Posts Tagged ‘Experiences’
This New Year, Let’s Find God Within Us All…
Fifteen long years ago, around the same year-end time, I had read this heart-touching story. I was deeply moved; and as a habit, noted it down in my diary. As a young lad, this story left a deep impression upon me at the time and since then, I start my each new year reminiscing it.
This year, as all of us get ready to usher the new year in, I am sharing this piece with you:
One cold evening during the holiday season, a little boy about six or seven was standing out in front of a store window. The little child had no shoes and his clothes were mere rags. A young woman passing by saw the little boy and could read the longing in his pale blue eyes. She took the child by the hand and led him into the store. There she bought him some new shoes and a complete suit of warm clothing.
They came back outside into the street and the woman said to the child, “Now, you can go and have a very happy holiday.”
The little boy looked up at her and asked, “Are you God, Ma’am?”
She smiled at him and replied, “No, son. I am just one of His children.”
The little boy then said, “I knew you had to be some relation.”
Touching, isn’t it? This story helped me stay more human year on year, welcoming the new year on a nicer note… I wish you all a very happy new year 2017; hope that you find your reasons and means to show you are the chosen one by the Lord Almighty to play His children, same way as the young lady in the story.
God bless you all…
That Tree Still Shakes Delhi…
Circa 1984.
“Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a might tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little.”
– Rajeev Gandhi; 19 November 1984, Prime Minister designate
Circa 2005.
“I have no hesitation in apologizing not only to the Sikh community but the whole Indian nation because what took place is the negotiation of the concept of nationhood, as enshrined in our Constitution. On behalf of our government, on behalf of the entire people of this country, I bow my head in shame that such a thing took place.”
– Dr. Manmohan Singh; 11 August 2005, the then Prime Minister, served India till year 2014
It is 2016 now.
That same tree continues to haunt the streets of Delhi and no apology from anyone whatsoever has helped the cause of justice as yet.
As the seekers of justice gather today and lament the delay in justice in the matter of over 3000 citizens of a minority community massacred over three days in 1984 in broad daylight on the roads of Delhi, I am deeply anguished and saddened to wake up to a morning 32 years later from the day this ghastly event manifested in the most barefaced manner on the streets of Delhi.
Well, didn’t someone say justice delayed is justice denied? May be, the phrase wasn’t meant for the commoners in India…
Authors Manoj Mitta and HS Phoolka, the tireless warriors for justice in the matter and conceivably the most knowledgeable people on this case, wrote in their well-researched book, ‘When A Tree Shook Delhi: The 1984 Carnage and its Aftermath’:
“Whichever way you look at India, whether as the world’s largest democracy, or as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is hard to imagine that any genocide could have taken place a few years ago right in its capital.”
Well, it did happen. And it is no solace that the masterminds and perpetrators of this rather well organized crime roam so freely, to date.
How I wish the apology of our last Prime Minister translated into actions. To a commoner like me, that would have been far more reassuring.
Not to be, as yet. The fight is on…
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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are author’s own and not of the organisation he is associated with.
शहीदों के विचार…
आज शहीद सरदार भगत सिंह का 110वां जन्मदिवस है – एक तरीक़े से, आज शहीद उत्सव है।
मैं आपसे शहीद भगत सिंह का उनके अंतिम समय का एक कथन
बाँटना चाहता हूँ; ना जाने क्यों आज मुझे यह बहुत याद आ रहा है –
“ऊषा काल के दीपक की लौ की भांति बुझा चाहता हूँ। इससे क्या हानि है जो ये मुट्ठी भर राख विनष्ट की जाती है। मेरे विचार विद्युत की भांति आलोकित होते रहेंगे…”
कितना गंभीर और निश्छल, परन्तु सत्य वचन है; और इतिहास इस बात का साक्षी है कि उनके विचार आज भी हमें आलोकित करते है…
आईये, आज सोचें कि क्या हमारे आचरण में, विचारों में इतना तेज है कि वो हमारे जाने के बाद भी याद किये जायेंगे और लोग उनका अनुसरण करेंगे?
What I Learnt From My ‘Not-So-Great’ Bosses…
We all love to talk about our Bosses, don’t we? And Lord knows, a minority of of us would regard our bosses as good leaders. When I wrote my earlier blog – ‘What My Great Bosses Taught Me’ – many of the readers asked me, “Hey, what about the bad bosses?”
So here it is…
The matter of fact is, I never had a really bad boss. Truly! That said, I have had my fair share of bad apples – a very insecure boss, another one who was ill-mannered and one who was simply incompetent for his job. However, none of them were awful enough for me to either loather or run away from them. In fact, I performed better under a couple of them, and was more successful under one of the tougher nuts.
There are many things I learnt from my great managers. The earlier blog enlists those. However, I learnt lot many more things from my, should I say, ‘not-so-great bosses‘. A learning that proved invaluable in my later years; both, as a professional and as a people leader. Some of them were very simple, practical things and few were too profound a learning…
They are:
- Don’t reply to an unfavourable email in a hurry; wait till evening at least. That helps my hyper-reaction settle down and choice of words become calmer!
- You may be really intelligent and smart and all that, no point over-fighting your peers – functional or cross-functional. Even though they may not be able to score a point over you, they will end up despising you – something that won’t do good to the professional image in later years. From this boss, I learnt the value of building a truly well-knit peer-group, which may not be my besties, but wouldn’t despise me either.
- No one comes to work to do a bad job. No one joins office thinking they will give their worst that day. Keeping this in mind made me practice empathy and statesmanship, even when I was right and others were grossly wrong.
- Harsh language never helped the cause. If you are younger and more successful than your peers, you need to not oversell it. Success is a lousy teacher and it encourages arrogant behaviour and as rash tongue. Worse, even if you are right in what you say, how you say that will be picked, and surely used against you. Here, I learnt to be firm, yet stay polite. A learning that has held me in good stead since then.
- I learnt the craft of managing very senior management employees from one of my most difficult bosses. He was really good at this. I learnt the art of polite persistence, presentation skills to a senior audience group as well as how to handle tough questions from them, specifically those whose answer I didn’t know!
- Never work for a powerless boss. This is a great life/career-saving tip I received from one such a boss. I have written in detail about this learning here…
- One must not feel insecure when your subordinate’s stars are shining brighter than yours. I once had a very insecure manager, who, despite being extremely competent functionally, was extremely inhibited in front of smarter juniors. He would simply feel threatened! My learning was a life-long one; that the key to success for any deputy is to do such good work that his boss gets promoted and recommends him for taking his spot! I have written in detail about this learning here…
High-Performance Teams
Just ended up watching the India v Australia World T20 cricket match – India bear Australia. What a game of cricket! What an innings!
It also gave me a brilliant lesson in building high-performance teams:
Post match, Virat Kohli praised Yuvraj Singh’s skills, who was batting with a strain in his ankle and yet scored well.
Shortly after this, during the post match press conference, MS Dhoni accepted that Kohli has far superior and diverse stroke-play than him.
That’s how great teams are built – they praise each other authentically and take everyone ahead. Something we all can learn from.
Do you agree?
विचारों की सान पर…
आज ‘असली शहीद दिवस’ है – बस हम जानते नहीं हैं।
शहीद शिवराम राजगुरु, शहीद सुखदेव थापर और शहीद सरदार भगत सिंह 23 मार्च 1931 को अपना बलिदान दे कर जा चुके हैं। देश स्वतंत्र भी है, शायद। कम से कम किसी दूसरे देश का गुलाम नहीं है, बाकी तरह की गुलामियत के बारे में नहीं कहता।
भगत सिंह ने जीवन के कुल 23 वर्ष ही पूरे किये। जितना ज्यादा मैं जानता-पढ़ता हूँ उनके बारे में, मेरा आश्चर्य बढ़ता जाता है कि इस छोटी सी उम्र में उनके सोचने-समझने की क्षमता कितनी जागृत और परिपक्व थी। क्या आप जानते हैं उनके विचार और लड़ाई सिर्फ ब्रिटिश साम्राज्य के खिलाफ ही नहीं थी; सामाजिक पिछड़ेपन, साम्प्रदायिकता, अकर्मण्यता और विचारों के क्षेत्र में अन्धविश्वास के विरुद्ध भी उनकी लड़ाई थी? शायद आज का युवक ये जानता ही नहीं। और ऐसा क्यों न हो, जब हमारी अपनी ‘स्वतंत्र’ सरकारों ने ही हमारे क्रांतिकारियों के विचारों को, उनकी याद को, महज एक ‘धन्यवाद्’ का रूप दे रखा है जो आज के दिन की तरह समाचार-पत्रों में एक-चौथाई पेज में छपता है, बस।
भगत सिंह के बारे में बात करते हुए एक जगह ‘शहीद भगत सिंह शोध समिति’ के डॉ. जगमोहन सिंह और डॉ. चमन लाल ने लिखा है (पुस्तक: ‘भगतसिंह और उनके साथियों के दस्तावेज’) –
“…आज सबसे बड़ी ज़रूरत इस बात की है कि शहीद भगत सिंह के मूल वैचारिक तत्त्व को जाना व समझा जाये। यह पहचानने की ज़रूरत है कि वे कौन से सिद्धान्त थे, कौन से तरीके थे और कौन से गुण थे, जिससे भगत सिंह आत्म-बलिदान करनेवालों में सबसे ऊँचे स्थान के अधिकारी बने? वे कौन सी परिस्थितियाँ थीं, जिन्होंने भगत सिंह को भारतीय चेतना का ऐसा अन्श बनाया कि एक ओर तमिलनाडु में उन पर कविताएँ लिखी जाती हैं तो दूसरी ओर भोजपुर में होली के गीत में ‘भगत सिंह की याद में अँचरिया भीग जाती है।’ लेकिन ऐतिहासिक दुखान्त यह भी घटता है कि जब वर्तमान की समस्याओं का सामना करने के लिए हम अपने अतीत से उदाहरण खोजते हैं तो अतीत के सारतत्व को नहीं, उसके रूप को अपनाने की कोशिश करते हैं, जैसा कि भगत सिंह व उनके साथियों के साथ सरकारी और कुछ अन्य प्रचार-माध्यमों ने किया है।”
लेखकगण आगे लिखते हैं,
“शहीद भगत सिंह न सिर्फ वीरता, साहस, देशभक्ति, दृढ़ता और आत्मा-बलिदान के गुणों में सर्वोत्तम उदाहरण हैं, जैसा कि आज तक इस देश के लोगो को बताया-समझाया गया है, वरन वे अपने लक्ष्य के प्रति स्पष्टता, वैज्ञानिक-ऐतिहासिक दृष्टिकोण से सामाजिक समस्याओं के विश्लेषण की क्षमता वाले अद्भुत बौद्धिक क्रांतिकारी व्यक्तित्व के प्रतिरूप भी थे, जिसे जाने या अनजाने आज तक लोगो से छिपाया गया है।”
मैं समझता हूँ कि यह सच बात है कि हमारी सरकारों ने भगत सिंह और अन्य साथी क्रांतिकारियों के विचारों की पूर्णता को जन-मानस के सामने लाने का कार्य नहीं किया है। पर क्या ये भी सच नहीं है कि देश के नागरिकों ने, युवा-समाज ने भी अपनी ओर से ईमानदार कोशिश ही नहीं की है जानने की? क्या आज भी हम भगत सिंह का सिर्फ क्रांतिकारी स्वरुप नहीं जानते? और क्या हमने कोशिश की है कि हम भगत सिंह के बौद्धिक और वैचारिक स्वरुप को जान पाएं और उनसे सीखें?
कई बार सुनता हूँ कि किस प्रकार से देश में नेतृत्व का अभाव है, ज्ञान का तो और भी ज्यादा। शिकायत है कि नेता नहीं मिलते। और सिर्फ राजनीति की बात नहीं हो रही यहाँ पे, कार्य-क्षेत्र में तो नेतृत्व-क्षमता के अभाव का रोना लगभग रोज़ ही सुनता हूँ। आप भी शायद मानेंगे। पर फिर पूछने की इच्छा होती है कि क्या हम वास्तव में सीख रहे हैं पुराने नेतृत्व से, विचारों से? वो नेतृत्व और विचार जो सिर्फ समय के हिसाब के पुराने होंगे, पर परिपेक्ष्य, उपयोगिता और प्रासंगिकता के हिसाब से बेहद कारगर हैं आज…
“स्वतंत्रता का पौधा शहीदों के रक्त से फलता है”, भगत सिंह ने लिखा था। शहीद राजगुरु, शहीद सुखदेव और शहीद सरदार भगत सिंह के विचारों व कर्मों से रोपित और रक्त से संचित आज ये पौधा भले ही पेड़ बन गया हो, मीठे फ़लों से बहुत दूर है।
आओ दोस्तों, आज शहीदी दिवस पर ये प्रण लें कि जानना शुरू करेंगे उन सिद्धांतो को, उन विचारों को, जिन्होंने एक 23-वर्षीय युवक भगत को ‘शहीद सरदार भगत सिंह’ बनाया। शायद ये हमारे भी कुछ काम आ जायें…
Motorcycle Diaries… Road to Ladakh… The Trip Is Ready!
Trip is ready! June-July 2016… anyone joining 🙂 ?
