My First visit to the US

April 12, 2010 the Minnesota Twins opened a new chapter as baseball is played outdoors again, this time at the Target Field wining against the Boston Red Sox. A day that is marked in the history of Minnesota baseball makes it even more memorable to me as this was my first day of work at Target Minneapolis; could have I asked for a better timing?

It definitely has been a great experience both personally and professionally in my 9 weeks of stay here. In more ways than one, I see myself getting used to a comfortable living that US has to offer. A place which does not have water, electricity, land and Paper Print outs scarcity. I could not help but compare my lifestyle here to back home where we have electricity cuts (although we have power backups) and never have a never ending flow of water. Therefore, we are tuned in to use only as much as we need.

In office I realized that I was taking quite a bit of printouts, it was convenient to see the same document content on the paper that was on my laptop. However, the stack kept on growing, until the ‘Spring Clean Up’ day, when most of my papers went into that bin.

Then there was a Pause!!!

What seems more interesting is that I stopped to observe myself in this new world. In the land where I do have so much of everything, I too had started using these elements so lavishly. After a lot of reflection, then it was the time for an Implementation Plan - an effort towards consciously and carefully using resources and my laptop within the office as much as I could to avoid taking a printout.

And with this ongoing conscious effort I hope to make it a habit and genuinely wish that anybody reading this will pause and reflect.