Redefining Horizons

  The First Call It was a call from a former colleague and friend. He was organising an event to get former army officers and their spouses together, on an informal platform. He and a coursemate of mine reached out to all the veteran officers. Their efforts bore fruits. Many officers confirmed their attendance. I presumed he called up to discuss something about the meeting.  “Sir, I want you to give a talk on ‘ group dynamics’ at the meeting, he requested. I could not decline. Each attendee had a distinguished career behind him. Most of them had commanded and led troops in operations. They were masters at keeping teams together and eliciting performance from them in the most trying circumstances. Their spouses had seen it all from very close quarters. Talking to them about team dynamics, I knew, was like showing a candle to the sun.  I scoured the web for research papers on the subject. All the articles, I laid my hands on, were clinical in their approach. Those in the r...

  “Gee Ma I wanna go home…”   There are many versions of the famous song "Life in the army, they say it is mighty fine.” Everything aside, once in the army; forever the army within. Everything about the Army is practical and everything practical has theories behind it. Modern management theories, related to organisational aspects, individual behaviour and group dynamics have its roots in military practices. Indian Army officers, irrespective of the stream they are commissioned into, spend the lion share of their army life learning and climbing the hierarchical army ladder involves intense competition.     I was a young captain, married and with two children. I also wanted to do well. The first real hurdle was a merit based competitive examination for admission to two prestigious institutions. The number of seats was fixed.  One could attempt only thrice. I was attempting it for the first time and I wanted to clear it. The exam had six papers. One paper ...

  A LESSON WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE It was our wedding anniversary.  My wife and I had been receiving calls wishing us well. A few years back, when I was working, there used to be an endless stream of calls and cards congratulating us and wishing us many years of happiness. I returned all the calls and replied to all the cards. Now that I am retired, we get much fewer calls and cards. It doesn't upset us at all. We knew that positions that facilitate felicitations. We still receive calls and cards. We cherish them. The reduction in numbers is compensated by the length of each call. This year, I received an unexpected call.    It was about 2:45 in the afternoon. I had just woken up from my siesta. The call was from someone I knew. We both had retired around the same time. We had not spoken for years. He called in to wish us a great wedding anniversary. I was surprised.  “What do you do to keep yourself occupied?” he asked.  “I spend time reading and writing....

  "I am ready. Let us go," said my wife when I reached home from the office. It was a 'half day' in the office and I did not have to return to work. We had decided the previous day itself that we would be eating out that noon. Tezpur in 1987 was not like what it is now. There were not many eating places to choose from. We reached Tezpur only a few months before and had not yet explored the place. I also had not received much PCK ( Previous Course Knowledge ) about the place. PCK, in the army, refers to the inputs including notes, old question-papers and other tips, normally a senior gives to the junior in the same regiment or unit, about a training course he or she had attended. Over the course of time PCK extended its reach and now covers almost everything that one passed on to a new arrival or junior in the regiment or unit. Obviously, not many in the unit had gone out to eat. There were reasons. Officers and their families mostly went out in the evenings after offi...