We have sinned

History of calling names

It is sad. For a long time, we have been harassing you. We have dragged you to the pyre of your husbands and called you ‘sati’. If you were single, either widowed or orphaned, we had legitimately dragged you to brothels where we could devour you, molest you, and could call you a 'whore'. We have tortured you even at homes as our wives living under the so-called ‘protection’ of families; we called you ''kulta' (bitch), 'dayen' (witch). We have killed you if dowries were not sufficient; called you 'churel' (unlucky). We have molested you in public, whose examples abound in our Epics too.

Stories

Then we started abusing you at the workplaces, public places like shops, public transports; we trespassed into all the possible premises, like schools, colleges, hospitals, places of worships and so on. We have raped women of all ages, from a newborn to a nonagenarian. And yet there is no atonement.

Me too v/s Men too

When women gathered the courage to talk about the atrocities they faced for decades with a MeToo tag (Please read), we had to rubbish it with a counter tag MenToo (Please read)? What torture are we talking about exactly? What disrespect? Please let us ask ourselves whether what we have done to women is at all comparable to what, in our parlance, those ‘false cases’ have done to us? No one would disrespect MJ Akbar if he had the wisdom and affection of accepting what he did to his women colleagues for years. It is so sad to find that we are also defending the father who abused his daughter? Please think…please think…please let us accept our faults, if at all…. let us genuflect in front of the life-givers and seek for their forgiveness so that years of sins could be absolved. 

A single story

I will share a story with you. There was this guy working in an office. Let’s say his name was Krishna. He never participated in any office gossips…male gossips…because he found that whenever men got together they were talking against women, they would have their definitions of ‘good women’(mostly ‘gharelu aurat', women staying at home or the ones who never raised their voice against those hidden masculine hands that traveled across their bodies in private or in public places, ‘bad women’ (mostly working women or women talking against injustice, gender inequality, and oppression, or the ones who floated around in western outfits or smoked and drank openly, like them). This man who never participated in gossips obviously became a threat. Although an engineer by profession, his passion was into writing, he would write poems, fictions, and anything that made him happy or sad. As mediocre writers normally do, he would constantly pester everyone to read his posts…no sooner an article would be posted, he would go around with a begging bowl to his friends, relatives, colleagues and send them group texts requesting them to read. Once he sent a group text to his colleagues at 11 p.m.! Unfortunately, in this group were two ladies. These two ladies were very close to the group of men with whom Krishna never spoke. After a series of events, Krishna was thrown out of his organization on grounds of sexual harassment. The news had spread in the circle like wildfire and Krishna never got a job, he was thrown out of work for good.

Krishna should have indeed respected the dignity of his women colleagues before hitting the send button. He bears no grudge against those women, neither against the group of men who took the opportunity of the situation to throw him out of the organization. But he feels sad about men who think and talk ill of women who work, who are independent, those who smoke and drink or dress differently; he wants men who are judgemental about everything women to do to question their own belief-systems rather than pointing fingers at women. He doesn’t mind being severed from working life…if men have tortured women through the years, a little bit of injustice is no injustice at all… he takes it as a punishment for his entire race.

Atonement

At the end of it all, who are we fighting against? When women have started speaking up, the least we can do is to lend them our ears and seek for forgiveness for the years of unspeakable sins we have committed to them. For this meaningless battle to end, this mindless wall between the genders to melt, we need to come forward and acknowledge what we have 'really' done to women, on one hand, we have subjugated them, disrespected them, violated them and on the other, we have called them 'ma' (mother) and 'behen' (sister); this hypocrisy needs to end; from the heart of our hearts we need to coalesce our thought and action to say, on no uncertain terms, ‘We have sinned’.

FIFA 2022

Three of us might be there for the FIFA 2022.... you never know. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Let all the three of us be there

in the fields of Qatar
in twenty twenty-two!
Let's football, practise together,
let us shake our legs with vim and vigor,
as we play a different ballgame anew
and make the dream come true!

The poem is inspired by the film GOLD directed by Reema Kagti, produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar under the Excel Entertainment banner. It stars Akshay Kumar, Mouni Roy, Kunal Kapoor, Vineet Kumar Singh, Amit Sadh, and Sunny Kaushal.

Please take some time to read the appreciation by clicking on the link here.

About victims and masters

About victims and masters

 This article tries to write the stories of many skilled workforce who died silent deaths in the hands of groups catapulted as ‘everybody’. The ones included in this, are most of the times powerful people playing the victim card. Since they have the number with them, organizations give the so-called ‘bad apples’ a royal ignore. The only fault these bad apples have is that they have less of interpersonal skills or life skills, so to speak. The definition of life skills, as it is seen in application is very frustrating, it shifts largely from its prescribed definition, life skills doesn’t mean one has to acquiesce unconditionally, it gives an individual the power to cope with their difficult situations, viz. re-location, work schedule; it is about being more available to the organization, it doesn’t mean one has to say yes to thoughts that are accepted by the ‘majority’ as true, even when they are disturbing and in some cases spread hatred and anger. Any strong group in organizations is found to be intolerant towards people who are different. This alarming phenomenon can make any organization, still unaware and indifferent, counter-productive. The objective of this article is to change certain aspects of organizational behavior rather than ignoring them as ‘allowable weaknesses’, it is also to bring about consciousness towards the importance of spreading tolerance and respect for individuals so they are applied through actions rather than remaining as merely unused ornaments of organizations as missions and visions.

 Victims are cruel

They use their impoverished fate, fake it as real. For instance, if they see anyone more powerful than them in office, in the field, or anywhere, they group together to teach the powerful person a lesson. Some complain of their bad behavior, some about their incompetency…mind you the victims are all in it together as a machine called ‘everybody’ dangerous than the most disastrous weapon the world has ever produced. The victim card they play is the sheep's clothing they wear to off-guard their prey, apparently the master.  They see to it that the so-called ‘master’ is thrown out; they wouldn’t rest until the master lies dead in front of them. Strangely, even when the powerful person ‘dies’ (separated), the victims are still together and they still feel victimized. Strange! Even after winning they wear the loser’s hat. Hats off!

Victims think they have the right to hurt

Imagine an accident on the road. Someone is hurt. The person who is injured immediately becomes a victim who instantly gets support from the ‘crowd’ and it pounces on the driver. The immediate reaction is to hurt, damage the vehicle and, if possible, bleed the driver to death. If you find me supporting the driver strange, think again. I am not supporting the driver, nor am I supporting the act of the ‘crowd’. I am laying bare an example to show how our brain functions when we face situations such as this.

Victims spoil good initiative

The example is sad. Kalyan worked in an IT as let’s say a translator. Of course he had a designation but that is not the point, his job was essentially to translate. Kalyan was reasonably fast. The average speed of other translators was 2500 words per day (wpd). He found all translators going exactly by that speed, if some were a little fast, they would while away their times at breakout areas, chat with friends, but would ensure their speed of 2.5k wpd at the end of the day. Kalyan found this as cheating the company. Unhappy with the output, the management bought an effective translation tool to ensure speed as well as accuracy. Kalyan’s productivity was at 5k to 6k wpd, way above the orchestrated output of 2.5k wpd; at this the team, with their victimized self became insecure and took offence because all major clients were opting for Kalyan; so they were up in their arms to prove him wrong; now their job was more to find his faults than to do their own. Despite the fact that Kalyan found their job to be of sub-standard quality, even at 2.5k wpd, managers could do nothing because the number was with the victims, let’s say 18:1; eventually Kalyan’s work was found to be wanting, in terms of quality, and the inevitable had to happen; he was checked out of the company. Without remorse or regret, he disappeared from the scene.

The point I am trying to make here is that in many cases good initiatives die premature and insinuating deaths in the hands of victims. I can quote another example. There is this Krishna who ensures the management to automate the process of translation to such an extent that even managers, who never knew foreign languages, could translate flawlessly strings and texts that have repetitive words, with the help of a foolproof and approved domain-specific glossary … this initiative was immediately rubbished by the team.

In another organization, Parthasarathi lands up in trouble. He was the first one to initiate translation of a major Belgium-based insurance company in his department; he hailed from a team called Foreign Language Training which mainly dealt with training; he was tired of listening that the department in question ran on subsidy and hence wanted to earn something for the department, if possible. When the project became successful, with him being the SPOC (single point of contact), and the project being the first ever to run with one in-house translator, his project leader from Chennai Dr VCS Laxman said, ‘Thank you Parthasarathi, even at 42 you worked like 24, I wonder what your manager Ms Indrani was doing, she was sitting there and doing nothing, telling us to hire translation agencies, we had to continuously outsource the work and pay through the roof? She told us it was impossible to run any translation project with in-house translators, but you have made it possible. You will definitely be rewarded.’ Parthsarathi’s boss Ms Indrani immediately played the victim card and saved her back. There was also another point that went against Parthasarathi, and that was he had issues with everyone in Kerala ('everyone'); in fact he was deported to Chennai as a punishment (teaching a lesson); the learning manager Mr Subhesh who initiated his transfer, told the project to keep Parthasarathi in Chennai for good, but told him that the project would give over in a few months and he would be brought back again to his base branch. When Ms Indrani the FLT manager also had issues with him, the matter became serious. Earlier also, Indrani had issues with him... she made two power point presentations, one was called 'Walking the culture bridge' that was copied from the learning department's repository...no one said anything...Parthasarathi said, 'Indrani you have used our material and have not acknowledged that... am I missing something here?' Indrani was visibly furious because the matter was discussed in a meeting. The second one was disastrous... her pet Sandhya from Chennai came up with a ppt on French Literature as a module for top level management with incorrect input about Jean-Paul Sartre...on the slide of the master, she wrote 'I think, therefore I am'... Partha pointed out the mistake not in a very kind way... 'Sandhya, sometimes downloading information from the net can be dangerous... for Sartre had said just the opposite of what this slide claims... the thought in question was by Descartes'. Indrani, instead of taking this in the right spirit (Partha had just saved her from being mocked as it would have backfired with the top level management who are not only intelligent, but well-read and in most cases are unquestionably erudite), took offence. However, suave and polite as they (the corporate savvy) are, she thanked Partha on the face of it, but deep inside Partha heard a different tune. With all this in his baggage, Partha panicked and resigned without a job in hand but realized the mistake later. By then it was too late, Ms Indrani and Mr Subhesh had already got what they wanted. He was summoned and was told that the evaluation for two years has been at 2, his performance was very low; He pleaded but the learning manager Mr Subhesh said, 'listen even if you work at the best of your ability, you will still be at 2 in the next evaluation'. It is interesting to note how people with power can predict the outcome of an individual’s work even before it is committed, what does it say about the process of evaluation one wonders. Ms Tulsi the HR manager was asked to manage the attrition. Pink slip was issued. Parthsarathi was cleared.

Some examples of mental torture

Subrata doesn’t have interpersonal skills, he has been very vocal talking about what he feels quite openly and in most of the times it was not connected to work. For instance, Subrata thinks that the way a lady dresses up is her personal choice, nobody has the right to violate a lady because of that, should smoking be injurious to health, it would be injurious to men as well, it cannot be injurious to ladies alone, they should not be disrespected because of their addictions, non-veg is bad… who says that… in this world of globalization, you could have people devouring frogs, enjoying pork and beef… how can you condemn people because of what they eat…I think you need to groom yourselves a little. With all this, Subrata had offended the crowd…because of this a series of torture had to follow. Let’s say where Subrata had worked for almost five years was in Kerala. He would take the office bus, like others. Every single day you could see him sitting alone looking out of the window going from home to work and from work to home. No one would sit beside him. And if by mistake someone did, he’d find a Deepthi or a  Nisha or a Jyothi or a Preetha Chinese whispering the person. The person would invariably find another seat. This would go on. From inside he would bleed but not say a word. He worked in a department called PLI… also had dotted responsibilities with another department called ILF…these two departments were at loggerheads, everyone enjoyed the rift. He did not and hence did not participate in such juvenile feuds. There was a fete organized jointly by PLI and ILF… he came up with a logo PL(I)LF to focus on the synergy of the two beautiful departments. It doesn’t seem as true, but it’s a fact that there was no one (literally no one) on that fateful day. He was sitting there like a zombie not knowing what to do. Everyone was on approved leave!

Interpersonal skills…he didn’t have… for this he had to pay a heavy price. Every single day lunch was shared… he sat alone and had lunch because he did not say yes to things he thought were wrong, and also because he did not eat, nor speak like them. This unkind behavior was not restricted to him alone, it affected his family too. In every office functions where the family was also invited, his daughter had to face the consequences. She, in class VI then, would come home from her father's office functions and throw up. On probing she said ‘Baba, why are those aunts and uncles so hard with me… they would call all my friends on stage, gift them but never call my name… what have I done…’ would curl up to him weeping and say, ‘if you don’t mind I will not go there again please, they don’t like me’. By then Subrata had finished reading Moderato Contabile by Marguerite Duras where there was this child who would also throw up as a reaction to repulsive behavior by adults. He therefore did not insist his daughter. She stopped going. What he could not tell his daughter was that the mindless behavior was not meant for her, it was meant for him, she was not spared, that’s all. All this happened because Subrata did not acquiesce.

He uprooted himself from a city leaving his job because he was ordered a deputation, at the time of crisis, he was stolen from the company he originally worked, unfortunately dis-invested and then, when he was not required any longer, was shown the door from a city in Kerala where he thought he'd live happily ever after, bought a flat and kind of settled there with the hope of living a good life, he was thrown out as a convict, uprooted again, but this time as a bad apple, sell off his flat, his car at throw-away price and just leave. The victims sang in chorus, sang in tandem, 'rightly served, rightly served'.

Sad that all of this happened in renowned learning organizations standing up for diversity, tolerance and respect for individuals.

Victims are not always right

There are victims spread everywhere in the world. They are negatively powerful, can even make the sun rise from the west. With power they have the number too with them.

Exceptions

Of course there are exceptions. The farmers of India, for instance; but if looked carefully, can we call them victims, even when they weren’t able to pay their debts, they did not make anyone else’s life miserable. The peasants and the fisher-women who revolted against Louis XIV were not actually victims, they organized themselves against ‘le Roi Soleil’ and his team of nobles (who played the role of victims) to tell them how they wanted equality in the distribution of wealth and power. They emerged as masters.

The aim objective

With correct dosage of training, the workforce can be empowered to think in the right way. Very often, a team is sub-divided into groups. This happens also in learning organizations. Surprisingly during inductions, the workforce is also alarmed on the same and I quote "during layoffs or other managed attrition, people with less interpersonal skills would be the ones to leave". Most of the time, the group that propagates fear and mistrust is the one that picks on some scapegoats to spread the message of terror in the working ambiance.  This destabilizes the atmosphere and people with good initiatives have difficult times in the company. This can be avoided by not punishing the victims, but by ensuring, with the help of some robust and motivating training program from time to time, that there are no victims but masters who can  'collectively learn how to learn (and grow) together'.

Disclaimer
All names are fictitious.

Poverty is in the mind

It seems we have given up on equality. Intelligent brains that include economists, scientists, planners, leaders have accepted it as a ‘given’ that equality is more of a theoretical word, it is not applicable. The dissension between the rich and poor is increasing every year; some plans may be working but the number is so huge that we are unable to erase this ‘economic problem’ from the face of the earth. Some poems of Shelley and Tagore still seem relevant. Poor and the downtrodden are surviving despite the rich, not because of them. Numerous examples galore in society that make the gap look vulgar. One has to ignore or develop the art of overlooking to survive in this world of difference, with indifference, or worse still with plastic concern. This economic problem is a permanent resident in most parts of the ‘developing countries’ by design.

The rich survives because of the poor. This is true for any industry, from salt to diamond. The rich are insecure; they refuse to try alternative thinking. Naturally therefore, it is here to stay. For as long as we shove equality, it can never see its day, unless we have repetition of sad incidents where peasants and fisherwomen go out on the streets and screech to demand ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’. In this battle for equality, we need the rich as well as the poor. While the rich are insecure, the poor are happy and content being poor; if these two issues are addressed then the miracle can happen.

In this lesser part of the world, beggars are found everywhere; in temples, shopping malls, multiplexes. I am told that there is a huge industry that thrives on beggars. These ‘industrialists’ do severe limbs of children or other parts of their body to attract attention of the passers-by. How is this possible even today I wonder!

Someone has to ring the bell

"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it." Voltaire

Since a long time, I thought it’d be unfair to draw such comparisons. How can one compare patterns of social behavior of terrorists with that of the organisations. However, owing to information I have, I think it is sadly time I wear this black hat, especially since no one wants to be the bad apple. The intent of this article is to project a picture that may be frightening, even scary…and if possible, (if at all) to bring about a shift in the way organizations think. Whatever be it, I am hopeful; organizations at least have the power to change.

Traits of terrorists

Intolerance

Intolerance against any set of beliefs other than their own: Well our organizations also have ‘intolerance’ towards things that are against their own set(s) of beliefs. They disallow syndicates to function in the name of work, no opposite points of view. Here is a list of intolerance any organization, learning or otherwise, proudly boasts:

Intolerance towards

       Mistakes

       Behaviors, e.g. talking against managers

       Non-compliance

       Ethics (this is subjective)

       Integrity (when organizations fail here, it is not questioned, who will even dare)

       Countless other things

Layoffs

For the terrorists, attrition from life is considered as ‘desired’ (they give a high-five to each other when millions die on the streets with unfinished stories). Organizations go for layoffs and people who are responsible for layoffs are given hikes and promotions when thousand plague on the streets like rats.

Guns and weapons

Terrorists terrorize innocent people with guns and other weapons. Organizations terrorize the workforce with processes; threaten people with dire consequences that are worse than weapons.

Clients and GOD

Terrorists can do anything for their GOD, organizations can for their clients. For example, Indian and APAC workforce should work at night shifts, graveyard shifts to cater to the clients. It is hard to find a western do the same.

Disguise   

Terrorists merge in the crowd, gain people’s faith and belief and shoot them. Managers do exactly the same

Abuse

Terrorists hurl abuses to non-believers. Organizations hurl abuses at their workforce. You have to carefully see how managers are trained to talk, their body language is aggressive, their tone bossy; as a linguist I find this vastly interesting.

Death and Prison

Terrorists kill. Organizations threaten their workforce with legal consequences, they have put many people behind the bars.

Jihad and Evaluation

Anything is possible. Any employee who has the misfortune of saying (maybe out of anger OR out of irritation) 'I am done with this blessed organisation', and the ardent follower-managers will issue a Jihad against that employee, he will be thrown out, no matter what - this is just one example.

The game

It is hide and seek. Terrorists hide..mostly in the dark; organizations hide in broad daylight, like Balram of The White Tiger. 

The team

Both teams have stalwarts and geniuses. Here I have some questions. How does the education function? We see saints, or almost saints turning into terrorists on one hand and those blue-eyed dreamy toppers who'd be determined to do good for society turning into deadly managers. Who or what is transforming these souls. Those who could be healers turn into killers. Where is it that we are lacking? I think there is one belief system that plays havoc in society and that is 'theory and practice are poles apart', otherwise how does the soft and tender boy, a gold medalist from college do not even think before backstabbing their colleagues, where is this belief system coming from which endorses this as 'normal' or even worse 'a part of the game'. I think the world, the whole world needs one month to weep together for the collective sins it has done to his own stakeholders, one month of weeping can perhaps wash the sins, if at all. 

Responsibilities

Terrorists are also beheld as patriots by many because of their sacrifice. Organizations also have CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) to gain points in society. Some of them become very powerful and can also influence the governments or political parties as the case may be.

Thinking

Terrorists think they are NOT doing anything wrong; they are killing innocent people for a reason. About organizations, less said the better.

Fear, mistrust and power

I could have dealt separately with these three traits that are common in both, but I thought it would be nice if I kept them together; if later, I write elaborately on this with case studies, I will take it up. While one says ‘Fear God’, the other says on no uncertain terms ‘Fear the Organization’; the tone is exactly the same. Mistrust is the next common factor…this is obvious, isn’t it? The plastic infrastructure of all corporate offices is becoming increasingly claustrophobic; it’s understandable when you do not trust outsiders, but it is surprising when you find project specific gates where only project specific employees are given access; this is to gain the confidence of the clients. I find this sad because the employees are learning to mistrust through the very processes of the organization. The security system, internal and external, is bound to collapse in the long run, we are not realizing this because the frog can still withstand the temperature in which it is afloat. Both vie for power; I think this is one virus that is slowly pervading the business domain and making it unnecessarily sicker every day. I will end with a Chaplin quote on power before I go on to the conclusion. ‘You need power only when you want to do something harmful otherwise Love is enough to get everything done.’

So finally I have come to the conclusion. With this article, I find myself like Meuresault, the protagonist of 'The Outsider'; I do not plead innocence, but I know I permanently go into the bad books of any organization, learning or otherwise. However, I am hopeful that social behaviorists might take this in the right spirit and work out a way to see how it is possible for organizations to actually go through a metamorphosis.