Monday, January 27, 2020

HUMANE LEADER - THE NEED OF THE HOUR


As you know, the previous year I contemplated about does humane leader still exists? And quoting about life experiences of shri manohar parrikar and the present newzealand prime minister, days and months passed by and still being the new year I was contemplating on the same subject even today
Since I work in a MNC, we get to understand leaders from corporate, leaders from hardcore Indian managers and leaders who are there risen up to the challenge for the 1st time, after years of hardwork.
Understanding and moving with them, made me realize the value they hold to the team, the daily activities they are into and the care but deep down, there is also the point of fact, do they actually show humane values, in the way they move is still a question mark to contemplate upon being amidst pressure of performance, and the general human tendency to manage life of oneself first, we come to the conclusion of the missing fish that the value of humane leader is the need of the hour!
There may be various aspects of leadership shared, deliberated and understood, over various decades, of life and I am here to share that made me feel important to be a leader who is humane!
In life, we may have ups and downs and leadership is a call that should be led from the front despite caring for our personal objectives, the team and the one’s tagged along, matters, but being a humane leader, balancing the art of a positive spark of a word to a tap behind the back, when the individual is down, matters more today, in my experience, we tend to miss a lot of face to face conversations, than meeting together in social media.
                As Part of experiencing humane in us, it is our duty to be more conscious in our decisions that we take rather, than making aggressive decision making to accept and change, but rather falter in the long run.
                In fact, majority of the world like to lead rather than being followed and here is where one has a leader needs to give that ample time and space to understand and bring up the one who is in need for life, and helping in do better, the  moment of lift, that you has a leader gives, makes you special.
                At the end of the day, we are here together to work on a balanced life for the good of ourselves and for the good of all wherever we are and leading from front, it is our need and urge to understand the art of making a conversation with our fellow counterparts on a intentional note and not valuing it just for something.
                Leaders are not born but they are made, and leading from front, can be a gift, which many few possess, many try to portray, but only few succeed.
                At this hour of time, being a society of a unjust value, we need leaders who are more humane to the cause and value  the work we do and that’s when a equable society comes into the picture.
Joseph Kamal Francis

Saturday, January 25, 2020

IS IT TIME TO UNPLUG


As it was the start of the new year and I felt that this year should be a special year,after 2019 was a year of so many unforgettable moments, I decided to make a short visit to Sristi Foundation a eco sustainable village near the outskirts of tindivanam before the city of Puducherry where my friend Mr Ebin, a research scholar is doing his internship over a year and has always got a fruitful experience of life apart from the normal busy schedule.

I started on the eve of Pongal (a festival of tamilians) and it was a enriching experience to understand life, apart from our normal day to day life, and I reached in the afternoon of the 17th of January 2020 and I was greeted by Ebin and we had to ride around a small but long road inside the village of Kunanmangalam which the village was once passed by a King, who had his chariot broken and had no other choice to stay over and was joyfully taken care by the people in the vicinity and looking at the character and the respect and down to earth character of the people he named the village as Kunanmangalam, and we rode around and reached sristi foundation a lush campus, that is surrounded by nothing but a dry road and I was overwhelmed with Joy looking at the greenery since I am from Chennai and we don’t get to see that, not only me but almost a whole lot of people.

Adding a bit of a short story which I read from,
Sristi Foundation was named after the Sanskrit word which means «creation». Indeed, we want to create a world for those who are marginalized and people with intellectual and developmental disability, a world which they could call their own, and where everyone would be treated with equal respect. To achieve this goal, we bought 8.39 acres of land in Thazhuthali Village (30 km from Pondicherry).

I had to dine in for lunch and had the fortunate chance of meeting its founder Mr Karthikeyan Ganesan, a Young Energetic, always caring individual who was a revelation, in the story of life and how he had to give about his little contribution for the society,.

Then it was a foundation where they take care of people with disability, my possibly the second experience of having a meal together, and was rejoicing the afternoon, filled with smiles around in seeing me, then set out to take a ride around the foundation to explore the various sustainable activites and quite overwhelmed in understanding the fact that even when the entire surrounding go without crops in summer, there is our foundation that helps to sustain life and move on.

Understanding the idea of a fruit forest was a different experience and enriching was to see few friends from foreign land, were on foot to learn the art of agriculture and help to learn the art of life.

Then evening dawn, with a little bit of a drizzle and we set out to a nearby village taken care  by the Youth who have been idealized and moved by the values of Dr BR Ambedkar for a short festival celebration where all young ones be part to bring out their talents.

And also was a opportunity to witness the village is separated by the road in centre, where one end of the town , is led by the lower caste and the other end of the town lived and nurtured well by the Upper caste, it’s still a dream of understanding developing India and yes that’s life.

We returned back to our home, which is bamboo, house, lush air in the night surrounded by the stars and green fresh air, the 1st time, I ever had never to see a fan needed.

The next day was a melancholy in witnessing the dawn of the morning rises along with you and your part of it, wish we still find something like that in life and the morning began in a experience to speak to the young people of the foundation on leadership and what changes in life when you ask the question WHY?.

It was a memorable sessions of all that I gave, since I was finally getting to see a lot of people showing interest, since being in the fast moving world, many sessions where I addressed we find people equipped with media and the influence of it  and they miss the art of meeting in person and speaking,.

I felt happy in doing a better job in this short span of time and making them understand the need of values and how important it is to take guidance from holy books.

And we broke down for lunch and helped to spend some quality time, in speaking with the children to understand each one’s story and personally, I have listened to few stories and of the way they were before here and how life has transformed them to understand and move a pace with life.

We then set out as it was the evening and we had a nice evening spent at a little while in the nearby vacant area surrounded by trees and gazing at the stars and was fortunate, and made me realize this is life, though there is many we get in life, we tend not to move with and we stop, and realized enjoy life no matter what it is…
Money will come, but time doesn’t.

                And retuned back to our home and room and set foot to bed with the quietness of life.

                We began the next day, in meeting the Mr Karthik and was a long conversation on life, values, biology and the contribution to society at large and it was  fruitful word to understand the need of life and how to go about it.

                I bid a big thank you to all and returned back to my home back, with lot of memories of life, walk, and the art of there is more to life than work.

It gave me the life learning of Is it time to unplug? despite our busy schedule of life and no time to even talk moments, do we need a pause to understand the essence and the value of personal time and the growth phase of one's life is when you give time than the mobile phone in hand...















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