“Kundil
Veena Chundeli” is in Malayalam and means “mouse that fell in a ditch.
“History
repeats itself” is an idiom that finds frequent mention nowadays. Both sides,
especially in animated television discussions that become no-holds-barred
debates, use it at will. The events that unfold daily across the world somehow
give me the impression that the contemporary is often a repetition of the past,
and we, in our own little ways, are all part of this great drama. To make
things clearer, let me share a Malayalam story I learned as a child in the
second or third grade. The story seems to repeat endlessly, though the
characters keep changing. Let me narrate the story, giving it a contemporary
flavour.
The
story
Once
upon a time, a mouse landed up in a kitchen in search of food. Without much
problem, he found two “neyyappams” (a Malayali sweet and my childhood
favourite) wrapped in a newspaper. Without waiting to eat, he picked up the
packet and walked. He wanted to reach home and share the food with his
children. The package was bigger than him, and naturally, holding it in his
mouth, it blocked his sight. Not the one to give up, he walked, though blinded.
Soon enough, he fell and fell into a deep ditch. He tried to climb out of the
ditch but could not. Oblivious to his plight, the world outside carried on. He
could, however, hear other animals walking past the ditch far above him. Then
an idea struck him. He pretended to read the newspaper and read it aloud.
“The
sky is about to fall, and those who fear for life run and hide in some deep
ditch,” he read it at the top of his voice from the depths of the pit. He kept
repeating the same thing again.
A
tiger, with a keen sense of hearing and smell, walking by, heard the mouse.
“What?” He looked up at the sky. It was still there. He looked into the ditch
and saw the mouse reading the newspaper.
“Is it
true? Is the sky going to fall?” He asked the mouse.
“It is
true. You are in danger. It is written here in the paper. Save yourself.”
“How?”
“Are
you deaf? Are you dumb? I just read this paper for you. Jump into a deep
ditch,” replied the mouse and continued to pretend to read the paper.
Who does
not fear for life? “Can I come in?” asked the tiger.
“Yeah.
You and I are in danger. Jump in,” replied the mouse.
The
Tiger jumped into the ditch to save his life. Worse, he was unlettered and was
ashamed that he could not read, but a mouse could. But he was very grateful to
the mouse, for he had used his wisdom to save another fellow forester from
death without seeking anything in return. The mouse kept reading the message
aloud again and again.
“Why
are you repeating the message?” asked the tiger.
“Why?
I am not selfish. I know the threat and know how to get out of it. Don't you
want to save our brothers and sisters in the forest? Humans will take care of
themselves.”
The
tiger was overcome with remorse. In repentance, he started repeating what the
mouse said. Obviously, the tiger had a bigger roar. All the animals in the
jungle heard it and started running helter-skelter. Soon, the ditch was filled
with various animals from the forest. The elephant followed. Others, one by
one, big and small, different species, all united in their anxiety and grief,
and hoping to save their own lives, joined them. Slowly, the ditch started
getting filled up, and everyone was announcing that the sky was about to fall.
After all, the community was under threat. The mouse continued with his pretend
he was reading as others looked at him in awe. He stopped reading aloud because
others had started parroting it for him, much louder and more convincing than
he could be.
A
monkey was passing by and heard the commotion. He also wanted to join, but the
mouse would let nothing of that sort happen. “This place is already full.
You go and find some other place,” the mouse commanded. After all, he was in
command! Everyone there had unquestioningly accepted his wisdom and saw him as
their saviour and supreme leader. Moreover, he had access to the scripture, and
others did not know how to read. “Must be a divine gift,” they thought when
they saw the mouse silently reading. Nobody questioned how he came to possess
that competency. Even if someone suspected that it was a pretension, he could
not speak out because the mouse had saved their lives.
“Please,”
said the monkey. Nobody spoke. They all looked admiringly at the mouse, like
devout disciples.
“I
know you sneeze a lot, and God despises people who sneeze. Letting you in here
will kill us all. Go away,” decreed the mouse.
“No. I
do not sneeze. Nobody in my family sneezes,” replied the monkey.
“Are
you telling us that we are lying?” asked the mouse. He made sure
that the word “us” stood out clearly from everything else. All the other
animals noticed it and felt happy that the mouse was talking for all of them
and taking care of everybody.
“Please,”
the monkey begged, almost on the verge of tears. He did not want to die.
“Okay, we will accept you on one condition. Whosoever sneezes first will be thrown out of this ditch,” said the mouse, and looked at his audience. The word “we” was louder than everything else. All the animals were happy because their kind, benevolent, respected leader of all time included them in the decision-making. They were getting a role in governance, too! They loved their leader.
“Yes,”
that is a fair condition,” they said in unison.
“This
rule applies to everybody, even me,” declared the leader. The crowd was already
grateful to their leader for having saved their life. Now he was putting
himself on par with everybody in the crowd. They loved him even more.
They felt like worshipping him and seeing God in him. “Is it okay with
everybody?” asked the leader.
Given
a voice and the chance to be heard, everybody shouted in unison, “Yes, lord,
let the rule be applied, and let us get the monkey in if he agrees to our
condition.” The word “our” was distinct and had a taste of unity and
brotherhood. The monkey gladly jumped into the ditch, touched the feet of the mouse,
and stood on one side. Meanwhile, the other animals, out of reverence, gave the
mouse a little space of his own. They also spoke amongst themselves about how
they should now control entry.
The
mouse retrieved the two neyyappams he had come with, wrapped them back inside
the newspaper and held them tight and close to his chest. He moved to the space
allotted and declared that he had left most of the space for others. The other
animals agreed, acknowledged his generosity, though they were adjusting
themselves so as not to stamp on each other. They all looked at the mouse with
even more admiration. One even said, “See our leader. He is simple and humble.
He is carrying his own bags. He is humility personified.”
Then
what?
Finale
After
some time, the mouse looked around and sneezed. The animals were shocked. They
did not know what to do. They looked at each other, and then the mouse sneezed
again. He was their saviour, and now what were they supposed to do? They looked
up to the mouse.
The
mouse stood up, looked at the others and said, “I know you all love me, but
rules are rules, and for your sake, please throw me out.”
All
the other animals got into a hurdle and nominated one of them to do the
difficult job. The elephant was nominated because he had a trunk. He, with a
heavy heart, took the mouse and flung him out of the ditch with his long trunk.
The ditch was overcome with sorrow. They sat down in sorrow to discuss how
magnanimous the mouse was towards all of them. Someone even started blaming the
elephant for what he had done.
“How
could you do that?” The pig asked.
“But
you all told me to,” the elephant protested. Other animals started avoiding the
elephant.
The
mouse hurried home happily and shared the delicacy with his children.
What
happened to the others?
Your
guess.
Relevance
How is
the story relevant now? “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it,” (George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1903)
The story continues to be repeated right in front of us, every day in different forms. We make leaders out of mice, who peddle untruth that we accept without question. What is worse? We peddle the same untruth, believing it to be the sole truth, louder and more vigorously than its original peddler.
Social
media platforms are the deep ditches that humanity finds itself stuck in.
The platform by itself may not be harmful, but when we populate it with our
version of truth, which is falsehoods, fake news, untruths, and half-truths,
it becomes an all-consuming ditch. Fuelled by the desire to become the messiah,
we use our fast fingers to reach out for those we know, with the messages we
just received, without bothering to check the veracity of what we propagate.
(My friend Colonel Reji Koduvath calls them Centre forwards) In almost every
interactive social media platform, one can find virulent violence of ignorance.
But people do not realise that behind all the churn is a mouse with his two neyyappams
held close to his chest, waiting to sneeze and scoot. The sad truth is that we
would be left to fight it amongst ourselves against each other. Sadder still,
we would vehemently refuse to accept that the “mouse” got the better of us,
exploiting our inherent inadequacies that incapacitate our rationality.
Caveat
The
story also brings out lessons on easy steps to rewarding leadership, albeit
disruptive and, in the long run, destructive. I am consciously restricting my
examples to corporate leadership because nowadays, people tend to be easily
offended and are actively on the lookout for reasons to be offended. Parts of a
conversation or text can be consciously weaned, taken out of context and
weaponised.
Let me
restate the caveat here. The examples given here are strictly
about the corporate environment. Bringing similarity to any leader, dead or
alive, any organisation thriving or decaying, any ideology benevolent or
discriminatory, is entirely your imagination. I declare myself free of your
sins!
Tips
for Disruptive Leadership
1. Find a
cause, preferably one that can be dressed up as existential. It does not need
to be real. Unsubstantiated ones or hearsay will just be fine. (Threat of a
competitor killing our product or company.) It must, however, give the feel
that the like-minded ones are together in the “depths of the pit,” and can
survive only if we stand together.
2. That
also needs an enemy, a competitor. It will be best if we can find a person or a
group of persons who can be blamed. Does not matter if they did anything wrong.
But blame someone anyway. It helps give a face to be aware of.
3. Give
historical references, even if there are none, or what is being given is made
up. (Who cares about the truth. Make up statistics.) It will give a sense of
credibility, just like the mouse reading the newspaper. Faithful followers
blinded by fear of extinction will stand in support with no questions
asked.
4. Repeat
it as many times as possible, till it assumes critical mass. Otherwise, such
followers may lose the sense of purpose.
5. Define
the group to be protected and announce it till it reaches a stage where people
start claiming that they are in that group and identify others as outsiders.
This will give a sense of identity. Only when there are competitors can there
be competition. Divisions make adversaries out of friends, and then the
differences will start showing as existential threats. Within an organisation,
the competition can be between production and marketing. Who cares if our aim
is achieved?
6. Pretend
willingness to die for the cause. Announce that, “I will not be taking a
raise,” or offer to give up some part of the pay, perks, or allowance. Nobody
expects you to, and even if you take a hike or add more perks and allowances,
nobody will ask if the existential cause is in place. After some time, the
followers would have come so far behind you, they cannot go
back.
7. Declare
that you are willing to be crucified (Pretend. Nobody will crucify the
leader)
You think I am being sarcastic? Look around and look within your organisations and even in the households. You will be able to find it playing out.
I do not know if the story is still taught in schools.
It is time to teach this story in all management schools.
Learning management from a mouse?
Yeah. Let me list out a few!
Crisis Management.
Crowd Management.
Resource Management.
Narrative Management.
Perception Management.
Outcome Management.
Effective Communication.
Team Management.
If you are resourceful enough, you can list many more.
PS:
Gratitude to Colonel Reji Koduvath for sharing the original story immediately
after our discussion on why people want to become forwarding agents.
Picture courtesy AI