Neeraj Garg

By Ramesh D. Garg
(sometime in 1989)

The silvery bright day
Melted into a golden evening
And drowned into darkness of night
Bit by bit, from moment to moment.

A veil of silence descended
Embracing and wrapping
Everything in its folds.
It brought stillness
Not the stillness of death
But a pause between movement of music, to
Bring forth new life with
A new melody and a new harmony.

Life is a movement from
Moment to moment,
From a stage to stage, a
Changing of colours and sounds.
It is an impulse to bring movement in stone
Order in the chaos and absurdity of existence.

Life bursts forth of nothing
It moves turbulently and disorderly
Like a spring seeking its way
Into unknown, seemingly searching
For a meaning and harmony in
The pile of disorderly fragments.

Life bursts forth like a current
Breaking out of rocks
Sweeping aside all barriers
Pouring out like a formless
Mass of water seeking its’ way
Out of unknown.

Drawing out random shapes
Piecing them together, to
Discover form, meaning or an essence.
Life moves on and settles down
Like a river finding its way
Binding itself between banks.

Never before have 32 runs generated so much excitement and passion as Dada’s run-a-ball knock of 32 runs for the Pune Warriors in IPL4. The mystique of Dada is difficult to replicate, and even more difficult to comprehend.

My first tryst with Dada was in 1996 when I was a young MT with Levers’ living in Kolkatta, getting used to a city in which everything moved a little slower than the rest of the country. I remember coming home from the factory in the evening, only to be confronted at the door by the servant who insisted on giving me a ball-by-ball run down of Sourav’s test century that day. It was only after many minutes of waiting, visible irritation and a slight shove that I was let past the door. This is the passion that Dada could generate just 6 months after his debut. I re-lived this memory 2 days back in Kolkatta; where in a sales meeting to pep up 100 sales guys, the high point of my session was when I said: “Dada is back, and we will be back too”. The spontaneous claps and excitement are a testament to the love and passion he still generates in Kolkatta.

If players have fans, Dada has fanatics !

What creates this frenzy of passion for Sourav ?
– Does it have to do with his being a Bong, where everyone is looking for an idol ?
– Does it have to do with his aggression, rare in the land of Tagore ?
– Does it have to do with his determination (he is a right hander who bats left-handed so that he could use his brother’s cricket kit) ?
– Does it have to do with his Prince title, even after nationalisation of the privy purses ?

I am not sure … I have never quite understood the madness. The only thing that would perhaps make me a passionate fan of Dada’s was the scene at Lords … a bare-chested Indian waving his t-shirt from the balcony of the hallowed portals of English cricket.

I don’t have an explanation to this phenomena … which is rare for me …. I always have a view on everything 🙂 … such is the magic of Dada !

Over the last 2 weeks, a new India emerged, from the shadows of the World Cup. We lifted a cup we can be truly proud of … middle-class India, united with the common man to raise its voice, in an uncommon expression of concern and social activism.

Anna Hazare probably achieved more in 2 weeks than any other political leader or social activist of recent times, and I feel privileged that we still have people like him in our midst. But at the same time, I can not but help feel a little despondent, because I fear that all his efforts will go in vain. It’s not that I don’t trust the political society to live up to their promises, for me that is a given ! I don’t trust myself, and many others who supported the cause, to live by the ideals that Anna proposes. Am I ready to go through the hassle of getting a traffic ticket when I jump the red-light or drive at 80 kmph on JJ flyover ? Isn’t it still easier to give the policeman a Rs 50 note ? Am I prepared to visit the telephone department in Ghaziabad 3 times to get my phone repaired or would I just pay Rs 100 to the lineman and get the job done sitting at home ?

If we truly support the fight against corruption, we have to live by the ideals that Anna fights for … its’ not enough to show up at Jantar Mantar in the morning and watch the tamasha ! We have a Responsibility to Say No, say NO to the short-cuts in life we wish to take, and which every Government official exploits. We have a Responsibility to say No to bribes … if we want an honest society, it has to begin with us. I fear that I am not ready for this, I am afraid I am still the ‘convenient’ Indian who likes to take the easy way-out; so what if it costs Rs 100.

As we fight for our Rights – the Right to Information, the Right to Education, the Right to Work, etc, was wondering whether we also should have the Right to Say No. The Right to tell our politicians that enough is enough, we don’t want to make a choice between the Devil and the deep-sea. If we are electing these corrupt politicians today, maybe it’s because we have not been given a choice. Many Indians still believe in the Indian circus called “Democracy” and will brave the sun, rain and crowds to cast their vote … so what if all the candidates are equal scoundrels ! I am not prepared to do that. I ask for the Right to Say No; to say that I don’t want to vote for any of the candidates. I want the right to express my vote of no-confidence, by voting, and not by not voting ! It might be better to have an empty Parliament because we didn’t vote for any MPs than to have an empty parliament because the MPs were throwing slippers at each other.

Friends, Indians and countrymen, join me in the asking for the Right to say NO, and also in the Responsibility to say NO

The World Cup extravangaza got over yesterday, in a manner that swelled 1.2 billion peoples’ chest in pride. A lot has been written and talked about the World Cup already. The last 2 matches obviously generated the maximum interest, with all kinds of comments about the Pakistanis and our match with them. There were hilarious comparisons with the Ramayan and the match with Sri Lanka. If Sachin was Sita, Dhoni was Laxman !

With so much ink having been spent on this topic, or nowadays, so many keys having been punched, I thought about last nights’ match in my 2 hr drive back from Karjat and wondered to myself……is there a perspective that I would like to share, and that might not have been captured already ? And perhaps there is …

I have often used examples of Sachin and his style of playing Cricket to illustrate a management idea to my team, but I think there are some great lessons on leadership to be learnt from Dhoni, and how he led Team India in this World Cup.

When Dhoni stepped out to bat at the fall of Virat Kohli’s wicket, it was the perfect example of a leader leading from the front. When the chips are down, and the team is in the battlefield, the General has to be up there, fighting in the front, leading the charge. Dhoni did just that.

Every player, and leader, goes through ups and downs. A true leader is one who continues to believe in himself, even when others are in doubt. Some might call this bravado, I call it courage. A true leader looks for a large platform to prove himself; the bigger the stage, the louder his voice. A true leader is not afraid of failing. Nobody demonstrated this better than Dhoni when he came into bat ahead of Yuvi.

“No chance, no dance” is one of my favourite phrases. Leadership is about taking risk. The meek will not lead, or inherit this world. Leadership rests easy on the head which is willing to walk the road less travelled, or walk down a one-way in the wrong direction. Dhoni shocked everyone when he selected Nehra for the semi-finals, he put his own reputation at stake when he expressed confidence in Nehra. Choosing Ashwin was easy; nobody would have blamed him for it, even if India lost the match. In this move, he also exhibited great trust in his players. I believe his actions would have actually increased Ashwin’s confidence also; everyone wants to be a part of a team in which the leader is willing to stand up for the players.

Sreeshant sprayed the ball all over, and let his emotions get the better of him. In the midst of this all, Dhoni stood calmly, but raging inside for sure. I can imagine the words Dhoni might have used on Sreeshant later, but on the ground, he did not say a word to him. Mr Cool, has a great quality, which many leaders (including myself don’t have), he seems calm in the most high pressure situations.

When Gambhir played a few silly shots, what did Dhoni walk over to him and say: “Out nahin hona !”. Immediate feedback. Simple, yet effective. This is the hallmark of good leaders … simple, direct and timely communication … no bullshit.

In the post-match interview, Shastri asked Dhoni about his batting …. and he answered, with a touch of humour…. “he needed to answer the questions that were going to be asked about his choice of Sreeshant and the change in the batting order” 🙂 The ability to laugh at oneself, is definitely a sign of confidence, but also makes the leader human.

We might pray to God, but we walk behind a human. Gandhi was not God, but we walked behind him.

Sachin might be God, but we walk behind Dhoni !

Is the opposite of failure – success ?

I got an interesting comment on my post on the fear of failure … “it is good to be afraid of failure, because that pushes us harder to succeed”. This started of a chain of thoughts….is there actually a risk in succeeding ?

I remember once a young cricketer who has played for the Indian team explaining why Sachin Tendulkar was not a good captain. He said :

“Sachin does not relate to what us young players go through. He has never had to goto sleep in the night worrying that if he fails the next morning, he might get dropped from the team. He does not know what pressure we go through”

He went on to add …. ” he is also not able to coach us because everything looks so simple to him, he can’t understand why we can’t play the shots the way he does. He does not understand that we are not Sachin ”

Perhaps if success comes too easily, or if we dont realise the effort and struggle we have gone through to succeed, we begin to ignore the perils of failure. We begin to underestimate what it takes to succeed. If we keep succeeding, without ever failing, we forget the taste of defeat, of failure. In such a situation, success can become our enemy. Success is what I would be afraid of.

But, if you are not afraid of failure, and you recognise the perils of success, one can raise the bar, make success more difficult to achieve…and this will push us harder. Success is no longer risky.

Fortunately, most of us are not Sachin Tendulkar. Success is not as simple as it looks for him. Fortunately for most us, success has never been our sole companion…..failure has walked with us in the shadows. As long as we walk with both, we should not be afraid of failure…..nor think of success as being risky !

I sat through a training program for a group of middle managers today, and as I heard many of them talk about their fears’ in life, it struck me that so many of them are afraid of failure ?

And I began to wonder, what drives us to be afraid of failure ? Is it the fear of the consequences of failure ? Is it the fear of rejection ? Is it the fear of ‘falling’ in somebody’s eyes ?

I said to myself………why should I be afraid of failure ?

I am afraid of not failing.