The Importance of Networking

In today's professional world, or otherwise, you just need to look little bit deeply and you see the significance of networking. Once a term with slightly negative connotation, now is taken as necessary evil. It is not something that is gaining currency in the world of globalisation as rightists would say, or westernization as leftists would say. This is something that has been around probably since the time man came out of the cave to live in a society where one person interacted with other and the way one person lived and behaved was largely impacted by the people or the society at large, that he lived in. Unlike non-thinking animals, thinking man derives his power from the power he has over men who he calls his circle. The caveman who ruled the group, was the one voted to rule, half on his capability, half on the number of people on whom he held the sway. Call it any name, there was always democracy, the power of people, who made kings, wise and mad. It does not come from the real power that one held, many a sages with age not on their side, held more power than kings, simply because they would have big kings (again big by number of people in their army... people) on whom they held the sway. The long and short of it is that networking has historic origin. It has grown into the art through years of refinement. It is not a tool for the lowly people, it is a necessary need for the able ones. Able people, simply by virtue of their ability, make themselves indispensable. Through their hard work and dedication, they become more able, and are less and less tolerant to mediocrity, which in turn, teams up together, having beer together, amoral laughter together, in relationships with no depth, but with great calculation. A lone man with capable, is like out in front of a pride of lions with no protection, or support, or backup. Some time he tries to fit in to the same group of mediocrity, feels the shallowness of the relationships there. He is like a man on the top of the cliff, taking a plunge into the large expanse of water, only to find there is no depth in their. Instead of feeling the sheer fun of tearing through the depths of water, you end up in the mud at the base of shallow waters. Then humiliated and soiled, he sits alone in corner, alienated, feeling more vulnerable than ever before. You know, where the fault lies, not in the fact that he tried to network. But the fact that he tried to network out of his own class. To make fit in a totally different class, he makes compromises with himself, loses touch with his own class and keeps on going down the spiral feeding on self-deprecation and finally the mask goes off. He comes out as a lion in the club of wolves, who detest him for his majestic walk, come together and attack him. Kings became bigger kings by aligning with kings, never did they attempt to actually fit in with the masses. Alexander coming together with Porus is a glorious sight, and did give enormous range and strength to the Empire, but can not imagine what Alexander would have achieved by trying to cultivate relation with the group of vegetable sellers in the empire of Porus by sharing cheap drinks and lewd comments. It is very important to key in right, like-minded people in your network, who share your mental space. It is very improbable that you do not know those people, like-minded people know each other. I have seen in industry, if you list out ten most influential people, they would be known to each other and would be established as able people. If those ten people are in touch with each other socially they all will be successful from all worldly parameters. The issue is people skill, you work hard, do good work, know all others in the area you work who are like you. But you do not reach out to them, because you have been able to be all that you are because you never perceived any weakness in yourself, reaching out will mean recognizing your weakness, your Achilles heel. You all admire each other, and don't reach other and keep on humiliating yourselves by attempting to be a part of a human mass which is not equal to you in intellect or effort. You keep fighting with what you have and keep on bleeding, hoping for death or victory. Usually, it is death which comes first. Reach out, I tell you, reach out so that this flame of human excellence is not subjugated...

Significance of the Roots

Not many people understand and appreciate the significance of small nuances which went into making all things Indian. Now the engagements in festivals is going so much down, even if there is some interest, mostly superficial one remaining in the festivals, it is more of a market driven exercise, which unfortunately is taking away the character of those festivals and converting them all into a look alike occasion to party. All festivities now resembling more and more New year celebration. Earlier, holi was not something to be celebrated in the plush hotel interiors. I still remember the days of reckless freedom, making groups of friends, so much laughs and fun and back slapping, going to each friends' house, having a lot of bhang and thandai and sweets and finally getting tired and lying on the street, lazing out in the sun. Where is the fun any more? Surprise is on the streets, there are more foreigners buying colors on the street than Indian. To think some one chose death over life, when life was lying in wait with all its promises, singing.. Mera Rang de Basanti Chola...

Looking inside the Leadership DNA-I

Leadership is something that man has aspired for across the generations, or is it really a humane thing or a very basic animal aspiration? Any animal wants to head the group that he lives in be it the herd, a pride or a society for human beings, and entire life it the struggle to accomodate this all-engulfing feeling and still staying alive. The question is why we want to be leader, or may be in some instance why some holy men whose stories we love to talk of, despise of leadership, if leadership is such a basic instinct. Looking deeply, what I believe is that leadership in intself is not intent or the purpose. The purpose is to be free, free from the deprivation, free from the need to fit in, free to be. We want to revert to the blissful days in the embryo, we sleep and wake at the time when we want to, we live the way we want to, all our needs taken care of. It is our own small world, no one rubs you the wrong way, in fact, no one rubs you at all. Once in existence, you are inevitably thrown into chaos, in a congested life space where you struggle for toehold with people who all have same aspiration. The rules have to be there, with so many actors around, to bring a semblence of order into chaos. And entire struggle is to ensure that while the entire mass around you is tamed by putting to rules, and thus creating a better view for your existence, everyone's life is struggle is to evolve above the chain of rules. The holy men denouncing leadership, do so because they are away from the masses and therefore do not need to escape. Others, have no choice and have to aspire to rise and escape. How they do it, we look in following posts..

Is there a Justification?

It sometime amazes me to think, how with so much of dexterity we try to justify the wrongs, especially if we know for sure that it is beyond our factulties, beyond our strength to win against the source of the wrong, the epicentre of the immense bottomless pain that we are subjected to. May be, it emnates from the hypothesis called the suvival of the fittest. We survive, to a great extent because we do not know. This not knowing allows us to believe in the beauty of life and to live our life without attempting to shorten the span of the futile exercise, which sooner or later is bound to come to an end, no matter how hard we might try. We turn our face from the ugliness which arise from the randomness inherent in the basic design of the network. We try to imagine a pattern which is nowhere, try to detect order, when there is none. All that is true is chaos, disorder and incoherence. What could justify the universe which allows a new life come to existence without an opportunity to see or know. Not that the event of new life coming to existence is something wrong, what I have problem with is in getting to terms with the fact that the one responsible for it to come in being is not around to welcome the soul. How could one justify this as act of God or Act of nature, both God and Nature I have been culturally conditioned to respect both. It is difficult to go unfazed in the trust that one places in the benevolent, all powerful forces, call it nature or God. As I prepare to welcome the extention of my being into future, as I pole vault my DNA to beyond my lifescope, and prepare an umbrella our the head of the soul yet to breathe life and try to stretch it from one end ot the sky to another, there is a corner in my heart which silently weeps for the other soul which would come to life arond the same time, but whose umbrella has been taken away by a storm. I think, it is the corner of dead tissues in heart, which shows as inactive in reports. May God have mercy on the the little one and the blessed mother.

The unalterable course of life

You know the ideal way of life would be to first be old, when you are weak and you need a lot of wisdom and patience, and then be child, pursue art, profession wherever the heart may be, with childlike vigour and enthusiasm and having earned the wherewithalls finally, be young to enjoy the spoils of the win. But unfortunately, as nature would have it, we do not live life in that order. And, since we do not live in that order, we all tend to go through the same route, committing similar mistakes, moving across the same fault lines. What would be worse is to not resign to the fate and trying to pull and bring in one phase of life into another. What a great act of foolhardy! you lose out the best in both the life phases in question. There seems to be a danger in letting oneself flow in life, as dangerous as lying effortlessly in the river, till the split-second before you begin to drown. That split second moment of trust and letting go eventually metamorphoses into a journey of unrestrained happiness across large stretch of uninhabited land, a journey that stretches from eternity, unto eternity. As you work not because your life depends on it, but because the sweat out of the hard work is as enjoyable as a drop of sweat oozing off your forehead after a challenging game of soccer, or after you reach to the top of the hill, you collapse into a delirium, which makes the entire journey such a great source of happiness, that you really understand what it meant when some one says that the journey is the destination.