Tuesday, November 23, 2010

In search of home

Sitaram thought, “It is enough, let’s get back to our own country and live a simple life.” He has seen the height of corporate world and spent a long time in advanced countries in various positions. He likes simplicity, although his work environment has all the luxuries in the world. He wanted his decision to be final and there would be no looking back. So he informed his colleagues and the Board of his decision and packed off to his motherland.
He was so excited about being back in his Country. Memories of his childhood, school, university and relatives kept his mind occupied during the flight. After many years of busy life, he could relax and the flash back of his own life was so exciting. He wanted to experience the life of a common man in the city where he lived before leaving the country.
First day….
Sitaram was so excited to go for a walk, go to his favorite hotel, temple and so on. In the morning, he set out for a walk. He was shocked to see that the road had no pavement. He had forgotten how to walk on the road in such a chaotic traffic, four wheelers and two wheelers were moving in all directions. In the name of widening the road, the corporation did not leave any space for pedestrians. Even if there was a narrow pavement, it was all occupied by petty shops and vendors or used as parking lot. Forty years ago he was playing on this street with other children of his age. Now it has become a busy road and not an inch of space left to walk. Somehow he managed to get an auto and went to the play ground where he used to go for a jog. When he went there, the security asked him, “What do you want sir?” Sitaram realized that the place looked different. He asked the security,” This used to be a play ground earlier. Can I go for a walk?” The security said,” No Sir, you have to be a member to use this facility. Even for walking you have to subscribe as a member.”
“Oh God, Is this my country? There is no place to walk on road. There is no public place left anywhere for a common man. Where will I go now to just take a walk?” thought Sitaram.
Second day…..
By now he understood that the best transport in the city is the bus. It is cheaper and safer than any other mode of transport. (If you go by car, there is no way you can return without a dent! If you take an auto you end up arguing with the auto driver) Sitaram wanted to make a donation to the school where he studied and so went there. When he reached there, he found heavy security arrangements at the gate of the school. No stranger was allowed to enter the school. Everybody was checked by special security personnel. Sitaram asked the man at the gate about what was happening. He came to know that a child was kidnapped in the area just the previous day and hence the panic. Sitaram thought it is better to return home than to enter the school at this time. Who would believe if he says that he came here to donate money?
Third day……
This was the temple he used to go to every morning. On Fridays his mother would give him flowers and coconuts to offer to the deities in the temple. With nostalgic feelings he approached the temple. When he went near the temple, he found a lot of police men there. The traffic was diverted and no vehicles were allowed to go near the temple. He got down and enquired the police on guard about the situation. He came to know that some VIP was visiting the temple and hence public were not allowed to enter until that evening. Sitaram saw the tall tower of the temple in front. His memory went to the days when he used to go round the ‘praharam’ (corridor) of the temple with his mother and sit there in peace for a few minutes.
“Oh Lord, where this world is heading?” thought Sitaram. He has just decided to get away from the materialistic life and returned to his country. Now he is shocked about the city life in his own country. Where will he go to live the life of a normal peaceful man just like the olden days?
He could not stop thinking about today’s world……..
·         No man trusts the other. No one can enter any building without an ID card. The ID card around your neck is more important than you.
·         If you go back to a company where you worked a few years ago as a visitor, you will be interrogated as if you are an unwanted person there.
·          Travel in plane is becoming a hazard. Your bag and you are subjected to strict security check. No matter even if you are an honest, reliable, respectable person; who cares? You are an object of suspicion.
·         Every apartment has security guard (whether he can provide security is a different matter!). There is also a board which says, “Visitor’s cars not allowed”.
·         Law makers are law breakers. Even judges who are considered next to God are found corrupt. Every day there is news about scam, terror, cheating, kidnapping…………
·         Indiscriminate industrialization with profit as the only goal is a threat to the globe itself. The green earth is turning into a dump yard. Every next generation is left with more pollution and garbage to tackle with.
We can go on talking about the mistrust, suspicion, disrespect prevalent in human society today. There is a big transformation taking place in human behavior with advent of technological developments. It is amazing to see the speed at which the world is changing. On one side we feel we are progressing with scientific advancement in all fields. We have so many gadgets replacing human labor. The internet, mobile phone and television have changed man to virtual world. Even the language is changing every day. We are not sure whether we will be able to even communicate with the next generation. On the other side human dignity, mutual respect and fundamental values are also being redefined. A self conscious man may feel that he is getting farther away from universal consciousness. Such a man may feel buried deeper and deeper in the gadgets designed by man. Man today is a prey to his own web. Man is changing in trying to change nature. Every child born will see a new kind of world with many new materials made by man. Will there be some time left to see and think about the other man, river, mountain and sky?
 There is hope………
Sitaram finally decided to go to his native village. It was a great surprise to him there. He found his street the same. Children were playing as it used to be forty years ago. He went to the temple which remained the same without the crowd and VIPs. Thank God, it did not become so popular to attract VIP visitors. He could go there and sit for hours as he did in his childhood. He could get in to any house for a cup of tea. He could find women chatting in the afternoon leisurely before their children and husbands got back home. There was trust, love and compassion with people. Even unknown people talked to him as if he is one of their family members. The pond in the village had beautiful lily flowers as it used to be. He could find cows, goats and pets coexisting with human beings. Sitaram was happy. He could finally get to a place where a simple peaceful life of a man is possible.
 Still in this world a few villages are left where people like Sitaram could find a simple life of a ‘man’ that he saw forty years ago. How long will this fast developing society allow these villages to live in peace and leave the world green? Long live the green world!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

In a word- Management

If you know a person well, you can describe that person in just one word. One should have analyzed a person or phenomenon in depth to be able to define in just one word. When you think of Mahatma Gandhi, it is ‘ahimsa’(non violence) that comes to mind. When you say fire, light is associated with that. In creation, space and air cannot be seen. In the order of evolution, fire is the first element that is visible to the eye. Even though fire can be seen, felt and heard its specific quality is form. Each person has many qualities, but one quality distinguishes a person from others. If we know this, we know this person well. Similarly, management, business, education - everything should have one quality that is very specific to that function.
What is very specific to management? If you have this one quality, all other qualifications will come in handy. What is expected of a manager?  The management wants the manager to achieve the set target without fail. The employees want the manager to guide and support them. The customer wants the manager to deliver his product in time with good quality. What helps the manager to fulfill all these expectations and makes him successful? One word does it -“Foresight”
Every manager has knowledge, qualification and experience but only a few are successful. What do successful managers do differently? They foresee problems and avoid them. Experience in the field of operation and knowledge about the product, management, employee and customer can result in success only when combined with foresight. We have seen bridges falling before inauguration, defects in equipment and deaths due to defective automobiles, not to mention the serious consequences of software. No one is going to accept such failures. No doubt the managers involved in these projects will be taken to task.
A successful manager sees what others cannot see. This is possible only when he is conscious of the consequences and think of the results of each step in the process carefully. When he has seen the problem, he cannot sleep over it. He has to take immediate steps to avert serious consequences. What does a mother do when a child is born? She takes care of the baby to perfection without anybody asking her to do so. She is not thinking of anybody above her to answer if she fails. Why? She cannot fail. It is her child. She is careful all the time. How a successful manager cultivates foresight?
·         Manages himself first
·         Makes it a practice to predict and checks its validity
·         Learns from the mistakes of others
·         Observes and digs out hidden facts
·         Acts confidently
·         Keeps improving
A manager with foresight accomplishes the following by his virtues:
·         Takes care
·         Sets expectations right
·         Leaves no gap
·         Never slips
·         Exceeds expectation
·         On time every time
·         Delights all
Is there anything more to ask for? If you have foresight, you can manage.
-Arasu Ramanujam

Saturday, November 13, 2010

No problem


The Japanese customer was worried seeing the traffic on the way from Delhi Airport to the development center. He was tensed. He wanted to be in time for a video conferencing with Tokyo. I had asked the driver to take a different route if possible to reach in time. The driver said, ‘‘No problem sir”. Hearing this, the customer looked at me and smiled. We arrived at the center just in time and hurried to the meeting room and started the video conference. When the customer was talking to his boss in Tokyo, something went wrong with the system and we were disconnected. The technician came to set right the issue. The customer was anxious to get connected to his boss again.   We asked the technician to hurry up. He said, “No problem sir.”The customer smiled again  despite the tense situation. The technician fixed the problem and we got reconnected. During the discussions, the customer came to know that the progress was not as per schedule and worried about a possible delay in deliverables. The project manager said, “No problem sir, we can deliver it on time.” The customer again looked at me and smiled. This customer is a close friend of mine and knows India well. He has a dictionary of words used in India with special meaning. To him, when someone says,” no problem” it means,”take it easy, there will be problems but we can deal with them.” Not all customers can bear with this and still smile. This customer works with India, China and a few other countries and has learnt to deal with all of them.
Later in the evening in a relaxed mood at dinner table he asked me, “Do you have any idea why people say, “No problem” spontaneously even though they know well that there is a problem?" I thought for a while and asked him,"Do you remember the project manager we met today?” He looked at me and said,"I remember him well. Last year when we were in a discussion, he received a message that his father met with an accident and he broke down. It was terrible.” 
"How was he today?",I asked.
"He was alright, confident and cheerful" replied the customer.
"His father met with an accident, but he is alright and confident now, why?"
Are you kidding? This happened last year, why should he cry now?"
So time has an impact on the mind. The culture, practice and history of a country has also so much influence on the mind of an individual. Even most tragic incident like the death of a dear one fades away from memory as time passes. This capacity of the mind can well be employed in a positive way to make our problems as 'no problems'. Whenever some incident happens which we feel as unbearable, we can train our mind to meditate as though the incident happened a long time ago. By doing this, we will have balance of mind to see the problem objectively and solve it without taking it to heart and feel bad about it. In fact time is a concept of relative reality. It is not absolute. The word ‘now’ may mean anything from a micro second to a decade as per the imagination of the speaker and subject. When you clap your hands, even before you utter the word ‘now’ the sound comes and goes. So what we think as now or present is not even micro seconds. Every present becomes past and disappears from memory until called for. Sometimes they are simply wiped off from memory.
In the same way when some plane accident happens in a distant place, we don’t worry much about that. When the same thing happens in our town, we panic and worry. If it happens next door, the impact is intensive. So distance or space also has its influence on our mind. Out of sight is out of mind. We can meditate on this and develop an attitude to distance ourselves mentally from space and time. This will give us strength to face any problematic, unacceptable situation. With this attitude, what appeared to be a problem is no longer a problem but just a situation.
-Arasu Ramanujam