The Pride from Corporate T-shirts

Corporate T-shirts are the least understood and biggest source of employee pride and identity. Unfortunately, not many organisations understand the power of the corporate T-shirt and therefore don't leverage it effectively.  I treasure the T-shirts of whichever organisation I have worked for over my career, and wear it with pride.

When I left TNS about 5 years ago, I had a handful of almost new TNS T-shirts that I very carefully moth-balled with the hope that I will get to use them sometime in the future.  

4 months ago when I rejoined TNS, I looked forward to wearing those old (but still almost brand new) T-shirts again. 

It was only then that I realised that the TNS logo had changed in the meantime. See if you can spot the difference (the new one is on the right).

So effectively I cannot "publicly" wear my T-shirts with the old logo anymore - or so my PR person tells me. In fact she was amused that I have at all so carefully preserved those T-shirts.

I am in the process of re-building my T-shirt collection with the new logo - and I hope to wear them with pride for a long time to come.

My Dashing George Clooney Looks Dashed

The Pretty Young Thing (PYT) at the check-in counter at the Dubai airport puckered her lips and said :"Sorry sir, you have almost 3 kg excess check-in baggage".

And then she gave me a bright smile and said : "But there is something about you that reminds me of someone - so I will make an exception in your case and not charge you anything".

I always knew it.  My natural grey hair fashioned in the George Clooney Style always works its charm. The security cameras at the check-in counter picked up the following vision of a Ram Mohan Rao beaming at the PYT, exuding his full George Clooney magnetic personality on her.

And then she said :"Oh yes, I know ..... you remind me of my dad".

The security cameras next picked up this vision of the distraught traveller:

I saw a half smile fleetingly pass over the PYT's face.

I would give anything to figure out how many potential George Clooneys has she crushed with this devastating line......

The Boat In The Middle Of The Ocean

On the night flight from Hong Kong to KL, the ocean below was filled with thousands and thousands of fishing boats - their lights twinkling off the seas.

They were like fire-flies on a dark night. Inanimate shiny objects as seen from high up in the sky.

And then I felt a strange sense of disconnect.  I had to remind myself that the boats contained people - like me. Real people with families and hopes and anxieties.  People who struggle and sacrifice - people who are separated from their wife and children by thousands of miles of ocean.

And then I tried to imagine the face of the father that that particular twinkling boat might carry.  And the boat over there in the distance - so isolated from the rest of the boats - what would be the dreams of the families of the fisherman in that boat?

It is strange what distance - either real or virtual - can do to one's perspective.  Elevation brings along a certain arrogance.

I said to myself I would one day spend time in a small boat in the middle of the ocean and experience the connection that I temporarily lost.