Let’s Put a Smile on that face

Google Smile - about 269,000,000 result in 0.08 seconds.

Smile (My Mobile dictionary meaning): An act of smiling or resulting facial expressions.

(Oxford Dictionary): Form one’s feature into a pleased kind or amused expression typically with the corners of the mouth turned up and front teeth exposed.

(Wikipedia): A facial expression formed by flexing the muscles near both ends of the mouth.

Apart from quenching the thirst of a really thirsty person and giving food to a hungry one the other most satisfying thing a person can do is to put a smile on a sad face.

First thing we notice about someone’s personality is their Smile. Whether it’s the smile of Tom Cruise from Topgun or Akshay Khanna Smile before his dying scene in Border. When Lord Buddha smiled it became a symbol of prosperity and when Lord Krishna smiled you know things are going to change for better.

Everyone smiles, no one can live without smiling. Some people smile on others, some smile on themselves. Some would have a very hearty laugh others would have very quiet smile spread on their lips. Even eyes do smile (Duchene Smile) you can notice those twinkle in the eyes which is a giveaway for happiness inside.

It requires no power of concentration to see that some people have smiling face and some don’t. Some don’t smile regularly but when they do their whole face smiles the eyes smile and the cheek smiles, the lips smile and the chin smiles. And, that smile is only comparable to Eid moon in dark knight. Moreover, knowingly or unknowingly that smile would transmit to your lips. Even when you don’t know the reason behind that smile.

A smiling face means a happy person. A Happy person means a contended mind which means no envy or jealousy towards others. Absence of envy leads to removal of hatred. No hatred is the ground for developing love. So a smile is the building block of love filled life.

Now, why I have written this piece? Just to compliment smiles of people around me who are reason for my smile. What I wanted to say is if you can make someone smile daily than your work for day is done. What I have written in 5 paragraphs Nida Fazli Saheb has said in two lines

“घर से मस्जिद हैं बहुत दूर चलो यूँ करले

किसी रोते हुए बच्चे को हसाया जाए”

“When you know what the right thing is than not doing it is cowardice.” - Confucius

A very simple and straight statement but when I thought over it I got confused. Let’s analyse this statement. My first doubt is first of all why should we judge every person to be brave or coward. As far as my little understanding goes and people would agree that loving someone, caring about someone can make you coward in literal sense. But, as we know both things are done by brave people only.

Second and more serious question is how do we define what is right and what is not. We can safely assume that most of us are social people and have to interact with each other how could we be sure that what is right for me is right for others also. Wouldn’t it lead to a kind of anarchy in each house and social circle that because” I know this is right thing to do hence it must be done. I don’t give a damn what others think about it. I am a brave person, I’ll do it.”

Don’t know in what circumstances the great man used this line but even five month after coming across this line I am still confused about it.

भूलना भूल गये हैं

भूलना भूल गये हैं

ढ़लते हुए सूरज की शीतलता भूल गये हैं

रात के सन्नाटे की खामोशी भूल गये हैं

टिमटिमाते तारों की च्मक भूल गये हैं

काम करना सीख गये पर जीना भूल गये हैं

ओंस के बूँदों की कोमलता भूल गये हैं

बरसते हुए पानी की खुशी भूल गये हैं

बहती हुई हवा की सनसनाहट भूल गये हैं

सपने देखना सीख गये पर जीना भूल गये हैं

आँखों की मुस्कराहट का मतलब भूल गये हैं

रूठते तो वो पहले भी थे पर हम मानना भूल गये हैं

दोस्त मिल गये पर उनसा मिलना भूल गये हैं

अकेले रहना सीख गये पर जीना भूल गये हैं

चहकते हुए परिंदों की चचच्छहत भूल गये हैं

उच्छलते हुए बचपन की किलकरी भूल गये हैं

उड़ना सीख गये पर चलना भूल गये हैं

पहले का सब याद हैं लगता हैं भूलना भूल गये हैं

Love Lesson Lost

This week I came across a Love-Friendship Story. Why Love-Friendship story because its Love from one side and Friendship from another. It takes no brain to guess that friendship is from girls side and Love from boy. The Couple involved in this case both belong to my part of country that’s eastern UP.

There story goes like this. They were classmates in their graduation, but first noticed each other only in second year during a volunteer camp. They became friends good friends but unfortunately boy developed deep feelings for her. So he did what any fool in love would do he proposed her. Girls response was “are you sure?” and after a long conversation she explained her that she is not in love with him and doesn’t want to be and consider him as a friend. She failed in her attempt as the boys didn’t budge. It’s been four years now from that day and the status still continues to remain same.

In the meanwhile both of them left college and you may call it fate or anything both of them found themselves in New Delhi. In a strange city with no other friends, where ever they have to go they went together whether its for shopping or movie. This continued for a year and there common friends again stirred the fire and peeped up the boy to ask her what is the status because you can’t be just friends if you are always hanging out together.

And the poor guy asker her again and got the same answer. It seemed at last that sense prevailed in boy and he had accepted her feelings in his own words “agar use char saal main mughse pyaar nahi hua to aage bhi nahi hoga aur main uski dosti se khush hoon.”

However, came this week of Aug 2010 the birthday of Girl and he came down all the way from Lucknow to surprise her. Now who does it for a friend? And the point is even after five years the boy hasn’t learnt anything.

Even how much sad his story might be the thing I want him to learn is simply explained by next mythological story.

The question I want to ask is why wasn’t Ravaan able to pick the Bow and Ram did? Before you rush to any answer let me first explain you the question why I am comparing only Raavan and not other thousands of god, demigod, men and demon who tried their luck at that Swaymwar. Because Raavan was the person who picked up the Mount Kailash along with Lord Shiva and Maa Parvati. So the Raavan who can pick the Lord Shiva Himself not to mention along with a mountain why wasn’t he able to pick his Bow?

The answer is simple than question he doesn’t had the consent of Sita in his favour. That’s why he failed.

My point is simple Respect Thy Lady and her opinion and you’ll prosper otherwise you are doomed.

In the end you might be wondering why I didn’t mention their name. Its because I promised the person who told me this story to not to write names.

Just Thinking

OFFICE main khali baitha hoon to socha ye likhhoon. Khas baat ye ahin ki mughe pata nahi main khali kyon baitha hoon aur mughe yebhi pata nahi ki main aage kya likhne wala hoon. Parso raat ko sote samay kuch line dimag main aayi thi kuch is prakar thi

“Main hindu nahi, agar hindu hone ka matlab kisi dharma ya jaat se door rahna hain.” Doosri line soch hi pata usse pehle need aagayi. Aur abhi fir kuch socta use pehle sir ne kam ke liye bula liya. Iska matlab bhagwan signal de raha hai ki line sochne layak hi nahi hain.

Freedom at Midnight pedhte samay kale ek bahut hi touching description aaya. Ye Juda tha Indian army ke division se. ADC to Viceroy Louis Mountbatein, Yacoub Khan who hailed from family of nawab of Rampur decided he had to go to Pakistan, because he can’t see his future in Socialist India. He tried to convince his mother but she didn’t budge from her ground that she won’t leave India. He left her with promise he would visit her every year. He didn’t kept his promise because he was leading a battalion of Pakistani army into Kashmir and facing him from India Side was another Moslem, a Khan who also belonged to Rampur but made different choice from the ADC to stay in India. Named Col. Younous Khan, Yacoub's elder brother.

I thought this should be the high point of today reading and closed the book and went to sleep. Depending upon their thoughts and perceptions people choose at the time of partition some decided to stay back and we the Indians didn’t treat them the way we should have.

JUST FOR FUN

OCEAN

This is the speech which I gave as a part of our training at Staff Training College of State Bank of Hyderabad. The option was we could speak on any topic of our choice. So what I did is I selected some litrary and screen characters and tried to explain the Big Five Personility Traits wid the help of them.

The First character is the richest duck in the world. Very miser and would hire you immediately if you would work for free. But what he teaches us is the respect for hard work and self dependence. Despite owning everything he desires he continues to work and explore new opportunities. Some what like greek demi god Sysphus, you have to work for next thing when one thing ends. So what we learn from Uncle Scrooge is Openness to New Experience, the first personality trait.

The Second character which I have selected is another billionaire, he was voted as the number one Super Hero by the public of USA well ahead of Superman and Spiderman. He is the Cape Crusader- The Batman. Why he won was simple because he doesn’t have any superpower. He is simple human being in flesh and blood like us but he plans and organize everything to perfection. For every situation he has plans not one or two plans but multiple plans taking into account multiple variables and you would not believe it but he has a secondary plan to solve the problem even if he dies. Thus for his planning, organizing and performing to perfection Bruce Wayne is an example of Conscientiousness.

The third character is from very popular TV series How I Met Your Mother. He can speak the language his customers are speaking whether its French, Japanese or Thai doesn’t matter, always suited up, can sell any idea to you by just looking into your eyes and has slept with over 200 women. He is Barney Stinson for you. He is perfect example of 3^rd personality type extroversion.

Next in line is Sameer from Dil Chahta Hai. He is cute, He is innocent and he is fun loving. But, he doesn’t know what to do in his life. So whatever is proposed to him he agrees to do it without thinking about results. Whether its about breakup with his girlfriend or going to Goa. He represents Agreeableness.

And now we come to final personality trait Emotional Stability (opposite of Neuroticism ). The Character which I picked up to represent it is the man who says “Keep Your Friend Close and Enemy Closer”. He is the perfect marketer because he will make you an offer you can’t refuse. He is the Original Don, the Godfather- Don Corleone. Whatever the situation is he never gets angry he never losses his cool.

With this the BIG 5 Personality Trait are complete also represented by abbreviation OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism)

LEARNING HR THROUGH CELLULOID

“A picture is worth more than a thousand words”

Dr Biswajeet Pattanayak (former Head, HRM-IIM, Indore) made headlines when he used ‘Lagaan’ as a case study in organizational behavior at IIM Indore. He is now famously called the ‘Lagaan Professor’. There are numerous incidents in movies which can be used to identify or even learn different HR perspectives. Movies work as course material because of their wide appeal. People easily understand movies, and if some business lessons can be taught through them there’s nothing like it.

To understand this subject better we can take certain examples from some movies and the HR Lessons they teach. Let’s start with ‘Ocean’s Eleven’, George Clooney makes a plan to rob the biggest casino in Las Vegas. The first thing he does is manpower planning and selects ten other people who are good in their respective field. Each one brings his expertise to work and what follows is full autonomy and brilliant team work to achieve the desired result. This is the best example of hiring the right people for the right job.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ‘Golmaal’ is a good example to study Halo and Horn effect at play. When Utpal Dutt was taking interview he was clearly against elderly workforce and was finding faults in the youngsters. A candidate without a moustache, with a modern name and sense of fashion wasn’t considered for the job. This is Horn effect at work as the questions asked to them were only from their field of interest and nothing related to their competencies or abilities at work. When Amol Palekar enters the office in Kurta Pyjamaa and sporting a moustache, at that given moment Mr. Dutt gets impressed by him and Halo effect comes into play. One scene of Golmaal it’s also shows how to motivate people. Its common knowledge that rewards motivate people but it should be understood that rewards should be relevant to the achiever. In the movie when Devan and Amol were searching for a woman to act as Amol’s mother they come across Dina Pathak. She was a wealthy person and had everything in life. To make her agree to play the part they tell her that Amol has a sister who is of the age of her married daughter and that this could help her in feeling less lonely.

In the movies ‘Remember the Titans’ and ‘Chak de India’ the way coach Denzel Washington and Shah Rukh Khan respectively transform a group of individuals into a team that bonds and stays motivated until the ultimate purpose is achieved is a example of transformational leadership at work. Although ‘Remember the Titans’ was a period film and ‘Chak de India’ a contemporary one both display the skills and innovative techniques required for handling a multicultural team.

In one scene of Raju Hirani’s ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ when the protagonist Munna (Sanjay Dutt) sees a sweeper in a very angry and frustrated state of mind he goes to him give him a big hug and tells him he wants to thank him for his work as every one praises the doctor when a patient gets well but not him, since he is as much responsible for the speedy recovery of a patient as the doctor is because he keeps the hospital clean and hygienic. The fact of just giving respect to him and recognizing his work makes him happy. The same concept can be applied to real time situations by showing respect to each and every employee and making them understand how their role, however small it may be, is important for the organisation’s success.

Conflict Resolution and Negotiation are skills are common to all styles of working and most commonly viewed in offices. The movie which catches the essence of conflict and negotiation and how important it can be is shown in ‘12 Angry Men’. The movie shows how a jury has to decide the verdict of a murder case and they have to do it by consensus and not majority. In the start they have an opinion vote in which 11 out of 12 of the jury members find the convict guilty and the remaining one of the view that the convict was innocent. Conflict and Negotiation begins as one person tries to convince the others and all of them show hostility towards him. He goes on giving his view point sometimes very peacefully and sometimes in an animated manner and in the end convinces all the others that the convict is innocent. In this way he saves the life of the convict which shows the importance of negotiation.

Hence academicians must promote the understanding of management concepts through an entertaining and fun way through watching movies and analyzing them.