Thought For the Day - An Essential Question for Human Resource Recruiters

This is my set of game changing questions for recruiters.

1) Candidates must be asked - have you ever fallen in love?

The purpose of this question is clear - does this person knows what it is to love anything. Does he or she know what it is to want anything, to take responsibility for that want and to accept it.

The ones who say Yes, will proceed to next round. The ones who say No will be asked to find something or someone to fall in love before applying again.

2) If you have fallen in love, what have you done about it?

The purpose of this question is pretty simple - to know what the candidate will do if he or she wants something.

Those who did something will proceed further irrespective of the fact that their proposals in love may have been rejected or accepted. Those who didn't do anything will be asked to go and do something about the loose end and come back. No point having people who want something and don't have the courage or conviction to do something about it.

3) If you got rejected, what did you do about it?

The purpose of this question is simple - will you handle rejection and work around it so you get what you want or will you give up, sulk and go home like a loser.

Those who do something about the rejection and persist will be selected - irrespective of the result. It's the attitude that matters. Those who have given up at the first sign of rejection, will be asked to rethink their strategies in life to counter obstacles. You see there will be many.

This question, if made mandatory, will make many people clear about what they want, what they love, and push them to do something about it. This will help not only in the birth of many love stories that never took off, happier people and couples and certainly a population that is clear about what it wants. After all its better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all as Alfred Lord Tennyson said.

P.S. One could use this set of questions on writers too because they face rejections as well - but they are a morose lot so perhaps you could skip them at the very beginnng itself.

Hullaballoo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures - Movie Review

One of those films that was probably based on an inspiration that one gets from real life. An old palace is the centre of activity - there are some priceless miniature art works there and many who want to steal them.

The Maharaja (Victor Banerjee) himself could do with some money, so does his sister (Aparna Sen), so does the American collector and the British collector. But they find out its not easy.

As with all Ismail Merchant movies, India is shown beautifully. You could just watch scenes of the palace again and again.

Anjali - Let's Go Jogging

Yesterday evening I told Anjali I wanted to go to the park for a run. She could come along with me. Over the past two months I slowly increased my exercise routine from a walk plus 100 meters, 200 meters, 300 meters, to 500 meters to about 1 km now. I am enjoying it too.

Anjali appeared in a few minutes dressed in her sporty attire complete with sports shoes. I was surprised. I thought she would sit around and watch the birds and flowers.

'I want to run with you Nanna,' she said.

We walked to the park. I told her to run as much as she could and that I would run the great distance of 1 km at my own pace. She could break off whenever she wants.
'Ok,' she said amicably and ran alongside me.

She ran faster than I did, came back, caught up with me again, chatted me up.
'I won't talk much,' I told her. 'I need to save my breath.'

'Oh,' she said and ran off. She came running back again.
'You're not lifting your knees high enough,' she told me. 'Take bigger strides.'
I smiled. Grimaced rather.

If I could, I would have.
'Look at me,' she said, showing how easily she was doing it.
I smiled again.

After a while I told her. 'Ok, if you're tired, stop.'

'No, I will run,' she said. She tired a bit. She walked alongside me, ran and caught up with me, fell back when she tired again, but she kept coming.

After some more time I told her again to take it easy. This time she was not happy.
'Arre, I am running no. Let me run. Why do you want to stop me?'

I realised what I was doing. I was giving her the easy way out with my assumption that she could not handle it. But not only did she finish the entire distance - run and walk -she also found ways to tackle to the up and down slopes.
'Take it easy on the down slopes,' she said. 'They take more energy.'

Later, we both sat on the steps sweating it out.
'I am sweating like a pig,' she said smiling with that deep satisfaction one gets after achieving something. I love that feeling too when you have sweat pouring down after a run- a public validation of your effort. It's heavenly. And she almost did not experience it thanks to me.

How many times do we take that pleasure away from them I wonder.

I was surprised at her stubborn attitude to finishing the distance, despite her tired, stumbling manner in the end. There's so much they bring to the table - and we just keeping blocking them again and again. To be more aware now - of my own limitations in the mind.

P.V.Sindhu - Amazing Grace

In the first game I saw of hers at Rio I was amazed at her fitness. Sindhu looked sharp as an arrow and had that spring, that coil in the step that separated her from almost everybody in the Olympic badminton court. After watching the first game I knew she was way more prepared than most physically, skill wise and mentally. As she won game after game, it was even more obvious that this was no fluke - this was deliberate and cold blooded planning and preparation that was paying off. She trained well beyond what the top players do in every way - including tactically and strategically.

Sindhu was just better prepared - a result of all the sacrifices she and her coach, her support staff and family put in over the years. And in that one week that mattered, when India was struggling to save face on the medals tally, she just expressed herself and gave us something to hope for. She completely surrendered to her coach, frequently looking for an idea, an inspiration. And without doubt she gave it her all. She checked every box she could and it required someone of Marin's expertise and experience to go past her - barely. Sindhu gave it her all and that was so obvious. Fantastic effort, approach and great mindset.

It was the small things that I guess I will remember her for. Her amazing grace as he handled the press, the pressure, the felicitations, the constant demands on her time. Her smile, her exuberance, her enthusiasm, her transparent clear being, her patience, her humility. And she is 21.

This grace I suppose comes out of being so clear and free of doubt, of resentment, of complaints, of all the negative things that we have heard from celebrities - crib, crib, crib etc. She enjoys herself. She celebrates the moment, life. Fantastic.

Sindhu will win and achieve what she deserves in the future but with such a lovely attitude to life and to her work, she is already a winner. It is also an attitude that so many of today's younger generation - the brat pack - can imbibe. Attitude is one thing, rudeness another. Sindhu's attitude always kept the game and the opponent above her. Even after that disappointing end to the final after giving it her all, she did not behave badly despite having every reason to. She walked up to Marin showing no ego at all, congratulated her and helped her to her feet, even took her racket out of the way while stepping off the court. She worked hard with a discipline that is unbelievable. Coach Gopichand said that never once in all these 12 or more years did she come late for a session - starting at 3 in the morning to get there by 4. More importantly, her complete surrender to the coach.

So many of the right things to imbibe, if one wants to. But for now amazing work Sindhu. And an amazing smile that says it all. 

Champion of Champions - Pullela Gopichand

It's been a while since Rio, but it's never too late to laud Pullela Gopichand and his magnificent efforts. He stands tall amongst all the star players and star coaches across all games in India for the simple reason that he not only played and performed at the highest level but actually gave back ten, twenty times more to the game after his playing days. Most star players sink back into comfortable jobs or take up temporary jobs as coaches or mentors. If they are cricketers they become administrators, owners of teams, businessmen. Or become politicians or TV/movie  personalities.

But only in Gopichand's case have we come across a player-coach who has used his knowledge of the craft to take the game that gave him so much, ten steps further. It's easy to give up and sink back into a life of a has-been. One will get some job or another as coach or something and things will keep going. One can easily blame the system and sit back and become pot bellied.

But that's not what Gopichand chose. His focus on setting up the academy. His vision. His demanding work ethic of which so much is spoken of now. His desire to produce champions who will win glory for India. All this is a single man's vision with little or no support from those who matter. He did not give up when there were obstacles. He dug deep and found the finances, set up the academy, brought it to reality and did not stop there. He followed through and actually produced not one but a line of champions who know what it takes to be a champion now. In Rio, it was pretty much Hyderabad versus the Rest of the World.

One little kid sees Sindhu or Kidambi at the academy, sees what they have achieved and the kid will do all that the two champions do. We need role models and badly. And Gopichand has shown the way. As have the other coaches. But there is a certain something about Gopi that sets him apart.

His humility and innate dignity certainly. His manner of letting his work speak for itself. He is very balanced, calm and centered. One heard of that story when he apparently refused  to endorse a soft drink company because it was not a good product for any child to drink. Who has this kind of conviction? These are the real heroes who show it by being who they are, by demonstrating through their acts repeatedly that heroism is not thumping your chests, its in showing what you are made of when the chips are against you, when it is easy to take a call no one would have minded.

To train as hard as his wards in the run up to the Olympics, to prepare with such intense focus, to deliver under such pressure, to keep his calm all through it, I do believe Gopichand deserves a special award - one that is given to player-coaches who have not produced one but a line of champions, who have taken what they got and increased it ten levels. But there is no hurry for it. He can wait for another decade by which time Gopichand would put India on the gold medal map across tournaments surely, many times over. I have no doubt about that. He will be undoubtedly the coach of coaches, the champion of champions.

For now, one can only salute such conviction and determination, such deep understanding of the craft and of the coaching skill. And mostly for being a real role model, a real hero in a world full of fake ones.

A Love Story Like No Other - Man Carries Wife's Body for 12 Kms

I read this gut wrenching story recently of a man who carried his wife's dead body for 12 kms after she died of tuberculosis in an Orissa hospital. He was not provided any transport to take the body home and had no money to take her otherwise. The hospital authorities told him to remove the body and he could think of nothing else to do. Dana Majhi's village was 60 kms away from Bhawanipatna town in Orissa.

It is irrelevant to discuss the technicalities about how he started his long trek with such a heavy to carry - because no one really seemed to have helped him until after 12 kms.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-37183011

Whatever transpired - Dana Majhi decided that if he had to cremate his wife Amang Majhi with some modicum of dignity - he had better head back to his village - even if he had to carry her all the way for days. He had with him his weeping 12 year old daughter Chaula, who walked along with him.

I wondered what would make a man decided to carry his wife's body for 60 kms. It is quite evident that whether anyone helped or not, Dana, would have carried his wife's mortal remains to the village. How many would even think of doing anything like that? How many would carry a loved one for a few hundred metres? How many would leave the body at the hospital? How many would think of many ways to dispose of this burden and disappear? How many weird ideas would an urban mind think of in a situation like this?

Whether Dana loved Amang in our conventional filmy sense of love or not, the very act of carrying her back to their village against such physical odds, speaks of a love that has no name, that cannot be contained in words. It is also futile to ask of him as some reporters do - if he did it for love? It transcends questions, words. It's an act, for its sheer innocence, simple mindedness and incredible courage, that transcends what any man would do.

I have read, seen and heard some stories of great love, but this one, rises above all. Amang's soul, would be a happy one, to see what her husband was doing for her. 

Thought for the Day - The Connection Between Knowing What You Want And Love

The question - do you know what you want - is a rather difficult question for many. Just as - do you love what you are doing is too.

When we operate from a space of love there is decisive action, there is a clear 'I want that', and all action comes from that space. When we operate from the opposite of love, i.e. fear, we do not know what we want. We only know what we don't want. There is no decisive action. There is subsequent misery too, be it a job, a relationship, work etc.

The test then is to see where one is operating from - love or fear.

The person who operates from love is clear about what he or she wants and is willing to go to any length for it. The person who operates out of fear is unclear about what he or she wants, and is only trying to find excuses for every half-act or non-act.

The choice is always between love and fear. Love enhances. Fear diminishes.