Truth Beyond Imagination

It was still early morning. Sun rise yet to happen but faint light is visible in the sky. I along with my wife and father in law were staring silently at Savitri. Savitri the girl attracting attention from all village heads, her sister with brother-in-law and my family; was not looking at any of us even though she knows we were all waiting for her words.

I adopted Savitri. Perhaps tried to adopt but for my adamant wife who has different view. Savitri lost her parents at young age. She had only Sister Suramma who is married to another worker Chalamayya. Their earnings are just good to manage their own life and cant bear any 3rd person. My Father-in-law a highly respectful gentleman in the village suggested us to adopt her if possible. I and my wife both promptly agreed even though for different reasons. We carried Savitri from the dead body of her mother to my home.

Savitri came to the city along with us. She brought a small bag of torn clothes and nothing else. I have my little daughter as well. We didn't have a second child and I made up my mind that Savitri is my child and will grow along with my daughter. She will be educated to lead a good and respectable life.

First thing we did was to burn her clothes and bought good and decent clothes. It needed some time for me to teach her the good habits of being clean, oiling and combing hair regularly, improve her local slang to speak in more refined language. We tried to teach her alphabets as well.She was in the mean time smoothly dragged to responsibilities of taking care of my little daughter. For me, it was lovely feeling watching the elder sister taking care of little one.

She sits with us watching movies on TV, having lunch together. We went to many temples like Shirdi, Tirupathi which she never had a chance to visit. She also watched lot of movies along with us in multiplex theatres and enjoyed the rich experience of watching in a nice environment. Every festival we buy crackers, clothes, gifts like we did to second daughter. In fact Savitri enjoyed more as my second daughter is yet to understand these celebrations and struggling to learn walking.

We even tried to open a Bank account for Savitri for regular savings to make a future for her. Thats where the Manager asked who is she.

I said 'She is my first daughter'.

Simultaneously my wife said 'she is our maid'.

The manager for obvious reasons started looking at my wife and heard her with no attention to me in the further conversation. He said there has to be a notarised document and many other irritants to open a Bank account in the name of Savitri. We had a reason to avoid this and decided to open another account in the name of second daughter but wanted to run it as the account for Savitri.

My house is fully air conditioned hence Savitri sleeps comfortably in the caretaker room we had in the house. Days were passing quickly and we completed close to an year.

One day Savitri said, she wanted to meet her Sister. I understood the sentiment and we were also thinking of having a vacation next month. I told her we can go next month as we are also travelling. Like any other time, Savitri nodded her head in agreement and left silently.

This is how we landed in the village. When We reached the inlaws house, Savitri jumped out of my Audi car and ran towards her sister's house without even looking at rest of us. We laughed at her for the kind of eagerness she showed to meet her only relative her sister. However Savitri didnt come back even after several days. I was wondering after 2 days about why she was not coming back. Finally my father in law sent his servants to escort her back. The servant returned alone with a message that Savitri doesnt want to come back. It was a big surprise. What went wrong?

We called her sister and Brother-in-law to discuss. They came and stood in front of us with maximum humbleness possible and said 'Savitri is home sick sir. She wants to stay here at home. '

I smiled and said 'now her home is in Hyderabad. Is she still thinking her home is here in this village?'

They didnt respond. Suramma however hesitantly asked 'Sir, I understand there is some money deposited on her name ......'

I was shocked and said angrily. "That money belonged to her. What made you discuss about it? Is this the reason for all this drama?"

She told at low tone 'I agree you are taking care sir. But we want to know the amount deposited so far ....'

I got up furiously and said 'I am giving the cheque for 1 Lakh (100,000) Rupees. Will it solve the problem for ever? Will you forget your sister?' I handed over the check to her.

She took the cheque but still didnt reply immediately. 'Thank you sir. But Savitri doesnt want to go with you'

I was shocked. "Please call her. I want to hear from her. She is living like angel in my house. I wont believe she wants to stay here. You guys want money. You know? She is my elder daughter"

Suramma hesitated a lot but finally we were able to bring Savitri. Now entire village got to know about this and they all gathered to watch the show.

Irrespective of repeated requests Savitri didnt answer to any of us. My earlier confidence was getting lost. Is Savitri really upset for anything? What wrong did I do?

Suramma asked Savitri "What is this Savitri? Why are you not answering? They are taking care of you like their daughter. You only told. You watch 5 movies every month. You always go in a big car. You went to several temples with them in all comforts. You fire crackers on Deepavali (A festival in India), you get good clothes, toys, good food. You live in a comfortable house with AC and other comforts. You can watch Big screen TV. None of these comforts are here. Why dont you go and live with them?"

First time Savitri lifted her head and looked at all of us.

"Yes Sister. I went to several temples but when they wanted to go. I watched the movies when they wanted and to their selections. I have a TV but watch when they switch it on. I go anywhere in nice car but to the places where they go. Even when I wanted to come here, I needed to wait for a month because thats when travel was planned"

She broke down and said.

"I want to live my life. whatever it is Sister. Please tell me if I am a burden to you but dont ask me to go there"

There was dead silence for a couple of minutes.

I stood up with no words. I gave another cheque of 2 Lakh (200,000) Rupees and left the place silently.

I know what is wrong. And understood I am wrong. First time in my life one drop of tears came out of my eyes with guilt. I never cried and I was never sorry to anyone so far but this time ....

More than anything people want to live Free. There is a truth which is beyond imagination.

***

Disclaimer: I have been writing the blogs in the style of story telling based on real incidents but with some fiction added to emphasise the message. Hence I request not to make any conclusions to derive facts based on the posts in these articles

Enablers are needed but Outcome is more Important

When I went to Nobel Hospital I found Nobel already waiting there with a garland with bunch of people behind him, all in business suits. Before I got down Nobel opened the Car door and invited me. A beautiful lady came with the garland and before I prevented the garland was around my neck. "Mr. Khaderao, it is a great feeling to have you here. Please come" We all went inside. It was stunning experience for me when I looked inside. It was a huge hall fully decorated and equipped with five receptionists sitting in the middle of the floor. All of them are with Neat and Clean Hospital Uniform. Even all other Staff moving on the Hall were full of White and Clean clothes. The Hall is full of room freshener flavor. They all greeted me and I folded my hands and told Namaste to them before they offered a hand shake (I am also a mad guy). "Dear Khaderao, we have five receptionists to ensure we serve the best. Their job is to ensure who ever enters this building are authorized" First receptionist Swathi asked me show my bag. She almost tore the bag to check all parts and sides of the bag and ensured there are no dangerous items like Pen Drives, Data Cards, CDs etc. She returned the (Torn) bag as it is and I needed to close all portions and put all my belongings in to my bag. Thinking that my job is done, I wanted to move forward. But Rosy (next receptionist) stopped me. "Sir I want to check your laptop" I replied "I didnt bring laptop" "But I need to check sir. My apologies""Just now Swathi checked my bag and there was no laptop inside?..." "Sorry Sir, she checked if there are CDs, Pen Drives etc. I need to check if there is Laptop"

"But she didnt find any laptop in my bag. You also must have seen?" "As per process I need to do my checks sir, I am sorry without this checking we do not permit any one to go inside our Office' Nobel interfered and said to me "Dear Khaderao, I know this is slight inconvenience, but we have robust process to ensure there are no risks. Please cooperate" I was quite impressed and my Bag was again torn to the max limit. There are 3 more to check my bag. Probably one will check if I have bombs and Arms and another whether I have a camera and the last one will check if the Bag is still useful!!! Fortunately the other checks were completed very fast in an hour. When I thought of moving, the last receptionist told me, "Sir outside items are not allowed. I request you to please leave the bag here in reception" I left the Bag after filling 5 page form with all details of what is in the Bag. At last I could go inside the office at about 12.30 PM. It was lunch time. 

Nobel asked me if I want to have lunch. I asked what the best nearby Hotel. I wanted to go but quickly changed my mind after Nobel explained that I need to leave with my bag and enter again through the same process that I followed in the morning.

"Let us have something here itself. I may not be able to enter again in next 3,4 hours" "Lunch inside office is not allowed Khaderao" Nobel said.

Good. One day fasting is better. I am already fat to the extent that I reached irreversible state and skipping one meal may help. I made my mind to skip lunch to save that many hours of checks at reception again. Nobel took me to the Research and Development Section. "Dear Khaderao, this is the Research and Development group. The people whoever work here undergo complete checks including mental check to make sure they dont go mad for next 1 year."

"Why So?" I asked with curiosity as well as fear about what will happen to me.

"This is because our systematic approach is not digestible to many immatured people and hence we decided to have this kind of treatment"

We moved forward. "We dont supply papers so that people cant print any documents. We dont provide the phone to ensure our team dont call outsiders"

I was surprised and asked "What if they need any print out? Why cant they call outside?"

"Our Intellectual Property cant go out. If anything is printed you may see the content of printout and reveal to outsiders. Similarly the guys may call outside and reveal the confidential matter to outsiders"

"What if they need to speak to customers, Experts or others for any clarifications?" Nobel smiled proudly.

"We have a process for that as well. The team needs to fill this 7 page form and submit a business case for a phone call or a Printout or both. It will go through a robust approval process and we strictly follow the SLA of 10 days. The team are informed to followup only after these 10 days if they do not get any response."

"Great!!! "

And the approved conversation is monitored by a team of 10 people and it is recorded as well to make sure any of the Monitoring team doesnt join hands with the R&D teams and sabotage"

"What if the recording guy also cheats you?"

"It cant happen because the recording is done in such a way that no one can access the recorded item. And no one can know even the place where the recorded version is stored" Nobel replied with lot of Pride.

"Than how you will anyone access that version if the conversation needs to be verified?"

I didnt ask the question as I was feeling hungry and not having much energy to hear.

Nobel took me to another room. Before I asked, he explained "This is brainwashing room"

"<!*&$#%?????"

"People who are released from the Services are brainwashed completely to forget all they did here !"

"<!*&$#%????? <!*&$#%????? <!*&$#%????? <!*&$#%?????............"

"This is because we prevent CDs Pen Drives, Internet Access, Telephone access and what not. But the guy can still remember the content of the Intellectual properties developed here" Nobel clarified.

This is very innovative!!! And really true. The intelligent guys can still store all the information in their brain. It must be thoroughly washed to protect the IP.

Nobel took me to another room. I saw 100 screens on the big wall with 20 people watching the screens without moving the neck. "These screens show what is happening in the Hospital. We prevented Printouts, phone calls and data storage but people talk between themselves and information may pass between them"

Oh thats valid point !!!!!

"If we find any one talking to other in Development room, conference room or even Toilet, immediately an incident is logged. A 15 member team will review and interrogate the people on what they talked. Depending on the outcome, beyond SLA of 30days (Beyond or within ???) the Employee will be punished or even laid off."

I opened my mouth and hearing.

"We may go with a simple punishment of plastering the mouths of members involved in the discussion for a duration of 30 days. Or we may go to the extreme of terminating them with a fine of 10 Lakh rupees" Nobel elaborated with glowing face. "Currently we have a debate of whether the duration is 30 calendar days or 30 working days. As a matter of safety we are following 30 working days. A 3 member committee is reviewing the Procedure document to figure out what is the correct duration. they will complete the investigation beyond SLA of 2 months (- calendar days or ???)"

Very systematic!

I saw a few more cameras in the same room. Nobel understood my curiosity and explained before I asked. "These cameras are to monitor these 20 guys. They cant move their neck towards anything other than screens"

Oh!

"Yes. We also do a mock drill when we deliberately make huge noise of 100 decibels and if any one turns their neck to understand that noise they will be sacked immediately. This is to ensure they are all disciplined and focused towards their work. Even 1% of deviation is taken very serious in my organization"

I appreciate. He took me to the next room. There are around 50 people sitting and working with lot of concentration. They didnt even look at us. "They are all Inspection teams" "They keep writing new processes to confuse the teams to the best extent." 

~^*%$^#@(*&@^@@????

"This is because even our processes are IP (Intellectual Property) Protected. No one should share these processes to outside. More the confusion much is the protection of our IP"

Thats very true.

Nobel took me to Robot section where there are 100+ Robots which can do all types of Surgeries including Heart transplantation. He clarified that even these Robots will be brainwashed to make sure their thinking algorithm keeps changing and cleaned frequently. 

In other wing, all testing equipment are placed. "Anyone even if he is dying in front of me before I treat them, they need to undergo the tests!" Nobel proudly told.

"Without the test reports, even a dead body will not be touched by our doctors. We go by everything that is documented. We don't go by anything by apparent symptoms or verbal reports. This is the reason why our auditors don't find even one flaw in our Processes"

Fantastic. 

Nobel took me to another hall which is big to an extent that I can meet the guy on the other end only the next day. There are hundreds of beds with clean bed sheets. Every Bed has a big shelf, lockers, refrigerator and partitions. Beside each bed, there are equipment to support blood tests, Saline loading and even small surgeries etc. What a great Infrastructure! There is a TV infront of the Bed. There is also a room consisting of team which supports the Cable TVs. All that Staff are blind folded. Whenever a repair is required they are allowed to see, fix the issue and go back to blind folds. 

Yes I know why before Nobel clarified. Intellectual property and Process orientation. 

Nobel took me to Ambulance management. There are 100 ambulances. Each Ambulance is like a house. Everything is there in the Ambulance Once again TV is also included. Staff were watching "Munnabhai MBBS" when we went there. 

When Nobel went they stopped the TV immediately. Nobel was furious and told them that the TV is for Customers only. He logged incidents against each of the staff.

We went to many other sections and everywhere it is clean, and perfect.When I finished the visit, I was checked thoroughly again in the most impressive manner. I collected my bag from the 5th receptionist after filling another form and started to move.

But the fourth Receptionist stopped me "Sir, I need to check your bag before leaving"

"Just now I got it from your colleague what will be there other than what you already checked in the morning?"

"Sir that is something I need to confirm. As per process we need to check the visitor before he leaves. We dont go assumptions."

After one full day duration in the the office, I understood a few things and without too many questions I got my bag checked by other 4 as well.My bag is now in very bad shape but I am still happy to see that nothing offensive was found even after a thorough checking.

"Dear Khaderao, you went through the entire show. How is your feeling?" Nobel asked me on my way back.

"Dear Nobel, I am quite impressed by your infrastructure. All latest equipment, robust practices and the most disciplined team. With this kind of system, I am sure you can do a great job and protect the interest of the IP"

Nobel was very proud.

Suddenly I realized one thing before getting into the car.

"By the way, I didnt see any patients. How many are there?"

So far Nobel was answering all queries confidently but for the first time the smile disappeared from his face.I didnt wait for the answer and got in to the Car.

Disclaimer: I have been writing the blogs in the style of story telling based on real incidents but with some fiction added to emphasize the message. Hence I request not to make any conclusions to derive facts based on the posts in these articles

Being People Pro is not emotiona.l it is Leadership

The Appraisal phase was on when I went to my manager with a list of names and wanted to discuss for their career aspects. All names I mentioned are the members of my team who have been working with full commitment, with very good attitude and they are continuous learners. Above that, none of them approached me for any special treatment.

We discussed about a few points about the delivery Progress and relevant topics for first 15 minutes. Than my manager raised the topic. 

"You sent a list and made some recommendations. I want to tell you nothing is going to happen".

I heard it and immediately woke up to leave.

He was angry and asked me "Why are you leaving? Dint you think you need to discuss?"

"I could discuss if the decision is open for discussion. When you already concluded what is the point of discussing sir. As I finished all other topics, I feel meeting is over"

"Don't you want to know why I told this, and I want you to know why"

OK.I sat down. 

"You already knew there is no much fund given to you and you are aware whatever you recommended is beyond that. how did you think it can be approved?"

"I knew I cant do anything with the fund I have. That's the reason why i approached you as you are more empowered. I also provided the reasons on why each of them are important to me"

"What are you going to do now. I refused to accept your recommendations"

" I cant do anything sir. If you cant do anything"

"Will they resign if I don't accept your proposal"

"May not be. In fact if they are that kind, I myself would fire them. They will work. and will work for me. with the same motivation levels. I am however not sure till when they can still be motivated."

'You talked like a Union leader. I don't need such leader. I want someone who works for me and for my profits"

"I am sorry sir. I am exactly doing what is required for the Organization and for a profitable Organization. And for a healthy organization with a team of ethics, commitment and attitude"

I am sure many of the leaders might have gone through similar altercations even if they are not as caustic as I depicted.

Management thinks a leader is immature if he or she is People Pro. Whereas without them and without them putting their heart in the work, no leader will be successful. We see the cases when we exploit a guy who doesnt demand anything while we hear the guys who shout and arm twist us. We wait till some people leave and than hire an unknown guy for double the cost. We keep someone in a junk role and dont bother about what happens to their career. If we dont work on the people because of we the leaders survive, we wont be successful

Some of the important parameters include:

1. Transparency to the team.Many leaders keep things confidential for no reasons.Actually there are many updates you can share safely with the team to encourage their participation and belonging in your business

2. Work for their career. Leader should never use the team for the business goals without paying attention on how each and every one in his team is going to grow in their career. It is very important to think about them

3. Provide the value. Value need not be promotion and hikes to the team.Educate them, encourage certifications, mentor them on roles where they are good. All these items will stay with the team wherever they are

4. set the principles which don't change on circumstances. This ensures you will earn respect from the team. Many leaders believe in acting only when some one resigns or threatens and does arm twisting on the basis of a specific criticality(Like a project in critical phase when you cant afford to lose a member). Never encourage such deviations and act only on the basis of performances and overall contributions of members.

Favor only fools?

In my childhood, I had a strange experience. My Maths teacher conducted an examination and I scored 27 out of 30 in the test. When I was verifying my corrected answer sheet, I noticed I got only 2 out of 5 marks for a sum. While computing the answer I did everything right but in the end I made mistake like 16/2 = 9 (instead of 8). So I went to my teacher and requested him to reconsider as I was wrong only in the last step and everything else was correct. He carefully looked at the whole steps and agreed to add 2 more marks. But he made a statement "Why are you bothered so much about these 2 marks? you already got 27 out of 30 which is the first mark any way". I remember this statement even today to understand the kind of live we are living. The message I got is that, unless you are in very miserable state, you dont have right to claim even if you deserve something. In many stages of life, you see many persons coming up before you through the lift, you struggled to reach the same place through stairs.

• A famous Indian counterpart of MNC used a logic to retrench good people because the other non-performing people (who are spared) cant survive if they are retrenched.
• In some backward states of India I feel secured in the train if I didnt buy ticket as they are the people who have preference. So being in inferior status always help the people?
• Naxalites who after killing many people, surrender and get special support from Government in the form of alloted land, special allowances and tickets to contest in the elections. Where as people like me never killed any one and do I get a 6 feet land atleast to bury me?
• In the Entrance Exams like Engineering and Medical, I heard better rank is given to the aged people when the scores are tied
• In some public sector comparny, I heard that a person who dropped from promotion in the last year is preferred over a meritorious person freshly due for promotion in that year

Everywhere the logic is that there is a party in sorry state and they need favor.

Is it a correct patter or do we need to recheck?

3 Idiots is wonderful effort

After being in the IT Industry for the last 20 years, I have a reputation among my relatives and friends that I am a seasoned and super powerful person in the industry. Many people approached me to get their Kin in to employment. I wanted to help them but not the help that they wanted. For example, one of my relatives came to me and told that in a reputed company walk-in interviews are happening and asked me to help. I agreed with 100% commitment and asked him to meet me at home. I explained him the kind of assessment that may happen to freshers like him. I provided him guidance on how to face the written tests on aptitude, analytical abilities, some technical basics etc. I also mentored him on what kind of typical quesions may come from the interviews and how to address the cases when he doesnt know the answers. Before I was proud about the kind of support extended to him for nearly 4 hours, I realized that it was not what was expected. All the young man asked me was about whether I know someone in the company and ensure the selection. Unfortunatley I am a person who believed in teaching fishing rather than giving Fish. I am also poor in giving fish through unofficianl means as I am not that powerful nor capable to become such powerful person. All the help most of the people wanted was the end goal fulfilled by some one. In my role as a people manager I saw a similar pattern. I tried to help the associates on framing their career attain multiple skills and acquire all skills other than the academics to ensure they are successful in their work. But it was never taken in positive sense. Many associates used to approach me and ask to put them in some Projects so that their jobs are safe. But when I ask whether they are ready to take up the Project assignments and even if I ask them on their awareness of what is required to get in to projects, I used to see blank faces. With out demoralizing I tried to explain what is required to be successful and I tried to explain them in the way they like by correlating these pre-requisites on how can they achieve good ratings in their appraisals. But to my disappointment, I used to see a dirty look by the associates as if they are seeing a worthless creature.It is not that I was completely unsuccessful. There were some people who motivated by responding to the challenges I created. And they were all successful. There were some unconventional results like a couple of management graduates getting to a technical work on content management, a domain experienced person becoming a highly technical integration developer and a few more. All these associates were successful by their sheer brilliance and willingness to perform instead of depending on someone's mercy and instead of tagetting the results some how. My motto was becoming self-sufficient and walk anywhere to perform irrespective of worrying about Lay-offs or other optimizations and about pleasing their managers.3 Idiots is a movie which is quite refreshing and also thought provoking movie. The movie like the other movies by the same director created a big impact in the audience. And this is the power of media which I want to leverage on the positive side. After seeing MunnaBhai MBBS, many people understood the need of respecting all communities that were making our life easy, through their back ground support. A popular MNC employees distributed blankets to the sweepers working on roads in the midnight and the employees openly accepted that it was by inspiration from MunnaBhai. While I hate the bad movies and bad media for wrongly influencing the people, I am very pleased to see some movies like 3 Idiots which is quite entertaining and at the same time passed a nice message.Movies need to be good, commercially successful and reach the people. for passing a message we do not need Shabana Azmi and gloomy film and they dont reach any people other than the award juries.3 Idiots says we need to educate with a direction of understanding the concept and apply the knowledge in our day to day life for better achievements. I also liked the way the conflict between the other and equally strong logic that the world looks at marks, grades and competition. But the reality is like this. Marks are required to get an interview call. But the success in the interview happens when you perform with authority on the subject. Even if you are through in the interview with the help of some influence, you need to perform wherever you work and that needs high intellegence quitient. It looks so simple but people keep searching for short cuts. Let them understand some thing from thie movie.

Leaders need to demonstrate what they say

When I try to learn from my peers, juniors and leaders, I hear a lot from them in the name of leadership, integrity, Openness, broadmindedness, team spirit and Professionalism etc.

Some of the simple observations I made indicate the need to question the authenticity of the leaders who talk more about these parameters. Many people like me are victims in many situations by simply talking these words as they are and unknowingly they become the target due to the hipocrocy of the same leaders. For example, if such hipocrite leader invites open criticism, you - like any innocent person provides some frank feedback about a few areas of improvement and the leader in general appreciates your frankness in public but will keep you in the hit list. You will never know about it in your circle and probably you share your excitement of the attention you received from the leader during the feedback and the kind of appreciation you received. You only realize the effect when you find yourself in the corner, when no leader picks you up for any role and you may be shocked when you come to know that all your managers were internally building negative opinion due to your "Open" feedback. But are'nt they claim to be encouraging such "Openness". The truth is any humanbeing likes Open feedback about anyone else but not about themselves. The same will be case when these pseuodo leaders talk about integrity, collaboration, and team spirit. Such leaders talk about collaboration when they are the beneficiaries. They talk about flat organization to others but worry about even mean things like possessing Cabins, Laptops, and Corporate Cell Phones.

If you ask for a title, you are a power savvy, but they cry for a cabin. And some of them write nasty exit letters when they leave the organization for reasons like not getting promotion or not liking to report to someone whom they believe as inferior.

I wanted to share a funny incident that really happened in one of my previous companies. There were two leaders always talking about team spirit and talking very low about hierarchical working style. Incidentally both of them were close allies to the Director of the company and came in to the organization through simple nomination rather than any recruitment process.

Whenever someone approaches them for concerns like Promotion, Hike, or good workplace they were eager to tell the associates about how low is their thinking and explain that why comes first than the individuals. While both of them have great differences among themselves they have this one common factor like many hypocrite leaders.

One leader came from Airforce Background (Wing Commander) and joined as a Consultant I want to call him as WC from now. Other leader is from Army (Colonel) and he too joined as a Consultant. I will call him Col.Both of them used to sit in adjacent cubicles. From the day one, the WC kept on talking low about the colonel because he as Wing Commander is higher ranked compared to Army Colonel (I dont understand why it matters when they are no longer colonels nor wing commanders!).

One fine morning, the colonel became the joint director (probably because he is more close to the director than his enemy :) and he desperately needed visitors place and the best place he found was the Cubicle of WC. When the WC went for a training, the highly enthusiastic Colonel got the cubicle vacated and made it as the visiting place for the Joint Director (for him). And he asked the Office assistant to move all the stuff of WC to another Cabin (better than Cubible ofcourse as per the standards of these leaders) and started using the visitor space.
When the WC came once to the office in the middle of training, he was surprised to see his place converted to visitor's place. He instead of checking with the right person (his enemy Col), enquired the office assistant on who did this and why. Poor office boy explained that it was the decision of Joint Director and showed him the wonderful work place (Cabin!!) elsewhere. Honestly that is much better place. But WC's Ego was hurt and he was probably upset simply because the movement happened without discussion.So he came at 8 AM in the week end (He never came to office before 10.30 AM in his life) and hurriedly moved all his stuff back to the original place. He asked the office boy to make all the changes and started sitting there even by ignoring the training. And I am afraid he was scared to go even to rest room as the place can be occupied by the respected Joint director again.

On the other hand, the Colonel came to office and noticed the change and started burning within himself. He called the boys and asked how it happened and was furious and fired the boys on why they obeyed WC's orders. He asked the boys to inform the Wing commander to vacate the space immediately shouting at them loudly ensuring that WC beside the cubicle can clearly hear what he said. But WC was quite determined and ignored all that and protected his space very well. the cold war went for 2,3 days and than the colonel sent a formal letter ordering the wing commander to vacate the place. The order dicated by him to the typist with as loud voice as possible and every word was clearly heard by WC. Still the typist typed the letter got it signed by COL and then circulated to Wing commander through internal dispatch process. It all took about a day while these two people were sitting side by side. However, the wing commander when received the order, tore it in to pieces and the eagerly watching colonel kept silent and continued to suffer from burning stomach.
Ultimately the Colonel talked to him and questioned him on how can a circular from Joint director can be ignored. Wing commander equally shouted and clearly communicated that he was ready to resign but can not vacate the work place. All juniors, office boys and even visitors had good entertainment on that day.
I do not want to elaborate on what happened later, because this is enough to explain how nastily can the socalled responsible and matured leaders behave for a work place. I wonder how these leaders have right to talk to any of their team members about some unknown terms like Professionalism, Integrity, Official protocol, commitment and other silly words that these people dont even understand.
I see some of my colleagues in the career who worried about their cabins, laptops and the company cell phones more than their life. There was one colleague who invited medical emergency when he was informed to vacate his cabin for accomodating a critical project team member.
I came across another leader who was desperate to have coffee but could not have it because the office boy was not available for 2 hours (For him, going to Coffee machine and getting a cup of coffee is not leadership. A new dimension ! )
I personally believe that a leader needs to first know how to be led, how to behave exemplary rather than making statements that he / she doesnt practice.

Why did I write this?

For some entertainment to myself :)

Youth demonstrates only destructive unity?

Once again I am choosing a debatable topic. This relates to the current scenario where youth are playing active role in burning buses, destroying other public properties, beating innocent people in the name of fighting for justice. While I dont want to discuss the genuineness of the cause for which these socalled youth especially students, I want to ask a few questions.
Did they try to fight when several innocent people died due to twin bomb blasts in our state? Did they think of atleast knowing the truth when one individual allegedly eaten up crores of public money? How many of them tried to question the government on how the funds are getting utilized? Do they believe only mass attacks without really knowing why are they doing? Did they ever try to control rapidly increasing street dogs in the city?

If they cant show civic sense in many day to day issues, how can they claim to be representing a cause about which they have no clue on how can it eliminate the problems. I am sure if I pick one of them and ask them to explain he or she wont have any proper answer. All they knew is moving with sticks and doing some thing sensational without sense.

I feel pity of the parents who might not be having control on their kids.

I again repeat, I am not expressing my opinion on the issue and as long as people fight with clarity on why they are doing, and if it is performed properly there is no objection at all. If people are clear about the issue, whatever the incidents we hear and watch in TV would not occur at all.

Youth is powerful and with such strength, it can do wonders to improve the society. If this energy is not channelized properly the results are most disasterous.

Media more harmful than terrorists?

Many of my friends know I hate media. I hate even the statements like "Pen is mightier than sword" and rather believe the current current media is more harmful than the terrorists.
Probably I am inviting debatable discussion but feel this is a valid topic to discuss and do something about it. There was a time when Rajiv Gandhi used to say "Hamen Dekhna Hai" while the viewers who had no choice but watching Door Darshan were saying "Hamen Nahi Dekhna Hai". That was when the proposal to introduce Prashara Bharathi Bill was well received by many. I was one of them because I also was seeing only SAARC meetings and Rajiv's speches in DD News and nothing else.

But I and if I believe many of my friends need to swallow the words and accept that whatever bad Door Darshan may be, but the TV Channels needed the kind of governance existing in DD.
The recent 26/11 shows there were many supporters in India who helped the terrorists for killing innocents in Mumbai. I sincerely feel more than any one, it was media which helped them the max. They showed everything of rescue and attacking operations through TV. While Commandoes were trying to interact through Signals, the media was very busy to show every moment of their's to improve their viewership and helping the terrorist supporters know what is happening. If this is called the strength of Media it is more harmful than Terrorism and more mean than Prostitution.
I remember an incident in Mumbai when two girls were abused by a mob. they must have felt quite humiliated after that unfortunate incident but more humiliation happened when the Media competed to show the snaps and provide as much description as possible to explain how they were ill treated. While they justify masking the faces of girls their spouses were still in the photos clearly telling everyone in the world about who were the vicitims of this shameful action. And media tried to justify they are doing their duty in taking the snaps in another incident when a specific community was beaten up on roads. Can they do the same if the person getting beaten is their relative? And what if the person dies? With this justification they may even do the coverage of killing of any person in the name of "doing duty".
Recently Politician was physically attacked by some barbarious people. More than that, I hated the people who were desparately positioning their cameras to capture how badly the person was being hit. Given a choice I may prefer to punish these people rather than those who really hit the politician. The fact that these people really wait in the sensitive area for incidents to capture and contribute to increase the viewership of their TV Channels. What if some of these people are hit by me and if I ask the cameramen to cover the incident?
What happened in the first week of new year 2010? Some channels discussed toomuch about a rumour published in a Russian magazine and discussed to such extent that a company's properties were attacked. The attacks were definitely not from the public and were doctored by a few antisocial groups. But the TV Channels are the triggers to these incidents right?
Media manipulates the news. I remember the incident in US when some of my friends stayed 1 year after a terrorist- who involved in 911 incident vacated the same house. The Police wanted to investigate and hearing that the Media met a few neibours and asked about our friends. Unfortunately my friends vacated the house 1 week before 911 incident to another house in the next lane of the same colony. When Media asked, the neibors said that these people used to talk in strange language and a couple of times, they heard the word White House. However one of their colleague was also interviewed by Media during that time, when he revealed that the people actually were his colleagues and that they were staying only in the next lane. And you know, Media omitted this piece of information when telecast because the whoe excitement will be lost. It created terror to my friends and they were worried for several days till they got confirmation from Police that their investigation is routine and they knew the terrorist left long time back. All the Police wanted to verify was to see if any evidence be available from this house.
But what is the contribution of media in this episode? What if some mad crowd attacked these people with such bad input from Media?
I feel there needs to be more governance on Media especially the News Channels. the kind of provoking and violent movies shown in other channels only come next to New channels.

PMI Conference: A National Event

I recently presented a paper in PMI Conference. The event took lot of time, and I tired a lot for various reasons and being sick, still motivated to attend the sessions for one and only one reason. And it was not about presenting my paper. The motivation was because of the way the event was organized.
the curtain raiser was a great presentation following our National Anthem "Vande Matharam". The vision about 2020 talked about some of the great facts about India. India is the country who invented the ZERO, the numbering system. We are the country where World's cheapest cars was made through indigenous innovation. The Session also mentioned about Mahatma Gandhi one of the greatest leaders ever born in this universe. And with many foreign delegates present, there was no hesitation to be proud about our country, including singing both the national anthems, unlike some pseuodo intellectuals who were worried about foreigners getting embarassed about we singing our National Anthem.
Patriotism is something that is the right of all of us. And demonstrating it doesnt need any special forum and any hesitation. Thats where I saluted the event.
While we have our own issues like high population, poverty, lack of education while most of them depending on many others, we are still united and determined to improve. Identifying project management as one of the important driver for the development of this country is very good point and is something to work on.
Personally I feel, the root cause is Population which urges the people to go for short cuts in wherever they needed to compete among toomany players. Thats where the corruption starts. And thats where people ask for reservations without real education. When more people live in less space lot of resources needed to be shared but the urge for survival forces burglary. In addition, the health issues comeup as toomuch population cant assure hygene.
HOWEVER, project management being order of life, some of the issues can be overcome. For example, if I plan my travel properly I dont need to bribe the Ticket Collector for a berth in the train. It also saves you a lot of costs which you may need to pay as premiums while doing the things in the last minute. Cost Management- part of the Project Management can help you improve your reserves and use them in right place. A good quality avoids bad investments and more value for less money in short time (as there will be no rework).
I have seen costs being shot up in events like marriages, just because Project management techniques were not applied.
I will definitely be part of this initiative of cascading the PM culture everywhere. I know it is difficult but not impossible.

What is our Social Responsibility?

My daughter needed help from me for reading news in her school. She came with news items and asked my opinion on how to read. While giving the guidance like how to start and how to give relevant expression in subtle manner as per the context of new item, I also wanted to give my opinion on the kind of news she can share.
Should we speak about Yedyurappa's political instability and the unfortunate killing of US Soldiers?
I didnt know what are the norms set by her school for such events, but guess the news must cover the categories like political, technical and sports etc.
I still wanted to be a bit eccentric as many people know.
I asked her to downplay the news item (as given in NDTV) of Yedyurappa who stated that he was forced to ditch some loyalists in the process of establishing stability in Government. I asked her to read it somewhat like the Crisis in Karnataka ends as Chief Minister made an assuring statement. In similar way, I asked her to read the news in AP in the lines like Congress is now united and want to work for win in Greater Hyderabad.
Than, in the sports section I asked her to highlight the success of Viswanathan Anand and Sachin emphasizing that Sky is the limit for performance.
I also asked her to mention Mistry's innovative Product Sixth Sense under technology. In addition, I asked her to include the miracle baby survived with heart outside body.
The reason why I wanted to spend more time is to ensure the discussions will be more healthy. There will be lot of hurting incidents that keep happening. While there are many reasons for that, one of the major cause in my opinion is the broughtup and lack of healthy thinking.
If you have two pieces of information like "innovation like Sixth Sense" and a hurting incident, I prefer to share the first one and ignore the second. I feel the media also must do the same. As long as they give more space of headlines for bad events, these events keep happening. Whereas many good and motivating events are not attracting the attention of us.
I want my kids and her friends to have the healthy habit of discussing good topics and improve hopes on change towards optimism.
Not sure how many of you agree.