POEM: THE RAT RACE

Copyright@shravancharitymission

THE RAT- RACE

In the heat of life,

There was never a summer,

But when the heat was over,

Only the winter got closer.

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In my hectic life,

I was always uptight,

About things that mattered,

And also about things that didn’t matter.

*

In the days of heat,

Life was like a marathon race,

Where some pseudo brainwaves,

Had termed it as a rat race.

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One initially thought,

It’s a onetime race,

But sadly, it turned out to be,

A lifetime of a race.

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Where, the rats were surprised,

That it was some enterprise,

Where man stole the race,

And made it into a rat race,

And that too, without their gaze.

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It all started well,

Like the string of jingle bells,

But soon the jingle was over,

And you were left as a rover.

*

There was so much to do,

And so much to improve,

Where I had my own dreams,

To brew and stew,

Until one day I realised,

I had a career to pursue.

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Between the race and career,

Man had no breather,

Soon he became a teaser,

And with that a big schemer.

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That resulted in endless pursuits,

And pointless disputes,

Bereft of generosity,

And full of ferocity,

Where humans were estranged,

And demons were ordained.

*

From exhaustive to repetitive lifestyle,

To loads of competition,

Until one day I realised,

Sanity was about to get paralysed.

*

As the stance of life was changing,

Where heat was evaporating,

Where winter was upstaging,

Grace was receding,

And where time was forsaking.

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Is when I asked the creator,

What happens now?

When heat becomes cold,

Summer becomes winter,

Hectic become skeptic,

And I become rustic.

*

Nothing said the creator,

As good sense of life is always greater,

Then the rat race,

That happens to be a crater,

And in disguise a hater.

*

So come out of the it,

To live in the winter,

That also has a summer,

That also has a shelter.

*

For rat race is just a phase,

And phase should not be a craze,

And the ultimate is encased,

In the wisdom of faith.

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By Kamlesh Tripathi

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ARTICLE: BOSSGIRI

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

    The word ‘boss’ is perhaps the most dreaded word in any company. We all deal with various kinds of bosses in our career. I too have dealt with many in the past. And, the very word as if pyramids seamlessly on words like the ‘leader’ and the ‘coach’ as if it is God gifted to the hierarchy—the Boss. But that is certainly not the case.

    In my long career, I too worked with a variety of bosses where each boss had his own SWOT to mull. I often pondered if the boss is a collective strength of his subordinates, his qualification, his talent and experience. And in the same ratiocination what is the subordinate then? But answers were not quite visible.

    In the long corporate saga of every executive, that keeps un-folding, from time to time it will be interesting to observe the type of bosses you come across. Some bosses are oven-baked with qualities of leadership and are excellent coaches. They are not stuck-up on hierarchy; and are devoid of any hangover about their tall qualification, wide experience and seniority. But a majority of bosses may not be like this.

    During my long innings, I interfaced various kinds of bosses. I also took adequate pains to study the bosses of my colleagues and always kept an eye on my boss’s boss and never deviated from keeping my focus on the top boss, from where, actually, the culture of the organisation flowed.

    Often HR granularly defines the KRAs of each functionary in the company but the gray area remains—the delicate relationship between the boss and the subordinate as there is always something ‘intra’ about it.

    A successful boss is a person who can extract the maximum out of the ambience in the given environment. And for that to happen optimum tuning is required with the team. But, sadly some bosses only keep cribbing about the capabilities of their subordinates. Conversely subordinates tend to perform better if the boss is approachable and can add value in problem solving and for sure possesses the art of debottlenecking. This requires both soft skills and talent and bosses who don’t have this in abundance, usually confine themselves to isolation.  

    While dealing with your boss try and get to know more about the behavioural side of him. For all you know he might have feudalistic tendencies in him where he might consider you more of a constituent then a co-worker. Such bosses are like tyrants and they prefer sycophancy to merit. One can call them feudal bosses. Then there are some bosses who are soft by nature and don’t demand too much out of you, nor reprimand you, but they never ever do anything for you considering your worthiness. One can christen them as frigid bosses.

    The third variety are the ones who give their subordinates enough space to move around and train on the job, but do not extend a helping hand in training you; but overall they are concerned about you and have a magnanimous heart. They are also open to learning from you on a selective basis.

    But the most spectacular variety, are the ones who not only demand work out of their subordinates, but also keep coaching them to perform better. They also have the talent to train you on the job in case you are not skilled to perform the task. This is the prized catch: Boss+talent+coach.

    In this digital and high-tech world where talent is replacing experience every moment, the line between the boss and the subordinate is only getting hazier. There is need for bosses to move from ‘Bossgiri’ to a talent retentive boss.

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SHORT STORY: JOB RESPONSIBILITY OF GOD

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

    Long time ago there lived a king, who was truly righteous but extremely arrogant. One day, he called his Prime Minister and said,

    ‘I have a doubt that keeps bothering me. And as you know, in this universe everyone has a fixed job to do just like, a king is supposed to rule, a soldier’s job is to fight, a trader is supposed to trade, teacher is supposed to teach, a preacher is supposed to preach and even the rest of the civilisation have prescribed jobs to do.

    And there is the law of the universe. In the same manner the person who runs this universe also must be having a definite job to do about which I know nothing. So please tell me what is the job of the person who runs the universe—God.’   

    Prime Minister had no answer to this as no one had ever asked him a question like this. But he attempted.

    ‘Your Majesty, no one knows the answer to this question, and neither, it is mentioned in any book—as the job of God.’

   And, since he was an extremely cunning person he thought for a moment and added, ‘But your question is quite justified, as this question came to my mind also several times, but since my job is to advise you to help you run the administration, so I didn’t bother to ask. And these are spiritual issues where I  think the Raj-Purohit (Chief-Priest) will be in a better position to give an apt answer.’

    And after expressing his views he very strategically left the place immediately, leaving the entire responsibility of answering the question completely on the Raj-Purohit.

    When the king posed the same question to the -Purohit Raj he got bewildered, as no one had ever asked him such a question, and no one knew the exact job of God. And everyone only knew to the extent they had read in the books, and even in the books there was no separate information about God’s job responsibility.

    But the King specifically wanted an answer to his question. Raj-Purohit didn’t want to offend the King, so he sought a week’s time.

    King agreed, and said, ‘okay, but I need a comprehensive reply to my question.’ Raj-Purohit went home. And in the next one week he went to all the libraries and went through all the books that he could lay his hands on, but he could not get a comprehensive answer to this question.

    By the end of the week he was mentally quite exhausted. So he went out of the city and sat under a tree and started thinking, how will he show his face to the King tomorrow, or should he leave the kingdom and flee.

    One shepherd boy who was grazing his sheep there, saw the Raj-Purohit sitting there in a pensive mood and recognised him. He asked, ‘why are you looking so sad?’ The Raj-Purohit replied, ‘child you please do your work, as I have some spiritual work to handle.’

    But, when the child assertively asked again, the Raj-Purohit narrated his problem, knowing full well, the boy will not be able to solve his problem.

    ‘Raj-Purohit ji, if you are troubled only because of this small problem, then please go home and relax, and tell the King this shepherd boy knows the answer to his question.’

     Upon hearing this, the Raj-Purohit was stunned, because even the most renowned scholars of the kingdom didn’t know the answer to this question. He pleaded to the boy to let him know the answer, but the child insisted he would tell the king himself, the answer to question.

    A bit relaxed, Raj-Purohit left for home. Next day when he reached the King’s court the king repeated his question and with great amount of eagerness he waited for the answer, but was flabbergasted to hear that the answer to his question was available with a shepherd boy. He immediately ordered for the child to be there. The boy arrived at the King’s court in great enthusiasm.

    And, everyone looked at him with a great amount of disgust, but also waited for the valuable words to come out of his mouth. The king asked, ‘Oh shepherd boy! Do you know the answer to my question that even the renowned scholars sitting in my court don’t know? So tell me what you know about this topic?

    The shepherd boy hesitated for some moments and then said, “Respected, before I answer your question I wish I be given the right kind of seat to sit. Because, as far as this query is concerned, you are the student and I’m the teacher, for I’ll provide you with that knowledge. And in principle the seat of the teacher should be higher than that of the student, but it is not the case here.

    On hearing this everyone started whispering in an appreciative manner about the boy. The King also felt some truth is his statement. After a few moments the King vacated his throne and requested the shepherd boy to occupy it, after which he eagerly started waiting for the answer while looking at him.

    But the boy after sitting on the throne went quiet and started enjoying the great feel, while perched on it. The King got restless and in an arrogant tone shouted, ‘Oh you child, will you answer now, what is the job of God?’ the boy looked at the King and peacefully asked, ‘what answer?’ and on hearing this, all present in the King’s court got stunned. The boy then said, ‘the job of God is to put down the arrogant and lift the humble.’

 This story is one out of the thousand stories of Puran (mythological scriptures) that is still relevant even today as it was in those days.

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