The Man!

I'm a firm believer that coincidences are not a matter of chance but designed to point a finger, that is if you are smart enough to figure out where the finger is pointing & what it means. So when, Bangalore boy & the latest swami in the news, Nityananda was picked up by the police, I was not surprised, that the place was Solan, in Himachal Pradesh.
Solan, a lovely little place was made famous by the Solan whisky & then Salman Rushdie. Like the swami both the whisky and Rushdie have been through their ups and downs. We shall however see, what lies in wait for Nityananda.
Through my life, I've always believed in the dictum, 'Fight like a man' and was a tad bemused this morning to read that Nityananda now claims that he is not a 'man' and ergo sans manliness could not have had sex with women in his ashram. That is a new line he has adopted, which the sleuths investigating the case do not seem to be buying right now.However if true, it would add an interesting dimension to the case.
I'm terribly upset that the swami, having had his share of fun,is not fighting like a man! It would have been the least that you could have expected him to do & if he had to go down then do so fighting!
The whole intriguing case has also seen a new entrant, in the mysterious 'Nitya Gopika'. The 'woman', is apparently incognito & it is not clear who she, though it is said that she is an NRI, recently divorced. As the investigation goes on, it seems to appear that this mystery woman, apparently upset about the swami consorting with other women, did him in with the assistance of Nityanandas car driver, Lenin.......now that name conjures up interesting stories, but we shall leave it for another day.

However it bring me to my second dictum:

Hell has no fury like a woman scorned
Origin

William Congreve, in The mourning bride, 1697:

Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
So all you guys fooling around with woman have something to think about, which bring me to my third dictum:

Behind every great man there's a great woman

While the great is debatable, what is not is the plain fact that, Swami Nityananda, had a slew of them all around him, probably explaining why he rose to the dizzying heights that he did, in the sparse time that he did....................

I would also like to convey the following brilliant lines from Eminem, to our friend Nityananda, if it could help him:

Whatcha gonna do when sh*t hits the fan
Are you gonna stand and fight like a man
Will you be as hard as you say you are
Are you gonna run and go get your bodyguard
I said whatcha gonna do when sh*t hits the fan
Are you gonna stand and fight like a man
Show us youre as hard as you say you are
Are you gonna run and go get your bodyguard

.......I think Nityananda is running, but we shall see!

The Busineness Woman!

These days, after moving home, to the suburbia of Bangalore, I find that my morning walks do not resemble a decatholon. Earlier I had to be completely alert to dodge,office goers, home comers, buses, dog shit & various varieties of dung. This resulted in my mind being completely & uniequvoaclly occupied.

Now it is different. I enjoy the pristine emptiness and stride confidently on. This has alowed my free mind to ruminate, while I twirl my baton army style, on various issues. one such issue was women. Amidst the business hoopla and ethical disaters that we read about on a daily basis, if you hear a womans name, it is invariably for the the right reasons. Does that make women more honest and ethical humans, in comparison to men or is it just that, there are too few of them around in the world of business that, their escapades go unnoticed. Being the diehard romantic and one who views the world through rose tinted glasses, I would like to belive that indeed woman are more concientious & ethical, till I had a look at today's news paper.

The headlines screamed :Indian woman diplomat is held for spying for Pakistan.......

I was aghast. Our own Mata Hari & that too conniving with the dreaded enemy, Pakistan! We have had our traitors, in the past.All men without exception.The article hinted, that the second rung diplomat, had received monetary as well as 'other' favors. what the other, means I will leave to your imagination.
My troubled mind has been forced to reflect if this is a one off case or a malice that is common to both sexes................Post, my quitting the ships and returning to the real world, the rose tinted glasses, that I alluded to earlier, have been slipping a wee bit & my mind has been forced to admit that woman can be as conniving and ruthlessly manipulative when it suits their needs.And like 'Deep Throat' advised Woodward & Bernstien during the Water Gate investigation, in the US, 'Always follow the money'. Insecurity coupled with intelligence and chutzpah can make any one of them extremely competent to take on the challenges of the snake pit & why not, if woman have to survive and grow in a man's world and the lure of the lucre always shines like a beacon.

I do not envy, the position, that our woman diplomat would find herself in. Traitors to a nation, are not viewed with kindness or empathy, whatever their compulsion might have been. The lady is said to have citied ' professional frustration ', but then who said that work life is a walk in the park?

While driving to work,today, I felt a certain hollowness, I felt sorry for woman in general, I felt sorry for myself and most of all felt that something in me had just died.....a loss of innocence and that the rose tinted glasses had slipped further!

A Professional!

A few years ago, in my earlier 'Avatar' as a sailor, we woke up one day to the ISM Code for ships. This safety management code for ships involved procedures, processes and copious documentation, which obviously nobody liked. The ISM Code was scoffed at, its introduction decried & generally everybody said it was a waste of time & shippies would throw it out. What was forgotten, was that, it was a statutory requirement, passed by the International Maritime Organization and was law. Today twenty years down the line the ISM is law and quietly followed by all mariners.

The story was repeated with the ISPS Code ( International Ship & Port Safety Code )along similar lines.

On careful analysis I found that, folk who resist something, generally do so out of fear, of a new system overwhelming them. A fear that they would be unable to cope with a new way of functioning.I've seen this happen repeatedly during my career.

More recently I've had to deal with the Quality Management System ( ISO 9001 )& have come across similar reactions.I've been asked why we should adopt a system that is a waste of time. I feel bewildered, because, it is simple logic that the QMS is here to stay, more so in flat world where industry sees no geographic boundaries.We need generic standards that would serve as a platform for quality as we move forward.

Many years ago, the Windy City ( Chicago ) was not what it is today.......Crime ruled and the mafia ruled Chicago. In the 1930's, Al Capone, the legendary, Mafioso was the kingpin of Chicago. The situation was made worse, by the introduction of prohibition a few years prior, giving rise to rampant corruption and sale of illegal liquor.

In comes an idealistic federal agent Eliot Ness, whose assignment to clean up Chicago leads to violence and serious questions about upholding the law. Initially powerless to stop the flow of booze into the city (the police force is corrupt and everyone in town seems to be on the mob's payroll), Ness finds guidance from an older streetwise cop who convinces him he'll need to break some of the law if he wants to bring down head mobster Al Capone and clean up Chicago.Ness, adopts a policy of two eyes for one & is absolutely ruthless, goes about his job with evangelistic zeal and brings the mafia to its knees.......when suddenly prohibition is lifted and booze is back! Ness & his weary team are now jobless & when asked what he would do next, Ness is said to have said, " I'm going home & get myself a drink".

Ness loved his alcohol, but there was a job to be done and he did it, keeping his personal likes aside. That is called professionalism.I wish there was more of it around and more people like Ness, who just did their job and did it damn well!

From Halo to Hollow!

The other day, during the IPL semifinal between, Bangalore & Mumbai, I watched with anguish, as the great Sachin Tendulkar, swooped down & picked up an edge, from Rahul Dravid at slip.

While the celebrations were on, Dravid, maybe one of the last breed of gentleman cricketers would not budge, drawing sharp criticism from the commentator Sunil Gavaskar, himself a yesteryear great. Later events indicated that, the catch was not cleanly taken, Dravid was right & Sachin Tendulkar had erred in claiming the catch.

I watched with interest, as to how the press would react to this event & I'm not surprised that there was none, at all. How could you point a finger, at India's greatest cricketer & accuse him of any kind of lack of judgement. Should it have been a youngster, he would have been called a cheat & branded for life!

Putting people on pedestals & assuming that they can do no wrong ( what is wrong is again debateable in India) is an old habit in this country & I'm afraid the halo effect has played its part here.

What is a halo and its effect in the world of business?

Much of our business thinking is shaped by delusions -- errors of logic and flawed judgments that distort our understanding of the real reasons for a company's performance. In a brilliant and unconventional book ( The Halo Effect ), Phil Rosenzweig unmasks the delusions that are commonly found in the corporate world. These delusions affect the business press and academic research, as well as many bestselling books that promise to reveal the secrets of success or the path to greatness. Such books claim to be based on rigorous thinking, but operate mainly at the level of storytelling. They provide comfort and inspiration, but deceive managers about the true nature of business success.
The most pervasive delusion is the Halo Effect. When a company's sales and profits are up, people often conclude that it has a brilliant strategy, a visionary leader, capable employees, and a superb corporate culture. When performance falters, they conclude that the strategy was wrong, the leader became arrogant, the people were complacent, and the culture was stagnant. In fact, little may have changed -- company performance creates a Halo that shapes the way we perceive strategy, leadership, people, culture, and more.

Drawing on examples from leading companies including Cisco Systems, IBM, Nokia, and ABB, Rosenzweig shows how the Halo Effect is widespread, undermining the usefulness of business bestsellers from In Search of Excellence to Built to Last and Good to Great.

Rosenzweig identifies a few popular business delusions. Among them is the Delusion of Rigorous Research:

Many bestselling authors praise themselves for the vast amount of data they have gathered, but forget that if the data aren't valid, it doesn't matter how much was gathered or how sophisticated the research methods appear to be. They trick the reader by substituting sizzle for substance and many a time the reader is lost in a maze of incomprehensible data, but accepts the finding at face value because the writer has a halo!

Seperating stuff from substance, the boys from men, the doers from the pretenders, the fake from the real all involve cracking the halo effect....................I saw a brilliant advertisement a few days ago, where this young wannabe manager, gets up & walks off from a potential interview when he sees a 'trendy'( read short skirted ) young women also turning up for the interview...............he understands the halo effect. How often are we blind and deceived by perception and belive what we want to belive?

As for Sachin lovers, I'm one of them, but lets face the fact that Sachin also walks on two legs & goes to the toilet!

Why are we like that?

A few years ago, a British, quality engineer, caused quite a furore in a major ship building yard in India, when he gestured at kneeling welder with his foot. The engineer was annoyed that, the welders quality was exceedingly poor.The event sparked off a row, with the workers union getting involved and productive time being lost and the engineer being shipped back to his home country at considerable cost.

The situation was quite understandable. The foot carries many a negative connotation in our culture or even Eastern Cultures, as against, Western ones. You may find your boss ( Western ) sitting in his office, with his legs on the table. Sailing with Germans I was always surprised when they placed their legs on the dining table, post a meal. There is no disrespect meant, but with the cultural conditioning that we have, it made me uneasy!

Cultural issues, have still not been given their due importance, as you can see from the recent story, this time from Indonesia...........


Angry at being called “stupid” by their Indian supervisor, some 10,000 local workers at a dry dock in Indonesia on Thursday went on the rampage, attacking their Indian colleagues and injuring four of them.

A total of 41 Indians employed at the PT Drydock World Graha docks on Batam -- an island south of Singapore -- were evacuated by a boat in a special seaport following the attack.

The four injured were among those evacuated under tight police protection, the Indonesian news agency Antara's website said, adding no fatality was reported during the incident. Around 400 police officers were deployed to stop the attack, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Eko Yudha, deputy head of the Barelang police, said.

Police sealed the factory following the attack by workers who also burnt some 20 vehicles. The violence occurred after an Indian supervisor cursed at Indonesian workers, the report said. "He (the supervisor) said Indonesian people are stupid. It's our nation's dignity, therefore we are angry," said Baim, one of the workers at the dock.

Close to 10,000 workers gathered in front of the factory and sang Indonesia's national anthem as well as other patriotic songs after the attack. The workers had earlier attempted to vandalise the factory with various shipyard equipment they had brought along. No one was arrested.

According to a report on the Antara website, Indonesia's Ministry of Manpower has set up a fact-finding team to be sent to PT Drydock World Graha following the riot.

"I have ordered setting up of a fact-finding team to be immediately sent to the field and settle the problem. The team will keep monitoring the development of the case," Minister of Manpower Muhaimim Iskandar was quoted as saying by the news website.

"We express deep regret over the incident which was caused by miscommunication between a foreign worker and a local worker in Batam. I hope it will be a lesson for us all especially companies employing foreign workers," the report quoted Iskandar as saying.

I'm very interested, in how this tiny shipyard is going to deal with the crisis! Indian welders & ship yard workers are some of the best in the world & they will be difficult to replace. It is also pertinent that, foreign workers are situationally aware in a land and its culture that they might be unfamiliar with.............It might be acceptable in many parts of India to call a blue collar worker 'a stupid' and get away with the act, but is a strict no no in many other parts of the world. Indians travelling abroad need to be culturally aware, for their own well being!

Cross Border Happiness!

Today's newspapers are all agog with the reception that Sania Mirza & Shoaib Malik have received in Pakistan,yesterday, post their marriage in India. Pakistan & Pakistanis at large seem to be in state of great rapture with this union as a contrast to India, where we seem to be sulking!

I can appreciate how the Pakistanis feel! Hemmed in by the Taliban, the United States, India and their own corrupt politicians, this marriage seems to have brought them some cheer............& why should we deny them their moment of happiness!

Some of our more enlightened citizens want to banish Sania from this land & have advised her to play Tennis for Pakistan, being extremely churlish. It must be admitted that the best years of tennis that Sania had to offer are behind her & those years were spent playing for India and getting the world to sit up and take notice of Indian Women's Tennis.Sania's tennis has been in free fall over the last couple of years and I'm afraid this marriage is only going to hasten the decline.

Considering that we live in a democracy, Sania had the freedom & did choose to exercise it in selecting a groom for herself. The couple have said that they would like to live Dubai, while Sania has chosen to retain her Indian citizenship,though eligible to be a citizen of Pakistan.

What is heartening is that, though Sania has a couple of legal cases against her in India, she was allowed to travel abroad. One case being, her insulting the National Anthem, by not standing at attention, when it was being played.

This charge is similar to the one levelled against Infosys Chief Narayanamurthy, a few years ago.I find this quite Quixotic, because, I cannot think of two brand ambassadors other than Sania & Murthy, who have brought greater laurels to this nation. They have helped put India on the international map. Do we need greater proof of their nationalism?

I think, it is time we showed greater maturity as a nation...............and learn to appreciate those individuals that make the extra effort to attain heights that mere mortals do not!

In any case, you do not become taller, by dragging a person into a ditch, do you?

Rise & Fall!

Many years ago, after a delicious meal, at the Saffron ( The Park Hotel, Kolkata , while strolling down the street, I chanced upon a book called the 'The Great Indian Story', being sold by a book seller on the pavement.

The book, looked fairly interesting, though by an unheard of author and I ended up buying it & carrying it back on board. The author Shashi Tharoor, wrote amazingly well. He had married current Indian politics with the Mahabharata, with characters being interposed, to produce an enthralling account of Indian politics.......

Post this I kept track of Tharoor's progress and was heartened to see him running for the UN Sec.Gen's position, which he eventually lost to Ban Ki Moon. Tharoor then surfaced as Minister of State, as part of the Congress bandwagon & a staunch ally of PM Manmohan Singh.

I think it was here that Tharoor got carried away & landed himself in one imbroglio after another before being eventually pulled down by Lalit Modi & the IPL. His life & times thus far resembles a Shakepearn tragedy, in the truest sense. A young cock, in all his splendour, with a powerful mentor, being culled down at his moment of glory with his mentor watching helplessly. What a story!

The greater tragedy is that Tharoor with all his intellectual prowess forgot that,the politics of the powerful is ruthless and relentless. He forgot that as a lateral entrant, his progress was watched with growing dismay and anger by many of his fellow politicos..........He forgot that, he did not have the experience or the chutzpah to deal with the politics in Government circles.

I believe that Tharoor was a narcissist. I use the term rather gingerly because I like the man too much.Supremely talented, very articulate, handsome...the list was endless. His strengths became his weaknesses & he paid the price for being situationally unaware and being intensely self absorbed.He was not incompetent, but was naive in a corrupt system which is a veritable snakes pit.

I think there is a lesson in Tharoor's story for all of us in the Corporate World, as well.......................that is if you value your job!

Narcissists fascinate me, so here is an aside!

Despite tending to be exhibitionistic, it is very rare to hear a narcissist brag or boast. Instead, he (or she) tends to 'drop' information in the form of an ostensibly ordinary matter-of-fact report, which appears to be intended to elicit admiration without asking for it. For example, rather than say, "I was so please to meet our CEO, Peter Smith", he will casually allude to "...lunch with Peter", in a way that induces a sense of distance and inferiority in the recipient of the information; again maintaining his sense of grandiosity.

Human's are indeed amazing!

Humility!

Humility it is said, is not about thinking less about ourselves but more about thinking about ourselves less ........................
I know it looks a bit confused, but I'm sure it will strike a chord when you go through the line slowly. A definite issue these days is the deep rooted self centeredness that has set in like a cancer. The cause of this problem, could be laid at the doorstep of the modern parent, who is so obsessed with trying to live his/her life through their kids and provide them with every possible comfort, that many a time the child loses perspective.

Being the absolute centre of attraction gives many a kid a very high sense of self esteem, without capabilities & skills to match.The high self esteem leads to a very high sense of entitlement where rewards are to be had without the ensuing labor. Most of these folk are found wanting when they enter the rough and tumble of the real world, where mama & papa are not around to hold the proverbial little finger to navigate them past life's issues. The ensuing frustration, depression & swings from euphoria to melancholy are sad to see but fairly easy to comprehend.

When we were growing up, we were told ( always & everytime ) that you would be rewarded if you proved yourself and that the process of reward was a journey and not a quick solution.I'm glad, that this was the diet that my generation grew up on because it kept the sense of entitlement at bay & also put life into better perspective so that we were left with better tools to deal with failure & success.

I think it is very important for the young to experience failure, boredom, frustration & fear without the parent rushing in at short notice to solve the problem.Probably, a few knocks on the way, would teach many of us the meaning of humility and gratitude......................and also because it is cruel, in the long run, to deprive a person the ability to deal with life's problems themselves.

Like a great person said " Give your kids roots, but also wings" Let them fly, alone, it will make them less self centred & more human!

The run of things............

An interesting & but not necessarily the most pleasant place to be in on a weekend is the shopping complex at Jayangar, Bangalore. It is pure unadulterated chaos, amidst which you can watch people of all sizes, types & hues spending time wandering around, the place.The conservative and modern jostle for space. The staid salwar to the trendy jeans cry for your attention. You can see rural folk, who stares in awe to the settled modern Bangalorean who try's to look cool, hiding loads of vulnerability, behind false smiles and excited chatter........
I avoid that part of the city, if possible, but was forced to go, to get a piece of hardware for my new home, which was apparently available, in a by lane which skirts the complex. After my wife, managed to squeeze our tiny car between a Corolla & and a Xylo we set forth & almost immediately bumped into an old lady conversing with a uniformed cop…………
The conversation in Kannada, between them, was most interesting. The lady’s car was parked on the wrong side of the road, to which the policeman was objecting. The lady’s defense was that, her son had gone to buy shoes & there was nowhere else to park, so the deed was done. The cop would not buy the story & attempted to hand her a ‘traffic violation’ ticket. The lady not only refused to accept the ticket but roundly admonished the policeman for not respecting her age! She went on to moan the dropping standards of behavior in Bangalore & so on.
The other day a young student was caught copying & rightly punished. He came to me and wept copious tears of self pity. After calming the chap down, I asked him, why a bright kid like him, had resorted to a stupid thing like copying? He said ‘Because, I did not know the answer!’ Sound logic, one must admit.
In India we seem to have developed a thought process, wherein we rationalize that rules are for other people and as long as we are going fine, it does matter. That we are subverting the system does not seem to have sunk home to many. Eventually the malice will come home to roost………………………..
Many a distinguished person has wrestled with this seeming idiosyncrasy amongst educated and well read Indians to hit at systems developed for our good & concluded that, we are yet to develop a national spirit, because we were occupied by ‘foreigners’ for almost a thousand years. It also helps that people feel that they can get away with breaking the law. That is accountability is a concept that is not well developed.
There are many in this country who feels that Ramalinga Raju, the ex- head honcho at Satyam Computers, should receive preferential treatment because he addressed some social issues. That he defrauded thousands of investors is forgotten! It is like saying that Adolf Hitler, despite gassing six million Jews to death, should be viewed kindly because he gave the Germans the Volkswagen and Autobahns! I’ve have not heard of logic that is more misplaced…………….

Till we become a more enlightened democracy, I’m all for Lee Kwan Yew’s concept of dealing with offender’s with a stick and jettisoning our policy of appeasement, because it would get us no where, as Winston Churchill says:

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last!

I was looking for the old lady & the cop when we returned to our vehicle a short while later. They had gone along with the car. I hope it had been towed away to the nearest police station!

A sinecures job!

A few days ago a PYT wandered into my cabin & did not waste too much of time, prior to arriving at the reason for her visit.'Could I help her find a nice job?'.Since the question, had too many unknown quantities like, 'help', 'nice' and so on and more importantly since the business end of placements are far removed from my current job description, I was a tad reluctant.

However, since a request was made I agreed to hear her out and in doing so, got to know that she preferred a IT organization.The quintessential curios Joe, that I'am, I asked her why, to which she replied with a why not! The money was good, the work was 'white collared', you get to sit in an air conditioned office & attend 'Thank God it's Friday' parties, on ( you guessed right ) Fridays. More importantly you got to hob nob with other youngsters, who could talk intelligently on issues ranging from the Beatles to Bee Gees to Lady Gaga!Most important she said, the culture was good, meaning laid back, with no dress codes, your boss could be addressed by his/her first name & the work was light.................

I was nonplussed and rendered speechless amidst working out who Lady Gaga is/was & her rather simplistic logic about workplace practice in an IT outfit.My question- if everybody is laid back & attending parties, then who get the work done? Who does the dirty work that keeps us afloat? Who gets their hands greased, while we have the unqualified luxury of a white collar? She dismissed these rather, inconvenient question, with a shrug of her shapely shoulders and a steely glint in her eyes.................

Amidst the brilliant strengths that the young have today, a definite, drawback, is a sense of entitlement that many of them seems to have! A sense that, their life should be one of fun, ease & comfort without effort! You would only have to look around you to realize that, everything ( and I mean everything ) comes with a price tag & it would be prudent to check out the price before you decide on a course of action.I think it is moral depravity to expect to live off anther's sweat!

It is not about 'us' all the time.............

I remember a few line from a song from the Beatles, which seem to run as follows:

It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright......

You know I work all day to get you money to buy you things
And it's worth it just to hear you say you're gonna give me everything
So why on earth should I moan, 'cause when I get you alone
You know I feel okay
When I'm home everything seems to be right
When I'm home feeling you holding me tight,tight,yeah
It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night, I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright

If your thoughts are different, then please do let me know!