Monday Musings 227 - If your are not overworked...then you are underworked

Monday Musings 227 - If your are not overworked...then you are underworked

Sometimes too many things happen around a given subject in quick succession and it leaves us wondering if this was nature's way of pushing us to solve the conundrum - if not in practice then at least intellectually. 

Most cubicle-wallahs who are endowed with diligence and an honest bone feel overworked and hard pressed for time. Since it will be unkind and a tad offensive to my self esteem to put myself in a category otherwise, at least in my own assessment, it is safe to conclude that i also feel overworked and hard pressed for time. The tragedy of being overworked is that at its best its a very personal thing - like haemorroids. One cannot talk much about it, there isnt much sypathy available as balm (pun intended), although one does feel its presence most of the times. Both disrupt the quality of life in a strange way. So just as i was on the point of becoming the complaining sorts, i read this cartoon in the ET which said - "....Never complain about overwork...if you are not overworked then you are definitely underworked"...It will not require a genius to know what are the perils of being underworked. Imagine a bovine (i am not sure if i can use this word - i guess there is a ban on using such words these days!) in the queue in the slaughterhouse. So where is the next task...keep loading!

I am also not liking these philosophers kinds who seem to have only me as a reader if i go by the frequency of serendipity of they finding me. I hate Aristotle when he says "All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind". I think Nasser Taleb is being personal when he says says something to the effect that one should not trust a man who depends on a monthly salary for his living. The on i personally and deeply hate is Upton Sinclair who says "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it". What are these philosophers upto - discouraging an entire generation of honest men and women who want to keep the fires in the kitchen burning? I heard they use to poison such men in the earlier times, who had the audacity to make the regulars miserable by flirting with truth. 

Finally this issue of being overworked is also about what are you overworked with - i guess that will make the difference to the camels back. The good thing about being a camel or may be its back is that it is physiologically and intellectually incapable of discerning the quality of the load. I think the soul is far more endowed with intelligence and perspicuity. 

Guru

Monday Musings 226 - The charm of the unsaid

Monday Musings 226 - The charm of the unsaid

"You need to keep reminding yourself of the obvious; charm lies in the unsaid, the unwritten, and the undisplayed. It takes mastery to control silence"

Youth is usually verbose and expressive, fueled by the exuberance that usually comes with naivety, idealism or foolhardiness. Middle ages is the wearing out of some of them if one is lucky and all of them if one is ordinary. Most lives are a struggle to overcome the threat of that ordinariness. In that sense, at the risk of generalization, most lives are a struggle not with their circumstance but with themselves. What can be more scary and hideous than ordinariness staring back from the mirror on a monday morning! It takes quite a lot to come to terms with the fact that having reached forties one is at best still a work-in-progress.

There is great joy in having opinions on everything - a borderline case of being opinionated.  It thrives on the sense of self serving importance that comes from knowing. One must speak on anything and quite liberally, for in our ability to speak with abandon lies our sense of liberation. Its like the adolescent who has the freedom to go anywhere and who because now he has it, shall exercise it without restraint. The fun is not in the freedom per se but in the realization that the freedom can be exercised at will. It is only with time that one realizes that the 'charm lies in the unsaid, the unwritten and the undisplayed'.

What is already expressed and articulated, in speech or words, is like cards that are already revealed. They do not hold much power or promise. The spoken and articulated do not hold potential for modification and correction. Finally they also do not hold any more charm - for charm lies in restraint and an implicit offer of something still left unexplored.  What is already explored is largely boring. Unknown holds the power of imagination and excitement.

What is it that makes speaking irresistible? What is it that having the last word in a conversation such an aphrodisiac - and in the corporate world, i might add with experience and trepidation a need that is the most pronounced?
Is it because what Naser Taleb, from whom i have liberally borrowed the quote above has also said - "writers are remembered for their best work, politicians for their worst mistakes and businessmen are almost never remembered" ? 

I guess there is grace in the quiet. I guess there is mystery in silence. There is anticipation in holding back. There is power in the unsaid. So the next time as i rejoice the magic of the said, i shall spare some time in exploring the power of the unsaid.

Guru   

Monday musings 225 - The Missing tile

Monday musings 225 - The Missing tile

I received a small clip by one Denis Prager on the Whatsapp, that digital mega-store where the answers to all human questions gets answered these days, sometimes after solicitation and mostly without it. Dennis talks about the "missing tile syndrome" that human beings usually suffer from - focusing on that one tile that is not present or perfect rather than all the ones that are. Many years back Javed Akhtar, the noted lyricist and poet wrote in his anthology 'Tarqash' - 

Khushi se sabka faasla bas ek kadam hai, 

Har ghar me bas ek kamra kam hai"

(Happiness, for everyone is only a step away; for every house is only a room short). 

Cognitively we all know that it is a futile expectation from life but we still suffer from it - like the hugely stereotypical sardar joke in which the naive sardar on seeing the banaa peel exclaims - "Oh aaj phir girna padega" (gosh - will have to fall again). Wish it was funny! I also wonder why what is cognitively so profoundly understood is emotionally so poignantly ignored. What makes us so helplessly focus only on the missing tile? The missing tile is like the rouge tooth, which amongst the otherwise healthy teeth has this uncanny and frustrating ability to incessantly remind ourselves of its presence. 

A leader i had worked with a few years ago had said after a few drinks, a time when he usually was at his pranking and profound best; "We gotta be at peace with ourselves". I have not known many at his level be actually be at peace with himself. What is it that prevents us from being at peace with ourselves? Why the agony of the missing tile always? I look around and i see most fuming and fretting on the missing tile of their ceiling, me included. It is an epidemic. 

A doha which is attributed to both Kabeer and Rahim in various places, 

Chah gayi Chinta gai, manwa beparwah, 

jinko kachoo na chahiye wohi shehanshah

(with no desire or worry and a carefree mind; those at peace with themselves are like kings) 

This is at odds with the zeitgeist of the times which unabashedly announces "Ye dil maange more". Ambition is the fuel for progress and also the seed for the missing tile. How do we retain the spirit of progress and yet resist the agony of the missing tile syndrome. Dilemma is the first step for the neurotic. I am in dilemma and in that case the portends are not good!

The ancient Indian wanted liberation from the curse 84 - the cycle of birth and death. The medieval Indian wanted liberation from want. The modern cubiclist wants liberation from the rat race, even though he enjoys the perks of it. The ancient and the medieval failed. What makes the modern so confident? I guess he has an MBA. They usually have all the answers. 

Guru

Monday Musings 224 - Reporting from Cawnpore

Monday Musings 224 Reporting from Cawnpore

The world outside the metro is an education.  Every time I travel to the smaller towns of India I tend to notice the many India that jostle for space, on the face of it competing and soon settling down at peace with each other. We know for sure instances where the many India’s are not at peace with each other and are at violent loggerheads for space – like the khaps and their convoluted logic of honour amidst rural prosperity, not more than a 100 kms from the borders of the nations capital. However there are also examples where an understanding of sorts has been achieved. I witnessed two such examples during my recent trip to Kanpur. I like the sound of its erstwhile name Cawnpore, which incidentally is still what is written on its British era Kotwali, a majestic imperial architecture. Why don't they build stuff like that anymore?

I was attending a meeting where the prosperous and progressive Small and Medium Enterpirse owners of the town had come together for an industry conference, to discuss key issues of their business. Quite obviously most of these belonged to old, established and illustrious families of the city. Most were old and middle aged and commanded respected from the fellow participants, flowing not only from the net worth they represented but perhaps because of conduct that may have lasted for more than a generation. 

A man in the fifties who was a dignitary on the dias came out and touched the feet of an elderly member in the audience seeking blessings. Before I could get over it another young man in his thirties at the most came over and touched everyones feet. I was only consuming the sight and trying to come to terms with it is when another man in his fifties brought his rather young son in his early twenties to meet the seniors. What an amazing sight – the boy went about touching everyones feet in the circle – almost a rite of passage of sorts. He was getting lesson i guess. Mind you this was happening in the middle of a trade conference just outside the auditorium. I could not help but wonder if my management education ever taught me anything even remotely to deal with this milieu. I am sure each one in the room knew his pennies and paisa’s as well as anyone else in any other city of India. The big question I also wondered if we the city slickers were in any way prepared to deal with them?

Earlier in the day someone in his thirties and working as a professional for many years now was describing the rituals at his home, relationship with his father and his children. He was young, modern, educated, sophisticated in every sense of the word.  He described how even today he is woken up by his father at 5am, a relaxation of an hour from the earlier deadline of 4 am in the morning. He talked about how even today he so enjoys pressing his father’s feet and legs, and he considers that his doing it actually the best ‘role modeling’ he could do for his children. He was at least a decade younger to me but at least a decade wiser than me. I was so blown away by his childlike enthusiasm, simplicity and rootedness. He believed in what he said and even if some of it sounded so anachronistic in this time and age for the city slicker in me, I wanted to ape him. A case of reverse role modeling.

On the highway from Lucknow to Kanpur there was a stretch where old village women were selling fresh guavas. Great joy in munching into the succulent flesh of the countryside guava.Big joy in small munches. 

I met three retailers – two known from the past and one in whose shop I just walked into, who showed me how the winds of trade were changing. The first one owned a 60 year old family shop which sold more than 20,000 SKUs in kitchen items, accessories and electronic items. He told me that e-tailing was gradually eating into the business and confirmed it even when I expressed dismay that it was not possible in Kanpur. The second one was the owner of a chain of beauty Salon’s – a first generation self made business person. She taught me the magic of customer insight. She said that the third week of March is every year a lean season for her because during this week most housewives, which incidentally made up much of her clientele were busy in their children's exams and would not venture out. This was also not a season where Christians, Hindus or Muslims usually have weddings. Finally she told me that she keeps track of the Shubh Muhurts probably more than anyone else – because it means ache din for her. I walked into a leather shop whose owner gave me a tutorial on leather, its type and speciality – he definitely knew his sheep from his calves and goats!!

Class over. 

Guru

Monday Musings 223 - Randomness - the lost ideal

Monday Musings 223 - Randomness - the lost ideal

"Work destroys your soul by stealthily invading your brain during the hours  not officially spent working - be selective about your profession"

"In nature we never repeat the same motion; in captivity (office, gym, commute, sports), life is just repetitive-stress injury" - 

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in "the Bed of Procustes"

The subject of work has always intrigued me, particularly the dimension of work which is beyond the aspect of 'making a living' out of it. The fact that there are infinitely more who work to make a living than those who work for the love of it only makes this issue more pervasive and in some ways perverted. It does not requires a genius to figure out that the pursuit of making a living is the central theme of being a social creature and should one fail to do it in the maddening pursuit of doing what one loves, hell shall fall.

Nassims first pearl of wisdom is uncanny and poignant. It is no secret that modern cubiclewallah takes work home in more deceptive ways than the obvious. The simplest and the probably the least harmful amongst them is to take the 'physical' work home. The more ubiquitous and probably the more damaging is those aspects that he takes 'stealthily' home. These are the anxieties, the spillovers, the worms of intrigue that remain in him, unbeknown to him and in most cases outside his abilities to resist. They rob him of his authenticity - in leisure, in family and in solitude. Each one handles this systematic invasion in his own way. Some may be actually good at leaving work at work, but if Nassim is to be believed, it rarely happens. My guess is that most learn to live with the corruption of the soul rationalising that it is the price of being success full in the work that they are into, even though it may not be the work that they would have wanted to. I am intrigued not with the phenomena anymore but how i wish i knew how each one is dealing with it. It would make a fantastic viewing - an engrossing cinema of sorts. 

Nassims second pearl of wisdom is amazing in its observation. Come to think of it that in nature everything is random, nothing is repetitive, while in modern living everything has a routine, a pattern - and whatever is repetitive must remind us of captivity, for in only captivity that motions need to be repeated. Free living is about randomness. Modern living shrinks the space for randomness. Even the weekend leisure is becoming repetitive - friends coming over, going out so on and so forth. Even gym, which is so healthy, is about receptive patterns. Pure joy comes from randomness. Repetitiveness can only make you a prisoner and engender ennui and boredom. Only randomness provides succour and freshness. It is the balm for the soul. I keep wondering about how often i do something really random - and the answer is not very kind. 

So here is what i tell myself. Life is supposed to be random - not repetitive. But randomness in the times of primacy of 'making a living' requires courage or may be clarity preceeding courage.  

Randomness may the lost ideal. Can i rediscover it?

Guru

Monday Musings 222 - The Procustean Bed, Work and Relationships

Monday Musings 222 - The Procustean Bed, Work and Relationships

Procustes, in Greek mythology was someone who had a queer sense of hospitality. He would entertain his guests well and then make them lie on a bed. If they were longer than the bed he would chop off their legs and if they were shorter, he would stretch the victims till they equaled the length of the bed. In today’s times we do not need a Procustes to do this. Each one is sufficient to inflict this to himself.

Essentially the bed of Procustes indicates perpetrating the violence of chopping or stretching self to what we ought to be or have. What we were meant to be or have can go take a walk! What we are and do have be damned! Ironically and tragically it is not Procustes who is perpetrating this violence on unsuspecting victims but the ‘I ’who is doing it.

This violence is most visible in two spaces – at work and in relationships.

All of us have notions of what is our ideal work with ideal designation and with ideal money. Usually it is at variance with what we have. So we become active Procustes. We mindlessly and incessantly chop parts of it that is not up to our liking. We ignore those aspects of it which are such a terrible drain even if that is core to that work. We abhor certain activities which are a part and parcel of that role which are not what we enjoy but if removed it has the potential to adversely impact the role itself. We want to do only parts of it – either the creative side of it, or the leadership side of it – and rarely the administrating side of it or the networking side of it. There are parts of our jobs that we would be so happy to hand over to Procustes!

Apart from the procrustean chopping, there is also the tragedy procrustean stretching at work. The perpetual desire to want more keeps us perpetually dissatisfied with our current situation. The notions of success at every stage, heavily deriving from our own sense of ambition and fuelled by peer comparisons, keep us precariously on the edge of dissatisfaction.  What we do not have from our work is the single largest source of angst today, may be with the exception of relationships – of all hues.

The Procustean tragedy corrodes relationships too. There is always an expectation mismatch that is plaguing it. Something that is supposed to only be the source of joy, companionship and bliss becomes a source of unending grief. We want more when we cannot have it – the bed is only so long! So begins the soul destroying task of stretching – of putting ourselves through the very excruciating process of wanting more, in the process either ignoring or giving up what we had the fortune of having. Strange are matters of human want!

Yet other times we want to chop off certain things about a relationship that we do not like. It’s like saying I do not like Violet from the rainbow and let me remove it. Even a child knows that if you do so, you have deformed the rainbow and the rainbow will not exist anymore. Yet again we risk what we have at the altar of what we want. Strange are the matters of human want!

The Procustean bed has an explanation in poetry.

Ye Dil bhi ek bachhe ki manind hai

Ya to ise sab kuch chahiye, ya kuch bhi nahi

(The heart is like a child – either it wants everything or nothing)

Guru

Monday Musings 221 – The Left, The Right and The Cubicle

Monday Musings 221 – The Left, The Right and The Cubicle

Way back during my B School, at the peak of the Israel- Palestinian conflict, during a country report presentation where I had chosen to study Israel, my professor asked me a question – “so as a businessman would you invest in Israel?”  I had poured over the history of Israel way back to their first displacement  thousands of years ago in the run up to that presentation and had developed a soft corner for perhaps the most traumatized people on this earth in the name of their faith and also perhaps the most resilient. Such was the impact of what I read that I forgot that I was answering a business professor not a sociology one. I got a C minus or its equivalent  because I answered ‘Yes’ because the professor opined that here was a case of a poor manger who had allowed his sentimentality overrule his rational judgment, a prerequisite for being successful in the corporate world. Israel never left my consciousness since then and neither did the C minus.

The business world at most levels shuns the issue of political affiliations or sympathies because the belief is that these two are distinct worlds and the employees political beliefs do not matter and hence are not material to his business decision making and thus must be kept at a distance. I am sure there is great merit in this, but I am increasingly coming to a conclusion that these might be important after all. Let me argue it out.

The right of the political establishment usually believes in economic liberalization but has strong views about individual liberties and how much that should be allowed. Indian right has strong views about religious freedom, freedom of expression of speech, gender liberties, rights for LGBT, as the American right has strong views about the church, abortion rights, LGBT again so on and so forth. Similarly the left of the political establishment in India or Europe usually believes in liberal stance on issues of individual choices like religion, gender, sexual preferences so on and so forth but has mixed up economic priorities which often lead to depressed economic growth. One does not have the best of both worlds!!

Leaders have to live in the two worlds of the ‘right’ and the ‘left’ together – and higher up they are the more critical this balance is.

Leaders have to deliver results under very trying internal and external circumstances. This demands from them a world view which believes in the delivery of business result and if it means a sacrifice of the individual liberty, for the larger good, so be it. Such leaders in their own mind are being true to their raison d’ etre, which is take a task to fulfillment. It is not that softer aspects like co creation and co option, sensitivity to human emotions, tolerating dissent, respecting divergence of thinking are unknown to them but in their hierarchy of criticality these are subservient to the grand objective of “geting the damn job done”, a sentiment that is very rightist.

Increasingly organizations are measuring, highlighting and hence becoming sensitive about leaders who not only deliver results for them but are also upholders of individual rights, liberties, tolerant to all kinds of diversity and for the want of a better word, philosophically speaking believers of humanism. No wonder the universe of behavioral training and leadership development programs borrows so heavily from the world of belief, philosophy and sociology. These are influences which are essentially leftist.

The conundrum is as follows – will a person with right leanings ever understand, appreciate and adopt liberal principles in his leadership style? Will attending all leadership development programs to develop such sensitivity work at all? And will bleeding heart liberals ever be consistent in achieving results or allow their bleeding-heart-liberalism cloud their business judgment. A C minus in real life can be disastrous.

 Guru