A page from Mahabharat

A page from Mahabharat

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Yudhishthir put Daupadi on stake next after losing wealth in the crooked dice game with Duryadhan. He lost that round too. Durayadhana jumped up in joy and yelled like a jackal at the discomfiture of Draupadi. He nudged his brother Dushashan to get into the act of possessing Draupadi.

“Whatever you say bro, my pleasure!” twirling his moustache and slapping his thigh Dushashan jumped on Draupadi. Poor Draupadi was helpless;. Bheem was raging in anger and Arjuna wanted to break the rule but Dharmraj Yudhishthir restrained them.

Poor Pandavas were a mute spectator, she prayed to Krishna to save her humiliation in the hands of Kauravas. There was a guy among those Kauravas who had attended Draupadi’s Swamvar but failed in the test of hitting the eye of the rotating fish on wooden wheel by looking at the reflection in plate full of water below. He was jumping and shouting lustily at that vulgar show. Draupadi’s ultimate shame was saved by Lord Krishna by supplying endless saree.

The above incident of Mahabharat was the beginning of end of Kauravas, Draupadi would take oath that until and unless Dushashan is killed she would not tie her free flowing hair.

But what about that leering guy, who was jumping lustily?

Cut to 12 years of exile in forest or vanvas of Pandavas after losing everything in that ill-fated game of dice.

That guy has been shadowing Pandavas in the forest and waiting for the oppertune moment when Draupadi will be alone, he wanted her for fulfilling his carnal desire.

One day all five Pandavas had gone out in the forest to look for food and Draupadi was left alone in the hut.

This lecher  parks his chariot at a distance , stealthily comes to the hut and gives a polite knock on the door.

Draupadi opens the door and is surprised to see this guy.

He hurriedly explains, “I have come in search your husbands.”

Draupadi being a polite and civilized lady invites this relative inside the hut and wait for the return of her husbands.

I know knowing that fellow belongs to the enemy campy why did she allow him inside; I guess that’s what always the weakness of a good person is. A good person always looks through the prism of goodness. Also she had five brave husbands so there was nothing to worry.

But lust which is among 7 deadly sins is such blinding that a person loses his common sense. This crook was no better. He enters the hut and says, “A beautiful woman like you can’t stay like this, come with me I will keep you like a queen.” She steps back and says, “Please leave me alone, I am happy here.”

This guy gets enraged by the rejection, he grabs for Draupadi , she puts up a fight but was no match to that brute. He carries fighting and yelling Draupadi to his chariot and binds her with the post.  He whipped the horses wildly so that he could put distance between the hut and him. Draupadi keeps shouting for help but unfortunately her husbands were beyond the earshot.

After sometimes the five Pandavas returned from their errand and shouted for Draupadi. No one came running out. They went inside the hut and found it to be empty; the utensils were haphazardly strewn around because of Draupadi’s resitance. They knew something bad has happened and Draupadi was in danger. Arjuna came out of the hut and with his hunter eyes started looking for telltale signs. He noticed the mark of chariot wheel on the ground and found out in which direction it had gone. He aimed his Gandiv and released a fire arrow or Agnivan in that direction.

This villain had no clue of the danger but then suddenly he finds fire falling from sky , embeds itself in the ground in front of the horses. The scared horses neigh wildly and stop suddenly on hind legs with front legs up.

Arjuna goes on shooting fire arrow in regular intervals in such a way that the arrows create a prison of fire around the charioit.

Our villain is now imprisoned and there was no way of his escape.

Panch Pandavas arrive and unties Draupadi and then drags the brute out by his hair. They were shocked to see the culprit. It was Jayadratha, the husband of Dushala, the only daughter of Dhritarashtra or sister of 100 Kaurav brothers.

Arjuna wanted to kill him but then Draupadi pleaded and asked him not to do that as then Dushala who was their cousin sister would become a widow.

But Pandavas wanted to punish him. They shaved off his hair in such a way that five parallel strands were running on his skull. This way Jayadratha was shamed and he had no face to show.

Pandavas went back leaving Jayadratha behind to his fate.

Jayadratha was enraged by the insult and stayed put by the side of river Saryu. Dushala got worried seeing her husband absent for a long time. Duryadhana found him by the side of river and requested his brother in law to return. Jayadratha said ,” I can’t go now. Let me meditate for sometimes.”

Here is the catch in this type of incidence, any bad or good person if does a tapsaya to Bholenath Shiva then he readily gives var or a wish full filling request.

He did penance for days, months directing the mental energy towards Shiva. Bholenath is happy and appears in front of him and asks Jayadratha what he wants.

“I want to take revenge on Pandavas.”

Shiva smiles and gives him var, “You can defeat all 4 pandavas but not Arjuna.”

Jayadratha is not happy he continues his tapasya of Shiva again.

Now the question is whether Shiva will grant him another var or not. What is the second var Jayadratha would ask……he can’t ask var to defeat Arjuna as in the first var itself Shiva has spelled that out. Let me read Mahabharat for further information on Jayadratha to know the next var…..

Seagull

Seagull

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The verdant sea beach of Pacific Ocean at Gold Coast

Seagulls on the beach at Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast,Australia

The sea was looking blue, the sun was about to set. The seagulls were circling over the sea at a distance from the beach. The surfers were returning, the air was salty; a fishy smell was hanging in the atmosphere. The entire ambiance and the smell of the sea beach at Gold Coast transported me back to Gangavaram sea beach in Vizag

.It was rightly said by Dian Ackerman that nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer besides a lake in the mountain: another moonlit beach. Smell detonates softly in our memory like poignant land mine hidden under weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of undergrowth.

Me with Raja and Bonny at Gangavaram sea beach, the captive sea beach of Vizag steel plant

Yes that particular moment reminded me of a similar sunset time by the side of Bay of Bengal on Gangavaram beach, which is kind of captive sea beach of Vizag Steel plant. I was relaxing on the beach, looking at the endless waves hitting the shore line, my son with his friend Raja swimming in the sea, the ladies were busy at a distance. From the corner of my eyes I could see the temple perched on a hillock, the last scene of the film Ek Duje Ke Liye was shot there.

Bonny with Madhuri in Gangavarm Sea beach temple

 The whole atmosphere was serene and tranquil. From a distance it would appear as though I was talking with the sea. Yes, I was communicating with the sea, I wanted the time to freeze so that I could go on reminiscing about the past. The sea was communicating back to me that it was not possible as the time could not wait and reminded me that I had much work to do before I could think of freezing myself to no work mode. It said, " look at those seagulls, they are relentlessly hunting for fish, look at me I have no time for rest, I have to go on creating waves." Those words of sea jerked me back to the present, I quickly got up and gathered my clothes and shouted to others that it was time to go back home, the sun was about to set.

I started thinking about the project for which I was posted at Vizag.The nightmare of grappling with the pressing problem at the project started staring hard at me.

I was posted there in steel plant from BHEL to construct their power plant. The plant was ready but was not stable. Those recurring problem used to haunt me, those trips to Gangavaram or Ramakrishna beach was to escape from the reality and look at the sea for a mental peace. I still remember my first rendezvous with the sea. It happened in 1963 when I with few of my friends from IIT, Kharagpur straightaway paddled our cycles to the sea before checking in any hotel. We were staggered; the endless water produced a numbing effect. It was beyond our imagination, in our own way we always imagine things in a limited way. Before that day the only unlimited thing with which we were familiar was the sky, since the sky we are seeing from our very birth so it does not create that kind of effect of the unseen. We felt very small and vulnerable on that day.

Whenever I was having any mental trouble I would go to the beach, look at the sea. The vastness of the sea would make my problem look insignificant, my disturbed mind would calm down and I would start thinking rationally. My batteries would get recharged; I would be looking at the problem with a fresh mind.

The next day I would sit with my good friends like P Chakraborty, Jagannathan, Rana, Malhotra, TS etc and would run through the problems and work out a solution.

The Vizag posting of mine was a landmark posting as BHEL gave me bigger responsibility and I could see the South Indian culture from a close quarter. It was learning for my wife as well. She learnt the intricacies of South Indian cooking like Dosa, Idli, Sambar, Lemon rice etc.My son learnt scooter driving, car driving, swimming, playing tennis etc, the list is endless. That posting of mine transformed all of us to a different person and the sea played its role of mentor. We were like sea gulls circling round and round picking up bits and pieces here and there. It was Jagannathan who first introduced me to management books.Mr.Rath forced me to hone my badminton game.

Austin O'Malley said, "The memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food." Similarly I don't want to remember those technical problems and their solutions but I want to store those beautiful moments spent by the side of sea watching our kids playing, ladies laughing and seagulls circling at a distance and that symbolizes Vizag for me.

Shuddy with us in Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast

Shuddy and Bonny

Poonam

Me biking on sea beach at Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast

Some stories convey a lot

Some stories convey a lot

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Possessive

…....................

A mother and her daughter were walking by the sea on the verdant beach. The daughter was soon to be married. The mother was explaining the daughter about ups and downs of life, how she kept the family together by compromising and judiciously taking decisions. The daughter listened to her mother’s wise words.

The mother bent down and grabbed some sand. She said, “Look at my hand.” She held the sand in her open palm; the sand slowly blew away by the gust of wind. She said, “Relationship is like this sand, the moment it is taken for granted then like the sand it just flies off.”

Again she picked up some sand and tried holding the sand in a tight fist. All the sands started falling through the gap between the fingers. She said,” In a relationship more you try to possess more you lose like this sand slipping out of my fist as I make my fist tighter.”

The daughter said, “Yes mother I understand now. It has to balance between freedom and control, like this.” She bent down and picked up sand, she held the sand by making a loose fist to protect it from flying way and not too tight to force the sand slip out of hand.

Samaranandji was telling the story to his disciple as some of them told him how in the modern age relationships are falling apart. He is a modern Guru who conveys his sermons through parables like usually done by management gurus. He has stock of stories for all occasions.

Through the above story he explained how over possessiveness causes problem in work place too.

He said

In a work place you will come across people who don’t want to part with their knowledge which they acquired during their service period to new entrants. They seldom share but are quick to blame the subordinates and as a result of this the organization does not move further. The younger employees feel isolated and inadequate, they start looking for opportunity to get out of such suffocating work atmosphere.

The possessiveness of ideas is another big spoiler while trying to crack a problem as a team. There will be someone who would be fixed with his idea of solution and will keep on trying his possessed knowledge without heeding to the advice of others. If that individual happened to be a boss then you really had it. A transparent friendly colleague with a lesser knowledge gets a work executed smoothly without any hiccups.

The last deal

The last deal

…………………..

Khemka who is above 70 has many ailments. He is bedridden and thinks that all his vrat and pujas can’t save him from certain death. He is scared about night, the night signifies end to him.

It is late in the night, the sleep eludes him, he gets up from his bed with great difficulty and approaches the big ancestral almirah in the bedroom. He opens the lock by the bunch of keys which always dangles from his waist. He does not trust anyone with that bunch of keys. These keys are for all those safes containing his gold, silver and other costly things….his life’s earning, he loves the yellow metal and not the share market. He slowly opens the almirah and then with another key he opens the safe inside the almirah. There lies his ancestral lota. His father told him how he had come from Rajasthan with that lota and some money to Calcutta, started his business in Jute and built his empire. His father’s advice was whenever in trouble that lota will guide him.

He is in deep trouble, it is life and death question for him literately so clutching the lota with wobbly steps he goes back to the bed. He takes a closer look at that lota of kansa (bell metal) fondly. The lota reminds him of his childhood, his days in small chawal in Burra Bazar with his brothers and sisters. He is now trying to figure out how it can help him, it is only reminding him of their humble beginning.

He is lying on the bed with lota in hand. He absentmindedly puts his hand inside the  lota….whoosh a dark giant appears from the lota. He is thrilled that now he knows that it is no ordinary lota but a container like Alladin’s lamp and now a genie stands before him.

Are you that genie of lamp of Alladin?

No , I am Yamraj and have come to warn you that your days are numbered.

He is not able to talk for sometimes but then his business brain starts working.

Is there a way to delay my death?

Yamraj says, “Come with me to Yamalay I will show you the process of how I decide whom to take from the earth.”

Yamraj holds Khemka’s hand and both fly out of the open door to the sky, the sleeping servants could not see them vanishing.

They enter a dark fort somewhere in the sky. They land in courtyard from  where diagonally  like sunrays there are running corridor leading to millions of rooms. Yamraj takes him to a room where there are lamps. He explains each lamp is a person in earth, all the rooms have such lamps covering the population of whole wrorld.

Khemka is not interested in whole world, please take me to my lamp.

Yamraj leads him to a congested room where lamps are put on racks. Khemka sees the room real crowded and thinks to himself , yes it is Calcutta no doubt.

Khemka is led to a corner rack, on the third shelf from the bottom and the second one is the lamp representing his life. The glow from his lamp is dim as the oil level is nearly touching the bottom. His quick mind has grasped that more quantity of oil left means more life.

He hears a click in his mind; the business gears started working furiously in his mind. He plans to make a deal with the devil.

Is there a way to get more oil in my life lamp? He speaks in his usual conspiratorial tone.

Oh, yes why not but you got to pay price , I know you are a business man so as an exception I appeared to warn you. As such the cost of maintaining Yamalay is increasing day by day so I don’t mind doing a deal. I do that often with Americans, Chinese and Indians.

Khemka is happy. What is the price?

For each year increase of your life you have to pay ten  gold coins of 10gms each.

What 10 gold coins for one year increase of his life!. His wealth of gold is result of his thrifty habits. He cannot think of giving his hard earned gold.

Is there any other deal?

Yamraj is furious by the question of Khemka so thinks of punishing him.

Yes, you give your right arm and I will see that you live another 100 years.

Khemka does a quick calculation and says, I want 30 years so that I can live up to 100 years so you take one third of my right arm from the wrist, Khemka knows in Jaipur he can get artificial hand for less than 1 lakh and thus he saved money by not giving gold coin.

Yamraj is flummoxed by the suggestion of the wily businessman. He thinks to himself I must inflict a real pain to this wretched human.

Suddenly Yamraj grows in size holds Khemka on the ground putting his knee on his chest and pulls Khemka's hand  to tear it from the wrist.

“ aye, o, mother, it is paining” Khemka starts yelling in pain,his body convulses  , his ears wring.
He writhes with pain and looks up at Yamraj but to his surprise he finds Ramu his servant in place of Yamraj. He is lying on the bed and Ramu his servant is trying to pull  his hand out of the lota.

He is relieved to find himself on the bed but the nightmare was so real.

He heard his wife shouting from the next room.. ….stop banging that lota on the bed, that horrible sound woke me up from my sleep.

I am still learning

I am still learning

……………………………

I read somewhere if an operating manual for human being is to be made then how many volumes would it be. We operate without any operating manual; we just pick up some wisdom on the go and tend to use those. Like they say if one is habituated in hammer then he sees every problem as nail jutting out and hammers it down, kind of same solution for all problems.

That is too simplistic, one solution for all problems !

While growing up we watch our parents operating and from there learning starts. I have watched my mother silently helping people without expecting any return…following the principle of “Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,”( You have the right to work only but never to its fruits)..tried to emulate her principles in life but I don’t know how far I could do that.

My father would often say in Hindi “ Na bahni na bhayeeya,subse bada rupayeeya ( most important is money and not brothers and sisters)….I used this operating principle as a caution against the bad influence of money or tried to make money as secondary goal, I always believed knowledge is power.

When we were passing out from IIT, Kharagpur we were cautioned by our professor of controls Mr.Gopalratnam about our approach to job. He said,” Now you all will be looking for job and many of you will not get the job what you want. Remember it is something like you may not marry the girl you love but you got to love the girl you marry. So whatever job you get you must do your best to do that job. Best of luck.”

That little bit of gyan helped me in adapting to all kind of situations and I am sure most of you out there must be doing the same.

While allotting work to my subordinates the word of our GM Mr.R N Bhatnagar in IOC,Barauni always rings in my ear. He said ,”If you find a man not suitable for his job then it is your duty to find a job for which he is suitable.”

That was the most important advice I ever got on job. Often we blame a worker not able to carry out a given task but have we ever tried to find out his strength area. This way we have forced many people to become useless.

My very first management book which i read was The Peters Principle.The Peter Principle is based on the notion that employees will get promoted as long as they are competent, but at some point will fail to get promoted beyond a certain job because it has become too challenging for them. Employees rise to their level of incompetence and stay there. Over time, every position in the hierarchy will be filled by someone who is not competent enough to carry out his or her new duties.  . The classic example is that when an expert is promoted as overall in charge then he may fail in taking work from a team, whereas individually he was excellent in his work. This book and One Minute manger series by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson have been very useful in understanding the inter-layer of people management. I must admit I was introduced to The One Minute Management series by my colleague Jagannathan in Vizag.

The next book which influenced me most was “The seven habits of highly effective people” by Stephen Covey. This book grabs you by ball from the preface itself. I had gone to Hubara site in Oman where BHEL was carrying out a project for PDO. One of the British consultants of the customer was having some personal problem with his girlfriend back home. He started discussing that in the bar of the guest house in the oasis. He was seeking my advice, I gave him the book “7 habits…” and said, “ I think you will find answer to your problem in this book.”

Next evening he came excitedly to me with the book and said,” Mr.Roy I found the answer in the first chapter itself.”

I left the book with him and advised him after finishing the book he can handover that to my site people. After a few years Shankaranaryan one of the engineers working there informed me practically all of them have read the book. I felt satisfied and realized the far reaching power of a book.

Slowly Samaranandji started taking shape , postulation by my alter ego started coming as management principle.

Samaranandji would often say employees operate on two principles namely WIIFM and SYA.

WIIIFM; expanded as ‘What is in it for me’ ….if boss is shrewd then he will see through the game and will use proper administrative medicine to take work out of such person. Here the employee sees there is gain for him then only he acts. Sadly that is the story with most of the people because we don’t try to establish systems with date lines.

SYA; expanded a “Save your ass”…..these employees will not act. They feel if by chance they commit any mistake then they would be hauled up. So they are busy in passing on the buck.They avoid taking decision.

A good manager has to observe and classify his subordinates’ and then work out strategy to take work out of them.

Samaranandji’s most important lesson has been “Yes also suits me No also suits me.” This principle is based on magnetic lines of forces. I become iron filing and my boss or subordinate becomes magnet. If he takes the position of “Broad side on” then as iron filing I align accordingly. If he takes “End on” position then I realign myself accordingly. It simply means I am ready with multi option and will use those as per your position of “Yes” or “No”. Here i give the first choice to my counterpart who can be anyone...
You don't have to paint a man black but instead paint the background white....this means do a better job than other person instead back biting...
I was influenced by the books of Peter Drucker, the original management Guru, Tom Peters who wrote in Search of Excellence, Zig Ziggler the motivational writer from whose book many contents have been lifted by Shiv Khera...
Everyday is a learning day.....even after my retirement i am learning....i liked what our MD ,P P Gupta( owner of Techno Electric Engg Co, MBA from IIM,Ahmedabad) often says about engineers and managers.."woh language level mein hi reh jatey"....means people seldom go to the depth but do surface scratching, something like reading out the headlines without understanding the full detail, i guess this is the general malady which makes us more subjective than objective...
While playing golf i realized the importance of own limits and then trying to maximise the gain within those limits...3 Cs of the game..Concentrate,Control and Confidence....i started playing Golf at the age of 62 so the age is no bar to start..... 
In my part i tried to capture my experience in management by writing 2 Hindi books...'Management ke saral nuskhe" and "Management ke sabak"...the title of my  English books "Take it or leave it" and "Wide Angle".....well this article is also take it or leave it type for the readers...
You may agree or disagree the choice is yours ...as i wrote earlier both suits me "Yes" or "No"...after all it is a binary world...