PEER PRESSURE

As we grow older and socialize with people mostly of our same age, we are more or less affected by them. There may be times where we may face some challenging decisions, some may have a lucid answer but some don’t have a clear right or wrong answer, some decisions also involve moral and legal questionnaires. Making decisions on our own may become difficult but when “other people” get involved and try to pressurize in some way, it becomes more difficult and make us bang our head.

People who are of our same age and experience are called peers and when they influence us to do something, it is called “PEER PRESSURE”. Peers have influence on each other affecting their lives to a great extent. If we take in account the positive aspect, peer pressure is important for social and self development. We learn more by interacting with our peers’ .We compete to out-stand and this brushes us only when the competition is a healthy one and have a fair chance for both. They also help us to explore our hidden talents. Many values like time punctuality, team work, sportsman spirit, tolerance, perseverance are inculcated within us because of our peers. But when we see the other side of the coin we end up remarking that negative effects are even more and at times harmful and dangerous too.

We always come across this sentence – “come on everyone is doing this, don’t behave so abnormally! What everyone is doing, we have to follow them or else we’ll not be fit for the gang!! Rather we’ll be stigmatized as a weed that sucks and people will dislike being with us. What a criteria..!! Self esteem is directly affected by the degree to which we feel accepted by the peer group. Youngsters want to try every new stuff as they love doing experiments with things and even with their lives.

As juvenile, they are attracted to opposite gender which may lead to early pregnancy and transmission of STD. Being in a relationship is like a status symbol and cheating upon someone resembles the cool attitude. How ironic is this? Such a beautiful feeling of being in love with someone has merely fallen to the grounds of desperation. Pity!!

Worse than this is getting indulged in smoking, drinking and taking drugs which they never wanted to but did just because of the peer pressure. Playing with own lives not realizing the affect their closed ones will have. And I tag them as fools, knowing the post effects they continue doing this. They indulge in activities which mangles them and deviates them from their path.

Taking this issue as a matter of concern ,these days media is telecasting series of “gumraah” , “crime patrol” to create awareness about the circumstances of the steps taken .

Peer pressure explores the real ‘WE’. It is how we react to peer pressure that defines us who we are as an individual. And its better to have an enemy than to have a friend who is more like an enemy. As also said by WILL SMITH, “Don’t chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard. The right people –the ones who really belong in our life –will come to you and STAY!!! “

THE CYBER CRIME

I remember playing with dolls and kitchen sets when I was a kid but when I see my cousin growing up she hardly play with such things which used to be the most precious possession to me during my childhood. Instead of playing hide and seek and santholia, she plays temple run and subway surfer, instead of talking about a dancing doll she talks about apple i-pad !! With each passing year it seems trend has changed.  Teens and kids are crazy for gadgets and especially teens are so much fascinated with the idea of socializing that they often forget that somewhere is the boundary which they must not cross.

Face book, twitter, instagram etc are the most common social networking sites popular among teens. Having an account on a social networking site fill them with a sense of pride and not having one is an ultimate moment of embarrassment. This is just not enough, they socialize with unknowns and easily swayed about the way they portray their lives to them may be true may be not. Moreover they use acronyms and code words that are alien to their parents, a mishmash of letter-and-number codes, crunched words that look straight out of a secret mission code. Codes like “PIR which means parent in room” , “MIRL which means meet in the real world” , “ WYCM which means will you call me ?” etc.

I don’t deny socializing with people help us groom our personality but teens vomit out every intimate detail about their lives online not realizing that putting their private lives online can go a long way in harming them emotionally. There is a risk of cyber snooping and online bullying by hate groups. It’s shocking that teenagers easily put out information about themselves on these social networking sites for random strangers to see , moreover to keep it a secret from their parents they display it in codes . They are dragging themselves away from their parents whom they must be closest to. They are going deeper in an unreal world of denial and away from a real life which could result in an identity crisis.

Parenting and education can play a critical role in determining a teen’s online life. Nuclear families, peer pressure, neglected pre-teens and lack of engaging social interactions are prompting many to take their lives online. Social media is the substitute for what used to be time spent in offline social interactions. The need of the hour is to wean teens away from the cyber life and make them aware about their physical and mental growth which is almost at the halt.  They need to understand that there exist a world which is far away from the world they are into, only then they will be able to compete here.

A STEP FORWARD TOWARDS YOUR DREAM

This piece of article isn’t about any trending issues or controversies ,neither penned down for applaud nor for acknowledgement , rather just a sincere appeal to your hearts. The heart where stays our dreams and we hide those dreams so well that nobody could ever know that once upon a time there was a heart filled with dreams.

Its not that tough to achieve what you want, all you need is to know what you really do. We often make decisions without much thinking, and land ourselves in a tricky situation and all we are left with is an experience to share. But then the question arises what should we do when our heart and mind doesn’t go hand in hand. Just not doing anything is also not an option.To live for a dream in your heart, yes, it’s not an easy task. It’s a roller coaster ride. And the moment you think you have achieved everything, things may fall down like nothing ever existed. Have the courage to take a stand for what you always wanted to be rather living a lifetime repenting about the time you settled for less than you deserved. The moment you think you are about to fall the very moment might soar you higher than before.

 Setbacks are good sometimes because that is the only time where we discover our potential and the capacity to face adversities, moreover only in tough times we get to know about the people who boasts and who truly cares.There are two kind of people, one who accepts the fact that they can't do anything to make their dream a reality just because they failed and the other kind keeps on trying without even thinking about the possibility of there dream coming true and they sooner or later succeed. It isn’t that easy as it seems, your dream demands true dedication and hard-work and the most important of all perseverance. The power is in you. You have to set your deadlines and stick to it till your last breath gives in. Trust me nothing is impossible and no one can ever crush the power your soul possess. Work until your idols become your rivals and don’t stop until you reach your destination.

What I always say is, listen to your heart, no matter how many times you fall but stand for that one cause your heart pumps for, it will never leave you with regrets. Never! Decide TO BE OR TO NOT BE!

HAPPY HOLI

People all over India are in a festive mood since the second most important occasion Holi has come. Holi is a two day festival. Today is the day we call it as Holika Dehen and tomorrow is the big day that is when everyone plays with colours, water balloons and water guns. More about that in my tomorrow’s article let us now concentrate on what exactly is Holika Dehen. We all celebrate Holi but not so much aware about the origination of Holi.

There was a cruel and arrogant king named Hiranyakashyap who claimed himself to be the god and forced people to worship him. His own son Prahlad was a worshipper of Lord Vishnu and refused to accept what the king claimed. Due to this the king tried to kill his own son but when he failed to harm his son, the king's sister named Holika came forward to help. Since Holika had a blessing that she can never get burn from fire so she took Prahlad and entered the fire with an intention of killing him. Holika did not know that the blessing would work only when she entered alone and that is when she got burnt and Prahlad being a worshipper of Lord Vishnu came out without a scratch. So to celebrate the victory of good over evil we named today as Holika Dehen and people burn wood sticks thinking it to be Holika during the evening time as a tradition. Lots of sweets and mouth watering dishes are cooked on this occasion and people enjoy this festival with their friends and family.

There are series of events dated on 23^rd march among which I would like to throw some light upon the Martyr’s Day being celebrated today. On 23^rd march 1931, the three legends, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev deliberately gave their life for our nation. They were hanged to death by the British Government. These three heroes will be remembered by people for eternity for their sacrifices to protect our motherland. They died with a dream of seeing India as an independent country and now here we are, free like a bird. Wherever their souls are, they will be happy and satisfied to watch every Indian performing their duties towards the motherland.

Apart from these two events, today is also celebrated as World Meteorological Day. This day is celebrated to aware people about how to protect life and property from natural disasters related to weather, climate and water, to safeguard the environment, and to contribute to sustainable development. 

COMzen Technologies salutes the spirit of those three young legends who without giving a second thought gave away their life for their motherland. We wish everyone a happy, prosperous and joyous Holi. Happy Holi!!

WORLD WATER DAY

"A drop of water is worth more than a sack of gold to a thirsty man."

March 22 is celebrated as World Water Day. In order to conserve water and make people aware about the importance of water this day has been observed as World Water Day. This is a human tendency that be realize the importance of things only when they do not exist but if we follow this tendency in case of water, we will end up dying. In order to safeguard our lives we need to conserve water so if anyone who thinks that by saving water we are doing a favor on the environment just knows you are trying to save your own lives.

Though water being an essential need yet people have exploited this resource to an extent that it is said that if ever again world war happens it would be because of water. Industries and factories dump their chemical waste into the rivers spreading pollution. People living in the rural areas dump the domestic waste into the water also take bath in the same water. Animals take bath in the same water too. The content of chlorine in the water increases which results in harmful diseases like cholera, jaundice that are a threat to human life.

To save this water resource we need to adopt different measures to keep the water clean and fit for consumption. To spread awareness different ways are adopted by different countries. Some of them take help of visual arts, some believes in campaigns and events to raise money for the same purpose. Broadcast on television and internet is the most common way of spreading awareness among the people. People have become a lot aware about the importance of water yet there is still more scope of spreading awareness.

UN realizing the need of making people aware about the importance of water declared 22^nd march as the World Water Day in 1993. In order to conserve existence of living beings on earth we need to save water and this could happen only when we all on local basis try to save water.

As we know Holi is approaching, and everyone is aware of the water being wasted on this occasion. This is a humble request on behalf of COMzen Technologies to everyone to play dry Holi that is only with colors. COMzen Technologies wishes everyone Happy Holi in advance.

STRESS MANAGEMENT

“You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.”- Steve Maraboli

The word stress has become so common these days that you can even hear a school student complaining about stressful routine. The truth is as the era is changing, so the competition growing among people. No one is satisfied today. Every single person wants more than what he has and in running behind to achieve the target he has set he takes on more and more work realizing little that he cannot do everything in a limited time period and then the person suffers from stress.

There are many sources that could make you feel stressed like if a person is not happy with the job profile or the earnings he or she will eventually end up stressing out. Family disputes and personal issues in life can be major reason for stress and vice-a-versa. Stress leads to decrease in efficiency to do work and also affects mental ability and personal relationships. In order to avoid such things happening in your life stress must be managed. We don’t treat stress as a matter of importance and never feel that id also needs to be treated and managed. Here are few ways in which you can not only manage stress but also can get rid of it in the course of time.

 In order to manage stress one need to first start accepting the fact that he or she is stressed. The general approach we follow is to overlook the problem if we have no solution for it but that is not how it works. When one can accept the reality or the problem he or she is suffering from then only the haling can start. Another way is to cut short the work that is burdening you and let go all the fears and insecurities you have in your mind because keeping them aren’t helpful in making things done.

One must try to stay as calm as possible and for that regular simple exercises must be adopted like breathing exercises are very helpful to relieve stress. To feel happy is another key to reduce stress as a happy mind never feels stressed. This can happen when you are truly doing what you want to do and not just running like the rest of the crowd.

Another way is you must learn to say no. You must set the limit and if anyone tries to push it harder you should not give in by saying yes, instead you should learn to deny. Another way is to manage your time effectively that there is room for every activity you want to do in a daytime. Managing time will solve your half of the problems. Learn to compromise for example if someone asks you to change a particular thing about your nature that is playing as a major drawback, be willing to do it.

COMzen Technologies believe in a stress free friendly working environment. Here people can share their opinions and views. No one is bullied here and everyone is treated as the part of the team and that is why COMzen is growing day by day.

EMPOWERING WOMEN

Empowering women is an argument that seems to be on fire these days.If we compare the position of women today and that in eighties the graph has increased drastically. Women are at far more better condition than they were before. Today women have managed to make their own place in almost every area. Women entrepreneurs are a great example of women empowerment. 

This is in the nature of a woman that she happens to put her every single effort in the task being assigned to her, be it a mother, a daughter, an employee etc. She will perform her best not with the motive of recognition but because that is what we woman do. We never overlook any of our responsibilities just for our selfish motives which is why when a woman has decided to turn the world upside down, she won't stop until she has reached to the point she wished to.

What bothers me is even when women managed to achieve everything that proclaims her authority as equal as that of man on everything, they still are fighting for the equal treatment. Even after being educated there are people who still are tied to orthodox norms and treat woman as inferior or a man's property. The worst of all is the tradition of marriage. In India if a girl doesn't wants to get marry, it becomes something unacceptable to almost every person of the society. I do not understand that when people will start believing that woman doesn't need man. They can stay single and happy if they wish to. There is no such thing like needing protection by a male figure.

Everything takes time and when the conditions have turned out to be better than before, there are hopes that one day it will be better than now too.

Being a woman is nothing to be ashamed of and I am proud to be a woman and also proud to be a part of COMzen Technologies that supports women empowerment by giving equal opportunities to both man and woman. Woman here is treated with respect and also the atmosphere of the work place is very supporting and encouraging. In the end I would sum up in the words of Nora Ephron - “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim!!” 

TIME MANAGEMENT

"UNTIL WE CAN MANAGE TIME, WE CAN MANAGE NOTHING ELSE!!" - PETER F. DUCKER

We overhear people complaining about the lack of time and many a times we are the ones complaining for the same. We keep on chasing time to meet both ends but eventually we give in and time controls us. History has proven from time to time that without managing time no one ever became successful. The one who knows the value of time has achieved it all. Procrastinating has become a part and parcel of our routine. No wonder how will you ever be able to save time when you are busy wasting is on the things holding least priority.

Time management is essential for every one starting from a kid to an employee. When we mismanage our time we often skip deadlines that results in incompletion of work and degradation of the reputation which increases mental stress. Nobody prefers a person who cannot deliver outputs in time. The world is growing so fast that there is no room for late comers. On the other hand when we carefully manage our time we are able to deliver quality work in the predefined deadlines. Work receives appreciation and doer receives reputation. If you think that a time table written by you in a day could run all through the week, you are absolutely wrong because you cannot monotonously plan your every move of the week.

Following points will tell you how to plan your each and every day in order to get work done in time.

1.    The first work of the day must be planning the entire day routine. You must recognise the interruptions in your work and plan according to that. Each day a new routine according to the errands you have to run on that particular day.

2.    The actual work starts in the thoughts itself so think and plan and don’t let things holding no priority occupy your precious time.

3.    Understand that it is not necessary to attend every call or read every mail just because it showed up. When you are busy working everything else can wait.

4.    Make a to-do list for all the important tasks of the day. This will help you create a checklist where you know what is done and has to be done.

5.    Never procrastinate. Tomorrow is a mystery land and it will never show up.

6.    Disconnect yourself from the social media when you are busy working. Nothing would happen if you fail to follow a tweet from your favourite movie star.

Although all this stuff might be difficult to digest since it’s not in the trend but the real challenge is choosing your own path irrespective of the trend. So it’s time that you manage your time and make your life useful.

FLEXIBLE WORKING

Every single person today is preoccupied with something or the other. We live in a society and in order to maintain a healthy relationship with people around we need a time out from work to attend social gatherings so that our position is acceptable and we aren't just termed as the person with bare existence.Flexible working is a concept that evolved keeping in mind the problems faced by employees when its come to the time constraint of the job. The major time issue problems are faced by woman candidates who have to balance work and household responsibilities.

In order to ease their hectic schedule flexible working came into existence. Now when you are working for company that have tested your potential, you can easily ask them for work from home option or partial working from office. This helps encourage those woman candidates who are skilled for the work but due to some inconveniences could not work from office. Moreover if you are away from the place your office is situated in, you can easily work from their. All thanks to flexible working.

COMzen Technologies is supporting this flexible working schemes apart from the call agents. I am an employee this company and I am allowed to work from home due to my hectic college schedule.Flexible working makes it a bit more easy for those employees who are finding it difficult to work from the location of the office.

Every company must adopt the schemes under flexible working in order to encourage the participation of employees even when they are off work.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Comparing from few decades before, the global market has enhanced. When we talk about growing opportunities, hand in hand comes the work load too. Since demand for better products is increasing catastrophically, the level of competition among various companies is getting fierce. Taking in consideration this level of competition, we can imagine the work load on an average person working for the cooperative world. The work load sometimes dominates to that extent that people end up in stress and depression. Also their personal life gets affected highly. Every person wants to be happy and satisfied but the desperate urge of achieving better than what we have right now compels us to keep on running and end up in a mess that often turns our life hell.

The need of the hour is to balance tour work and personal life. Neither work should be prioritize nor your personal life. Even if one of the do starts dominating it will eventually put your other half in jeopardy. To avoid landing in such circumstances work-life balance is required to be exercised. There are many ways to exercise this balance so that we are free from mental, emotional and physical stress that becomes a great hindrance in one’s overall growth.

1. The first thing that could be implemented is deciding the amount of work you are going to do in a day or a week and the hours dedicated for that work. Aimlessly working for all day will leave you no time for relaxation which will increase your physical stress.

2. Another thing is planning outings with your family and friends quite frequently on your holidays so that they don’t feel ignored. After all, you are working hard to make them happy. This will fulfill your emotional needs.

3. Another thing is interaction at the workplace. Don’t make your work place so boring that you actually become a machine rather interact with your colleagues. Share views and have a good break time with them. Refreshment is necessary; when mind is refreshed it works more creatively.

4. Don’t exert yourself with work load. Plan and analyze your every move. This will help you work systematically which will save you from burden and spare some extra time.

5. Feel good about yourself. Keep a positive attitude to anything you do. Only when you are convinced and happy inside you can make people feel the same about you.

It is a hackneyed habit of people to ignore and neglect when it comes to their life. They let things go with the flow and never try to make changes to their life. They are so pessimist in their nature that they feel that it’s all shit and things just can’t change if I start doing the points discussed above. But all I want to say is, try it once and then give your verdict. You never know what good comes out of it.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

 “When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.” – Simon Sinek
Usually people think employee motivation and satisfaction to be a clone of employee engagement but the factuality is far different from what is accepted. An employee can remain motivated and satisfied but that does not calls for employee engagement. They are dissimilar terms. When an employee works on the conditions being specified to him before and on the paycheck decided we call it employee satisfaction. Such employees work only to the level that they are employed for and will never go beyond. Employee engagement is something that makes an employee to treat the company as his own and not something that he is working for. He would try every time to take the company to a next level, expand the business and make as much profits as possible without getting interrupted with his personal interests.

There are employees who have to be kept satisfied and motivated from time to time by giving them bonus and other incentives that works as a push for keeping up the good work but their are employees who will come up with their own suggestions, try to do work differently even though it might consume more time and energy but the outputs generated are way more satisfactory, they will try and make every possible decision a part in company's growth and benefit. This is called employee engagement. Although the employees who are engaged are also motivated and kept satisfied but there still is a difference between the both.

In order to enhance the growth of the company employee engagement is one of the major challenge being faced by most of the companies. People change jobs so frequently these days that committing them to a single company is a major challenge. There are many different ways an employee can feel engaged with a company. 

The first requirement is of interaction and open to suggestions.An employee will start feeling the company as his own aura when he is heard. Another way is to appreciate people for the productiveness they have offered to the company. A person will do a better job when appreciated. The biased nature towards some of the employees has to be minimized to a level that it isn't visible to others because being totally unbiased is beyond the characteristics of human nature. It is very important to play fair and keeping in mind that no employee feels inferior. The sense of equality makes employees more engaged than anything else.

For a company to progress and achieve heights employee engagement is an essential ingredient. When the employees will show their full cooperation and support, only then a company can reach to the next level.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LEADER AND A BOSS

A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.-Arnold H. Glasow

What differentiates between a leader and a boss is the way they see their colleagues. A leader will also treat himself as the part of the team and a boss will treat himself as the head of the people working with him or her. Nobody needs a boss but everyone needs someone who could lead them or show them the way. People who grabs the opportunity and help others grow with them and is open to suggestions and work as a team member is a true identity of a leader. A leader possesses the confidence to deal with failure and to be grounded when success hits. A great example is potrayed by our Indian Team Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. If you have notices the same pattern of speech he follows when the team wins or looses. Whenever the team wins, he gives the whole credit to the team members but whenever it looses he never fails to take the responsibilty for the failure. He is a leader and not a captain who dominates the rest of the team with his superiority.

There are many ruling factors that defines a good leader. The basic skill possessed by a leader is communication and interaction with the team members. Encouraging them to come up with suggestions and instead of taking the credit for success sharing the credit with the team. Another quality they acquire is motivational skills and they deal with empathy. Leaders knows when to use logic and when emotions have to be felt. When team members have to be inspired and when they needed to be pushed harder so that they could use their potential to the full.

Lastly a true leader is the one who knows the way and shows the way and when one falls helps that person to challenge again and suceed.

WOMEN AND WORK

"A woman is like a tea bag-you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water." -Eleanor Roosevelt

When it comes to work and women it is a common notion that we have stereotyped in our hearts that it is optional for women to work or not and due to the patriarchal hierarchy being practiced in our country women are discouraged from working apart from the household responsibilities. Although this is an accepted fact that working women works more than men yet not been acknowledged. All the household works including child care is accepted as the whole sole responsibility of a woman whether she is working or not. And when men helps in this area people praise such men. But the question here arises is- Men aren't doing some sort of favor helping us rather they have equal share of responsibilities in household work. 

But with growing time the changing trends are noticed. Women have entered into almost every area that was once dominated by men. The terms used before for woman were soft, tender but now she is playing a totally different role. She is independent, educated and possess the confidence to convince people on her own terms and conditions. This fierce side of women is a great surprise for all those people who consider that woman must be kept under man's surveillance. We does not ask for a better treatment than what men is being offered but demand a fair chance to compete.

Prolonged arguments on the issue that who's better is a part of our day to day life but what we overlook is nobody has to prove anything since the work speaks it all.Women face many challenges in corporate world or even as an entrepreneur among which the biggest one is social acceptance and support from family and society. Though how hard they work it is useless when people around her cannot recognize her potential. 

The way women puts all her efforts in the role she's performing whether being a mother or the company's owner, she commands respect. Versatility is the nature of women and her way of doing work is more creative and different from regular. Even after facing adverse situations women excels in her domain. 

World is transforming and though today women have occupied great positions their still a room left for progress. Security issues, harassment issues and family problems is still pulling her leg down and in order to ensure that women give their best a little support from the society is expected. The way of nurturing a girl child should be changed, rather teaching her that she has to leave her home and marry and take care of people in her family, first she must be taught that she has to challenge the world and her dreams are worthy of fighting for then only the change will occur!!