Turning the Page Number 27

This is a moment of pride for my mother…I am sure, being a mother - she is exceedingly successful in her role of upbringing both of us (Me and My Brother). There is nothing to credit to our end. Let me acquaint you with the story, why is she so proud for it...

We were a small and a traditional family from a small village in Warangal district. My father was a small businessman and also the bread winner for the family. On one unfortunate summer noon he had sustained a massive heart stroke and lost his life. We both were small kids when he demised. I was 3 and my brother was 5. I hardly remember his face. We were also not an affluent family to run the show in the absence of the food feeder. Small village, even smaller help from the relatives, my mother stood up. And she stood up tall with the sole objective to protect the kids and make them worthy citizens. This was the vision. At least to protect both of us for 20 years. In fact this is the only reason for her to live. I still remember she saying those “tough lines of my life” to one of my neighbors who was also a village head “Please adopt my kids – I don’t want to live any more”

Few days from then, she realized that - if not she, there is no one to protect her kids. She assumed the savior role. She took up the task so selflessly that she used to find the meaning of her life in our lives all along. It was so tough for a traditionally brought up lady to go to the society and fight for that bread. Every small penny used to matter and every small expense used to be monitored. Her day used to begin somewhere at 4 in the morning and end at 11 in the night. Hardly could she find a gap of 30 min to take a breath in between. She is the strongest and the boldest lady I have seen in my life.

She always used to insist on education and used to say that everyone should study at least till graduation. She also used to say this “I can feed you till you complete your graduation and make sure you are not deprived of any of the necessities” Honestly, she DID every bit to stand by her words. Just not to the graduation, but till the post graduation that too from one of the best institutes of the nation. She is surely a proud mother when she speaks about us with her friends in the vicinity.

Having crossed 27 years, if I look back – I see my mother’s victory all along the journey so far. Fighting against the odds, Rock solid determination, Undisturbed focus, Understanding the meaning of life and staying simple - for all these things if you ask me I don’t even take that second milli second to refer her name as an example. I am sure it is my fortune beyond million tons to have this lady as my mother. Every one loves his/her mother – I am no special, but she is still special. She taught me what protecting means, she taught me what parenting is all about.

As I am crossing the page number 27, she put her palm on my head and blessed me that I will surely get a girl who can understand me and be with me to support in every aspect of my life. I am seeing nothing but the never ending mother’s love. As she always says - I hope and wish she will be the second most admired lady of my life.

Turning the page number 27 she advised me not to turn the page number 28 alone…

ETCH THROUGH THE BRAIN

I am writing this blog based on my experience during my visit to a school for visually challenged students. To be frank while going I had no greater interest than spending some time with the kids of this nature. But while leaving the school i am addled to the bottom of my heart. Not because I found them pity, but the other way round. I found the other section of the society handicapped. Strange, but true. I found myself handicapped amidst the level of synchronization that these kids have shown.

I went there with couple of my friends who are regular visitors of this place. And the kids are very familiar to them. They just touch your hand and say who you are. Each kid is a maverick there with their unique expertise. One kid, hardly 4 to 5 years old, gave me the shock of life time by chanting the movie dialogues of aged movies. Not just dialogues, with the perfect voice modulation of that particular movie character. I was totally bowled over by this kid’s ability to remember those complex dialogues of the movie, that he just LISTENED to. I SAW the movie thrice, I know the characters, I can recognise them if I face them on the road, and I am 27. But still I just can’t do that. He even remembers the commercial breaks of the movie played on the TV. Now tell me what should I call this kid? Is he not the prodigy of our motherland? He is just not he only special kid there. Every one of them actually made me to feel ashamed of myself.

I should tell you one more incident which just made me go agape. There were a group of these kids playing cricket. With a specially designed ball which makes sound while it is in action. Apart from that it’s the normal cricket game. Being a diehard fan of the game, I went to WATCH it. I had to double my eyes to realize the level of synchronization that they have displayed. And the game played was so damn ferocious. It just can’t be expressed in words. They can bowl better than us. They can bat better than us. They can field better than us. And they can also hit the stumps without fail….Only based on the sounds…not only the sound of the ball, but also the sound of the wind it carries with it. The game was at its best and I envied every bit of it on the above ground axis. I somehow felt that I am the odd man in the middle with more equipment and less potential.

Many a times I am surprised and admired by the mechanics of human body and the design of it. It’s a perfect machine. We just don’t realise the power of it. Sometimes we do it with curiosity but most of the times it comes with necessity. As we all know “Necessity is the mother of Invention” but surprisingly "Necessity is also the mother of Discovery".

It is indeed the necessity which drove these kids to be that special. You and me are also gifted with these abilities. But we do not have the necessity in other words we don’t have the opportunity to realise(discover) the ability of the organs that we are born with. Hence we do underutilize them. So we function at a lesser risk basis so we enjoy a lesser return from the organ….and the sad part is we are HAPPY with it. But these kids play them at an elevated level. Hence they get an equal amount of output with the limited organs which we are yielding with all the organs. Is it not simply great?

All I want to say is, with all the organs alive and functioning, we should be thankful to the almighty for making us to be so luxurious. Failing to realise this, we all crib about many a things….that we are not rich, we don’t get to watch a good movie, we don’t have an LCD TV, we are deprived of fancy cars….what not? Dear realise what you have before starting about what you don’t.

Swig of Truth

Talking about the teaming, Narayana Murthy of Infosys keeps saying, 1+1 is always greater than 2. Having seen the corporate culture for 4 years now, I somehow, do not agree with him and tend to hold a contradicting opinion. I am not bluntly saying that he is wrong, but the probability of him being right is only close to 20%. But for the rest 80% of the opportunities I feel 1+1 is always much lower than 1.5. And as the number of people keeps increasing the marginal increment in the value added is going down, may not be considerably but yes, it does. Things which can influence this function are largely - Leadership, Culture, Kind Of Job, Maturity Level of People and the Governance System.

When the organization is small, when the visibility for each person is very high, when the roles are clearly defined, when the responsibilities were shared with a human touch, when the leadership has a clear Vision and the same is shared among all other people, when employees work for the Organisation but not for any Individual, when one is not just one…Narayana Murthy is right in his Statement. But in reality, I get to see none of the mentioned characteristics is prevalent. What all I see are - vague bond between people, road blocks for the Information/Vision/Objective at each layer of the hierarchy-leaving leaving the completely distorted information when it reaches the ground, Individual objectives taking the driver seat instead of the organization goals, escaping from all the duties and work only when it is extremely needed, involving personal relationships at work place, measuring people’s performance on the wrong Indices or just on the personal relationship and what not…creating all odds for that individual who comes with an intention of serving the Organisation with true spirits and prove himself.

Why an Organisation, when small performs well and the same gets tumbled down as the size crosses the critical mass. And how can one actually say that this is the critical mass for the Organisation. If we dwell in to it, In general when an Organisation is formed, the founder(s) has the clear Vision and makes sure that it is shared with the people who work for it. What part of the information is to be shared and what is to be hidden are clear in his/her understanding. He/She doesn’t need to lay down a rule book/process to function the given job. Most of the times the job is given and accepted with clear understanding of the impact of the job on the other stakeholders of the Organisation. This is the reason responsibility & accountability are instilled without saying. This is the reason you can derive higher average work (Value) from an Organisation of 5 people than that of from the organisation of 500 people.

If 1+1 has to be more than 2 –It asks for, each one complementing the other person in the work, extending the support beyond the set job description, zeal to stretch that extra mile and encourage him or her to achieve that. This is possible only and only when there is perfect coherent set of objectives for the individuals and teams. If these intangible and cultural aspects are absent, the marginal VALUE that each person brings to the table is clearly less than 1. Meaning to say, if he asked to function independently he would add more value (in absolute terms). If my observation is correct - if there are 100 people working on a job, the value derived out of this entire group would be somewhere between 30 to 40. But why do we need teams??? Answer is simple; one can’t be more than ONE. But 10 can be more than 5….got me?