Politics is an adventure

“It’s all fair in love and war” - It’s a dirty world and you can’t do much about it. History has time and again proved the relevancy of the tussle for supremacy and if you want to mention Charles Darwin, you can mention “Survival of the fittest” in this context.

                I attended a Toastmasters meeting yesterday with the theme of “Life is an adventure”. When asked about the adventures people wanted to take up in there lives, there were the usual candidates – Kayaking, Sky-diving, Mountaineering, Rafting, etc. It’s the one-time thrilling experience that kicks up the adrenaline for a lot of us, that we look forward to as an adventure.

                Being a little contemplative, I thought to myself – “Life should be an adventure” and not just a select few minutes of the entire life span. One sentence that I have heard too often is “I hate politics”, of-course not to mention “Politics is a dirty game”. Yet, we cannot live without politics, in one form or another. If we have to single out a single reason for India’s woes, many people might attribute it to the ‘Indian political system’. Yet, not many are keen on taking a plunge and tidying up the system. In my honest opinion, politics is too dirty, too dangerous, too complex a field, yet it is one of the most important, if not ‘the most important’ aspect of our lives.

                An adventure should make you skip a heartbeat, should be challenging enough to scare hell out of you, should be enticing enough to make you want to do it. If you go by the definition, I think politics might be an ultimate adventure for many. It’s difficult, to say the least; It’s a make or break proposition, at the bare minimum, and It must be perfect, even if it’s dirty. Political decisions are supposed to correct your yesterday, brighten your today and shape up your tomorrow. Politics based on knowledge, intelligence, communication, good will and vision is probably what we can term as strategic leadership.

Life, in itself, is an adventure and politics is an adventure worth taking up, much at stake and lot to gain; and definitely not for the faint-hearted. Don’t be political, be politically perfect!

Just a glimpse of sadness

When I came in this world, I was received with love. I grew up, continuously showered with love, care and companionship. Being thankful, grateful and conscientious towards what I have received has been important, if not critical, for me. Giving and receiving is part of our life. The obligation towards fellow beings is a natural phenomenon and marks the basis of the relationships we live with.

We probably have been extremely responsible people in our lives – towards our parents, our siblings, our relatives, our acquaintances, our friends and probably, even strangers. We are probably the moral guardians of all the good human values – being courteous, being helpful, being kind, being patriotic, being intelligent and so on, so forth.

We are educated, we have been taught to be mindful and we have been trained to take care of things very well. As daily activities, we get up in the morning, we probably do some exercises, we have food, we travel to our workplaces, regularly fill up our body with water, spend time with family and friends and so on, so forth.

After living our lives for considerable duration, after enjoying all the lovely moments, after always being gifted with so many beauty, have we spent even 1 % of time in our life towards what should have been the most treasured, the most cherished part of our lives – our planet, The Earth.

We have never been taught, we have never been educated and we have never ever been trained to worry or take care of our ‘neglected’ home. The biggest problem of ours is the lack of awareness about the harm we are causing to our dear planet. The saddest part of the situation is that we are not even sad about what is happening to the very source of our life.

Rains are coming

The water cycle is an interesting phenomenon. The water is evaporated from the sea, becomes cloud, is mobilized by the wind and then, the rains come somewhere to oblige the lands. Each of the soft, tiny, wet, round droplet comes down by the force of gravity and the smell of it falling on the soil leaves the message loud and clear – “Aah, it’s started raining!!”.

                Cometh the rain, cometh the beauty. Rains bring with it a lovely romantic weather, the temptation of the onion pakoras, the smell of the aromatic tea and of-course, the excitement of packing your travel bags. So far, so good.

                The beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. For a lot of people, the above description of the rain makes all the sense. Let’s think about a few more contexts and how we can describe the rains. For a flood-hit area, the rains can only mean adding salt to the injury; for a farmer, rains mean livelihood; for all of us, rains should mean drinking water and probably, for a drought hit, rains can mean nothing less than magic.

                As a person, it is important to understand that each person has a different background, a different thought process, different mindset, different perspective, different compulsions, different abilities, different aspirations, just like the meaning of the rains to different people is different. It might appear odd to see a person dance with joy when it rains; probably it isn’t, the person might be just longing for the water post a drought. We should strive to understand the different perspectives and see if it makes sense. We might appreciate what we see if we understand it; it is a difficult proposition when it comes to real life, but it is definitely possible.

                As a leader, it is quite complex and even more difficult. Not only a leader is required to understand and appreciate the perspectives, but also address and cultivate the view-points. The real skill of a leader is to fructify the different perspectives in their entirety, to something worthy, something useful, something sensible and if possible, something spectacular. India is an embodiment of “Unity in diversity” with an equal share of accompanied challenges but at the same time beautiful. When it starts raining, a leader should not only think about the floods, drought, weather and of course onion pakoras but should also expect the mesmerizing rainbow across the horizon.

Fall in Love - This time with technology

Love begets happiness; happiness begets love. Love can lead you to do absurd, weird things. Once in love, you tend not to question, you tend not to hesitate, you just do it. You might devote your life for your children, you might sacrifice yourself for your parents, you might want to cross all limits for your spouse. Why? Well, there’s no concrete reason, you just do it - that’s what “Love” is, in a nutshell.

"[Science] is more than a school subject, or the periodic table, or the properties of waves. It is an approach to the world, a critical way to understand and explore and engage with the world, and then have the capacity to change that world..."

— President Barack Obama, March 23, 2015

I believe, we belonging to the ‘T’ and ‘E’ of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), are uniquely positioned to leverage our abilities, offer the best and do something that makes a difference. But, walking the path is different from knowing the path – pretty much summed up in the two axes of the Gartner’s magic quadrant, Vision and Execution.

“What makes you happy is what defines you” – I pretty much believe in this. Not going just by the belief, the yogic texts mention humans have three sheath of bodies, from outer to inner, in that order -  The Gross body (Sthula sharira – Annamaya Kosha), The Subtle body (Sukshma sharira) a.k.a. – Pranic body (Pranamaya kosha), Mental body(Manomaya Kosha) and Intellectual body (Vidnyanamaya Kosha) and The Causal Body (Karana sharira) a.k.a Bliss Body (Anandamaya Kosha). At the very center, lies the “Causal body” or the “Karana sharira” or the Bliss Body. It is important to understand ourselves and train our energies correctly.

I believe our actions differ if we do something for the love of it as opposed to doing something for making a living. A love for salaries might drive you to get the best jobs; while a love for technology might drive you to create the best ones. The technology spectrum is vast and it sounds difficult to master just a single technology or a skill. But love can make you do absurd, weird, illogical things. Just going by the achievements, Elon Musk sounds like a super human – I am ready to believe he is deeply in love.

Love is knowing, understanding, caring, being selfless, being illogical, being creative, and so much more. Let’s fall in love – this time with technology.

Reaching Mars

“Curiosity killed the cat” and “Opportunity doesn't knock twice”. Sound like two great English proverbs intending to tell you something really important. But, the catch words here are “Curiosity” and “Opportunity”. These could mean simple English words to vast majority of people. But, to some special, privileged people, it’s altogether different world. “Curiosity” and “Opportunity” are names of two rovers sent by NASA to Mars.

                Get born, start schooling at the age of 6, start college at the age of 18, start job at the age of 22, get married at the age of 26, become parent at the age of 30, become grandparent at the age of 55 and die at the age of 70. This is what life has to offer you. In between these milestones, you have some options, some serious options. You have the option to choose, you have the option to decide, you have the option to work, you have the option to make a difference, you have the option to live.

                Imagine you own a car, you want to drive it from Bangalore to Chennai and you have never traveled from Bangalore to Chennai earlier. How will you go about it? You will plan the journey – you will check the tyres, you will check the fuel, you will check the water in radiator, you will get along the road using the sign-boards and of course, use the GPS. There is a slight catch here now. Imagine you own a car and you don’t know where you want to travel to. This is exactly what life is. We do not know the destination, we do not know where we will travel to. So, how do you go about it?

                I believe, there are many ways to live – One, start the car and take the car wherever the road takes you. Second, start the car, find the next best destination, reach it; then, find the next best destination, reach it and keep travelling along the best destinations available. Third – start the car, decide your next destination, reach it; then, decide your next destination, reach it and keep deciding your destinations, keep reaching them. Fourth – decide your final destination and come what may, rest only when you reach it. I believe, most of us belong to the first mode, a few belong to the second mode and even fewer to the third mode and rarely, people know the purpose of their living – the fourth mode.

                The essence of life is knowing the purpose of it, and at a bare minimum, at least deciding the purpose, if not knowing it. At the end of life, “curiosity” and “opportunity” could still mean English to you or you might comprehend it as something which is stationed at Mars. It’s only and only up to you to decide what magic you want and you can perform.

Value yourself

                Imagine you are thirsty and there is no water around. You become thirstier and search for water. There is no water around. You keep searching, you search everywhere, and all of a sudden, you find a hand pump and to your surprise, it pumps up the water. You pump the water, drink it to your satisfaction and without mistake, you will thank god for providing you with the water.

                It was not just the water, but it was your thirst and the subsequent water, that would have made you thank the god. Water was always existing in the hand pump. It’s your thirst, your search for water, you drinking the water and the final outcome of satisfaction that made you thank the god.

                Now, imagine you need money - lots and lots of money. You don’t have a way of getting your hands on it. There is no money around. So, you search for it. And you don’t find more money. You keep searching, you search everywhere, and all of a sudden, you find a new job and to your surprise, it pumps more money for you. You do the job, get more money and keep living your life. Did you ever thank anybody for this ‘more’ money?

                You are happy to get a job, you are happier to get more money, but did you thank the god? After a few days, you will need more money. You will go through the same process, get a new job, and get more money. But, are you not missing being thankful, being grateful to god?

                In all this process, day after day; day in-day out, you are going through life. You are earning money, you are doing your job well, you are taking care of your family – your spouse, your kids, your parents, you are a good friend to someone, you are going out of your way and doing a random act of goodness. Have you taken a moment, sat down for a second and thought how this has happened?

                You might find it odd, but you will find that you have never thanked yourself. You have not thanked yourself, for a long long time - your efforts, your achievements, your failures, your deeds, your mistakes. Even if you wouldn’t live another day, you would find that you have lived a life that you ought to be proud of.

Start today - thank yourself, value yourself, continue doing your best and better yourself.

Good is not good enough

Every four years, there is a festival happening for sports lovers across the globe – The Olympics. And every four years, I see the Indian contingent winning the minimal tally of medals in the Olympics. I wonder what is it that is so wrong with Indians? We are a country of a billion and we are not able to win even handful of medals. I realize that we have good sports persons but here, good is not good enough.

                A recipe needs perfect ingredients and I believe it is the same for all things. A sports person needs talent, motivation, infrastructure, guidance, will and above all the perfect attitude. When all of this becomes available, then it will be the perfect time to ask “Why India is not winning medals in Olympics”. Till then, we have a good system and good athletes and we will continue not to win the Olympic medals. In this context, good is not good enough, what we need is only the best.

                Coming closer, the best Indian software brands we hear are Infosys, Wipro, TCS, etc. Sharing the same fate with the Indian Olympians, these brands pretty much live in the shadows of the Microsoft, Google, Apple, Oracle, etc. Drawing the analogy with Olympians, do we have what we need to succeed in software space? We have examples of Indians like Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai reaching US and now heading these very best companies. Being in software industry, I can advocate we have outstanding talent. It’s definitely not a talent issue. We are good, probably better. But, good is not good enough.

                I had read a beautiful definition of Leadership a few months back – “Leadership is driving people towards a goal while minimizing friction and maximizing fun” and another beautiful quote I have heard is “Attitude determines the altitude”. India is a relatively young country in current context, being independent since 1947, but it’s a grand, old phenomenon, which has seen the best of times. It has seen some exceptional times and witnessed some brilliant leaderships. We, as a country, are probably just going through the ageing process, accumulating the necessary ingredients for that perfect recipe, that perfect process, which will take us from ‘being good’ to ‘being best’ because good is just not good enough.