More IQ & Exposure, more away from Roots!?

Planetsoft HQ, 4th floor, Ashok Bhopal Chambers, Hyderabad, on Dec 31, 2010

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Planetsoft HR has announced a competitive event for New Year celebrations. It has asked every group in the company to decorate their work areas with a theme. HR gave a very short notice of about 48 hours. All the groups started to work on this activity since afternoon yesterday.

There was so much energy and enthusiasm across all the groups of the company. Most of the teams have stayed awake through last night and have finished it by noon today.

My Cabin is near our relatively new group of the Company, the framework group, which Ramesh, Shashank and myself have hired and built. They have asked me for a contribution of 1000 INR towards material procurement, which I relectuantly paid; I almost felt like this was chandA. This group always had a hype in the company that they are the cream of the company, that they must hence have been paid more, and that the work in this group is most challenging, contemporary and resume-lightning. Rest of the company, especially those who are this framework group’s clients, also felt that they are high-headed and have an attitude!

Today, in less than 12 hours, all teams have successfully setup the crux of their theme decorations.

One of the groups in 4A block, had ‘gaNapati bappA mOriyA’ and a traditional Indian meal on a banana leaf on one end of the aisle while on the other end, two moortis of Goddess lakshmi and saraswati. The aisle decorated by toraNaMs, sankrAnti muggulu (rangoli) and pongal pot & sugar canes.

Another group in the same block  had a theme of  bhArata vaibhavaM – glorious pAst, declining present, and an expected vibrant future. They hung posters from Samskrita Bharati, depicting various (almost every) fields that India has touched and documented in samskRtaM. They have listed various current problems on white posters, and some more posters for the future with the viSwa-guru vision. In the end is a nice bhArata-mAta picture. All through the aisles decorated by the tri-color ribbons.

While, in the traditional TPP product group area, it has been real traditional wedding settings, including cut banana trees, maNDapaM with kalaSaM, flower petals sprinkled all along the path to the maNDapaM.

In my side of the office where our framework team sits, it is a tech-savvy, hi-fi setup of a vision to see Planetsoft execlling, like acquiring SAP, all financial TV news channels covering Planetsoft with scrolling text on Planetsoft, with offices in almost every major country of the world, very impressive.

There are other areas who covered International Cricket, sponsored by Planetsoft, and other such themes.

The energy, enthusiasm, creativity and team work is amazing in all these groups. I also wondered what if the same energy is channelized towards Planetsoft Work or towards social service for the Nation, what great heights can be reached! Only thing missing is that ownership, participatory feeling and passion.

Now, guess the order of the 3 prizes! Ofcourse, when I visited the ‘Focus India’ group, I conveyed all my appreciations to them and that if I were the Judge, I would have given them one of the prizes for the very theme that they chose and the concern they have for the nation. But, the first prize went to the Planetsoft Vision theme organized by our Framework group. No wonder, because it is meeting both personal interests of the Company as well as posh, contemporary settings.

However, I was trying to analyze what makes the difference in the attitudes between the teams who stuck to our festivals, culture and the causes of the nation versus the ones who are with the Corporate wishes and business goals. Is it just the exposure of the individuals and the teams? Is it the Leaders of the teams? Or is it the inherent samskArAs of few individuals in those teams?

What keeps one stuck to the roots? What makes one take the excuse of global human being to put down the interests of the nation?

While for example, on one hand when USA talks about no subsidies for farmers in India, it very well provides one of the high subsidies to their farmers in the US. Are our well exposed, literate friends not aware of such simple facts before they go full-length appreciating, adoring and almost falling for USA.

Most of them, even in the ‘Focus India’ group didn’t have much idea, nor believed, about bhArat as a Nation before British. Most of them are carried away by Mr. J. L. Nehru who felt India was a Nation in the making during his time.

Unless a concerted effort is put in educating every citizen about the glorious past of the bhArat, the current potential inspite of all the negative energy dragging it down, and the bright future in store, we may never believe in keeping the nation strong, if not keeping it up. Even after that, many may still get carried away in the trend of the current western civilization, but atleast we can have the satisfaction that we tried our best. For example, the celebrations tonight on the New Year’s eve, with fire-crackers like on a diwali night, while no big celebration on our Indian New year’s day, the ugAdi, provided, it is on a weekend, because there may not be a holiday for that day.

paraM vaibhavaM netum etat svarAShTraM,

samarthA bahvatu ASiShA te bhRSaM ||

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