Read a beautiful article about male friendship. It says that the problem of men having either very few or absolutely no friends at all has become very severe post Covid.

In an office situation, the men would bond over lunch at office and occasional post office hours binge comprising drinks and dinner. Covid, however, forced everyone to work from home, making offices unoccupied and forlorn places. Even though Covid has subsided, return to office is only partial, and offices are nowhere booming with people like in the past.

However, the main focus of the article is sustainability of the male friendship especially in the old age, when office colleagues are no longer at hand and old friends are either incapacitated or no longer existent! The article has a beautifully nuanced anecdote, where two lonely men in immediate neighbourhood would sit idly and look at each other, without caring to make an effort to know each other, leave apart forging a friendship. The anecdote ends on a tragic note with the surviving neighbour looking at the ambulance carrying the dead body of the other, leaving him worried about his own fate!

The author of the article suggests that middle and old aged men need to avoid loneliness by pursuing hobbies and hanging out with buddies for occasional game of poker ( just quoting the author; it could be anything from cards to Ludo to golf to table tennis) and drinks that would provide a person a happy diversion from solitude, loneliness and inactivity. The article specifically stresses about the need for men to socialise as women are inherently more outgoing type, prone to networking. Women also bare their hearts more readily to fellow women, whereas men hate to be seen as emotionally fragile even amongst best of buddies.

The article also touches upon cross sexual friendship, which is not quite relevant in our milieu, as even in western society, the issue of sexual relation in such friendships is quite pronounced.

The article fascinated me deeply as I related to it almost in totality. A bit of solitude has indeed set in post retirement though I must confess that I have traveled quite a bit, have a like minded spouse who shares quite a few common interests and have many friends – my erstwhile colleagues and others! I am also a member of two groups – one comprising my school mates and other my batchmates who joined my previous organisation along with me and with whom I bonded during extended training programmes. However, both these groups are virtual in nature, with interactions limited to social media and occasional phone call as members are spread all over. But with advancing age, interactions on such group are only likely to come down and engagements fewer. My wife has her own company and engagements and cannot be always available to cut my solitude. The need, therefore, is to bond more with a group having similar interests, hobbies, passions and compassion for one another. Solitude can lead to accelerated aging and depression that could ultimately cause other age related ailments.

I treat this article as a wake up call for all those who are just lazing out after their active professional life and that too all by themselves. Let’s reach out, meet people, enjoy occasional binge, travel , pursue a passion and avoid solitude and depression.

I am lucky to be receiving the thoughts expressed by the great Mahatria every morning, courtesy an old friend, who’s an ardent follower of the great man. What makes Mahatria stand out among the hordes of godmen all over the place is precisely this fact that he neither claims himself to be a godman, nor does he promise any miracles to his followers. He works for the betterment of our lives based on the knowledge vested in our scriptures that he interprets in easy to follow manner. His latest thought has touched my heart that says-

In the entirety of Universe, there is nobody like you. You are the only one of your kind. You are uniquely different. You are unique, you are rare, you are original, you are masterpiece – Master’s piece.

I found this thought’s immediate relevance to my current area of interest that’s centred around management practices. This reaffirms what I have been arguing in series of my earlier posts- not everyone is equally brilliant, efficient, intelligent, sharp or hardworking. Each one of us is unique and we bring to table certain strengths that only we can bring. The onus is on the organisation and its decision makers to assess that particular feature of one’s personality and deploy him or her in an appropriate role accordingly. This can to a large extent settle the issue of employee dissatisfaction and in turn, the problem of attrition that’s currently assuming humongous proportions, at least in certain organisations.

I have in the past shared gems of wisdom from Mahatria’s discourses as shared by my above mentioned friend and observed the relevance of his thoughts in our day to day lives.

Let’s not get overawed and overwhelmed by the success stories of others, which can be constructively used to draw inspiration at best. Each one is unique, capable of making our own story that can inspire others, because each one of us is uniquely crafted masterpiece – Master’s piece!

An organisation that I served for years and that continues to be very close to my heart, saw a jump in its attrition in FY23, with the employee turnover rate rising to 34.8 per cent in FY23 from 31.6 per cent in FY22 and 19.1 per cent in FY21. 34.8% by any standards is worrisome, signifying churning of more than 1/3rd employees! I don’t think any organisation can afford such high rates of attrition.

This is not all and there’s worse. The report further says that bulk of the turnover was seen in the bank’s organic employee base. The turnover rate for female employees was 35.9 per cent and for male employees at 34.4 per cent in FY23, in spite of this organisation’s special focus on improving male female employees ratio!

It is most unfortunate that under the pretext of acquiring the best talent from market, some organisations give a short shrift to their existing employees, who then feel neglected and lost and start looking out. In fact, such employees become “market talent” for other organisations. But constant churning helps an organisation the least! New employees are generally more expensive and less productive, at least in the initial period of 3-6 months. Further, as they come with huge expectations (meteoric career rise, high in incentives, cream posting), they can soon become disenchanted, leading to their attrition, implying they may be less stable than those who had chosen to make career in that organisation by spending years.

This issue should not be swept under the carpet but given top priority to ensure that attrition comes down to an acceptable level of 10-12%.

Parents are first gurus and we emulate them. School exposes us to our teachers who teach us basics of education that helps us seeing through the challenges of life. College professors give us specialised education that transforms us into professionals. At work place, we encounter bosses, colleagues, juniors and learn throughout our careers by imbibing new skills and honing the existing through experience. And as we grow old, we form new relationships- spouse , in laws, children, their spouses, grandchildren etc and each of these helps us evolve as a person and a human being.

Therefore, the scope of guru is not limited to only to parents and teachers, but anyone whom we come across during this journey called life and from whom we learn anything, becomes eligible to be our Guru, worthy of our respect and obeisance.

But I am also wary of not getting carried over by the sobriquet of Guru being bestowed upon by me by some of my colleagues and their resultant devotion to me. It’s not attributable to modesty in any form, but a genuine conviction that they got my support, guidance and appreciation for they thoroughly deserved it. Good begets good and this has been my lifelong experience of both sides – being a giver as well as receiver.

True celebration of Guru Purnima would be our overall appreciation of all the good, irrespective of the person’s nature or scope of work! Didn’t we all learn during the Covid pandemic who the real heroes were? Apart from medical fraternity, the municipal employees who provided cleanliness, public transport employees, postal employees, security personnel etc all emerged as heroes, earning our heartfelt gratitude. Therefore, respecting all good around us and learning something new from everyone around is each day, will describe the essence of Guru Purnima in real sense.

Parents, teachers, elders are all our Gurus,

But they are not the only ones;

From whomsoever we learn anything in life,

Are worthy of our gratitude in tons!

My readers would recall my earlier post on IDFC Bank, celebrating their great initiative in abolishing all the charges relating to saving bank account. 

They must have felt buoyed by encouraging response to their above initiative to go a step further as evidenced from full page ad that has appeared in leading dailies. They have introduced auto sweep in from SB account, unlimited withdrawal from CA as long as balance is there, no minimum balance requirement, no penalty on FD breakage and FD breakage allowed in units of Re1. While most of the banks offer these products and features, IDFC offering is more lucrative and customer friendly. 

We all talk about disruption, but here’s IDFC Bank causing a big disruption in the market that should ensure faster than normal growth of CASA franchise for them. I am sure that they must have done their proper homework to assess the loss of income due to abolition of charges to be offset by additional float and business volumes. 

My best wishes to the team IDFC for a great journey ahead. Although I have no relationship of any sort with IDFC Bank, their initiative is something that’s very close to my heart. As a banker, I have always felt that deposit customers should be encouraged to save and offered other products without the Damocles sword of charges hanging on their heads. But everything free also carries the risk of people just opening another account for the heck of it and such accounts with small balances would then lie dormant, causing unnecessary and loss making baggage for the bank to carry in its books. However, with proper monitoring, customer engagement and cross selling, this could be a winning proposition for IDFC and I wish them well.

Now that I have retired from active service and have time in hand to pursue things that I always wanted to, I am trying to catch up with things that I missed out on. This includes watching certain programmes that I had caught glimpses of earlier and liked, but couldn’t really maintain consistency. While surfing YouTube, I came across one such programme Guftagu that used to be telecast on now defunct Rajya Sabha TV. During my working days, once in a while channel surfing would take me to RSTV and I’d immensely enjoy programmes being telecast there, especially music and talk shows. Guftagu hosted by Syed Mohd Irfan was one such programme, of which I’d watch stray episodes, whenever I’d come across one during such surfings.

Luckily, now I discover that all the episodes are available on YouTube and I have been keenly watching them one by one.

What makes this show unique is its sincere and honest format bereft of any razzmatazz that is so typical of private channels, especially news channels. The tone is neither cacophonous nor scandalous. Conversations are heart to heart, move logically and give sufficient opportunity to interviewees to open out. And I have seen some of the celebrities openly confessing to mistakes made by them that eclipsed their success, a rarity in talk shows. Above all, it’s the very relaxed, polished and empathetic style of the host and presenter Syed Mohd Irfan that adds a great deal of sophistication to the proceedings. He comes well prepared, poses right questions and is very proficient in Hindi and Urdu. Another great thing about the programme is that it not only focuses on well established and reputed actors and film personalities, but also covers small time side actors. Recently I watched episodes on Lalit Tiwari ( who played the part of Sanjay in epic TV serial Mahabharat) and Birbal ( a small time comedian known for his buffoonery), which really warmed the cockles of my heart. Their struggle and all round talent was unbelievable, credit for which solely goes to Irfan for putting them at ease and then making them empty their hearts out.

I recently connected with the great man Irfan to check the possibility of revival of his top class show. He replied in negative. While his erstwhile channel RSTV might have ceased to exist having merged with LSTV to become Sansad TV, I plan to share this feedback blog on Guftagu and it’s host Irfan with Sony TV, who are open to promoting lots of newer concepts. I exhort my readers to watch a few episodes of Guftagu themselves and decide whether my impression of the programme and its presenter is exaggerated, idolatry or realistic?

I distinctly recall, it was 1973, when my grandfather had retired and he had to vacate company accommodation provided to him at a very prime locality in Karol Bagh. Of all the places, he chose to move to Krishna Nagar, a business-cum-residential hub in the trans Yamuna area. From the swanky markets of Karol Bagh to crowded narrow lanes of Krishna Nagar, it was a let down for me, who as a child would frequently go to my grandparents place whenever schools were closed.

However, while the main market of Lal Quarter was congested and roads were narrow, once you were off Lal Quarter, galis (as the residential streets were called) were relatively quiet, with beautiful independent houses lined up on both sides. Besides, it was cheaper than upmarket Karol Bagh and I along with my other cousins would binge on great street food!

And the kite flying festival in Delhi that peaks on 15th August, was a virtual celebration galore in Krishna Nagar with every terrace having kite flying experts and the sky filled with colourful kites! We would climb up the terrace after morning cuppa and all our meals be served there itself. We would come down only after darkness made it impossible to fly kite any longer.

And Lal Quarter would be decked up like a bride, days before a major festival – Rakshabandhan, Diwali, Holi, Navratri etc.

Of course, there were some very strong negatives associated with the Krishna Nagar. It’s open drainage and toilets with septic tanks were big show stoppers. Flies would not leave you in spite of all the effort spent on cleanliness. And power cuts were more frequent ( compared to south Delhi colonies), making peak summer days and nights very distressing! Yet there was something charming about Krishna Nagar- sort of an old world charm – shops selling traditional goods and food stuff, friendly neighbours, culturally alive etc. All these in a way made up for infrastructure bottlenecks.

As the family grew and older generation departed, Krishna Nagar house didn’t suffice the requirements and it was sold. I haven’t had the opportunity of going back there for more than last 20 years. I am told that while several infrastructural improvements have since happened, the place has become even more congested and commercialised and Lal Quarter is now virtually cut off for vehicular traffic.

It just stuck me yesterday that this is the golden jubilee year of all the memories associated with Krishna Nagar, all of which started in 1973. During one of my future visits, I would like to visit Krishna Nagar to relive some of my childhood memories.

Galvanised by the overwhelming response to my previous post, “Is Meritocracy subjective?”, I feel encouraged to dissect the matter further and write this post as a corollary.

In a class comprising 40 students, not all are equally brilliant or duds and there is a fair distribution. A few of them score A+, a few A and so on and how so hard one may try, one or two fail too and have to repeat the class. But except for those who fail, all others are promoted to next grade and this continues throughout school and college. It’s indeed true that many A graders in school do not do as well in college, which could be attributed to them getting burnt out early or not accustomed to new way of learning that’s not bookish. Moreover, all those who are academically not so bright ( and even those academically bright) could develop other skills – sports, fine arts, technical education et al.

To sum up, assessing capability of any student is a very complex phenomenon and goes much beyond the mere academic scores. And each individual who is otherwise skilled and not bnecessarily academically brilliant , contributes to society and nation as much as anyone else. Therefore, if each human being is unique, the value he or she brings to the table also ought to be unique that cannot be simply quantified by any PMS mechanism. Taking cue from the above example of academic scenario, organisations can consider the following:

(1) Like everyone, except those who fail, is promoted to next grade, similarly organisations can promote everyone to the next level up to say middle management grades. Of course, more meritorious candidates should be provided with an express channel, while others can follow time norms.

(2) Strict meritocracy can be applied while considering promotion to senior management level or large leadership roles. Like all students don’t become civil servants, engineers, doctors or acquire doctorate, similarly every employee in an organisation cannot become CEO or other top management incumbent.

(3) One off brilliance ( a large deal) can be rewarded monetarily- promotion should be given based on sustained performance.

(4) Those not performing up to the desired level can be given message about them having hit a road block as far as future incentives are concerned and can be deployed in more routine jobs. But forced attrition can be avoided.

Humans are humans. Need is to identify their right acumen and potential and use his or her skills accordingly to the optimum benefit of both – the employee as well as the organisation. It will augur well – employee will progress and organisation will prosper.

Today’s Sunday was full of sporting fixtures. However, the things weren’t quite going my way. First Indian team surrendered rather tamely to Australia in one off world cricket test match. The match was over in the first session itself.

Next came Women’s double French Open final, where I was supporting the American- Canadian pair of Townsend – Fernandez, but who lost to the Chinese- Taipei pair, in spite of great beginning.

In the above background, I started watching Djokovic- Ruud final rather nervously as, like everyone else, I wanted Joker to win 23rd slam and create history. My worst fears seemed to be coming true, when Ruud broke Joker’s service in the first game itself. But then the champ played sublime tennis to allay all my fears and apprehensions and made me third time lucky by winning French open, his 23rd grand slam title.

This makes Djokovic a confirmed GOAT – Greatest player of all time and looking at the cut throat competitiveness of modern day tennis, he’s going to remain a GOAT for long time to come! Congratulations Novak.

Sometimes I become confused with the modern day terminology of a simple thing – sincere and efficient employee. We use impressive and mighty words such as meritocracy, talent pool, multi skilled, up skilled, leadership oriented etc to describe or rather differentiate a bright employee from others, the run of the mill types. While it’s alright to differentiate more bright employees from not-so-bright, use more trendy vocabulary to describe them and provide them an accelerated career growth, what astonishes me no end is the element of subjectivity in recognising meritocratic employees. Is a good employee generally good for any organisation or is only subjectively good – only under a particular boss, in a specific role or a department and during a particular tenure? 

I am not questioning any organisation, system or an individual here, but just wondering at the manner of assessing an employee’s capability! In a long career span, my experience as a boss and subordinate has been that a good hand is generally good , barring minor occasional blips, because after all, we are all humans and not machines. But over a medium to long term average, a good employee will largely prove to be good. 

What has provoked me to write this post are certain instances, where employees once considered 24 carat gold with great careers going for them, suddenly fell out of favour and became disposable. While they might not have hit such low levels to be asked by the organisation to leave and go, circumstances became such that they no longer could continue and had to bring their once fledgling careers to a rather premature end. While it’s true that an organisation is much bigger than any individual and organisations survive and thrive, notwithstanding the exit of individuals, it’s unfortunate when a hardworking, sincere, knowledgeable, dependable and someone with a great career ahead has to call it a day for something that was eminently avoidable in first place was at best flimsy! Let’s create more robust platforms for assessing individuals so that there services can be availed of by organisations for long time to their mutual benefit.