Two images published in a leading daily just a day back caught my attention. They were different images but had a remarkable common connection.
Image 1 was of a strong political leader hailing from a Southern State descending on a airstrip in her helicopter. All her party leaders stood with folded hands while the helicopter is still in air about to touch base.
Image 2 was of a yesteryear Bollywood star turned politician and his wife. The image showed the wife at the feet of her husband and the caption read Mrs. 'S' worshiping her husband before he goes to file his nomination.
Did you see a common connection between these images? I saw 'Bhakti' a common connection between them.This misplaced 'Bhakti;' has been somehow become a part of our culture and it has taken its own toll on our society.
This 'Bhakti' for politicians has resulted in blind, almost fanatic followership. Hence the emergence of self-proclaimed saviours sometimes in the name of religion, sometimes in the name of caste and sometimes in the name of region. As India goes into its general elections in a couple of days, here is hoping that we do not vote out of 'Bhakti'; instead vote in the most deserving candidate to the parliament.
This 'Bhakti' in family has meant that the husband is regarded as the incarnation of God. 'Pati-Parmeshwar' meaning 'my husband is my God' has been told as a dictum to the girls and women in this country. Result has been a huge gender imbalance in families and societies that has not augured well for either sexes.
This 'Bhakti' in religion has meant that we have made demigods out of people. Every village, every town in India has its own spiritual 'Guru'. A majority of them have been alleged from time to time of land-grabbing, black magic, sexual misconduct etc. But the 'Bhakti' of the blind followers has been such that either no criminal proceedings have been initiated against these demigods or they have blocked the police and administration against taking any action.
This 'Bhakti' in organizations has meant that focus has been on compliance, reflexive obedience and keeping status-quo since that keeps everyone 'happy'. It is not 'safe' to 'differ' in such organizations, no conflict, no new ideas, no innovation and servility to the core.
'Bhakti' can only be towards the almighty, the creator, the God. Any other 'Bhakti' will only have disastrous impact, breeding incompetence, sycophancy and corruption.
Refrain from 'Bhakti' to build truly engaging families, societies, organizations and nations.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Monday, March 24, 2014
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Professionals Can Wait...!!
'A little less than two years after it brought in professionals from outside the family to head the editorial and business wings of the company, Kasturi & Sons Limited (KSL), the publishers of The Hindu daily, carried out drastic changes on Monday in the leadership structure by bringing in family members at the helm of affairs and easing out the editor and the company's CEO.
The KSL board of directors appointed N Ravi as the editor-in-chief of The Hindu, replacingSiddharth Varadarajan, who took over from N Ram in January last year. N Ram will now be the chairman of the board, and Malini Parthasarathy, who left the paper as its executive editor in 2011 and now heads The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, is back as The Hindu editor.
Monday's board meeting also decided to abolish the post of CEO, which was held by Arun Anant since it was created around the last revamp. Anant's new role is yet to be defined.
In what appears a sharp indictment of Varadarajan and Anant, a statement signed by N Ram (who had brought in these two), said: "The decision to make deep-going changes was made chiefly on the ground that there were recurrent violations and defiance of the framework of the institution's longstanding values on the business side, and recurrent violations and defiance of 'Living Our Values', the mandatory Code of Editorial Values applicable to The Hindu." He added that the effort was to restore employee morale, good industrial relations, and the trust of the newspaper's readers.
Varadarajan, who was redesignated as the contributing editor and senior columnist, has submitted his resignation. Asked about alleged violations of policy under his stewardship, he told TOI, "If indeed policies or editorial values were flouted, the solution would have been to get another professional editor. The fact that the owners have come back into editorial itself provides the answer to your question."
He added, "Of course, there were occasional instances of editorialising that slipped in, just as they did when Mr Ram or Mr Ravi edited The Hindu earlier. But I fear this is merely an excuse to reverse the earlier decision to professionalise the newspaper."
Asked if the board was unhappy with his periodic absence from the newspaper's headquarters, Chennai, he said, "As editor, the lion's share of my time was spent in Chennai, where I put in 12-hour days; except for two brief holidays in Kerala and Sri Lanka, any travel was almost exclusively linked to my job as editor of a national paper which has more than a dozen editions. Even then, there was not a single Chennai edition front page that I did not personally decide on, even when I was out of the country."
When contacted, Arun Anant declined to comment on the development.
Ravi, the current editor-in-chief, had resigned as the paper's editor in July 2011, along with other family members Malini Parthasarathy and Nirmala Lakshman, who was the joint editor, after Ram insisted on "separation of ownership from management on the editorial as well as the business side." Varadarajan took over as editor on January 10, 2012 after Ram, who held the post for eight years. That marked the conclusion of a series of debates within the family since 2009, starting with the appointment of N Balaji as the managing director of Kasturi & Sons.
On April 20, 2011, about three months before his exit, Ravi, in a bitter letter to The Hindu employees, said Ram and some of the directors at the meeting of the board two days earlier had sought to remove him and appoint Siddharth Varadarajan. He called it a "shocking display of bad faith that has left me deeply anguished" and that they were entering "the second, and what might turn out to be a prolonged, phase of conflict and turbulence in the institution."
(Source: Hindu reinstates family members at helm of affairs, The Times of India, Oct. 22, 2013)
The KSL board of directors appointed N Ravi as the editor-in-chief of The Hindu, replacingSiddharth Varadarajan, who took over from N Ram in January last year. N Ram will now be the chairman of the board, and Malini Parthasarathy, who left the paper as its executive editor in 2011 and now heads The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, is back as The Hindu editor.
Monday's board meeting also decided to abolish the post of CEO, which was held by Arun Anant since it was created around the last revamp. Anant's new role is yet to be defined.
In what appears a sharp indictment of Varadarajan and Anant, a statement signed by N Ram (who had brought in these two), said: "The decision to make deep-going changes was made chiefly on the ground that there were recurrent violations and defiance of the framework of the institution's longstanding values on the business side, and recurrent violations and defiance of 'Living Our Values', the mandatory Code of Editorial Values applicable to The Hindu." He added that the effort was to restore employee morale, good industrial relations, and the trust of the newspaper's readers.
Varadarajan, who was redesignated as the contributing editor and senior columnist, has submitted his resignation. Asked about alleged violations of policy under his stewardship, he told TOI, "If indeed policies or editorial values were flouted, the solution would have been to get another professional editor. The fact that the owners have come back into editorial itself provides the answer to your question."
He added, "Of course, there were occasional instances of editorialising that slipped in, just as they did when Mr Ram or Mr Ravi edited The Hindu earlier. But I fear this is merely an excuse to reverse the earlier decision to professionalise the newspaper."
Asked if the board was unhappy with his periodic absence from the newspaper's headquarters, Chennai, he said, "As editor, the lion's share of my time was spent in Chennai, where I put in 12-hour days; except for two brief holidays in Kerala and Sri Lanka, any travel was almost exclusively linked to my job as editor of a national paper which has more than a dozen editions. Even then, there was not a single Chennai edition front page that I did not personally decide on, even when I was out of the country."
When contacted, Arun Anant declined to comment on the development.
Ravi, the current editor-in-chief, had resigned as the paper's editor in July 2011, along with other family members Malini Parthasarathy and Nirmala Lakshman, who was the joint editor, after Ram insisted on "separation of ownership from management on the editorial as well as the business side." Varadarajan took over as editor on January 10, 2012 after Ram, who held the post for eight years. That marked the conclusion of a series of debates within the family since 2009, starting with the appointment of N Balaji as the managing director of Kasturi & Sons.
On April 20, 2011, about three months before his exit, Ravi, in a bitter letter to The Hindu employees, said Ram and some of the directors at the meeting of the board two days earlier had sought to remove him and appoint Siddharth Varadarajan. He called it a "shocking display of bad faith that has left me deeply anguished" and that they were entering "the second, and what might turn out to be a prolonged, phase of conflict and turbulence in the institution."
(Source: Hindu reinstates family members at helm of affairs, The Times of India, Oct. 22, 2013)
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
All in the Family
Yesterday we were out in the afternoon and had planned lunch outside. We wanted something vegetarian and had contemplated to go to 'Up South', a south indian delicacy store. We were on Bannerghatta road and we were discussing lunch when my 5 year old son popped-up an idea. 'Why don't we go to the mall nearby and have our lunch at Mc D instead?' Both me and my wife did not like the idea although we could get veg. meals at Mc D too. But my son persisted and being too hungry as well we gave-in and went to Mc Donald's for our lunch. At Mc D we all got our expected and unexpected delights - my son got a Ra.One toy, we tried the newish Mc Flurry, besides our chosen burgers.
In short kids these days are well-informed and most of the times influence purchase decisions. And for parents the world revolves around their kids and family. The combination effect is that organizations approach of 'engaging' only the individual customer or employee will not work anymore. 'Engaging' the family, especially the kids is very significant. Recently a company organized a painting contest for the kids of their employees, another organized a picnic and yet another a free family health check-up camp. Onsite creches, scholarships for the bright kids of employees, social-service clubs for employee's spouses, sports-day for employees and their kids, mother's day, father's day, wishing family members of employees on their birthdays, sponsoring lunch/dinner on wedding anniversary of an employee, family's day-out in the office...there could be tons of such ideas.
In short kids these days are well-informed and most of the times influence purchase decisions. And for parents the world revolves around their kids and family. The combination effect is that organizations approach of 'engaging' only the individual customer or employee will not work anymore. 'Engaging' the family, especially the kids is very significant. Recently a company organized a painting contest for the kids of their employees, another organized a picnic and yet another a free family health check-up camp. Onsite creches, scholarships for the bright kids of employees, social-service clubs for employee's spouses, sports-day for employees and their kids, mother's day, father's day, wishing family members of employees on their birthdays, sponsoring lunch/dinner on wedding anniversary of an employee, family's day-out in the office...there could be tons of such ideas.
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