What's life?!? Excel Sheet or Power Point?!?

It's a cliched topic. It has come up in many ways than we have thought. But the intensity and relevance of it came to me with my new work life. There was a duality, a conflict, that I was beginning to notice. The conflict between the creative and the disciplined use of my mind.

The new work commands that I invest almost half of my energy into creative thinking and the other half into something that needs a strict, disciplined approach of mind to succeed in it. Reading a Business World report on some of the industry leaders like Mittal, Ambani, Tata and others, I realized that even these guys are called in to manage similar conflicts, albeit on a larger scale with rampant consequences. On one hand they need to continuously innovate to stay alive in the industry and at the same time operate with the ISO discipline to sustain and achieve the objectives.

Lets deal with the creative part first. Its a delight that one is called upon to establish his creative credentials. All of us know that creativity does not lend itself to right-wrong approach and as such it may at the most display a degree of acceptance like Good, Better and Best. And in turn show dominant trends of successes and failures. Creativity requires that we are relaxed, informed, aware of our surroundings for critical inputs coupled with a penchant for finding alternative solutions. Work pressure and the consequent stress is the greatest enemy of creativity. Targets, deadlines, time-lines, meetings, commitments create stress and pressure. With stress, creativity takes a beating. It starts a panic race to reach the goals (however one can dispute this by quoting several incidents where stress and pressure have infact brought out some hidden creative solutions) However, work pressure cannot be completely ruled out of work life.

But what is equally and perhaps more dangerous than the work pressure is, the WORK itself. The kind of work we do largely decides how effective we are as creative individuals. And that brings me to the next part of my work that requires a discipline. It has structures. It has rules and whole lot of repetitive and mundane tasks that include Ctrl +C, Ctrl+ V, Alt +F and so on. Often they wear-out the mind leaving me with no energy to think creatively.

And all this comes in a Time bomb. Yes, time is yet another enemy of creativity. The 9.30 to 5.30 job that commands the world with entry and exit points at work place. On top of it, if you happen to have something called as the task sheet, you can be sure, it is tailor made to kill your creativity. Task sheets look so nice to look at. The serial no., particulars, time, day, status of the work given, et al. They tell the story of "a day in the life of an employee". But the point is missed. The entire life gets tasked. A task sheet is a huge structure and structures do not take kindly to creativity. Over a period of time, the organization will have huge number of sheets that display what the employee was doing but not what he could have done if he had been given a free mind to work. Creativity requires free mind and by implication some free time. Accepting the fact that organizations do not have unlimited time, there needs to be a system in place that makes space for creativity.

And till I resolve the conflict, the work goes on as usual.

Indian Love: A colourful display of romance

Is Indian love any different from the other cultures in the world. Is the question relevant?

The other day, I was watching a movie on HBO, where the man bends forward effortlessly to kiss his ladycharming. The sheer spontaneity and the ease with which it was done made the shot almost a non-event. They say art mirrors life. The western life mirrors it as well as the Indian. What am I getting at? Well really trying to know if this can be a hypothesis. Not doing any great research though. If indeed its true, then a lot of romantic English and Indian movies will serve to be a great deal of worth.

I was travelling to Goa. On the way in my AC car, a Hindi song was being played. It said.."Milan abhi aadha adhura hai..." from the film Vivaha. The setting is of two about-to-be-married couples dancing in the happiness of their marriage. I was just imagining the entire landscape of the marriage and all its pre-marital excitements, apprehensions and romance. The whole song and dance of the marriage crossed my mind like a happy flowing river. The smiles, the dress, the sheer excitement of it, the unwordable adrenalin push of it. The foreplay was very clear. The song further says.."Kuch batein ho chuki hai..kuch batein abhi hai baaki...bauchar ek padi hai...barasaate abhi hai baaki"... meaning that some talks are done but some more are left....that there is just a drizzle...but the rain is awaited".


Then the song says "Hame milane me sabka sahayog pura hai"... the song acknowledges the role of the elders and family members in bringing them together. In some ways its a celebration of an arranged marriage also, as its usually the elders who play a vital role in arranging for the same.

The Indian classical music represents love and erotica through the melodious rendering of ragas. Certain ragas by their very nature express love, romance and erotica. The Ektaal of the exposition is usually a prolonged appreciation of love and romance. As it extends into Teentaal the final pleasure is conveyed.

A thought crossed my mind that this is what the Indian love stood for as a differentiating entity from the rest of the cultures! A portrayal of love and all its subtleties. Contrast this to the western romance, the urgency for the final act, the "take it easy" approach and in some ways the non-eventishness of it!

Which is good? Again not a relevant question. The underlying societal values give a clue of why love is portrayed and practiced so differently in different cultures. And values can be neither bad nor good. They are just there at some point in the history serving a purpose and some desires of individuals and societies. Infact the mixing of cultures throws up a unique area of study of how love is celebrated among communities and societies.