Dad's day out

Over the past few years, I have tried to devote a day in each week to my family. It gets difficult often, but I have tried hard to do that.

Usually, we either go out for a long drive, or head out to a mall for a day of unrestrained fun. Or it is a mix of the two. For me personally, going to a mall is very enjoyable, as I observe everything carefully, and try validating it with my personal management learnings.

So today we were at a mall, and had a great time. Some observations, learnings & ruminations

• The mall-culture is a parallel culture that's strongly getting embedded in lives of a significant percentage of our urban population. It's about glitz, glamour, people, warmth and retail-therapy.
• India is surely a nation of the young. At least 60% plus of the crowd one sees at a big mall in a city is of the age-group 15-35 years.
• The "acceptable" mores in society, especially for women, seem to have evolved substantially. There is a lot of visible freedom for women. Good news.
• Lots of young people are taking lots of things for granted. For me, these constitute novelty. When I was 15, the best we had in Indore was a '56 Shops' (string of eating-out joints and miscellany) and that too was considered too modern for boys of my age to visit frequently! How times have changed.*
• What's fun for us, is tiresome for many. The tens of parking staff and security guards in the basement minus two level parking have a harrowing task spending the whole day without natural sunlight or maybe even a view of the outside for many hours straight. Even the air is not good to breathe (fumes, oh deadly vehicle fumes). We surely are lucky to have job-descriptions qualitatively better than that.
• The shiniest of branded stores often hide odious truths behind the glitzy facade. The staff room of one such big home shopping brands I visited was dungeon-like and dirty, & that must make the staff feel like they are in a ghetto. Maybe management does not want staff to spend a lot of time during lunch. But this is hardly the way to treat them. Use the simple acid test : the MD of the company must be able to use the staff toilet that he allots his people.**
• There are citizens from all strata of society who visit. I am sure children drive their parents most of the times. I really appreciate the grace with which several parents manage and control the never-ending and costly demands of their children at such places. It's an education.
• High value purchases are generally rarer than they ought to be, to sustain a drama like the high-street malls. Many brands learn this fast, and evolve variants to suit local tastes, to drive traffic.
• Games constitute a big draw for the young. Lots of spending happens in the GameZones.***
• Fast food is the way to go. Interestingly, lot of the taste across menus is driven by common elements (almost the same spices and butter, etc.)
• People do not wash hands or mouth after meals at such locations! Very few go to the washrooms.
• There is almost no discipline while using the Lift. Those who push hard and brash, get the pride of place. Unless a Q-manager is forced on people, there is no queue ever. As a society, we need to learn these manners fast.
• Movies are such a big draw! And there are so many nicely crafted and interesting movies being made now-a-days. Indian cinema has truly come of age.
• Lots of cross promotions happen. You can win more ice-creams than you can eat, if you play well in the GameZone.
• The Mall Promoters must be perpetually thinking of "drive consumtion harder, harder". At times, I truly find that amazing. We have seen the American consumer now thinking seriously of reversing her spending habits. What happens here will be interesting to watch.
• Malls are generally not child-friendly (just visit the washrooms to understand what I mean).
• I often find people who find me, and want to strike a conversation (maybe to get some business interest served). Despite clear signals, they do not understand that a mall is not the best place to pursue someone who is with the family, and not in a mood to talk business with almost strangers. Today some NLP trainer found me and despite my repeated insistence that he mail me, he persisted and sent his business card to my mobile (for which I had to volunteer my number). Guess what I did with that sms!

We are in the midst of the greatest cultural change this country has seen. I hope we don't end up hollow, effete and aimless. I hope it all adds up to a balanced society.

* the jaded-youth-syndrome of the West will surely hit the youth in India too. When too much luxury and choice is apparently within reach, the mind just gives way.
** at my office and campus locations, senior staff are instructed to ensure neatness and cleanliness in toilets. We succeed often. At least we sincerely try.
*** Alongwith my son, I have steadily practised PaintBall shooting, Bowling, Net Cricket and Mini BasketBall over past few weeks. We win lots of bonus overs and ice-creams now! Performance is at an all-time high :)

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Sunday = Mischief & Fun

Sunday = Mischief & Fun

(so many young people keep writing to me seeking career success tips.. this post is for all those young souls seeking corporate nirvana)

Time for some fun. Oh no, seriously speaking.. here are SEVEN sure-shot ways for you my dear reader.. follow these and await guaranteed doom. Trust me!

1. Be an excuses-person. Always find some excuse for why you were unable to do a thing successfully. It could be heavy airconditioning that slowed your brain-cells down, or even the colour of the cockroach that ran across your workdesk that turned you off.
2. Be internally focussed always. Never think from your customers' perspective. Customers are duds, after all. Life is made for things grander and subtler than quality for what's paid for.
3. Never plan in totality. Focus only on what you were asked to do, and not the whole picture. So if you were asked to give the starting speech in a major event, make sure you do not even visit the venue once to get a 'total' feel of it. After all, that's not your job, right? The Event Manager gets paid for that.
4. Carry an entitlement mindset. Always demand rights, privileges and opportunities. Never realise that they come only when you have delivered something of value to others. The constitution of our great nation has guaranteed some rights. If we won't demand the same, who will? The aborigines?
5. Close your mind to successes & lessons they imply. Whenever you see someone doing really well, blame it on the stars! After all, you are brighter than her. She cracked it by sheer serendipity. Maybe the Ursa Major was exceptionally well-aligned in her favour. It will be better to invest in an astrologer than in the 6-sigma course.
6. Never believe in Kaizen. It is for the Japanese. We are not Japanese. Errors must be made repeatedly to have some meaningful learnings from them. Of course, if only your boss could empower you enough to enable this. Simple soul!
7. Produce work that's truly below standard. It is only when we lose our touch with material reality that higher realisations can seep in. What's the point after all, the long-term point, in getting all spellings, grammar, structure right in a report, when the Sun is surely - ultimately - going to turn into a red giant swallowing up mother Earth? Of course, the idiotic team leader could not understand this profound spiritual reality. How we wish he had a mother who could explain this to him while he was growing up!

So let's get cracking. We got work to do!
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Spiritual side up!

What do Roger Harrop, Brian Chernnet and Dr John DesMarteau have in common?

They are all high-achievers in their respective fields, they all were visitors to India, and came to our campuses recently. And above all, they were happy to see the spiritual side of the students and institute. They appreciated seemingly simple acts like i) lighting-of-the-lamp ceremony, ii) allusions to spiritual pursuits, iii) questions that were based on spirituality, and iv) gestures of religious behaviour by common folk on the streets of India.

Dr John, for example, was surprised to see the taxi driver do a "namaste" while crossing a temple. He mused that in America, it may just not be possible to observe a taxi driver do such a thing. Frankly, this was a strong observation, and I found it reminiscent of what my parents alway told me while I was growing up.

I am thankful to these gentlemen (and to Rakeshji who got Brian and Roger to visit us) for their kind compliments on India and its cultural practices.

Roger and Brian were also happy about the emphasis on value based education that we follow in PT universe. They said this was a marked diversion from the run-of-the-mill material approach of many, and that they found it refreshing.

All this makes you think about a lot of things!

What direction is the world taking? Pure materialism with all its limitations apparently is deeply flawed. It leaves in its wake an emptiness that is immeasurable. Maybe a lot of Indians abroad come back finally to fill that gap in their lives. Or am I just being supercilious and unnecessarily patronising? How is it possible for a young student about to become an MBA to strike the right balance between materialism and spirituality? What is happiness? Lasting happiness?

I also started thinking about the disucssion on "reality" that formed the basis of the movie trilogy "Matrix". However, that's for later!

Good questions to ponder!
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