Power Play

Ask a GoT fan and he’ll instantly relive the moment when Cersei threatens a sly Baelish with the simple retort ‘power is power’, a smirk adorning the queen’s face and a handful of spear-heads about to adorn little finger’s heart! So, what really is power in our circadian existences…? Put in the traditional sense, I would say it is simply one’s ability to affect the lives or happenings in a certain jurisdiction.

Now, for the majority, this jurisdiction may revolve around self, family and workplace to varying extents, with any hope to reach beyond strictly lying in one’s ability to form dependencies or earn the goodwill of those with a different or larger area of sway. Such indirect power is basically constituted by being at the right place at the right time, capitalizing opportunities and people management, for looking at the zenith of which we need to go no further than the USA’s 47^th President elect Donald Trump’s recently concluded campaign, where Elon Musk, Dana White and the likes were some of the pivotal figures.  

So, there are those who could ‘call in a favor’, and then again there are others who could basically sign off on people’s fates… Yeah, we’re talking direct power in the form of political, administrative and legal positions, the downside being that such tenures of ruling ministers, cabinet secretaries or justices usually have an expiration date close at hand. In contrast however, the indirect power mongers constantly scout the turf in the hunt for sustained privileges, using their astuteness to sniff out the minuscule ripples of energy given off by their surroundings and like a chameleon, aligning and realigning as per the changing terrain.

But all said and done, if you’ve sifted through the full nine yards of this blog, you might have found that I’ve intermittently weighed wealth, security and the whole caboodle against one another, but never expressly touched upon today’s motif, which is not so much indifference as it is a divergence in outlook. For me, power has always merely implied the overall ability to achieve one’s raison d'être, rather than entailing an independent entity. For example, if your goal is to simply stay healthy, it doesn’t matter whether you go about it by investing in your diet, or adhering to a strict regimen, or adopting any other recipe on God’s green earth… If you succeed, you’re powerful and that’s that! Conversely, if you are terminally ill, no amount of resources, be it conventional power or otherwise, is going to grant you a cure.

So, for those I often see struggling year after year to crack the Union Public Service Commission exam in India, primarily for the so-called power it synonymously engenders rather than to simply serve our nation, just take a look at the aforementioned paragon and ask yourself… If your powers can’t even cater to your own needs, then can they really be christened powers at all? Such powers are often unquantifiable and seek to access other means only by exploiting systemic loopholes and in other dubious ways. Anyway, different folks may have different prerogatives, which may be respected as long as they aren’t at odds with each other.

Today as my wifey and I, along with our little head-turner who got filmed for our refinery's anthem not long ago, prepare to step into our higher entitlement company 4BHK, it is time to move past all the helmet fire and continue to walk the walk. On an average, every four measly months or so account for a mammoth one percent of our careers and about half a percent of our lives, which is just a tiny glimpse of how short our regime here really is... To put it in perspective, modern humans have been around for less than one-hundredth of a percent of the total time life has evolved on our prized planet, which has nonetheless been more than enough for a complete cosmetic overhaul of the world we so nonchalantly inhabit! One’s flame has to burn the brightest but unlike the timeworn maxim, not the quickest!

BE THE FORCE!!!...

Molding one's own horoscope... Now that's power!

Parenting 101

Parenting... A term so elementary and yet so convoluted, or is it? The majority of parents I have come across can be categorized into broadly two types... 

The first includes those that simply act as a treasury for their children, who are otherwise left completely un-modulated to be raised like Mowgli, minus the plot armor of a wild bunch acting like an organized human society, and you end up with capricious, overconfident and reckless adolescents without any values or discipline, leading to such episodes as the recent Porsche crash in Pune, which claimed the life of two productive citizens thanks to an under-aged driver who was presumably in over his head. So, if you are one such parent, then sorry to break your bubble, as the efficiency of your parenting that you probably gloat over is likely the absence of it.

On the other hand, the second type includes those who basically want a golden child. They do not tolerate the merest imperfections and try to control their child’s each and every action to the tee, sometimes even involving inherent bodily processes. No matter how flawless their offspring, it is never enough for such parents, or should I say insatiable bottomless pits, who are more concerned about their own public persona than about their child’s mental and physical wellbeing. Their kid is nothing but a tool to them, to further the image of a perfect little life, often unnecessarily inflated based partially or wholly on fabrication and delusions, to inspire the adoration of fluke passers-by thereby momentarily quelling the evergreen thirst of their egotistic minds, and you end up with under-confident people-pleasers, carrying a bag full of tarnished recollections from their nascent years. Such youths always feel lacking, constantly combing for validation from external sources, and are often hypertensive and hyperglycemic, largely due to a lifetime of endless and needless submerged stress, gaslit toxicity and inept albeit showboated fostering.

So, first off if you have survived such a childhood and are now flourishing in a self-taught way, then no one in my book is more praiseworthy than you are! Furthermore, if you are a parent and fall in neither of the aforementioned categories then kudos… You are already ahead of the curve! Parenting is all about funambulism... Equipping your child to be strong without becoming a bully, to be good without aiding in wrongdoing, appreciating your child’s triumphs without allowing conceit, understanding and fulfilling your children’s needs as well as rational desires, but at the same time urging them for reciprocative sharing rather than trying to demean others, are just some of the aspects of a long-winded list.

While referring to parenting guides or wayside tips are all swell, it is unsurprisingly up to none other than us to separate the sound from the unsound and rise above the beaten path, not repeating any of the daftness prevalent among our past generations. Being mentally available for your children and able to view the world through their eyes, patiently listening to and discussing their opinions without belittling them, helps develop their acumen keeping frustration at bay.

On a personal note, being a lucky parent myself here are a few things I’d definitely like to impart to my son and anyone else predisposed. Most importantly please note that truth is free of perception, and logic based on truth is the only thing in this universe that can be used as a reliable bedrock. Deriving strength from the loss of the very thing you were seeking strength to safeguard in the first place is meaningless. And lastly, avoid falling into something I’d like to refer to as the dead center trap, a position where you are too well placed to leave but too constrained to stay, somewhat like the eye of a storm.

GOOD LUCK & BE THE FORCE!!!...

Oh! Look... It's the last air-bender... No, it's one-punch man... No, it's our little Aadi! Hehe... Like father like son, only three decades apart! #Mundan@Kamakhya #Blessings@Vrindavan/Gokul/Mathura

What is Success?

Just the other day I came across a dictum stating that people only tend to be interested in someone’s allegory once he/she has attained a certain level of success in life, which immediately begged me to ask the question none other than this anecdote’s heading. So what really is success and how do we gauge it?

Some would define it as how eminent one can be, which is surely a good kickoff for this deliberation. Well, let me catechize this… Other than professions which directly or indirectly deal with public relations like politics or acting, how popular can an otherwise successful individual be? There are legions of engineers who are helping build the very world around you, doctors who help improve and save lives daily and other such whizzes… Let us take any one of them and consider a mere 3-5 km. radius around their residence or workplace. Who do you think would be a household name in that area? I’d bet you it would rather be the local grocers and peddlers, whose name would be familiar to hundreds if not thousands!

And if that doesn’t convince you, let me ask you to name all the Nobel laureates of the past year, the handful of prodigies who have been at the helm of their respective pursuits in recent times. Would you be able to name even a single one without googling it? The point is most people suffer from a God complex where they are the center of the universe, but it is important to modestly realize that we are only one in approximately eight billion humans and an even more insignificant percentage of all living beings, that too not encompassing those that have already been and gone. So, when I sometimes hear in our organization that someone wants to get to such and such rank not to extend their usefulness, but simply to avoid social stigmata, it just makes me snicker… In a big old public sector like ours, I wonder how many employees could even name all the Chairpersons who lead the firm before they joined, let alone the entire Board or any Management down below, and let alone that of any other Corporation.

So, if not fame, then how else could you define success? What about capital? Well, that’s about as rickety as it gets, a notion which I can already hear polarized entities like the Tate brothers screaming against! Hahaha... To put it simply, the richest business mogul of our nation has a net worth more than a hundred times that of the richest actor in our country and more than nine hundred times that of the richest sportsperson here. But does that make the latter two a dud? It is all a matter of perspective. For a street side cobbler many of our lives may be more than they could ever dream of, while on the other hand our financial assets may be a topic of humor for a bigwig who owns a yacht. 

What about spirituality? Does the cross-legged image of a monk in search of ‘Nirvana’ strike you as the definition of success? It might be for some… But others would not be wrong to contemplate the sacrifice of responsibilities in the tangible world that most likely had to be made to get there. And one could conversely argue that having a big loving family is an ideal measure of success. But even so, what about those who were frivolously deserted by their family on a whim, despite living up to all rational expectations and more? Is it their failure or their family’s failure for mistaking their kindness and maturity for weakness?

So, to conclude, I guess at the end of the day, success is really whatever we define for ourselves. Nothing less, nothing more…

Small elements in success... #Philanthropy #SustainableGrowth #CollaborationOfIdeas #ConsistencyInProfessionalContributions

Little Feet, Lots of Fun, Celebrating the Big ‘ONE’!

 

Starting off with a huge shout-out to one and all who helped make our little Aadi’s first birthday an unforgettable one, including kith and compadres who went to great lengths to fire up the event and the J.W.Mariott group for leaving no stone unturned to make it as grandiose as possible. And who needs trained anchors when the guest list includes professional singers and gleeful youngsters, pouncing at the slightest opportunity to put their craft on display! The event managers, decorators, music jockeys and videographers too did a phenomenal job to bring out the exuberance pervading the atmosphere.

Dear son, it has been no less than wizardry over this past year to be an integral part and bear witness as you took your first steps, as you spoke your first words, as your palms became large enough to lift your first toy and all the little milestones along the way. Having to leave you on weekday mornings to attend office is undoubtedly the most difficile part of the day, while returning home to your vibrant laughter, which has evolved from a confused toothless smile to a recognizing chuckle with four rabbit-like milk-teeth, is the sweetest. Watching you sit up like the Undertaker barely two minutes after a two hour long effort putting you to sleep, is nothing short of rib-tickling. These jiffs may vex us now, but before long they will become enamored remembrances to be enshrined.

Now, although your mum and I have had to make do with only a couple of hours of light slumber for day after week after month, every second with you has been more than invaluable. And we know that at times it has not been easy for you either, with our consulting pediatric hospital often becoming a pied-à-terre of sorts, but alas you were born into a family as nutty as a fruitcake and against all odds, have been on no less than eleven separate flights in the very first year of your life itself, when most wouldn’t even dare to undertake air travel at all! Haha… This is probably too early for you to understand, but if your mum and I can be such parents who could even remotely be looked up to not now, but even when you are in your thirties or forties, then and only then would we even start considering ourselves somewhat successful in this herculean task of parenting.

And this is not about passing on my family torch, whose flame to be frank has been flickering ever since I can recall. Honestly, I always thought that my parents would be the ones to form a bridge between any past Cimmerian shade and normalcy, but as it turns out just making a decent livelihood and moving to a relatively developed city doesn’t help, if one’s mind is unwilling to overcome and thrives in the dark void it was born into, turning a potential first success to just another failed attempt. While they always bragged about not having any substantial inheritance, I too am where I am today without so much as a glance at my family’s trinkets, and I am gratified to say that there is already an astronomical accrual from my own childhood to my son’s. 

Somewhere along the journey to adulthood, I think a switch gets flipped in most of us as we realize that not everyone deserves our warmest and kindest version, but it is indeed a shame if members of one's own family willingly walk into that list. If your own would rather cheerlead from afar to save their own hides than render dire support, even ignoring all earmarked occasions resorting to incessant slanderous drivel, compounding bygone unimaginabilities in lieu of making any sincere amends, it makes you wonder if you ever genuinely meant a shred to them, and a compelling Sherlock Holmes quote comes to mind: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." 

As my wife and I bear the mantle of both a shield for our child and a sword for our own penchants, the past half-year having made the boundaries of our congenial sphere abundantly clear beyond an iota of misgiving, it is time to end this wasteful cycle of every generation starting from the ground up, having to reinvent the wheel thanks to senile geezers, instead of pooling in knowledge and resources for greater accomplishments. I have always braved an uphill climb, be it in my personal or professional life, but now it seems to be at its steepest.

Raising a toast to inseparability and many more of our darling’s birthdays to follow…

HAPPY 1^ST BIRTHDAY AADI…!!!

5-star galas are rad but creating weekend memories together is simply irreplaceable...