Dreams - What are they?

We come across this term quite a lot these days - 'dream', in fact is a very common phrase in today's parlance. But, not all mean the same when they say - 'My dream...', cos the one dream wouldn't let one sleep.. It's gonna keep you up till you've achieved it!

I am what I am...

Of the many favorite taglines published by marketing companies - 'I Am, What I am' used by Reebok has clicked quite well, and I see people flashing this message with or without understanding what it means.. Serves  as a good personal marketing tagline as well. But..


I often wonder what people exactly mean when they make that 'I am what I am' statement, cos many invisibly read 'I am what I am - A silly dumbo', eh? hehe..

When I pointed it out on Facebook, my friend Marc was quick to comment - "Its stolen from the Bible...So wrong." Yes, it is. That statement is not to be used so lightly, cos it's so profound and is a self-definition of a person that man cannot perhaps imagine being one.

The origin of the statement comes from the Holy Bible, where, when the prophet Moses asked God to reveal his name; in response - the Almighty God, rather arrogantly (refusing to name himself) declared 'I Am that I Am'. Which literally means - I am Unchanging. It's God - and as we all know - God is Great.. He has no beginning and no end. He was, He is Great and mighty, He is and He will be. He's got the whole world in His hands. It's apt a definition for the person of God.

But when one of us - humans, state that - it's really funny.. rather ridiculous. One can't really be stating - 'I am what I am' - a silly fellow, and you better not hope for me to get any better! Well, think about it.. and STOP using such statements abusively used by marketers.

'The Lost Symbol' Review

The plot is good; the visual imagery is cliché to Dan Brown – bloody and thrilling; the flow – simply hooks up the reader. As they say, art and literature are a reflection of contemporary trends – so this too is – specifically about the global quest for spirituality, spiritism, and the application of science to it - noetics.

Weaving a story around a plethora of symbols, symbolisms and ancient artifacts is Brown’s forte. His signature style is in the sparking-up of the controversial coincidental-connections between these symbols and major world institutions, mostly religious.

Having said all that, ‘The Lost Symbol’, to sum it all up in one word is simply ‘Lost’. Well, I’m being awfully critical, right?!? That’s because when the purpose of a novel goes beyond literary purposes and ‘a good read’, it also needs to be as critically looked upon.

The weirdest part about Brown especially in the three novels featuring Robert Langdon is that he tends to get very philosophic and preachy about few subjects, debate of Science vs. Religion for instance in Angels & Demons; unproven details behind the holy grail in The Da Vinci Code; Noetics in The Lost Symbol. This only makes readers put it down for a while, like I did, another mini-discourse, let me take a quick break. But, I guess, it’s to do with the character – Langdon’s a professor.

As I finished reading, I was just saying to myself “What!!! So much mystery ‘just’ for this bit? Such a calm and all absorbing climax to all this suspense built-up?” The end is on a ‘note of ‘hope’’. Sigh! Well, all The Da Vinci Code readers must have been bit ready for such a thing, because even that ended in a no great climax, instead a ‘fatherly kiss’ from Prof. Langdon.

At a point in the novel, it seems as if Brown is making up for the damage by quoting & supporting The Holy Bible so much that he’d done with his writings in The Da Vinci Code. All of the hype around this NY Times’ bestseller has come to an end for me.

Going beyond ‘The Lost Symbol’, to be candid, if there’s so much criticism about Brown’s novels, I believe it has to do with the fictionalization and presentation of profound subjects as mentioned above in mere plainness.

Talking about the author – I have a feeling that Brown is somewhere caught in the spiritual realms and not able to find his way out. But, as the novel points in the end – ‘There is hope’.

Dear Brown - hope you’ll find ‘the way’ in the spiritual realms...

If you can't convince them, confuse them!

I don't think Harry Truman had an idea of how widely this mantra he gave would be put to use. In some areas, it also defines the strategies..

I've seen this mantra at work and it's very true of large organizations— Governments, large business organizations, religious institutions like church etc., all employ this principle in a very effective way. When all the substance they can use to convince is exhausted, the only way left is to confound the rest - for the best.

Clarified but not Convinced

A lot of formal communication in any organization is by the management - flows top to bottom. Focused mainly on getting the management message across - primarily about objectives, results, strategies, scorecards, policies, procedures, news & updates, other etc., So the idea behind all is - 'Get the message across!'

Of course, one can't imagine discounting the little-bit of the feedback taken and surveys conducted to understand the employees' ranting and raving as well. What of the communication after surveys? Err.. wrong question! Be focused - the point I'm driving home is - the objective of communication is - 'Get the message across!', is it clear?

I've been having this 'clarified but not convinced' feeling reinforced specifically since the time India Inc., had started taking recession cover for various cost-effective measures. There's been a great deal of communication on these strict measures. But, as I observe hundreds of people around me, myself, working family members who keep watching how India Inc., is succeeding in bringing the expenses curve down, for them, the other economic costs have been going up. Even for these measure the great deal of communication that's been happening within the organization from top to bottom has been to elaborate the management's stand and to clarify... Unfortunately, management communication hasn't been able to convince anyone.

Guess the cost of convincing employees is too high! Any doubts? Is it clear? Yes, it's clarified, but, I am still not convinced..

Do not forget the sons and daughters of misery...

The 'Do not forget' speech by William Booth. Transcript also available here...

For a video in Booth's own voice, click here...

I am glad you're enjoying yourselves. The Salvationist is a friend of happiness. Making heaven on earth is our business. 'Serve the Lord with gladness' is one of our favorite mottos. So I am pleased that you are pleased.

But amidst all your joys do not forget the sons and daughters of misery. Do you ever visit them? Come away and let us make a call or two..

Here is a home, six in family, they eat and drink and sick and die in the same chamber. Here is a drunkard's hovel, void of furniture, wife a skeleton, children in rags, father mistreating the victims of his neglect. Here are the unemployed, wandering about, seeking work and finding none. Yonder are the wretched criminals, cradled in crime, passing in and out of the prisons all the time. There are the daughters of shame, diseased and wronged and ruined, traveling down the dark incline to an early grave. There are the children, fighting in the gutter, going hungry to school, growing up to fill their parents' places..

Brought it all on themselves, do you say? Perhaps so, but that does not excuse our assisting them!

You don't demand a certificate of virtue before you drag someone drowning creature out of the water, nor the assurance that a man has paid his rent before you deliver him out of the burning building!

But what shall we do? Content ourselves by singing a hymn, offering a prayer or giving a little good advice? No! Ten thousand times, no!

We will pity them, feed them, reclaim them, employ them, perhaps we shall fail with many, quite likely. But our business is to help them all the same. And that is the most practical, economical, and Christ-like manner. So let us hasten to the rescue for the sake of our own peace, the poor wretches themselves, the innocent children, and the Savior of us all. But you must help with the means,  and as there is nothing like the present, who in this company will lend a hand by taking up the collection?

Ka ching!

One of my favorites from Shania Twain.. 


We live in a greedy little world
that teaches every little boy and girl
To earn as much as they can possibly
then turn around and spend it foolishly

We've created us a credit card mess
We spend the money that we don't possess
Our religion is to go and blow it all
So it's shoppin' every Sunday at the mall

All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store

Can you hear it ring
It makes you wanna sing
It's such a beautiful thing--Ka-ching!
Lots of diamond rings
The happiness it brings
You'll live like a king
With lots of money and things

When you're broke go and get a loan
Take out another mortgage on your home
Consolidate so you can afford
To go and spend some more when you get bored

Let's swing...
Dig deeper in your pocket
Oh, yeah, ha,
Come on I know you've got it
Dig deeper in your wallet

Rudyard Kipling's 'IF'

I was reminded of this poem yet again, as one of my friend was pitching for a proposal to market a book written with this poem as the base material...

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;  

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Nasty Journalists!

Came across this news in Delhi times about Bipasha getting groped in a Pandal.. Sick, as the journalist called the fellow who did, and as embarrassing as the incident might have been to the actress, what's nasty is the last line of the story - "Despite repeated attempts, John and Bipasha remained unavailable for comment"

Despite repeated attempts, the stupid journalist, rather nasty - Yogesh must be thankful he didn't get slapped by Bips & knocked off by Ab..

Is HR alone responsible for firing employees?

It was in March, 08 that I had fired 3 people without quite being convinced myself of the reason for their sacking. Why am I thinking of that now? Cos, the news has it - one of my HR contacts - Roy Goerge, VP - HR of Pricol (Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu) was beaten to death in Coimbatore for laying off employees.. I'd known him through a student at IIPM, who'd done his thesis under his guidance while he was VP-HR with Satyam Cinemas.

I didn't know him personally a great deal, but hear from others that he was a good HR person, 'a seasoned one' I'd believe to have risen to the top positions in various organizations. But, what could he have done wrong as a VP - HR is the question? That anyways wouldn't justify the irreversible consequence of workers' outburst, but it's quite a thing to reflect on what went wrong when the action was taken and communicated; what were the workers thinking when they'd schemed his beating up?

I reflect on my own actions and the actions behind the curtains in March '08. Few observations--

• Sacking an employee is not a decision by a singular department, the least - HR, which would first look at alternate employability of a person within the organization.
• Many-a-time, management screws up.. I mean they make mistakes.. serious hiring mistakes, and then, in a fit to control damage and unnecessary cost, press on to sack employees.
• HR Head, most of the time, unless the CEO & Board's leadership culture supports, is a mere puppet; compelled to yield to the demands of others.
• Though the decision is taken by CEO, COO, Directors or others, HR is expected, and even asked to communicate the decision singularly. 

In case of Roy, I think of the manufacturing setup, the not so matured understanding of workers, and feel it was some mob mentality that drove them to do this. I may be generalizing here, but I'm reminded of my O|D Prof. S.C. Kapoor's statement "Masses are just Mindless ASSes!"

Sacking an employee of course, mostly happens at the end of the day, to keep it hush hush, when everyone's almost gone. Well, I had one of the three employees call me the next day morning when I was off for a vacation, threatening me to commit suicide and leaving a letter to the police. Hmm, it did freak me out for a few minutes though, however, it wasn't a pleasant experience then, nor is it a pleasant memory now.

I keep saying it time and again - Firing employees, is traumatic equally to the HR person, if not more than what is felt by the one getting fired!

The solution then - acting on all the reflections given above, and puhleez get this clear.. HR Dept is an employee champion, and a business partner!

What makes us Christian?

It is not what we eat, but what we digest that makes us strong;
not what we gain, but what we save that make us rich;
not what we read, but what we remember that makes us learned;
and not what we profess, but what we practice that makes us Christians.
--(came across this piece on the internet, author unknown)

When companies err in hiring the right candidate

A lot of gyaan is already floating around about the various mistakes that are made during hiring etc., but this piece is about how to deal with the mishire (mistake) when it is inside the organization.

Infant mortality, new-hire absconding are two primary indicators to the company's management that there's been a hiring mistake. Once realized, it's an impulse reaction by managers to find some way to get rid of the candidate and them him out of their team if not fire them. Well, here's the first thing, the hiring managers and recruitment team need to realize - "it's your mistake and not that of the candidate!"

The second type of mishires are identified over a period of time, when the candidates are exposed to production and their capabilities are put to test in live environment. Well, then again, it's an impulse reaction by managers to get them out of the system. Hmm.. yet again, "it's the hiring team's mistake, not the candidate's."

It's really important for any manager to understand I don't mean to this fact, that it's the mistake made by the hiring team, and not candidate. Having said that I don't mean to say live with it, cos one can't just keep the problem and think of performing optimally.

So, what's the action plan?

• The hiring manager should have a communication plan in place to inform the newly joined about his misplacement and set expectations right.
• Reassess, take a stock of the wrongly hired employee's skill set and the mismatch
• Accordingly, either initiate a Performance Enhancement Plan, or
• Look within the organization for any vacant job positions for right fitment
• When no opportunity for utilizing the candidate exists, engage in a discussion to separate the employee without penalizing him

Be sensitive to the fact that:

1. It was your mistake, not the candidate's
2. Your mishire is within your system, and you may incur damage internally and even from outside.

In all actions taken, while being mindful of the of the cost involved, be fair. What else is a better impression of a 'good-employer', a title which all corporations vie for.

The lame breath-check at Gurgaon toll plaza!

There's a ridiculously deficient act by the Gurgaon traffic police at the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway one would come across these days. It surpasses all the other peeves including middle-of-the-road traffic checks and odious questions these cops ask among others by any standard!

At the toll-gate, if you're driving to Delhi from Gurgaon, you'll find a cop standing in your way, stop you, ask you to lower the window, and ask you to breathe on their face! I actually recalled the Colgate ad, 'breath that turns you on'! :-& (sick), Yuck! Cos, it' ain't a sexy woman cop, nor an amiable person in front of you.. it's their cheapest and lame way of checking on you if you're drunk and driving.

Lately, I see them chewing mint-flavored gum, perhaps to do their sensing better, unlike a month ago since when I've been observing this. How did I know that.. of course, they kinda get so close and shoot their questions in their signature style 'Beer pe rakhi hai?" (Have you had Beer?), "Peeke chala raha hai?" (Are you drunk and driving?).. Grrrr...

Well, given all the panic on H1N1 - Swine flu, which is highly communicable, looks like the traffic police department is not troubled by the thought yet! Ignore H1N1, how intruding would a commuter feel (which cop gives a damn to privacy in India, anyways) and to the cop, how belittling even does that act seems, to walk up to someone and ask them to breathe on you?!?

God forbid, if the whole fleet of traffic police in that vicinity there should be erased, by a breath of virus!