am not able to give it my best. I learned that even if I found something I was loving, sooner or later I slowed down and gave up! I never put in that extra effort that might have taken me over the top! I couldn’t understand why. I was held back because of my bad habits.

That’s when I realized the truth in always giving it your best, no matter what you’re doing! Because that’s how habits form. Once a habit is formed, it’s not that easy to get rid of it especially since it’s been reinforced for more than 20 years.

I’ve noticed one thing at different jobs that I’ve held in the computer industry. I’m sure it’s quite similar in other industries as well. If you do a lot of work you end up setting expectations. If at some time you do a little less work, then you’re questioned as to why you’re slowing down. That’s why you see a lot of people just taking it easy at work. They’re doing a little work when you know they can easily do 5-10 times their usual amount in much less than a full day’s work.

They were not like this to begin with. They got trained to be lazier!

So, I’m not saying start giving it your best at your jobs which you dislike or hate. What I am saying is whatever you do, no matter how little, start doing it the best possible way!

E.g. if you’re working at a fast food restaurant. Don’t try to serve 100 customers when your colleagues are only serving 25! Instead serve the same number as others but serve them well! A little smile here and there, a little politeness, whatever you can do to give it that extra edge!

Now, you’re not doing this for others! You’re doing it for yourself. Soon, you’ll develop the habit to do the best no matter what you’re doing.

And when the time comes and you find your passion, you won’t be slowed down by your bad habits but will be fully ready and prepared for it!

After all, like Aristotle said, excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit!

Malls

When I came to Canada, I don’t remember any malls in India. If there were malls, they were not as common as the malls in Canada. Right now there are a ton of malls there. And they are huuuuuge! Almost every single corner seemed to have a mall now and almost every mall seemed to be 3-5 storeys high!

Prices

If you go to a mall, things seemed very expensive by Indian standards. Even after converting I still didn’t buy much from the malls. As prices seemed same as what I would pay here. Which should make it quite unaffordable for average middle class families in India and yet the malls there were as packed as any mall in Canada that I’ve been to. People were buying things and not just window shopping!

Even after doing the conversion, I still was hesistant to buy much from there as I have often gotten cheaper stuff here. 

That’s not to say everything is expensive in India! There are still a ton of stores and small shops where you can get huuuge bargains! That’s how I ended up bringing back over suitcases that were over the alloted weight!

Money

People there seemed to have a lot of money. And these are the middle class families I’m talking about. And most of them seemed to be keeping up with the latest fashoin. And not just the kids but their parents as well!

I was looking for things that would last me a few years because of their prices. Meanwhile my cousins there were happy if things lasted for the next six months, shoes for example.

Actually, shoes there were quite nice. They had a huuuge selection and a lot of the affordable shoes were also very very light. Here, lighter the shoe, more expensive it is. Around the Taj Mahal, they were also selling shoes made of camel skin, very light and very durable!

I also found that there was a lot of opportunity to make money in India. While I was there I found at least 3 different ways to make a ton of money with in a short period of time!

Traffic

The absolute biggest difference between Canada and India was the traffic! Not only are there a lot more cars on the road but they’re sharing the road with people on bicycles, on motorbikes, on scooters, in rickshaws (driven like bicycles using peddles), rickshaws (motorized, like motorcycles), sometimes even cows, buffaloes, ocassionally some goats and sheep, pedestrians, buses, trucks, tractors and so on. This is just what comes to my mind right now.

Mind you, on highways you are not likely to find any animals but traffic is still a huuuuuuge problem.

All the roads are perfectly marked with lanes but you soon realize that they’re just there for show. If there is room on the road, someone will fill it up, someone will squeeze in there. On a normal 3 lane road, there are at least 5 cars standing side by side with maybe a few scooters or motorcycles filling the space in between the cars!

I have never in my life seen horns used as much as I did in a few days in India! That’s practically the only way to let people know in the front that you’re coming behind them.

People there have their own rules. If you honk your horn, majority of the time people in front will let you pass. There’s barely 2-3 feet of space in between cars front and back!

I thought it was not a big deal since traffic speed was barely 20 km/h but even when we got on the highway with speeds easily approaching or exceeding 100km/h, people were still driving in the same way! Their reflexes were amazing! I did not even witness one major accident even with people driving like this.

Imagine driving at 100km/h with only 3 feet of space between you and the car in front and then barely 3-4 feet between you and cars around you! But people drive like that! They swerve in and out of lanes with ease!

Majority of the cars there are smaller cars though with manual transmissions. A Honda Civic is considered a large car there. But I saw every single type of car there, from cheapest to the most expensive models!

You are not allowed to talk on cell phones while driving, nor are you allowed to drive without a seat belt as you do get ticketed/fined! And people seemed to obey these rules!

A few of my relatives were really amazing drivers. They would eat, talk on phone, take notes, drive a manual car, and still at high speeds while merging in and out of different lanes! And they looked quite normal, just like you and me! Wolves in sheep clothing I tell you!!

Once I took a bus and even that was swerving through traffic same way a much smaller car would. On my left was a truck full of people going for some parade. There was about 1 foot of distance between these two. At one point the bus I was in hit the truck so they got stuck side to side. Now on the road we were being driven like that. A bus stuck to the truck! Finally, they got unstuck,and the truck driver swore loudly for a few minutes at the bus driver and left, still being driven at a decent speed! If that was here, we would have police, ambulance, fire trucks and it would stop all traffic for a long time!

I see here people getting upset if knicked by another car’s doors in the parking lot and in India you can’t find a car without any knicks or dents!

Many times I saw the husband driving a scooter, a kid standing in front (space between front seat and handle), kid sitting behind him, wife sitting behind the kid (old fashioned way with both legs on one side) and another kid in her lap! Crazy and dangerous!

Mind you a lot of people on scooters and motorcycles are killed each year due to accidents! I myself have lost a lot of relatives because of a truck and a scooter accident!

I was riding on a motorcycle or a scooter a lot of times as well and that was scary! A lot of streets are extremely narrow, barely 10 feet and people sometimes squeeze their cars in there as well! Imagine you’re on a scooter and a car is approaching you from the other side and you can’t pass each other, so you stop and pull your scooter to the extreme left, leaning against the wall of the house and the car thus passes, only then you proceed!

I would have loved to drive in India as I could drive without the fear of getting caught for swerving through traffic! But I didn’t want to take a chance of wrecking someone else’s car.

Remember steering wheels are on the right side in the vehicles and people drive on the left side of the road, totally opposite to the way we drive here in Canada.

But even with all this crazyness I was never afraid in any vehicle and actually quite enjoyed my rides!

Then I came back here to Canada, my dad picked me up in an old Toyota Camry. I felt like I was in a luxury car! Soooo roomy and soooo quiet! No one honking any horns and everyone following the lane markings on the road! For a while it was totally incomprehensible! I couldn’t believe the difference!

But when all is said and done, I was glad to be back on Canadian roads!

Going to India after 21 and a half years was quite a delight. It was filled with unexpected surprises and lots of joy! All my cousins that are around my age or even 5-6 years younger than me are married with beautiful children! Some of these children are teenagers now!

It sort of made me feel quite old though. When these teenagers were calling me uncle!
India has changed soooo much since I came from there in 1988.

I only had two weeks off of work so I couldn’t go every where in India though. I went to some major cities and also the remotest villages. My goal was to visit every single one of my relatives and I think I almost accomplished it. I missed maybe just a few distant relatives.

Here were my impressions. Keep in mind that there is a lot more to India than what I noticed as most of my relatives belonged to the middle class and thus I was not around poverty except what I saw on the street.

Cell phones and plans

Every single person I met, from my relatives, to small shop keepers, to little kids had at least one cell phone. Often two or more! Not only were cell phones quite cheap but so were the cell phone plans. Majority of the people there had pay as you go. And no matter how much money you put on your pay as you go plan, you always received free incoming calls. Incoming calls were always free! Here we have to pay extra to get that feature.

While I was there a new plan was introduced from many different companies which allowed people to have same extremely low per second charge, no matter where in the world they called. Amazing!

Two sim card cell phones were quite common as well. Shops that recharged your account, allowing you to add more money to your pay as you go account, were almost at every street corner, if not after every 100 meters or so. Interestingly enough though, even though every one had a cell phone, no one seemed to have a home phone!

Made in China

Since China is India’s neighbour, Chinese stuff had infiltrated Indian market as well. Chinese stuff was incredibly cheap even by Indian standards. People there talked about Chinese stuff just like we do here in North America. Only difference being that there was a lot more of it available to Indians.

Almost anything you could think of, you could get a Chinese version of it easily, including Chinese cell phones, Chinese motorcycles/scooters. It was awesome! I loved it!

Here in Canada, we don’t have it that good. There is a lot of Chinese made stuff but prices are not that much cheaper. We have $1 stores here but their quality is quite poor. Otherwise, we can buy stuff straight from China from various websites, but not every single thing and often we have to wait quite a while for it to arrive.

I wish we had the same luxury here. We could save so much money! On the other hand, we would gather a lot more clutter as well. I’ve noticed that as things become cheaper, we end up buying a lot more. Just take $1 stores. Everything for a dollar! But every time we go in there, we end up with some items, just because they were only one dollar, that we never were planning on buying! hmm…

to be continued…

I live in a wonderful condominium apartment building with great neighbours! Recently that changed a bit when a young couple moved into the aparment in front of me. And boy oh boy, are they something else! At least once every week or two weeks they get into loud fights and arguments.
Not just arguments, but full and proper swearing starts! Character bashing, each other’s parents’ character bashing, man’s manhood challenged, and fights about money and so on.
Initially man used to say to his girlfriend to stay quiet otherwise they would get kicked out but now he lets her have it as well, loud and clear.
She’s always accusing him of cheating on her, always wanting sex but not being a man enough to do anything else with his life and he’s always accusing her of spending too much money and how his life has gone down the drain by being with her and so on.
It seems like quite a destructive relationship that they have. It makes you wonder why are they together if they make each other so miserable?
I’ve seen this more than once. Couple’s arguing, and fighting on a regular basis and yet they’re together.
That’s their comfort zone! At least they know what to expect in this type of a relationship. Who knows what would happen if they left each other?! It’s not just in abusive relationships but also common in jobs as well. People keep on working in an unhealthy and unhappy environment instead of just quitting.
Majority of us seem to be driven by fear. Fear of the unknown. We tend to cling to what we have and just afraid to let go.
There’s a reason why personal development and self help market is so profitable!
Interestingly, today when the couple started arguing loudly, my neighbour’s dog (in my left apartment) started barking as well!
I wonder what would happen if I ever met them in the hall?