Random Musings.....

Dear All

I keep tossing in the bed until now.....and realized that there is no point forcing sleep upon me after sleeping close to 4 hours during day time.....and reached the computer to do some thing instead of sleeping.....!! Trust me....as I sat in front of the monitor and as the system was booting had no clue on what I am going to write.....So in a way the title above is justified....

I went to check the inbox hoping to get the feedback for my latest posted poems from my "followers".... alas, got disappointed again as there was none.....(well, I will get over these little disappointments too in course of time.....perhaps these are Baba's ways of hardening me up !!). In my inbox was lying a mail triggered from one of the websites that I had subscribed for....which keep sending inspirational articles / stories of successful personalities etc.,..... with the below title....."Read only if u want to b successful".....!! Bingo....Got the matter for the musings for the day (or for the night ???)....

Seems that the whole world is trying to forcefully inspire others. This mere title gave me a sense of aversion and I did not bother to peep into the "story" or the "powerpoint presentation" that these guys have dished out today.....as it is bit a sick feeling for me just to glimpse at the catchy subject line ....and a very good description of the person who wrote the article...who is "desperately" trying to draw the readers attention. With too many inspiration articles floating around....and with many of the comrades deciding to "inspire" others without having much materialistic to do.....(do you know this....?? I read some where that after SEX, the max possible literature is about "self development"....not sure if this is true....). People who are not so sure of the originality of the stuff they write will tend to seduce people with these type of titles....Isn't it ??

With so much discovered about management since Peter Drucker's days, its really not a surprising thing to have so many institutions which specialise subjects on people management.... and the latest courses that are available in Human Resources Management (I always feel HR is sometimes IHR...I mean, inhuman resources !! Please do not curse me, these are unbiased opinions formed based on consistent observations over a period of time.....I don't jump to conclusions so easily, you see)......it appears there is so much paucity of leadership today than ever before. Let me go on venting out in the same breath ... please feel free to disagree with me if you want to...but I am sure you will still accept few of my words at least.....!!

With the ever burgeoning population, we should have have had lot more leaders getting systematically generated from our systems (is it too outdated to call "civilization" ? I understand that those times when we use the words are bit obsolete and awkward in this "modern" society) ... There seems to be so much inadequacy of leadership as days go by in every arena....I am surely not talking about politics here.....Even in corporate world where it matters most (or where you should least expect considering the fact it is most needed to generate "profits"). In fact I am very realistic in my expectations...Not really looking for LEADERS but looking for glimpses of what we all recognize universal about "leadership qualities"....which seems to be waning dangerously....and might not be a surprise if the same gets extinct on a fine morning.....!!

Petty thoughts, mental calculations, over smartness, opportunism, undercutting, non-recognising, resentment...... this list can be endless really - seems to the way of smart people who are successful.....!! Very recently, I attended a training program at my office where as a part of self introduction, we were all asked to tell some famous personality who is a role model / inspiration for us.....!! Every one was telling about at least one and I could appreciate their feelings as they spoke. When my chance came, involuntarily, I blurted too many names than what is asked for to the surprise of the trainer (Sachin Tendulkar, Abdul Kalam, Viswanathan Anand, Mother Teresa.....Not really sure of the other names that I was mentioning). I added to explain that I had to list so many names because all of them are bound by a single quality....their humility and the way they handled themselves.....!! I hastened to add to the group on that day (and even now too ... in this musings) that I am not making all simple common men as my heroes.....and there are real good for nothing vegetables in the millions of the nameless common men....BUT the quality of simplicity adds a great value when a VIP lives in that manner....!!

So, the whole point that I was trying to make the other day - though not outwardly said - was about not finding many great stalwarts who can be our role models though they have extra ordinary skills. Whom we rev er as "Mahatma" is not some one who was an extra ordinary person in terms of skill set (I read some where that M.K.Gandhi was a below average Advocate who was specialising in taking adjournment to cases....and was really not a great public speaker or belonged to affluent family like that of Nehrus) but this man had a iron will in his heart and decided to be simple in his approach .... (I am aware that there are many who criticize our father of nation for being bit stubborn and for ending up with some wrong political decisions....In fact Winston Churchil defined our Mahatma as "Extravagant Fakir"...but I beg to differ from these people's views....because...I prefer not to argue. its more a feeling than based on any facts that I recognize him as Mahatma for me too.

So, with this I close....May this world be blessed with wonderful leaders to take the nations to greater heights and lead the people to more happiness. With the replenishable resources fast depleting, life of a common man is going to become tougher and tougher as it goes by.....and I hope we have at least few (one in one lakh...is too much asking ??) with some sense of vision, courage, initiative ...and above all have the ability and charisma to reach out to large masses...guide them, inspire them.....and give them what they want.....

Krishnaarpanam....as always....

Suren