Our Flawless Heroes

It was difficult to point that one thing that people loved about him. Was it the stunning good looks, the dimpled smile or the fair colour of the skin (still considered an asset in Indian consciousness)? Was it the fact that he was a pilot (the dream job of a middle class Indian in the 1980's) or that he had married an European ( fairy tale love stories happened only in movies then)? . That he became a popular mass leader within a short span of time of entering public life was without debate. Of course the charisma of the Gandhi surname played its role. The children loved him, the youth wanted to emulate him and the middle aged envied him for he was everything that they wanted to be.


He had such an impact on the collective consciousness of the nation that no one even questioned his inexperience in politics before accepting him as the leader of the nation. It is amazing how we crave for the perfect leader, hoping that he would lead us to a new world where we would have everything that we wanted but were too weak to achieve, turning a blind eye to the weakness that make him human, ignoring the flaws and finding virtues where there are none. The powerful visual media has made it easy to create such heroes. Anyone who has sufficient coverage, speaks the right words and connect with the audience has a good chance. The good looks add a further punch sending the TRPs soaring.
And very often we have seen them fall as fast as they rise. The congress under Rajiv won the maximum number of seats in any parliament in Indian history and plumetted to its lowest number of seats in the very next election under the same leader. Obama's rise is probably as meteoric as Rajiv and within a year the fall in his ratings is amongst the highest.

So what's behind the phenomenon that enables such leaders to sway the voters into a mass hysteria? One explanation could be that these leaders are very good at understanding the weakness of the human spirit and exploiting the same to their benefit. They are good at selling dreams to the vast population which promise to relieve them of their miseries and take them to a better world, tugging at their heart strings with slogans like 'change we need'. The citizens, most of whom are fighting a losing battle with lost jobs or high mortgages, are only too willing to buy the smooth talk while deliberaletly ignoring the fact that they have to solve their lives problems themselves. The reality is too harsh and the world of dreams provides a relief from the wretchedness of a losers life.

The dream reaches its euphoria with the results of the elections announced and the public waiting for the messiah to perform the miracles they promised themselves he will. The reality dawns slowly as unpaid bills pile up and with it the anger of disillusionment crashing the ratings to the ground.

Lost and Found

I found it on the middle of the road on a lazy saturday afternoon. It was a single marble, standard green colour, perhaps dropped by a kid with a full pocket and too busy to miss the one. When did I last see kids play with marbles? When did I last play with marbles?

I remember playing cricket in the streets, in the garden and even in the small room inside the house when it was raining. When did I last see kids playing gully cricket? I miss the clamour and the chaos of the young boys roughing it out in the sun. The sun did not hurt and the rain did not matter. We would swim in the pool for hours lazily playing with the Ball. Swimming was still a sport and not an exercise.

"We need an indoor bike to keep fit", says my wife. Reminds me of the green coloured sports bike of the school days used for racing up and down the hill with friends. Our most prized possesion for outdoor activities, for going to school and returning back, for running small errands for Mom from the nearby market. And on days when we we got lucky, the opportunity to drop a lady friend home in the front bar of the bike with her hair blowing in the wind and throwing the beautiful scent of her shampoo into the nostrils.

"I am arranging funds for a vacaton abroad with you and need to spend longer hours in office", I explained to my wife selling her the dream of visiting Europe on a romantic holiday. "Do you remember the most romantic time we spent? ", she asked. We were in college and did not have the funds to watch a movie but plenty of time to stare into each others eyes in the garden close to the girls hostel. The hostel gaurd would announce the curfew hour and we stole a extra few minutes with me not letting her hand go while she made mock protests teasing me about hostel rules. When was the last time we held our hands and went out for a walk in the garden, I tried to remember.

The noise of the car engine broke my reverie and I stared at the marble wondering what I had found and what was lost. I threw it back on the road for someone else to find the loss.

Happy workplace, unhappy workplace!

"I would like to work on assignments that make me happy", I announced to my wife.

"Your boss/company would like you to work on assignments that make him/them happy" came the tongue in cheek reply. Its one of the big ironies of life that things that make us happy usually do not make economic sense to our organisations. Most of us would like to be paid for doing the work that we love but this is not usually aligned to our organisation goals (or so we are told).

Is that the reason we admire a Chetan Bhagat or Harsha Bhogle? The entire country fell in love with Rancho of 3 idiots because he followed his heart. Would the movie be so popular had the character played by Aamir Khan ended up as a destitute scientist struggling to eke a living instead of the fairy tale situation of corporate honchos running after him?

What is it that we admire in people like these? The courage to follow their dreams or the fact that they succeeded while doing so. Though most of us do not usually select extreme options like giving up our jobs to be a writer or a commentator, we like to pick up assignments in our organisations that make us happy to come to work and yet contribute to the organisation.

Yet, most managers or bosses would like to convince us that we need to do what is best for the organisation and the common goal etc etc. My only argument against this is "how will the organisation be "okay" if the people who make it are "not okay". In the last century, businesses have shown a remarkable capability to build organisations with thousands of people and make them work towards a common commercial objective. The work ethics of the employees is driven by a strict code of conduct and organisational policies and rule book. Then there is a long list of behavioral patterns that a employee is supposed to follow to demonstrate his positive attitude towards the companies goals and objectives.

Is this the reason why employees leave the organisation to look for better options or simply leave their jobs to pursue interests that really make them happy? Food for thought for managers of the new generation.

Deepak Bhatia

Positive thinking?

One of the things that has attracted a large number of followers in the last few years is the large list of authors, speakers and books on positive thinking. Secrets was one of the best sellers which quite abashedly encouraged us to dream big and become big. I came across an article in a leading daily recently which talked about the decline in "positive thinking movement". While I am still trying to form an opinion on this topic I would like to mention another book that completely negates the concept of "The self made individual". The book is another bestseller by Malcolm Gladwell by the name of Outliers.

Though Gladwell does not explicitly condemn the positive thinking concept, the book comes across a very well drafted argument against an individuals capability to define his or her destiny. Gladwell's argument in the book is that circumstances beyond our control make or break our life and this is true of the most successful individuals including the likes of Bill Gates and Beetles. So as per Gladwell, anyone who claims to be self made is taking more credit for his own success than he deserves. I am sure this is not going to be music to the ears of the boisterous class of celebrities that live in our midst.

Like I said I am till trying to form an opinion on this topic but I have some interesting takeaways from the book. For one, I have come across a number of people who aren't super successful and have attributed the lack of it to the logic in Gladwell's book. This in itself is not such a bad thing since it may just end up reducing the stress that a large number of people create on themselves searching for the illusive stardom. The book also offers some interesting trivia. For e.g to be world class you need to put 10,000 hrs in your area of interest/profession. Apparently Bill Gates and Beetles did the same. One thing is for sure, if this book catches on a large number of Indian parents may start clocking the time their kids spend on maths or cricket to ensure they do 10,000 hrs.

Coming back to positive thinking, I am not sure if there is any empirical evidence to prove that positive thinkers are more successful, it definitely makes one happier. The idea that I can think myself to success at least removes the pain of the daily grind, the obnoxious boss, and the thankless job that a large number of us live through.