Pugmarks of a Tiger

I knew that tiger sightings are rare in the Jim Corbett National park. People who had gone there before me also told me that despite four or five continuous outings, they saw nothing but a few species of deer. It is not easy to spot a tiger in its natural habitat because their coat provides them an efficient camouflage cover. But there is something that gives away their towering presence in the forest, their pugmarks. Expert trackers can tell whether it was a tiger or a tigress,  and in which direction and when they went by. I knew exactly what to expect when we commenced the Safari.

Tigers have a towering presence in and  around the area they live. We may not be able to spot him but the tiger's eyes misses nothing alive or dead. We knew we were being closely watched. 

“Look,” said the guide, pointing to a set a pug marks. “It is behind us,” said my grandson accompanying me on his first jungle safari. The pugmarks were deep and fresh. “The dominant male of the area is somewhere nearby,” said the guide. “Oh, how I wish we could see him walking in front of us,” said my wife. “That will happen only if he is injured or he is not a tiger. Tigers are  more felt and less seen,” I said recalling the  words of my senior  subaltern when I joined the Army. The commanding officer of a military unit is often referred to as the tiger. I  had longed to become one as I grew up in service. The selection process in the Indian army is tough. I became a Colonel and  took the reins  of my unit  in 2002.  I officially became a tiger. I also knew fairly well what I was getting into. It was definitely not easy being a tiger. 

Command was like access to the throne and crown. Everybody saw the authority and the associated perks. They saw only that. Nobody saw the invisible spikes that hurt. Nobody saw the uncertainty and risks the tiger had to deal with for mere survival. The “tiger or tigress”, if worth his or her salt, never showed the pain.  Command is a lonely place and tigers are lonely animals, less seen and more felt. I wanted to make my command memorable. Secretly, I also wanted to be remembered. I set a few rules that I swore to abide by :-

1. Do what I feel is right. People may still find faults. I knew it was better to do and die than stay still and rot. Do it anyway.

2. Demand commitment from my team. They may or may not like it. They may or may not be able to deliver all that I demanded. Insist on commitment anyway.

3. Help people. I had tremendous authority that I could canalize to help people. Gratitude is a rare virtue. Help anyway. 

4. Give decisions quickly. Decision making is not an easy job. It has costs and risks. Right or wrong, hindsight can judge best. Decide anyway.

5. Lead the way. Consequences may be good or bad. Unless one leads there can be no followers. Lead through action anyway. 

6. Leave my pugmarks, the indelible footprints on the sands of time. It will be difficult and I will never know if I have succeeded or not. Try anyway.

I commanded my unit in the high altitude area. Everything that has a beginning also has an end. I relinquished command twenty nine months after I took over.  I had followed all my rules and let time tell me if I had succeeded.  A few years later I retired as a two star general. I decided to fade into oblivion. Many of my teammates remained in touch even long after I left  command and some even after I retired. Some called to share their happiness and some called to share their burden. I had become a part of them. I relished the connect. It nourished my soul. Some continued to refer to me as “CO sahib though I was not one anymore.  A lady, then the young officer's wife, now the first lady of a unit continues to refer to me as Colonel though she tries hard to address me as general. 

“Amby, I worked hard to become a general I say,” pointing out what she missed. “I am sorry. You are imprinted in my soul as Colonel. I try hard but the soul speaks before the brain, “ she says. I show my mock anger but relish the warmth and sincerity. Her husband, my young officer carries the baton I gifted when I relinquished command. “Sir, this will go to the one who I feel deserves to carry it,” he said, when I met him last.

The tiger's pugmarks were for real, I told myself.

Most of the officers in my team eventually rose in ranks to command units.

It was the first jungle safari for my grandchildren. They were thrilled. We returned to the resort and sat down to breakfast. They were animatedly explaining what they had seen. My mobile phone rang. It was an officer who served on my team. She was barely three years into service and on her first outing to the High altitude, when she joined my command. She was a bright bundle of energy, always smiling. She was assigned multiple responsibilities and in addition she also was my adjutant. Everyone in the unit approached her to decipher what I had penned on the slips. I would scribble notes to my officers even when I travelled. I travelled a lot and very often. On my return I handed over all the notes to the adjutant and she passed it down the chain. “Young lady,  I will visit your unit when you command one,” I said. She laughed. She had reasons. Those days, lady officers were not given permanent commission. They left after ten years of service. She was now a Commanding officer.

"Sir, just called to say how grateful I am to you," she said. We spoke for some time. “CO Sahiba, you have a lot on your hands,” i said hanging up the phone. Actually I was overwhelmed and choking. “See you soon sir,” she said.

My day was made. My sweat rewarded .I suppose , true labour never goes in vain. The tiger's pugmarks were still visible. Time had not erased it. 

Thank you young lady. It's time for you to leave your pugmarks for the future  to follow.

I am sure you will.

Mount Everest, Infinitesimal Efforts & Infinite Possibilities

Which is the highest mountain in the world?  Mount Everest?

Which is the biggest desert in the world?  Sahara?

If you thought those were correct answers, you are wrong. 

Difficult to digest?   You are not the only one.

When I asked this question to people, almost everybody answered it as   Mount Everest and Sahara. Some even showed books that say Mount Everest is the highest or tallest mountain and Sahara is the largest desert. The tech-savvy immediately took refuge in the web and got caught in it. I also got full marks for the same answer in my general knowledge tests in school. Both the answers are wrong. They are wrong by 1.36 kilometers in height and 5,000,000 square kilometers in area.

Mount Everest is the highest point above “mean sea level.” It touches a height of 29,029 feet above mean sea level. It is the highest point on earth. It still does not mean it is the highest mountain in the world. Mauna Kea volcano, which stands a mere 13,800 feet above the Pacific Ocean, is the tallest or highest mountain because it also extends 19700 feet down to the ocean floor. Mauna Kea is about 33,500 tall, making it taller than Mount Everest by 4471 feet or 1.36 kilometers. Yet, we keep saying Mount Everest is the tallest mountain. Some readily challenge anyone with a different perception. 

What about the Sahara? This story is similar. Sahara is not even the second largest. It comes in a meek third in the contest. The largest desert in the world is Antarctica, with an area of 14,200,000 square Kilometres. The Arctic desert comes second with an area of 13,900,000 square kilometers. The Mighty Sahara Desert comes in third place with 9,200,000 square kilometers. The immediate response that one gets normally is, “How can you call the Antarctica and Arctic deserts?” If you do not believe me, it is time you understand how they define a desert. 

 What am I talking about?  

Facts and figures take seats behind our perception. We are unwilling to moderate our perception based on facts, figures, and truth.  Let me lean on the serenity prayer!

 

Conditioned to accept things as told and resist and challenge anything that even remotely differs from our perception, humans have systematically stripped itself of their ability to sift facts from fiction, chaff from the grain, propaganda from reality, and promises from possible, ignorance fuelling the fear of the unknown. It started in the Stone Age, sustained across ages, crossed cultural and geographical boundaries, and emerged as a pandemic despite all scientific advances. The education systems world over focused on numbers and discarded knowledge, analysis, and absorption. Reluctant to step out of the cocooned comforts of the status quo, man denies himself a better world. 

 

The submerged mountain and the Ice-clad deserts give us a few profound lessons.

If you need to be recognised you need to be visible. 

If you are good and your goodness lies hidden deep, you are neither good nor good enough to be recognised.

Facts are forgotten and fiction reigns supreme.

Facts remain facts. It will NOT do you any good unless you publicise those facts.

Antarctica and Mauna Kea do not speak. If you do not speak for yourself, nobody else will. People speak for their competitors and imposters. It can happen to anyone. So, speak when you are good. Speak about your goodness and greatness.

In short, be seen and be heard if you are good and need recognition.

 

Social media is King. it rules the modern world. The young, adolescents and a large chunk of the adult population are hooked to social media. Assured of anonymity one can access anything on the platform, and there is no end to the types of platforms. One can initiate anything. The content could be genuine. It could also border on the ridiculous. The ludicrous get lapped up fast. The irony is that even the educated actively take part in the frenzy. When trash gets the bulk and momentum, it fills the place with muck. 

 

If the ridiculous can be on media why can't the good be?

Go tell the world if you are good.

Go show the world if you are good.

To those of us who have access to social media, ( That is why you are reading me) it may be time for us to reset.

There are infinite possibilities and they need only infinitesimal efforts. Everything on social media begs just one question. Is it true? 

If everyone looks at the truth or even attempts to…The world can be a better place.

For that?

First, don't believe Mount Everest is NOT the tallest Mountain.

Second, don't believe, the Sahara is NOT the biggest desert.

Please check if it is true.

 

Venturi Effect- Profound Lessons from a Road Rogue

 

I was sitting at the back of the class and playing book cricket. Our Physics teacher was working hard on explaining the Venturi effect. “Remember! Energy is neither created nor lost. It gets converted from one state to the other,” he said. “No loss, no gain,” I found the concept interesting.  

Book cricket was my fiefdom. I made rules and decided when to start and finish the match. “Time for a drink break,” I told the cricketers, closed the book pitch, and gave all my ears to the teacher. “So, when the water in a pipeline comes across a choke point, the pressure inside the tube at the choke increases, and the velocity decreases. The moment it comes out of the choke, the pressure falls dramatically, and the speed of the water increases correspondingly. People designing the layout of long-distance pipelines incorporate it to install inline flow meters. It also makes sure that pipelines do not get clogged,” he said. Intuition told me it would be a sure question in the examination. I studied the part well.  Sure enough, the question was there. I answered well and got good marks for my answer. It helped me pass the examination. That day, the essentials of the Venturi principle became sedimented somewhere deep within me. 

Experimenting with life is integral to adolescence. When I was growing up, smoking was considered macho. I picked up smoking early in life and became a heavy smoker. One day, I decided to cut down on my nicotine intake. A friend suggested I use a filter cum cigarette holder. I could fix my cigarette into the pen-like filter and smoke.  

I learned from the manual that it used the Venturi principle to extract nicotine from cigarette smoke before it reached my lungs. The cigarette certainly looked longer, but the filter stole the punch from the smoke.  I opened the filter in the evening to clean it. It was one of the most repulsive sights. A thick, dark, brown, sticky substance stared at me from the filter hold. It was nicotine that would have otherwise gone into my lungs. I did not like the sight.  In two days, I stopped smoking cigarettes using the filter. I threw the filter away. It took me another 30 years to throw cigarettes away for good. Somewhere in between, I also forgot about the venturi.   

Last Sunday, I saw the venturi principle in action once again.  

The six-lane road was for three vehicles abreast in each direction. The median ensured it. When commissioned, the flyover and road would have drained the flow either way very fast. Over the years, the density and volume of vehicular traffic increased manifold. Now, it remains packed beyond capacity almost throughout the day. That Sunday, I was on the side heading for the airport or beyond. All traffic leaving Bengaluru (Bangalore) had to take this route. The flyover was crowded, with vehicles of all shapes and sizes. Traffic moved at snail's speed.  

The left side of the flyover had a channel with two tails. The channel split into two tails about 50 meters from the entrance. One was a lean-mean left hook that served as the exit. It was wide enough to take just one vehicle. I was heading for it. The straight tail rejoined the main lane at the end of the flyover. The straight part was the problem. People on the mainline used it as a shortcut to overcome the congestion and join the main line ahead. Slow traffic creates unruly drivers. The slower the traffic, the ruder those inclined became. Vehicles ahead of me had already choked the entrance to the funnel. I had no option but to queue up because I had to take the exit. 

According to the rules of fluid mechanics, flow at the outer bend is faster than the flow at the inner bend. This law applies even to vehicular traffic flow. I use the lessons I learned in science classes in my daily life. I kept my car to the outer side of the funnel within the lane, directly facing the entrance and behind the car ahead of mine. I was sure I would be the one to enter the funnel whenever that car moved.  

The banks of a river define its course, and the laws of physics govern its waters. That day, “might is right” was the operative law on the road. Indian roads can be elastic beyond imagination. It can expand in any direction. One needs only to insert a tyre or nose of a vehicle. A new line will automatically take shape. Lanes lose significance or relevance.  It is not rare to see two-wheelers on the pedestrian path or cars nonchalantly coming against the flow, throwing one-way rules to the wind. 

The car on my right tried to nudge me to the left and out of the entrance. Then, from nowhere, a car came from the left, honking loudly, and stopped at about 60 degrees to the entrance. He then let his car roll into the gap between my car and the car in front. I knew he had got the better of me. He looked at me like the victor and let his car roll ahead. I saw a vicious, wicked smile on his face as he looked at me with contempt. He crawled ahead, and I rolled behind. When we reached the exit, he gunned his car ahead.  The road was empty. 

 

I continued driving behind him at my pace. There was enough space for everybody on the road. I could see the traffic light in the distance. I pulled up at the traffic light because it had turned red. The man who burned his tyres to race ahead was there. I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders. Then, two bikers snaked their way between our cars and parked right in front of his car. The light turned green. I could hear him honk loudly, even as I rolled ahead.  

Life is like that. There are many people around us taking shortcuts and gaining short-term advantages. They are in perpetual competition with everybody and for everything. They derive happiness in victories they notch up, even when insignificant.  It is how they find self-esteem and realisation. Life is nothing beyond a race from one traffic light to the next. It is beyond them to comprehend that life is a marathon.  When it is time for reckoning, they often find people they had left behind through unscrupulous means and manipulations standing ahead, relaxed, smiling, and happy.  

Reflecting on what happened, I recalled my teacher’s words. There is no loss of energy, just a change of form. How true, I thought. We waste a lot of energy daily on competitions that we create unwittingly. Maybe it is time to pause and look at the road we took so far. Did we edge someone out only to find them overtaking us at some traffic light ahead? 

Qualifications or “Callification,” Selection and Retention Criterion

 

Endless Efforts

 

“Callification?” Your efforts to find out what it means in the dictionary shall go in vain. I just made it up.  Patiently read through it; you will know what it means.   

The three submersible pumps working continuously and in tandem could not fill the colony’s overhead tank. The employees kept the pump running. One pump ran dry far too long and burned itself out. The open well also ran dry. They told no one. Why should they? They had nothing to lose. I noticed the unusual activity and enquired. This had been going on for a few days. It should not have. 

I did a quick calculation of the flow rates of the pumps, the capacity of the community tank, and the tanks over the individual houses. Considering the endless efforts of the pumps, all the overhead tanks should have been filled and overflowing. It did not happen. I concluded that there must be a leak somewhere in the pipeline. The large amount of water that leaked out must have gone under the foundation of somebody's house. People seemed to be oblivious to the potential losses and damage. 

Stimulus 

“Let us check the pipeline to identify and plug the leak,” I suggested. “You have no qualifications to decide what is wrong with the water distribution system,” came the only response in the group. I was not surprised. I did not expect anything different from that individual. Did the crass response stem from deep-rooted prejudice germinated in ignorance? 

Ignorance? The individual had never bothered to ask me about my qualifications or experience. He could not have known about my academic or professional qualifications.  I did not have to revisit the lessons in fluid mechanics or applied engineering or fall back on my experiences in managing the civic amenities of one of the biggest cantonments to understand the elementary science problem. I also did not have to rack my brain to remember my lessons in missile technology. After all, determining why an overhead tank refuses to fill up is no rocket science.  

Prejudice? Prejudice is a platform internally constructed by an individual using preconceived notions about individuals, groups, or even things. The result of a “taught” or “thought” concept, it invariably becomes a subconscious driver. It influences, often negatively, everything an individual thinks, says, or does. We all carry prejudices of some sort and tend to use broad-brushed templates in our thoughts, and actions. Some amongst us make it obvious and take it to obnoxious levels. Prejudice is the result of our inability or unwillingness to reason out within ourselves. If we sit down and dispassionately analyse our conversations and the decisions we have taken over time, we should be able to spot the prejudices underpinning them. 

Many believe that the job of the Army is to only guard the country’s borders. They think that everybody in the army stands in rows along the borders preventing people from crossing over. Some feel the Army is all about marching and doing physical exercises in the morning to prepare themselves for a duel at the border and doing sentry duty. They ask, “What does the army do when there is no war?” They cannot fathom the extent to which officers of the Indian Army toil on various contemporary academic and professional subjects. Their mobility up the hierarchy ladder is largely linked to their performance in these tests. Unfortunately, such injurious ignorance is prevalent even amongst the “supposed to be” well-read.  

Response 

I was angry and instinctively wanted to respond in the same coin.  The wisdom that age, exposure, experiences, and knowledge bestowed on me forbade me from stooping down. I decided to deny traction to the foul mouth. His response, however, triggered a much deeper thought. I am, by nature, given to analyse the ‘why and how’ behind every ‘what’ I see or experience. Why did he say that? Nobody does anything once. There is always a pattern and they leave a trail. He did. 

Besides his prejudice, which I was aware of, there must be an underlying belief that prompted the response. In possession of a professional degree, he had given himself to the belief that formal qualifications define an individual’s competence and his place in society. It showed in his generally loud and contemptuous behaviour. Unfortunately, there are many like him, enslaved by similar beliefs. This misplaced belief has forced people to obtain fancy qualifications by whatever possible means. It is common knowledge that people adopt illegal means to secure academic degrees. Some go to the extent of even buying doctorate degrees. Esteem somehow seems tagged to the few letters that find a place after an individual’s name. Do formal qualifications denote competence?   

Understanding “Callification” 

The discussion does not in any manner advocate the thought that an educational degree is a waste of time. One needs to have the basic requisite educational qualification. Mere possession of the qualification, however, is no guarantee of the presence of expected skills or the aptitude to apply the acquired knowledge. If an educational degree defines comparable competence, two equally qualified professionals like chefs, doctors, economists, fashion designers, lawyers, or musicians, should all demonstrate comparable performance. This is not the case. 

Everyone gets the initial foothold into a profession using the few letters representing a mandated educational degree. It may also be the inescapable requisite for career progression. Degrees merely indicate that the person has cleared a qualifying examination, by whatever means. The marks obtained by the person do not in any manner indicate his proficiency. It merely shows how well he fared in recalling answers to the questions, which in turn was anyway a matter of probability. This gives the individual the required ‘qualification’ to secure entry to an organisation or a job. Once an entry has been obtained, they need to perform in the role assigned. In performance, the difference between grain and chaff lies in “callification.” Without callification, however, smart one may be, one cannot make lasting Impressions in the field one has chosen. 

“Callification,” is the calling from within. If a person has a calling from within to be in a profession, then the quality of the work, he or she gives the organisation and the impact the person makes easily stand out from the rest. They are normally so self-motivated that they only need to be told the end state, not the how. Team leaders can easily distinguish between those driven by qualification and fired by “callification.” 

Selection Criterion 

Recruitment is now mostly an outsourced activity. Recruiters and head hunters are guided by the selection criteria template provided by the client. They look only at the qualification and track record of the prospective resource because they have no means to determine the callification.  Team leaders at all levels would love to have those fired by “callification” because it makes achieving goals easy. Many “callified” people are considered mavericks and leaders unsure of themselves may be loath to have them around. 

One of the common responses I get to most of my articles is, “What is the remedy?” There is no panacea for HR problems. It must be tailored to suit each situation. I cannot help HR professionals or those involved in making policies on selection, career progression, attrition,
and retention, by prescribing any means to determine if someone has the “callification” that they are looking for. I certainly know of a CEO who goes to great lengths to look for it.  

The CEO 

The qualification required to get on to the organisational roll is just an engineering degree. The degree guarantees the prospective candidate only an opportunity to sit for an examination conducted by the firm.  The exam unlike entrance processes adopted by many other firms focuses mostly on the application of knowledge that the qualification was supposed to have provided the candidate with. It also evaluates the ingenuity and adaptability of the candidate. 

Once a candidate gets through the written gateway, he or she faces an interview. According to the CEO, they look for the “spark” in the candidate. Talking to the CEO, I understand that the candidate reveals the presence or absence of the “spark” they are looking for within the first five minutes of the interview. The candidates call it the “desire to do something special” and I now call it “callification.” The candidate’s lack of communication skills does not become a barrier in this determination process.  It is a vibe, a feel that the candidate sends across and one that can easily be picked up by the discerning. The firm attributes the almost 100% retention of the resources to that spark or callification. The firm has been growing, in size and business. 

With no malice to recruiting agencies and professional head hunters, third-party recruitment may always ensure qualified resources, not “callified” ones.  Organisations staffed by “callified” people can make even deserts bloom.