It is some time that I made a post. Both at personal and professional front, I have been quiet busy over the last fortnight.
In fact, last week was full of activities. The week started on Sunday the 22nd with the KMA Golden Jubilee valedictory function in which I received an honor award from the Kerala Governor, H.E Shri. R L Bhatia, for helping to build the institution of KMA and for contributing to the management movement in the state, it was indeed a soothing moment to have it received in front of friends, colleagues and corporate chieftains.
Later in the week, on Wednesday, there was the seventh installation meeting of Rotary Cochin International, a club I chartered in the year 2002. It was more happy an occasion because the seventh President is my colleague in Team Frontline Ltd, Mr.V. Prashanth Menon. I got the opportunity to introduce Prasanth Menon and from the feedback of the audience and from Prashanth, it seemed every one liked the intro.
On Thursday evening, with the President of ‘Better Cochin Response Group’ Shri. S Gopakumar, I called on the District Collector Mrs. Beena. I had known her earlier through our association with ISTD. Our President laid before her the catalytic efforts being put up by the Group to help Cochin manage of traffic issues and solid waste management issues. A project related to reducing the traffic jam at South over bridge was detailed to her.
On Friday morning Better Cochin Response Group had a breakfast meeting at Sarovaram Hotel on the NH Bye pass. In addition to 15 members from the group who are drawn from various walks of life, other personalities who had attended the meetings include the Deputy Mayor (the defacto Mayor) of Cochin, The Chief Town Planner of Cochin, The Executive Engineer of State PWD in charge of the city roads, The Engineering Section heads of Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) and Cochin Corporation. The discussion ensued regarding the projects on the reduction of traffic congestion at South over bridge, a cross-over bridge at Shanmugham Road, bus shelters with public convenience stations at MG Road etc. We also had the representatives of a major signage company based at Delhi who were invited to present their plans of helping out at these projects on Build Operate & Transfer (BOT) model. It was indeed a very fruitful meeting.
On Friday afternoon, there was the Core Group Meeting (CGM) of TiE Kerala Chapter. This was a good meeting with much improved attendance. Charter member retreat and other SIG functions came for discussions. As in other years, this time the Charter member retreat is planned on August 2 and 3rd at Marari Beach Resort Alleppey. I look forward to the same. It is quiet long that I spent some quality time with the Charter members.
Same day evening, we had the election and Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Kerala Management Association. This year’s election had been very tight and well fought between 15 nominations for eight seats; most of the nominees were big wigs of the State on the management front. Most of the members whom I had cast my votes had won, particularly, Dr. Jyan of BPCL, Mr. K N Shastry our current Secretary, Rajmohan Nair of LIC, S Gopa Kumar Head of the Factories of Apollo Tyres Ltd Kerala and Jayathilakan, formerly Chief Engineer of FACT who was my Secretary when I was the President in the year 2003 . I am very glad about the results. I also got an opportunity to felicitate the President & secretary, M/s Ravi and Shastry. Normally this is not done in KMA as our managing council members and past presidents are very miserly with words of praise. I wanted to break the tradition and I am glad that I did it. In fact, we gave a standing ovation to the President for successful KMA Year in 2007-08. The dinner at KMA was attended by more that 150 managers and I got compliments from many senior members for taking a bold step of felicitating the President and the Secretary.
All those things had happened in addition to my work front where there was series of meeting both internal & external. Our Sales Quarter is coming to an end by this month end and now we need to schedule quarterly review meetings and so on. At the office I got an opportunity to mentor Mr. Avinash Krishnan, CEO of Qanta consulting, a start up company trying to specialize in e-commerce, SEO and web based marketing. We have to meet again for some more times.
One event I missed was the Board meeting of Kerala Venture Capital Ltd. at Trivandrum on Friday last week as it clashed with other Cochin based activities.
Overall, it was a jam-packed week, full of activities. What made this week more special was that I could undertake or be part of lots of meaningful activities that are looking to meet some noble objectives. I do feel happy at the turn of events.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
THE SPIRITUALITY CIRCUS
In the last posting titled “My Mumbai Visit”, I had cited our experiences during our visit to the ‘happening city’ of Mumbai including that of the day when we had taken for Mumbai Darshan. I had mentioned how disappointed we were with the Mumbai darshan. The last part of it was visiting the Hare Krishna Mission temple @ Juhu/Versova. A small experience therein, I thought it worthy to be mentioned here.
Honestly, I do not know if this temple really qualifies to be a darshan point. There are so many historic spots that the travel agency could have taken us to. Anyway, we were there at their mercy.
It was indeed very crowded at the temple. We were queuing up to see the Deities. The main one was Krishna & Radha together and there were so many other sub-deities.
That day, in the evening, there was this special prayer and pooja connected with Narsingh avatar of Vishnu. Having nothing else to do (we were given more than an hour for the temple visit) and being pious people, we decided to sit through the prayer for sometime.
There was the ‘homkund’ and some of the Hare Krishna sanyasins were sitting around that. At another side, there was this main prayer singer with his harmonium surrounded by sub-singers (again, Hare Krishna sanyasins). And there were some more of them hovering around, the very look of them showed that they were senior sanyasins. They had a managerial look about them.
The prayer was about to start.
Then there were special dignitaries who were the invited guests of the mission. I saw about thirty of them, all decked in costly silk cloths, both men and women, sweating profusely. Behind these VIPs, were their ‘chelas’ (ADCs) with a requesting look of “Saheb / Sahiba is here, please get him/her to be seated properly please”.
And then I saw the politics of the body language. There were these ‘yajman’s of the Pooja (the senior managerial swamis) who were giving scant attention to the VIPs. ‘Who is bigger, you or me?’ was in their eyes. The junior swamis were trying to accommodate the VIPs but were embarrassed because the approval of the senior swamis did not come about. The VIPs were sweating and standing awkwardly not knowing what to do. The VIP chelas were getting terribly pale on their face because their bosses were not getting accommodated well. In between, the main prayer singer swami started singing the bhajans and the sub singers and other disciples started their accompaniment of that. There was this Pooja swami looking very angry because his chanting was not heard by any. Around the whole premise were so many people with high decibel noise around them.
Suddenly one heard the main prayer singer swami announcing that a missing boy was found, requesting his parents to come and take him home. There was this small child with the security guards wailing loudly for his mother. It was indeed chaotic.
It was the last place where one could feel the ‘bhakti’. All of it looked like a circus with lots of clowns around, doing things in their own way, without any synergy. Being from a background of very conservative and orthodox temples and rituals, I was really amused to see this expression of ‘bhakti’ by a movement that is very well known for their stereotype culture.
My impression of the organizational skills of the Hare Krishna mission seriously took a dent.
“Let us get out of this circus”, I told my family and we vacated the scene immediately.
What I saw was an over-expression of the materialistic definition of spirituality. Definitely this is not what our saints meant through the Vedas and the Upanishads that they created, to make the man a spiritual being. What is practiced by the cults is exactly opposite of what was preached by the Rishis. Any thinking person will be shocked to see the ostentatious, materialistic expression of spirituality that we see in places such as above.
I worry that these things only will degenerate man into lower beings.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
MY MUMBAI VISIT
It is after a fairly good gap of time that I had visited Mumbai. During the Time I was employed, I had plenty of opportunities to visit the city and get kicked by the sheer vibrancy that Mumbai (then Bombay) has to offer.
Mumbai is called the financial capital of India. Mumbaikar takes pride in calling the city as Shanghai of India. Mumbai city never sleeps and runs all time. Like it is said in the old Akbar Khan Movie, Hadsa, ‘Yahan roz roz kahi mod mod par hota hai koi na koi hadsa’ (At all times, somewhere, some incident happens). Mumbai has the good, the bad and the ugly in it. And above everything, Mumbai has Bollywood. The dream factories churn out hundreds of movies and TV serials every year with songs, dances and big melodrama in each. People get their nirvana by seeing from outside the homes of the Bachans, Kapoors, Chopras and the Khans (there are so many of them, all claiming to be King Khans!)
I went to visit Mumbai with my family. I told them that I am taking them to the largest yet the most industrious city in the country. My pep talk to them included comparisons such as ‘if you had not seen Mumbai, you had not seen India’, ‘before you see any mega polis, you must see Mumbai’ etc. I believe this really set up higher expectations!
I do not know whether there was expectation mismatch or there is true degeneration in Mumbai, we were not very impressed by what we saw. After seeing the city from the top and from the sides, my daughter said that all the apartments of Mumbai come with a free slum view. Very true indeed! Earlier, it was sea view! From time immemorial, there are chawls and the shanties in Mumbai. All are still there, growing big. Nothing had improved, really.
When you are in Mumbai, you spend maximum time for traveling. Time flies inside the buses, trains and the taxis. On a worse day, one could see morning, noon and the evening of the day, sitting in a taxi at Western (or Eastern) Express Highway of Mumbai. The wise men said, enjoy the journey. How true when you are in Mumbai! (particularly when you don’t have any other option). More than half your life in Mumbai would be wastefully spent on travel.
We spent a day for Mumbai Darshan. We did book in the top end Volvo bus run by Neeta travels (we were advised that they are the best). We chose a Sunday for the darshan so that we could avoid the traffic and see more. I must say it was very disappointing. The bus had a guide who was insincere and lazy. Though it was full of outsiders (including Chinese & westerners), he went on with his low tone in Hindi on a mic that was defective. He never accompanied us to the monuments to tell us its history. Thank God, I knew little bit on Mumbai and that saved the day for me, with my children.
During my interactions with a variety of mumbaikars, whether he is shopkeeper or a driver, an officer or a doctor, I saw a level of impersonality in everyone. And a level of insincerity too. Their body language tells that they are here to make a living and are not concerned with anything else. Whether it is a service or a product, it is delivered in an uninvolved style in Mumbai. Not serious. Not very concerned. The attitude is ‘theek hai, lelo na to phuto (OK, take it or leave it)’ like. Mad world it is, nobody has time for anything.
There are thousands of people everywhere. As soon as the sun rises, people come out of their foxholes. Every place, every road, every junction is a sea of people. If you would you like to see worthless lives all around, come to Mumbai. There are plenty of them. In fact, the majority of the sixteen million of them - the official population figure of Mumbai.
We squeezed in a day to travel to Pune, primarily to see OSHO’s ashram, and that is another story. On the way to Pune, sitting in the bus, a view that I had seen at Nerul, will everlastingly stay in my memory, that of an old (very old, wrinkled) woman cleaning her utensils in the black dark open sewage water that flows through in front of her hutment. That says it all, about the life and its worth!
It is true that Mumbai is the place in India that offers the best opportunity, for money to be made and to make dreams come true. Huge conglomerates are headquartered here. The big corporations, the banks, the stock exchanges, the ports, the bollywood, all are there to help make your day. However, there is plenty of scope for improvement for Mumbai, in everything it has. At present, Mumbai is nowhere near the city that it is compared with (Shanghai), For that to happen, Mumbai has miles to go and of course, that requires a big change in attitude too.
Mumbai is called the financial capital of India. Mumbaikar takes pride in calling the city as Shanghai of India. Mumbai city never sleeps and runs all time. Like it is said in the old Akbar Khan Movie, Hadsa, ‘Yahan roz roz kahi mod mod par hota hai koi na koi hadsa’ (At all times, somewhere, some incident happens). Mumbai has the good, the bad and the ugly in it. And above everything, Mumbai has Bollywood. The dream factories churn out hundreds of movies and TV serials every year with songs, dances and big melodrama in each. People get their nirvana by seeing from outside the homes of the Bachans, Kapoors, Chopras and the Khans (there are so many of them, all claiming to be King Khans!)
I went to visit Mumbai with my family. I told them that I am taking them to the largest yet the most industrious city in the country. My pep talk to them included comparisons such as ‘if you had not seen Mumbai, you had not seen India’, ‘before you see any mega polis, you must see Mumbai’ etc. I believe this really set up higher expectations!
I do not know whether there was expectation mismatch or there is true degeneration in Mumbai, we were not very impressed by what we saw. After seeing the city from the top and from the sides, my daughter said that all the apartments of Mumbai come with a free slum view. Very true indeed! Earlier, it was sea view! From time immemorial, there are chawls and the shanties in Mumbai. All are still there, growing big. Nothing had improved, really.
When you are in Mumbai, you spend maximum time for traveling. Time flies inside the buses, trains and the taxis. On a worse day, one could see morning, noon and the evening of the day, sitting in a taxi at Western (or Eastern) Express Highway of Mumbai. The wise men said, enjoy the journey. How true when you are in Mumbai! (particularly when you don’t have any other option). More than half your life in Mumbai would be wastefully spent on travel.
We spent a day for Mumbai Darshan. We did book in the top end Volvo bus run by Neeta travels (we were advised that they are the best). We chose a Sunday for the darshan so that we could avoid the traffic and see more. I must say it was very disappointing. The bus had a guide who was insincere and lazy. Though it was full of outsiders (including Chinese & westerners), he went on with his low tone in Hindi on a mic that was defective. He never accompanied us to the monuments to tell us its history. Thank God, I knew little bit on Mumbai and that saved the day for me, with my children.
During my interactions with a variety of mumbaikars, whether he is shopkeeper or a driver, an officer or a doctor, I saw a level of impersonality in everyone. And a level of insincerity too. Their body language tells that they are here to make a living and are not concerned with anything else. Whether it is a service or a product, it is delivered in an uninvolved style in Mumbai. Not serious. Not very concerned. The attitude is ‘theek hai, lelo na to phuto (OK, take it or leave it)’ like. Mad world it is, nobody has time for anything.
There are thousands of people everywhere. As soon as the sun rises, people come out of their foxholes. Every place, every road, every junction is a sea of people. If you would you like to see worthless lives all around, come to Mumbai. There are plenty of them. In fact, the majority of the sixteen million of them - the official population figure of Mumbai.
We squeezed in a day to travel to Pune, primarily to see OSHO’s ashram, and that is another story. On the way to Pune, sitting in the bus, a view that I had seen at Nerul, will everlastingly stay in my memory, that of an old (very old, wrinkled) woman cleaning her utensils in the black dark open sewage water that flows through in front of her hutment. That says it all, about the life and its worth!
It is true that Mumbai is the place in India that offers the best opportunity, for money to be made and to make dreams come true. Huge conglomerates are headquartered here. The big corporations, the banks, the stock exchanges, the ports, the bollywood, all are there to help make your day. However, there is plenty of scope for improvement for Mumbai, in everything it has. At present, Mumbai is nowhere near the city that it is compared with (Shanghai), For that to happen, Mumbai has miles to go and of course, that requires a big change in attitude too.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
THE ‘POLICE RAJ’ IN KOCHI
There are still countries in the world controlled by military and armed forces. One understands that living in countries such as Myanmar is such a misery for its people. However, in a democracy such as India too, there are several instances of the police raj, employed by brutal undemocratic rulers, in many States. The exploits of police in places such as Nandigram in Bengal and many parts of Bihar & Orissa still break our heart. It is either the over-action by the armed forces or their absolute inactivity, which gives warmongers a free day.
I see something similar happening in Kochi, Kerala. This has been there for more than a year. Everywhere one sees cops. This doesn’t mean that they are everywhere trying to keep up the law and order or catching the thieves. They are everywhere on the highway, the traffic junction and at different unobtrusive places in the guise of trying to catch drunken driving, for using mobile phone while driving, wrong parking etc.
Some time back I was driving back to home after picking up my German friend from the airport. It was night. On the way down, which was about 30 KMs, we were stopped at 3 places by the cops to smell us to see whether the driver had (it was me driving) taken drinks. My friend was astonished to see so many cops on the road. Being a regular visitor to Kerala (he visits at least once an year) he was amazed to see this change and asked me why it is happening. I told him about the increased efficiency of Kochi cops in catching people for small and silly trivia and the target that they had taken to increase the state exchequers with money collected from the fines that they levy. It is indeed true. The official collections of fines on these types of offences had increased from Rs. 7 million in 2006 to Rs. 27 million in year 2007 for Kochi alone. Please do not mistake that suddenly the offence went up in Kochi. Nothing like that. It is that the target of collection had gone up. When this is the official amount, you must also take an approximation about the ‘unofficial’ collections that they do. I am not venturing to quantify that. Suffice to say that the amount is nothing small. The only difference is that it gets distributed.
It is indeed a fact that the cops are overdoing it. In many instances, they are causing interruption to public and vehicular movements. The nuisance value is very high. People and commuters silently suffer.
The method employed by the cops to catch the drunken drivers is so un-scientific. Mostly they do not employ the breath analyzer but the cop smells out whether the driver is drunk. Therefore if the driver has taken smaller doses, or he has taken milder forms of alcohol (such as wine) or if he had taken drinks yesterday only, does not matter. He gets caught and then the hell starts for him. It takes not less than 24 hours to complete the process of booking (the traffic cop station, the hospital, the FIR etc all). To top it, the misbehavior of the lowly placed constables! These guys never know a good word to speak. It looks like that it is mandatory for one to know all the foul word in the language for one to become a cop. I was indeed amazed by this unique methodology of catching drunken driving. I think all the cops who smells out would immensely qualify to work in the police dog squad, with their amazing lung and nose power!
Today in the local daily I read the lamenting of the Inspector General of Police Mrs. Sreelekha IPS. She had confirmed through writing in the public medium (news paper) that the cops are doing a terribly wrong thing and it does not augur well for the image that the police must keep. If an IG cannot take on the cops, think about such docile and powerless citizens as us?
What we see happening here does not actually happen in any developing society. In fact in countries like US, UK, Singapore etc one hardly sees the cops of the roads. But when there is an offence, they are immediately there. Such is the system and their efficiency. Most of the cops are well behaved and they explain to you everything in details. Compare that with what we see here. People dread talking to constables and inspectors, as they do not know what to expect from them.
It is such a pity, living in cities such as Kochi. All one can pray is “be God with you”
I see something similar happening in Kochi, Kerala. This has been there for more than a year. Everywhere one sees cops. This doesn’t mean that they are everywhere trying to keep up the law and order or catching the thieves. They are everywhere on the highway, the traffic junction and at different unobtrusive places in the guise of trying to catch drunken driving, for using mobile phone while driving, wrong parking etc.
Some time back I was driving back to home after picking up my German friend from the airport. It was night. On the way down, which was about 30 KMs, we were stopped at 3 places by the cops to smell us to see whether the driver had (it was me driving) taken drinks. My friend was astonished to see so many cops on the road. Being a regular visitor to Kerala (he visits at least once an year) he was amazed to see this change and asked me why it is happening. I told him about the increased efficiency of Kochi cops in catching people for small and silly trivia and the target that they had taken to increase the state exchequers with money collected from the fines that they levy. It is indeed true. The official collections of fines on these types of offences had increased from Rs. 7 million in 2006 to Rs. 27 million in year 2007 for Kochi alone. Please do not mistake that suddenly the offence went up in Kochi. Nothing like that. It is that the target of collection had gone up. When this is the official amount, you must also take an approximation about the ‘unofficial’ collections that they do. I am not venturing to quantify that. Suffice to say that the amount is nothing small. The only difference is that it gets distributed.
It is indeed a fact that the cops are overdoing it. In many instances, they are causing interruption to public and vehicular movements. The nuisance value is very high. People and commuters silently suffer.
The method employed by the cops to catch the drunken drivers is so un-scientific. Mostly they do not employ the breath analyzer but the cop smells out whether the driver is drunk. Therefore if the driver has taken smaller doses, or he has taken milder forms of alcohol (such as wine) or if he had taken drinks yesterday only, does not matter. He gets caught and then the hell starts for him. It takes not less than 24 hours to complete the process of booking (the traffic cop station, the hospital, the FIR etc all). To top it, the misbehavior of the lowly placed constables! These guys never know a good word to speak. It looks like that it is mandatory for one to know all the foul word in the language for one to become a cop. I was indeed amazed by this unique methodology of catching drunken driving. I think all the cops who smells out would immensely qualify to work in the police dog squad, with their amazing lung and nose power!
Today in the local daily I read the lamenting of the Inspector General of Police Mrs. Sreelekha IPS. She had confirmed through writing in the public medium (news paper) that the cops are doing a terribly wrong thing and it does not augur well for the image that the police must keep. If an IG cannot take on the cops, think about such docile and powerless citizens as us?
What we see happening here does not actually happen in any developing society. In fact in countries like US, UK, Singapore etc one hardly sees the cops of the roads. But when there is an offence, they are immediately there. Such is the system and their efficiency. Most of the cops are well behaved and they explain to you everything in details. Compare that with what we see here. People dread talking to constables and inspectors, as they do not know what to expect from them.
It is such a pity, living in cities such as Kochi. All one can pray is “be God with you”
Thursday, May 15, 2008
FENCE EATING THE CROPS
For about a week, the Kerala vernacular dailies and TV channels are having a field time. They are behind the story of Santhosh Madhavan alias Swami Amrita Chaitanya. Having plenty of masala, the stories of his fraudulent activities, get rich quick methodologies and his relationship with the higher-ups in politics, cinema and in police are sensationalizing Malayalis (as usual !).
From time to time, plenty of fraudsters had appeared here. They had come in many forms including the NBFC companies, Time Share companies, Jasmine/Teak Plantations, Network companies, Goat/Cow firms…. the list is endless. Most of these nefarious endeavors had received political patronage. In this current case, there are former ministers involved. Political patronage, in turn had resulted in Police patronage. Our friend, a college dropout from an interior village in Idukki, had prospered to a billionaire spiritual person, in less than 8 years. If the press reports are an indication, it looks like Santhosh Swami is involved in shady transactions of above INR 5000 crores. Tremendous!
Like the famous humorist and originator of ‘Ottan Thullal’ Kunjan Nambiar wrote, kanakam (money) and kamini (woman) are interlinked in such cases. Many men and women have been willingly part of it, simply due to the lure of money. But it is always the poor and downtrodden who really suffer out of the misdemeanors of such quick buck fraudsters. The news reports of swami looking after the stay and education of about 8 minor girl students, only to be used for sexual gratification for himself and his ‘highly connected’ friends, are repulsive.
Over the last two decades or so, I have been observing the frequent rush of Malayalis into the waiting hands of swamis, tantrics and God men. Most of them do this out of disappointment in life. Malayali’s expectations have reached unreasonable limits. But he is not willing to sincerely work towards it. Instead, he takes short cuts and quick buck routes, only to lose out in the end. The resultant frustration is what takes him to God men, astrologers, temples, charismatic prayers, group bhajans, evangelism etc. Unreasonable craving and greed can take people only to such directions. To put it bluntly, Kerala is slowly turning into a sick society.
I am deeply worried about the erosion of professionalism in police department. Police is here to look after the law and order. They are here to protect the citizenry from money crazy fraudsters, robbers, terrorists and the like. Instead, one sees, reads and hears stories of senior police officials working as henchmen to fraudsters, unholy God men and corrupts politicians. This is a classical example of fence eating the crop. Any one can imagine what would happen if police and army, who are supposed to protect the citizen, are protecting the criminals instead. This would lead to corruption, nepotism and lawlessness and then to anarchy, and finally to the complete disintegration of the society.
Whither Kerala?
From time to time, plenty of fraudsters had appeared here. They had come in many forms including the NBFC companies, Time Share companies, Jasmine/Teak Plantations, Network companies, Goat/Cow firms…. the list is endless. Most of these nefarious endeavors had received political patronage. In this current case, there are former ministers involved. Political patronage, in turn had resulted in Police patronage. Our friend, a college dropout from an interior village in Idukki, had prospered to a billionaire spiritual person, in less than 8 years. If the press reports are an indication, it looks like Santhosh Swami is involved in shady transactions of above INR 5000 crores. Tremendous!
Like the famous humorist and originator of ‘Ottan Thullal’ Kunjan Nambiar wrote, kanakam (money) and kamini (woman) are interlinked in such cases. Many men and women have been willingly part of it, simply due to the lure of money. But it is always the poor and downtrodden who really suffer out of the misdemeanors of such quick buck fraudsters. The news reports of swami looking after the stay and education of about 8 minor girl students, only to be used for sexual gratification for himself and his ‘highly connected’ friends, are repulsive.
Over the last two decades or so, I have been observing the frequent rush of Malayalis into the waiting hands of swamis, tantrics and God men. Most of them do this out of disappointment in life. Malayali’s expectations have reached unreasonable limits. But he is not willing to sincerely work towards it. Instead, he takes short cuts and quick buck routes, only to lose out in the end. The resultant frustration is what takes him to God men, astrologers, temples, charismatic prayers, group bhajans, evangelism etc. Unreasonable craving and greed can take people only to such directions. To put it bluntly, Kerala is slowly turning into a sick society.
I am deeply worried about the erosion of professionalism in police department. Police is here to look after the law and order. They are here to protect the citizenry from money crazy fraudsters, robbers, terrorists and the like. Instead, one sees, reads and hears stories of senior police officials working as henchmen to fraudsters, unholy God men and corrupts politicians. This is a classical example of fence eating the crop. Any one can imagine what would happen if police and army, who are supposed to protect the citizen, are protecting the criminals instead. This would lead to corruption, nepotism and lawlessness and then to anarchy, and finally to the complete disintegration of the society.
Whither Kerala?
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
THE PLENTIFULNESS OF NOTHING
A marriage function took me back to my village. Being away from it for long, I was meeting many of my relatives, friends and acquaintances after a long time. I was as happy like them to meet again. And our conversations went back on time, to the extent of three to four decades.
Living in a village had its own charms. However, that was not my opinion those days. Then I wanted to get out of it as fast as possible. I considered living in a village as very tough and opportunity less.
Nothing was big and flashy as in cities; vehicles, fashion, buildings and offices, hustle & bustle etc. I was then very enamored by the city living and wanted to be part of it. Eventually that did happen. Career took me to live in some of cosmopolitan cities and the big metros of the country and the world. After going through the experiences of big metro living, I wanted to move into a city of something of a lesser dimension, and I did so.
Despite that, one is still undergoing the hustle bustle of the city and there seems no escape.
Back in my village, vivid pictures of childhood filled my thoughts. Life was never formal and it had a kind of easiness going with it. Activities and relationships never stressed out one. Life was casual and it did not evince undue expectations.
Including mine, many families around us had very frugal living. But we did not feel it as frugal then. Demands were less. No one worried about the food, clothing, shelter. It was simply there, not in its enormity, but in its basic form, of course. The beauty of it was that in spite of the nothingness of the frugality, every one in the village was willing to share whatever they had. In the aspect of giving, there was this feeling of richness and plentiful. We shared as it plenty existed and we had no sense of loss when the resources exhausted. Nobody stored anything for himself before giving. Whatever one had, one shared, that too with complete happiness and surely, without any bitterness. We knew it would come again and in fact, it did. There were no worries on that count. It was good, tension free living, full of sharing and happiness.
And what do I see in the cities? Here every one behaves as if he is a pauper. This is in spite of the fact that he/she has plenty. People amass wealth and resources in abundance and in extra ordinary proposition. In fact city guys hoard resources, to the extent of inflicting the villagers and the poor. But in the matter of giving, the city guy behaves as if he has nothing. This nothingness of plentiful comes to him by default. He is never happy in sharing or giving. All that a city dweller does is to hoard and amass.
For the city guy, who is stressed out, is always anxious and fearful. He fears that his resources would erode fast and he clings on to it. He craves for more and more. Actually, it is the mindset. He is indeed a pauper in the mind. He simply cannot give or share.
What is the result? He is never happy and contended. Clinging on to his wealth, unhappily, he dies as a have-not.
I recollect the writing of the famous poet. Translated to English it goes like this, the city, full of drama and the act, indeed lives in misery and the village is plentiful by its virtues.
How true, how true!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
EMOTION MANAGEMENT
During my days of employment, I had come across Ms.Ragini Gupta, a smart, conscientious, industrious and caring girl in the marcom dept’ of the company that I worked. In spite of these qualities, she never got invited to parties and get-togethers conducted by her friends and colleagues. When checked, I was told that Ragini had a fiery temper and she was an angry young woman. Nobody wanted deal with her and be with her. Such a caring an industrious girl but got isolated due to her negative emotions!
The other day my wife told me the story of her neighbour Anand Menon, a gifted kid, creative and intelligent. He was such a dream child and every mother wanted him to be her son. But late in life, she found Anand making a living out of repairing electrical appliances in his apartments. What happened, she enquired. She was told that Anand snapped when his father walked out of his house when he was 15.
In my brother’s company there was this brilliant accountant, Ajit Kumar who had an IQ 0f 160+. But whenever promotion came, he was passed over. I asked why. My brother replied that Ajit never cared for others. He is such a selfish fellow that nobody had sympathy for him.
In all these cases, you will notice that the person’s downfall was due to the negative emotions pocessed and expressed by him/her.
What are the negative emotions that are so powerful enough to block the progress of one’s life and career? Fear, anger, rage, jealousy, frustration, sadness, anxiety, depression etc are some of them. These extreme emotions when taken into the head result in spontaneous, irrational decisions and actions that mess up one’s life. Because negative emotions produces negative words and deeds, it dearly affects interpersonal relationship and the social fabric and therefore, it calls for managing negative emotions.
Most of the time, instead of managing the extreme emotions, we try to suppress them.
Suppressed emotions manifest later in life in the form of health challenges such as migraine, asthma, palpitations, BP, ulcer, arthritis, depression, mental aberrations etc. And these are extremely dangerous for one’s health.
Earlier in organizations, in the selection process, intelligence quotient (IQ) was given high consideration. IQ, which is cognitive in nature, is tested through problem solving abilities, logical and analytical skills and is not connected to any social and emotional aspects and therefore do not help individuals in managing people.
David Wechsler, the famous American psychologist, gives the best definition of intelligence. He says intelligence the aggregate capacity of an individual to act purposefully, think rationally and deal effectively with his environment. Not only on IQ (cognitive abilities), Wechsler says that a person must be evaluated based on his/her non-cognitive abilities too.
In the cases of Ragini Gupta, Anand Menon and Ajit Kumar, one could surmise that while IQ is important, what makes one successful with people, group and organizations is the emotional balance that one apply in trying situations. Thus we come to the importance of emotional intelligence.
Emotional Intelligence is defined as a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.
How do we manage with our negative emotions?
Before we go into it, we must have emotional self-awareness. This is about recognizing one’s own feelings and seeing how they impact one’s performance. This leads to an accurate self-assessment of recognizing one’s strengths and weaknesses. The assessment will boost one’s self-confidence. Through studies, it was proved that accurate self-assessment is a hallmark of superior performance. Once we are self-aware, we can deal with our emotions.
After being self-aware, we should start understanding the social awareness too. That needs empathy. Empathy makes us understand other’s emotions. This will give us a service orientation to recognize other’s un-stated needs and concerns and the ability to read undercurrents of emotion and political realities of a group.
Once we are self-aware and socially aware, then we can get into the management of the emotions. This is achieved through applying emotional self-control, showing adaptability, having self-initiative, attending to responsibilities, by striving to improve oneself and by displaying trustworthiness to others.
Management of emotions in social domain is all about relationship management. This is done through developing others, communicating, resolving conflicts, practicing team work and collaboration competencies at group level and by showing leadership abilities (motivating, influencing, inspiring etc),
How do we achieve emotional wisdom?
We need to understand that emotions play a major role in our head. This definitely could mess up our words and deeds. So, instead of allowing emotions to go to the head, take it on your body. This can convert emotional feelings to physical sensations on the body that would not impact on the thoughts. How true is the Chinese proverb when it says that you cannot prevent the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from nesting in your hair.
To take the impact of emotions on our body, we must have a healthy body lest the body would be affected and that would result in our health going down. It is therefore important to care for one’s body. Physical fitness can reduce the impact of emotions on the body. To acquire emotional wisdom, keeping the body fit is absolutely important.
We should build upon the emotional muscle every day by taking time to focus on emotional experiences. Slowly we should go through the emotions that we feel and by doing so, we must master them. Practicing is the key. It is something similar to swimming. The more you swim and learn, the better the swimmer you are!
We should be accepting of all that we feel. Neither should we suppress our emotions nor, reject it.
By opening your heart to others, you can apply the empathy in social interactions. When you take action, do those things that make you feel useful and relevant in the society.
Forever, create an attitude of gratitude in you. We should be thankful to the world and its inhabitants for making our life worth living.
Applying humour in words and deeds can help increase our emotional wisdom. A person with the highest EQ (emotional quotient) is the one who has the ability to laugh at himself without inhibition and shame.
Examples
US Navy study reveals that most effective leaders were warmer, outgoing, emotionally expressive, dramatic and sociable.
Study in retail segment had found that a store managers’ ability to manage feelings and stress of his sub-ordinates is directly related to net profit, sales per sq ft, sales per employee etc.
A survey of buyers found that apparel sales reps were valued primarily for their empathy. The buyers reported that they wanted reps who could listen and understand what they wanted.
In a research at an insurance major, it was observed that new salesman who were optimists sold 37% more insurance in their first 2 years than did pessimists. When the company hired a special group of individuals who scored high on optimism but failed the normal screening, they outsold the pessimists by 21% in the first year and 57% in the second year.
Research in leadership reveals that almost 90% of success in leadership is attributable to EQ.
Conclusion
The importance of emotional intelligence in people management and situation management is extremely high. Application of EQ had given better turnover and higher profitability to companies. Leaders with high EQ are much more successful than the rest. It is felt that in every field, EQ is two times as important as the cognitive abilities. Based on the cornerstones of empathy and optimism, EQ has come to be identified as the winning intelligence.
The other day my wife told me the story of her neighbour Anand Menon, a gifted kid, creative and intelligent. He was such a dream child and every mother wanted him to be her son. But late in life, she found Anand making a living out of repairing electrical appliances in his apartments. What happened, she enquired. She was told that Anand snapped when his father walked out of his house when he was 15.
In my brother’s company there was this brilliant accountant, Ajit Kumar who had an IQ 0f 160+. But whenever promotion came, he was passed over. I asked why. My brother replied that Ajit never cared for others. He is such a selfish fellow that nobody had sympathy for him.
In all these cases, you will notice that the person’s downfall was due to the negative emotions pocessed and expressed by him/her.
What are the negative emotions that are so powerful enough to block the progress of one’s life and career? Fear, anger, rage, jealousy, frustration, sadness, anxiety, depression etc are some of them. These extreme emotions when taken into the head result in spontaneous, irrational decisions and actions that mess up one’s life. Because negative emotions produces negative words and deeds, it dearly affects interpersonal relationship and the social fabric and therefore, it calls for managing negative emotions.
Most of the time, instead of managing the extreme emotions, we try to suppress them.
Suppressed emotions manifest later in life in the form of health challenges such as migraine, asthma, palpitations, BP, ulcer, arthritis, depression, mental aberrations etc. And these are extremely dangerous for one’s health.
Earlier in organizations, in the selection process, intelligence quotient (IQ) was given high consideration. IQ, which is cognitive in nature, is tested through problem solving abilities, logical and analytical skills and is not connected to any social and emotional aspects and therefore do not help individuals in managing people.
David Wechsler, the famous American psychologist, gives the best definition of intelligence. He says intelligence the aggregate capacity of an individual to act purposefully, think rationally and deal effectively with his environment. Not only on IQ (cognitive abilities), Wechsler says that a person must be evaluated based on his/her non-cognitive abilities too.
In the cases of Ragini Gupta, Anand Menon and Ajit Kumar, one could surmise that while IQ is important, what makes one successful with people, group and organizations is the emotional balance that one apply in trying situations. Thus we come to the importance of emotional intelligence.
Emotional Intelligence is defined as a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.
How do we manage with our negative emotions?
Before we go into it, we must have emotional self-awareness. This is about recognizing one’s own feelings and seeing how they impact one’s performance. This leads to an accurate self-assessment of recognizing one’s strengths and weaknesses. The assessment will boost one’s self-confidence. Through studies, it was proved that accurate self-assessment is a hallmark of superior performance. Once we are self-aware, we can deal with our emotions.
After being self-aware, we should start understanding the social awareness too. That needs empathy. Empathy makes us understand other’s emotions. This will give us a service orientation to recognize other’s un-stated needs and concerns and the ability to read undercurrents of emotion and political realities of a group.
Once we are self-aware and socially aware, then we can get into the management of the emotions. This is achieved through applying emotional self-control, showing adaptability, having self-initiative, attending to responsibilities, by striving to improve oneself and by displaying trustworthiness to others.
Management of emotions in social domain is all about relationship management. This is done through developing others, communicating, resolving conflicts, practicing team work and collaboration competencies at group level and by showing leadership abilities (motivating, influencing, inspiring etc),
How do we achieve emotional wisdom?
We need to understand that emotions play a major role in our head. This definitely could mess up our words and deeds. So, instead of allowing emotions to go to the head, take it on your body. This can convert emotional feelings to physical sensations on the body that would not impact on the thoughts. How true is the Chinese proverb when it says that you cannot prevent the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from nesting in your hair.
To take the impact of emotions on our body, we must have a healthy body lest the body would be affected and that would result in our health going down. It is therefore important to care for one’s body. Physical fitness can reduce the impact of emotions on the body. To acquire emotional wisdom, keeping the body fit is absolutely important.
We should build upon the emotional muscle every day by taking time to focus on emotional experiences. Slowly we should go through the emotions that we feel and by doing so, we must master them. Practicing is the key. It is something similar to swimming. The more you swim and learn, the better the swimmer you are!
We should be accepting of all that we feel. Neither should we suppress our emotions nor, reject it.
By opening your heart to others, you can apply the empathy in social interactions. When you take action, do those things that make you feel useful and relevant in the society.
Forever, create an attitude of gratitude in you. We should be thankful to the world and its inhabitants for making our life worth living.
Applying humour in words and deeds can help increase our emotional wisdom. A person with the highest EQ (emotional quotient) is the one who has the ability to laugh at himself without inhibition and shame.
Examples
US Navy study reveals that most effective leaders were warmer, outgoing, emotionally expressive, dramatic and sociable.
Study in retail segment had found that a store managers’ ability to manage feelings and stress of his sub-ordinates is directly related to net profit, sales per sq ft, sales per employee etc.
A survey of buyers found that apparel sales reps were valued primarily for their empathy. The buyers reported that they wanted reps who could listen and understand what they wanted.
In a research at an insurance major, it was observed that new salesman who were optimists sold 37% more insurance in their first 2 years than did pessimists. When the company hired a special group of individuals who scored high on optimism but failed the normal screening, they outsold the pessimists by 21% in the first year and 57% in the second year.
Research in leadership reveals that almost 90% of success in leadership is attributable to EQ.
Conclusion
The importance of emotional intelligence in people management and situation management is extremely high. Application of EQ had given better turnover and higher profitability to companies. Leaders with high EQ are much more successful than the rest. It is felt that in every field, EQ is two times as important as the cognitive abilities. Based on the cornerstones of empathy and optimism, EQ has come to be identified as the winning intelligence.
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