New Year and all that

‘Happy New Year to you’

That is a statement fit only for a CEO to blurt out in one of those strategy meetings. ‘Let’s target to be the number one provider of Dog food by so and so year’, the CEO says leaving the rest of the team to wonder how in the hell they are going to meet that objective. How do we go about being number one in the market? What does it mean at a ground level? The CEO can never bother about that and that’s the reason the rest of us have our jobs. We need to work out the details ourselves. We need to constantly remind ourselves that the target is to be number one and therefore that mindset needs to reflect in all of our thoughts, behaviors, discussions, decisions and actions. The CEO visualizes and depends on the rest of the team to actualize the vision. There are posters pasted all around the office proclaiming the vision and serving us the reminder day in and day out. We see that every day and we are expected to work accordingly. At the end of the period for which the vision held good, the whole company rejoices at the success - or analyses the result to see if trying to be number one at least got the company to a level that is reasonably better than where it was. If it is, then it is good for all. “We just need to work some more before we become number one”, the CEO says.

New Year wishes are like that. It is not as if New Year is going to pass in one moment [Actually it does. Hopefully that is not what people mean when they say ‘new’ year]. It is then broken down into months, weeks, days, hours, seconds, milliseconds, moments and so on. How do we then break down the wishes into the details? How do we ensure that the happiness is built ground up leading to a ‘Happy Year’ at the end of it? Why is not someone wishing us happiness every moment so we are constantly reminded that there are so many people in this world who wish to see us happy, not just on an average for the year but actually every moment of it. No one ever wishes ‘Happy new moment’ and I wonder why?

Well, obviously, people cannot wish each other every moment – they will risk doing just that for the rest of their lives. So they wish us once, December 31st is just incidental, and then leave it to us to remember for the rest of the time that we need to break down the wishes into the ground level details. Consciously or otherwise, our well wishers are visualizing our end state for the coming 365 days. They leave it to us to actualize the vision. The only issue is there are no posters pasted around us to keep reminding that the objective is to be ‘Happy’.

So we forget. We let our thoughts, behaviors, discussions, decisions and actions to wander – not in any particular direction. At the end of the period for which the vision held good, we look back and feel sad that the time has passed without us being happy. And then the reminders come pouring all over again. We wonder if the wishes are sincere at all. How come those wishes never come true, we wonder.

While we appreciate the CEO being hands off once he spells out the vision and take the onus on us to actualize his vision, we fail to take the onus for our own happiness. We appreciate the wishes and stop there. Unlike at work, there is no support staff in life to carry posters wherever we go. And so we forget.

What’s the solution then? I guess the posters have to be in the mind and may be wishing each other at every opportunity could help affirm it more. Either way, as we embark upon the next month, week, day, minute, second and moment it is up to us to keep looking at the poster in our minds that says ‘Be Happy’ and then have the mindset that reflects the vision in our thoughts, behaviors, discussions, decisions and actions. And then at the end of the period, we can see if we have achieved the complete happiness or a level that is reasonably better that where we were a year ago.

Here then, wishing us all a very happy next moment!

Niren

Breaking views!

I was busy the past few weeks with home work, 'class' work and of course watching live telecast of the 'terror' serial on various news channels. It was kind of dejavu for me as I was reminded of the early days of Iraq war of 2003 and watching the live coverage of the war on the various news channels in America. The difference though was, in 2003 the perpetrators of war were broadcasting and in Mumbai 2008 it was the victims of the war who were the broadcasters. As for similarities, there were many. The same underlying insensitivity to the happenings on ground, the shameless passion for sensationalism, 'creation' of news when there was not much to report and so on.

Now, if I were watching all that was being telecast, then what moral right do I have to complain? But it is always interesting to comment on 'isolated incidents'. For example, I realized that my passion for news during the period of terror was similar to my wife's passion for some TV serials. I was going through similar emotional roller coaster as she would have been watching those serials. And then, all of a sudden, I could see that infact the effect of a terror attack on me was similar to the effect of a daily serial on my wife !

Terrorists coming from Pakistan are not usually capable of serials that stretch on for years, whereas the 'serial' terrorists from India are slightly different. They too inject the same dose of fear, hatred, mistrust and anger into every household - but only a small dose each day. What I realized, thanks to our neighbours from Pakistan, is that women of the house are recipients of the daily dose of the above feelings whereas men, who proudly snigger at the daily dose, are capable of receiving the entire dosage in one shot from any enlightening act of terrorism. Not sure who wins - may be no one. I am sure if anybody had won, it'd have been breaking news on one TV channel or the other.

I am harping a bit too much on the topics of television and terrorism, I guess. Now, why do I feel that those are two are but brothers in arms, I cannot seem to be capable of explaining now. May be because terrorism on TV has trivialized the whole act and made people watch it with the same enthusiasm with which they watch a cricket match or TV serial or reality show. Or may be the way our 'news' channels are playing with people's emotions with 'breaking news' every 5 minutes gives the feeling that this is just another one of those extremely long soaps - all compressed into one tight can of aerosol and released in spurts of high intensity and pressure. The resultant effect on people is the same. The emotions linger on for a brief while and as the new characters, new emotions and new(s) stories about some feel-good acts are released onto the masses, the old feelings of anger and rage are replaced or pushed back into the recesses of the mind. And then we are all ready for the next big thing - be it a cricket match, reality show or a new soap! Until the next contingent of our neighbours arrive to spoil the continuum.

It will be dejavu all over again. We keep wondering, trying to recollect when was the last time we had the same feeling about an act of terror and whatever happened to all that anger. While the avid TV watchers quickly identify the current situation with an episode of 'Fear factor' or one of the numerous episodes of any soap, the rest of us simply wake up to the 'important' matters like the 'Great Games' of foreign policy and how one country or the other is keen on protecting it's territorial integrity or cultural ethos or whatever else and so an act of terror on the hapless population of India was inevitable. Or spurious theories are putforth to suggest that some people are just jealous of India's march towards super-power status. Can someone explain these jokers that apes of west are just like rest of the apes? May be on one of the TV talk shows?

Not to really explain my point (which I don't know myself), A doctored version of how discussions went on during the 4 day terror show. (A very cynical viewpoint. But sometimes it is fun to see how far we live by the TV)

1. "Do you know that there are 2 terrorists in Taj"?

"Who says so"?

"It's there on TIMES NOW" !

"No, No. Check NDTV 24X7, there are 4 terrorists in the old wing and two in the new one" !

"You are right. But TIMES NOW has exclusive access to a guest who was supposed to be at Taj but right now at his home"

"Wow" !

"Yeah. And also one of the videographers has actually risked his life to break the police corridor and get us live pictures" !!

"These guys are just amazing" !

"Ridiculous yaar ! They should not be disturbing the police during such times"

"Hey ! We get to see real action on TV only because of such efforts"

2. "Pakistan is the culprit. Pranab Mukherjee said so on AAJ TAK"

"So what are they going to do"

"He is talking tough to Pakistan. There was an exclusive interview on CNNIBN"

"That's the way to go about it"

"Yes. I am happy too with our leaders finally 'talking tough'" ! (No one really knows what talking tough means)

3. "The ISI chief is coming"

"No ! Pakistan made a U turn. He is not coming. Did you not see the breaking news on STAR NEWS"?

"No.. I don't get STAR NEWS. Apparently it is 20 rupees more per month for the STAR Bouquet"

"Now. That's a rip off. It is much better if you take TATA SKY instead of Hathway" (Service operators)

4. "What's news today. I was not able to watch Breakfast news"?

"The captured terrorist is singing. Good thing though is that the English team is coming back for the tests"

"Good. Now he'll spill the beans on Pakistan. Is Flintoff coming too"?

"Yeah.. Yeah.. Kahan jaayega yaar. Saara paisa tho India mein hi hai .. ha ha ha"

"You are right. But what a pity yaar. Ek taraf terroist attack chal raha hai aur doosri taraf cricket? Yeh kaisa tamasha hai"?

"Mumbai is very resilient boss. You just cannot break the will of the people there. Even as South Mumbai was suffering, Navi Mumbai was business as usual. As if nothing happened"

"You are right. No body can break India. And I am sure Dhoni's lucky charm will work this time too and India is going to win the series"

"You are right. It is was also the viewpoint of NaukarRoop Mamdesai on the BAC Channel"

And life goes on.

Amen.


Niren