All my life – childhood, student days, professional stint – I have been an audience, listening to parents, elders, teachers, seniors and specialists speakers. I have always been on the other side of the dais , facing speakers. There have been occasions when I have chaired a meeting, but those have been official and the audience comprised team members. That, strictly speaking, didn’t qualify me for being termed as a presenter or a keynote speaker.

This changed the other day when a former colleague, who now stands elevated to the rank of a CEO, invited me to address his team members in an informal session. Having always posed questions to the speakers, it was a pleasant experience when, for a change, the audience posed questions to me and I responded with utmost candour and honesty. The climax of the event came when several youngsters, having bought books authored by me, wanted me to autograph their copies. 

It validated my conviction that years of efforts that we put in and experience that we gain, may not always earn us ready recognition, but would definitely provide some occasion to showcase the same. We need to be patient and do our bit selflessly. 

There are two days in a year when those who have affection for you by virtue of being associated with you remember you. These two occasions are Guru Purnima and Teacher’s Day. To my mind, teacher is more relevant in the context of school and college where several disciplines are taught. Guru is one who shows you the righteous path.

I am neither a subject matter expert nor spiritually evolved to show anyone the right direction. However, number of messages I receive on the aforesaid two occasions endorse the fact that more than lecturing, teaching and mentoring, respectful treatment of your associates is ever more important and one’s consistency in this regard has the power of earning one the accolades of Teacher and Guru. I am humbled by the love and affection bestowed upon me this teachers day.

It’s not unusual for the CEOs to bring in people of their choice in key positions, as a dependable team is an essential prerequisite for achieving the intended objectives. It happens all the time and while the existing senior position holders suffer – they either have to accept less meaty and more subordinated roles or quit altogether, if there’s no role- ultimately, if the organisation benefits, such sacrifices should be acceptable as part of the larger corporate upheaval! 

It’s also true that it’s unfair to expect  the new team to start firing all their cylinders immediately in pursuit of the stated objectives. However, what happens when after passage of sufficient time and availability  of all the required enablers, the team falters and the organisation falls well short of the desired outcomes! 

External factors also play an important role in guiding the direction that an organisation has to take and the impact a few of these factors – regulatory, geopolitical, natural disasters etc  – could neutralise the advantage of having assembled a top cracker of a team! 

To my mind, performance of any organisation is contingent upon several factors – internal as well as external- and instead of placing such a huge reliance on individuals, it could be much more advantageous to keep up the morale of the existing staff complement, simultaneously on boarding talent laterally wherever the internal skills could be lacking ! A cohesive, enthusiastic and charged up team will always deliver and the key man risks are substantially mitigated.

Let me also put in a caveat here that this post is not directed at any specific organisation as the above happens all across at all points of time. 

Search on Google bore no result and I couldn’t find any lyrics having been fitted into the legendary and iconic Come September tune, made everlasting by handsome Rock Hudson and epitome of glamour Gina Lollobrigida in the immortal  eponymous movie that was released in 1961, an year prior to my birth. While I have grown old, the dance movements of the aforesaid two icons shaking to the arguably the most popular piece of music ever, looks and sounds very fresh even after more than 6 decades! And if we all check our WhatsApp messages, we can gauge its popularity by the number of our acquaintances that would have shared the music/video clip today i.e. on 1st September. 

Expectedly, Bollywood had a song on the above tune in by now largely forgotten Aamir Khan  flick , “ Ishq” and the lyrics read –

ओह, अंखिया तू मिला ले राजा
आए है दिन बहार के
अँखियाँ तू चुरा ना राजा
जाए ना दिन यह प्यार के
अँखियों तू मिला ले राजा
आए है दिन बहार के
अँखियाँ तू चुरा ना राजा
जाए ना दिन यह प्यार के
नींद उड़ती है उड़ने भी दे
चेन खोता है खोने भी दे
जान जाती है जाने भी दे
इश्क़ होता है होने भी दे

But I am sure that many attempts to fit in words to the immortal tune must have been made in the past, but having gotten so used to hearing it only instrumentally, the lyrics would only possibly jar the experience. 

Each year, the month of September

Heralds the arrival of autumn;

A gentle transition from heat to wetness,

To winter, a season most solemn.

Additionally, the beginning of the month

Takes us down a trip down the memory lane;

When to the tune of iconic Come September ,

Danced every Jack and every Jane! 

Today is Ganesh Chaturthi, celebrating the birth of Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles , the vighnaharta! 

Obstacles come in our way to test the strength of our character. Each obstacle should be seen as a challenge, instead of losing heart and mind over it. We can always overcome any obstacle in our personal and professional lives by striving harder, learning new traits and by adapting to the changing circumstances. If nothing of the above seemingly works, there’s always Lord Ganesha, the Vignaharta, the universal protector! 

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi! Ganpati Bappa Morya! 

Celebrating the spirit of the 79th Independence Day on the 15th August ,  Republic Channel was telecasting the achievements of ordinary people like you me by presenting their contribution and interviews throughout the day. I myself had several engagements on that day, including elaborate Independence Day celebrations in our society and could, therefore, only catch up the aforesaid telecast in bits and pieces.

There’s this person in Delhi who’s teaching a group of underprivileged children from the nearby slums under the protection of a flyover. He has been doing so for past several years. Once the students coached by him reach a certain level of literacy, he takes them to the nearby government schools that admit these children to an appropriate level, depending on their proficiency. He has not taken a single rupee in donation and his feat became famous when PM Modi mentioned him in one of the editions of his “ Mann ki Baat”.

A sarpanch from Rajasthan, upon sad demise of his young daughter, took to planting Kadam trees in his village and neighbourhood. He also made it a mission to plant 111 trees for each girl child born in the village. The result is that the water table that had dipped to thousands of feet in the area has now come right upto the surface and the proportion of girls to boys has improved by 52% in the last few years that the mission started. The sarpanch has become an icon in the area, inspiring several other such stories and for this remarkable contribution of his, he has been honoured with Padmashree award.

A young boy from the local poor family in a village in Assam, started planting bamboo trees after his village faced repeated devastation following the floods and landslides. And over the last 4 decades, his bamboo plantations have become a forest spread over 1300 hectares, attracting birds and beasts and protecting the local village from nature’s curse. He has also been a Padma recipient.

I am sure when these people started their respective mission, the last thing on their mind would have been personal glory or recognition in the form of a Padma award. It was just the selfless spirit to protect humanity, nature, girl child, environment etc and their humble beginnings resulted in such impactful outcomes !

Instead of spending unending hours on social media, posting interesting ( sometimes not so) posts and reels, awaiting reaction to these, reacting to others’ posts and joining conversations (sometimes very acerbic),  I am making sincere effort to regulate my engagement time on social media and looking for something where I can voluntarily offer my services. It may never reach the levels of above mentioned angels, but at least some effort can be made in this direction . I welcome inputs/suggestions from my connections.

As we celebrate 79th Independence Day, we, as responsible nation lovers, must not undermine the need for unity and may be frugality in some sense. We have seen turbulent times – Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor in its aftermath. 50% tariff imposed by US has only complicated the situation. On top of it, unprecedented loss of life and property due to acts of nature – cloud bursts, floods, avalanches etc are all harbingers of the need for all of us to join hands and stand as one. 

Today’s Times of India has a beautiful take on the great poem by Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore , “ Where the mind is without fear” by Bachi Karkaria and indeed we can all walk fearlessly with our heads held high, if we are together. Our defence forces are protecting our borders, but inside we need to stand together, obey the law of the land, set asides our differences by giving each other room to breathe and contribute our two bits towards further strengthening our great nation.

Adding my two bits to the first two  lines borrowed from the aforesaid classic poem by Gurudev:

Where the mind is without fear

And the head is held high

Notwithstanding the hurdles and obstacles 

India is destined to touch the sky! 

Happy Independence Day! 

We all know about the impermanence of everything around us, including life. Yet, certain happenings catch us unawares, causing shock and surprise. 

We have all grown up, using registered post, especially when the snail mail was the order of the day and we didn’t want to take a chance with important communications and documents – job applications, property documents, certificates etc and invariably sent them under the security of registered post that costed more money but assured delivery to the addressee. 

As per news item that I came across today, it’s the end of journey for the good old registered post that’s going to get subsumed within the Speed Post. Speed Post, which is prioritised and faster,  ensures delivery at the given address, unlike registered post that ensures delivery to the addressee. Speed Post now will have the option to add registration as well for an additional amount, I presume.

At this stage of my life, when nostalgia is an overwhelming emotion, the above news has drowned me into the deep nostalgia of my child and youth hoods when registered post was such an important part of life. 

When detaching from such material things is so difficult, we can very well imagine how difficult it would be to detach ourselves from people and things that are intimate part of our lives. But there’s no other option but to move on by overcoming the tinge of sadness that such developments may cause. 

Google gives two dates on which IFD is celebrated – 30th July and 3rd August. I have been receiving Happy Friendship day messages since last two days and therefore, presume it’s alright to write something about IFD today. 

In the matter of friends, I consider myself lucky having quite a few set of time tested friends. The first set consists of school friends and relationship with them goes back to almost six decades. Second set is that of my friends in my first organisation that I was employed in – these are mainly my batchmates and few others whose support in my early professional days made them very special. My batchmates recently celebrated 40 years of our association and 14-15 of them celebrated the anniversary date together at a scenic location. Third set is my last organisation where I spent almost three decades and developed some very close association. This apart, there are other acquaintances, including neighbours, and a few of them certainly qualify to be called friends. 

What makes friendship superior to all other relationships is it being bereft of all formalities, protocols or burden! It’s all about sharing thoughts, views, laughters, sorrows etc without any strings attached.

To quote a few lines by Kahlil Gibran on friendship:

“And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship. 
    And he answered, saying: 
    Your friend is your needs answered. 
    He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. 
    And he is your board and your fireside.
    For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.”

And in my own humble words:

“Life is a roller coaster, 

Full of crests and troughs galore;

 When life is down in dumps,

A friend makes our heart go up and soar! 

Happy international friendship day. 

Four decades ago this day, a bunch of youngsters from varied backgrounds and geographies joined a bank as 1985 batch of probationary officers. While they joined at their respective assigned offices, they met a few days later in Jaipur at the month long induction programme. The bonding and the camaraderie built then has lasted over four decades and a few of them are getting together at a resort near Jaipur to celebrate this togetherness of four decades and relive the magical moment. Of course, a lot of water has flown down the Ganges since then, with many changing jobs, emigrating out and getting on with their respective lives. But the spirit of being together overcomes all this.

An enterprising batchmate, who himself was out of the country for a long time, took the initiative of reconnecting the old pals and has now organised this aforesaid get together or a reunion. I couldn’t make it to the event for personal reasons, but my mind and heart are very much there and the photos being posted on our group site bear the testimony of the fun the group is having. As my own two bits to the event, I have composed a short poem, titled 22/7/85, the date of our joining. It reads:

22/7/1985

A group of youngsters with different backgrounds,

Joined an organisation four decades ago this day;

Filled with zest, hope and belief, 

That life would go their way! 

Life, however, had something else in store,

For each one had to take the different path;

While a few continued their journey there,

A few moved on without knowing the aftermath! 

They got busy with their lives,

Marriage, children and no looking back;

A few remained in touch,

A few others lost the track! 

A few left the country 

And one even this world;

But somehow their bonding persisted,

Even though they seldom exchanged a word!

Social media brought them together,

At this interesting juncture of their life;

They’ve free from professional responsibilities,

But their zest for good things in life is rife! 

A chunk of them are celebrating 40th anniversary,

By being together, reliving the time of yore,

Others are enjoying the reunion from a distance,

And there’s not a moment that’s bore! 

Hairlines have receded and body has slumped,

Even the organisation has ceased to exist;

But long live their camaraderie,

And let this bond of friendship persist! 

Happy joining anniversary and reunion! 

22/7/25

Mumbai