I was a total stranger on my first visit to Thailand. In fact, I didn’t like the country in first go. Firstly, you keep hearing a lot about it. Secondly, my friends were acting like my guardians the moment they came to know about my travel. But I was not aware that there I will create a new Yaaron Ki Baraat in Thailand. As a matter of fact, I was not visiting here for leisure. Neither was I visiting for a family vacation or holiday. In fact, this was my first visit to Thailand and that too official one. That is why the chances of forming a Yaaron Ki Baraat was almost impossible.
I was the project manager of a large team of developers, database administrators, business analysts, trainers, technical content creators, and quality analysts. And the tenure was six months. We were going to implement ERP at our Thailand business offices. Everything was to finish within these six months. That would include business analysis, documentation, requirement sign off, customization, deployment, training, and finally, the sign off.
I was aware that life will be quite tough there. The language was another issue. Although Thai guys speak English but the accent is quite different. And, in fact, difficult to align with the way we speak generally. It was purely a race against the time. On top of it, for Thai employees, 9 to 5 is literally same. By 4.30 pm they would start packing up. Weekends are purely non-working. I could never imagine that under these circumstances I was about to create a fresh Yaaron Ki Baraat.
My Journey of Yaaron Ki Baraat in Thailand
We had to change it if the project was to finish in time. The Managing Director of the company was a bit helpless. They were only to request, not to force them for the same. I was worrying the way things were getting out of control. By the end of the second week I was quite tense in the daily review meeting. That is the time when Pavi, the operations head could understand my pain. He came to me after the meeting for a party invite in the evening. It took me some time to align his accent with my understanding. Once it set off, I could clearly absorb his beautiful ideas.
In fact, that was the time we became life-long friends. He gave me ideas on how to finish the project in time. Rather we were able to finish the project before time. Pavi was knowing all people in the organization. He was also knowing the best ways to tackle each one of them. His instructions to top line managers were enough to streamline everything.
And despite all tight schedules and hectic sessions, Pavi was taking care of recreation and fun whenever there was time. When we were out of office, I would never be in my hotel room. I was with Pavi and his friends visiting one place or the other. In fact, in between, we had a two-day trip to Phuket.
That was twenty years ago. With every passing year, our business was expanding in the ASEAN region. And my trips to Thailand were increasing every quarter. As a matter of fact, each trip was increasing our bonding factor. We were closest pals. And we still are. Finally, Let me close my Yaaron Ki Baraat story.
