Quo Vadis?

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory is something that stuck with me from my MBA needs. We learnt this as part of Organizational Behaviour and how motivation revolved around people finding themselves at different level of needs and so the motivation strategies should be aligned with the level the person is in currently.  If the theory is new to you I will lay it out in simple terms. Man begins with physiological needs, physiological means basic needs to survive like air, water, food, shelter, clothes and reproduction. When a man is not having food to eat will a movie ticket that cannot be sold enthuse him? If you see the image once man achieves his need in one level, he strives to move ahead to the next level. This ascent is natural and ends at the fifth level when man achieves what is called self-actualization where he will be in nirvana and will renounce everything around him. Few achieve stage five, many are content with one of the lower levels and this is normal. What is abnorma...

You walk into a party and the person next to you smells of Hugo Boss but you like Sauvage, you actually cannot stand Boss, what will you do? Remember you do not know the person well, nor do you have any care for his well-being. It is just that you are sure that your Sauvage is always superior to his Boss. Would you then… -           Probably go and tell him have you tried Sauvage? Or why don’t you try Sauvage because of its merits? -           Probably gift him a bottle of Sauvage for an upcoming event so that he can try it for himself and see the benefits? -       Probably call people together and say everyone smell his Boss and my Sauvage and tell everyone which is better? It better be Sauvage. -           Probably go and tell him, you will not wear Boss because you think that Boss is not good and more importantly Boss offends you? -   ...

On a day when we have moved up to third place in the Global Hall of Infamy, when some experts are claiming that the virus is airborne and masks may be needed indoors, we have started Unlock 2.0 In the absence of a viable cure and the highly suspect efficiency of the upcoming vaccines that are to be launched on Independence Day the only option seems to be locking up but it is not possible as it is now about the real type of survival, the fight to put food on the table. COVID then will have to take second place only. The news in Chennai right now is that the traffic is heavy and people are back to work with a vengeance. The heart goes out to all the professionals whose professions have disappeared overnight with little chance of resuming in the old formats. Bookmyshow for instance is now trying hard to sell me tickets to so many events including some happening from people’s homes. Personally I feel we should accept the situation for what it is and with that acceptance we...

We are on the first of July, we are on the thresh hold of what is being called as Unlock 2. Since we know what this innocuous and actually silly term means let us jump into the post. The world has changed, we have changed. The changes will continue.  These days a video channel on YouTube fascinates me, called Living Big in a Tiny House the videos inspire me. The host and presenter is quite likeable and though his lines are so predictable there seems to be some genuine emotions in what he says. In one of the videos he also shared about his climb up to the top from a struggling actor to an Influencer on YouTube with over 3 million followers and making it a full time profession along with his wife / partner. The channel focuses on people who have built small homes on trailers and have downsized their lives to fit into these tiny homes. Most of these home owners decided to give up their old lives and downsized to basic essentials with few possessions. They also changed ...

This post is about something that polarizes people coming from Tamilnadu. This is the famous pongal. I am not talking about the festival, there are no doubts about it, Pongal is the most important Tamil festival. This post is about the breakfast staple “ven pongal” or kara pongal that is loved and hated equally.  I am on the side that loves it with a caveat. I prefer to eat pongal with sambar and at least coconut chutney, a vadai is a bonus. After all how can you eat just a gooey, almost tasteless mash? So if it is breakfast in a restaurant I go for a pongal vadai combination. This does not seem unusual to many unless I am driving on a road trip. I have seen eyebrows raised when I opt for this combination during a breakfast halt. The infamous after effect of feeling drowsy after a plate somehow does not work for me. I love pongal and I enjoy it on road trips. At home knowing my preferences sambar & chutney are usual with pongal. Pongal is an essential carb loading ...

We have heard normal is boring and yet here we are after more than 90 days being locked down hoping for a normal. In all probability the new normal will not be boring but can be terrifying. What is scary is the collateral damage that this pandemic has inflicted on us. Loss of jobs, pay cuts aside, there is the loss of livelihoods of the hidden population who are invisible to the common eye. I remember the pain on the face of the iron man, (not the Marvel one) in a normal week he would be carrying a large bundle of clothes for ironing but now there are no clothes to be ironed. His smiling face could not mask the resigned acceptance of possibly hungry days ahead. This lockdown has shown us how much of our time, energy and resources we used to spend on non-essentials and how we can survive fairly well without them. This lockdown has also taught us that communication networks and devices are essentials and in many homes, one device is just not enough. India may have more mobil...

“do it quickly.” ..“When you are done, don’t linger.”..  “Wash your hands afterward”.. If you were wondering what those instructions were for, it is for the most underrated, feel-good human connection that the coronavirus put the kibosh on with its social distancing ways. But if it's some hug therapy you are really yearning for, an aerosol scientist  The New York Times  spoke to has a way. Wear a mask. Hug outdoors. Try to avoid touching the other person’s body or clothes with your face and your mask. Don’t hug someone who is coughing or has other symptoms. The above is reproduced from an online article and it made me wonder if things will ever be normal again. There is something magical about a hug and there is some merit in what Munna Bhai or Vasool Raja said in their movies, it can be a treatment. Some searching online will tell you that oxytocin levels rise when we   hug, touch, or even sit close to someone, it's associated with happiness. A UCLA s...

Yesterday I was annoyed by the repeated prompts from Google about running out of the free combined space of my Google accounts. So I went about on an aggressive deleting spree and found that I did not even scratch the surface. What puzzled me was the amount of mails and files that I had deleted which was a part of my life for over many years did not even make any impact to the total memory consumed. All these days of the lockdown there is a massive cleaning exercise at homes where everything that comes from outside be it man or material are cleaned before anything else happens. Mercifully in Chennai the drought is yet to hit despite the many hand washing, baths, and objects washing being done every day everywhere. Usually after any cleaning the waste is let out carefully or casually depending on what we use or how much we care for ourselves and the other. Surgical waste should be incinerated, likewise the masks we use should be safely discarded if we want everyone to be spared...

The first of June means so many things: -           For the last three years this was the day, dada left us after a fatal road accident -        For much longer it was the start of my birthday month, not that it made a difference but it reminded me that I am getting older -         For school students till this year, this was the warning that school will open in a day or two after the long summer vacation -       For much of my work life in this job, this was the day when I will get my appraisal and whatever that came along with it -           For many this June is the start of what people are calling Unlock 1.0 -           For many it is a milestone of the uncertainty that lies ahead because whichever way you look at it, the government has fail...

Lessons from the lock down This series comes to a close with two pieces of writing that have touched me and are a source of inspiration (Excerpts from the poem) If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;… If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same:….; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings, And never breathe a word about your loss:...!" …Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! – Rudyard Kipling Different lines in this poem talked to me at different times and this lock down has been a roller coaster of emotions. If you have not read the poem do look it up. I know that the above poem may have inspired you and eve...

Lessons from the lockdown Change – the only constant in life. We know that change happened, happens and will happen. Our response to change determines how the change affects us.  The lockdown has changed: • a lot of things around us • a lot of things about us • a lot of us • us  When change happens we have the option of: • resisting / fighting change • going along with change • ignoring change If we accept the change, we can: • make small incremental changes • make drastic transformational changes Change can be: • adversity • opportunity All the above options have their own consequences and it is unique to each person. We should therefore not judge the response of another on the basis of our own. Ultimately the question that remains with us – Is change a : • choice • reflex We need to remember that only when change is a choice we own the change and the consequences. To master change: ...

Lessons from the lockdown Anger: (def)  a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility. Anger is a cause of misery, both from the sender and the receiver. Anger can be costly for all parties involved; some direct costs, some consequential costs. There is something called righteous anger – a sense of anger that comes from perceived injustice. It is called righteous because this type of anger is “right anger” to the person who feels it. In the lockdown I have been angry because of various reasons but mostly at what I see around. The media helps to add fuel to the fire at times when I see the injustice of it all. Lack of food, work, shelter for many who are ignored, abandoned and when they die reduced to the footnotes of the newspapers, they become just a statistic with the dignity of their names also denied to them. I am angry because there are some who are either callous or reckless when they go walking in groups disregarding the advisories given by th...

Lessons from the lockdown Stay home: the lock down has forced many to stay home and we may have mixed feelings about it. Some love it; some hate it; if you read the papers today some are dying in an attempt to reach home. The story of the goods train running over exhausted migrants trying to go home has now been overlapped by at least three road accidents where vehicles carrying these people have met with fatal accidents, worse some callous motorists have run down migrants going home. Many religions teach that home is the end to the journey of life and many yearn to go home. Yet there are some who are unhappy to be home for various reasons starting from livelihood issues to boredom. Only a person who cannot understand or refuses to understand that staying home is not possible to all will say that he is bored of it. The migrants may not have homes nearby, there are others who are at the forefront of the pandemic who leave their homes daily in fear and isolate themselve...

Lessons from the lockdown: Plan B – meaning an alternative strategy. The lock down has been all about Plan B, from home work to Work from Home. Today with the absence of domestic help most of the work that was outsourced including cooking is being done at home, non- cooks are learning and managing with all the available help online. Home haircuts are becoming common and so are home work outs.  In short we have found out ways to do things differently from how we used to and that throws up a few challenges. The other day as we went shopping we drove around to find shops selling vegetables that were not crowded and found one shop that was selling vegetables that had opened newly. This shop was selling fruit juices and snacks earlier but with the lockdown and the prohibitively high shop rent the shop keeper changed to being a shop keeper. The fact that the shop keeper risked his health to procure vegetables and sell it to make a living made me reflect. Today pay cuts, ...