एक प्रेम कहानी

दूध की बोतलों और राशन की कतारों में खोयी सी एक प्रेम कहानी
कुछ सिक्कों की खोज में गुम एक और प्रेम कहानी
थकी रातों की मसरूफ सुबहों का इंतज़ार करती प्रेम कहानी
सुनहरे कल को खोजती, परदेस में भटकती प्रेम कहानी
गुमसुम, उदास : पर जाने क्यों ना रोती प्रेम कहानी
फिर भी उम्मीद है कि ढूंढ लेगी अपनी मंज़िल अपनी प्रेम कहानी
क्योंकि है साथ जब तक मुर्शिद, रंगीन है यह अपनी प्रेम कहानी

Being Happy

Happiness, I now truly know, is an attitude. This attitude is born in a free mind, and allows one to live more effectively. Freedom, in turn, is a direct function of one’s ability to think, their commitment to spirituality (which is not the same as religion), and the intensity of desire to be self-aware.

What do I mean by the ability to think? Beyond clichés there is thought: the genuine, actual ability of human mind to create an idea and express a first-hand opinion. This is, however, hard work for both hard pressed and ignorant alike. One group is caught in the perpetual struggle to survive and make it through each day, wondering if there is an end to this winding road. The other is simply unaware, sleep walking through life. And both are, in ways, enslaved by their fears and prejudices. Bounded by what they know and what they don’t know, stuck in the middle of nowhere.

What does thinking do? It simply opens doors and aids the process of self-awareness. It is one of the key initial tools towards the path of self-realisation. Humans rule this planet due to their ability to think, and they can become self-aware because they can think. Thinking is, however, a two edged sword that needs the guiding hand of spirituality. Spirituality leads thought to freedom and not self-destruction.

But what is spirituality? For me, being a good human being is the essence of spirituality. Practices that reduce stress without harming your health, hence allowing you to be a better and more effective human, are spiritual practices. Vedic breathing techniques (pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya) and yoga are potent spiritual practices that I have experienced first-hand. There may be other techniques, but I am not aware about them.

Finally, one needs self-awareness to be truly happy. Without self-awareness even spirituality can give a false sense of accomplishment, ego, superiority complex, and illusion of control.

What is self-awareness? For me, self-awareness consists of understanding one’s conscious self, learning from mistakes, learning the art of handling the mind, and taking conscious decisions. Art of Living teaches various techniques to aid this process, though I am sure there will be other schools teaching similar things. To start on the path of self-awareness, however, one needs some initial amount of thinking and the realisation that self-awareness is of paramount importance.

At some point of my life I believed that we also need sufficient money and good relationships to be truly free. From my experience, I have learned that pursuit of money can as easily bring in more unhappiness to the one who does not make an effort to become self-aware. It is the same story with relationships. As Sri Sri says, to meet your soul mate you first need to first meet your soul. All in all, without the self-awareness that emanates from spirituality and first-hand thinking, everything in this world will ultimately lead to sorrow. 

सो जा

ओ मेरे प्यारे, आँखों के तारे, राजदुलारे,  सो जा …

अंखियों में तेरी निंदिया है इतनी
परियां तुझे पुकारे
चंदा को लेके, तारे समेटे, बाहों में मेरी सो जा।

ओ मेरे प्यारे, आँखों के तारे, राजदुलारे,  सो जा …

Bad Management is Easy!

Recently I came across a manager who gave her entire team a negative feedback. Strangely, the feedbacks for the same people for jobs done for other managers before and after this particular job were fairly positive. This got me thinking: did the people drop dead for two weeks or was there something else going on. I was surprised that this did not get any alarm bells ringing anywhere else. Even worse, the blame and negative consequences got apportioned to the team rather than the manager. I think this is a very good example of bad management compounded by poor organisation response.

I think a good manager lies at the heart of a vibrant organisation and needs three crucial skills to succeed: project management, communication, and team building.

Project management can be learned by studying and adapting project management techniques and frameworks like Scrum/Agile, PRINCE2, etc. Alternatively, it can simply mean being organised and keeping on top of the project and actively managing its risks. 

Good and effective communication is an integral part of project management. I write it as a separate skill as I have now seen too many poorly worded emails and negative communication as one used by the manager above. For example, in the above case the manager did not effectively communicate with her team during the project, holding on to a grudge and giving a negative feedback two months after the job to a surprised team. Not to let the team off the hook, it can be argued that they could have tried to communicate with the Manager as well. However, if the Manager is deemed more senior, paid more, and given more responsibility, I think it is fair to say that bad team communication is primarily a managerial failing.

Team building is a skill that I would look out in manager who I expect to take on a leadership role in the company at any time in the future. If you are operating in a super-competitive knowledge based industry, success will be defined by being able to hire and retain top-quality talent. And, managers can be pivotal to this: most of the times when people leave a company, more often than not they leave their managers.

In the above case, I would definitely try to dig a bit before readily blaming the team (especially if they seem to be doing a good job otherwise). I would pull them up for taking an initiative on communication if the manager was doing a poor job of it. However, my main target would be the manager from whom I would expect more than trying to escape blame for a badly run project by blaming the team.  

All the skills above are not rocket science and can be taught. Really, these are the basics, and better organisations stick to them.

The Absolute

Days will pass, nights will go
Years will pass, years shall show
Love will fade, friends will vanish
Doubt will creep, trust shall tarnish
Eternity and I are friends, I know
Beyond this prison there is nowhere to go
Generalizations are easy and too cheap
Petty wisdom that I don't keep
Convenience and profit is what world knows
The one with courage and strength grows
On the branch of relativity I perch
As for the absolute I vainly search.

AAP and Communism

Communism is a destructive, all-consuming ideology that invariably degenerates into autocracy or dictatorship. Despite its damaging and chaotic effect, it has not only managed to survive to date but there are people who are ready to live and die by it. For example, India risks losing more than 30% of its land to the red forces today. Without an effective command and conquer structure, and a unifying military ideology this would be impossible to achieve. To extend it a bit further, I would argue that what is true for communism is true for any other kind of cult, extremism, or dogma (like theocracy and fascism).

These cancerous ideas need the right kind of environment to flourish. Unfortunately, that is not hard to find or create. At minimum, you need is a perception of injustice and inequality. This can be made worse by corruption, poverty, lack of education, absence of an effective law and order machinery, and high handedness of the officials & the well connected. When people feel that everything is hopeless and there is nothing to lose, a demagogue can easily lead them down the path of a revolution that ultimately benefits nobody except the leader. The fact that such leaders are able to manipulate a large number of people is an indictment on the governance system that lets it happen in the first place.

In our recent history this pattern can be clearly seen in at least two instances.

First, in India a charismatic left leaning leader came to power in the 70s by promising to remove poverty within no time, and then went on to destroy and degrade the standard of politics & business, nearly turning India into a Communist dictatorship. Second, the mass poverty in Nepal enabled Prachanda to come to power, but it has not really made things better for the common people.

Presently, I strongly feel that this pattern is being duplicated by Arvind Kejriwal (AK) to engineer the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), based on the promise to eliminate corruption. His tactics (freebies, simplistic solutions, revolutionary mind set, conspiracy theories, romanticization of poverty, and misinformation) would make Hugo Chavez proud. For all we know, Lokpal may be an attempt to introduce dictatorship from the backdoor. Who knows? What is remarkable about AK’s rise is that he has been able to rise despite of having no money power, no dynastic background, and no military background. His meteoric rise indicates a well-thought strategy, overwhelming frustration of Indian public with corruption, luck, and sheer determination/ will power/ charisma of AK. Whether he is successful or not, this is for sure that he is going to be an influential force in Indian politics for time to come unless he makes a major strategic blunder.

AAP and AK are a product of the broken Indian governance system that has let it people down with a dysfunctional justice system and rampant rights without responsibility/ accountability. The weaknesses of the system are now being used against it. It is a wake-up call for the law makers to wake up and make changes, or risk losing it all. Whatever their intentions, AAP has made corruption centre-stage. This should lead to at least some improvement in the quality of legislators and reduce visible corruption. That is already a big step forward. However, this was not by design. In terms of actual intent AAP has offered only simplistic, nonsensical solutions and shown a strong left bent. Its strategy is of a party who wants to win at any cost rather than of a party which is serious about reforming the system. India desperately needs economic development, judicial reforms and government services reforms to both go ahead and contain corruption. Judging by its actions to date, it doesn’t look like AAP is going to deliver it any time soon.

Thinking AK

Arvind Kejriwal (AK) has come up as an important force in Indian politics. Only time will tell whether he will indeed be a force for good. For now, we should give him an opportunity to prove himself. My take on key issues concerning AK:

Water and Electricity Subsidies: Unfortunately, subsidies have become an integral part of Indian politics. Every political party indulges in this game to win votes. AAP has just followed the game and it has paid dividends. However, it doesn’t make it a right, well-thought decision. As a commentator said, if Narendra Modi (NaMo) did this, he would first focus on getting the pipelines and setting up power plants before making such promises. As seen in Gujrat, people are willing to pay if they can get 24x7 access to basic amenities. Instead of trying to solve the problem, AAP simply cashed on it like any other opportunistic political party. This can be condoned if they change course and address the actual problem now when they are in power. We will have to wait and watch.

Corruption: In the next few months AAP should follow-on its promise of making life difficult for the corrupt, irrespective of their status. It should not appear that they are giving Congress any leeway or it will damage their reputation. Targeting big-shots will go a long way in establishing their credibility. This is their true advantage over any political party and they would do well to not let it slip away. Again, we will have to wait and watch.

Economics: Given that it was market liberalization that has given India its current level of prosperity, left leaning instincts of AAP do worry me. If they can find a balance between populism and effective economic policy, only then can they provide India with a long-term solution. Again, here NaMo’s development model and willingness to put development first gives comfort. NaMo is the only politician who seriously talks about development and economic reforms as priority one. AK may as well learn from it and display it during his term as the CM.

AK for PM: AK has made a brilliant debut and only a fool will question his skills in mobilizing people and oration. However, it may be prudent to first let him prove his mettle as the CM before saying that he will be a good PM. He is an unknown quantity. Even though I am sure he will be better than Congress or Third-Front, I am not convinced as of now that he will be better than NaMo. Talk is cheap and we can argue endlessly, but the fact of the matter is that he does not have a track record as far as administration and economics is concerned. Let him show what he can do in Delhi and only then it would make sense to consider him capable enough to handle the responsibility of the PM.