THE SEED

Every member of the animal kingdom has a great ability. This ability is defined as Communication. In today’s extensively wired World, humans (being the most evolved species of the animal kingdom) have christened Communication as a part of requisite skill sets and it is considered paramount to possess good Communication skills to achieve personal and professional excellence. Many a humans gain greater advantages because of their communication skills and some end up in disasters as their communication skills get obscured due to various ancillary factors and reasons. Mostly, it is the complexity of the human mind which either eases out the skill of communication or entwines it into loops and knots. Eventually, communication takes on the role of a seed as the human spreads out his domain and moves far and wide into the complex world.

Unlike animals, plants are limited in their ability to seek out favorable conditions for life and growth. As a result, plants have evolved many ways to disperse their offspring by dispersing their seeds. A seed must somehow "arrive" at a location and be there at a time favorable for germination and growth. When the fruits open and release their seeds in a regular way, it is called dehiscent, which is often distinctive for related groups of plants; these fruits include capsules, follicles, legumes, silicles and siliques. When fruits do not open and release their seeds in a regular fashion, they are called indehiscent, which include the fruits achenes, caryopsis, nuts, samaras, and utricles. Wind, water and animals help in the dispersal of seeds and utilizing these means, the plants spread far and wide to establish their existence. Seeds form a huge part of the Communication skill of the plants.

Humans also need to spread the seeds of their communication skills far and wide to justify their existence. This skill has to be positive in nature to move smoothly through the maze called life. A rough skill can lead to a rough life and bruises all along. Many an information is easily accessible to humans with good communication skills and this leads to greater advantages as they surge along faster than their counterparts. There are glowing examples of humans in various organisations who are diligent and hard workers but their communication skills do not help them to gain higher grounds. After all, hard work easily gets muffled as a regulatory feature of a human’s professional life and poor communication skill does not let him reach the correct echelon where hard work gets notified. On the other hand, many a humans utilise their communication skills to achieve maximum bang for minimal energy spent on hard work. They use linkages, connections and smooth communication skills to wind their way up the ladder of success much ahead of their silent counterparts. In the end, organizations are ruled by great communicators and they may always not be the most talented when they started their professional journeys with their counterparts. 

The net outcome are the issues which keep on cropping up from time to time and keep the organizations entwined in jargons and clean-up operations. The legacy of good communicators who climb up the ladder through connections and linkages is not easy to wipe away. The succession chains are created to benefit proteges and the organisation never recovers from damages caused due to weaning away of forcefully burnt out talents. The “not so skilled” communicators move away into oblivion and never get their due recognition. The rewards are uneven in every organisation as very few leaders try to recognize the core capability of humans under them. Many a seeds just fall down under the tree where they are born and wither away as there are no means available to carry them to their germination destination. They might be the best but their inability to communicate and hinge onto the carrying medium leads to a premature end.

A good organisation and its top leadership have an onerous task. Many a seeds come their way as the organisation is trying to build up the ever vibrant demand of growth. The seed cannot be broken to look inside its contents. The seed has to be planted in a favourable environment and given an opportunity to grow into a big tree itself. The identification of the level of communication skills and other talents of a human is an onerous task. Today, the world is developing smarter techniques to identify the overall skill sets of potential employees. Psychological analytics tries to analyse the potential skills of future employees. In spite of many an elaborate technique utilized, organisations do end up employing dead weights. This leads to botched up operations and re-designing of the wheel continues. The overall cost to operations keeps on increasing and the organizations continue to reel under the pressures of identifying correct humans.

It is important to map humans correctly as they come up in their professional lives. Each one has unique skills and a very unique Communication prowess. The most diligent and hard workers need to be identified correctly. They may not be great communicators but that should not go against their capability. The top leadership must continuously evolve mechanisms to review the correct performance. The organisations with dynamism would continue to achieve vibrant growth. This only happens where correct dynamism is identified and nurtured. Sycophancy is the bane of growth and dynamism of organizations. Organizations cannot simply let go good seeds without giving them a chance and equal opportunity to germinate. It would be most appropriate to identify correctly and let the best people come out to grow organisations. The most favored seed may not germinate to become a full blown tree just with its linkages and legacy. A new variant might be just around to take the organisation to a newer horizon.

Let the seeds fly away to their destinations and let them grow. Nature chooses its own best to grow. It is the job of the leadership of the organisation to identify the correct seed and make the organisation grown bigger and stronger on its trunk and branches. The flowers and fruits would surely follow the unhindered seeds.

Hold My Hands

Time is a great variable. It neither stays constant nor does it duplicate itself under any circumstances. Human minds have been toiling the hardest to undertake various experiments with time. Exercises to go back in time, manage time, run ahead of time, beat the time etc have been a center of curiosity for humans. However, the dimensions of time have not been under any human's control. Time portrays itself as events and events keep humans surprised at various junctures of their time spent on planet earth. Somewhere down the history of human survival, the humans have renamed the vast canvas of time into an acronym called Life. The human species moves on from one time to another and the eventual counting is called Life.

Life for some is a great walk while for others it can be a rough fall. Many humans live is a mixture of both and at the end of the journey, they carry bruises which are a reminder of their trysts with times. Since the time humans are born, they long for someone to hold their hand. Humans need support at every stage of their life. They need someone to hold their hands to achieve the goals and aims of their own lives. A small child lifts his hands to grab a supporting hand and starts taking the baby steps. With a little balancing act, he moves a few steps and then moves on to travel bigger distances. Then onwards, it is a race against time and holding various hands, the humans move on from one time-stone to another.

Who are those humans who willingly extend their hands to the strugglers? They emerge as parents, teachers, relatives, friends, philosophers and guides. If a careful analysis of life is carried out, then one realizes that not all of the humans in their circle extend out a hand. Sometimes, saviors emerge from nowhere and extend their hands. This is the Divine Intervention and helps to keep pace with time. It takes a great inner strength to hold out helping hands in today's times. Humans are under great scrutiny and investigations. Third party verifications have now taken the lead to make or mar the time. The World of today is complicated than ever and would continue to churn out more chaos and quagmires. This can only be controlled provided humans again believe in humanity.

Hold someone's hand and feel the warmth. Time has no stops and gaps. We can only live in time's glory with our good will to others. We also look towards others to hold our hands and when time comes, shouldn't we also extend our hands for that firm clasp and gentle pull!!!

Look back at the time gone by and you would see familiar faces who held your hands to get you to your destinations and time-stones. So go ahead and spread your big hands to someone who needs them at this time. A comforting word can work miracle for a human facing time's agony. Your warm word and a spread hand can do wonders for the fledgling soul. Hold hands and enjoy the canvas of time. After all, it is the hands which draw the art on a blank canvas.

THE PARACHUTE

1.  The rookie pilot woke up early in the morning. It was still dark outside and his mechanical alarm clock had given the siren at 0300 hours. He had only slept in his dreams from the time he had hit the sack at 2300 hours the previous night. He had tossed and turned in his bed and was trying to clear the pre-flight checks before the most important take off in his life. He had been cleared by his Commanding Officer to fly an independent sortie on a Fighter Plane after a great labor of various military academies and their tough routines. He had finally raised his dream up his sleeve when at 2100 hours the previous day his Commanding Officer told him to be ready for an independent take off. His mathematics started clocking its time inside his brain and his excitement knew no bounds. He was finally fulfilling a long cherished dream that he had nurtured as a teenaged boy.

2.       There were no selfies as mobile cameras did not exist and nor had the digital cameras and Facebook breached temperatures did not the privacies of individuals. The low temperatures did not deter the rookie Pilot from taking a chilled water bath and he was fully conscious of the extreme challenge that beckoned him as he put on his flying dress. He was much ahead of the clock when he parked his motor cycle at the Squadron Mess and went inside to look at the glorious machine that he was supposed to fly at the break of the day light. The gleaming fighter plane was cold as it can be and the rookie pilot ran his fingers over its steel as if carving out his name. He was astonished when he reached the cockpit portion. He saw his initials gleaming on the plane’s body!! The Commanding Officer had got his name inscribed on the machine and christened it forever. The rookie’s chest filled with pride and he ran a prayer in his mind and doubled up his checks. Soon, the Squadron was bustling with activity as one after another the support staff and pilots started reporting for the morning sortie. The rookie sat erect in the morning briefing and it was a big day as the new bloke would be taking off on an independent mission with the rest of the Flyboys.

3.       The briefing was for a familiarization sortie which would test the efficiency of the Fighter Aircraft and the Squadron. All eyes were on the Rookie and the Commanding Officer that day. They not only had to prove themselves, but also the Aircraft. The twilight was just breaking out when the Pilots walked towards their machines and eased themselves into their cockpits. The rookie was in a fighter plane next to the Commanding Officer. He strapped himself up smartly as his helper secured his cockpit. At the raise of a thumb from his crew, he fired his plane’s engines. The machine came to power easily and vital parameters looked good. A nod from the Commanding Officer (CO) and the rookie rolled his fighter along with the CO‘s fighter on the runway. Soon they both were running on the tarmac in tandem and with one fine move were both airborne. The CO raised his thumb and the rookie nodded his head. It was a great moment of his life and the eyes behind Ray Bans were watching the action unfold.

4.       The fighter aircraft flew in formations and unison. They rolled and did verticals and soon they converged to pay their obeisance to the almighty Himalayas on their left. Time was now ripe for a safe landing. The CO ordered a close formation as all Pilots acknowledged the maiden independent flight of the rookie pilot and broke free for landing. The rookie had to land in the end. He saw all other pilots land safely and he came in for a approach. His CO had by then rolled in the aircraft and was still in the cockpit to monitor the rookie’s approach. He saw the rookie made the approach and this was the moment when disaster struck. A bird crossed the flight path and got sucked inside the hot engine. The fighter plane of the rookie went into an emergency mode and within no time the controls of the aircraft failed.

5.       The CO took charge of the situation and advised the rookie to parachute away from the damaged fighter plane. The rookie was wide awake and ran the ejection drill in his agile mind. His moment had come too soon and too fast. He did not contemplate and decided against ejecting with a parachute. The fighter was losing its power as the engine had shut down and his control systems were malfunctioning. He was within the visual approach of the airfield and started gliding down towards the airfield. The bewildered CO and ground team were amazed at his adventure. An emergency drill followed and the ground crew rigged up for an emergency landing. The struggling fighter aircraft landed with a damaged engine and failed controls as fire-fighters chased its landing. Engulfed in a fire fighting spray, the rookie pilot sat quietly as he throttled his plane till the last of the fuel was burnt on the ground. The cockpit was opened and he made his way to be given a warm embrace by his CO and colleagues. He had done what many could not have imagined. He had not deployed his parachute but taken on his guts to keep the parachute safe.

6.       A similar dilemma hits the human beings who are not fighter pilots as they get egged on to deploy their parachutes for a safe landing. The aircraft can be equated to a challenge that the humans face and many would conveniently ditch the challenge to take on an easier path offered by the parachute. After all, a parachute offers arresting a great thrust as it deploys its span. It opens up big and wide and hides the falling human against the vagaries of speed which engulf his platform. The chances are brightest for the human as he lands safely but not for his platform which crashes into oblivion and is gone forever. The rookie pilot decided against all odds and kept his wits under control. The radio kept on transmitting the orders to follow the correct procedures and it was his call not to deploy his parachute. He calculated his approach as he was inside the cockpit and watched his controls in front of him. The deployment of parachute was to be his final call and he did not take it as he wanted to get his machine down on to the tarmac in a safe shape. The rookie succeeded and against all odds. The humans also are alone in their respective cockpits when emergencies of life hit them and they have to take the call to land the machine or deploy the proverbial parachute.

7.       After all who are our parachutes? Not all of us are pilots who fly planes! Most of us are mortal humans and our lives are our flight paths. We hit birds on the way and cease our control systems as situations emerge on our respective flight paths. These are the trying times when humans deploy their parachutes without taking charge of their machines and mechanics. They let go their controls and crash their life and ease out onto parachutes. They do not realise where the parachutes will land them as wind takes charge the moment the parachute expands its span. In an enemy territory, the parachute dumps the pilot soon as it hits the ground and only lies limp. It also gives away his position with its bright colors. In a friendly boundary, it still takes time as the pilot reaches his way to safety of his base station.

8.       What would you like to do? Take a chance like the rookie pilot to attempt a difficult landing against all odds or launch your parachute when the situation starts unfolding? A fight against the odd should be a natural instinct of humans. No species give up on this planet without a fair fight against the odds. After all, we all know that dinosaurs disappeared as they could not put up a fight against the change that engulfed them. Did they open their parachute all too often?

9.       The conflict lies on our minds and nowhere else. Every battle is fought between the 5 inches between ears and the confusion or clarity emerges only in this zone. Keep the parachute wrapped up securely. The call to deploy the parachute should be a final call and when all the odds have dried up. Till the juices are flowing, it is worthwhile to attempt landing the fighter airplane called life and bring the packed parachute out safely.

10.     Get up, move on, strap up, the Sun is breaking out and the Squadron is ready for a takeoff. You are the rookie pilot today. Strap up your parachute for a safe landing with all your wit and strength. Keep the fight on for the next take off.   

  

THE GREAT GAME CALLED LIFE

The Golfer takes his stance for the Tee Shot. The shaft of the driver club sits softly in his fingers and knuckles get turned inside towards his eyes. He looks at the tree line in front which is his first hurdle and the red Sun which is fast coming up the latitudes to attain its daily glory. Aiming at the center of the Sun, he brings down the hitting line to the ball. The body arches slowly as the Driver club goes back to gain the angle. At the end of the back-swing, the Golfer pauses and his gaze is now firm at the ball resting on the tee. In one fine motion, the driver club begins its downward motion gaining velocity as it comes down ferociously and connects with the ball with a sweet sound and climbs upwards. The Golfer stretches his back into a gentle throw back as the shoulder move the Driver to its pinnacle. When he looks up, the ball has gained height over the tree line and is now a spot on the red Sun which has just attained an angle of 30 odd degrees. The ball sinks into the fairway greens and the Golfer begins his walk with a spring to meet the ball. Its a 5 par hole and he has 4 more shots in the fairway and green to achieve a Par. Next 3 shots see him landing on the Green and the ball is now sitting just 20 odd inches away from his well deserved Par. The rest 3 players of his 4-Ball also converge on the Green and are waiting for the Golfer to putt his ball and take away the hole. The Golfer now picks up his Putter club, goes right behind the ball to gauge the putting trajectory and takes his position. He is bang on top of the ball and only his forearms are now going to move the Putting club. The game is between the 5 inches of space between his ears. Time stops ticking, silence engulfs the green as other 3 players keenly watch the battle between the Golfer and the coveted hole. The Golfer rolls the ball with a deft touch. The ball rolls and travels the 20 odd inches into the right corner of the hole cup, circles the cup and moves out 6 inches out into the Green!!! The Golfer looks at up at the rising Sun. His silent prayer has not been heard and life has taken a full turn and his score stands at 1-over rather than a Good Par.

Similar to Golf, life and its operations also have similar predicaments for the human beings. The best of the plans can go haywire at the very last moment and at a stage where the human beings are just at an arm’s length away from the desired aim. Calm and quiet from outside, a big volcano however keeps erupting inside humans. The reasons are many and the most important one is the “Never Say Satisfied” attitude. Perfection is the only aim and very few understand the peak required to be climbed to call it the right perfection. Humans end up putting themselves into pressure spots. These pressure spots hit at regular intervals with varied degrees and lead to chemical instability inside the human machines. This eventually leads to operational malfunctioning of the human actions and thinking and thus begins the great game called life. The curves of human life continue to hit their troughs and peaks and actually are nothing but mere perceptions of human minds. Humans end up going on endless hunts and many ends up losers as they are never satisfied at the end result.

The hard realities of life dawns on every human being on this planet. It is a bare fact that no one can stay immune to developments in and around the bubble called life. The talent lies in humans who can achieve complete happiness in the complex maze that continues to engulf them. A balance has to be struck in the 5 inches of space between the ears. This space holds the key to human instincts, talents, calibre, guts and intelligence. Each folly and miracle originates from this sacred space between the human ears. A pat on the back or a kick on the back has different connotations. A good life manager stays calm in the exterior appearance and also retains composure in the interior chemistry. He understands the limitations of his team and does not get perturbed at occasional failures. Each failure brings in a new experience and a greater resolve to achieve success. A decision is well taken if it is taken with the desired end result in correct perspective. The perspective may not become a reality in the beginning but perseverance pays dividends at the end of the day. Life has got its swings and each part of the swing has got its own well deserved meaning.

The Golfer putted the ball to achieve a 1 –Over even when he was sitting close to a comfortable good Par. His caddie polished the ball and wished him luck on the remaining holes. The game was not yet lost. The remaining holes went like a breeze. There were fewer shots as the ball achieved correct trajectories from his irons and woods and the curves of the well manicured greens adhered to his calculations. He sank pars at will and blazed the game away from his opponents. The circling ball over the hole cup had not deterred his resolve to achieve the desired end result- A Good Par. The game was a clear winner and happiness of life prevailed in the end.

The end of the game of Golf at the 18^th Hole is the beginning of a new game the next day. The course called life can be wet with dew in the early mornings where the ball sinks into the wet soil or can offer a dry fairway in the afternoon where the ball jumps and gains distances with its spin and roll. This great game called life and its myriad operations need deft tackling with bare minimum intervention from the internal chemistry of the human body. Happiness must prevail and simple decisions must evolve out of complex issues. After all the complexities of life are human creations too!! Keep a big smile on, take a deep breath and let the first 30 seconds roll away- a new solution would surely emerge and bring a new perspective into the game. The tools do matter but not more than the human who is handling them. Keep the cool and stay calm to gain the edge in the Great Game Called Life.