The scheme of things

The quest for living at peace with oneself and with others is quite tedious and often leads to dead ends. Therefore some of these questions never get answered and haunt you all your life:

• What did I do that I have to go through this hell?
• Why did I get stuck in this shitty job?
• Why doesn’t he understand what I want?
• Everyone is happy; Am I the only unlucky one?
• Why do the bad enjoy while only the good suffer?

Well, in most times the problem is not that you are not getting answers from elsewhere. The problem is you are unable to convince your mind to accept that you are in this situation.

The quest led me to various sources – A “Curriculum for living” course by Landmark worldwide, Isha foundation, “Power of your subconscious mind” by Dr.Joseph Murphy, various works of Robin Sharma, Deepak Chopra, Dr.Wayne Dyer, Sandeep Maheshwari, Brahmakumaris, “The Chimp Paradox” by Dr.Steve Peters among others.

It is a no-brainer that to live at peace with everything that is happening around you, you need to accept it whole-heartedly. Easier said than done – acceptance does not come easy: you have a beautiful logic on why you cannot accept what has happened.

So I put forth 3 concepts that will open up our horizons. All three are interlinked and may feel like repetitions:

1)  Understand how your brain works
2)      The Karmic account
3)      Take responsibility

1)      The brain and battle within

Let’s have a quick understanding of the physiology of brain: For easy understanding, we divide the brain’s functioning into 3 parts”

-          The Frontal or Logical or Thinking brain: Which pauses, thinks of the consequences & then takes decisions.

-          The Parietal brain or the memory bank: Which refers to past memory and gives a suggestion that this is the best response based on past experience.

-          Limbic system or the Emotional brain (or Chimp in the language of Dr. Steve Peters): Is the Fight, Flight or Freeze brain or it works without thinking. Completely based on emotions.

All 3 are required to face the various situations in life. Let’s take a typical example of you meeting your ex-girlfriend. The Chimp is the fastest to react: It says it’s a girl – go for her! Or it’s a girl. Danger. Stay away! The Parietal brain brings forth all the past memories you had with her and that gives you a sudden rush. Finally the Frontal brain jumps up and starts thinking: Yes, she is a girl. Yes, I had good times with her in the past. But is it right to give in to those memories now? What can be the consequences? How would she feel? Will I regret later?

What follows is a nasty fight between the three. And depending on how you have tuned your brain, or how aware are you about what is happening inside you, you will choose a response. Generally, the person where the Frontal brain dominates is calmer, sorted, acts responsibly and doesn’t get into trouble. It works with conscience. Unlike the other two which work on impulses.

This is why wise men preach “Think before you think”, “Respond, don’t react” etc… Physiologically it means, think with your frontal brain.

Understanding this concept gives you the power to act responsibly in life. It also makes you wise enough to understand the behavior of others. So the next time you see your boss acting nasty, or your spouse shouting at you, pause. Smile within. And console yourself “His / her Chimp is unleashed”. You can’t console the other in that instant. Their Chimp will get angrier.

2)      The Karmic account

This is a bit spiritual – highly scientific brains may not accept this theory. But science by itself is not always capable of giving respite to your feelings.

We have heard various mythological concepts like Chitragupt keeping track of your deeds, Judgment day, Afterlife, reincarnation etc... And you have always wondered if it is really true, especially when taking decisions based on integrity. Cos external influence always says somebody got away with murder, and I am held responsible for swatting a fly. There are high chances that you will give in and justify your action, “Nobody will come to know”, “I want my share of pleasure”, “Oh, he did this to me, it’s logical I do that”…

In short the Karmic account theory says that originally a soul is pure. Throughout its journey in one body, it gathers assets & liabilities (based on the good and bad deeds done). Finally the soul leaves the body and enters another new body, but with the same old book of accounts. Now this soul may encounter another soul from earlier life and give back what was gathered in the past.

While this theory may be difficult to accept for the present generation, belief in it answers lot of questions:

•           Why is somebody behaving badly with you, while you have always been good to him / her?
•           Why should I care what he / she feels? I only got one life to live…
•      How does a child get a sanskar (characteristic) unseen in the parents, while he/she is not yet exposed to the outside world?
•          Why am I being put to test, although I have always lived by principles of virtue?

So the next time you meet someone who has the sanskar of not trusting, or always blaming others, or always critical, or betrayal… blame it on their book of accounts. Until it is squared off they will remain that way. And it is possible to square off – by doing things which balances the ones in the karma. But they need to be aware of what is at play. So do you, so as to accept that this person has had a past which has made him / her the way they are today. And that you need to send pure vibrations in order to help the other change their ways. And sending pure vibrations is easy if you have the right intention. Your thoughts reach them faster than your words. If your words say “You are such a nice person,” and your thoughts say “I need to keep him in good books, so that he doesn’t get angry”, it is the thought that gets registered, not the words.

This should keep you away from fake promises. The key is to keep your intentions pure – doesn’t matter if the words hurt.

3)      You are the creator of your life

Armed with the awareness of why the other person behaves in a certain way, it is now time to understand your circle of influence. You cannot really change another person. Giving advices, teaching, shouting etc… are all fine. But it is how the other person perceives your action, which influences how he / she will change. Perception is a very tricky thing. You hear something which may have certain meaning. However maybe because of your sanskar or the way your Chimp has processed the information, you would perceive it in a completely different meaning. And what gets perceived is what gets recorded in the parietal brain. With this recording, over a period of time, what you have perceived gets accepted by the logical brain too. In short it becomes your truth. And your response to any situation related to this person or statement will be influenced by the story that you created based on your perception in the past. You cannot imagine how this simple concept can change your life. It kind of gives you a logic, a mad conviction to justify your thoughts or deeds – good or bad.

Man is just a meaning making machine. How you understand and record what has happened in your life defines how you behave in the future. There is no point developing a victim mentality “…because of him or her I’m in this situation”. That just makes you even more powerless and drain whatever strength you have to face the situation. So understand your limitations on what you can or cannot influence. Be careful how you interpret what is happening and how you are recording it in your brain. After this, there is no looking back - hold yourself responsible for all that happens to you.

Now, if you find a person justifying, say, infidelity, understand that it is a combination of the past sanskar, how he / she has recorded this act in her brain (revenge / pleasure / his or her right / venting mechanism) and finally how the Chimp is constantly fighting to put up a brave face, in an attempt to avoid getting branded as a convict.

These three concepts in one form or the other should be the guiding light for you to lead your life. It all boils down to giving a pause:

•          Am I reacting? Are my intentions pure?
•          What are the consequences of my action?
•          Am I doing the right thing? Can I stand in front of a crowd and justify my action?

While it looks simple, it doesn’t come easy. Don’t underestimate the power of you Chimp. You need to practice hard. But the guaranteed results are

•          You are never caught in an awkward situation – can always hold your head high.
•          You will never have the victim mentality. Never blaming others for your status - always in charge of your life.
•       You will never be haunted by guilt. Lying on your death-bed and feeling remorse would be the  feeling.
•           There will be a natural vibe of happiness and confidence around you.

 

Covid conversations

I don’t believe in luck. But I certainly was pushing my luck too far when I was travelling frequently when Covid was so rampant. I did not have a choice: My wife and kids had decided to shift to Pune and I had to make at least one trip there every month. My office gave the option of working from home, but did not offer the liberty of working from any home – I had to remain in Bangalore.

Upon that four of my cousins decided to get married in successive months. I could not miss the marriages, so several visits to Mangalore became necessary. And I always chose public transport, barring the one time I rode to Mangalore on my bike and the other time when I rode overnight to Pune.

I had my own crude way of monitoring my health: I used to jog 3-4 kms in the morning. If I was not going out of breath, I had certainly not caught the infection. Yet I thought it makes sense to get myself vaccinated, when I was travelling so much. I was also a regular in office as I could never bear to sit at home all day – without much sunlight and air.

The offer to get vaccinated came from a friend of Mr.Poonawala. It was all set – I was to go to Pune one weekend and I could get my whole family vaccinated. Morally not right to jump the queue when the whole country was struggling for jabs. But sometimes you become selfish – comfort wins over morality.

But my family advised against taking the vaccine due to the rumors they had heard. Atleast they did not want to me get vaccinated when I was with them in Pune, lest I catch fever and in turn put the kids in danger.

So when I actually fell ill 2 weeks after that Pune trip, I was silently cursing my wife for denying me a shot. I spent most part of that weekend in bed – I was too tired and had no motivation to get out of bed even to cook. By evening I went out to purchase a thermometer and checked the temperature. 102.6.

Now I have to state my belief system. I have been raised by heavy dosages of books and concepts like Quantum healing by Deepak Chopra, Power of your sub-conscious mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy and of late sermons by Sister Shivani of Brahmakumaris. All these had influenced me into creating my belief system: If you think you are feeling unwell, slowly your mind will believe it and make you unwell. As a corollary, if you believe that you are in the pink of your health, the mind works to achieve that status, even if you are ill physically. This belief system had refrained me from taking any kind of medicines for any kind of illness – and I hardly contacted anything serious in a long time. The last time I was hospitalized was when I had a tryst with typhoid soon after my break-up. I had reasons to believe that the break-up had a strong say in destroying my immunity leading to me letting the bacteria to conquer my body.

But when I saw 102.6 on the thermometer, I decided to pop a Paracetemol. I had to attend a product strategy meeting with the Sweden team the next day and I did not want to miss it due to illness.

I was advised by my in-laws to get a RTPCR done to be on the safe side. Next morning I was up and was feeling so fine that I cycled to the hospital to get the RTPCR done. I gave my samples, returned home and was into the meetings. I ended up attending day long meetings, the side-effects of work from home, on the next day too.

So I was really shocked when I received my test report from the lab – I was Covid positive! Suddenly I had become an untouchable! Suddenly I was to be contained within the four walls of the house! I waited till midnight to share the report with my office and family – else I would start getting calls and advices all night. I slept with the heavy heart that I would not be encountering humanity, sun light and wind for the next 2 weeks. That was even terrible than Covid.

The calls started in the morning: My parents wanted me to come over to Mangalore immediately, having seen the condition of Bangalore on the local news channels – public running away from the city, patients waiting for beds outside hospitals, sky-rocketing statistics… My in-laws wanted me to immediately get a CT scan done and start on a course of Azithromycin, Tamiflu and Vitamin C, D & Zinc supplements. Regular Oximeter reading was mandatory.

I was fearing that everyone would push me out of my belief system and turn my body into a chemical dustbin.

So I contacted my doctor friend in London. She was tested positive couple of months ago and had recovered. That gave the much needed relief: She started with a nice “Welcome to the league!” and went on to advice to remain hydrated and take medicine only if fever prevails. Just go on with your routine work. Only if you feel too tired and breathless in doing the regular work, oximeter is to be used.

Well, the patient wanted to hear just this thing from the doctor. I was suddenly full of life – placebo effect. I decided to take the bike to Mangalore – that was also the legal thing to do, as hiring a cab might put the driver at risk.

However the family was dead against my brilliant idea. I booked an Uber outstation and reached my parents, I kept the windows down and always had the mask on so as to minimize risk of any kind of spreading to the driver. I locked myself into a room. Food, hot water for gargling and tulsi water for steaming was delivered at the door.

While I was feeling physically fit, mental peace had been disturbed. There was so much news on social media and several whatsapp groups. I did not know what to attribute my better health to – either I had caught a not-so-wild virus or the time I had dedicated to keep myself fit had yielded results by suppressing the virus within me. Many of my colleagues were also infected and some had recovered. Most common advice coming from them was to stay indoors, cut off from office, Netflix and chill.

I decided to take a 3 days break from office – had not taken one in a very long time and my mind was begging for mercy. I started reading a book, also something I had not done in a long time. Coincidentally, the book was also about a person getting lost in the melee of corporate world and how he ignores the bare essentials in life and where he ends up. While this was a known phenomenon, the timing and state in which I read it actually struck some chords in me. I decided not succumb to the tides – all along I had tried to go with the flow, doing things what others wanted of me, keeping my feelings suppressed, trying to oblige everyone in an attempt to be good to everyone… and I realized I had lost my true self in the process. I had kind of become a puppet dancing to the tunes of the hands that controlled it by the strings.

I started to do some thought download and went on to write about my life. I poured all my thoughts and emotions – which were all pent up for an exceedingly long time. I reflected on where I went wrong and where I let people take advantage of me. Once completed, it was a huge relief. It felt like I had taken a massive load off my head, put it in a locker and stored it away for eternity.

I then started attending office online. Meanwhile I lost a close friend in office. It was scary to think that 3 weeks ago I had spent time with him in the office canteen sharing a bhel puri and discussing on how he would spend time when he goes to meet his family after one year. Once he reached his family he had caught Covid and succumbed after a week’s struggle.

Suddenly all the struggles we go through life, things we do in anticipation of rewards, things we do to satisfy our egos, expectations, desires and the unfulfilled state of it… everything that we have been giving so much importance to, felt so trivial and meaningless. It took an invisible virus to bring this change of perception that we are so vulnerable and should actually be grateful for what we have got in life. Instead we spend so much time pondering on those few things that we have not got and that actually takes the center-stage of mind. We conveniently forget the goodness we have experienced throughout our journey. The same gets replicated in office. The same gets replicated in relationships.

Locked in the tiny 10x12 room, I got relieved – physically, not much was needed. But mentally, to a great extent. It is 2 weeks since I felt the first symptoms and I have already started going on my morning jogs.

 

Strange Saturday

MORPHEUS: Do you believe in fate, Neo?

NEO: No.

MORPHEUS: Why not?

NEO: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.

-          From ‘The Matrix’ (1999)

Although the Indian Railways have earned a notorious status for trains never being on time, few ‘elite’ trains like Rajdhani, Duranto & Shatabdi are an exception; all other trains stop to let these trains pass through and stick to the schedule. So when the Shatabdi I was travelling from Hyderabad to Pune reached full 50 min late at midnight of Friday and Saturday, I should have guessed something was wrong. If not with the train, with me.

I walked out of the station booking a cab on Uber. I hardly get surge pricing in Pune, but that day I was forced to book at 2.2x! I went ahead consoling myself that at midnight even the auto rickshaws would charge a bomb.

Of late travelling had been hectic and so I had a packed weekend of household chores. I decided to start with getting my bike wheel checked; it was losing air every couple of days. I opened my gate and noticed that it had broken off its hinges! I had occupied the brand new house for not even 2 months! I went to the tyre service centre and was advised to  change the tyre as there were multiple punctures. I had not even run 3000 kms on it!

We decided to go to the movies. IMAX had recently opened in Pune and I was keen to check it out. So I convinced my daughter to watch “Doctor Strange” instead of her demand for “Trolls”. For the first time since I started booking tickets online couple of years ago, I got a 10% off “Visa Blockbuster Weekend Offer”! Unfortunately we could get only the front row. Although the IMAX experience was far better than the normal 3D or the 4DX, we had to literally look upward so as capture everything that was happening across the screen. Added to that strange things were happening on the screen like buildings tumbling, flipping over (a la Inception, but on a grander scale) depicting the parallel dimensions and time that the mind and matter can foray into.

After this mind-numbing experience, I decided to go and collect my cycle from Decathlon, Wagholi. I had given it for servicing last weekend & then I had gone on tour. Usually, I cycle to Decathlon give it for service, shop around for an hour & the cycle is ready to be delivered. But this time despite keeping it there for a week, I got a call couple of hours before I had decided to take delivery, that there is a major problem on rear hub & cassette. On arriving at the workshop, the specialist explained that he had to replace the entire rear rim & hub assembly. Now this double wall flex aluminium rim is supposed to last a life time! Also I had not been doing those fully day cycling expeditions ever since my family had shifted to Pune a year ago. Neither was I doing off-roading. I had gone off-roading only twice in my life: Once when I lost my way to Lavassa and forayed into the forests & hills and another when the Hotel in Italy was offering a cycle to go around & I deliberately rode into the forest cos they forbid me from riding into the snow-capped mountains.

So how on earth did this failure occur?! Apart from this he had replaced the rear tube and did a complete “14 point check-up”. He handed me a fancy bill of Rs.3,500! That’s the amount I generally shell out for getting my car serviced!

It was 8 in the evening & I was at the extreme east of Pune at  Wagholi. I had to cycle to the extreme west of Pune to Dehu road, a little over 37 kms. Not at all a demanding task with the cool night breeze and listening to the stand-up comedian Aditi Mittal that I had downloaded the previous day. Half an hour later, cycling by Phoenix Market City, I found the rear wheel punctured! That was strange, with a brand new tube put in an hour ago! I looked around for a puncture shop. There were none. I contemplated pushing the cycle back to Decathlon. I wouldn’t be able to make it before closing time. I decided to walk towards home. I found a few puncture shops for bikes and cars. But none of them were willing to mend it for me, despite me offering a higher price nor by listening to my plight of having to go quite a distance back home. I took a detour off the main road to try my luck in some local basti. I found a proper cycle shop with puncture mending facility. But the service guy had left for the day. It was close to 9.30. My chances of finding a shop open was slowing diminishing.

Finally, as I was walking by Yerawada jail, I found a shop! The young lad there quickly jumped into the job. There were 2 holes – both on the rim side and not on the tyre side! Was Decathlon using sub-standard stuff? I took a mental note of raising a complaint. I paid the guy, thanked him profusely and started. Within 2 minutes the front wheel started wobbling. Another flat tyre!

I rushed back to the shop. The guy was starting to close down for the day. But did the job for me.

I decided against cursing my cycle: It hadn’t cheated on me on more enduring journeys like Lonavala, Lavassa, Sinhagad… And I was determined to do a Pune-Mumbai-Pune soon.

It was 10.30pm. I had informed my wife about the delay. She insisted that she’d come pick me & the cycle. I wanted to enjoy the night ride. After a short debate, I told her to come halfway upto my office.

Finally we met up at the office. I dismantled my front wheel, shoved the cycle into the car and drove back home. After a cold shower, I collapsed on the couch with a bagful of junk food, and started watching ‘Evil Dead’ on television. It was midnight.

Me & Duke

Love wasn’t new to me. It had happened thrice before. And every time, like everybody else, I too believed that my love-story was unique. But the fourth love story was a tad different – it was with a beast. An Austrian beast of a machine.

I’m not among the lot who falls for worldly pleasures or materialistic gains. For me the definition of a vehicle is simply “something which displaces you from point A to point B.” No wonder my first bike was a Bajaj Discover chosen on the truly Indian “mileage kitna deti hai?” philosophy. So was my first car. A Daewoo Matiz, chosen just to take my then pregnant wife from home to office. Even now my car is a 2008 Fiat Palio, wiped out of the market for over half a decade. But then I’m like “The engine is smooth, the body is rock solid, it doesn’t require hospitalization, what’s the need to change the car?”

On the contrary, my wife is an enthusiast. My mother-in-law introduced me to my wife with an Outlook magazine supplement on biking clubs and the rise of women bikers; she was on the cover page. She began her riding stint with a RE Thunderbird. For her a bike is the second best thing to have between the legs.

My fourth love affair was actually a rejection of my wife’s. When she went back to biking clubs once our daughter was old enough, we got a Karizma ZMR from my cousin, which is still a great sports tourer – good looks, not too aggressive, comfortable riding position… But soon she got bored of the meagre 19 bhp motor. The black and orange Duke was getting popular those days. It was sheer coincidence that my brother-in-law’s friend wanted to dispose a 6 month old 2000 kms run KTM 390. Just for the records, my bro-in-law is a bigger biking enthusiast with another Karizma & a Kawasaki Ninja 650 in his stable. So it was but natural that my wife had to buy this KTM on offer.

This KTM went sight-seeing to most hill stations around Pune – Lonavala, Lavassa, Mahabaleshwar; courtesy my wife. It had packed weekends until it’s rider had a ligament reconstruction surgery and doctor forbid riding for 6 months.

That was when I started dating the KTM390. I just couldn’t let it rust in the parking. Grown on the strong foundation of engineering, economics and efficiency, I was not ready to burn fuel on jolly rides. So it became my office commuter. Once a week.

No. It was not love at first sight. There were too many cons: The seat was too hard. The engine would heat up a lot despite being oil cooled. The 44 bhp engine wouldn’t listen to me below 4000 rpm, always wanting to jump ahead. Slowly, once I learnt the tricks of the trade, I began taming the beast.

And love blossomed.

Initially, I started playing games with it. I would clock my rides to office. The 7.8 kms stretch would take me 10 min. And I haven’t gone beyond 113 kmph, cos I’m always riding in “office hours”. (My cousin borrowed the bike to ride to Mumbai and he claimed to have plateaued at 165!) That became a routine. I was deciphering the racing DNA of the bike. And more avenues were opening up.

Although the bike boasted of 0-100 in 5.4 seconds, I couldn’t do it before 11 seconds on the city rods I tested. The 375cc naked (no fins) engine was built to be in a hurry – the idle rpm is just under 2000! Put it on gear and it roars over to 4000 leaving the other gaping at the traffic signal.

With the shifting of house, I could get a 16.8 km stretch to office. I could play more games. By now I had mastered the logic behind providing twin Bybre disc brakes and Metzeler wheels. The rubber just bites the asphalt while cornering and the ABS sees to it that the wheels don’t lock up and avoid skidding. With this seated in mind, it became easier for me to needle my way between long container trucks and buses – it is cake walk when your bike is listening to you and there is sufficient reserve power. Also the bike has no bulky exhaust pipe – it is neatly concealed under the belly, so you have one less thing to worry while cornering. And humps and pot-holes? Not a hurdle. The mono-shock under my butt and the inverted forks under my hands are trained for off-roading too.

One of wicked games I have come to love playing is with the fellow bikers who modify the exhausts of their Yamahas and Pulsars to get a louder howl, and who feel godly by zipping through the traffic – all this without wearing a helmet. All I need to do is to give a gentle twist of the wrist and I accelerate ahead without batting an eyelid, silently conveying “You don’t play games with a Duke”.

So? Did the bike change my philosophy? Yes, to some extent. Now I enjoy the displacement from point A to point B. No. Cos I still don’t go on joy rides, barring a ride to Lavassa when the car got full with in-laws. I have got a spare set of off-roading wheels – but the time has not yet come to put it to use.

If I have to give a verdict like the ones published in the auto magazines, here’s what I’d say: If you think 44 hp is too tough to handle in the city, you are wrong. Although there is a perpetual sense of urgency, the beast is ready to listen with its ABS assisted brakes and exceptional tyres. Slowly you’ll love the way you can “sleep-walk” at 85-90 kmph. And all this happens at a moderate 5000 rpm. If you are planning to have some fun above that speed & rpm, then the primary task would be to look out for the empty or less populated lane. The bike would simple respond, “Master I’m game, just show me the freeway.” Coming to my foundations of economics: Yes, the hare is meant to burn more gas than the tortoise. But this doesn’t hurt at just over 30 km a litre. The clincher is that at around 250 grand, this is the cheapest monster your buck can fetch. And for that you get almost twice the power of the rage among bikers: the REs or almost as much power of the entry level Harley. But then cruisers are a different ball game – it’s fun can be experienced only on long unpopulated highways. KTM is at home with traffic as much as it is with the highway.

Will it be a lasting love affair? For now, yes. The KTM690 is far from coming to India. And I have to become an entrepreneur to afford the KTM1290.

Money & Mind Matters

Anything for money

Would lie for you

Would die for you

Even sell my soul to the devil

-          Michael Jackson in “Money” from HIStory: Past Present & Future

It’s a big bad world out there. And money is a big bad demon you got to befriend. The so called basic necessities for survival: Food, clothing & shelter… all need money to obtain.

Whatever means it is accumulated, the colour of money remains the same – black & white are just notions – both fetch you what you want. Moralities are just games people play in their minds. It gets side-lined: the bait varies from person to person; some would give in for millions, some would convince the mind that “it’s not that big a sin”, others would say “this much is allowed”.

There are those who slaughter, kidnap, hijack for money. And those who bend the rules, cook up scams, siphon off from development funds. There are also those who bear the brunt: someone sticking on to a disliking job for the sake of that much-needed pay packet. God can be a good cover-up. People are ready to spill out money for something as obscure as God, rather than to help the needy. It’s all about how one perceives things or manipulates their minds to accept their deeds as the right way; manipulating the law is just passé.

Speaking of needy, we are always flooded by people in distress: Traffic signals offer a variety of down trodden – kids selling trinkets for small change, Moms carrying infants, handicapped people, eunuchs etc… Our reaction may vary depending upon our moods.

I get struck by myriads of “needy” people. A taxi-operator in Bangalore, whom I was using regularly, borrowed Rs.24,000/- stating he was undergoing loses. That was 2 yrs ago, and he doesn’t seem to have recovered. A drill operator came to me looking for a job, stating reasons that the iron ore ban had eaten up his job. In the past 3 yrs, I have got him 4 jobs apart from lending Rs.25,000/- for his family needs. But till date he continues to remain jobless. Almost every week I get calls from some NGO stating a child is in need of a urgent surgery & the parents are not able to afford. I donated couple of times before wondering how do all the NGOs get my contact? There was one time when I was the needy: I had to shift my vehicles from Karnataka to Maharashtra and needed a NOC & Life time tax refund. I tried the straightway with the RTO, but realized it is going to take ages and I didn’t have time on me. I paid Rs.15,000/- to an agent. That was one year ago. I still don’t have NOC for my car, no refunds and I’m shelling out to the traffic police in Maharashtra whenever I get caught. Atleast a dozen times at Bus or Railway stations, I get approached by people asking, “Hindi maloom hai?” Earlier I used to listen to their dard bhari daastan where they had lost their money and had to go to a faraway place, but did have the means. Nowadays I just walk away saying “Hindi nahi maloom.” Yesterday, a young well-dressed lad came up to me as I was waiting for a train at Secunderabad railway station, reading Robin Sharma’s Family Wisdom from the Monk who Sold his Ferrari. “Someone has stolen my purse. I came to write NTSC exam, I have to return to Patna..” I assessed him top-to-bottom: Spectacles, branded T-shirt, jeans & Puma shoes, a backpack… and concluded this should be a genuine case before giving him Rs.400/- (he mentioned the ticket was Rs.390/-). He invited me to join him. My train was due anytime & I didn’t accept the invitation. He said he’ll buy the ticket & return to me in 5 min. My train got delayed I was standing at the same place for the next 75 min. But the young boy never returned!

Sometimes I wonder, am I being too kind? Have I forgotten the value of money? Have I lost my analytical abilities & become vulnerable? Or is it simply that I look like an easy target?

Fear is the key

….with due respect to Alistair Maclean and Iron Maiden for stealing their title.

Imagine living as a Jew in Germany 75 years ago. You’d sleep every night thanking God for not getting ambushed and landing in a Concentration camp.

Imagine living in present day Syria. You’d not know when someone would barge into your house and do unmentionable things.

Or perhaps waking up in the Guatanamo Bay.

Scary? Are your fears justified?

Cut to the present day corporate world. Swanky offices, flashy gadgets, polished language, impeccable attire, elaborate reports, sense of pride... very easy to miss out the underlying fear behind every action undertaken. Or rather fear is camouflaged well behind curtains of either arrogance, authority or obedience.

The ultimate goal in the corporate world is to keep the shareholders assured that their money is not sitting idle. When you go to the micro-level, it boils down to showing growth – year on year, quarter to quarter, month over month the graph should keep pointing north. Any other direction and the alarm starts ringing. The game is in convincing the stakeholders that the company is doing everything possible to multiply their wealth. Lest they face the same fate as Yahoo, whose value eroded from an all-time high of $125 bn to a tad short of $5 bn when it got gobbled by Verizon. And the only ways the shareholders decide on a company’s fate is through favourable news flashed in the media or the quarterly reports emphasizing growing numbers or rising graphs. If Microsoft had not gifted the Excel to the world – perhaps it would have been a much peaceful place…

So here they are: clear, more or less monotonous & clichéd, directives trickling from the top to the grass-root level: inflate the order books, increase the revenues, maximize profitability. Period. Shareholders are not bothered about other aspects of business like market share, employee satisfaction, healthy work environment, transparent operations… unless it is proudly announced and published by companies for whom people die to work for – Google for instance.

The grass-root level is in closest contact with reality – What’s happening in the  market? Who are the new players? How’s their killer instinct? Why they are sounding attractive? What customers want? What’s the ground reality? Where is the money lying? Perhaps such vital information was well received by the top bosses in Amazon and they transformed from an online book store to a full-fledged retailer on both web & mobile platform along with last mile connectivity. Full marks to them for listening.

What if the market place is changing and the feelers from the bottom of the hierarchy are ignored by the top – or maybe the top is too obsessed with the “We are indisputable?”, “We don’t change our rules?”, “How can the customer ignore us?”. Well, Nokia did just that before going down the bottomless pit.

Here’s the catch: The ground staff and sometimes middle management are in a dilemma. “Do we voice out our opinion on the changing rules of the game?” “Will management take it negatively?” “Will we be targeted?” “Will being honest cost me my job in the long run?”

Enter Fear. And Fear can change a person in multiple ways. It shuts up criticism – constructive or otherwise. It quashes new ideas – silly or earth-shattering. It compels a person to hide vital information – good or bad. It forces manipulated projections and market share figures. It over- shadows creativity. All of these and more because the top-management has extensively used tools of fear as motivators: “Perform or perish.” “Your bonus is at stake.” “Your presence is not making a difference, perhaps your absence won’t too.”

Rolf Dobelli in “The art of thinking clearly” gives ample examples on how our decision making gets distorted by the circumstances under which it is made. In a non-conducive environment, every action tends to influenced by fear. Voicing out opinions gets shadowed by speaking what others want to hear. Healthy communication gets affected. People tend to hide facts. Slowly fear makes way for sycophancy.  If none of these are identified on time, gradually the entire organization will be filled with pretentious relationship and superficial respect. More so in countries like India where respect is demanded by the title more often than  earned by their attitude.

Deepak Chopra says, “Fear does many things to a person, but fundamentally it makes us feel insecure. Feeling secure is a most basic necessity, because without a sense of safety, the mind is preoccupied with threats instead of possibilities. If you go to work worrying that your job is on the line, it's nearly impossible to look for ways to be better at your job and approach the future creatively.”

Does that mean once you are in the corporate world, you are stuck in the spider’s web till eternity?

Need not be. Think about it: Fear is YOUR response to the stimulus. Whether you want it to come up or not has to be totally under YOUR control. All it takes is to honestly tell yourself, “I’m doing my job to the best of my capability. Me succumbing to fear is not going to increase my efficiency by any means. What is at stake? They can, at the extreme, take away my job. Not my confidence.” APJ Abdul Kalam said, “Love your job; not your company, because you may not know when your company stops loving you.”

Picture this: You are toiling in the corporate world for the well-being of your family. On a certain day you get a threat from both from your spouse and your boss. Choose the one you would prefer to ignore.

Paradox!

Get real…

Open letter to AirIndia Staff

Dear Sir,

This is to bring to your notice the treatment of Air India passengers.

The AirIndia flight from Udaipur to Mumbai AI644 was delayed on 10th Feb'16, due to technical snag, this after the aircraft started moving towards the runway with passengers onboard. Instead of letting the passengers wait on board or just outside the aircraft, everyone of them was deplaned, made to exit the airport & then wait in a long queue for a new boarding pass.

When passengers questioned what happens to our connecting flights from Mumbai, we were told that if it is AirIndia, it will be rescheduled, but for other airliners they cannot help.

We had passengers hopping through AirIndia to Goa, Bangalore & Hyderabad via Mumbai. We were told that incase there is a long delay we would be provided hotel accommodation & transport to & from the hotel.

We finally landed at Mumbai at 22.30, delayed by 4 hrs. There were no connecting flights till the next morning. Flight attendants told that there will be AirIndia staff at the baggage claim who will guide you to hotels.

At the baggage claim, the staff re-directed us to a customer service desk.

Now, there were only 2 executives at the customer service desk trying to address about 40 passengers who were waiting for clarity on the next course of action - this included foreign nationals, mothers with infants and aged pleople among others. Next 1 hr was total chaos. After waiting at the counter for an hour, we were told that they were issuing only a food coupon and no accommodation can be arranged.

So all of us were stranded at the airport for the night. Some couldn't go out as their baggage was already checked in. They said there is a lounge beyond the security check which can be used on payment. I couldn't go through security check as my bag was not checked in & the check-in counter was closed till morning.

This is sheer indifference in attitude towards customers. If some facility cannot be given, it should be told beforehand, so that people can make their own arrangements. Making the people wait at the airport till midnight & then saying we are helpless is pure unprofessional.

I'm sure private airliners would have dealt with such contingency in a much better way.

Regards,

Sharath US