Reva

If there was ever a girl who loved style, it was Reva. Her clothes, shoes and accessories were always perfectly matched as she gallivanted around at college. Her face would have minimal make-up but then her skin was blemishless and perfect, evidently well – taken care of. Her nails would be long and curved, painted with colours and designs even as others simply blunted their growing nails. She loved fashion, just because it was fashionable. It was never an attempt of showing off to hide insecurities, or maybe making heads turn to bolster her ego, it was the purest love that drove her to be stylish.

                She was a simple girl, as simple as adults could be in a convoluted world. Her likes and dislikes may have been clear, just as she knew her heart, but who knows what the heart knows and why. She loved her friends, who enjoyed the cheerful bubbly company of Reva. Her concern at other’s distress and attempts to solve even the smallest of problems which did not need solving were simply what her heart dictated. College friends like any other group of human beings are capable of fondness as well as incredible cruelty and Reva was often laughed at, and less respected for who she was.

                In her trueness, she was also in love. The person of interest was definitely in love with her too, but that was evident only partially, only sometimes. For the rest of the days, he was an absent force, as he chose priorities that did not include Reva. Why did he never call, we asked. “He does not enjoy talking over the phone much”. Why is he not choosing a career which will allow Reva to work too, we wondered. “He is passionate about … it is his life and I must adjust to it. Reva’s answers were always devoted to her beloved, almost like the mythical Meera praising Krishna who would never be hers.

                Simplicity is often mistaken for foolishness, especially where the latter trait is predominant. Yet Reva was not stupid. She knew the consequences of her devotion which were contrary to the empowered feminists of our college. When the empowered women asked her “why are you wasting your time with this loser? Instead of planning your life around him when you should be planning yours?”, Reva merely smiled. Then were her friends who were believers of the Golden Mean. ‘Marriage’, they proclaimed, ‘is a matter of mutual understanding and compromise’. Clearly when this guy does not care about your life and needs, why are you running after him, they insinuated. It was almost a crime, pardonable in the lower uneducated village bumpkins, but completely unbecoming of Reva.

                Reva had her moment of doubt too, which she confided in me, since she sensed a little less underlying criticism. Am I really throwing away me life, she wondered? There are so many ideas I have, and am capable to working on, am I being foolish in sacrificing them all? There was little to comment or clarify, she knew the answers as well as the questions. Yet she never acted on them. It required too much courage perhaps? Or perhaps it was not the courageous decision; to follow her heart would be mark of true bravery.

                College ended. Towards the end, it had become impossible to keep track of Reva’s fights and break-ups with her guy. One day they would decide to separate, and the next they would be together, proclaiming eternal love which would overcome all differences. It was becoming too complicated and messy. We kept reassuring her that all would work out well, and proximity would ease the strain of a long distance relationship. Things would work out when they were in the same city. In our hearts we prayed for the final break-up to happen as soon as possible.

                The funny part of being in love is that one grows to accept pain. Similar behaviour from a stranger does not elicit as much pain because there is far less longing. In love one begins to accept that the path of being together is deeply inter-twined with severe pain. So much so that one even begins to ignore its impact. After all, pain is our body and our mind’s way to communicate that something untoward is on, so that we are able to address it and relieve ourselves of pain. Alas, lovers never have that luxury. They are doomed to pain, till they begin to love it. And that’s where Reva had reached.

                Time flies at its own pace, and perhaps only mocks the pain of lovers. As the calendar pages flipped, we settled down in different cities and began earning our livings. Reva was still with that guy, we commented or heard in a get-together of friends.  The magic of distance moulded the impression of her life and we almost began to believe by telling ourselves that everything would work out great since they were now in the same city.

                The marriage came as a surprise. Deep in our hearts, it was more of a shock than a surprise, a reminder of an unpleasant truth which had popped out. We saw the pictures on facebook, she looked just the same, yet glowing in the bridal attire. The dancing, the mehndi, the garlands, the pheras, the celebrations were picture perfect. No money or efforts had been spared for a beautiful marriage. Of course the unpleasantness of dowry discussions, or gifts, or pointless squabbles or the financial worries never show, the photos are our way of remembering things as they should have happened.

The warning signs were evident even in this new start. There was no honeymoon since the groom had no time and was off on training. Reva was welcomed in the in-laws house, an outsider to be treated with care in a small town, while the husband paid occasional visits.

I met her a few days ago. She had changed so much. She narrated that there was one beauty parlour in the whole area and going there was strictly taboo. So was painting her nails or wearing make-up. Except for salwar kameezes and sarees she was not allowed to wear anything else. Of course she was loved by her in-laws, but were finally answerable to the society they had lived in for so many years. Her husband loved her very much too and often defended her say, when he came home. In his infrequent trips, said her furtive glance. I have been waking up at 5 in the morning to cook and clean since there are no maids at home. I tried to put on my most encouraging face. To tell myself that Reva chose this, and one should be happy for one’s choice. Isn’t that what empowerment was about – to be able to choose in one’s life and then live by those choices? ‘I have spoken to him about moving to a different town where we can live the way we want to, maids, travel et al. He doesn’t want to leave his parents alone, but still he is thinking about it because he loves me so much. Once we move, things will be good and we will settle.’ Eternal hope, the elixir that we all wish to find was always abundant with Reva. I hugged her tightly and wished her all the happiness that the stars could bring.

               

Inefficient and Ineffective

Corporate parlance has a penchant for creating jargons out of common place English words. Simple words like strategy, development, synergy, commonality, value, propositions, delivery, instinct have been twisted and maligned to acquire meanings far beyond what one would ascribe. As a consequence, important words lose its meaning and become just words.

In a brief digression, I would like to point out that advertising has a similar effect on our minds as well – initially there is a heightened response to a particular object, just like our ears prick up when we hear synergy the first few times. Then we realize the trick and we negate all value to the same object being advertised, or perhaps even to the medium. So our minds tend to believe that all brands of shampoo are the same, and hence not worthy of advertising, and also, that TV as a medium is not something we can trust. Quite similarly to the smirk in your head at the last heard synergy and the consequent discounting of the speaker, even though he may be saying something of value. The mere fact that he has resorted to jargon reduces his importance, and discredits his content.

Anyway, the words efficiency and effectiveness have also undergone the same assault in the organizational speech. Initially there was a lot of emphasis on doing things efficiently. It basically meant that a huge number of things needed to be achieved in a very short span of time, and the person who excelled in this in a relative scale among others, was the most efficient. Numbers mattered and scale mattered. Then, people woke up the fact that doing a large number of activities may not necessarily be the most optimal way of approaching things. Balancing doing the maximum possible number with other things which will ensure that the task can be carried on in the medium term future became more important! Thus, effectiveness replaced efficiency.

In reality, organisations today too are more efficient than effective. The reason for this problem is a rather convoluted one. Effectiveness can only be measured against an overall shared context, and in a large set-up of individuals working across geographies (even different offices in the same city count), there is no shared context. Hence what is effective in a context, can easily become an effective decision in the larger scheme of things and vice-versa. I remember the conversation which brought up this idea. I was discussing the recruitment of an individual known to my colleague. He was a very good communicator, but possessed almost no other skills – managerial or emotional to be hired in any organization. And this individual had been hired in a senior role compared to his classmates in a reputed firm! My colleague had moaned – “oh, organisations are such an ineffective structure of doing anything”.

Sounds familiar? One might argue that given the communication skills it may be difficult for an interviewer to discern other personality traits, but the crux of the problem remains. Apart from the problem of the shared context, there is the challenge of incongruent goals. Many a time, goals of an organization and thus an individual are aligned to what the company wants to achieve financially. It has little basis in everyday reality around. All facets of reality which are not congruent with the goals are to be worked around, over or cajoled to comply. For example – An organization believes that around 8% attrition is good for the organization and any more is hazardous. Even though the labour market might be growing with lucrative opportunities leading to attrition of 25%, the goal remains low. It is almost as if reality is denied or does not exist.

Yet a third problem lies in the circle of influence dilemma. Specialisation is inevitable for any company. Our worlds are too complex for individuals to assimilate all the necessary information. Hence specialization is imperative, which is also linked with a limited circle of influence. The sales manager says that I am able to convince the sales team about my issues, but the marketing team seems to inhabit a different planet. It is an outcome of not having a shared context, but the impact is exacerbated due to the limitations of bureaucracy. Similarly, it is a common perception that people leave jobs and managers. At the same time managers are often not able to pay enough attention to their teams despite wanting to, being caught up in hundreds of transactions which are the function of organisational processes. As an HR manager, I may speak to the manager to ask him to spend more time with his team, but unless one also works with other stakeholders to reconfigure some of the processes such that the manager has free time, all the advice and coaxing is doomed for failure. However this step would never be discussed for it lies beyond the scope of control or the circle of influence.

Not all set-ups are ineffective in its operations. Small and medium businesses, despite so many larger hurdles paving their way can be more effective because they have a lesser share of the above three maladies. Similarly NGOs, political organisations, or even military operations run more smoothly and achieve results despite adverse environmental conditions. Perhaps instead of gleaning insights through case studies from these sectors, corporates would do better to imbibe a simple philosophy -  remember the overall goal and deal with the environment. Everything else, as they put it is bereft of real impact or simply pointless.

Ecosystems

The universe and all its elements hangs in the perfect suspended balance. Any attempt to change any of its bits does result in a realignment or reconfiguration of some or all the aspects of any ecosystem to restore balance. And given the self-replicating nature of our world, every ecosystem actually refers to every system – every person, every group, every home, every community, every relationship.

We often do not think about our world in balance. If we did, we would not be in such a haste to change so many aspects about it, because we would relate a potential gain with a potential loss. I for instance, have been proudly cooking for two meals a day for my husband and myself for the last few months. While I am happy about this achievement, I also realize that I have not been going to the gym as frequently as I used to. My routine has adjusted itself to attain a balance which I do not particularly like. For me to go back to gymming regularly, something else will need to change – either music or television.

Similar is the case with many of our lives decisions. We see how the new job will ensure higher cash, while forgetting the higher travel time. If we long for the impact of moving to a newer city for a higher standard of life, we discount the relationships forged in the older city and their impact on our well-being. No wonder then, traditionalists also warn against the perils of change, to the younger and the inexperienced. And yet, to not change is to become dogmatic, which is a far greater peril.

I often wonder why the question of balance does not crop up in industry? Somehow, there is an assumption that even though there will be higher growth of markets across the country and perhaps the world, there are no adjusting negative influences it will bring about. No matter how much coal or oil is mined, there is no effect upon the earth. With heightened awareness about global warming and concern over the changing weather patterns, there is definitely some concern generated. Yet, industrial decisions continue to be taken in a vacuum, independent of their potential impact on other aspects like the community or the environment. It is almost like there is no ecosystem that the industries belong to, they believe themselves to have risen over such notions. And yet, an entity which does not belong to an ecosystem is merely an aberration, a pathological one.

What is more significant is that industries only operate in a certain ecosystem. In today debate to globalize, only monetary comparisons of ecosystems around the world seem to happen – it is cheaper to make software in India than US, so let’s move. Yet the ecosystem of US – the educational structure leading to very few engineers, or the rising cost of wages was never pondered upon by industrialists or policy makers. It is inevitable that the ecosystem strike back to restore balance, which is what we see in the migration protectionism today.

Similarly every country has an ecosystem with all the different entities which operate within itself. All analysis with regard to demographic quotient, savings rate, increasing FDI would not have the least bit of impact without first building the underlying ecosystem – infrastructure, education and health. Unfortunately in large set-ups like organisations and countries, the various stakeholders find it far more challenging to point out the missing elements of balance in any change initiative. In a village on the other hand, with furore, debate and discussion, it is easier to understand the collective impact of any forthcoming change.

The ecosystem based approach is nothing new, social scientists have been discussing it for years now. Yet, it has not seemed to capture public attention. Perhaps, there are very few who truly understand how ecosystems work, in a fragmented world like ours. That is among the greatest losses of our generation, and one we must truly fight to correct.

HR for the next decade (Part 3)

Will the training department quit focusing on boring programs and take up the quality of food as their most important deliverable in the next decade? Alas, that may not be a reality apart from our dreams. However, the training team would have matured to revisit their text books and understand the fundamentals of learning – 70% on the job, 20% personal learning or mentoring and 10% classroom teaching. The training budget thus will be revisited and revamped completely to ensure that there are many real-time projects actively undertaken by each employee, which lead to business results. They will have mentors for these programs, trained to encourage the employee to reflect on his existing knowledge on the job and apply it to the project.

                There will unfortunately be no getting away from the information imparting sessions – be it on safety or product training or technology trainings. E-learning would have developed tremendously to ensure that most of these trainings can be done at the employee’s workplace or home, without eating away at the internet bandwidth! They would have a mandatory evaluation following which can be completed on only 2 tries, so that the TV or facebook is not simultaneously accessed.

                Can there be a mass hypnosis session to explain to employees that careers are their own responsibility and not one of the tasks for their managers or HR department? This might be slightly radical for the risk-averse corporate setting, but mass mailers, intranet announcements and repetition by senior management can at least get some tea break discussions started along this thought. This communication will have to be supplemented by active marketing of the areas for career development that our organization offers – before the updated CVs trickle their way into the internet. Cross- functional exposure, opportunities across regions and geographies, or simply enhancement of one’s own role are all possible, but the initiative and the onus must initiate from the employee himself. Remember the proverb about the horse with the drinking problem?

                In this scenario, HR in the next decade will be involved in facilitating careers for the employees in the organization. A bit of clarification to an over-enthusiastic employee or a firm nudge to the over-bearing possessive manager will do wonders for the employee’s careers as well as the organization. No longer can managers believe that they know best for their team members, this popular misconception is already being refuted by the high tirade of attrition every organization faces today, and hence, switching to the new concept at the earliest becomes even more important!

                Will the HR department take complete ownership of attrition in the organization? After all HR is responsible for employees and hence, when they leave, it is a pressing business challenge. Please refer to the paragraph on engagement earlier. Well, the same philosophy applies to attrition and that’s all one can possibly explore the subject. Talking to managers to ensure that the last few days of the employee are not miserable will however be taken up on priority, so that no managers feels too strongly about the employee’s resignation as a personal affront, and seeks to correct it during the notice period. This will certainly ensure that in the future the same employee is happy to return to your organization with newer skills and market experience.

                Amidst the challenges of just-in-time hiring, bulk hiring, niche skill hiring, leadership hiring, the tiny question of hiring to fit an organization has been moved to the backburner. The numbers are high, and the pool of qualified resources seems ever-shrinking. No organization, except perhaps one or two market leaders with a over-powering lead over the other players have the luxury of keeping a position vacant for long (could be even a day) in today’s scenario. This had indeed also led to a dilution in quality of the recruitment, or even hiring employees without any synergy with the values of the organization. While I can foresee no panacea to resolve this issue, I will surely hope that this situation changes soon and for the better. Perhaps the market slowdown will come as a boon in this regard or perhaps there will be more draconian measures needed. However in the absence of fixing this vital step, strengthening all the remaining HR processes may not yield results.

                In the next decade, one of the strongest focus areas of the HR profession will be to develop leaders. Industry today needs leaders who can navigate multiple varied businesses, as well as conduct business in a cross-cultural context, and our existing leadership pipeline is not really geared to the challenge. This is partly due to the exposure their careers have offered hitherto, as well as mentoring and networking opportunities which have groomed them. The HR team would be actively involved in facilitating cross-functional, cross geography stints for the potential leadership protégées, along with linking them with suitable mentors in the organization to help them synthesize the varied inputs they receive everyday. Leadership programs too will play a critical role in helping them analyse, and prioritize their experiences. While traditionally the group has been a small select group, there is merit in opening these inputs for a slightly wider audience to include key employees in middle management positions as well. The risks of having these employees leave post grooming due to a more lucrative offer is far lower than the benefits of having a diversified talent pool with necessary leadership skills who can steer the company’s growth.

                                                                                                                                                                                 

To conclude, the current human resources function is set to undergo quite a major transformation in the next decade. Since the last key revolution to become strategic business partners, it is compelled to change with evolving business scenarios to be relevant. In this article, I have explored some of the key trends in business and society today and offered my opinion on how the profession will need to adapt to handle these changes.  Perhaps the maligning remarks shall continue, or perhaps they shall subside. Like the proverb goes – “the man who understands completely has no anger’, it is our responsibility to share information and anecdotes on how our profession operates to employees.

HR for the next decade (Part 2)

Through the annals of time, there are many initiatives which emerge, some of which are forgotten while others survive to establish themselves as omnipresent. One of the forgotten contributions of HR to the industry is job structuring and evaluation, as well as organization design. Reviving this is not an attempt to steal revenue from consultants; they can find other topics to provide “expertise’ on, but it will be one of the key focus areas for internal HR professionals in the next decade. Increasingly organizations are no longer required to provide life-long employment, but they should definitely provide meaningful jobs to those currently employed, which will perhaps increase the chances of having longer relationships with their employees. Somewhere the role of HR is designing jobs has been forgotten or assumed to be irrelevant which will change. The HR professional too will need to be adequately equipped to understand business realities and design the most effective jobs which will provide relief from monotony for the employee and provide opportunities for him to explore, learn and contribute. Existing organisations too will need to relook at their roles and positions once again to evaluate whether they are relevant to the current market dynamics.

Managing performance, salary increments and increments are akin to bread and butter for every HR officer. They vary between organisations, sectors, geographies and so on. HR will continue to play an integral role in all these processes, to ensure parity and fairness. Some thought as to whether changes are required too wouldn’t do any harm as well!!!

Compensation or reward is indeed one of the pivotal arms of the HR team. While historically there has been a shift from a welfare approach to sharper differentiation based on performance, the debacle of the financial markets have also shown that too much differentiation has adverse results for the business. With changing aspirational lifestyles and erosion of loyalty to a single organization, there has been a change from the perquisite filled (read car, home, allowances) to encashing the maximum possible. We have even seen a basket approach, which supposedly empowers employees to choose what they want.

Going forward, with increasing mobility, employees will prefer to continue with encashing their salary to the utmost. However in the face of high inflation, HR professionals would do well to revisit to old fashioned index of DA or dearness allowance. When one’s salary is linked to DA, the employee gets clarity that the organization is sensitive to the rising costs of living. At the same time, compensation needs be role-based and not tenure linked. Hence beyond DA linked increases, the salaries would be commensurate with the role one performs in the organization and no one would expect getting higher compensation each year for doing the same work. This move would also alleviate some of the cost pressures faced by organisations today due to the rising cost of wages against stagnant productivity.

  

                Can the HR department engage employees and transform cultures? The answer is a clear and loud ‘no’. The work, the manager and the team engage any employee not a pretty HR professional administering an engagement questionnaire. Can we really know whether employees are engaged with the organization or not? Indeed there is a merit in knowing, but with the clear lines of communication articulated earlier, the survey results would merely reconfirm what is already known at a higher cost. Does that mean that birthdays, farewells and team lunches are to be bid goodbye? Not necessarily for these can be organized by the team independent of any HR intervention, and associated reprimands over the consumption of alcohol! Every team can and should have fun together, connect informally and it is the responsibility of every manager (hopefully groomed by a responsible HR manager) to ensure that it happens.

                Similarly organization cultures are rarely the result of any active interventions but almost always a by-product of practices in response to business conditions. Infact, it is starkly visible in the service industry where the organization cultures mirror the customer – be it the organized IT industry, the hep and happening BPO industry, the chaotic Indian services IT industry, the process driven retail industry and so on. This is not to say there is no influence of organisations determining the behaviour of their employees and it can always only be a function of the external factors. The answer lies in how our parents taught us not to lie and to share – by role-modelling, by positive and negative reinforcements. All of these rest with the manager to try to ensure that a successful organization culture is built.

 (to be contd...)

HR for the next decade (Part 1)

Will employees ever stop bad-mouthing the HR department in any organization? Ranging from “do they ever work – they are always on the phone” to “they can never be seen around” to “they really have no clue to how things work” to “what a job – organize birthday parties and reduce our salary hikes” or even the mean and maliging “if only all of them could be fired and their salaries distributed amongst the remaining employees” to “why can they never give a straight answer – they are worse than diplomats” or perhaps “they are supposed to take the employee’s stand, but instead they simply talk to us and defend the management’s stand” are oft heard refrains. Can one really look at the next decade of HR without wondering if these basic notions about the HR professionals would persist or dissolve?

                Social theorists place a lot of emphasis on language and their subtle effect on meaning in society. Often language is used for masking the real nature of affairs around, or they provide revealing insights into what reality is. HR stands for Human Resources and the term in itself perhaps is the root of many prejudices developed against them. The fundamental assumption behind any HR professional is that they are responsible for managing “resources” who happen to be human beings. Life and all it means to be human has to take a backseat as one’s importance as a “resource” is discussed and dissected.

At the same time, corporates today is increasingly aware of the fact that their business exists only because of the people who run it. If those human beings were not around, they cannot be replaced by identical human beings for the concept doesn’t exist (we haven’t really made much progress in cloning, last time you checked). Hence the first step for HR to graduate to its next phase is to give up on its identity of managing “resources”. One can instead choose to be called “Kindlers / Promoters/ Gardeners” with the explicit agenda to nurture ecosystems of people working together to promote the most effective outcome for current business solutions.

I strongly believe that HR can only work through managers to have any relevance at all. Yet if one only works with the managers to give inputs on nurturing resources better, there is no direct feedback from the end beneficiaries or the employees. For this reason, being approachable and being perceived as approachable is an important agenda of any HR manager. Now being approachable would only be possible by having our feet where the business teams stand and yet this leads to a situation where one may be away from decision making or perceiving what the organizational strategy is.

In that case, a possible solution is to restructure HR roles to mingle the great divide between corporate and regional roles. The names would differ across organizations, but if each HR professional can take up some central and some decentralized responsibilities, an overall perspective of organizational functioning can soon be developed.

               

In the last two years, I have spent plenty of time as a foot-soldier, talking to employees directly to understand their experience with our organization which I am supposed to indirectly influence for the better through the managers. Alas, the reality is that often, there is a huge gap between the priorities of the senior management and the rest of the organization. This in turn, finds manifestations in mindless policies, pointless processes, unachievable targets and so on from the employee’s side, which the ones on top of the ladder keep shaking their heads at the potential of the employees in the organization. The only way to reduce this widening bridge, which progressively does grow wider and deeper without active intervention is to arrange for as many interactions as possible. Coffee table discussions, Open Houses, lunch sessions, picnics and treks, every activity where conversations can be enabled is an absolute imperative. Physical presence does have a poor substitute through webcasts, online chats and video conferences. These should be avoided without precedent of conversations with the same individual – their effectiveness is abysmally low to establish rapport, but nominally better to convey and seek information.

Leaders in your organization would not be pleased at this agenda often. Some get cold feet while speaking in public, others feel that they do not lie as well face to face as over email while the third may not stop speaking at all while employees exchange bored smses. Yet leaders should always keep in mind that a lot of information shared by their subordinates is doctored – since their own performance is in question. Given this fundamental truth, it is only prudent for every leader to seek independent opinions about the reality of business on the ground – through their front-line employees and customers. HR needs to play an active role in enabling a successful conversation – working with the leaders and the team to reduce inhibitions and encourage honest sharing.

  

Is transparent communication really a priority for most organizations? If you dig deeper, you will be surprised to find the answer as a negative in so many contexts. There are reasons for this precedence (a favourite word for HR guys), and not all are fictionalized. Many organisational decisions have the danger of being misunderstood by a multitude of employees, and at times even the best meaning communication has backbired to be misinterpreted by employees. This is a lurking fear in every senior manager’s head, who decides that less communication or murky communication is better than transparency.

Who do you think are the messengers to implement such an approach? While none other than our very own HR team. They receive a mandate to communicate a certain policy or approach to the employees and often are not clear of the justifications behind the approach. In the next decade, HR should have the clarity and courage not to be messengers for any such initiative – and would ensure that around every policy and process change, there is a business team to communicate and answer queries. Channelizing communication is perhaps one of the most critical and least understood responsibilities of HR today, which would transform in the next decade.

(to be contd...)

Why I read fiction

Nowadays, the dearth of people reading good fiction seems to be growing. Maybe it is simply the circles I navigate in – mostly educated, MBA candidates, slogging in large corporations. Nevertheless, it is sad to find that barely one out of a hundred people one meets is interested in fiction reading.

I caught onto the habit of getting lost in fantasies of the world as a child. Of course, Calcutta and Bengalis do provide a strong impetus for any child to be groomed in literary works, and there is little escaping the tyrannies of any culture as a child. The fairy tales, the folk tales, the mystery tales, the romantic tales, the tales of war and peaceful times were an education of their own. I remember that my best friends, hailing from a business community trying to point out the utilitarianism of reading – “your language will improve” (hinting that better language will result in better marks at school).

But my language was already at a comfortable peak, not in hurry to scale great heights unless forced. And that is something fiction will never do. The mere act of losing time in crafted stories is an act of volition, and can rarely be successfully enforced.

I grew up and mingled among people who were least bothered with the world of letters. The practical world had enough difficulties to keep them occupied and solace was cheerier among friends than the pages of printed ink. The written word for them, was only to be understood to confront legalities of one’s existence, who were hung over from the colonial times, and processed only written documents. But for all other aspects of life, speech and fragile memories were sufficient.

This world definitely did capture my attention, as I realized that the company of books indeed paled in the company of conversation. Books are really an urban indulgence, and can simply be dispensed off in other contexts, where people were familiar with each other and comfortable with themselves.

Alas, the paths of our lives do tend to stray back into the pastures we started off with, and soon enough, I was back at my urban context, with acquaintances more than friends, and more time than companionship. Fiction books returned to my world, as a long lost friend. Of course, the lesser counterparts of non-fiction decided to tag along as well, but deep bonds take time to establish and I was far too happy engrossed in my fictional friends.

The sad reality of most of adult life is that there are many responsibilities to encroach upon your time, offering scant satisfaction in return. They nose their way into the evenings, and the weekends and holidays, leaving less time for all the things which matter the most. The easiest thing, I’ve realized is to be busy and delude oneself that one is being functional or operational. In reality it is the most dysfunctional state to be in.

Even though I realized this, I did succumb to the inanity of being busy for a while. It crept in without really me noticing it, as there were always justifications of importance and emergencies tagged. By the time I realized that it was simply a perpetual state of being, I was neatly entangled in its vicious web. But I digress. Time or no time, there had to be time to do what one needs to survive, and I needed books. So fiction was my companion in busy times as well as the rested months.

Do all who read fiction do so because they find their current worlds unfulfilling and inadequate? I’ve heard this argument from my skeptic friends, and despite my instinctive urge to oppose it, there is a grain of truth embedded. We’ve always loved stories because they are similar to our world, and yet different. Inexplicably, I think it hints that otherness is possible too, the otherness which fascinates and forebodes. Books are too inert to really be catalysts, but stories keep in company in good times and bad, and do remind us that ‘there is so much more’.

Each genre has its own attractions. Mysteries give us the power to unearth the unknown, while fantasy gives a chance to be the unknown. Romance reminds us of all our heartbreaks and fluttering heartbeats, while comedy simply points out the absurdities of life around. There are also more complicated works which attempt at capturing the complexities of being human – of families and individuals as they traverse life. The abstractions of magic realism simply suggest that nothing is what it seems.

Books transcend time and space, infact all art does. The changing contexts of literature from different continents and histories gentle insinuate our mortality, that we are mere specters gliding in a certain lifetime. Books change meaning over time, because our minds change over time and understand them differently. And yet, books involve the reader. A passive recepient merely looking at being entertained could perhaps switch on the idiot box, but books demand time, and effort, and thought. It is a companion only if you are too. I guess that’s why I read fiction. To be myself, and know of all that I can be, could have been – and to gaze at this fleeting ever-changing shadow of life.

Transport in the City

What differentiates a true city from its suburban or rural counterparts is often how many shops and services can be cramped in a given circumference of square kilometers. The bigger the city, the more cramped it is. The only other alternative is that the bigger cities take up larger spaces in adjoining areas. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai are some of the cities I am familiar with, and all of them suffer from the above malaise.

Given this background, planning urban transportation is as complex a task as it gets. Ideally cities should have a brilliant system of public transportation, so that its citizens can get from one end to the other with minimal cost. After all when one makes a city home, it is the entirety of width and breadth which is loved and what is loved should certainly be accessible.

Broad principles of urban transport are simple enough. Longer distances should be covered by fast moving transport mediums – like trains or metros. The intermediate distance needs to be covered with a dense network of buses, auto and rickshaw routes. If the city is longish, then the north- south connecting lines must be intersecting at sufficient joints by the east- west connectors. If a city is circular in shape, there must be frequent connections among the various concentric circles.

The simple reason that there is city transport is because if everyone had their own car or bike, it would be impossible to accommodate so much traffic in the roads. One would have to make the network of roads more dense, and each road broader to accommodate such a massive inflow of vehicles. Thus, trains, trams, metros, autos and taxis represent a simple sharing of resources which is much more efficient to transport all the people requiring to be moved to all the places they want to go to.

This idyllic system is made complicated by a number of factors. Transportation, except for state run transportation is a business enterprise targeted at making profits. There are multiple ways of making profits in the same business model – not always is the approach with the highest spread the most profitable. Thus there are routes which are frequented by auto drivers and routes which are avoided like the plague. Now customer demand exists in both – be it coming out of a mall, or trying to return home in a densely office dominated locality. The mall autos are simply looking at getting long distance passengers, while the office return guys may or may not get an auto depending on how much traffic the route towards his home contains.

Timings is another factor to be considered. Mornings and evenings are high demand periods where people are in a rush and willing to pay higher prices (if required) to get to work or home. Afternoons are slag periods and transport options are hard to come by in these times. Density corresponding to the rush periods is also a big consideration – trains, metros and buses are bursting at the seams as more passengers are squashed inside. Rates for going to the outskirts of the city or sparsely populated areas (where a return fare may be harder to find) are often higher, and yet ironically, rates for going into densely populated places (with traffic) are also higher!

The luxurious alternative of a radio taxi too is fraught with difficulties. More often than not, a bored voice will inform you that there are no cabs available. The distance to be plied is often asked for at the beginning and the shorter ones discarded without a moment’s thought. Nowadays an added layer of menace has arrived, the agency confirms your ‘booking’ without confirming your reservation. Half an hour before your cab is due, you may just find yourself stranded in the middle of the night without any transportation available.

People know all of this and more instinctively. That’s why purchasing a car is one of the first things young couples indulge in. Then they can travel in the luxury of their own private world, with old songs wafting in a perfumed cool space, with the privacy of loved ones. It may be disastrous for the environment, but compare all the above woes to the smooth pride of a fast accelerating vehicle, and the desolate environment around seems miles away, distanced in thought though not space. Is there no hope for this system to work?

Sunrise by the Sea

            At the beginning, there was darkness. Engulfed by pitch black nothingness, we inched our way towards the sound of the waves. The gentle gushing of water, almost a murmur seems to be part of the darkness, lending a dimension to what is otherwise unfathomable. The only other sound was that of the soles of our feet, thudding upon the gravel path, till suddenly we stumbled upon the sand. The wind was wet and musty and it was strange how the saltiness could be smelt. We treaded gradually towards the mounting hillocks of sand, our hair streaming in all directions at once. It was not easy to make our way ahead, and we had to focus to keep our gait steady and straight. A little bit more, we told ourselves, shivering slightly at the discrete goosebumps in our arms.

            With no warning at all, the hillock is scaled, and we are confronted by a vast expanse of ocean at some distance. The darkness is still engulfing, and all we can make out are the edges of white of the waves yapping at the shore. The rest of it is black, as dark as the sky above, and yet, there is a vigour and rythmn which doesn’t for a moment let us believe that there is stillness ahead. The might of the ocean does not require any adage, light or sound, to make its presence felt; the moment one is near, the quaint sense of foreboding overcomes.

            We look above for some sign of the moon, as if even moonlight would be helpful in reducing the might of the ocean ahead, making it more picturesque and less real. Alas, though there was a moon in the distant sky, there didn’t seem to be any moonlight to come to our aid. Instead, there was a magestic spread of stars against the sky, reinforcing the darkness around through their insignificance.

            We gathered courage and began our descent downwards. The sand beneath our feet was no longer loose and formless, but had been settled by the night tide and seemed irresolute. As we inched ahead, the rumbling got louder and yet familiar, almost beckoning. We were afraid that we would stumble across a branch, or some sea animal which hads been washed ashore and fall, but there weren’t any unpleasant surprises. Soon, we were at the edge of the sea, keeping an arms length at the playful waves snapping at our feet.

           

            Standing so close to this gigantic mass of water, we looked at each other. For some unfathomable reason, the ocean did not seem intimidating any more. It was still dark, and we were closer to being swallowed by nature than ever, and yet, we could actually feel the gentleness of the waves. It was still night and there was no impatience or angst around as the world rested.

            It wasn’t so last evening. The waves were loud, crashing against the shore with a vengeance as if deeply angered. It changed direction without warning and soon the drenched onlookers had understood that it was but safe to keep a distance from the ocean tonight. We had been sitting by the beach talking of those inconspicuous things, which one could never remember later, though it was completely engrossing then. We had drifted off into talks of the past and the present, of all our little hopes and dreams. At times, we would look ahead at the sea, thundering ahead, but we were at a distance, safe and would return to our chatter.

            Without even us noticing, we started talking of each other, of all we needed and wanted, of all we had and wanted to have. The rumbling did recede to the background as the sentences grew convoluted, but we never noticed. Every word we spoke was like treading on egg shells and soon we came to a point where there was no return. The usual tale of agitation and accusations followed, one acquiesced while another seethed in supposed righteousness. Indeed there was some hurt and anger was transferred, but like the vastness of the ocean, can a few crashing waves ever divert the water to the land?

            As these thoughts flashed in our heads, dawn had begun to creep in. There was a slender curve of dim pink light at the horizon, slowly but surely expanding. We began our walk by the shore, side by side, though not hand in hand and watched the water light up. At the beginning, it was merely a splattering of grey amidst blackness, but that splattering grew and transformed into a rainbow of colours. Slowly, yet surely the entire sky was a pale pinkish grey with streaks of orange. The sea too complemented the sky by reflecting the same colours, even though the edges of the horizon still looked dark.

Almost like clockwork, the birds had awakened from their slumber and many could be spotted stretching their wings in the sky or hopping on the beach for some early worms. The sand beneath were dotted with a treasury of spectacular shells the sea had washed up, in myriad colours, textures, sizes and shapes. Of course they been there in the darkness too, but the world does seem a much more beautiful place when our attentions are aware of its beauty.

            Slowly the beach started filling with citizens beginning their day. Many people, though more elderly than the youth had come down for their morning walks and exercise. Sporadically men and women were engrossed in yoga asanas, or simply breathing deeply to experience the fresh morning breeze. At some distance, the neighbourhood children also started their cricket practice even as their mothers slowly stirred up the kitchen fire. The sun seemed irrelevant to their daily rites, the morning light seemed to kindle enough hope to begin living.

            We slowly turned our heads back towards the sea. There was a speckle of golden light crawling up the horizon. We stole a glance at each other together, lest the other miss such a beautiful event for looking away even for a moment, but caught each other looking towards ourselves instead. The sunrise was beckoning and we returned to gaze at the sun having slipped up the horizon completely. It was tiny, and feeble, hardly akin to the ferocious beast above all day, and but nevertheless, there it was. It moved with certainty, staining the sky around with a pallete of yellow and orange making its way through the pinkish grey. As it ascended our fingers twined against each others’, taking in the beauty of this exquisite painting in front of us. It seemed incredibly fast for such a tiny sphere, while one could never really catch it moving even without taking our eyes off it for even a second. Suddenly without warning, a patch of grey sky refused to be tainted by orange and the sun disappeared, hidden under the cloud. Startled in astonishment, we looked at each other and as our gaze lingered, we stared speechless at each other, realizing how wonderful the other person was, how lucky we were to have each other, how stupid we had been and how much we loved each other. Our faces broke into a smile and through the corner of our eyes, we could see the sun had clambered out, and was shining brightly in the sky.

Envisioning or Nit-picking

Leaders are often found to possess seemingly contradictory characteristics in harmony. For example, someone may enjoy being around people and cherish one’s time alone to re-energize. Or people may be fluent with verbal and written skills, with engaging with external stakeholders and maneuvering internal political stakeholders. One of the qualities which has always mystified is how people can be simultaneously detail oriented as well as broad picture focused.

Often at the workplace, one encounters individuals who are extremely good with details. Their skill with numbers or dextrousness with every input of the process they are responsible for knows no bounds. Infact, sometimes such people are distinctly difficult to work for, especially if the colleagues or subordinates happen to be have a weaker grip on such details. It may also be expounded to a sense of control through one’s life through details, and also hint at potential insecurity. At the same time, such employees are brilliant workers for their work is always thorough and well-thought out. The final outcome of whatever they conduct generally radiates the feeling of a “task well done”.

At the same time, one comes across the dreamers or the visionaries. These are the people who are good at conceptualizing and drawing threads from apparently disconnected facts and incidents into a complete picture. They love to analyse and draw inferences. At the same time, those with a practical or more detail oriented bent of mind can point out many flaws in the ideas dreamt up. However, these people are always willing to attempt something out of the box. While executing their own ideas there might be some if not considerable difficulty for there are many details which stand to get missed out or relegated to the background. Every organization needs both kinds of people. And yet, there are very few individuals who can combine these two traits in their personality. Those who love envisaging and love getting into nitty-gritties – traditionally always at their wit’s end to work with each other.

What makes the transition so difficult? Do we use separate parts of our brain and when one part functions, the other simply shrivels up? Is it a preference or is it afunctionality built into how we work. We do know that not everyone has the capability of developing all possible strengths, and the attempt is simply fool-hardy. Instead one should focus on one’s strengths while trying to determine a career.

What I have come to believe with examples around is that there will always be a dominant mode out of these two disparate ways of thinking. Over time, over contexts, over places the dominant mode can indeed shift, so that the detail oriented person becomes a brilliant envisioner as well. Isn’t this what all organisations look at when they try to develop managerial capabilities ? While any junior officer’s primary role is to be efficient in all his tasks, it is the manager’s responsibility to ensure efficacy, which can only be understood in a big-picture context. It is only those who are successful in transitioning through these poles, who also make it big in life, and are able to bring lasting change and success to themselves.

So are you willing to change from nit-picking to envisioning ?