Some Odd Thoughts from an Odd Indian Mind !

Suppose that you need a good driver to drive your brand new super deluxe car which you recently got spending a good fortune. The question is selecting a person and appointing him for a responsible work. Since you have spent a good amount in capital you perhaps do not mind spending a recurring monthly amount to pay off his salaries for a few years.

“Indians are penny-wise and pound-foolish.” This is what some of those in the west say about us Indians. I do not know how much truth is there in it. Penny or Pound, we are the wisest in the world!

So confronted with the question of appointing a driver, we are going to use our wisdom to the fullest. After all, lots of stakes are involved. We know it very well.

Now the question is how to do a wise screening to select a good person. Since you are a moneyed person, you perhaps have knowledgeable and wiser persons in contact with you whose advices you might get even without your seeking.

There are thousands of unemployed persons in this country having many certificates from certificate producing factories and it might not be wise at all if you ignore those certificates. That could be one advice!

You spotted a good fellow and perhaps wanted to appoint him, but his demand was a little on the higher side for which you had no problem, but your advisors did not agree. They were arguing against the ‘bad’ trends that would be created in the economy, including ‘price-rises’.

Some of your friends might approach with recommendations.

But since the selection is going to have a direct consequence on your personal life, you perhaps won’t come in any of these advices and finally would select the person of your choice, most suiting to your needs. You would rather go by your gut feeling.

Now think about this. Would you have selected a person with a good percentage of marks shown in his certificates having also a driving license and requisite experience but with some such qualities you disliked? The chances are less. In this case those undocumented qualities that you liked in the person are also very important.

So, you are going to be very careful to select your driver.

Similarly, a private entrepreneur will be very cautious and choosy to select his team of employees when he starts building his business.

Because he knows very well that business is three M’s: Money, Machine and Men and the last makes all the difference in deciding his fate!

But when it comes to our public life, we just don’t care about all these.

Just any one and every one will suffice our purpose. Just any one is capable of doing any job. We truly believe in ‘socialism’.

Just any one can be our MPs, MLAs. No need for screening! No need for checking the credentials! No need for our gut feelings! Though we know that these fellows are also drivers- drivers for not just one, but for the whole nation!

Yet in some other cases, we have extremely good ones selected with extremely bad ones to pair up as teams to do a particular task. And then we complain about their not accomplishing the tasks the way we wanted. Is it fair?

I know these are odd thoughts. But such odd thoughts do come in. I am helpless!

[Reproduced from the Author's Blog at SiliconIndia]

The Politics and Business of the Indian Education System !

I am at a loss to understand the Indian education sector as it has evolved over the years after getting independence from the British Raj. When I was a student, I studied in private schools paying absolutely nothing as fees! I was not a person entitled for any government concessions, yet my education at the school level was absolutely free and the schools where I studied were good enough to send me to the highest level institutions of the country from a rural background.

I don't remember paying any fee that pinched my parents' income as ordinary school teachers even for my higher studies in engineering.

In those days before MMS, the country was ruled by visionaries who cared for it at least to some extent on a long term perspective. A good portion of government spending used to be for education and there were education ministers at the central and the state levels. [Not the HR ones who consider humans as business resources!]

Post MMS, education has become a goverment liability and they have come out of it without any inhibitions or remorse.

Now the old schools and colleges have either become a history or are going to become history. New five-star schools and colleges are every where. What a fantastic progress!

Almost every teenager passing the 10+2 is becoming an engineer, provided the poor parent has a few lakhs to spend as fees and another few lakhs for getting another certificate which are essentials for getting a job which will most likely fetch a salary a bit more than the interest that he had spend as fees. That too if he or she is lucky !

A good majority of the common people whom I know, like private school teachers, private company workers, etc etc get an average monthly income of less than Rs 10000/- ( Many are in the 2000-3000 range !) These people come in the employed and working category of Indian citizens!

Can these people ever think of sending their children to these engineering colleges which are now everywhere replacing the old classical colleges? The engineering college fees are much more than their monthly income.

Yes, they can send their wards to such shanty buildings called colleges or 'Mahavidyalayas' who gave admissions without any limits for giving degrees given by 'Viswavidyalayas' in wide ranging names like BA, BSc, BBA, BCOM, BCA etc where the fees could be in affordable, yet making their belts tighter.

Now one has to wonder what happens to the fees that are collected in the crores by these educational institutions. None of them pay well to the teachers. No one is ever asking them those questions. What is happening to the fees they collect?

What a great tamasha is this? What will happen to this country after a few years?

Almighty God! Have Mercy on us for we are an ignorant lot. We do not know what we are doing! 

[Reproduced from the Author's Blog at SiliconIndia]

Escaping from the 'God-dog' Syndrome !

A person inducted as a responsible link in any organisational set up would immediately land in to a very complex behavioural situation. He or she is boss and subordinate to some one all at the same time ! An organisation regardless of its objective and purpose, is made up of an endless chain. But most people fail to understand this 'endless' characteristics of the organisation. What is apparent in an organisation is a powerful head with many weak tails, linked together by links of varying strengths and powers.

Human psychological trait is a mix of master-slave behaviours. Though both characteristics are essential for our survival, there is a danger of people forgetting this in built mechanism.

In an organisation when people are entrusted with various kinds of powers, they assume the role of the master or God. Those entrusted within their command then have to assume the role of the obedient servants. Some play their role as servants too well with unquestionable loyalty to their masters. In an organisation where a boss happens to have subordinates showing abnormal dog like loyalty there is a danger of the boss getting elevated to a pseudo psychic level of a god. The boss starts thinking as the god of all that he or she surveys!

The danger starts from this. Organisational career growth is a lure built in the system to exploit the ambition of people to move from the servant to master levels. But it works for only immature people who are so gullible and foolish into forgetting their real individual nature when someone praise them meaninglessly or award them with a temporary title of a 'higher' post.

So for all individuals in an organisation the 'god-dog' syndrome develops to varying degrees. For those at the top levels the god characteristics most prominent infront of those below. But unfortunately for this 'god' to maintain his or her  status as 'god' a higher level of 'dog' nature has to be exhibited infront of his or her boss. Thus the god-dog trait has to be highest at the highest levels. Such a situation makes these unfortunate fellows at the top organisational levels always in a pseudo mind set which makes them forget about their true self.

Many such pseudo gods face the 'fish-out-of-water' situation when they are out from the organisation by retirement or retrenchment.

Their life becomes pathetic at some point of time due to their earlier acquired pseudo god status with no 'dogs' to serve any more!

This syndrome is everywhere. But in the governmental organisations where 'gazetted' powers are more, the syndrome is more damaging. Damaging the true self of the individuals.

Organisations are made for the benefit of all individuals in the society and are groupings of conveniences for societal order and development.

As the society develops with all people contributing to a common cause, all individuals will become part of some organisation or many organisations at the same time.

They will have to play the roles of the master and the slave all at the same time.

But role plays should not change the true self.

But for immature individuals it is very difficult to realise the realities of life.

If they learn to escape from pseudo life situations such as the god-dog syndrome, it will do much good to them, to their family and the society all at the same time.

[Reproduced from the Author's Blog at SiliconIndia Website]

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