LIVE IN THE MOMENT

Two of the most common undesirable psychological states of the present times are regrets from the past and anxieties about the future. These mental states are largely controlled by the subconscious. It is a cyclic pattern that keeps on arising one after another and has significant impact on mental and by extension physical health. The outcome of these mental issues are the two emotions of guilt and fear. Guilt for blaming oneself for what could not happen in the past and fear due to anxieties about the future. Essentially, the answer to both of these undesirable emotional states lie in reorienting the thought pattern. See the fallacy of human thinking. Guilt over regrets from the past arises out of the known. Fear due to anxieties arise out of the unknown. This is strange but true. There are undesirable thoughts for both — known and the unknown. What is the reason for this? Why both the known and the unknown keep on troubling the human thinking? Well, that is the basic human nature.

Cravings for what could not be attained and fear for what would not be attained are two sides of the same coin. They are products of the ego that is always restive. Finding out quick fix solutions may not be of any great use, given the unstable nature of the ego that is a bundle of desires. There is nothing inherently wrong with the desires. They are natural and spontaneous, arising due to sensory stimulation. It may be argued that not all desires owe their origin to sensory inputs impinging on the human persona through the various sense organs as human fantasies are also there. But it must be remembered that even those imaginary expectations and beliefs are also manifestations of the sensory inputs. The point, however, is how to get out of the cycle of desires arising out of whatever sources? Is there a way out? The answer is yes. But it requires some kind of a mind control that needs regular training. There is a step by step process for this. The first step is to understand the nature of desire. Why did it arise in the first place? Is it reasonable or fantastic? The fact is that most of the desires are unreasonable. Judging the nature is the trick. The solution lies in looking inwards to know one-self. This is self-awareness which is the first but most important step as the success of other steps are contingent on this.

Self-awareness requires honest focusing on one’s inner self, the strengths, the abilities, the requirements. Through self-awareness, one can realise whether the desire is realistic or unrealistic. The second step is to move ahead and reject the unrealistic desires. Often people get so desperate that they are not able to reject the unrealistic desires, leading to frustration and attendant undesirable emotions. One simple way to tackle this is to delay the gratification. Just push the undesirable to the other day. Gradually, this will help in eliminating the unrealistic desires. Once this is achieved one is left with realistic desires. The attainable ones that can be achieved by reasonable efforts. If the mind can be trained to think in this fashion, the guilt and regrets of the past and fear and anxieties of the future will disappear. One needs to think that past is history and future is mystery. Live in the moment, to the best of your capacity.

CORPORATION AND VALUES

Two of the leading Indian corporations have been in the news recently. That too, for reasons that at best border on controversy and are usually not supposed to be their ways. It was the TATA some time back and now Infosys. In fact, both these organisations have a corporate image around the globe that has been impeccable. Their reputation, their culture are all subject matters of business school curriculum.

The TATA culture, the Infosys way is what the management academic are wont to talk about in classrooms. Though the corporate experts may like us to believe that the issue in the two cases is not the same, yet there is an underlying connecting link. The disapproval of the ways of doing business by the young CEOs who were toeing a different line in the eyes of the company patriarchs. If it was Ratan Tata in case of TATA, who did not approve of many of the actions of Cyrus Mistry, it was Narayana Murthy in case of Infosys who felt Vishal Sikka was not on the right track.

But why are we debating the matters related to the two companies? The simple reason is that these companies had built a reputation for being above board. Ethically driven value based companies, founded for not just business. To use a popular management jargon these were the model corporations. But what is happening is not doing much good to the image of these corporations. That brings us to the basic question — why is this happening? Why the ways of the present day CEOs are not acceptable to company patriarchs? Well, that is the issue. It may not exactly be a clash of egos apparently. But it certainly is a clash of individual values. Values of those who are at the helm with the values of those who were at the helm.

It is against this backdrop that the clash of the Titans of these two corporations has to be seen. When the old order changeth, the flag bearer of that order expects continuity of culture and traditions that was so assiduously developed. But the new order that takes over wants to be in full control. That is to severe the umbilical cord. It is not a question of right and wrong as both will have their approvers and detractors. The question is of the course of action to be taken. A big question that cannot have any impromptu answers.

But there is need to think from a different angle. The angle that is conciliatory. The issue is of managing transition. It is like the generational divide of a family. The old guard has to relinquish charge in favour of the new. It is a situation that is inevitable and has to be accepted in a detached way. Without any trappings. In management literature, this could well be explained by the popular psychology theory of transaction analysis — I am OK, you are OK. In fact, I am OK, you are OK is the ideal life position that is the recommended approach.

Somehow, this state is rather difficult to arrive at because willy-nilly the ego does intervene. We seem to have forgotten the ‘I am OK, you are OK’ stance. Nay, we are not able to accept it as our ego keeps on prompting I am OK, you are not OK. As long as this happens, staying OK may not be easy.

SOCIOLOGY OF WELL-BEING

Health and well-being are of major concern these days as fear psychosis grips our society. The tremendous shift driven by technological advances and over-dependence on diagnostic tools have caused significant changes in the practice of medicine. What used to be a mission driven by the Hippocratic Oath seems to be giving way to commercialisation. Health and well-being have become a big business and corporate hospitals have mushroomed all around. The fancy names and styles, however, seem to be doing precious little as hypochondriasis and neurasthenia seem to be spreading like an epidemic.

The cost of healthcare is rising. Fear of health and well-being is creating anxiety neuroses. There is widespread agony mongering all over driving people to corporate hospitals. But the much-needed succour is missing conspicuously. Interestingly, the major catastrophe facing humanity on the health front is bracketed under one phraseology — lifestyle diseases. Leisure and technology have hardly come to mankind’s rescue. Or maybe they are the reasons for many problems.

In the age of information and social media, the one major casualty has been the gregarious man with the interactive societies that used to be the hallmark of earlier life becoming extinct. Man seems to have acquired power and wealth but at the same time appears to be losing vigour and health. Vulnerabilities are more due to weakening of physical and mental resilience rather than strength and increased resistivity of the microorganisms.

It is against this backdrop that we need to take a look at an interesting chance discovery of the nature of life in the past societies. It is the story of Roseto Valfortore reported by Malcolm Gladwell in his popular book Outliers. The word ‘outlier’ denotes a statistical observation that is markedly different in value from others of the sample. In other words, the odd man out. Roseto Valfortore lies in the Italian province of Foggia. What Gladwell calls The Roseto Mystery is his story about the Rosetans who migrated to America in search of livelihood. As their numbers increased, they created a Roseto in America. Perfectly normal. However, the intriguing aspect reported by the author is the observation of a medical doctor named Wolf, who to his dismay found that during the 1950s, there was hardly anybody from Roseto under the age of 65 dying of heart attack. Those days, cholesterol-lowering drugs and interventionist measures to prevent heart attacks were not even heard of.

Moreover, heart attacks were an epidemic in the United States. Wolf wanted to find out why Rosetans of America were free from the menace. He took help from his sociologist friend John Bruhn. The surprising finding was that there was no suicide, no alcoholism, no drug addiction and very little crime. The people were neither on welfare nor had they any other common diseases like peptic ulcers. The people were only dying of old age. Why this was true was intriguing.

On deeper analysis, the findings were startling. The secret of Roseto was not diet or exercise or genes or location. It was simply the Roseto way to life. The Rosetans visited one another, chatted when they met one another on the streets, and even cooked for one another in their backyards. It was the sociology that made the difference — the powerful, protective social culture that insulated Rosetans from the pressures of the modern world. A culture that fostered love and camaraderie rather than envy and apprehensions.

THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA

The US is in the news. Well, it always is. There was once a popular cliché that “when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold”. May sound a bit exaggerated, but the fact remains that the US presidential elections made more news in many countries than their own.

Even after the elections, the US presidency is the news. Why? Ever since, the US dropped atomic bombs, little boy on Hiroshima and fat boy in Nagasaki, the only time in the world history, the country has been a world leader. The 20th century for all practical purposes was an American century and the 21st will also be. The kind of awe that America inspires globally needs to be understood. Not that the country does not have its weaknesses. It has, and to quite an extent. Yet, its few strengths far outweigh its weaknesses. And the one great strength is its respect for individual liberty, no proof needed whatsoever.

A duly elected President is taking oath of office and a large section of the populace is vehemently protesting this. This is what democracy is all about. Right to dissent is the soul of a vibrant democracy. The President’s first day in office was marked by the largest peaceful protest in the history of that country having a long tradition of democracy of some 22 decades.

The women’s march in Washington was attended by one million women. There were other marches taking place across the country. It was coming together against the stand of an elected President towards minorities and women. His attitude and rhetoric were not acceptable. And such protests have always been a part of the American ethos. Whenever Presidents have taken steps that people thought were not in consonance with the American spirit, they have protested. The people rose against Vietnam war, they protested the attack on Iraq, and are still critical of those decisions. And it is not considered blasphemous to protest against war if people feel it is not justified. There is no rabble rousing.

The people elect their presidents. The people love their presidents, too. But they don’t adore them. The individual has a right to disagree. The individual has a right to vent his disagreement. Of course, there are restrictions but they are truly reasonable, in both letter and spirit. A President attacked Iraq, a Professor made waves globally attacking the President. Noam Chomsky symbolises the spirit of American democracy that is always alive, vibrant and kicking.

It is such an environment that makes the US the most attractive destinations across the globe. It is this environment that attracts merit and allows it to flourish. It is this environment that generates ideas and thoughts which are accepted and emulated worldwide. The failings may be there. But so is flailing.  And the latter makes good the former. Perhaps, this is why the country leads in education, sports, research, and business. Even in wars.

Billionaires use wealth for charity rather than stashing it for their next generation. Universities produce scholars and writers and their knowledge leads the world. Rightly or wrongly, their bombs and nukes also lead the world. There is something about the American ethos that makes its milieu closer to Tagore’s ideas: “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free, into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.