What it takes to lead.....

Leadership......hmmm......sounds tough? One word that keeps a nation on its feet, one word that ensures sanity, security and development and one word that gives a class leader a reason to dominate (What!?). Many articles portray bad examples of leaders such as Adolph Hitler, Saddam and even Bin Laden. But many overlook the fact that Europe trembled during Hitler’s regime, Iraq was a feared nation for its power and oil resources courtesy Saddam and Bin Laden, well, is pretty much running the largest terrorist group (oh, and also the World Record for the longest lasting game of hide and seek with big names such as the FBI, M16, CIA etc. even until today!!!)
Wisdom, shrewdness, guts, the ability to reason and make apt decisions makes a leader truly invincible. It’s not about getting more people to follow, but grooming more leaders. You don’t go around shouting instructions to people, reminding them that you are THE MAN! If you know the way, then people will follow.
Everyone born has a leader in them. Let’s compare leadership to the various phases of man.
When you begin to take the wisp of our beloved atmosphere, you know nothing of where you are, what you are and who you are. Crying is a constant. You know little, and being the empty vessel, you tend to cover up faults with a cranky speech, scream and go supernova hot before your sub-ordinate even thinks to blurt out the words, “But boss......”. This is obviously phase 1.
Phase 2, you’re a kid; you realize that you are in total control of some wiggly things that help you push your mum’s favourite vase. You begin to explore your surroundings, you ask questions that drive people mad; you look, listen and learn.
And the part that really gets you cracking, the teen. Now you know how to bend the power of 1, 2, 3 and A, B, C to your will. You implement your policies and begin to experiment your intellectual acumen. If you succeed, well and good, you gain the trust of those who look to you, and if you flop, it’s obvious that you’re going to get screwed. Either way, you grow in experience, learning from your mistakes and misses.
And finally you’re an adult! Your word is law and you know how to handle situations, people, things etc. but you’re incomplete. With each new day’s passing, your experience grows. As the years go by, you learn the art of getting someone else to do a thing you want done because he or she wants to do it. In the process, you learn to identify and guide people according to your needs.
Last and the most important phase, your followers. What are you going to lead, if they aren’t in the picture? Leonidas wouldn’t have made his well acclaimed Persian sushi festival a grand success, if not for his 300 fellow Spartans. Take anyone for that matter, anyone, the support and faith of your followers is crucial in every step one takes as a leader.
Be it an army of men donning red capes and leather undershorts with a thirst for the clash of metal and bones or an elite group of executives of a multi-billion dollar industry, an ideal leader would infuse an element of pleasure into the job, which would give him/her, the perfection in work and bring out creativity.
But sadly, today’s so-called leaders, are either cash magnets, toppers of class tests and nerds, or yes-men and puppets who are made to handle pressure and suppress rational thinking, but not lead.
Success lies in recognizing people, men and women, with the determination and ability to instruct and instigate others into action, which would ultimately allow organizations, (schools and colleges) and industries to function more efficiently, thus building a sustainable and progressive economy.
All of us are leaders, but yet again, the cream is and always will be on the top. Wish for cream or forever dream? It’s up to you.

by Ramesh Rajesh on Saturday, 27 March 2010 at 10:00

NRI - Never Resting Indians

Are you an NRI? Well, if you are one, the attention and expectations are just too hard to miss.The picture that comes to any local resident when asked about an NRI, is a picture where aman/woman, goes to work at state-of-the-art offices in cars they show in MTV’s ‘Pimp MyRide’, lives in a condo, eats exotic cuisines and in short, a life of limitless luxury. Well, if you too think the same, well let me tell you that IT AIN’T WHAT YOU THINK! In my ten years in Abu Dhabi, the true tormenting conditions that one has to face there as an Indian were an eye-opener. The monotony is something like this – work, eat, and sleep. Discrimination in terms of salaries and posting at work places and the so called “Localization” (where you’re fired and local citizen takes up your job) are wide spread – no questions entertained. Several developed nations such as the Gulf countries – United Arab Emirates, SaudiArabia, Qatar, etc. owe us a lot as it was we who helped them to attain their status today. Promised with great, multi-figured salaries, our people are pushed to leave Indian soil by talented conmen and travel agents, who charge a large sum for the visas and passports. And in the end,most of the clients end up as cleaners, porters, construction workers, white-collar engineers etc.With inadequate pay, heavy work load and costly accommodation facilities, the Indians face what I can say as literally hell-on-earth. Some may disagree with me asking, “How about the people who have good jobs and greatlives?” Yes, I do agree that many find themselves in the better half of the balance, but next time you meet someone like that, ask them if they really are enjoying or cherishing their seemingly “happy lives”.It has been in our blood for centuries to pursue our ambitions and achieve them no matter what. As Julius Caesar said, “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff”. The sterner stuff I’m referring to is not just money and glory. It’s the very purpose of one’s life - to pursue happiness. But happiness is nowadays measured in currency units. This as a result, has encouraged us to travel abroad and help prove and improve the well acclaimed and often mentioned topic in X grade economics – “Brain Drain” (where a nation’s technical and scientific minds go to other countries in search better offers to suit their qualifications). So I ask you all, Why not stay in India? Why not work here? Why not pay taxes to build your nation rather than to strife and shed your sweat and blood for the sake of a nation whose gratitude is as tiny as a grain of sand? As educated youth, we spring up with reasons peppered with words like corruption of Governments, cheating by politicians and so on. But how much longer can this ‘blame-game’continue? It’s in our hands to shape our nation and if anything needs to be done, it has to be done now. Let us think of this fact and hopefully, one day, arrive at a decision to uphold that old commercial saying – Be Indian, Buy Indian and also Build Indian and stop being the foot-stool for a foreigner.

by Ramesh Rajesh on Thursday, 18 November 2010 at 10:56

E.T. - A fact or a fiction?

How many of us actually believe in the existence of extra-terrestrial life forms? Well it may be dismissed by many as mere myth or science fiction or even better, I may have the Men in Black trying to hit me with the deneuralizer!, but being men and women of science, I think that we have a strong reason to believe that there exists a civilization either primitive or more advanced than our race waiting to find us or to be discovered.
Most may think that in a world where people are struggling hard to make their opinions heard and heeded to in matters of greater importance such as climate change, food and water crisis, pollution etc., where does the attention to research and contact with alien life stand?
Movies have come about to describe aliens either as ruthless, nerve-numbing killers, as over-smart, or as cute and cuddly bipeds (with courtesy to Steven Spielberg’s E.T.). What many fail to understand is that they too should be thought of beings like us, sentient and intelligent…
Just go to the net and find what you can about aliens. I’m sure most of you would at some point of time, come across words like the Roswell Conspiracy, Area 51, the Bermuda Triangle, and several others clichés linking to it.
In my point, I would say aliens could have been the very reason life on earth came into being. They could be just outside watching us, learning how we evolved into the Nuclear-Bomb wielding self-proclaimed Lords of the Planet Earth, or even among us! Or worse, we could be their science project or something! Just pulling your leg on that one!
The benefits of a fruitful alien contact would not only help us save our ailing planet from the verge of destruction that man has laid waste, but also help us fill in the loop holes and assumptions to the greatest doubts one can put forth in subjects where assumptions rule such as physics, mathematics, astronomy, genetics etc. Not only would we develop our technologies and learn new things but in the process, may also end up sharing some of our knowledge to them.
Yet again, as MTV says, “No pain, no gain my nigga!” There is also a very good chance of an alien invasion, causes for which may be our violent response to their act of kindness (take for example an alien slaps you to say hi and the next second it is lying in a pool of blood with a bullet in its gut).
The very reason for the above to happen lies in the fact that we, humans, have placed ourselves before everything else in this little blue speck in the universe, thinking that we know everything.
Instead of the constant bickering and wars that we hold against ourselves, it would be inevitable to one day realize the importance of advancement in weaponry and defense (leave alone the ol’ trusty nuke!)(Not to hunt down Mr. Osama), but to save our backs when “they” arrive a little hostile.
So the next time you look into the stars, just wish that the day would come when man is no longer a loner in this vast universe, but one among the many diverse beings to inhabit the galaxy.

by Ramesh Rajesh on Saturday, 27 March 2010 at 09:56