REVISITING THE EIGHTH OF MARCH

It was the noted playwright author William Shakespeare who popularised the phrase ‘Ides of March’ — the day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to March 15. It acquired notoriety as the date of assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC. And the ides of March continued to be the most talked about date in the month of March. So much so, that an American political drama film was made with the same name in 2011. But with the United Nations declaring March 8 as the International Women’s Day the ides of March seems to be losing its place in terms of popularity. As the UN made this year’s campaign theme ‘Be bold for a change’ resonate around the globe a question that cropped up was why do we celebrate International Women’s Day and for whom? Is it just a symbolism or a serious endeavour? This may not be easy to answer and definitely not a politically correct way to raise an issue. But with many sections of the media making a lot of noise and some of the newspapers coming out with a pink front page and masthead, it appeared as if individuality is still not considered equality. Women’s day celebrations veered around the women achievers, or that is what these women who appeared prominently on the media on international women’s day were termed. Shrieking headlines and catchy slogans all appeared to sing paeans about the accomplishment of the exceptional few. But in the process a gross injustice was meted out to the large majority, the silent class and the real foundation of the societal edifice — the housewife, the homemaker. There is an old saying that not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted. So in the process of counting what could be counted, society missed the point that everything that cannot be counted also counts. It is something like ignoring the contribution of someone like Jonty Rhodes in the one-day cricket. In fact, these days’ experts admit that sloppy fielding is as significant an aspect as batting or bowling in a game of cricket. Catches win matches and runs saved are as crucial as runs made. In case of housewives this can be explained with the help of the concepts of Economics like opportunity cost, replacement cost and the hidden costs such as peace, health and development of children. This is in no way to undermine the importance of the working women but to suggest that the house wife is no less a contributor in the family income and the society. It was some three decades back that a leading business magazine quoted a British survey asserting that the value of a wife was around £ 230 per week. It also quoted the Chase Manhattan Bank claim that a wife was worth US $754 a week. The count is immaterial. What counts is that the count should not be discounted. The methodological considerations notwithstanding, it has to be borne in mind that much of what goes on within the house in unrecorded. Measuring the worth of wife or mother per se is not the issue. What is important is the economic and the psychological services provided by these ladies who are considered not working, yet keep on working. The first to get up and the last to sleep this woman counts a lot and must be counted.

VARANASI: THE SPIRIT LIVES ON

Kashi, as this ancient city was known was much in news these days as the hot political climate of Uttar Pradesh was all charged up with anxieties, aspirations and prophecies. With all that coming to an end and the results almost there, it is time to talk about the heritage of this city, its legacy, its tradition and of course its culture that has survived despite all those onslaughts of so called modernity and development, and even politics survived because Banaras and Banarasi still lives on. What keeps this old city ticking is the life style of its people who still retain much of that eternal charm that a Banarasi is known for. Qualifying for being called a Banarasi has some basic requirements. Fortunately, in the hurly-burly of politicking, that has survived. Visiting the city after a considerable time own with a curiosity of what might have changed ever since the city became the most talked about political address of the country after Delhi. Moving from the sprawling campus of the 100-year-old university of this country, the Banaras Hindu University to the maze of largely encroached roads of the city, where all kinds of vehicles and animals peacefully co-exist, was a unique experience. The crowd has grown; the vehicles have grown but the nature of the movement has not changed. True some of the spacious areas have become crowded but apart from that the other things still remain the same. The pace of the city for instance. The city always had a speed of its own with the happy-go-lucky Banarasi with an easy going life style having no desire for speeding up. Yes, the new generation crowd has acquired some of the traits of the trendiness that qualifies the modern-day youth, but by and large the Banarasi in him lives. So the morning breakfast in the difficult to trail lanes and by lanes of Kachauri Gali and Pakka Mahal is still a treat, the typical kachauri and jalebi symbolised by Ram Bhandar. Even those coming for the first time fancy the culinary attraction of the traditional food that has been a part of the life of this city. Something like the vada pav of Mumbai that makes both the city dweller as well as the visitor hang around in those numerable joints. For the shops selling those, they already make brisk business by the time it is nine in the morning. Similarly, the supper delicacy is still the rabri and the malio that makes one and all throng around those joints. Lassi and rabri continue to be in fashion despite those new MNC products trying to make aggressive in-roads. Then the ghats of Varanasi, the burning ghats like Manikarnika and Harischandra and the pilgrimage centres like Dasashwamedh and Assi still retain much of their prowess to draw people. And the temples, of course, are still the same centres of religious significance they used to be. The Kashi Vishwanath, the Kaal Bhairav, and the Sankat Mochan have the same attraction for one and all. But to cap it all some new initiatives have begun that serve as icing on the cake. The District Cultural Committee has started two very powerful cultural events like Subaho Banaras and Ghat Sandhya at the Assi Ghat that have enlivened the cultural life of this heritage city. So Banaras lives on. Despite changes, despite speed despite the malls, the levies and the politics.

TALKING ABOUT SPIRITUALITY

Spirituality is catching up with the imagination of the present century. Has the wheel turned a full circle? Ancient India was known for spirituality. But with the advent of medieval and then modern, things started changing. The western education model that was popularised by Macaulay was an attempt to drive home the point that Indian spirituality was orthodox, unscientific and backward. It succeeded to quite an extent as science and technology became the language of the nineteenth and the twentieth century pushing spirituality to the back seat. But the twenty-first century appears to be different in the sense that spirituality is once again being talked about loudly. Open up any mainstream daily of English or Hindi and you will find a space dedicated to spirituality. And why just the main stream dailies. The business dailies realise that it pays to be spiritual. The electronic media is no different. Channels dedicated to spirituality are to be found commonly. Even the business management schools are finding the subject of spirituality too attractive to organise national and international seminars, conferences and workshops on. Noted economist John Keynes had once said that a man shall do all the rational things, but only after exploring all other possibilities. Is spirituality, then, that rational thing? Well, it might be. As emptiness and loneliness of people continue to persist despite full coffers, spirituality seems to be the refuge of large sections of humanity. Corporations, too, are talking about spirituality, with spirituality at workplace being a widely discussed subject these days. Taking all these into account there was an international conference organised by a reasonably well known management institute of Varanasi, the School of Management Sciences. The subject they had chosen was ‘Spirituality and Skill for Leadership and Sustainable Management’. While it may not be possible to summarise the deliberations of the conference within the scope of this column, the crux of the subject spirituality was certainly brought out by the eminent speakers that included management consultant, swamis, academics and bishops. This is important as the subject of spirituality is still surrounded by haze despite so much of talking. Spirituality is action. It depends on physical fitness, mental strength and spiritual elevation. Often as we indulge in the psychic extravaganza wasting a lot of valuable mental energy, we seem to lose track. Used properly spirituality is the skill for leadership and sustainable management that is so crucial in the present times. How to acquire this skill then becomes the logical question? It needs to be thought over and there is a hierarchy. From the body, that is the basic level we need to raise our thoughts to the mind that is the next level. It is from this level that we need to rise to the third level which is spirituality and it deals with the soul. Perhaps, why we go wrong is because the moment we hear the word ‘spirituality’, saffron and sanyasi are the two images that come to the mind. But spirituality is not just those. It is much more and sometimes much else. The essence has to be found in the concept of Nishkama Karma of the Gita or as the Western philosopher Kant has put it — moral rigorism, that is duty for the duty’s sake. So, spirituality has to be practised by doing the job one is supposed to do dispassionately. The topic of the conference could well have been spirituality as the skill for leadership and sustainable management.

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.