TNSU! could be mistaken for ‘Tamil Nadu Students Organisation!’ (with an ‘!’ for a highly agitated students’ union). But its a spirit for me. Not the kind of spirit you get from a peg of vodka but from a stirring in the soul. On a less abstract level, it could mean an emotion. This emotion should give way to action and even more actions so that one day you find yourself on a higher spiritual plane, doing things for people you don’t even know.
TNSU! is about confidence. When you are down, you know that there is someone else to take your place and achieve the common goal. Its about being on the path of progress and looking back only to learn.
I wrote TNSU! two years ago. At that time, I was doing my ICWA. But the events which took place after that were uncanny. Several people I met in real life after that seemed to resemble characters from the story (!). I visited Bangalore, worked there and returned to my home state. But not exactly to answer the calling from my heart (and of course not to answer the call of nature, oh no, would I return for that?).
Ever wondered how the year 2019 could be? Every minute you think about it, you could get a different picture of India……of a numerical growth rate, number of people below the poverty line, number of youth unemployed, etc or you could visualize expressways, or even gaonwalas who are happy with what they make and there is no external force (read: civilized people from the developed world) to take away their happiness. You could share your opinion of what India ought to be in 2020.
The greatest contribution would be unflinching service to mankind without expecting any gratitude in return. But then, how does ‘Active Patriotism’ fit into the picture? Isn’t humanity more important than patriotism?
A bit of spirituality and history unplugged……
The Bhagavad Gita says that you must do your duty and offer the fruits to God. No doubt. Every religion is based on the same message. Right?
Now, going back to our freedom struggle. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee had written a novel titled ‘Anandmath’. The song ‘Vande Mataram’ is a part of this novel. In the novel the spirit of India was conceptualized as Goddess Durga. Remember when we were in school, a girl would dress up as Mother India on Independence Day every year? In other words, Mother India and Durga Devi are synonymous. The phrase ‘Vande Mataram’ means ‘I worship the Mother’. Put the two pieces together. What do you get? Active Patriotism. Every act you do is for your country. And the spirit of your country? Mother India. Goddess Durga.
Or put it this way, you could equate your country’s spirit with God (known by different names in different religions). What’s that objective? Service to humanity.
Finally, thank you for having a look at this blog. Fortunately the blog doesn’t come to an end (or rather unfortunately for you, I think you already rue the day I became your friend). The story I scripted ends right here. But its time for you to begin scripting your story. You ought to do justice to the blog address
www.tnsuindians.blogspot.com
That is…….THERE’S NO STOPPING US INDIANS!
Chalo Perfect.
Vande Matharam!
Jai Hind!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
PART 4: THE SPIRIT OF VICTORY
7th July 2019
We were heading back home from Paris on a chartered flight. We had gone there along with our country’s prominent economists to attend a conference. The agenda was to share various ideas on reducing the rural-urban divide with leaders of developing countries. Apart from that, we also shared information regarding our path of development during the past decade with them.
While staying at the hotel there, I spoke to a celebrated Indian journalist who was also a part of our delegation. He presented his most recently published book to me, which was a product of his painstaking research. He described his work as an attempt to give an account of the sweeping changes that had taken place in India during the past decade. And immediately, I was interested in reading his book.
Just as our flight took off from Paris, I took out the book and began to read it…with utmost curiosity. The author described how the attitude of the masses had changed for the better. “A social revolution took place in the minds of millions during the past decade,” he noted in his work. The modified attitude did not involve mere bland criticism of the government machinery. It was marked by an awareness of a greater sense of responsibility of the peoples towards their motherland. He reproduced a comment made by a fellow citizen in his work: “The greatest feeling of achievement comes from the satisfaction that you’ve done the best you can for your country.”
The past decade witnessed a huge increase in the number of business concerns which gave prime importance to corporate social responsibility and environmental conservation initiatives. Charity was being regarded as sacred on one hand, and on the other, as an investment in the future of India. Fearlessness and the hunger to win, backed by innovative capabilities were the characteristic features of the new generation of Indian entrepreneurs.
The writer elucidated that these changes would create a positive impact on politicians, in the not too distant future. During the last general elections, voter turn-outs were very low even in places where the literacy rate was over 95%. This seemed to suggest that large sections of voters, including those who were educated, did not have faith in any of the candidates. Sooner or later, political parties would realize that votes could more effectively be garnered by developmental politics rather than relying on vote-bank politics. They would probably realize that the people didn’t want them to play the caste and religion cards.
He also made use of some statistics to point out the speedy decline in poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. Growth, being more inclusive, had led to the reduction of impoverishment.
And I was in for a pleasant surprise when I came across a chapter which explained how our business model in Kerala got replicated all over India and thereby ‘created a magnanimous impact’. Another business model also came in for special mention. The idea was conceived by Radha eight years ago. It involved the creation of supermarkets in rural areas on a no-profit basis. The intention was to provide employment to the rural folk and also supply products at the cheapest prices to them. This model was later adopted in different parts of the country successfully.
I showed these pages to Radha who was seated beside me on the plane. Glancing through the pages of the chapter, the corners of her mouth turned up to reveal a pleasant smile. It wasn’t the first time that one of our business models was being acknowledged in print. But then, even small recognitions were sweet because they gave us a feeling of satisfaction that we had done something worthwhile for others.
“The active patriotism present in the people of India made way for the replication of our themes at such a rapid pace,” Radha said. I nodded in agreement.
***
Within forty-five minutes after landing at Cochin, Radha and I came out of the airport. We then got into a taxicab to head back home. A few minutes later, she was asleep beside me. I took a good look at her. We were married for the past nine years. But my admiration for her grew by the passing year. This wasn’t strange considering the fact that she was always backing me up and giving me confidence in every initiative I undertook. She was always beside me, lifting my spirits when I was down. Looking at her, I remembered how she would often tell me: “Abhinav, change is the law of nature. As time passes by, things change. So does love. Overtime, it evolves into different forms—forms which we haven’t seen before.” She would sometimes, say this romantically, and sometimes, seriously. But whichever way she said it, she was right. My feelings for her were continuously germinating into different kinds since our marriage. Even the gaze that I fixed on my better half, after nine years of matrimony, was a manifestation of that very emotion she was talking about.
I then rested my head on the cushion of my seat and began to recollect what had happened during the past decade. The book I read on the plane was having its aftereffects on me, though I was exhausted from the trip. Yes, the wave of active patriotism did spread across the country, cutting across barriers like race, religion, caste and linguistics. People were now more mentally strong and I believed that many of them were working for a cause greater than themselves.
There was another thing that I noticed about India and her people. To me, Indian culture seemed to be evolving…into a unique culture which imbibed the revered qualities of compassion, dignity, selflessness, perseverance, along with some other qualities probably adopted from the West such as accomplishment, independence and individualism. To me, this was the perfect recipe for uninhibited development.
I was tired but I couldn’t get sleep. I soon went into a flashback mode.
I went back to the days when Raju, Stephen, Majeed and I conducted our food products business. Our entity had grown overtime into a hugely successful one, with product diversifications being undertaken at just the right times. Our company had also gone public. We were now in the process of diversifying into businesses which were unrelated to each other. We were now engaging in commercial activities that required the wide use of high level technology.
Innovation was the one thing that was lacking a decade back. Indian industry was infamous for simply applying tried and tested management techniques developed and used elsewhere many years back. We were determined to change that. But how was the question. Raju provided an answer. The idea was to build up funds from several participants in the same industry with the sole purpose of investment in innovative business propositions. The contributors of the fund would become shareholders in the newly registered company. This way the risk would be shared by all the competitors in an industry without creating profits or losses for any particular company while leaving out the rest. So the central idea was collaboration between all the participants of a particular industry with the goal of creating common solutions for all of them. The result would be a professionally managed company with focus on productivity creating high technology innovative solutions for use in different industries. This would propel the development of the whole industry itself.
We made this possible by taking national level industrial confederations into confidence, and passed on the baton to them. These organizations then continued the relay race, convincing various associations relevant to particular industries. Eventually, such initiatives began to show positive results, such as the creation of more cost-effective yet technologically superior raw materials and finished goods, enabling the entire country to grow.
We were now onto a desalinization project. The objective was to desalinize seawater at the lowest possible cost, thereby creating water which could then be made potable by using an ordinary water purifier. From our feasibility studies, we had found the project to be economically viable. We decided to move forward with the project which would solve innumerable water-based problems.
The better halves of Stephen, Raju and Majeed were actively involved in Spiritual Development Programmes which gave training in meditation techniques to economically and socially backward house-wives in rural areas of the country. There was a plan to bring in male members of their families to participate in the initiative. But there seemed to be a stigma attached to that. The programme was thought of as one drawn out solely for the women-folk and men restrained themselves from joining the party. But we found a way out. We suggested our employees at the supermarkets, as well as loyal consumers to join the initiative. They promptly obliged and in this way, we succeeded in breaking the ice. All the members of the families joined the Programme and gained the higher benefits from spiritual development.
It also gave a golden opportunity to Stephen. He was able to use the co-optation approach to reduce the friction in his marital relationship, without giving his wife’s name to any of our products.
After a couple of years of starting Primacy Products Pvt Ltd, Majeed noticed that our company consisted of a group of members hailing from different religious communities. Yet, we were able to carry on the project in such a successful manner. The answer lay in the common values we shared with each other. So it was evident that anything could be achieved by a team of individuals if there were common goals and common values. We decided to spread this message to the society by sponsoring various NGOs which would work relentlessly for the benefit of the entire community.
Our children had formed a gang of ten bubbly youngsters, who were now studying at a school managed by a trust which we had founded. They were tutored by teachers who were not just friends, philosophers or guides, but visionaries. They encouraged their students to have a direction in life and work towards that direction.
Some of our little brothers and sisters at Alappuzha were employed at this school while others were undergoing their higher studies or working in our ventures. I could never forget that visit with Radha to their home a decade ago. That single incident had completely transformed my life.
I thought about the marriage ceremony which would be held in a week’s time. The bridegroom was Abhilash, the orthopaedically handicapped boy who realized his dream of becoming a college lecturer. And the bride was Radhika, the girl who had asked me what the biggest problem faced by our youth was. She was now working with us. She told me that they happened to fall in love just recently.
But I suspected them to have found each other long back, at Alappuzha itself. That’s because people themselves never know what they are up to. And I don’t know why, but they were afraid of letting it out to us. Radhika finally chose an old-fashioned way to reveal it: she allowed her phone-bill to go through the roof. On nabbing her, she first greeted us with a prolonged silence, which was customary in such situations. Then she let the cat out of the bag. And it left us all looking forward to the wedding.
Thinking about the pleasant things, I fell into a deep slumber.
***
I woke up on hearing the sound of the gates being opened. We had reached our home. I saw our parents waiting for us out on the verandah. They then came forward and did not hesitate to try to take our luggage out from the vehicle. But I stopped them and instead gave them a hug. As I was taking out the baggage, I noticed the sky become overcast with dark clouds heading from the south-west direction.
I changed my clothes and went to the terrace only to find that I had just missed the approaching rains. It had already begun to drizzle. It then rained heavily drenching the plants and trees in the vicinity.
I was observing the area when I felt the presence of another person beside me. It was Radha. She had the day’s newspaper in her hand. She rolled it up, gripped it and began hitting me with it, on the elbow of my hand. I folded my hands, as if in prayer, turned towards her and bowed to her.
“Do you know the number of times Padma called you on your phone?” she asked me. “It was when we were returning from the airport.”
“Oh! I didn’t realize it,” I replied. “My mind had been involved in a flashback.”
“Oh! Flashback?” she responded, smiling. “In your flashback, did you remember the role Padma played?”
I began to recollect the events.
“Ah!” I exclaimed. “Yes…yes…years ago, Achan and Amma had decided to look for a bride for me, so that I could settle down. They asked me whether there was somebody on my mind. And I replied, ‘Of course! There’s Radha, if you don’t mind…’
“Amma actually appreciated my frankness. I was pleasantly surprised.”
“And then what happened?” sang Radha, in the tune of a nursery rhyme.
“Um…and then my parents came to your place to propose. And initially you weren’t ready to accept the proposal…in the name of friendship or something.”
“Oh, ho?” responded Radha, protruding her nose and lips forward and nodding her head in a playful manner.
“Mmm, hmm…and that’s when Padma came into the picture. She met you in person and popped a few questions to you…”
“Such as…” replied Radha.
“Let me think…okay. ‘Radha, you know Abhi Anna so well. In fact, much more than we all do. Will you be able to find another guy whom you’ll know better? Will you ever come across another guy who shares the same values you do, and who’ll take even greater care of you?’ ”
Radha looked away and smiled sheepishly.
“And that was it,” I replied. “You were clean bowled. Silence was the only answer you could give her. And you threw in the towel.”
Radha continued to look elsewhere. Eight years of marriage were still not sufficient to remove the shyness painted on her face.
“Padma, her hubby, Lok uncle and Nandi aunty will be coming here in the evening,” said Radha, trying to hide her blush.
“It’s been a long time since we last saw them,” I replied. “I also have a few doubts to clear from them regarding a software program. Good thing both of them are software engineers. So even if Suresh doesn’t know the answer, Padma might still know it.”
“Yes,” responded Radha and she began to think about what I had just said.
I noticed a few drops of water dripping down her neck. She had just had a bath and her hair was still wet. I took a few steps towards her. I then collected a few of those drops from her neck onto my fingers. Just as she realized what I was going to do, I shook them off onto her face. I loved to see the way she twitched and the emotion on her face when I did that. She gave me another hit with the newspaper.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “It has stopped raining.”
I looked to find that the drizzle had stopped. The clouds had given way to sunshine.
“Will we be lucky enough to see the rainbow now?” I asked.
Radha scanned the sky. There was no rainbow.
“What do you see?” she asked.
“What do you see?” I asked her in reply.
She looked at the sky once again and around the area and said, “I see the future…of a developed world.”
She was right. The ultimate good for mankind was our aim. And we saw active patriotism as the means towards achieving that end. The next thing on our agenda was to spread India’s development to the world. There was absolutely no time to rest. We had to go further. Chalo. Perfect.
E-mail: soniachuthan@gmail.com
We were heading back home from Paris on a chartered flight. We had gone there along with our country’s prominent economists to attend a conference. The agenda was to share various ideas on reducing the rural-urban divide with leaders of developing countries. Apart from that, we also shared information regarding our path of development during the past decade with them.
While staying at the hotel there, I spoke to a celebrated Indian journalist who was also a part of our delegation. He presented his most recently published book to me, which was a product of his painstaking research. He described his work as an attempt to give an account of the sweeping changes that had taken place in India during the past decade. And immediately, I was interested in reading his book.
Just as our flight took off from Paris, I took out the book and began to read it…with utmost curiosity. The author described how the attitude of the masses had changed for the better. “A social revolution took place in the minds of millions during the past decade,” he noted in his work. The modified attitude did not involve mere bland criticism of the government machinery. It was marked by an awareness of a greater sense of responsibility of the peoples towards their motherland. He reproduced a comment made by a fellow citizen in his work: “The greatest feeling of achievement comes from the satisfaction that you’ve done the best you can for your country.”
The past decade witnessed a huge increase in the number of business concerns which gave prime importance to corporate social responsibility and environmental conservation initiatives. Charity was being regarded as sacred on one hand, and on the other, as an investment in the future of India. Fearlessness and the hunger to win, backed by innovative capabilities were the characteristic features of the new generation of Indian entrepreneurs.
The writer elucidated that these changes would create a positive impact on politicians, in the not too distant future. During the last general elections, voter turn-outs were very low even in places where the literacy rate was over 95%. This seemed to suggest that large sections of voters, including those who were educated, did not have faith in any of the candidates. Sooner or later, political parties would realize that votes could more effectively be garnered by developmental politics rather than relying on vote-bank politics. They would probably realize that the people didn’t want them to play the caste and religion cards.
He also made use of some statistics to point out the speedy decline in poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. Growth, being more inclusive, had led to the reduction of impoverishment.
And I was in for a pleasant surprise when I came across a chapter which explained how our business model in Kerala got replicated all over India and thereby ‘created a magnanimous impact’. Another business model also came in for special mention. The idea was conceived by Radha eight years ago. It involved the creation of supermarkets in rural areas on a no-profit basis. The intention was to provide employment to the rural folk and also supply products at the cheapest prices to them. This model was later adopted in different parts of the country successfully.
I showed these pages to Radha who was seated beside me on the plane. Glancing through the pages of the chapter, the corners of her mouth turned up to reveal a pleasant smile. It wasn’t the first time that one of our business models was being acknowledged in print. But then, even small recognitions were sweet because they gave us a feeling of satisfaction that we had done something worthwhile for others.
“The active patriotism present in the people of India made way for the replication of our themes at such a rapid pace,” Radha said. I nodded in agreement.
***
Within forty-five minutes after landing at Cochin, Radha and I came out of the airport. We then got into a taxicab to head back home. A few minutes later, she was asleep beside me. I took a good look at her. We were married for the past nine years. But my admiration for her grew by the passing year. This wasn’t strange considering the fact that she was always backing me up and giving me confidence in every initiative I undertook. She was always beside me, lifting my spirits when I was down. Looking at her, I remembered how she would often tell me: “Abhinav, change is the law of nature. As time passes by, things change. So does love. Overtime, it evolves into different forms—forms which we haven’t seen before.” She would sometimes, say this romantically, and sometimes, seriously. But whichever way she said it, she was right. My feelings for her were continuously germinating into different kinds since our marriage. Even the gaze that I fixed on my better half, after nine years of matrimony, was a manifestation of that very emotion she was talking about.
I then rested my head on the cushion of my seat and began to recollect what had happened during the past decade. The book I read on the plane was having its aftereffects on me, though I was exhausted from the trip. Yes, the wave of active patriotism did spread across the country, cutting across barriers like race, religion, caste and linguistics. People were now more mentally strong and I believed that many of them were working for a cause greater than themselves.
There was another thing that I noticed about India and her people. To me, Indian culture seemed to be evolving…into a unique culture which imbibed the revered qualities of compassion, dignity, selflessness, perseverance, along with some other qualities probably adopted from the West such as accomplishment, independence and individualism. To me, this was the perfect recipe for uninhibited development.
I was tired but I couldn’t get sleep. I soon went into a flashback mode.
I went back to the days when Raju, Stephen, Majeed and I conducted our food products business. Our entity had grown overtime into a hugely successful one, with product diversifications being undertaken at just the right times. Our company had also gone public. We were now in the process of diversifying into businesses which were unrelated to each other. We were now engaging in commercial activities that required the wide use of high level technology.
Innovation was the one thing that was lacking a decade back. Indian industry was infamous for simply applying tried and tested management techniques developed and used elsewhere many years back. We were determined to change that. But how was the question. Raju provided an answer. The idea was to build up funds from several participants in the same industry with the sole purpose of investment in innovative business propositions. The contributors of the fund would become shareholders in the newly registered company. This way the risk would be shared by all the competitors in an industry without creating profits or losses for any particular company while leaving out the rest. So the central idea was collaboration between all the participants of a particular industry with the goal of creating common solutions for all of them. The result would be a professionally managed company with focus on productivity creating high technology innovative solutions for use in different industries. This would propel the development of the whole industry itself.
We made this possible by taking national level industrial confederations into confidence, and passed on the baton to them. These organizations then continued the relay race, convincing various associations relevant to particular industries. Eventually, such initiatives began to show positive results, such as the creation of more cost-effective yet technologically superior raw materials and finished goods, enabling the entire country to grow.
We were now onto a desalinization project. The objective was to desalinize seawater at the lowest possible cost, thereby creating water which could then be made potable by using an ordinary water purifier. From our feasibility studies, we had found the project to be economically viable. We decided to move forward with the project which would solve innumerable water-based problems.
The better halves of Stephen, Raju and Majeed were actively involved in Spiritual Development Programmes which gave training in meditation techniques to economically and socially backward house-wives in rural areas of the country. There was a plan to bring in male members of their families to participate in the initiative. But there seemed to be a stigma attached to that. The programme was thought of as one drawn out solely for the women-folk and men restrained themselves from joining the party. But we found a way out. We suggested our employees at the supermarkets, as well as loyal consumers to join the initiative. They promptly obliged and in this way, we succeeded in breaking the ice. All the members of the families joined the Programme and gained the higher benefits from spiritual development.
It also gave a golden opportunity to Stephen. He was able to use the co-optation approach to reduce the friction in his marital relationship, without giving his wife’s name to any of our products.
After a couple of years of starting Primacy Products Pvt Ltd, Majeed noticed that our company consisted of a group of members hailing from different religious communities. Yet, we were able to carry on the project in such a successful manner. The answer lay in the common values we shared with each other. So it was evident that anything could be achieved by a team of individuals if there were common goals and common values. We decided to spread this message to the society by sponsoring various NGOs which would work relentlessly for the benefit of the entire community.
Our children had formed a gang of ten bubbly youngsters, who were now studying at a school managed by a trust which we had founded. They were tutored by teachers who were not just friends, philosophers or guides, but visionaries. They encouraged their students to have a direction in life and work towards that direction.
Some of our little brothers and sisters at Alappuzha were employed at this school while others were undergoing their higher studies or working in our ventures. I could never forget that visit with Radha to their home a decade ago. That single incident had completely transformed my life.
I thought about the marriage ceremony which would be held in a week’s time. The bridegroom was Abhilash, the orthopaedically handicapped boy who realized his dream of becoming a college lecturer. And the bride was Radhika, the girl who had asked me what the biggest problem faced by our youth was. She was now working with us. She told me that they happened to fall in love just recently.
But I suspected them to have found each other long back, at Alappuzha itself. That’s because people themselves never know what they are up to. And I don’t know why, but they were afraid of letting it out to us. Radhika finally chose an old-fashioned way to reveal it: she allowed her phone-bill to go through the roof. On nabbing her, she first greeted us with a prolonged silence, which was customary in such situations. Then she let the cat out of the bag. And it left us all looking forward to the wedding.
Thinking about the pleasant things, I fell into a deep slumber.
***
I woke up on hearing the sound of the gates being opened. We had reached our home. I saw our parents waiting for us out on the verandah. They then came forward and did not hesitate to try to take our luggage out from the vehicle. But I stopped them and instead gave them a hug. As I was taking out the baggage, I noticed the sky become overcast with dark clouds heading from the south-west direction.
I changed my clothes and went to the terrace only to find that I had just missed the approaching rains. It had already begun to drizzle. It then rained heavily drenching the plants and trees in the vicinity.
I was observing the area when I felt the presence of another person beside me. It was Radha. She had the day’s newspaper in her hand. She rolled it up, gripped it and began hitting me with it, on the elbow of my hand. I folded my hands, as if in prayer, turned towards her and bowed to her.
“Do you know the number of times Padma called you on your phone?” she asked me. “It was when we were returning from the airport.”
“Oh! I didn’t realize it,” I replied. “My mind had been involved in a flashback.”
“Oh! Flashback?” she responded, smiling. “In your flashback, did you remember the role Padma played?”
I began to recollect the events.
“Ah!” I exclaimed. “Yes…yes…years ago, Achan and Amma had decided to look for a bride for me, so that I could settle down. They asked me whether there was somebody on my mind. And I replied, ‘Of course! There’s Radha, if you don’t mind…’
“Amma actually appreciated my frankness. I was pleasantly surprised.”
“And then what happened?” sang Radha, in the tune of a nursery rhyme.
“Um…and then my parents came to your place to propose. And initially you weren’t ready to accept the proposal…in the name of friendship or something.”
“Oh, ho?” responded Radha, protruding her nose and lips forward and nodding her head in a playful manner.
“Mmm, hmm…and that’s when Padma came into the picture. She met you in person and popped a few questions to you…”
“Such as…” replied Radha.
“Let me think…okay. ‘Radha, you know Abhi Anna so well. In fact, much more than we all do. Will you be able to find another guy whom you’ll know better? Will you ever come across another guy who shares the same values you do, and who’ll take even greater care of you?’ ”
Radha looked away and smiled sheepishly.
“And that was it,” I replied. “You were clean bowled. Silence was the only answer you could give her. And you threw in the towel.”
Radha continued to look elsewhere. Eight years of marriage were still not sufficient to remove the shyness painted on her face.
“Padma, her hubby, Lok uncle and Nandi aunty will be coming here in the evening,” said Radha, trying to hide her blush.
“It’s been a long time since we last saw them,” I replied. “I also have a few doubts to clear from them regarding a software program. Good thing both of them are software engineers. So even if Suresh doesn’t know the answer, Padma might still know it.”
“Yes,” responded Radha and she began to think about what I had just said.
I noticed a few drops of water dripping down her neck. She had just had a bath and her hair was still wet. I took a few steps towards her. I then collected a few of those drops from her neck onto my fingers. Just as she realized what I was going to do, I shook them off onto her face. I loved to see the way she twitched and the emotion on her face when I did that. She gave me another hit with the newspaper.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “It has stopped raining.”
I looked to find that the drizzle had stopped. The clouds had given way to sunshine.
“Will we be lucky enough to see the rainbow now?” I asked.
Radha scanned the sky. There was no rainbow.
“What do you see?” she asked.
“What do you see?” I asked her in reply.
She looked at the sky once again and around the area and said, “I see the future…of a developed world.”
She was right. The ultimate good for mankind was our aim. And we saw active patriotism as the means towards achieving that end. The next thing on our agenda was to spread India’s development to the world. There was absolutely no time to rest. We had to go further. Chalo. Perfect.
E-mail: soniachuthan@gmail.com
Monday, February 22, 2010
PART 3: REACHING OUT -----> Chapter 3
“Any idiot can criticize, but no idiot can provide a good solution,” said Capt. Ironman Shahnawaz. I had told him about my plans on helping to eliminate the rural-urban divide. And he told me about his conversation with Raju. He was now responding to my apprehension that people would rather criticize than promote my ideas.
“Why is it so?” I asked him. “Why do people just criticize?”
“There are many reasons,” he explained. “For one, it’s the easiest thing to do. One just has to criticize and sit back and relax. Another reason is that people are afraid.”
“Afraid of what?” I asked.
“Afraid of failure as well as success. They want to go where no man has ever gone before. But at the same time, they are not prepared to lose what they are enjoying at the moment. It is a known fact that success will not come without sacrifice. Yet people behave in strange ways because they are lazy.”
“Human beings are imperfect beings,” I replied. “Isn’t it true?”
“True. They can achieve near perfection, but only if they have the courage to strive hard for it. Abhinav, it reminds me of that Spiritual Development Programme you had introduced at Lakshmi. I’ve decided to start a similar one here also.”
I was overjoyed. The veteran had just acknowledged that my ideas were worth trying. I expressed my delight to him. It reminded me about asking him a favour.
“Ikka, could you do me a little favour? Lok uncle needs a management consultant who is well-versed in the area of operations. Do you know anybody who is reliable?”
“Yes. I know a man who is good at improving operational efficiency,” he replied almost immediately. “And when I say he’s good, I mean he’s really good. His name is Vasanth Kumar and I’ll ask him to contact Lokanath, okay?”
I felt relieved. He wished me the best of luck in my endeavor and blessed me.
“Abhinav, remember the acronym PDC. That’s patience, determination and concentration. You’ll need these in order to set up a successful venture.”
“PDC,” I repeated and then nodded.
Before leaving the office, he introduced me to his subordinate manager and right-hand man. The Captain told him to see me off.
On my way out, I thought of the place from where I could buy a walking stick. I took the opportunity to ask the man where I could buy one. He gave me the details of the location, and I headed off towards it.
***
That evening, I presented the walking stick to the boy. The wonder in his eyes on seeing it moved my heart. Just after saying good-bye to everybody, a young girl came up to me and said, “Radha Chechi…” Another one immediately hushed her up from behind.
I didn’t know what they were up to.
On reaching Lok uncle’s place, I found that Vasanth Kumar had already contacted him. Uncle was quite impressed by the way he spoke. He seemed to have proficiency in the field. Currently, he was away on a tour, but would be back the next week.
Now that uncle’s problem was in the process of being figured out, I decided to leave for Cochin. I had a lot of spadework to do.
***
The results of the marketing research were encouraging. They reinforced my belief in the project. Things moved fast. After conducting the feasibility studies, Raju, Stephen and I pushed forward with our project. We were advised to get it registered as a private limited company. Stephen chose the name for the company: Primacy Food Products Pvt Ltd.
We formulated a specific mission for our business:
“TO CREATE JOY AND SATISFACTION FOR OUR CUSTOMERS BY WAY OF HEALTHY PRODUCTS MADE BY A TEAM OF PATRIOTS; AND CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCING THE RURAL-URBAN DIVIDE TO ULTIMATELY ATTAIN THE DREAM OF A DEVELOPED INDIA.”
We decided to adopt the same values which we followed at Lakshmi, namely that of active patriotism.
I contacted Radha to tell her that our flight had taken off the runway.
“You’ll do even better Abhinav. But you’ll have to work very hard in the beginning. The Gita says: ‘True happiness is like poison at first, but like nectar at the end. That happiness is declared to be Sattvik.’
“I think we can safely apply the idea here also. If you take pains early, then you will surely gain at the end.”
“Definitely. I’m on it full-time,” I replied.
“Abhinav, I received letters from the young ones at Alappuzha. I was so happy I don’t know how to convey it. From the questions you were asked and the answers you gave them…I’ll say that you are an excellent friend, philosopher and guide to them. I couldn’t have done half as good.”
“But you are the one who has got the emotional connection,” I contended. “You just need to smile at them and they’ll know what you mean that instant. I saw that the last time we had gone there together.”
“Speaking of emotional connection, I salute you for what you did for that little boy,” said Radha. “My heart goes out to you.”
“Radha, I could only manage to deliver the walking stick the next day. I know if it were you, you would have bought it that very day. So I don’t deserve your praise.”
I felt awkward at receiving so much praise from her. It was as if I was longing to hear something like that, but when I did hear it I suffocated. I then decided to ask her about her marriage. I really wanted to know the progress her parents had made in their search.
“Radha, how about your parents?”
“Oh! They are doing fine.”
“What about your suitor?”
“Yes. It seems they’ve almost found one,” she replied. I was frightened.
After a pause, she went on: “I spoke to him. He sounded very nice. I don’t think anybody can find any faults in him in the first instance.”
After ending our conversation, I looked down in disbelief. I just prayed that he would show some fault of his the second time they would speak. Everybody had positives, as well as negatives. I just hoped that he would show his negatives.
***
We hired a few workers initially and coached these team members on the principles of work, which we believed in. Everyday, we had to articulate our dreams of a developed India and the importance of their contribution to it. We had to build up their confidence.
Raju and Stephen too followed a simple lifestyle. They too believed that simplicity was to be respected and not deplored. This helped to reduce the divide amongst team members and entrepreneurs. I spent much of my own time in establishing a one-to-one relationship with each and every member. I also trained the supervisors to do the same. “Never should they feel the need for collective bargaining,” was what I instructed the supervisors. “We must address all their concerns.”
All of us got along well. Raju was quite lively and humorous. He was so lighthearted. But Stephen was a complainer. He was always discontented with something or the other.
One day we indulged in a conversation while standing on the pineapple field.
“Raju! I almost forgot to tell you. What an awful dialer-tone you’ve got,” Stephen sounded off. “I was frantically trying to call you yesterday. But you just wouldn’t pick up the phone. And all that I could hear was ‘Oh podu, Oh podu’.”
“I don’t sleep with it,” replied Raju. “Don’t you know that I put it on silent mode after 10 pm? I called you first thing in the morning, no?”
Stephen appeared to have been pacified by Raju’s explanation.
“Tut-tut. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been noticing you,” said Raju again to Stephen. “You’ve become so thin and feeble.”
I didn’t think Stephen’s physique had changed for the worse. But he looked far more depressed than ever before.
“What do you think, Abhi?” Raju asked.
“Steve looks more depressed now,” I answered.
“What happened?” Raju asked Stephen, turning towards him.
“It’s my wife again,” replied Stephen. “You know that weddings of close relatives have been classified as a must for me to attend, no matter how busy I am. Sometime back, she had criticized me, that I was too flashy at social gatherings. Though I didn’t agree with her, I thought I’d keep a low profile in order to appease her. Now she openly criticizes me in front of others, that my presence is so subdued that others will not even notice me. ‘The fourth chamcha of a state minister’, that’s what she describes me. She never says anything good about me.”
Raju folded his hands and then began scratching his neck, as if he was sorry he had asked.
“Don’t worry Steve,” I tried to console him. “Devote some of your time to improve your relationship with her. Over a period of time, it will improve.”
“I’ve been doing that for a few years,” replied Stephen. “It’s no good.”
So much for my advice.
“Da, wait till we make our jam,” said Raju. “Then you just have to prepare a sandwich with it and let her have it for breakfast. It will change her mood. Then both of you can leave for your second honeymoon.”
“You people don’t know her,” Stephen explained ignoring Raju’s attempt to cheer him up. “Nothing will satisfy her. Even if we name the jam after her, she’ll still not become content.”
Saying this, Stephen walked around the two of us until he completed a full circle. There was no use trying to jolly him up. He was so pessimistic when it came to dealing with his jaan. Raju couldn’t advise Stephen in this case, because he wasn’t facing the same problem as Stephen.
Raju, in contrast, hade made it a point to always express his care and concern for his wife. He made good use of sweet words like honey, milk, and sugar to address her. He even coined words like miloney and suctar which were combinations of the words milk & honey, sugar & nectar, to keep her contented. Although such words sounded awful, his wife loved it. He even gave special names for the dishes she used to prepare. One particular dish was cleverly named ‘Chicken 100’—the number was carefully chosen to indicate its superiority to the popular dish ‘Chicken 65’ available at restaurants. And Raju’s success lay in the fact that he would never overdo things. One would do well to take a leaf out of this man’s book. However, Stephen had failed in this aspect too.
“Forget about that,” Stephen finally said. “I have something else to tell you fellows. I met a guy who had a similar business proposition—he wanted to carry out both agricultural and industrial operations. In fact, he even started the business. But he failed. Spiraling costs was the problem.”
I got a feeling of déjà vu when I heard “spiraling costs”.
He went on: “He decided to use raw materials of lower quality. Ultimately, the product failed and so did his business. The man had forgotten that he had been serving customers.”
“We’ll take care of spiraling costs and we’ll never compromise on our ethics,” I replied.
The thoughts which were passing through my mind were not new. In fact, they echoed what we had done at Lakshmi.
“We’ll get this done,” said Raju.
“You can bet on it,” I responded. “And through this venture, we’re going to bring freedom to India—freedom from underdevelopment.”
We gave high-fives to each other. The sun shone brightly on us and it seemed to be conveying a message I couldn’t decipher. But I was optimistic. We were working for a cause greater than ourselves.
***
Our business grew and we acquired more land and increased production capacity. We employed more workers and influenced them by our organization culture. Raju and Stephen showed amazing levels of enthusiasm. We were literally competing with one another to chip in. Their managerial skills at getting things done ensured that every problem was solved whether it was regarding permission from the authorities or administrative troubles.
We identified a firm to be the distributor for our product. It was owned by a truly unique person called Majeed, who shared our dreams of a developed India. He was a known patriot in his neighborhood. In fact, he loved his country more than his family. He became the sole distributor for our product.
Later on, we inked an agreement to acquire his firm and he was made a shareholder in our concern. Apart from achieving better coordination in the business, it also enabled us to gain control over almost the entire value chain.
A value chain consisted of various activities performed by a firm to produce, support and deliver its products. As far as we were concerned, all the main activities right from procurement of raw materials, manufacturing into finished goods and wholesaling were under our direct control. Only retailing was outside our scope. We had to distribute the product to supermarkets across the state and let them do the retailing.
We saved costs by not going for any expensive branding exercise. The quality and price of our product would speak for itself.
***
The blessings of our gurus and our commitment to excellence ensured that nothing could go wrong for us. Raju and Stephen had become so confident about the venture that they decided to sell off their individual enterprises to focus on this undertaking. And the result was that we became successful. This gave us even more confidence for diversifying our product portfolio.
There was a growing class of affluent people in upcoming cities in Kerala such as Kottayam and Kollam besides cities like Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram. We discovered a market for fresh juices which had a shelf-life of 2-3 days.
We initially started off with fresh pineapple juice, followed by fresh guava juice which also turned out to be successful. It was then that we found the need to have an umbrella brand name and use it to further expand the product portfolio.
In a short span of time, we began to see prosperity among the rural folks. We were counting on other entities within and outside the state to study our business model so that our prosperity could spread throughout the country.
We were well on our way towards reducing the rural-urban divide. It would play a vital role in taking India to developed country status.
“Why is it so?” I asked him. “Why do people just criticize?”
“There are many reasons,” he explained. “For one, it’s the easiest thing to do. One just has to criticize and sit back and relax. Another reason is that people are afraid.”
“Afraid of what?” I asked.
“Afraid of failure as well as success. They want to go where no man has ever gone before. But at the same time, they are not prepared to lose what they are enjoying at the moment. It is a known fact that success will not come without sacrifice. Yet people behave in strange ways because they are lazy.”
“Human beings are imperfect beings,” I replied. “Isn’t it true?”
“True. They can achieve near perfection, but only if they have the courage to strive hard for it. Abhinav, it reminds me of that Spiritual Development Programme you had introduced at Lakshmi. I’ve decided to start a similar one here also.”
I was overjoyed. The veteran had just acknowledged that my ideas were worth trying. I expressed my delight to him. It reminded me about asking him a favour.
“Ikka, could you do me a little favour? Lok uncle needs a management consultant who is well-versed in the area of operations. Do you know anybody who is reliable?”
“Yes. I know a man who is good at improving operational efficiency,” he replied almost immediately. “And when I say he’s good, I mean he’s really good. His name is Vasanth Kumar and I’ll ask him to contact Lokanath, okay?”
I felt relieved. He wished me the best of luck in my endeavor and blessed me.
“Abhinav, remember the acronym PDC. That’s patience, determination and concentration. You’ll need these in order to set up a successful venture.”
“PDC,” I repeated and then nodded.
Before leaving the office, he introduced me to his subordinate manager and right-hand man. The Captain told him to see me off.
On my way out, I thought of the place from where I could buy a walking stick. I took the opportunity to ask the man where I could buy one. He gave me the details of the location, and I headed off towards it.
***
That evening, I presented the walking stick to the boy. The wonder in his eyes on seeing it moved my heart. Just after saying good-bye to everybody, a young girl came up to me and said, “Radha Chechi…” Another one immediately hushed her up from behind.
I didn’t know what they were up to.
On reaching Lok uncle’s place, I found that Vasanth Kumar had already contacted him. Uncle was quite impressed by the way he spoke. He seemed to have proficiency in the field. Currently, he was away on a tour, but would be back the next week.
Now that uncle’s problem was in the process of being figured out, I decided to leave for Cochin. I had a lot of spadework to do.
***
The results of the marketing research were encouraging. They reinforced my belief in the project. Things moved fast. After conducting the feasibility studies, Raju, Stephen and I pushed forward with our project. We were advised to get it registered as a private limited company. Stephen chose the name for the company: Primacy Food Products Pvt Ltd.
We formulated a specific mission for our business:
“TO CREATE JOY AND SATISFACTION FOR OUR CUSTOMERS BY WAY OF HEALTHY PRODUCTS MADE BY A TEAM OF PATRIOTS; AND CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCING THE RURAL-URBAN DIVIDE TO ULTIMATELY ATTAIN THE DREAM OF A DEVELOPED INDIA.”
We decided to adopt the same values which we followed at Lakshmi, namely that of active patriotism.
I contacted Radha to tell her that our flight had taken off the runway.
“You’ll do even better Abhinav. But you’ll have to work very hard in the beginning. The Gita says: ‘True happiness is like poison at first, but like nectar at the end. That happiness is declared to be Sattvik.’
“I think we can safely apply the idea here also. If you take pains early, then you will surely gain at the end.”
“Definitely. I’m on it full-time,” I replied.
“Abhinav, I received letters from the young ones at Alappuzha. I was so happy I don’t know how to convey it. From the questions you were asked and the answers you gave them…I’ll say that you are an excellent friend, philosopher and guide to them. I couldn’t have done half as good.”
“But you are the one who has got the emotional connection,” I contended. “You just need to smile at them and they’ll know what you mean that instant. I saw that the last time we had gone there together.”
“Speaking of emotional connection, I salute you for what you did for that little boy,” said Radha. “My heart goes out to you.”
“Radha, I could only manage to deliver the walking stick the next day. I know if it were you, you would have bought it that very day. So I don’t deserve your praise.”
I felt awkward at receiving so much praise from her. It was as if I was longing to hear something like that, but when I did hear it I suffocated. I then decided to ask her about her marriage. I really wanted to know the progress her parents had made in their search.
“Radha, how about your parents?”
“Oh! They are doing fine.”
“What about your suitor?”
“Yes. It seems they’ve almost found one,” she replied. I was frightened.
After a pause, she went on: “I spoke to him. He sounded very nice. I don’t think anybody can find any faults in him in the first instance.”
After ending our conversation, I looked down in disbelief. I just prayed that he would show some fault of his the second time they would speak. Everybody had positives, as well as negatives. I just hoped that he would show his negatives.
***
We hired a few workers initially and coached these team members on the principles of work, which we believed in. Everyday, we had to articulate our dreams of a developed India and the importance of their contribution to it. We had to build up their confidence.
Raju and Stephen too followed a simple lifestyle. They too believed that simplicity was to be respected and not deplored. This helped to reduce the divide amongst team members and entrepreneurs. I spent much of my own time in establishing a one-to-one relationship with each and every member. I also trained the supervisors to do the same. “Never should they feel the need for collective bargaining,” was what I instructed the supervisors. “We must address all their concerns.”
All of us got along well. Raju was quite lively and humorous. He was so lighthearted. But Stephen was a complainer. He was always discontented with something or the other.
One day we indulged in a conversation while standing on the pineapple field.
“Raju! I almost forgot to tell you. What an awful dialer-tone you’ve got,” Stephen sounded off. “I was frantically trying to call you yesterday. But you just wouldn’t pick up the phone. And all that I could hear was ‘Oh podu, Oh podu’.”
“I don’t sleep with it,” replied Raju. “Don’t you know that I put it on silent mode after 10 pm? I called you first thing in the morning, no?”
Stephen appeared to have been pacified by Raju’s explanation.
“Tut-tut. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been noticing you,” said Raju again to Stephen. “You’ve become so thin and feeble.”
I didn’t think Stephen’s physique had changed for the worse. But he looked far more depressed than ever before.
“What do you think, Abhi?” Raju asked.
“Steve looks more depressed now,” I answered.
“What happened?” Raju asked Stephen, turning towards him.
“It’s my wife again,” replied Stephen. “You know that weddings of close relatives have been classified as a must for me to attend, no matter how busy I am. Sometime back, she had criticized me, that I was too flashy at social gatherings. Though I didn’t agree with her, I thought I’d keep a low profile in order to appease her. Now she openly criticizes me in front of others, that my presence is so subdued that others will not even notice me. ‘The fourth chamcha of a state minister’, that’s what she describes me. She never says anything good about me.”
Raju folded his hands and then began scratching his neck, as if he was sorry he had asked.
“Don’t worry Steve,” I tried to console him. “Devote some of your time to improve your relationship with her. Over a period of time, it will improve.”
“I’ve been doing that for a few years,” replied Stephen. “It’s no good.”
So much for my advice.
“Da, wait till we make our jam,” said Raju. “Then you just have to prepare a sandwich with it and let her have it for breakfast. It will change her mood. Then both of you can leave for your second honeymoon.”
“You people don’t know her,” Stephen explained ignoring Raju’s attempt to cheer him up. “Nothing will satisfy her. Even if we name the jam after her, she’ll still not become content.”
Saying this, Stephen walked around the two of us until he completed a full circle. There was no use trying to jolly him up. He was so pessimistic when it came to dealing with his jaan. Raju couldn’t advise Stephen in this case, because he wasn’t facing the same problem as Stephen.
Raju, in contrast, hade made it a point to always express his care and concern for his wife. He made good use of sweet words like honey, milk, and sugar to address her. He even coined words like miloney and suctar which were combinations of the words milk & honey, sugar & nectar, to keep her contented. Although such words sounded awful, his wife loved it. He even gave special names for the dishes she used to prepare. One particular dish was cleverly named ‘Chicken 100’—the number was carefully chosen to indicate its superiority to the popular dish ‘Chicken 65’ available at restaurants. And Raju’s success lay in the fact that he would never overdo things. One would do well to take a leaf out of this man’s book. However, Stephen had failed in this aspect too.
“Forget about that,” Stephen finally said. “I have something else to tell you fellows. I met a guy who had a similar business proposition—he wanted to carry out both agricultural and industrial operations. In fact, he even started the business. But he failed. Spiraling costs was the problem.”
I got a feeling of déjà vu when I heard “spiraling costs”.
He went on: “He decided to use raw materials of lower quality. Ultimately, the product failed and so did his business. The man had forgotten that he had been serving customers.”
“We’ll take care of spiraling costs and we’ll never compromise on our ethics,” I replied.
The thoughts which were passing through my mind were not new. In fact, they echoed what we had done at Lakshmi.
“We’ll get this done,” said Raju.
“You can bet on it,” I responded. “And through this venture, we’re going to bring freedom to India—freedom from underdevelopment.”
We gave high-fives to each other. The sun shone brightly on us and it seemed to be conveying a message I couldn’t decipher. But I was optimistic. We were working for a cause greater than ourselves.
***
Our business grew and we acquired more land and increased production capacity. We employed more workers and influenced them by our organization culture. Raju and Stephen showed amazing levels of enthusiasm. We were literally competing with one another to chip in. Their managerial skills at getting things done ensured that every problem was solved whether it was regarding permission from the authorities or administrative troubles.
We identified a firm to be the distributor for our product. It was owned by a truly unique person called Majeed, who shared our dreams of a developed India. He was a known patriot in his neighborhood. In fact, he loved his country more than his family. He became the sole distributor for our product.
Later on, we inked an agreement to acquire his firm and he was made a shareholder in our concern. Apart from achieving better coordination in the business, it also enabled us to gain control over almost the entire value chain.
A value chain consisted of various activities performed by a firm to produce, support and deliver its products. As far as we were concerned, all the main activities right from procurement of raw materials, manufacturing into finished goods and wholesaling were under our direct control. Only retailing was outside our scope. We had to distribute the product to supermarkets across the state and let them do the retailing.
We saved costs by not going for any expensive branding exercise. The quality and price of our product would speak for itself.
***
The blessings of our gurus and our commitment to excellence ensured that nothing could go wrong for us. Raju and Stephen had become so confident about the venture that they decided to sell off their individual enterprises to focus on this undertaking. And the result was that we became successful. This gave us even more confidence for diversifying our product portfolio.
There was a growing class of affluent people in upcoming cities in Kerala such as Kottayam and Kollam besides cities like Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram. We discovered a market for fresh juices which had a shelf-life of 2-3 days.
We initially started off with fresh pineapple juice, followed by fresh guava juice which also turned out to be successful. It was then that we found the need to have an umbrella brand name and use it to further expand the product portfolio.
In a short span of time, we began to see prosperity among the rural folks. We were counting on other entities within and outside the state to study our business model so that our prosperity could spread throughout the country.
We were well on our way towards reducing the rural-urban divide. It would play a vital role in taking India to developed country status.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
PART 3: REACHING OUT -----> Chapter 2
At about 12:30 am that night, I received a call from her.
“Anna, don’t worry. I haven’t told anybody about Biwi.” she said.
I was horrified. Biwi? How did she know that?
“Padma!” I called out her name before suddenly realizing that my parents were asleep.
“Relax Anna. Where’s your notepad?”
Notepad? My notepad had gone missing. Maybe I had left it at ‘Vishnu Nivas’. And that very notepad could be resting in her hands as she spoke. Oh no! What had I written about Radha in that? I couldn’t remember.
“So you’ve read my notepad,” I concluded.
“No,” Padma replied. “I’m not that kind of a person.”
“Oh! Really?” I asked in contempt.
“Relax…relax,” she continued to play on my nerves. “I was just testing you, Anna. All that’s written in your notepad about Radha is this ‘Biwi = Radha Jayadevan’. And nothing else.”
“You’re lying,” I argued. “How did you know that Radha was at Bangalore?”
“I…okay, you’re going to yell at me…I cracked the password of your mail id.”
“You did what?!”
“I read your mail and also her reply to it.”
There was a prolonged silence.
“Tell me Anna, is that your girlfriend? If you don’t tell me the truth, then I’ll have to tell your parents.” She began to black-mail me over an e-mail.
“What are you going to tell them?” I asked her trying to hide my frustration. I didn’t want to play into her hands. “That I had sent an e-mail to her? That I had written her name in my notepad? Go on. Do what you want. Don’t call me at this time of the night again. Go to sleep.”
Padma was too mischievous. I was fed up with her. Now I couldn’t even keep a personal mail-id.
***
The following morning, I decided to concentrate on the project. I resolved not to take up assignments from new clients.
I began to evaluate the product concept of pineapple jam. It wasn’t a breakthrough concept—just a tried and tested one. But its objective was different—to reduce the rural-urban divide.
I believed that consumers all over India preferred pineapple jam to other fruit jams. I had to conduct a marketing research to confirm this belief. But I was still sure that pineapple jam tasted better than other jams on any given day. So no matter how much pineapple jam was produced, I was confident that there would definitely be a market for it. Besides, focusing on pineapple jams alone would enable us to produce them at lower costs.
Achan encouraged me to go forward with the idea as long as I was confident about it. Amma was positive that I would do well. She would be happy as long as her only child didn’t migrate to another state, and stay away from her.
At night, I was working on the details I needed from the marketing research, when I was distracted by the ring of my cell phone.
It was Radha.
“What a surprise!” I said.
“Surprise?” said Radha. “Definitely smaller than the one you gave me. I decided to compensate for not being able to talk to you yesterday,” she said.
“No problem.” I said. “How’s your job going? Engineering Process Outsourcing, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Actually, it’s another branch of BPO.”
“Must definitely be a challenging experience,” I said.
“The work is challenging,” she said. “But that goes without saying. In fact, there’s another challenge for everybody working in a BPO.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“There’s a general impression that people working in this field are spendthrifts,” she elucidated. “They indulge in too much of wasteful expenditure. They are often criticized for not caring for their family back home.
“My challenge is to make sure that I’m not placed in that category. I’ve had to make up my mind about the classification of expenses into two categories: necessary expenses and those we can do without. And right now my parents are employed. At the moment they don’t feel the need to be taken care of. But I am still looking after them in my own way. I constantly remind them to check their blood pressure levels regularly, ask them their readings, remind them about their diets…I hope I’m doing reasonably well in both these departments.”
On listening to this, I felt like pinching her hand, mischievously like a child. Forgetting myself, I visualized it in my mind and imagined her reaction for a moment. It made me laugh.
“What happened?”
I paused for a moment thinking what I should tell her in response.
“I just thought of something weird,” I finally said.
There was a long pause.
“You really are weird,” she said, breaking the silence.
I smiled sheepishly realizing that I got what I deserved from her.
“What about your parents’ search for a suitable boy?”
“Well they found out one guy from the US. I spoke to him on the phone. He’s a rich guy who is running a business quite successfully over there. He said he wanted to marry me. And I asked him why. He said that I was so beautiful.”
“So he’s the sort of guy who appreciates beauty…especially your beauty, isn’t it?”
“Abhinav, how does he know that I’m beautiful? He knows nothing about my character. On talking to him further, I got to know the fellow’s attitude. You know what? Shashi Tharoor, in a work of his, says that for some NRIs, the acronym could stand for ‘Not Really Indian’. And I think this suitor belongs to the same category. He seems to be suffering from the ‘India-hating NRI Syndrome’. I think he looks down on poor people in India. He never wants to come here except for our marriage and said many similar things. On hearing this, I knew that we were not compatible for each other. And that was it.”
“Then, what sort of a person would you be looking for?” I asked her.
“Well, I really don’t know. But I wouldn’t want a guy who’s not patriotic. That’s for sure. My love for my country is a central part of my character. And a guy who’s unpatriotic can never understand me, nor can I ever understand him. I’m not saying that he should be flag-waving though. Abhinav, do you understand what I mean?”
Before I could reply, a bolt of lightning struck outside my house. A roaring thunder followed. We had to hastily hang up the phone. I couldn’t get further details of what sort of a guy she would like to marry. But things like that didn’t matter. I recalled a few classmates who ended up marrying people who possessed exactly the same qualities they had hated. Perhaps God was teaching them a lesson to be happy with what they get.
***
I reached ‘Vishnu Nivas’, which had been my abode for sometime, on Thursday morning. There were a few aspects I wanted to cover during my stay here.
After downing a cup of tea prepared by Nandi aunty, I promised her that we would be back for her special lunch. Padma was at Thiruvananthapuram. Lok uncle and I headed for Lakshmi Industries.
At Lakshmi I was quite surprised myself by the way things had changed. There was a lot more professionalism in the way things were being conducted. I felt more relieved than pleased. Anto and Srinivas updated me with the way things were being handled. The suppliers were working closely with Srinivas and Lok uncle, so that storage costs were always kept to the minimum. Anto had succeeded to a certain extent in creating one-to-one relationships with the team members. But he was not too optimistic about making further inroads in this particular aspect. Anto had the drive to create results. He only needed freedom to carry out his work. At times, like in the past, he feared he would be made a scapegoat for any failure. I told him that over a period of time, he would certainly become successful. Everybody had to be patient and the results would come.
By noon, the visitor arrived. Lok uncle and I talked to him at the office.
Right from the outset, the man tried to hardsell himself. He said that he would implement the Six Sigma to achieve consistency in key operations. But I learned that he was an MBA graduate who had specialized in HR and that his basic degree was BA Philosophy. The man was also a fresher.
The Six Sigma was a quality improvement programme which improved efficiency in operations. It was an area which required expert knowledge, and I wasn’t sure whether this guy had that expertise. I knew that this fellow was not the man we were looking for. And that was the end of him. I told uncle to be optimistic. I knew we would find a proper fellow.
While having lunch at his home, uncle told me that the financial troubles were over and that he had repaid those loans. That was really good news. I told him that he could eye the land adjacent to his factory for expansion. I also suggested that he link the wages of the team members to their productivity. Uncle replied that he felt the unions had weakened a bit, but it was too early to comment on that. I then explained the Balanced Scorecard Approach to him which I had promised I would and how it could be used in his business.
***
In the evening, I paid a trip to the orphanage where Radha had taken me. This time I went there alone, in my second hand Tata Indica.
Though I had been sending bank drafts periodically from Cochin, they just carried my signatures, and not my photo. So I wondered whether the manager would recognize me. But he did. He recalled me visiting the place along with Radha and permitted me to meet the children.
On reaching the playground, I found them playing football there. I felt history repeating itself. It reminded me of the last time I had met them. As soon as they saw me, some of them started walking towards me saying, “Abhi Anna?” Then they all ran towards me. I sat on the steps and talked to each one of them.
Just then, the manager came to me, smiling.
“Abhinav, these children are waiting for Radha to come. They want to ask her a few questions, in person.”
He then turned to the youngsters and said, “Radha Chechi may not come soon from her place of work. Why don’t you ask Abhi Anna what you want to know? Radha Chechi had told you that he has a lot of knowledge, no?”
The children responded to the manager’s advice. They began to discuss with each other who should ask the first question. One child, who stood seemingly disinterested, suddenly asked me the first question.
“Abhi Anna, when we go to school, our friends tell us how they watched the whole cricket matches involving India. They tell us how they prayed and cheered for India. But some times India loses and at other times, India wins. My question is: ‘what difference does it make to the eleven players on the ground whether we cheer for them in our homes or not? What benefit does it give to us?’ ”
I was stupefied. I had to think for a while before coming up with an answer. Maybe the boy was also frustrated that he couldn’t watch the matches.
“There’s nothing wrong in cheering for your team, no matter what sport it is,” I explained. “Prayers do help. The benefit we get depends upon what we take. If India wins, it means that the team members carried out their roles perfectly. So we should take inspiration from that victory and carry out our roles well. If India loses, then we should draw the inspiration to do better and play our roles in a better way. Spending too much time watching cricket is also not good. We ought to focus on those things which we can directly change for the better.”
On hearing my reply, one of them said to the other, “See, what did I tell you? I was right.”
“What’s the biggest problem of India’s youth today?” another child asked me.
Again, I had to take my time before answering the question.
“I think the majority of our youth of today have no sense of direction. They don’t know what they want to become. Each person should decide what his ambition is. He should then set out to achieve it.”
“Did you do that?” the child asked me.
This was a perfect inswinging yorker. But I had grown adept to handling yorkers.
“Well I had an ambition. And I set out to achieve that. But midway, I realized that I was meant to be something else. So I’ve changed my ambition and now, I’m moving towards that. What I mean to say is that nothing is possible without effort. In order to be inspired to put in effort, you must have a goal to start with. It doesn’t matter if it changes halfway.”
And then it was time for the final question from the youngest of the lot.
“Anna, Radha Chechi told us that you are going to remove poverty from the rural areas. Do you think you can do it? Do you think India will become developed before the year 2020?”
My heart melted on hearing the little boy’s question. Radha had told them about my dream. I was left speechless.
“Radha writes letters individually to each one of them,” the manager explained.
“My friend ,” I called out to the youngest child, “it’s not a question of whether one man can do it. We all have a role to play in this. When all of us play our parts to perfection, the Indian flag will flutter sky-high. Then my ambition will come true. Then India will become developed.”
I was lucky he didn’t ask me whether that would happen, because I didn’t know the answer to that myself. But I was amazed at their attitude. It showed the extent of influence Radha exerted on them. The questions they asked had left me bewildered.
When I got up to leave the playground, they all shouted, “Chalo. Perfect.”
I said the same to them. The manager then told me about a new entrant who was orthopaedically handicapped. His walking stick had broken which had made him immobile. He was in his room.
I went to meet him. The boy greeted me without tears in his eyes. I sat on his bed and talked to him about his interests and what he had wanted to be. He told me that he wanted to become a college lecturer. I congratulated him and told him the things we had discussed in his absence at the playground. I promised to get him a new walking stick as soon as possible so that he wouldn’t miss out on the action at the playground again. I then took my leave.
I had fixed up an appointment to meet Capt. Shahnawaz the next day at Kollam.
***
“Anna, don’t worry. I haven’t told anybody about Biwi.” she said.
I was horrified. Biwi? How did she know that?
“Padma!” I called out her name before suddenly realizing that my parents were asleep.
“Relax Anna. Where’s your notepad?”
Notepad? My notepad had gone missing. Maybe I had left it at ‘Vishnu Nivas’. And that very notepad could be resting in her hands as she spoke. Oh no! What had I written about Radha in that? I couldn’t remember.
“So you’ve read my notepad,” I concluded.
“No,” Padma replied. “I’m not that kind of a person.”
“Oh! Really?” I asked in contempt.
“Relax…relax,” she continued to play on my nerves. “I was just testing you, Anna. All that’s written in your notepad about Radha is this ‘Biwi = Radha Jayadevan’. And nothing else.”
“You’re lying,” I argued. “How did you know that Radha was at Bangalore?”
“I…okay, you’re going to yell at me…I cracked the password of your mail id.”
“You did what?!”
“I read your mail and also her reply to it.”
There was a prolonged silence.
“Tell me Anna, is that your girlfriend? If you don’t tell me the truth, then I’ll have to tell your parents.” She began to black-mail me over an e-mail.
“What are you going to tell them?” I asked her trying to hide my frustration. I didn’t want to play into her hands. “That I had sent an e-mail to her? That I had written her name in my notepad? Go on. Do what you want. Don’t call me at this time of the night again. Go to sleep.”
Padma was too mischievous. I was fed up with her. Now I couldn’t even keep a personal mail-id.
***
The following morning, I decided to concentrate on the project. I resolved not to take up assignments from new clients.
I began to evaluate the product concept of pineapple jam. It wasn’t a breakthrough concept—just a tried and tested one. But its objective was different—to reduce the rural-urban divide.
I believed that consumers all over India preferred pineapple jam to other fruit jams. I had to conduct a marketing research to confirm this belief. But I was still sure that pineapple jam tasted better than other jams on any given day. So no matter how much pineapple jam was produced, I was confident that there would definitely be a market for it. Besides, focusing on pineapple jams alone would enable us to produce them at lower costs.
Achan encouraged me to go forward with the idea as long as I was confident about it. Amma was positive that I would do well. She would be happy as long as her only child didn’t migrate to another state, and stay away from her.
At night, I was working on the details I needed from the marketing research, when I was distracted by the ring of my cell phone.
It was Radha.
“What a surprise!” I said.
“Surprise?” said Radha. “Definitely smaller than the one you gave me. I decided to compensate for not being able to talk to you yesterday,” she said.
“No problem.” I said. “How’s your job going? Engineering Process Outsourcing, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Actually, it’s another branch of BPO.”
“Must definitely be a challenging experience,” I said.
“The work is challenging,” she said. “But that goes without saying. In fact, there’s another challenge for everybody working in a BPO.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“There’s a general impression that people working in this field are spendthrifts,” she elucidated. “They indulge in too much of wasteful expenditure. They are often criticized for not caring for their family back home.
“My challenge is to make sure that I’m not placed in that category. I’ve had to make up my mind about the classification of expenses into two categories: necessary expenses and those we can do without. And right now my parents are employed. At the moment they don’t feel the need to be taken care of. But I am still looking after them in my own way. I constantly remind them to check their blood pressure levels regularly, ask them their readings, remind them about their diets…I hope I’m doing reasonably well in both these departments.”
On listening to this, I felt like pinching her hand, mischievously like a child. Forgetting myself, I visualized it in my mind and imagined her reaction for a moment. It made me laugh.
“What happened?”
I paused for a moment thinking what I should tell her in response.
“I just thought of something weird,” I finally said.
There was a long pause.
“You really are weird,” she said, breaking the silence.
I smiled sheepishly realizing that I got what I deserved from her.
“What about your parents’ search for a suitable boy?”
“Well they found out one guy from the US. I spoke to him on the phone. He’s a rich guy who is running a business quite successfully over there. He said he wanted to marry me. And I asked him why. He said that I was so beautiful.”
“So he’s the sort of guy who appreciates beauty…especially your beauty, isn’t it?”
“Abhinav, how does he know that I’m beautiful? He knows nothing about my character. On talking to him further, I got to know the fellow’s attitude. You know what? Shashi Tharoor, in a work of his, says that for some NRIs, the acronym could stand for ‘Not Really Indian’. And I think this suitor belongs to the same category. He seems to be suffering from the ‘India-hating NRI Syndrome’. I think he looks down on poor people in India. He never wants to come here except for our marriage and said many similar things. On hearing this, I knew that we were not compatible for each other. And that was it.”
“Then, what sort of a person would you be looking for?” I asked her.
“Well, I really don’t know. But I wouldn’t want a guy who’s not patriotic. That’s for sure. My love for my country is a central part of my character. And a guy who’s unpatriotic can never understand me, nor can I ever understand him. I’m not saying that he should be flag-waving though. Abhinav, do you understand what I mean?”
Before I could reply, a bolt of lightning struck outside my house. A roaring thunder followed. We had to hastily hang up the phone. I couldn’t get further details of what sort of a guy she would like to marry. But things like that didn’t matter. I recalled a few classmates who ended up marrying people who possessed exactly the same qualities they had hated. Perhaps God was teaching them a lesson to be happy with what they get.
***
I reached ‘Vishnu Nivas’, which had been my abode for sometime, on Thursday morning. There were a few aspects I wanted to cover during my stay here.
After downing a cup of tea prepared by Nandi aunty, I promised her that we would be back for her special lunch. Padma was at Thiruvananthapuram. Lok uncle and I headed for Lakshmi Industries.
At Lakshmi I was quite surprised myself by the way things had changed. There was a lot more professionalism in the way things were being conducted. I felt more relieved than pleased. Anto and Srinivas updated me with the way things were being handled. The suppliers were working closely with Srinivas and Lok uncle, so that storage costs were always kept to the minimum. Anto had succeeded to a certain extent in creating one-to-one relationships with the team members. But he was not too optimistic about making further inroads in this particular aspect. Anto had the drive to create results. He only needed freedom to carry out his work. At times, like in the past, he feared he would be made a scapegoat for any failure. I told him that over a period of time, he would certainly become successful. Everybody had to be patient and the results would come.
By noon, the visitor arrived. Lok uncle and I talked to him at the office.
Right from the outset, the man tried to hardsell himself. He said that he would implement the Six Sigma to achieve consistency in key operations. But I learned that he was an MBA graduate who had specialized in HR and that his basic degree was BA Philosophy. The man was also a fresher.
The Six Sigma was a quality improvement programme which improved efficiency in operations. It was an area which required expert knowledge, and I wasn’t sure whether this guy had that expertise. I knew that this fellow was not the man we were looking for. And that was the end of him. I told uncle to be optimistic. I knew we would find a proper fellow.
While having lunch at his home, uncle told me that the financial troubles were over and that he had repaid those loans. That was really good news. I told him that he could eye the land adjacent to his factory for expansion. I also suggested that he link the wages of the team members to their productivity. Uncle replied that he felt the unions had weakened a bit, but it was too early to comment on that. I then explained the Balanced Scorecard Approach to him which I had promised I would and how it could be used in his business.
***
In the evening, I paid a trip to the orphanage where Radha had taken me. This time I went there alone, in my second hand Tata Indica.
Though I had been sending bank drafts periodically from Cochin, they just carried my signatures, and not my photo. So I wondered whether the manager would recognize me. But he did. He recalled me visiting the place along with Radha and permitted me to meet the children.
On reaching the playground, I found them playing football there. I felt history repeating itself. It reminded me of the last time I had met them. As soon as they saw me, some of them started walking towards me saying, “Abhi Anna?” Then they all ran towards me. I sat on the steps and talked to each one of them.
Just then, the manager came to me, smiling.
“Abhinav, these children are waiting for Radha to come. They want to ask her a few questions, in person.”
He then turned to the youngsters and said, “Radha Chechi may not come soon from her place of work. Why don’t you ask Abhi Anna what you want to know? Radha Chechi had told you that he has a lot of knowledge, no?”
The children responded to the manager’s advice. They began to discuss with each other who should ask the first question. One child, who stood seemingly disinterested, suddenly asked me the first question.
“Abhi Anna, when we go to school, our friends tell us how they watched the whole cricket matches involving India. They tell us how they prayed and cheered for India. But some times India loses and at other times, India wins. My question is: ‘what difference does it make to the eleven players on the ground whether we cheer for them in our homes or not? What benefit does it give to us?’ ”
I was stupefied. I had to think for a while before coming up with an answer. Maybe the boy was also frustrated that he couldn’t watch the matches.
“There’s nothing wrong in cheering for your team, no matter what sport it is,” I explained. “Prayers do help. The benefit we get depends upon what we take. If India wins, it means that the team members carried out their roles perfectly. So we should take inspiration from that victory and carry out our roles well. If India loses, then we should draw the inspiration to do better and play our roles in a better way. Spending too much time watching cricket is also not good. We ought to focus on those things which we can directly change for the better.”
On hearing my reply, one of them said to the other, “See, what did I tell you? I was right.”
“What’s the biggest problem of India’s youth today?” another child asked me.
Again, I had to take my time before answering the question.
“I think the majority of our youth of today have no sense of direction. They don’t know what they want to become. Each person should decide what his ambition is. He should then set out to achieve it.”
“Did you do that?” the child asked me.
This was a perfect inswinging yorker. But I had grown adept to handling yorkers.
“Well I had an ambition. And I set out to achieve that. But midway, I realized that I was meant to be something else. So I’ve changed my ambition and now, I’m moving towards that. What I mean to say is that nothing is possible without effort. In order to be inspired to put in effort, you must have a goal to start with. It doesn’t matter if it changes halfway.”
And then it was time for the final question from the youngest of the lot.
“Anna, Radha Chechi told us that you are going to remove poverty from the rural areas. Do you think you can do it? Do you think India will become developed before the year 2020?”
My heart melted on hearing the little boy’s question. Radha had told them about my dream. I was left speechless.
“Radha writes letters individually to each one of them,” the manager explained.
“My friend ,” I called out to the youngest child, “it’s not a question of whether one man can do it. We all have a role to play in this. When all of us play our parts to perfection, the Indian flag will flutter sky-high. Then my ambition will come true. Then India will become developed.”
I was lucky he didn’t ask me whether that would happen, because I didn’t know the answer to that myself. But I was amazed at their attitude. It showed the extent of influence Radha exerted on them. The questions they asked had left me bewildered.
When I got up to leave the playground, they all shouted, “Chalo. Perfect.”
I said the same to them. The manager then told me about a new entrant who was orthopaedically handicapped. His walking stick had broken which had made him immobile. He was in his room.
I went to meet him. The boy greeted me without tears in his eyes. I sat on his bed and talked to him about his interests and what he had wanted to be. He told me that he wanted to become a college lecturer. I congratulated him and told him the things we had discussed in his absence at the playground. I promised to get him a new walking stick as soon as possible so that he wouldn’t miss out on the action at the playground again. I then took my leave.
I had fixed up an appointment to meet Capt. Shahnawaz the next day at Kollam.
***
Saturday, February 13, 2010
PART 3: REACHING OUT -----> Chapter 1
PART 3: REACHING OUT
September 2006
I was back at my home with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Lok uncle had sent me a cheque, but I refused to cash it. I returned it to him. I had realized what my heart’s calling was at Lakshmi. That itself was more than enough for me.
I decided that my future course of action would be entrepreneurship. I had learnt many lessons on marketing and operations during my stints with the biscuit company and Lakshmi, respectively. Becoming an entrepreneur was the best choice. It would enable me to provide employment to many people. Profits from the venture could be used for expansion, and also for charity.
I was particularly inclined to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s idea of reducing the rural-urban divide to a thin line. The great JRD Tata had once remarked, “The strength to defend freedom can only come from widespread industrialization.” But at the same time, agriculture was still the predominant source of livelihood for the majority of the population in India. Mobilization of a large chunk of the masses from agriculture to industry would not be easy.
I explored the possibilities of carrying out both agricultural and industrial production. We could process our agricultural produce in our own industries. This would eliminate the need for middlemen.
I believed that I could inspire the workers to put their country above their personal interests and prevent the occurrence of labor problems. I began to seriously consider this proposition. But I couldn’t do all this by myself. I only had my past savings to count on. I had the option of approaching a venture capitalist. But then again, I decided against it as I wanted to raise the funds myself.
For the time being, I decided to set up a management consultancy. It would enable me to build up acquaintances and probably even raise finance for my project. Also, if I would work for a single firm, I could provide services to that firm only. But as a consultant, I would be able to provide services to several firms. In this way I could spread my ideas to many firms and inspire them to realize the dream of a developed India.
***
I began to visit several firms and communicated my ideas of active patriotism and spiritual development there to the managers. I was pleasantly surprised at finding that many of them actually agreed to my way of thinking. They all seemed to be interested in finding a breakthrough which would create a paradigm shift in the way things were being done in Kerala.
I also began to actively participate in seminars organized by the media, B-Schools, and commerce associations. Whenever I found the context appropriate, I would share my ideas with the other attendants present at the events. This brought me into contact with many like-minded individuals who appreciated my thoughts. They gave their insights on entrepreneurship and what it would take for us to develop India.
***
I befriended two businessmen at a seminar organized by the Kerala Young Entrepreneurs Association at Cochin. We had also met at another seminar held a week before.
Raju was the more optimistic of the two. He had made a fortune from the booming stock market. He invested a part of the money in a furniture business. He didn’t want to put all his eggs in one basket. So, he was on the look out to invest the remaining part of the money in another business.
Stephen had been employed in a Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company. But he later became an entrepreneur. “Business,” he said to me, “was the best excuse to stay away from one’s wife at home.” He was engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling ayurvedic products. His occupation enabled him to work long hours away from home. “Sometimes, I go to the office in the morning, spend the night there and return home the following night. My wife, of course, demands an explanation for my apparent misconduct. But I always say that I am putting in the effort for her sake. And no further questions would be asked.”
Stephen’s unmatched focus on his business enabled him to reap a good harvest. He too was looking to start an undertaking in a different field.
Holding a BlackBerry business phone, Stephen said to Raju and me, “They say that behind the success of every man, there’s a woman. That’s true in my case. It was because of my loving wife, that I started this business. She inspired, or rather forced me, to stay away from home and focus on my venture. It has paid rich dividends.”
“Well, I haven’t worked as hard as you have,” Raju replied, putting his iPod into his pocket, “but I’m still pretty much satisfied with my effort. I had worked long hours analyzing the trends in the stocks and carefully made my forecasts. Luckily, they turned out to be accurate. I wasn’t greedy. So I could sell the right stocks at the right times. Hard work, perseverance and a lot of luck, surely, are the keys to victory.”
“Looking at things from another perspective,” Stephen said to Raju and me, “I think it was my passion which helped me to become successful. I had dreamed to help the common man by giving him maximum value at minimum cost. I concentrated our efforts on producing the most effective medicines and selling them at competitive prices.”
“Abhinav, tell us what’s the secret of your success,” Raju said to me.
I was confused. Had I been successful? What had I achieved so far? “Well, they say that ‘hard work pays’. But I don’t believe in ‘hard work’,” I said.
“You don’t believe in ‘hard work’?” Stephen asked me. “Oh! Okay, so you believe in what they call ‘smart work’.”
I paused to think and then answered, “Actually, I don’t even believe in ‘work’. ‘Work’ sounds like something we’re being compelled to do. To me, sweating it out in business isn’t ‘work’. It’s an activity which I love to do. So I never get tired. I guess I believe more in the saying ‘Do what you love and love what you do’. By the way, I really haven’t achieved much.”
I told them about my stint with the biscuit manufacturing company and Lakshmi Industries and what I had just managed to do at these places. “So I’m really looking for a breakthrough in my career. I’ve got a few ideas about solving some problems in our country. I’m looking for some takers of my ideas,” I told them.
I told them my ideas about reducing the rural-urban divide and about my values which I believed would create a revolutionary change in the way business would be conducted in India. They listened attentively and responded positively. We exchanged contact numbers and they promised to give a reply soon.
***
One day I received a phone call from Bangalore. It was Radha.
“Radha! What news? How are you doing?” I asked her.
“Doing great, Abhinav! I’ve decided to join a foreign MNC. It’s got a captive centre here. It’s in the Engineering Process Outsourcing field, which is a relatively new field.”
“That’s great!” I responded.
She then gave me her phone number.
“What are you onto?” she asked me.
“I’ve been thinking of entrepreneurship,” I answered.
“That’s excellent. I think you have it in you to do that. Go ahead…you’ll do extremely well,” she encouraged me.
“Radha, are you boosting my confidence again?”
She pretended not to hear my question. One could always blame it on the network. Then again maybe she didn’t hear it.
After asking to convey greetings to each others’ parents we ended our conversation.
***
I continued to consolidate my knowledge about the way business was carried out in Kerala. I sought the opinions of successful businesspersons, regarding various factors influencing business. A seminar on the topic ‘Reaching out to the world’ was particularly significant from this viewpoint. At this meeting, many entrepreneurs were of the opinion that the entry of foreign MNC products into our consumer market helped to remove the complacent attitude of domestic industries. They said that such industries were being pushed to either become globally competitive or otherwise perish. This had led to the improvement in the quality standards of desi products.
They also accepted the argument that we should face the competition from foreign products head on. Depending on the government for subsidies and for creating barriers to entry would only be an acceptance of the strength of foreign MNCs. The idea of ‘Be Swadeshi, Buy Swadeshi’ would also have the same effect.
Many foresaw the day when Indian-made products would become indispensable for use by other countries. Our products would be of higher quality and would come at cheaper prices, as compared to that of competitors. ‘The entire world should benefit from India’s development’ was the idea everybody shared unanimously. Such a level of thinking actually epitomized Indian culture. ‘Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu’ was the constant prayer of every Indian.
Regarding the issue of community development, most entrepreneurs were convinced with the effectiveness of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which were free from the clutches of bureaucratic procedures. The role of NGOs proved to be so significant in the rehabilitation efforts that took place in the wake of the Tsunami that had struck in 2004. So they believed that the best idea was to sponsor NGOs and help them to carry out their objectives.
***
A couple of weeks ago I had come across an ad in a prominent business magazine about a three-day seminar to be held on an approach called ‘Balanced Scorecard’ and its application in different industries. It was an approach which was increasingly being adopted by managers the world over. A prominent management guru was to be the chief speaker at the event. I thought it was a great opportunity and decided to grab it with both hands. I got myself registered for the lecture. But there was one thing I hadn’t noticed at the time of registration—the venue was Bangalore.
Radha was out of my radar. I didn’t want to meet her again. It was true that she was the one who taught me to believe in myself. Her influence on me was priceless. But maintaining contact with her would only make me feel miserable. Then again, I wondered how I could use the Rule of Reversal on her. Should I find out the negatives in the girl who had helped me rediscover myself? However, I knew one thing: I just had to stay away from her. I made up my mind to bypass things like etiquette and courtesy and not contact her when I would go to Bangalore.
I planned to go on a five-day trip, and devote the fifth day to close a bank account I had there, lest the branch would declare it ‘dormant’ and start charging me for it. I had just begun to pack my carry-on for the trip when my cell phone rang. It was Raju. I answered the call.
“Abhinav, Captain Ironman Shahnawaz is a personal acquaintance of mine. In fact, I’ve known Ikka for a long time. He spoke to me about you. He said that he had been quite impressed by your honesty. So you were instrumental in turning around your uncle’s business, eh?”
“Well, I didn’t do anything by myself,” I clarified so that he wouldn’t overestimate my abilities.
“You had brought in some new ideas into Lakshmi Industries,” Raju said, not letting me get away with it. “Ikka told me that it’s been doing wonders to that business. You really are entrepreneur material. About that proposition you told me and Stephen the other day…why don’t you work out the details? I’m interested as long as it’s viable. Stephen will also be ready if it keeps him away from his wife.”
This was a big breakthrough for me. I almost got two people to provide the financial resources—two people to join me in my business endeavor.
“As soon as we make sure it’s viable,” continued Raju, “which I think it will be, the next step will be to approach a tax consultant to decide how the firm should be registered.”
I was way too excited. I began to think about a sound business proposition.
Over the years, I was pained by the declining level of agricultural activity in my state. I had an idea of acquiring land at Kottayam for growing pineapples. The fruit could be used for making jam. I believed I could pull it off because I had an ability many others did not—I could create team members out of workers and inspire them to become more productive.
***
On reaching Bangalore I felt a certain void in my heart. I chose to ignore it.
The speaker spoke about the different perspectives in the Balanced Scorecard Approach. He talked about the financial, customer, internal business and the innovation and learning perspectives. These perspectives were constituents of the approach. But even as other participants listened as if they were depending on this lecture for survival, my mind seemed preoccupied with something else. There was another perspective which was distracting me—the ‘Radha perspective’. One part of my mind was telling me to atleast inform Radha about my presence here at Bangalore. But the other part of my mind didn’t budge.
On the third night of my stay, I decided that enough was enough. I sent an e-mail to Radha saying that I had arrived at Bangalore. I also conveyed my desire to meet her. I knew what working in the field of BPO was all about. It was essentially 24x7. She would never have the time to meet me. There was also the possibility that she might not check her mail the next day.
But I was wrong.
The next night, I found her mail in my inbox. She expressed her pleasant surprise on knowing I’m at Bangalore. She also gave details of her location with such precision that I would not be able to give her any excuse for not finding out the place. She even indicated the probable time she might be able to meet me. It seemed as if she had been looking forward to meeting me. I couldn’t find any lame excuse and I planned to meet her the next day.
***
On the morning of the fifth day of my stay at Bangalore, I found myself waiting at her office. She arrived and stood in front of me, smiling.
Seeing her, I felt glad. But I also felt a strange sensation. It was as if my face muscles were expanding and contracting repeatedly in succession.
I looked at her forehead. My eyes found beads of sweat on it, staring at me. They began to shine from the tube-light nearby. Radha realized that I had noticed it and wiped off the sweat with her handkerchief. Had she been wearing a bright red bindi, the color would have spread all over her forehead.
“Hey!” she said, knocking me back to my senses.
“How are you doing?” I asked with a grin.
“Fine, Abhinav. It was just by chance that I am here today. On most of the days, I have to be at the plant. And the entry is restricted there.”
“Just my luck,” I replied.
At that moment my cell phone rang. After excusing myself for a moment, I answered it to find one of my clients, at the other end. I responded to his queries.
After hanging up I told Radha, “The customer is the king.”
“The customer is God,” she corrected me.
“Yes. Monarchy is quite unpopular these days,” I said, trying to crack a joke which I knew was a terrible one.
She gave me an odd look.
“Abhinav, you had told me that you were planning to become an entrepreneur?”
“Actually, I am what they call a ‘management consultant’ now. I may soon become an entrepreneur. I’ve been approached by a guy who says that I’m capable of it. He has invited me to make a solid business proposition.”
“Wow! That’s fabulous. Congrats!”
I told her about how I wanted to combine both agricultural and industrial operations in a single business venture and that I ultimately wanted to help to reduce the rural-urban divide to a very thin line.
She just listened to me without making any comment on my ambition.
As we were talking, a lady came and instructed her to reach the plant as soon as possible and get some task done urgently. It looked like she would be busy for the rest of the day. The lady then went away.
Radha looked at me and smiled. It was not an apologetic smile. From that smile, I could feel that she was trying hard to balance her roles of a friend and an employee at the same time.
I knew that it was time to take my leave.
“Chalo. Perfect,” I said.
She was startled. Her smile vanished and her mood suddenly turned melancholy. But in a few moments, she once again turned up the corners of her mouth to indicate her pleasance.
“I’ll call you,” I said to her.
She said nothing. I left the place without turning to look back at her.
***
I still had enough time to catch my flight back home the same day. I decided to go to the branch of the public sector bank to close my SB account.
There, I was surprised to notice the politeness of the Bank Manager. Maybe he had just come back after attending a training programme.
Waiting for the formalities to be completed, I thought why Radha had responded in an awkward manner. I suddenly realized that there had been a pun on that dialogue: “Chalo. Perfect.” It was unintentional.
On completing the formalities, I went back to my hotel room to pack up to leave for the airport.
***
I reached our home at Cochin that night itself. I found Lok uncle’s Zen parked outside our house. I walked into the living room to find Lok uncle, Nandi aunty and Padma seated on the sofa.
“How was the seminar, Abhi?” Lok uncle asked.
“Er…wonderful, uncle” I answered.
“Could you teach me that approach?” Lok uncle asked
“Definitely,” I replied. “It is actually an approach adopted by the management to implement its strategy by transforming it into a set of performance measures. It allows managers to look at the business from four perspectives.”
“Hello sir,” said Padma, interrupting me. “Let your management jargon take a back seat. First go and have a bath. You smell awful.”
Everybody laughed.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, transporting my carry-on upstairs to my room.
Padma had come back from Chennai. She was now working at Thiruvananthapuram. She even had the luxury of two days off per week at her new place of work. She could now come home every weekend.
Almost immediately after I placed my carry-on on the table, Padma came and stood outside the room.
“Ahem! Ahem!” she said trying to attract my attention.
I looked at her as she walked into the room.
“Why did you go to Bangalore?” she questioned. “To attend a seminar. Eh?”
I remained silent. I wondered what she was up to, this time.
“No. You went to Bangalore to meet Radha Jayadevan. Isn’t it?” she cross-questioned.
I was startled.
“Raja Dayadevan?” I asked, with a slip of the tongue.
“No, sir. Not Raja. I said Radha Jayadevan,” she replied. “You know Anna, that Rule of Reversal of yours is a good idea. But mere knowledge of that so-called Rule is not enough. You should know how to apply it.”
I didn’t see it coming.
“For applying this Rule,” she continued, “you must know the meaning of one word called ‘commitment’. You should be committed to that Rule.”
All the blood in my body rushed towards my face. I folded my hands behind my back and started tapping my fingers on the elbows.
“Do you know what commitment means?” she continued to taunt me.
I knew I had to recover before any further damage could be done.
“Of course,” I replied. “In fact, it was only the third word I had learned at school.”
“The third word…at school…would you please excuse me?” she reacted.
“Yes. That’s right. The first three letters we had learned were A, B and C. So the first three words we had learned were ‘apple’, ‘ball’ and ‘commitment’. I am committed to my Rule, okay?” I asserted.
“Oh! Really?” came the reaction. “The third word we had learned at school was ‘cat’. But I’ll tell what you are going to learn when you come downstairs. You’ll learn that C is also for ‘cat-astrophe’.”
I became slightly concerned. It was as if I was entangled in an imbroglio. This was not fair. If the seminar had not been conducted at Bangalore, then I wouldn’t have gone there. And I didn’t have the faintest clue about what was going on here.
“You think you are a bada VIP, but now you will RIP,’ Padma added insult to injury. “Have a bath quickly and come downstairs.”
She then left the room.
I took a quick shower, dressed up and went downstairs to find out what was going on.
Standing in front of my elders and not to mention that pest Padma, my face wore a confused look.
“Da, why don’t you go over to Lakshmi and see how things are going on there?” Amma told me. “Lokankunju has something to say about that.”
I looked at Padma for a split-second. She avoided eye-contact and looked elsewhere.
“Tell me uncle,” I said. “How is the new management consultant doing?”
“He only stayed for a month. He was always unavailable. Whenever I tried to contact him, his phone was always switched off. We had to bid good-bye to him.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked. “Whenever I asked you how things were going, you said everything was okay.”
“The Spiritual Development Programme has become a success. The organization culture is changing. I can feel it. There seems to be a renewed vigour in their activities. We’ve been able to achieve time bound targets. Last month, a client requested us to supply a batch of goods as per a revised schedule, saying that he needed the goods urgently. I thought it was an opportunity for me to test the effectiveness of the programmes. I agreed to it and we managed to deliver it on time. We received a letter of appreciation from him. The only thing is that I can’t convince the team members to extend their working time to make up for the lost time.
“Shahnawaz is now one of our major clients. He always enquires how you are doing. I had given him your mobile number. You can expect a call from him soon.
“These are the things that are okay. The problem is that we don’t have a suitable management consultant who is committed to his work. I knew that you would be preoccupied with your own work. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“Uncle, right now I am working as a management consultant,” I explained. “That is whom you need. But I don’t know much about the production side. That’s why I had told you to hire an expert.”
“Another fellow will be coming to Lakshmi this Thursday,” Lok uncle informed. “Let’s see whether he’ll be okay. If that doesn’t work out, then I’ll manage without any help from such guys.”
“Uncle, don’t get disappointed. I’ll come down to Lakshmi on Thursday. I’ll stay there for a couple of days. I’ll speak to that visitor and I’ll see whether things will work out.”
Half an hour later they left for Alappuzha. Padma had not disclosed anything.
***
September 2006
I was back at my home with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Lok uncle had sent me a cheque, but I refused to cash it. I returned it to him. I had realized what my heart’s calling was at Lakshmi. That itself was more than enough for me.
I decided that my future course of action would be entrepreneurship. I had learnt many lessons on marketing and operations during my stints with the biscuit company and Lakshmi, respectively. Becoming an entrepreneur was the best choice. It would enable me to provide employment to many people. Profits from the venture could be used for expansion, and also for charity.
I was particularly inclined to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s idea of reducing the rural-urban divide to a thin line. The great JRD Tata had once remarked, “The strength to defend freedom can only come from widespread industrialization.” But at the same time, agriculture was still the predominant source of livelihood for the majority of the population in India. Mobilization of a large chunk of the masses from agriculture to industry would not be easy.
I explored the possibilities of carrying out both agricultural and industrial production. We could process our agricultural produce in our own industries. This would eliminate the need for middlemen.
I believed that I could inspire the workers to put their country above their personal interests and prevent the occurrence of labor problems. I began to seriously consider this proposition. But I couldn’t do all this by myself. I only had my past savings to count on. I had the option of approaching a venture capitalist. But then again, I decided against it as I wanted to raise the funds myself.
For the time being, I decided to set up a management consultancy. It would enable me to build up acquaintances and probably even raise finance for my project. Also, if I would work for a single firm, I could provide services to that firm only. But as a consultant, I would be able to provide services to several firms. In this way I could spread my ideas to many firms and inspire them to realize the dream of a developed India.
***
I began to visit several firms and communicated my ideas of active patriotism and spiritual development there to the managers. I was pleasantly surprised at finding that many of them actually agreed to my way of thinking. They all seemed to be interested in finding a breakthrough which would create a paradigm shift in the way things were being done in Kerala.
I also began to actively participate in seminars organized by the media, B-Schools, and commerce associations. Whenever I found the context appropriate, I would share my ideas with the other attendants present at the events. This brought me into contact with many like-minded individuals who appreciated my thoughts. They gave their insights on entrepreneurship and what it would take for us to develop India.
***
I befriended two businessmen at a seminar organized by the Kerala Young Entrepreneurs Association at Cochin. We had also met at another seminar held a week before.
Raju was the more optimistic of the two. He had made a fortune from the booming stock market. He invested a part of the money in a furniture business. He didn’t want to put all his eggs in one basket. So, he was on the look out to invest the remaining part of the money in another business.
Stephen had been employed in a Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company. But he later became an entrepreneur. “Business,” he said to me, “was the best excuse to stay away from one’s wife at home.” He was engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling ayurvedic products. His occupation enabled him to work long hours away from home. “Sometimes, I go to the office in the morning, spend the night there and return home the following night. My wife, of course, demands an explanation for my apparent misconduct. But I always say that I am putting in the effort for her sake. And no further questions would be asked.”
Stephen’s unmatched focus on his business enabled him to reap a good harvest. He too was looking to start an undertaking in a different field.
Holding a BlackBerry business phone, Stephen said to Raju and me, “They say that behind the success of every man, there’s a woman. That’s true in my case. It was because of my loving wife, that I started this business. She inspired, or rather forced me, to stay away from home and focus on my venture. It has paid rich dividends.”
“Well, I haven’t worked as hard as you have,” Raju replied, putting his iPod into his pocket, “but I’m still pretty much satisfied with my effort. I had worked long hours analyzing the trends in the stocks and carefully made my forecasts. Luckily, they turned out to be accurate. I wasn’t greedy. So I could sell the right stocks at the right times. Hard work, perseverance and a lot of luck, surely, are the keys to victory.”
“Looking at things from another perspective,” Stephen said to Raju and me, “I think it was my passion which helped me to become successful. I had dreamed to help the common man by giving him maximum value at minimum cost. I concentrated our efforts on producing the most effective medicines and selling them at competitive prices.”
“Abhinav, tell us what’s the secret of your success,” Raju said to me.
I was confused. Had I been successful? What had I achieved so far? “Well, they say that ‘hard work pays’. But I don’t believe in ‘hard work’,” I said.
“You don’t believe in ‘hard work’?” Stephen asked me. “Oh! Okay, so you believe in what they call ‘smart work’.”
I paused to think and then answered, “Actually, I don’t even believe in ‘work’. ‘Work’ sounds like something we’re being compelled to do. To me, sweating it out in business isn’t ‘work’. It’s an activity which I love to do. So I never get tired. I guess I believe more in the saying ‘Do what you love and love what you do’. By the way, I really haven’t achieved much.”
I told them about my stint with the biscuit manufacturing company and Lakshmi Industries and what I had just managed to do at these places. “So I’m really looking for a breakthrough in my career. I’ve got a few ideas about solving some problems in our country. I’m looking for some takers of my ideas,” I told them.
I told them my ideas about reducing the rural-urban divide and about my values which I believed would create a revolutionary change in the way business would be conducted in India. They listened attentively and responded positively. We exchanged contact numbers and they promised to give a reply soon.
***
One day I received a phone call from Bangalore. It was Radha.
“Radha! What news? How are you doing?” I asked her.
“Doing great, Abhinav! I’ve decided to join a foreign MNC. It’s got a captive centre here. It’s in the Engineering Process Outsourcing field, which is a relatively new field.”
“That’s great!” I responded.
She then gave me her phone number.
“What are you onto?” she asked me.
“I’ve been thinking of entrepreneurship,” I answered.
“That’s excellent. I think you have it in you to do that. Go ahead…you’ll do extremely well,” she encouraged me.
“Radha, are you boosting my confidence again?”
She pretended not to hear my question. One could always blame it on the network. Then again maybe she didn’t hear it.
After asking to convey greetings to each others’ parents we ended our conversation.
***
I continued to consolidate my knowledge about the way business was carried out in Kerala. I sought the opinions of successful businesspersons, regarding various factors influencing business. A seminar on the topic ‘Reaching out to the world’ was particularly significant from this viewpoint. At this meeting, many entrepreneurs were of the opinion that the entry of foreign MNC products into our consumer market helped to remove the complacent attitude of domestic industries. They said that such industries were being pushed to either become globally competitive or otherwise perish. This had led to the improvement in the quality standards of desi products.
They also accepted the argument that we should face the competition from foreign products head on. Depending on the government for subsidies and for creating barriers to entry would only be an acceptance of the strength of foreign MNCs. The idea of ‘Be Swadeshi, Buy Swadeshi’ would also have the same effect.
Many foresaw the day when Indian-made products would become indispensable for use by other countries. Our products would be of higher quality and would come at cheaper prices, as compared to that of competitors. ‘The entire world should benefit from India’s development’ was the idea everybody shared unanimously. Such a level of thinking actually epitomized Indian culture. ‘Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu’ was the constant prayer of every Indian.
Regarding the issue of community development, most entrepreneurs were convinced with the effectiveness of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which were free from the clutches of bureaucratic procedures. The role of NGOs proved to be so significant in the rehabilitation efforts that took place in the wake of the Tsunami that had struck in 2004. So they believed that the best idea was to sponsor NGOs and help them to carry out their objectives.
***
A couple of weeks ago I had come across an ad in a prominent business magazine about a three-day seminar to be held on an approach called ‘Balanced Scorecard’ and its application in different industries. It was an approach which was increasingly being adopted by managers the world over. A prominent management guru was to be the chief speaker at the event. I thought it was a great opportunity and decided to grab it with both hands. I got myself registered for the lecture. But there was one thing I hadn’t noticed at the time of registration—the venue was Bangalore.
Radha was out of my radar. I didn’t want to meet her again. It was true that she was the one who taught me to believe in myself. Her influence on me was priceless. But maintaining contact with her would only make me feel miserable. Then again, I wondered how I could use the Rule of Reversal on her. Should I find out the negatives in the girl who had helped me rediscover myself? However, I knew one thing: I just had to stay away from her. I made up my mind to bypass things like etiquette and courtesy and not contact her when I would go to Bangalore.
I planned to go on a five-day trip, and devote the fifth day to close a bank account I had there, lest the branch would declare it ‘dormant’ and start charging me for it. I had just begun to pack my carry-on for the trip when my cell phone rang. It was Raju. I answered the call.
“Abhinav, Captain Ironman Shahnawaz is a personal acquaintance of mine. In fact, I’ve known Ikka for a long time. He spoke to me about you. He said that he had been quite impressed by your honesty. So you were instrumental in turning around your uncle’s business, eh?”
“Well, I didn’t do anything by myself,” I clarified so that he wouldn’t overestimate my abilities.
“You had brought in some new ideas into Lakshmi Industries,” Raju said, not letting me get away with it. “Ikka told me that it’s been doing wonders to that business. You really are entrepreneur material. About that proposition you told me and Stephen the other day…why don’t you work out the details? I’m interested as long as it’s viable. Stephen will also be ready if it keeps him away from his wife.”
This was a big breakthrough for me. I almost got two people to provide the financial resources—two people to join me in my business endeavor.
“As soon as we make sure it’s viable,” continued Raju, “which I think it will be, the next step will be to approach a tax consultant to decide how the firm should be registered.”
I was way too excited. I began to think about a sound business proposition.
Over the years, I was pained by the declining level of agricultural activity in my state. I had an idea of acquiring land at Kottayam for growing pineapples. The fruit could be used for making jam. I believed I could pull it off because I had an ability many others did not—I could create team members out of workers and inspire them to become more productive.
***
On reaching Bangalore I felt a certain void in my heart. I chose to ignore it.
The speaker spoke about the different perspectives in the Balanced Scorecard Approach. He talked about the financial, customer, internal business and the innovation and learning perspectives. These perspectives were constituents of the approach. But even as other participants listened as if they were depending on this lecture for survival, my mind seemed preoccupied with something else. There was another perspective which was distracting me—the ‘Radha perspective’. One part of my mind was telling me to atleast inform Radha about my presence here at Bangalore. But the other part of my mind didn’t budge.
On the third night of my stay, I decided that enough was enough. I sent an e-mail to Radha saying that I had arrived at Bangalore. I also conveyed my desire to meet her. I knew what working in the field of BPO was all about. It was essentially 24x7. She would never have the time to meet me. There was also the possibility that she might not check her mail the next day.
But I was wrong.
The next night, I found her mail in my inbox. She expressed her pleasant surprise on knowing I’m at Bangalore. She also gave details of her location with such precision that I would not be able to give her any excuse for not finding out the place. She even indicated the probable time she might be able to meet me. It seemed as if she had been looking forward to meeting me. I couldn’t find any lame excuse and I planned to meet her the next day.
***
On the morning of the fifth day of my stay at Bangalore, I found myself waiting at her office. She arrived and stood in front of me, smiling.
Seeing her, I felt glad. But I also felt a strange sensation. It was as if my face muscles were expanding and contracting repeatedly in succession.
I looked at her forehead. My eyes found beads of sweat on it, staring at me. They began to shine from the tube-light nearby. Radha realized that I had noticed it and wiped off the sweat with her handkerchief. Had she been wearing a bright red bindi, the color would have spread all over her forehead.
“Hey!” she said, knocking me back to my senses.
“How are you doing?” I asked with a grin.
“Fine, Abhinav. It was just by chance that I am here today. On most of the days, I have to be at the plant. And the entry is restricted there.”
“Just my luck,” I replied.
At that moment my cell phone rang. After excusing myself for a moment, I answered it to find one of my clients, at the other end. I responded to his queries.
After hanging up I told Radha, “The customer is the king.”
“The customer is God,” she corrected me.
“Yes. Monarchy is quite unpopular these days,” I said, trying to crack a joke which I knew was a terrible one.
She gave me an odd look.
“Abhinav, you had told me that you were planning to become an entrepreneur?”
“Actually, I am what they call a ‘management consultant’ now. I may soon become an entrepreneur. I’ve been approached by a guy who says that I’m capable of it. He has invited me to make a solid business proposition.”
“Wow! That’s fabulous. Congrats!”
I told her about how I wanted to combine both agricultural and industrial operations in a single business venture and that I ultimately wanted to help to reduce the rural-urban divide to a very thin line.
She just listened to me without making any comment on my ambition.
As we were talking, a lady came and instructed her to reach the plant as soon as possible and get some task done urgently. It looked like she would be busy for the rest of the day. The lady then went away.
Radha looked at me and smiled. It was not an apologetic smile. From that smile, I could feel that she was trying hard to balance her roles of a friend and an employee at the same time.
I knew that it was time to take my leave.
“Chalo. Perfect,” I said.
She was startled. Her smile vanished and her mood suddenly turned melancholy. But in a few moments, she once again turned up the corners of her mouth to indicate her pleasance.
“I’ll call you,” I said to her.
She said nothing. I left the place without turning to look back at her.
***
I still had enough time to catch my flight back home the same day. I decided to go to the branch of the public sector bank to close my SB account.
There, I was surprised to notice the politeness of the Bank Manager. Maybe he had just come back after attending a training programme.
Waiting for the formalities to be completed, I thought why Radha had responded in an awkward manner. I suddenly realized that there had been a pun on that dialogue: “Chalo. Perfect.” It was unintentional.
On completing the formalities, I went back to my hotel room to pack up to leave for the airport.
***
I reached our home at Cochin that night itself. I found Lok uncle’s Zen parked outside our house. I walked into the living room to find Lok uncle, Nandi aunty and Padma seated on the sofa.
“How was the seminar, Abhi?” Lok uncle asked.
“Er…wonderful, uncle” I answered.
“Could you teach me that approach?” Lok uncle asked
“Definitely,” I replied. “It is actually an approach adopted by the management to implement its strategy by transforming it into a set of performance measures. It allows managers to look at the business from four perspectives.”
“Hello sir,” said Padma, interrupting me. “Let your management jargon take a back seat. First go and have a bath. You smell awful.”
Everybody laughed.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, transporting my carry-on upstairs to my room.
Padma had come back from Chennai. She was now working at Thiruvananthapuram. She even had the luxury of two days off per week at her new place of work. She could now come home every weekend.
Almost immediately after I placed my carry-on on the table, Padma came and stood outside the room.
“Ahem! Ahem!” she said trying to attract my attention.
I looked at her as she walked into the room.
“Why did you go to Bangalore?” she questioned. “To attend a seminar. Eh?”
I remained silent. I wondered what she was up to, this time.
“No. You went to Bangalore to meet Radha Jayadevan. Isn’t it?” she cross-questioned.
I was startled.
“Raja Dayadevan?” I asked, with a slip of the tongue.
“No, sir. Not Raja. I said Radha Jayadevan,” she replied. “You know Anna, that Rule of Reversal of yours is a good idea. But mere knowledge of that so-called Rule is not enough. You should know how to apply it.”
I didn’t see it coming.
“For applying this Rule,” she continued, “you must know the meaning of one word called ‘commitment’. You should be committed to that Rule.”
All the blood in my body rushed towards my face. I folded my hands behind my back and started tapping my fingers on the elbows.
“Do you know what commitment means?” she continued to taunt me.
I knew I had to recover before any further damage could be done.
“Of course,” I replied. “In fact, it was only the third word I had learned at school.”
“The third word…at school…would you please excuse me?” she reacted.
“Yes. That’s right. The first three letters we had learned were A, B and C. So the first three words we had learned were ‘apple’, ‘ball’ and ‘commitment’. I am committed to my Rule, okay?” I asserted.
“Oh! Really?” came the reaction. “The third word we had learned at school was ‘cat’. But I’ll tell what you are going to learn when you come downstairs. You’ll learn that C is also for ‘cat-astrophe’.”
I became slightly concerned. It was as if I was entangled in an imbroglio. This was not fair. If the seminar had not been conducted at Bangalore, then I wouldn’t have gone there. And I didn’t have the faintest clue about what was going on here.
“You think you are a bada VIP, but now you will RIP,’ Padma added insult to injury. “Have a bath quickly and come downstairs.”
She then left the room.
I took a quick shower, dressed up and went downstairs to find out what was going on.
Standing in front of my elders and not to mention that pest Padma, my face wore a confused look.
“Da, why don’t you go over to Lakshmi and see how things are going on there?” Amma told me. “Lokankunju has something to say about that.”
I looked at Padma for a split-second. She avoided eye-contact and looked elsewhere.
“Tell me uncle,” I said. “How is the new management consultant doing?”
“He only stayed for a month. He was always unavailable. Whenever I tried to contact him, his phone was always switched off. We had to bid good-bye to him.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked. “Whenever I asked you how things were going, you said everything was okay.”
“The Spiritual Development Programme has become a success. The organization culture is changing. I can feel it. There seems to be a renewed vigour in their activities. We’ve been able to achieve time bound targets. Last month, a client requested us to supply a batch of goods as per a revised schedule, saying that he needed the goods urgently. I thought it was an opportunity for me to test the effectiveness of the programmes. I agreed to it and we managed to deliver it on time. We received a letter of appreciation from him. The only thing is that I can’t convince the team members to extend their working time to make up for the lost time.
“Shahnawaz is now one of our major clients. He always enquires how you are doing. I had given him your mobile number. You can expect a call from him soon.
“These are the things that are okay. The problem is that we don’t have a suitable management consultant who is committed to his work. I knew that you would be preoccupied with your own work. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
“Uncle, right now I am working as a management consultant,” I explained. “That is whom you need. But I don’t know much about the production side. That’s why I had told you to hire an expert.”
“Another fellow will be coming to Lakshmi this Thursday,” Lok uncle informed. “Let’s see whether he’ll be okay. If that doesn’t work out, then I’ll manage without any help from such guys.”
“Uncle, don’t get disappointed. I’ll come down to Lakshmi on Thursday. I’ll stay there for a couple of days. I’ll speak to that visitor and I’ll see whether things will work out.”
Half an hour later they left for Alappuzha. Padma had not disclosed anything.
***
Monday, February 8, 2010
PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 9
The next morning, Anto made the formal announcement of the Training and Development Programme and gave its details. Lok uncle announced the commencement of the Spiritual Development Programme. The workers seemed to be pleasantly surprised when they were informed of an extra forty-minute break. The canteen would also function in the mornings for providing them breakfast after their meditation. Both programmes were slated to commence the following day.
Suddenly, I realized it was my turn to address them. I had butterflies in my stomach when I started to walk to the spot from where I had to speak. But by the time I reached there, my nervousness had vanished.
I began: “My dear friends, ours is a land where unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and other problems thrive. In spite of having nearly 60 years to solve these problems, our leaders have been unable to eradicate them. Our people come from diverse cultures, but we all face the same problems.
“More than 60 years ago, Indians had faced a common problem: the lack of freedom from British rule. Back then, our great leaders and freedom fighters had united all Indians in the great freedom struggle. It ultimately led to the achievement of freedom for us.
“Now, more than 60 years later, we find ourselves living on the products of foreign multinational corporations. We have become dependent on these foreign goods. Some people say: ‘Be Swadeshi, buy Swadeshi’. But I don’t agree with this idea. If foreign goods are of higher quality why should we boycott them? After all, we all work towards a higher standard of living.
“Friends, the solution to this problem is this: we Indians must improve the quality of our products. Then it will make sense to use desi products. We will also be able to achieve a higher standard of living for ourselves and our children. We need to work harder. That’s because our products have to become more competitive price-wise and quality-wise, in the international market.
“Indeed the time has come to have a movement similar to the freedom movement—a movement which will result in the creation of a developed India. I call upon each and every one of you to initiate a revolution—an Indian revolution which will take place in the minds of the masses. We must inspire people all over India to work towards the creation of a new India: an India which is a superpower in the world.
“This is a possible task. On our part, as employees of Lakshmi, each one of us must continuously strive to create better products for our people at a lower cost. Today, at this very moment, we must set a higher goal to achieve—to make our contribution to the best of our ability towards a developed India. Setting such a high goal will make all personal problems seem miniscule.
“God will always help us when we strive to achieve higher goals. We must also take active part in community development. It is our duty to give back to the society what we have taken from it.
“Our freedom fighters’ goal of self-realization was achieved on the day India became independent. We must achieve our goal of self-realization—to make India a developed country.
“To work towards this end, ours must become a prosperous organization consisting of prosperous people. The twin programmes of Training and Spiritual Development have been created to improve our lives, and create prosperity for the whole organization. Over the past few weeks, our production efficiencies have improved by leaps and bounds. We are quite confident of improving further. We have received a basket of orders and ultimately we will all benefit from this. All of us will grow together.
“We must also spread our sunshine to other parts of the country. We ought to exercise our rights, but more importantly, we have to make sure that we carry out our duties towards our country. Every minute, even in a state of unconsciousness, our souls must be aware of our highest goal.
“I remind you once again of the contribution you must make towards a developed India: sweat it out, and always keep in mind that you are working for India and ultimately for the good of mankind. Jai Hind!”
The words had come straight from my soul. During the speech, I had concentrated on my gestures, body language and voice modulation. The result was the varying emotions I saw in the eyes of the audience. It seemed very auspicious to me. Maybe my words did create an impact.
I thought I succeeded in creating the spark to ignite the fire. But the fire should never be put out. So, the real challenge was to sustain this inspiration amongst the workers. Towards this end, the value of active patriotism would have to be articulated everyday by the management. The most powerful of emotions had to continue to live in the hearts of the workers, every moment.
Thus, I began to use a new concept—a concept never tried before on a mass scale in our nation—utilizing the emotion of ‘active patriotism’ as an engine of limitless development of our nation. I realized what my goal was: to spread this emotion and inspire the masses to work towards the common goal of a developed India.
***
Lok uncle had been quite impressed with my speech on active patriotism. He gave me full support to implement my ideas on creating a suitable organization culture. We hanged boards in the tri-color in places visible to workers, employees and others who visited our organization. The boards had several messages inscribed on them. Some of the messages were: ‘I PUT MY COUNTRY ABOVE MYSELF’; ‘MY GOAL IS TO PRODUCE GOODS OF THE BEST QUALITY FOR OUR PEOPLE’; ‘I AM SHAPING A DEVELOPED INDIA’; and ‘I NEVER GIVE UP’.
During the Training and Development Programme, each worker came to understand the importance of his role in the organization and also the role of others. They were taught the importance of team spirit, empathy and communication. We decided to do away with the terms ‘workers’ and ‘employees’. These people would, henceforth, be known as ‘team members’.
On the finance front, we planned to introduce a more efficient internal audit system to evaluate and keep track of efficiencies in operations. But I also believed that the feeling of patriotic fervor would limit the fraudulent tendencies of team members.
We contrived to make regular contributions to the orphanage where Radha had taken me. We planned to attach more importance to corporate social responsibility. The public would trust only a firm which was ever conscious of its contribution to the society. Our community development initiatives would also enhance the image of the firm. We could organize drives to spread awareness about health and safety by tying up with educational institutions. Such campaigns would provide so many benefits to the society without having to spend much.
I had also learnt an important lesson on humility from Lok uncle. Lok uncle was not a showy person. He was always modest and humble. This was very important from the perspective of leadership. Actually, leadership was all about influencing people in a positive manner. I had read about a businessman who had several fancy cars and drove each of them to work, for all his employees to see. A showy and arrogant entrepreneur would only breed envy amongst team members and reduce their enthusiasm in work. It would create a divide between the entrepreneur and team members and interfere in the development of team spirit in an organization. Our present leaders in the field of business, like Ratan Tata and Azim Premji, are role models for entrepreneurs in this aspect.
Collective bargaining always used to create a lot of friction between the management and the labor force. Most of this friction was actually unnecessary. With the implementation of our plans, the need for collective bargaining would be reduced.
However, we had to encounter some problems from the Union Leaders for going ahead with our programmes without taking them into confidence. But once they saw that workers’ wages and benefits would not be adversely affected as a result of these programmes, the problems were solved.
I advised Lok uncle to hire the services of a Management Consultant well versed in the techniques of modern management to assist him. The services of such a person were quite indispensable in the present dynamic environment. He would be able to guide us in the implementation of our proposals. He would also have expert knowledge regarding operations and cost reduction techniques like quality control and contribution analysis, amongst others.
Thus, I came to the end of my mission at Lakshmi. The guest at ‘Vishnu Nivas’ would no longer reside there. It was time for me to move on. My engagement with ‘Lakshmi Industries’ provided a glimpse of the future that lay ahead. The plans were vague, but now I had a sense of direction.
I still had one person to meet before I headed back home: Radha. What should I do for her? Everything that had happened to me was indeed, a series of coincidences. Our visit to the orphanage transformed my way of thinking. I realized that the responsibilities I had towards my country were heavier than I had ever imagined.
I had to buy her something. On such occasions, I was the last innovative thinker on the planet. All that I could ever think of was a gold coin. This was the ‘safest’, yet the most meaningful gift, I could give her. I decided to stick to this idea. Besides, I could buy her anything else in future if I had wanted to. Or could I?
***
“Our family astrologer says that I might have to wait for a couple of years more, before I find a suitable bridegroom,” Radha said to me, as we met once again at my favourite place, along the banks of a canal. She was moody this time. “My parents are a bit upset. But they’ll eventually be happy if they get a suitable son-in-law, even if we have to wait for a while.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll surely get a good suitor,” I said. She smiled. “And Radha, here’s something I got for you,” I said, taking out a small gift-wrapped box out of my pocket. I gave it to her and said, “Open it when you get home.”
She smiled while receiving it. She then gave me a suspicious look, before putting the box in her purse. Maybe she was trying to guess what was in the box. “Thank you,” she said. Then, her mood suddenly changed. She looked glum. “Abhinav, I’m off to Bangalore in a couple of days’ time. I’ve…started sending resumes for my next job. I’ll update you with my new phone number, as soon as I get there.”
I had to leave Alappuzha, anyway. It would make no real difference to me if she was at Bangalore or here. Either case, she would be away from me.
“This time, we’ll keep in touch. Okay?” I joked.
Radha’s face showed no emotion now. She just gave a blank stare. “Okay. So shall I leave?” she asked me.
I was a bit taken aback at her response. But there really was nothing else to say. “Fine. See you,” I said.
She then turned around and started to quickly walk towards her scooter, taking long strides. She didn’t even look back. On reaching her scooter, she removed the side stand, sat on the scooter, started it and rode off. To me, that seemed to be an odd way to sign off. While ending the conversation, she hadn’t even delivered her trademark dialogue: “Chalo. Perfect.”
In any case, the Rule of Reversal which I had taught Padma, was applicable to me too. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Radha. I didn’t know her in and out. I didn’t know how she would respond in a particular situation. I didn’t know whether our family values would match. But I did know one thing—Radha was now out of my radar. I decided to go back to Cochin the next day itself.
***
Suddenly, I realized it was my turn to address them. I had butterflies in my stomach when I started to walk to the spot from where I had to speak. But by the time I reached there, my nervousness had vanished.
I began: “My dear friends, ours is a land where unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and other problems thrive. In spite of having nearly 60 years to solve these problems, our leaders have been unable to eradicate them. Our people come from diverse cultures, but we all face the same problems.
“More than 60 years ago, Indians had faced a common problem: the lack of freedom from British rule. Back then, our great leaders and freedom fighters had united all Indians in the great freedom struggle. It ultimately led to the achievement of freedom for us.
“Now, more than 60 years later, we find ourselves living on the products of foreign multinational corporations. We have become dependent on these foreign goods. Some people say: ‘Be Swadeshi, buy Swadeshi’. But I don’t agree with this idea. If foreign goods are of higher quality why should we boycott them? After all, we all work towards a higher standard of living.
“Friends, the solution to this problem is this: we Indians must improve the quality of our products. Then it will make sense to use desi products. We will also be able to achieve a higher standard of living for ourselves and our children. We need to work harder. That’s because our products have to become more competitive price-wise and quality-wise, in the international market.
“Indeed the time has come to have a movement similar to the freedom movement—a movement which will result in the creation of a developed India. I call upon each and every one of you to initiate a revolution—an Indian revolution which will take place in the minds of the masses. We must inspire people all over India to work towards the creation of a new India: an India which is a superpower in the world.
“This is a possible task. On our part, as employees of Lakshmi, each one of us must continuously strive to create better products for our people at a lower cost. Today, at this very moment, we must set a higher goal to achieve—to make our contribution to the best of our ability towards a developed India. Setting such a high goal will make all personal problems seem miniscule.
“God will always help us when we strive to achieve higher goals. We must also take active part in community development. It is our duty to give back to the society what we have taken from it.
“Our freedom fighters’ goal of self-realization was achieved on the day India became independent. We must achieve our goal of self-realization—to make India a developed country.
“To work towards this end, ours must become a prosperous organization consisting of prosperous people. The twin programmes of Training and Spiritual Development have been created to improve our lives, and create prosperity for the whole organization. Over the past few weeks, our production efficiencies have improved by leaps and bounds. We are quite confident of improving further. We have received a basket of orders and ultimately we will all benefit from this. All of us will grow together.
“We must also spread our sunshine to other parts of the country. We ought to exercise our rights, but more importantly, we have to make sure that we carry out our duties towards our country. Every minute, even in a state of unconsciousness, our souls must be aware of our highest goal.
“I remind you once again of the contribution you must make towards a developed India: sweat it out, and always keep in mind that you are working for India and ultimately for the good of mankind. Jai Hind!”
The words had come straight from my soul. During the speech, I had concentrated on my gestures, body language and voice modulation. The result was the varying emotions I saw in the eyes of the audience. It seemed very auspicious to me. Maybe my words did create an impact.
I thought I succeeded in creating the spark to ignite the fire. But the fire should never be put out. So, the real challenge was to sustain this inspiration amongst the workers. Towards this end, the value of active patriotism would have to be articulated everyday by the management. The most powerful of emotions had to continue to live in the hearts of the workers, every moment.
Thus, I began to use a new concept—a concept never tried before on a mass scale in our nation—utilizing the emotion of ‘active patriotism’ as an engine of limitless development of our nation. I realized what my goal was: to spread this emotion and inspire the masses to work towards the common goal of a developed India.
***
Lok uncle had been quite impressed with my speech on active patriotism. He gave me full support to implement my ideas on creating a suitable organization culture. We hanged boards in the tri-color in places visible to workers, employees and others who visited our organization. The boards had several messages inscribed on them. Some of the messages were: ‘I PUT MY COUNTRY ABOVE MYSELF’; ‘MY GOAL IS TO PRODUCE GOODS OF THE BEST QUALITY FOR OUR PEOPLE’; ‘I AM SHAPING A DEVELOPED INDIA’; and ‘I NEVER GIVE UP’.
During the Training and Development Programme, each worker came to understand the importance of his role in the organization and also the role of others. They were taught the importance of team spirit, empathy and communication. We decided to do away with the terms ‘workers’ and ‘employees’. These people would, henceforth, be known as ‘team members’.
On the finance front, we planned to introduce a more efficient internal audit system to evaluate and keep track of efficiencies in operations. But I also believed that the feeling of patriotic fervor would limit the fraudulent tendencies of team members.
We contrived to make regular contributions to the orphanage where Radha had taken me. We planned to attach more importance to corporate social responsibility. The public would trust only a firm which was ever conscious of its contribution to the society. Our community development initiatives would also enhance the image of the firm. We could organize drives to spread awareness about health and safety by tying up with educational institutions. Such campaigns would provide so many benefits to the society without having to spend much.
I had also learnt an important lesson on humility from Lok uncle. Lok uncle was not a showy person. He was always modest and humble. This was very important from the perspective of leadership. Actually, leadership was all about influencing people in a positive manner. I had read about a businessman who had several fancy cars and drove each of them to work, for all his employees to see. A showy and arrogant entrepreneur would only breed envy amongst team members and reduce their enthusiasm in work. It would create a divide between the entrepreneur and team members and interfere in the development of team spirit in an organization. Our present leaders in the field of business, like Ratan Tata and Azim Premji, are role models for entrepreneurs in this aspect.
Collective bargaining always used to create a lot of friction between the management and the labor force. Most of this friction was actually unnecessary. With the implementation of our plans, the need for collective bargaining would be reduced.
However, we had to encounter some problems from the Union Leaders for going ahead with our programmes without taking them into confidence. But once they saw that workers’ wages and benefits would not be adversely affected as a result of these programmes, the problems were solved.
I advised Lok uncle to hire the services of a Management Consultant well versed in the techniques of modern management to assist him. The services of such a person were quite indispensable in the present dynamic environment. He would be able to guide us in the implementation of our proposals. He would also have expert knowledge regarding operations and cost reduction techniques like quality control and contribution analysis, amongst others.
Thus, I came to the end of my mission at Lakshmi. The guest at ‘Vishnu Nivas’ would no longer reside there. It was time for me to move on. My engagement with ‘Lakshmi Industries’ provided a glimpse of the future that lay ahead. The plans were vague, but now I had a sense of direction.
I still had one person to meet before I headed back home: Radha. What should I do for her? Everything that had happened to me was indeed, a series of coincidences. Our visit to the orphanage transformed my way of thinking. I realized that the responsibilities I had towards my country were heavier than I had ever imagined.
I had to buy her something. On such occasions, I was the last innovative thinker on the planet. All that I could ever think of was a gold coin. This was the ‘safest’, yet the most meaningful gift, I could give her. I decided to stick to this idea. Besides, I could buy her anything else in future if I had wanted to. Or could I?
***
“Our family astrologer says that I might have to wait for a couple of years more, before I find a suitable bridegroom,” Radha said to me, as we met once again at my favourite place, along the banks of a canal. She was moody this time. “My parents are a bit upset. But they’ll eventually be happy if they get a suitable son-in-law, even if we have to wait for a while.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll surely get a good suitor,” I said. She smiled. “And Radha, here’s something I got for you,” I said, taking out a small gift-wrapped box out of my pocket. I gave it to her and said, “Open it when you get home.”
She smiled while receiving it. She then gave me a suspicious look, before putting the box in her purse. Maybe she was trying to guess what was in the box. “Thank you,” she said. Then, her mood suddenly changed. She looked glum. “Abhinav, I’m off to Bangalore in a couple of days’ time. I’ve…started sending resumes for my next job. I’ll update you with my new phone number, as soon as I get there.”
I had to leave Alappuzha, anyway. It would make no real difference to me if she was at Bangalore or here. Either case, she would be away from me.
“This time, we’ll keep in touch. Okay?” I joked.
Radha’s face showed no emotion now. She just gave a blank stare. “Okay. So shall I leave?” she asked me.
I was a bit taken aback at her response. But there really was nothing else to say. “Fine. See you,” I said.
She then turned around and started to quickly walk towards her scooter, taking long strides. She didn’t even look back. On reaching her scooter, she removed the side stand, sat on the scooter, started it and rode off. To me, that seemed to be an odd way to sign off. While ending the conversation, she hadn’t even delivered her trademark dialogue: “Chalo. Perfect.”
In any case, the Rule of Reversal which I had taught Padma, was applicable to me too. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Radha. I didn’t know her in and out. I didn’t know how she would respond in a particular situation. I didn’t know whether our family values would match. But I did know one thing—Radha was now out of my radar. I decided to go back to Cochin the next day itself.
***
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 8
I dropped Radha at her home. She compelled me to meet her parents. But I just met Mahesh Annan at the gate and came back home.
I found Nandi aunty smiling after quite a while. Maybe Lok uncle had told her about our reduced costs. I usually didn’t see him at his home. He spent most of his time in the reading room.
I was relaxing in my room, thinking about the day’s happenings when Nandi aunty called me to attend a phone call. I picked up the extension to find Padma at the other end.
“Hi, Annan. How are you?”
“Fine. Tell me…how’s things?”
“Good. Very good...in fact. I put in my papers as soon as I got here. I have changed my phone number. And guess what? My ex came to our office today. My friend must have told him I was back. When I refused to meet him, he began to create a furor. So I met him.
“The first thing he asked me was about our marriage—whether I had told Achan or not. I told him that business was not well and that we might have to shut it down. On hearing this, he looked really frustrated and left the place. He didn’t come to see me again and he even stopped e-mailing me.”
“My God!” I exclaimed. “That fellow was a fraud after all.”
“Yes. You were right. And I thought we could communicate simply by looking into each other’s eyes without saying a single word. He only wants Achan’s money. He doesn’t want me,” she lamented.
My counsel had worked. And that weasel was so stupid. He had shown his true colors even before any progress was made in his aim.
“So you’ve finally realized. When are you coming back?”
“I’ve to work till the end of this month. I’ve already told Amma I’m coming back,” she replied.
“Okay! Congratulations. Now do you think you’ve made the right decision?” I asked her.
“Of course Anna! And you’ve had a significant role to play in this,” Padma acknowledged.
“And Padma, don’t forget the Rule of Reversal. Its still applicable to you,” I reminded her in a joking manner.
After hanging up the phone, I was wondering how this issue could have held all of us to ransom. Just then Nandi aunty walked into the room.
“So she’s finally got back her senses,” she said, looking sternly at me.
I grew anxious. Had she been eavesdropping on our conversation? No…couldn’t be. Maybe she was just talking about Padma quitting her job and coming back.
“I was listening to your conversation from the extension,” she revealed. “I had also heard Padma talk about someone to you when she was here the last time.”
I felt as if mud had been thrown on my face. I didn’t say anything.
“Is the problem completely solved?” she asked. “That’s all I want to know.”
“Yes. It’s been solved. Padma had a crush on someone whom I suspected to be a fraud. She hadn’t realized it then, but now, she has. I told her you want an arranged marriage. I think now she’s convinced,” I blew the gaff.
“Abhi, I know my child. Even when there is a small change in her behavior, I can sense it. I didn’t tell Lok Anna because he wouldn’t bear it at this stage. So I kept mum. Padma is now safe because you were here. It’s all a coincidence. Isn’t it?”
“Yes, aunty…I guess,” I answered.
I don’t know why, but my eyes got wet. Nandi aunty left the room. My experience with this problem taught me another valuable lesson: as parents, you’ve got to trust your children; but don’t trust them blindly. Because no matter how old they get, they are still less experienced in life than you and are bound to make mistakes. Keeping a watchful eye on them can help prevent undesirable consequences.
***
Lok uncle left in the morning and kicked off the Marketing Campaign. He had a few acquaintances to meet. We expected him to be back in a few days’ time. Potential clients preferred to do business with our rivals for their competitive prices. They used to come to us only when others were uninterested in supplying small quantities to them. But from now on, our prices would also become competitive.
Once Lok uncle would bring the orders, we would have to hit the ground running. We had to further increase the speed of production. So in the meantime, I decided to focus on the procurement of raw materials. We had to have efficiency in the purchase of raw materials. There were two ways to do this. One was to purchase a large quantity in anticipation of future demand. But this would increase the cost of holding inventory. Another way was to get the supplier to deliver the raw materials only when we needed them for production. This was known as Just-in-Time (JIT) Purchasing.
JIT purchasing required suppliers to frequently deliver smaller quantities of raw materials. This would provide sufficient supplies to meet immediate production requirements. Integrated Solutions like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) would make things much easier but ERP was way too expensive for us, at the moment.
We decided to build relationships with a few suppliers to secure their cooperation towards the JIT initiative. We could also require them to inspect the quality of their supplies themselves, in return for providing bulk orders to them. I was looking at suppliers who would treat us with respect and share our values so that they would keep their promises. We could then grow together. Accompanied by our Purchase Manager Srinivas, we went on to meet the suppliers in the vicinity of the area because they could easily deliver the materials JIT to us.
A large supplier was quite expectedly indifferent to us. After all, he was not dealing with a very important customer. But on meeting smaller players, we found they were receptive to our ideas and were ready to cooperate as part of this system. I thought that perhaps, we could enter into a partnership with them in future. That would make great business sense.
***
After considering the procurement plans, I decided to observe the workers and learn to do some of their work myself. A professor had taught me in B-School that if you have to get the workers to work, it would be helpful to know the work yourself. During this time, we also successfully dispatched the Captain’s goods. I was also constantly in touch with Lok uncle.
***
A few days later, Lok uncle arrived after his campaign with some bulk orders. I thought it would be a hectic time from now on for all of us. We would have to achieve on-time delivery. But Lok uncle had other plans. The orders were mainly from clients who wanted to maintain reserve stock. So we had enough time to supply the product. Uncle was clearly cautious.
“We could have got Mr. Mehta’s order worth more than a crore rupees too,” Lok uncle said to me and the other executives. “But I made up my mind that we’ll first make sure that we can make the deliveries on time, and also achieve the costs we had calculated. Then we’ll go for larger ones.”
Lok uncle was right. His ‘look before you leap’ policy was more sound. This was probably the difference between maturity and the lack of it. Uncle’s decision gave us enough breathing space to focus on our labor force. Adequate training and development sessions could be conducted. We could also experiment with some more cost reduction techniques.
I had a long meeting with Lok uncle in his office. We had to discuss a few things I had thought of, in his absence. After some deliberation, he agreed to our JIT Purchasing plan and instructed Srinivas to arrange to implement it as soon as possible.
The next focus area of our meeting was labor. We decided to have a combination of theory and practical structured into our development programme. We were inclined to call it a ‘development programme’, because it would take place on a continuous basis. But we finally decided to name it a ‘Training and Development Programme’.
I believed that, by nature, most workers are good human beings. They don’t come to work with the intention of wasting raw materials and damaging equipment. They all want to create good products and receive appreciation for it. So my idea was to help them achieve it by developing them and rewarding them suitably based on productivity. Lok uncle saw this view point and agreed to it.
I wanted Radha to help me out on this aspect too. But she had already done so much for me. I didn’t want to take advantage of her. I dropped the idea of bringing her into this.
It was then time for me to introduce a relatively new concept in labor relations which I had thought of. I wondered whether this idea was crazy. Old habits die hard. I decided to present it to Lok uncle anyway.
“What’s the ultimate aim of man?” I asked uncle.
“You tell me,” uncle said.
“The ultimate aim of man is to achieve ‘moksha’ or ‘be one with God after death’,” I said. Lok uncle raised his eyebrow in response. I continued, “The spiritual development of man is important for this reason. Also, as you know, our state of Kerala is notorious for a high rate of suicides. I think that’s because people here lack the mental strength to face difficult situations.”
“Yes Abhi,” Lok uncle replied. “I’ve realized that change is the law of nature. Just as problems come, these will also go. If man endures these problems, he will ultimately emerge successful. This is evident from our own experience.”
“Exactly. So development of mental strength is very important. Uncle, I propose a programme with this end in mind,” I said as uncle listened attentively. “Our workers must be subject to meditation on a daily basis before starting work. We’ll have to sacrifice around 40 minutes out of the working hours for this purpose. An instructor trained in Yoga must be hired for the purpose. If need be, the canteen must function in the mornings too.”
Uptil now, Lok uncle had accepted my ideas without any objections. But he refused to accept this one. His face wore a sarcastic look and he replied, “Abhi, I haven’t heard of this idea anywhere. Maybe executives may have to undergo this sort of a programme, but not workers. We’ll arrange a five-day workshop on meditation, if you insist, but nothing more than that.” He paused before continuing, “Tut-tut… meditation? Certainly not during working hours! And certainly not on a daily basis. Let them meditate at their homes after attending the workshop.”
I maintained my composure and replied, “Uncle, that’s the point. They will not meditate at their homes. Maybe they’ll do it for two weeks...but they won’t do it for more than two weeks, because it will take at least a few months for the benefits to appear.
“Our workers will not have the patience to wait that long. That’s why I’m saying that we should have them meditate in our premises daily before starting the day’s work.”
Uncle was still skeptical. He looked at me as if I was crazy. I continued, “Entrepreneurs must think like nobody else has before. That’s exactly what makes them entrepreneurs…the ability to take risks and make bold decisions.” Uncle now began to show a little more interest.
“The benefits of meditation will outweigh the lost time and effort,” I maintained. “It will improve their productivity and help them to meet tough deadlines later on. It will improve their sense of wellbeing. Uncle, trust me on this.”
Lok uncle finally asked me to work out the expected cost of the ‘Spiritual Development Programme’ as I called it, including the benefits we would have to sacrifice to implement this programme.
It obviously was a tough call to make. A cost-benefit analysis could not be conducted because the benefits attributed to this programme could not be quantified easily.
“Whatever be the cost, we have to go for this one,” I declared to our Finance executive. Was I determined to go ahead with this one just because Lok uncle had initially rejected it? Was I egoistic? No. It was because I just knew this idea would work. I had this gut feeling. My mint-coated biscuits worked. So, why not this?
“We’ll have this informally communicated to the workers first,” Lok uncle suggested. “Or else they will become skeptical when they hear it from us formally. That is, of course, presuming that the benefits shall outweigh the costs.”
“This programme will actually enable them to get an extra half hour break from work,” I responded. “So they are unlikely to reject it outright. Once they realize the benefits from the programme, we can then probably convince them to put in half an hour more of work.” Lok uncle too saw this possibility.
“Abhi, you had told me about creating a favorable organization culture. What should we do to create it?” Lok uncle asked me.
“We must constantly articulate the values we believe in, and the behavior expected from them. We must also set examples for them by adhering to the values we preach,” I answered.
“I leave that to you,” uncle said to me.
I agreed to bear the responsibility. This was also a huge challenge for me. It involved changing the attitude of workers and employees of the organization towards their work.
“I’ll inform you before implementing my ideas,” I replied to uncle.
I expressed my desire to speak to the workers in a couple of day’s time on the programme. Lok uncle obliged.
Walking out of his office, I got back to the factory observing the workers and finding out bottlenecks in the process. I thought about Radha. I imagined she was here with me, observing the workers. Her big black eyes would epitomize concentration. I sighed. I thought of what she had done for me. She was the person who had actually kick-started the whole turnaround process with that Work Study. She was the one who had really created the self-belief in me.
“What should I do for her?” I wondered aloud, oblivious to my surroundings.
“Buy her a ring,” somebody replied.
I turned to find Anto standing beside me. He was smiling at me. I grinned back. A ring? Did he know whom I was thinking about? I would now have to deal with the office grapevine.
***
The next day, we estimated the cost of the programmes. Lok uncle gave the go ahead for both the programmes. Anto would be in charge of training the workers initially. We would hire a professional trainer later on. One of our executives had an acquaintance; the man was a Yoga instructor in the locality. On approaching him with the proposal he agreed. Things moved fast. This was also a hallmark of an efficient administration, where quick decisions were made and implemented.
At night, I was preparing the speech I would deliver the next day. Anto had already given the workers some idea about the programme. He also told them about the speech I would be delivering.
The speech was very crucial for Lakshmi because if it failed to have the desired impact, we would fail to create a suitable organization culture and our entire Spiritual Development Programme would become a failure.
I planned to address them in the morning itself. A talk in the evening would never succeed in grabbing their attention. They would be too tired to listen and be inspired. By the way, how could I inspire them? I had no idea on how to connect with each one of them. But I had no choice. I decided to proceed with the idea that Trade Unionism was not really a barrier to our communication with the workers. And I scribbled away in my notepad late into the night.
***
I found Nandi aunty smiling after quite a while. Maybe Lok uncle had told her about our reduced costs. I usually didn’t see him at his home. He spent most of his time in the reading room.
I was relaxing in my room, thinking about the day’s happenings when Nandi aunty called me to attend a phone call. I picked up the extension to find Padma at the other end.
“Hi, Annan. How are you?”
“Fine. Tell me…how’s things?”
“Good. Very good...in fact. I put in my papers as soon as I got here. I have changed my phone number. And guess what? My ex came to our office today. My friend must have told him I was back. When I refused to meet him, he began to create a furor. So I met him.
“The first thing he asked me was about our marriage—whether I had told Achan or not. I told him that business was not well and that we might have to shut it down. On hearing this, he looked really frustrated and left the place. He didn’t come to see me again and he even stopped e-mailing me.”
“My God!” I exclaimed. “That fellow was a fraud after all.”
“Yes. You were right. And I thought we could communicate simply by looking into each other’s eyes without saying a single word. He only wants Achan’s money. He doesn’t want me,” she lamented.
My counsel had worked. And that weasel was so stupid. He had shown his true colors even before any progress was made in his aim.
“So you’ve finally realized. When are you coming back?”
“I’ve to work till the end of this month. I’ve already told Amma I’m coming back,” she replied.
“Okay! Congratulations. Now do you think you’ve made the right decision?” I asked her.
“Of course Anna! And you’ve had a significant role to play in this,” Padma acknowledged.
“And Padma, don’t forget the Rule of Reversal. Its still applicable to you,” I reminded her in a joking manner.
After hanging up the phone, I was wondering how this issue could have held all of us to ransom. Just then Nandi aunty walked into the room.
“So she’s finally got back her senses,” she said, looking sternly at me.
I grew anxious. Had she been eavesdropping on our conversation? No…couldn’t be. Maybe she was just talking about Padma quitting her job and coming back.
“I was listening to your conversation from the extension,” she revealed. “I had also heard Padma talk about someone to you when she was here the last time.”
I felt as if mud had been thrown on my face. I didn’t say anything.
“Is the problem completely solved?” she asked. “That’s all I want to know.”
“Yes. It’s been solved. Padma had a crush on someone whom I suspected to be a fraud. She hadn’t realized it then, but now, she has. I told her you want an arranged marriage. I think now she’s convinced,” I blew the gaff.
“Abhi, I know my child. Even when there is a small change in her behavior, I can sense it. I didn’t tell Lok Anna because he wouldn’t bear it at this stage. So I kept mum. Padma is now safe because you were here. It’s all a coincidence. Isn’t it?”
“Yes, aunty…I guess,” I answered.
I don’t know why, but my eyes got wet. Nandi aunty left the room. My experience with this problem taught me another valuable lesson: as parents, you’ve got to trust your children; but don’t trust them blindly. Because no matter how old they get, they are still less experienced in life than you and are bound to make mistakes. Keeping a watchful eye on them can help prevent undesirable consequences.
***
Lok uncle left in the morning and kicked off the Marketing Campaign. He had a few acquaintances to meet. We expected him to be back in a few days’ time. Potential clients preferred to do business with our rivals for their competitive prices. They used to come to us only when others were uninterested in supplying small quantities to them. But from now on, our prices would also become competitive.
Once Lok uncle would bring the orders, we would have to hit the ground running. We had to further increase the speed of production. So in the meantime, I decided to focus on the procurement of raw materials. We had to have efficiency in the purchase of raw materials. There were two ways to do this. One was to purchase a large quantity in anticipation of future demand. But this would increase the cost of holding inventory. Another way was to get the supplier to deliver the raw materials only when we needed them for production. This was known as Just-in-Time (JIT) Purchasing.
JIT purchasing required suppliers to frequently deliver smaller quantities of raw materials. This would provide sufficient supplies to meet immediate production requirements. Integrated Solutions like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) would make things much easier but ERP was way too expensive for us, at the moment.
We decided to build relationships with a few suppliers to secure their cooperation towards the JIT initiative. We could also require them to inspect the quality of their supplies themselves, in return for providing bulk orders to them. I was looking at suppliers who would treat us with respect and share our values so that they would keep their promises. We could then grow together. Accompanied by our Purchase Manager Srinivas, we went on to meet the suppliers in the vicinity of the area because they could easily deliver the materials JIT to us.
A large supplier was quite expectedly indifferent to us. After all, he was not dealing with a very important customer. But on meeting smaller players, we found they were receptive to our ideas and were ready to cooperate as part of this system. I thought that perhaps, we could enter into a partnership with them in future. That would make great business sense.
***
After considering the procurement plans, I decided to observe the workers and learn to do some of their work myself. A professor had taught me in B-School that if you have to get the workers to work, it would be helpful to know the work yourself. During this time, we also successfully dispatched the Captain’s goods. I was also constantly in touch with Lok uncle.
***
A few days later, Lok uncle arrived after his campaign with some bulk orders. I thought it would be a hectic time from now on for all of us. We would have to achieve on-time delivery. But Lok uncle had other plans. The orders were mainly from clients who wanted to maintain reserve stock. So we had enough time to supply the product. Uncle was clearly cautious.
“We could have got Mr. Mehta’s order worth more than a crore rupees too,” Lok uncle said to me and the other executives. “But I made up my mind that we’ll first make sure that we can make the deliveries on time, and also achieve the costs we had calculated. Then we’ll go for larger ones.”
Lok uncle was right. His ‘look before you leap’ policy was more sound. This was probably the difference between maturity and the lack of it. Uncle’s decision gave us enough breathing space to focus on our labor force. Adequate training and development sessions could be conducted. We could also experiment with some more cost reduction techniques.
I had a long meeting with Lok uncle in his office. We had to discuss a few things I had thought of, in his absence. After some deliberation, he agreed to our JIT Purchasing plan and instructed Srinivas to arrange to implement it as soon as possible.
The next focus area of our meeting was labor. We decided to have a combination of theory and practical structured into our development programme. We were inclined to call it a ‘development programme’, because it would take place on a continuous basis. But we finally decided to name it a ‘Training and Development Programme’.
I believed that, by nature, most workers are good human beings. They don’t come to work with the intention of wasting raw materials and damaging equipment. They all want to create good products and receive appreciation for it. So my idea was to help them achieve it by developing them and rewarding them suitably based on productivity. Lok uncle saw this view point and agreed to it.
I wanted Radha to help me out on this aspect too. But she had already done so much for me. I didn’t want to take advantage of her. I dropped the idea of bringing her into this.
It was then time for me to introduce a relatively new concept in labor relations which I had thought of. I wondered whether this idea was crazy. Old habits die hard. I decided to present it to Lok uncle anyway.
“What’s the ultimate aim of man?” I asked uncle.
“You tell me,” uncle said.
“The ultimate aim of man is to achieve ‘moksha’ or ‘be one with God after death’,” I said. Lok uncle raised his eyebrow in response. I continued, “The spiritual development of man is important for this reason. Also, as you know, our state of Kerala is notorious for a high rate of suicides. I think that’s because people here lack the mental strength to face difficult situations.”
“Yes Abhi,” Lok uncle replied. “I’ve realized that change is the law of nature. Just as problems come, these will also go. If man endures these problems, he will ultimately emerge successful. This is evident from our own experience.”
“Exactly. So development of mental strength is very important. Uncle, I propose a programme with this end in mind,” I said as uncle listened attentively. “Our workers must be subject to meditation on a daily basis before starting work. We’ll have to sacrifice around 40 minutes out of the working hours for this purpose. An instructor trained in Yoga must be hired for the purpose. If need be, the canteen must function in the mornings too.”
Uptil now, Lok uncle had accepted my ideas without any objections. But he refused to accept this one. His face wore a sarcastic look and he replied, “Abhi, I haven’t heard of this idea anywhere. Maybe executives may have to undergo this sort of a programme, but not workers. We’ll arrange a five-day workshop on meditation, if you insist, but nothing more than that.” He paused before continuing, “Tut-tut… meditation? Certainly not during working hours! And certainly not on a daily basis. Let them meditate at their homes after attending the workshop.”
I maintained my composure and replied, “Uncle, that’s the point. They will not meditate at their homes. Maybe they’ll do it for two weeks...but they won’t do it for more than two weeks, because it will take at least a few months for the benefits to appear.
“Our workers will not have the patience to wait that long. That’s why I’m saying that we should have them meditate in our premises daily before starting the day’s work.”
Uncle was still skeptical. He looked at me as if I was crazy. I continued, “Entrepreneurs must think like nobody else has before. That’s exactly what makes them entrepreneurs…the ability to take risks and make bold decisions.” Uncle now began to show a little more interest.
“The benefits of meditation will outweigh the lost time and effort,” I maintained. “It will improve their productivity and help them to meet tough deadlines later on. It will improve their sense of wellbeing. Uncle, trust me on this.”
Lok uncle finally asked me to work out the expected cost of the ‘Spiritual Development Programme’ as I called it, including the benefits we would have to sacrifice to implement this programme.
It obviously was a tough call to make. A cost-benefit analysis could not be conducted because the benefits attributed to this programme could not be quantified easily.
“Whatever be the cost, we have to go for this one,” I declared to our Finance executive. Was I determined to go ahead with this one just because Lok uncle had initially rejected it? Was I egoistic? No. It was because I just knew this idea would work. I had this gut feeling. My mint-coated biscuits worked. So, why not this?
“We’ll have this informally communicated to the workers first,” Lok uncle suggested. “Or else they will become skeptical when they hear it from us formally. That is, of course, presuming that the benefits shall outweigh the costs.”
“This programme will actually enable them to get an extra half hour break from work,” I responded. “So they are unlikely to reject it outright. Once they realize the benefits from the programme, we can then probably convince them to put in half an hour more of work.” Lok uncle too saw this possibility.
“Abhi, you had told me about creating a favorable organization culture. What should we do to create it?” Lok uncle asked me.
“We must constantly articulate the values we believe in, and the behavior expected from them. We must also set examples for them by adhering to the values we preach,” I answered.
“I leave that to you,” uncle said to me.
I agreed to bear the responsibility. This was also a huge challenge for me. It involved changing the attitude of workers and employees of the organization towards their work.
“I’ll inform you before implementing my ideas,” I replied to uncle.
I expressed my desire to speak to the workers in a couple of day’s time on the programme. Lok uncle obliged.
Walking out of his office, I got back to the factory observing the workers and finding out bottlenecks in the process. I thought about Radha. I imagined she was here with me, observing the workers. Her big black eyes would epitomize concentration. I sighed. I thought of what she had done for me. She was the person who had actually kick-started the whole turnaround process with that Work Study. She was the one who had really created the self-belief in me.
“What should I do for her?” I wondered aloud, oblivious to my surroundings.
“Buy her a ring,” somebody replied.
I turned to find Anto standing beside me. He was smiling at me. I grinned back. A ring? Did he know whom I was thinking about? I would now have to deal with the office grapevine.
***
The next day, we estimated the cost of the programmes. Lok uncle gave the go ahead for both the programmes. Anto would be in charge of training the workers initially. We would hire a professional trainer later on. One of our executives had an acquaintance; the man was a Yoga instructor in the locality. On approaching him with the proposal he agreed. Things moved fast. This was also a hallmark of an efficient administration, where quick decisions were made and implemented.
At night, I was preparing the speech I would deliver the next day. Anto had already given the workers some idea about the programme. He also told them about the speech I would be delivering.
The speech was very crucial for Lakshmi because if it failed to have the desired impact, we would fail to create a suitable organization culture and our entire Spiritual Development Programme would become a failure.
I planned to address them in the morning itself. A talk in the evening would never succeed in grabbing their attention. They would be too tired to listen and be inspired. By the way, how could I inspire them? I had no idea on how to connect with each one of them. But I had no choice. I decided to proceed with the idea that Trade Unionism was not really a barrier to our communication with the workers. And I scribbled away in my notepad late into the night.
***
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